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Public Affairs coverage from our award-winning staff |
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Chicago Lakefront Plan Laid Out
Produced by Shawn Allee on Tuesday, June 09, 2009
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An advocacy group hopes to stitch together park space and bicycle paths to make Chicago's lakefront entirely accessible to the public. It'd cost hundreds of millions of dollars. For WBEZ, Shawn Allee reports even if the group finds the money, its work could be cut out for it.
The Friends of the Parks plan would seem a shoe-in. Chicago controls about 80 percent of its 30-mile lakefront, but transforming the last four miles into park or bike paths could become a political headache.
Some private property owners in the South Shore neighborhood want to keep exclusive access to the lake - and they overwhelmingly voted for a non-binding referendum that states so.
Friends of the Parks expects most South Side residents would support lakefront park expansion. Still, the idea could face hurdles on the far North Side, too.
The Chicago Park District would have to buy some private beach rights there, or it'd have to get them in court. The Chicago Park District says it welcomes more park space, but it has not endorsed the Friends of the Parks plan.
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Dania, South Shore // Wednesday, June 24, 2009 @ 7:14 PM
When I voted in February 2008, I don't recall getting a special ballot because I am a property owner. In fact, I know several renters in my area who think that they voted to protect our existing shoreline. Maybe my memory fails me and maybe my friends were accidentally given the special property-owner ballot by mistake.
In fact, it was not just 'private property owners' who rejected the outside interest group's proposal to remake our neighborhood, geographically and by extension socially, it was over 90% of actual registered voters.
Friends of the Parks constantly says that there is this overwhelming but anonymous constituency out there that wants, needs, deserves the type of parks they are proposing. I have never met anyone who thought the proposals anything but ridiculous. I have never heard or read a news piece that interviews such a Chicagoan. FOTP has obviously spent a great deal of money on a publicity campaign this past month, this story is everywhere. Ordinary concerned citizens are not as well organized and certainly not as well funded. But the people who live in the affected neighborhoods deserve more from the local press than to be characterized as a scheming bunch of plutocratic country club snobs for objecting to careless and sloppy urban planning done by volunteers with backgrounds in only somewhat related fields, promoted by self appointed do-gooders.
In my neighborhood, we feel like FOTP wants to ram these plans down our throats, no matter what. Perhaps they have good reason for their arrogance, it seems they are able to ram their press releases through the media in this town, no matter what.
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Christine B, Edgewater // Thursday, June 25, 2009 @ 8:47 AM
This is disturbing that WBEZ would fall for the PR push this month from FOTP. While there is some private property in the South Shore area, the bigger issue is that FOTP is advocating a project that will cost over $400MM of taxpayer funds that is not needed or wanted whilst ignoring poorer neighborhoods who need parks. Frankly, FOTP are not even following their mission to protect our parks—Grant Park will get a Children’s Museum + liquor license, and now we have a fake Astroturf soccer field in Lincoln Park! On the North side, our Edgewater beaches are open to all and often empty after July 4th. A $400 million project that would last 15 years is not what Chicagoans need or can afford. What about installing or improving parks in neighborhoods like Homan Square, Garfield Park, or Austin just to name a few. Erma Tranter should ask her board (comprised mostly residents of the North Shore and Gold Coast) why they don’t open their private beaches to all of us. I can’t even get close to the water in their backyards. FOTP is lobbyist organization that has lost its way. And WBEZ, I expect more journalistic integrity and due diligence from your organization and its reporters.
There is a group following the issues and has done extensive work analyzing FOTP and this ridiculous plan.
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Nancy, Edgewater // Thursday, June 25, 2009 @ 6:07 PM
I watched the smelt lay their eggs this Spring in the shallow areas by the highrises in Edgewater away from the beaches and park walls and people.
I watched the bigger fish, probably salmon and trout on their spring run. It is hard not to notice the arrival of the fish. The gulls make a big deal of all this. And then the ducks come through. It seems strange to me that no one speaks to the fact that there is life in these waters.
Instead there are humans planning the landfill to nowhere for millions of dollars. There are bike paths through this area, on the side streets, which are currently being used along with the the other 26 miles of the lakefront park.
It is sad to think that the only appreciation people have for this wonderful natural resource is what sort of Disney Lake boondoggle development can be harvested.
Who cares who is for or against something that ignores nature.
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