Two quick things to do today.

Now is the time to tell our city council to stand up and support Alderman Brendan Reilly’s efforts to save Grant Park.

Things really got hot last week. Our dear, sweet mayor said a lot of really nasty things about opponents of the Chicago Children’s Museum’s proposal to build a new 100,000 square foot building in a protected area of the park known as Daley Bicentennial Plaza. His comments were so outlandish that they sparked editorials opposing the proposal to be published in both the Chicago Tribune and the Chicago Sun-Times. The papers have been flooded with letters calling for the preservation of Grant Park’s green space. Suddenly the local TV stations are taking notice.

Alderman Brendan Reilly has stated his opposition to to this proposal. So Mayor Daley is calling for a vote of the entire city council, all fifty aldermen. Alderman Reilly is now in the process of seeking support from each of his forty-nine peers.

All this excitement has led many of my friends and neighbors to suggest clever strategies for building community support. Here’s my favorite, suggested by a Venezuelan-born Chicagoan (try to imagine his charming accent as you read):

Saving the Park::

Put all the parents naked in that place. It always
brings a lot of attention. And if you bring the famous
photographer who is doing naked shots all over the
world...well, even better.


Although the image this conjures up is rather amusing, conventional approaches should suffice.

So, what to do now? Every alderman must hear from his own constituents. Each alderman’s phone must ring again and again with calls from constituents asking them to support Alderman Brendan Reilly’s efforts to save Grant Park.

Reach out to friends, family and colleagues throughout Chicago and explain the importance of preserving Grant Park open space. Let them know that this isn’t just a neighborhood issue - if Daley gets away with taking over this protected park land, parks throughout Chicago are up for grabs. Tell them they can do two things - in less than five minutes - to help.

First - call your alderman’s office, state your name and address and ask the alderman to support Alderman Brendan Reilly’s efforts to save Grant Park. This takes only a minute.

Second - ask others to do the same.

Don't know the ward? Look it up here: http://www.chicagoelections.com/voterinfo/

Find the alderman's phone number (lookup by ward or name) here: http://www.chicityclerk.com/citycouncil/alderman/find.html

Spread the word! Do it today, it only takes a minute to get started.

Moms vs. mayor

Chicago Sun-Times reporter Mark Konkel came out to the playlot at Daley Bicentennial Plaza in Grant Park to this week to see who was there, and he found just what you'd expect and want to see in any public park: a diverse group of parents and children. He also got quite an earful from some of these neighborhood moms, who speak for themselves in the article Moms vs. mayor, which opens with "A bunch of mommies from the New East Side want Mayor Daley to walk his "large tuchus" over to their neighborhood and call them racists to their face."

Speaking of the the mayor (and some of his friends)... In every neighborhood, there are a few spoiled kids, bullies who will use any tactic to have their way. These aren’t necessarily big or physically tough kids. Who needs brawn when emotional manipulation is so effective? Bragging, name-calling and tantrums get them what they want, at least until a mature adult comes along to set things straight.

Though these kids get older, they don’t necessarily grow up, and when not-very-mature people get their hands on objects of power, like large quantities of money or bulldozers, they can be very destructive. But the adults in Chicago turn out to be a lot harder to manipulate than they expected. Thousands of people have signed petitions, attended meetings, called the mayor and contacted the newspapers and television stations calling for the preservation of Grant Park.

Look, for instance, at the Chicago Sun-Times informal online poll of readers. At the time of this writing, 5604 people had responded to the question, "Do you think the opposition to kids museum is a racial issue?" Of these, 4448 (79%) responded, "No." A smaller poll by WMAQ, drew 89 responses to the question "Would you support the building of a museum in Grant Park?" Of these, 61 (69%) said, "No."


Editors of the major papers are finally weighing in. Read all about it:

Say no to museum in park [Sun-Times Editorial (September 21, 2007)]

Daley vs. the people [Chicago Tribune Editorial (September 21, 2007)]

Children's Museum's bad lessons [Chicago Tribune Op-Ed (September 20, 2007)]

Reilly's right -- Daley's wrong [Chicago Tribune Editorial (September 19, 2007)]

A museum in Grant Park? No. [Chicago Tribune Editorial (September 2, 2007)]

You can find more articles on the websites of the Chicago Tribune, Chicago Sun-Times, Skyline newspaper and Chicago Journal and Chicago television stations. A quick web search will lead you to many relevant discussions on forums and blogs.

