In the early 19th century, as America moved west, settlers had a mess on their hands: What to do with horse dung? Their solution: alleys. While older cities, such as New York and Boston, were too dense to accommodate alleys, there was plenty of room in the old Northwest Territory.<\/p>\n
In 1830, the Illinois and Michigan Canal Commission hired surveyor James Thompson to lay out a new town at the eastern end of the canal\u2019s route, alongside Lake Michigan. The Illinois General Assembly ordered that this municipality be \u201csubdivided into lots, streets and alleys.\u201d And so Thompson included an alley in each of Chicago\u2019s 58 blocks. As the city grew, the pattern continued. Today, 90 percent of Chicago blocks have alleys, giving us 1,900 miles of them, more than any other U.S. city. The alleys kept streets free of manure and garbage, and once cars came along, alley garages relieved the street parking crunch.<\/p>\n
Chicago is the alley king not just because of its size but because of timing. Car-crazy Los Angeles preferred driveways and side lanes. As the Lakota Group, a local urban planner, says: \u201cChicago managed to be planned between the periods of pre-American-alleyway (New York City) and the industrial revolution (Los Angeles).\u201d<\/p>\n