Childrens’ Museum Plan - Fifth Revision

My Top 3

As most people are already aware, there are three major stories about construction in Chicago Parks going on right now:
(1) The FOTP landfill plan for Rogers Park and Edgewater; (2) the Latin School Soccer Field plan for Lincoln Park; and (3) the Childrens’ Museum Plan for Grant Park. Also of interest is the recent conflict over (4) the plan to build an Olympic stadium in Jackson Park, if Chicago gets the 2016 Olympics.

In each case, central planners downtown want to build stuff in the public park, and people who live near the park want to keep the area free of interference. There’s a strong pattern developing of conflict between local residents versus downtown central planners. It’s uncharacteristic for our savvy Mayor to pick so many fights, all at the same time. Mayor Daley isn’t just powerful because he’s powerful, he does actually get a lot of his power by being a skilled politician who lines up support before setting out on a plan. My guess is that the schedule for the Olympics is forcing his hand a bit - Oh, did you think that soccer field in the park was only going to be used by schoolchildren?

Today’s Sun-Times article, the latest episode in the ongoing park saga (subset: Grant) has an interesting element that most people will probably not notice - it comes out today, Saturday. This is a common PR scam. If you release something interesting late on Friday, the news gets published in the Saturday papers, which is the day that the smallest number of people read the news. The PR releases that go out on Friday evening are the ones that the people releasing don’t really want anyone to see or hear about. Thus, the release of the new plans last night.

Well, you’re reading about it. That makes you just a little better than the other bears.