By Steven Chaitman - Chi-Town Daily NewsA park advocacy group is threatening continued legal action unless the Chicago Park District cleans up an abandoned soccer field construction project at the south end of Lincoln Park and pursues an alternate site for the field.
The district agreed two years ago to allow the Latin School to construct a field near its campus at West North Boulevard and Clark Street. The field was partially finished when Protect Our Parks sued to stop the deal earlier this year.
As a result of the lawsuit settlement, the project was halted. The district says it is also required to reimburse Latin School for $2 million in construction costs.
Protect Our Parks argued yesterday that the $2 million should be spent on a new field at Montrose Harbor.
"One look at the space available in this location should make it totally obvious why any new soccer field construction belongs there and why the present construction site in south Lincoln Park is completely inappropriate," POP president Tom Tresser said yesterday at a news conference. Continue Reading
Whoa, Nelly!
ReplyDeleteThe "save the parks" people have been calling this the "privatization of Lincoln Park" and saying that they want to "RETURN THE ILLEGAL CONSTRUCTION SITE TO A GRASSY MEADOW, OPEN TO ALL." Yet it appears to me that the suggestion about Montrose came from these same people.
Have we all been duped in that this was a NIMBY concern all along? And were the environmental arguments NIMBY as well because now it is ok for northern lakefront folks to have another part of their parkland turned over to astroturf?
I know there are others on this blog who are more active on the park stuff than me so I eagerly await your comments. I am not sure if this would be a pro or a con for our neighborhood but I do have to say that if this is an easy out for the park district and Daley wants it then local residents will have little (if any) say in the matter as per usual. The specter of that is what has piqued my interest more than anything else. Other comments?
Thanks for the link. We're definitely going to be following this story.
ReplyDeleteFrank Edwards
Chi-Town Daily News