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UKRAINIAN VILLAGE — It’s an all too common experience in Chicago: a bus is delayed or missed, leaving riders to wait. And wait.
To add insult to injury, many bus stops across the city do not include benches or shelters, meaning the only option for riders is to stand.
Now, some Ukrainian Village neighbors will be getting a reprieve from that experience.
Last week, two homemade benches of slightly different designs — painted the colors of the Ukrainian flag — were placed at bus stops on Damen Avenue near Thomas Street and on Division Street between Oakley and Western avenues.
The benches are the work of the volunteer-run Northwest Neighborhood Alliance, a group that formed last year to advocate for transit and housing issues in the Logan Square, West Town and Humboldt Park community areas.
Built by members Sam Kovnar and Eddie Lehwald, the benches are the first of what the group hopes will be a larger network of DIY bus benches across the city — if the city or anyone else doesn’t remove them.
Their goal is to make people’s lives a little bit easier and bring attention to the lack of bus benches and other basic public amenities in Chicago, Kovnar said.
“It’s very easy for someone like me to use the bus system when there’s really no accommodations,” Kovnar said last week. “But for someone who is older, who’s disabled, who has kids … you have to make the bus system usable.”
“You should have your basic human needs met while you’re waiting for the bus,” Lehwald added.
A woman sits on a homemade bench on Division Street before boarding No. 70 bus on Sept. 10, 2026. Credit: Quinn Myers/Block Club Chicago
The bench initiative isn’t the first time Kovnar has constructed and placed homemade benches on a city street.
He began building similar structures a few years ago when he lived in Milwaukee, as part of an initiative organized with that city’s chapter of Strong Towns, a group that, according to its website, advocates for cities “to be safe, livable and inviting.”
Lehwald, who lives in Logan Square, also starting thinking about installing DIY bus benches a few years ago and built one of the two now out in Ukrainian Village. But the project got delayed until Kovnar took the reins recently, Lehwald said.
“It’s awesome to see something happening and finally see this bench move from my backyard out into the world,” Lehwald said.
Organizers said the initiative is a light lift for something with such an immediate payoff. Kovnar estimated his bench only cost $30-40 to construct.
Northwest Neighborhood Alliance members then held a painting event last weekend to finish the benches, and the group plans to keep an eye on them in case there are any maintenance issues.
“There’s a lot of things we can’t help with. We can’t go out and build a bus shelter from scratch. This is something that we can just do. You spend a few hours building a bench, and now you have a bench,” Kovnar said.
A homemade bench sits at a bus stop on Damen Avenue in Ukrainian Village. Credit: Quinn Myers/Block Club Chicago
The biggest concern now, Kovnar said, is whether the benches will be removed by the city or someone else. The structures are not bolted down or chained to anything, nor are they officially sanctioned or permitted.
The Chicago Department of Transportation did not respond to a request for comment about the benches.
Ald. Daniel La Spata (1st), however, whose ward includes the new benches, signaled his support of the project.
“We’ve gotten emails about these! All enthusiastic and happy!” the alderperson said in a text message, while confirming his ward office would not remove them.
Lehwald said he’s slightly concerned a city department or another government agency might take the benches. But he hopes officials instead see the initiative as a chance to engage with neighbors about how the city can work better for them.
“I hope the city doesn’t waste the opportunity to engage with people in a positive way, that can lead to low-cost, high-return kinds of investments like this,” Lehwald said.
A homemade bench sits at a bus stop on Division Street in Ukrainian Village. Credit: Quinn Myers/Block Club Chicago
The group’s broader goal is to keep building benches and placing them where they are needed around the city. They’d also like to see a formalized system created where neighbors can easily request benches for bus stops that need them.
The homemade benches could be “something that leads to it being easier for people to directly engage with their local government, and get a quick response and fix a problem quickly and cheaply,” Lehwald said.
Kovnar said people are already reaching out to get involved or contribute materials to the bench project, following several well-received posts about them on social media.
For now, he plans to wait at least a month before adding any more to see how the benches are received.
“I’m just as excited as they are to get out there and put dozens and dozens of benches out,” Kovnar said. Still, “I want to be cautious and make sure that if we do it, we’re not going see a bunch of benches go out and then disappear.”
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