CHICAGO CARLESS

(Photo: Found in April at the Morton Arboretum. Best. Signpost. Ever.)

Every now and then in my downtown Chicago life, I overhear something so ridiculous (yes, even more ridiculous than a Children’s Museum in a cave), that I wonder whether I should blog it. This time, I just can’t help myself.

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(Photo: Alderman Brendan Reilly, a man willing to get to the bottom of the Second City.)

Of all things I thought downtown’s 42nd Ward Alderman Brendan Reilly would offer as a compromise in the ongoing controversy over the Chicago Children’s Museum’s proposed move from Navy Pier to Grant Park–especially after publicly calling out Mayor Daley on the issue–the last thing I expected was for him to agree with a reporter’s suggestion to stick the museum in a cave.

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(Photo: Opening imaginations opens minds at the Chicago Children’s Museum. Credit: David London.)

On Friday, I requested and was given unfettered access to interview the administrative staff of the Chicago Children’s Museum (and why a local blogger and not a Tribune or Sun-Times reporter was the first person to do that is beyond me). I wanted to learn the point of the museum–its civic importance, its programs, its reputation. More than that, I wanted to figure out why instead of reporting on those things, in the midst of the ongoing controversy over the museum’s proposed move from Navy Pier to Grant Park, Chicago’s local dailies have instead dismissed the museum in language such as “a glorified activity center for kids” (Sun-Times).

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(Photo: A case of mistaken identity in downtown Chicago’s New Eastside.)

Although I, too, have highlighted the racism that some members of the New Eastside Association of Residents (NEAR) have used to fuel their opposition to the Chicago Children’s Museum’s proposed move from Navy Pier to new digs at Daley Bicentennial Plaza in the northeast corner of Grant Park, that’s not really the crux of NEAR’s opposition. Nor do I believe that NEAR members pass fitful, sleepless nights, tortured by the fear that a 110-year-old Illinois Supreme Court decree barring permanent structures from Grant Park will be flouted by the Daley administration.

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(Photo: Frankly my dear transit rider, I don’t give a damn.)

When I moved to Chicago in 2003 and my white-collar job prospect petered out, I did time working in commission sales. It’s a pyrrhic profession for the uninitiated–unless you’re convincing (or conniving), it’s a race against time to avoid having to pay back the alleged salary you’re advanced in order to keep you living long enough to make more sales. For those with no other immediate choice, like I was, you’re grateful to have the job.

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