Supporters of the Chicago Children’s Museum and residents living north of Grant Park brought out reinforcements Monday night in a showdown over which side could garner the greatest support in two public forums held to discuss whether the museum should be allowed to construct a new building in the park.
Only half of the about 300 people gathered at Grant Park to debate relocating the museum could fit inside the Daley Bicentennial Plaza fieldhouse. But that lack of space didn’t mean the rest went home.
They stood in the lobby and outside in rainy weather, pressing signs to the windows that read “Forever open, clear and free!” and “Mayor Daley, there are other locations!”
The chanting started as a uniform effort: “Reschedule, reschedule, reschedule!” Then, suddenly remembering they were opponents, they shouted combating messages: “We say, ‘No!’ We say, ‘No!’ “
Then, “Children first.”
Finally, “Save our park.”
The face-off comes as Ald. Brendan Reilly (42nd) continues to deliberate whether he will support the Children’s Museum’s efforts to construct a building in Grant Park.
Museum officials have proposed a subterranean, bunkerlike building to lie mainly underground at the site of the field house on Randolph Street, east of Columbus Drive. But residents have opposed the deal, saying the museum would add traffic to their increasingly congested neighborhood.
Weeks in advance, the New East Side Association of Residents organized a community meeting at 6:30 p.m. Monday in the field house.
Then, Children’s Museum officials late last week scheduled a gathering for the same day, but an hour earlier, allowing the media to speak to families from other parts of the city who supported the proposal. They also presented civic leaders such as Rev. Michael Pfleger of St. Sabina Catholic Church, who advocated for the museum.
Pfleger said the proposal’s critics might not want minority children from poorer areas frequenting the park. “I’m wondering if it’s race,” he said.
On Monday, museum officials sent a news release saying lakefront advocate Lois Wille endorsed their plan too.
Civic groups have expressed concern that the proposed museum would violate city ordinances. They worry it would set a bad precedent for keeping buildings out of the park and work against the efforts of retail magnate Montgomery Ward, who fought at the turn of the last century to prevent obstructions to Grant Park’s open views of the lake.
Wille, author of the 1972 book, “Forever Open, Clear and Free: The Struggle for Chicago’s Lakefront,” said she did not feel the museum would violate any laws. She pointed to the Harris Theater and Pritzker Pavilion in Millennium Park as examples of other structures built in Grant Park.
“It fits within the guidelines,” she said.
About 10,000 people live in the New East Side, a new neighborhood forming just north of Grant Park and east of Michigan Avenue, according to the New East Side Association of Residents. The group estimates that by the time a current residential development is completed, 16 new high-rises and 90 townhouses will be added, bringing an additional 15,000 people to the area.
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