Daley Sells Parks...We Just Couldn't Resist
By Margaret Lyons in News on Sep 2, 2004 8:09PM
Friends of the Parks, a parks advocacy organization, has criticized the Chicago Park District for permitting a 12-foot Nike swoosh to be emblazoned on a new park. Nike donated $500,000 to build a new artificial turf soccer field in Douglas Park, but some are saying that the logo is obtrusive and inappropriately commercializes what should be public space.
Mayor Daley of course weighed in with somber wisdomsucker, he made some sarcastic jokes and got exasperated with reporters.
"Yeah, we'll get the Chicago Sun-Times to sponsor something for $1 million, I'd love to do that," Daley said. "I'll put a Sun-Times logo on it. Channel 2, 5, 7, Fox, CLTV, come on. MSNBC? I'm up to $10, $15, $20 million."
Asked if that meant any park in the city would be for sale to corporate sponsors, Daley said: "No, no, no no. See, any park for sale, now that's a headline. 'Daley sells parks.' Sorry."...
"Walk right down here, Michigan (Avenue) and it says there, Chicago Tribune Foundation ice skating rink. You haven't criticized that, why not? Why can they do it?" Daley added.
Were with Daley on this one, especially considering that the teams and coaches that use the field have all said they dont care about the logo and that the field is a gigantic improvement over the ones they were playing on before. If the choice is between play on a nice field with no logo and play on a nice field with a logo, then we have a conversation. But if the choice is between play on a crappy field and play on a nice one with a swoosh, what are you going to pick? Now if youll excuse us, were supposed to go watch a game at Wrigley. Well, maybe well just head to U.S. Cellular. Aw, forget it, lets just go to the United Center.