According to Dries, partnerships between government agencies and community groups, involvement of community members in every stage of the planning and design process, and the Trail's intended use as a local resource, rather than tourist destination, sets Bloomingdale Trail apart from its east coast cousin, and Chicago's typical top-down approach to planning.
Whether reflecting reality or a bit of explicatory exaggeration, Dries distinguishes Bloomingdale Trail's extensive community engagement with the High Line's definition "by a mass amount of money donated by high profile celebrities." She also contrasts the Chicago park's local orientation with the High Line's function as "a tourist destination for high living, not a park meant to integrate into normal life."
However, it's with Chicago's typical approach to planning that the largest discrepancy may lie. "[T]his is a project that, by its nature, could not have happened without endless community input and collaboration -- a far cry from the way city planning and development has been approached in decades past," says Dries, "and proof that perhaps some effort towards transparency in goverment [sic] is working."
