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The Chicago Children's Museum is moving ahead with plans to build its new facilities in Grant Park, despite serious objections from what appears to be everyone who's not the Children's Museum or Mayor Daley.
We can put the Sun-Times on the list of organizations that are against the move. Today's editorial says that "[b]uilding a children's museum in Grant Park is still a bad idea," before trotting out the Montgomery Ward line that's legally required to be present in all stories about the park and concluding that "if Daley really wants a museum for all Chicagoans, he should build it on the Near West Side or in the South Loop." There are plenty of other options, too.
The museum has employed major PR and marketing firms to help with the push, including political strategist David Axelrod's consulting group and mega-PR firm Hill and Knowlton. The city's Plan Commission will vote April 17, after which the City Council will have its say. [S-T, S-T, Lynn Becker's take, Beachwood Reporter, Trib]
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Anyone else predicting bulldozers in the middle of the night? I'm having flashbacks...
Without a doubt...
Chicago loves a big, messy, public protest that ends up accomplishing nothing.
no SHIT, utv. i don't get this. little monarchy. it's like i could deal if this shit got voted on and i lost out to majority rule.
but 'daley moves on with plan?' uhhh. how in the hell? everyone thinks it's a bad idea save for a few people, yet it keeps on going. same with meigs field. thing is .. i probably would have voted to ditch meigs IF someone would have made a coherent argument and i could have gone and made a referendum choice. but the way he did it ... eff northerly island.
last time i checked, grant park wasn't his to give away.
King daley has spoken and so shall it be. One of the reasons the childrens museum wants to be in grant park is because all the museums in chicago parks get a nice chunk of change every year from the city taxpyers. yes Daley is threating higher taxs as always but has no problem wasting taxpayer money at every turn.
booo-urns! booo-urns!
Corruption aside, I've generally been supportive of what Daley has done for the city of Chicago. Meigs Field? Doze it, I say! It was Daniel Burnham's vision that the entire lakefront remain free and accessible to the public--I believe Daley even evoked him in his defense. And I hardly think that a landing strip that primarily served the politcial and economic elite qualifies...
That being said, allowing for the construction of a children's museum in Grant Park seems to contradict that very same philosophy. Unless, of course, you're going to make it free, which we already know isn't the case. Bad man, Daley! Bad man!
Did anyone see the graphic in the Tribune today? There are a few little buildings that will pop up over street level. Most of this museum will be underground, with parkland on top of it! This is not going to ruin Grant Park or the City.
Shocking, I realize, that a reader of this blog is not reflexively opposed to this plan....
Pinko, I think the issue with Meigs is not that he bulldozed it, it's that he bulldozed it in the middle of the night without any discussion, leaving planes stranded on the field, and then acting all big and mighty about it like he is the King of the World and our frickin' Lord Jesus Christ.
MSS: how will they put the building underground without destroying the surface, at least temporarily?
This plan stinks. The choice has nothing to do with helping lower income kids.
If that truly was the goal, then other sites would be used that would be more accessible to those children and their families.
"Did anyone see the graphic in the Tribune today? There are a few little buildings that will pop up over street level. Most of this museum will be underground, with parkland on top of it! This is not going to ruin Grant Park or the City.
Shocking, I realize, that a reader of this blog is not reflexively opposed to this plan...."
First of all, that rendering is far from official and is highly conceptual at best. And with that said, it still looks atrocious..it basically renders that section of the park useless as far as I can tell.
Why are supporters of this plan so unable to step back for 5 seconds and consider the fact that there are dozens if not hundreds of other viable locations both downtown and elsewhere that would generate zero controversy. This isnt what the public wants. This is what Daley and his friends who operate a profit generating enterprise want. Separate the whole "think of the children" PR BS and look at this for what it is.
And I cant for the life of me figure out why you would want to build a childrens museum buried deep underground with NO windows
@mss....
i know a little about museums, and museum funding. if the children's museum moves on to park district property, then the MIP (museums in the park) funding gets split to an 11 way split, and that funding has been on the decline since the early part of this decade. It's going to end up a fight for table scraps, I promise you.
MCA made a move to get in on this funding by giving their STREETERVILLE land to the Chicago Park District a couple of years ago. That shows a) how important MIP funding is and b) how much museum funding is generally in decline.
This move is going to rob the little but important museums from more public funding, which they need. The Children's Museum and the Shedd have robust enough visitorship to not have to suck on public funding sources so much.
It will be very interesting to see how this plays out.
BTW - it was tyrranical, it was insane, but the northerly island story goes down in history as one of the most hysterically funny, megalomaniacal moves of all time in Chicago. Angry little fat man vs. FAA, via union guys probably working under cover of darkenss and probably paid in six packs .....
The Children's Museum in Grant Park is a terrible idea. Just terrible. Let's hope there is enough unhappiness that even Daley backs off. Keep in mind, he has not been mayor this long by totally ignoring Chicagoans.
As for the Meigs deal, there had been years of discussion about it. In fact, the FAA struck a deal with the city to keep it open as long as it was. There was no referendum, but then again, this is not Switzerland or California, so there never is one. People are wrong in their recollection of these events.
Soldier Field is the issue where destruction started before people could enjoin it, with little discussion. Be upset about that, not Meigs Field. Besides, more people use Soldier Field on any football Sunday than used Meigs in a year.
Keep in mind, he has not been mayor this long by totally ignoring Chicagoans.
Perhaps. But is it that he is not ignoring them, or is it just that he happens to hold the same opinions as the citizens once in a while?
Also, generally when he "agrees" with Chicagoans, it's from the beginning. When was the last time he did a complete 180 on one of his positions? He just said that anyone that opposes the museum in Grant Park is a racist and a bigot. How does he spin out of that one if he reverses his view on the museum's location?
Best we have to hope for is that if Daley has a change of heart he gets this killed under the table (unlikely) or the proposal loses in a court battle (I have no idea how plausible that is).
Does anyone think that this will kill Navy Pier?
Does anyone think that this will kill Navy Pier?
We can only hope...
yes, via chicago ... that's also something i can't figure out. yay kids, go into the children's museum/dungeon. fun!
Yes, that underground museum is just plain stupid.
Caves are perfect for bats and Osama bin Laden. Not for childrens museums.
Is there anything we can actually do about this? I mean, the Chicago masses who actually oppose this? Threaten to boycott the new museum if that goes up? All send a bunch of letter the same day? Thousand family march?? Anything? Seriously, I have no idea. What can I, we, do to stop this? Anything?!
Alright. Is anyone a community organizer around here? Let's try and bus a bunch of underprivileged elementary school kids to Grant Park for a flash baseball/football game. Once we nail down cost, then we can demonstrate how much more useful (and cheaper) the Park can be for kids than a museum. It'll have to be a large public event that'll attract media gadflies.
I'm absolutely serious. Anyone?