The Plan Hits the Fan

Be careful what you wish for.

The threats to open park space in the protected area of Grant Park have long deserved more attention from the press. Now we’re getting more than any of us might have imagined.

The September 2 editorial in the Chicago Tribune, which plainly and strongly opposed construction of a new Chicago Children’s Museum building in the northeast corner of Grant Park, was eloquently written and an unexpected lift to many of us who sought to bring attention to the issue and preserve the park. Published just a week before the final neighborhood meeting on the matter, it helped many to keep the faith.

Nobody expected the museum’s backers to roll over, but nobody expected the kind of ugly response that is hitting the media today, either.

This blog has never been anything more than an information resource for locals who aim to preserve open space in Grant Park, and to maintain community park resources and the joys that come with them. If you’re reading this, you almost certainly know what happened next.

For those who may wander in here and not know the story, here is the Cliff’s Notes version: Museum backers demanded access for supporters who did not live in the area to a September 10 meeting, which had been planned as the last in a series of neighborhood resident-only meetings organized by Alderman Reilly for the Chicago Children’s Museum to present a proposal to build in the Daley Bicentennial Plaza site. They brought in loads of people long before meeting time and commandeered seats with the explicit intention of preventing neighborhood residents from entering the meeting room. Locals showed up anyway and stood in the halls and even outside in the rain through the meeting. Alderman Reilly reminded all that he represents the residents of the 42nd ward and promised to state a position the following week. Before Alderman Reilly made his announcement, Mayor Daley called for a vote of all 50 aldermen (positively not typical of Chicago political mechanics) and asserted lots of nasty things about opponents of the museum’s relocation to Grant Park (a quick search on the topic will get you all the gory details). On September 18, Alderman Reilly announced his opposition to the museum’s plan. The Chicago Tribune published another editorial supporting Alderman Reilly. The Sun-Times put nasty comments from Daley and the museum’s chairman on the cover. TV new reporters have been trolling the park. The Chicago Reader finally started publishing a few short pieces on the subject.

What to do? Not much. Keep the faith. Be nice. And go enjoy the park.

Meetings Over: 3 Fast Ways to Save the Park

The last of the neighborhood meetings has ended. Nine meetings, lots of attendees, most squarely opposed to the Chicago Children's Museum proposal to relocate to Daley Bicentennial Plaza in Grant Park. This had been planned as a neighborhood meeting, for the latest version of the plan to be presented to residents of the community nearby. But most of the hundreds of residents of the buildings near the park who attended the meeting stood in the hallways through the meeting, which was packed well before starting time by museum supporters from other communities.

Alderman Reilly spent much of the meeting in the hallways speaking to his constituents. He has said he will state a position next week. Since he has heard plenty from us already, and he knows which side his bread is buttered on, it's time for us to raise the bar with these three fast steps to voice the message to city government (number 3 is good even if you don't live in Chicago):

1) Call Mayor Daley's office at (312) 744-3300, let him know where you live, and tell him that you are opposed to museum construction Daley Bicentennial Plaza.

2) Email Arnold Randall, Chicago's new Commissioner of Planning and Development, arandall@cityofchicago.org , let him know where you live, and tell him that you are opposed to museum construction Daley Bicentennial Plaza.

3) Call a friend (or two,three...) who lives in Chicago, and ask your friend to take these same steps!

Three Easy Ways to Save the Park

Now is the time to act to save green space in Grant Park. Let city officials know you are glad that Chicagoans have protected open space in the heart of the city since 1836 and don't want to see that change now. Voice the message - there must be no buildings constructed in this part of the park. Here are three easy ways to get that message across:

1) Attend the public meeting tonight (Monday, September 10) at Daley Bicentennial Plaza, 337 East Randolph Street. The meeting starts at 6:3o PM - ARRIVE EARLY, as supporters of the construction project are being bused in, and their plan is to pack the seats to prevent neighborhood residents from entering. If you can, wear green to show your support for green space in Chicago.

2) Call Mayor Daley's office at (312) 744-3300 - this takes only a minute or two. Let him know you live in Chicago and you oppose construction in Daley Bicentennial Plaza.

3) Email Arnold Randall, Chicago's new Commissioner of Planning and Development at arandall@cityofchicago.org. Let him know you live in Chicago and you oppose construction in Daley Bicentennial Plaza.