Of all the 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 Daley Bicentennial Plaza, agreeing with a reporter’s suggestion to ‘put the museum in a cave’ wasn’t one of them.
On Friday, I was given unfettered access to interview the administrative staff of the Chicago Children’s Museum. I wanted to learn about the museum’s civic importance, programs, and reputation–all things Chicago dailies have ignored in their ongoing coverage of the controversy surrounding the museum’s proposed move from Navy Pier to Grant Park.
On a recent downtown walk through the Chicago Park District’s new Lakeshore East Park, imagine my surprise to find neighborhood developers had posted several signs declaring the place ‘Private Property.’ Um, try again.
So far this week, we’ve seen the Chicago Tribune and 42nd Ward Alderman Brendan Reilly go toe-to-toe with Mayor Daley and a prominent Pritzker over the Chicago Children’s Museum’s proposed move to the ‘forever free and clear’ Grant Park. Whoever is left standing in the end, no one is coming out of this mess untarnished.
Today, was a litmus test for 42nd Ward Alderman Brendan Reilly. He failed. So much for aldermanic privilege. Mayor Daley may get the Chicago Children’s Museum moved to Grant Park after all.
I don’t have an answer to the question of whether the Chicago Children’s Museum should be allowed to build a new home for itself in the Daley Bicentennial Plaza section of Grant Park. But I do think the possibility deserves to be debated and not cut off at the knees as it seems the editorial board of the Chicago Tribune would have it.
So are we all supposed to get on our knees and thank Governor Blagojevich for riding in at the last minute and potentially saving us innocent Chicagoans from ‘CTA Doomsday?’ Especially since he helped create the Illinois public transit funding emergency in the first place?
Before I left NYC in 2003, I knew the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation to be somewhat less than a class act. I’m surprised at how short my memory has become during my tenure on the shores of Lake Michigan. Here’s the story of the worst interview I’ve had–or haven’t had–in years.
Within the past hour, there was a construction fire on downtown Chicago’s infamous Block 37. Here are photos I took from Devyn’s mid-rise condo directly across the street.
Let’s be clear: it is not ‘the community of Printers Row’ that’s behind the newly created website SavePrintersRow.com, no matter what the website’s front page claims. It’s just those NIMBY-loving malcontent condo owners from Folio Square trying to block the construction of Burnham Pointe again.