Suburbanites Saving Seats At Pritzker: The New Dibs?

By Marcus Gilmer in News on Nov 5, 2009 3:00PM

With the city hundreds of millions of dollars in debt, fewer police on the street to battle crime, and a transit system on the verge of another round of service cuts and fare hikes, the City Council is tackling the tough issue plaguing our city: suburbanites claiming the best seats at Pritzker Pavilion in Millennium Park. During the Council's budget hearings yesterday, it was Ald. Eugene Schulter (47th) who spoke up, according to the Sun-Times. Said Ald. Schulter:

“You have people from the suburbs who get there earlier and glom onto all the seats. ... They’re putting their blankets across rows and rows of chairs...I was just wondering if there’s a way that there could be like a 15-minute time period where the people from our city have the opportunity to be seated first. Then after that, anybody”

Well, at least it's just a blanket and not, say, a giant two-by-four resting on two folding chairs. The city's Cultural Affairs Commissioner Lois Weisberg didn't buy Schulter's complaints, saying, "Everyone is given a period of time when they’re able to be seated, no matter where they come from...I don’t think we have an influx of suburban people coming.” But Schulter wasn't done, telling Weisberg of complaints he's received from his constituents and played the "in these tough times" card. No, really: "What we’re trying to do is look at — especially during these hard times — that our city residents are at least given some consideration somehow." Weisberg, though, wasn't swayed.

To be fair, the Council did talk budget 2010 at the meeting, namely the yearly cost to taxpayers for upkeep of the park ($7 million) and the plans to move some of the city's annual music festivals from Grant Park to Millennium Park in an effort to save some cash. Weisberg also discussed the sort of endowment that pays for the upkeep of Central Park and the struggles to found such a fund for Millennium Park and take the burden off taxpayers.

"In Central Park, the money was raised primarily from a great many millionaires who lived around the park — and they still keep it up...We may have enough millionaires around the whole city — and the people of Chicago who are millionaires have been very generous to the park so far. But, right now is not a really good time for anybody."

No word if the millionaires will be privy to better seats at next year's Country Music Fest.