Where Lake Michigan meets the Chicago River are three acres of overgrown weeds and shrubs. The area is referred to by some as a “ghost park” because it is hidden in plain sight.
The scrubby lakefront land is supposed to be the home of DuSable Park, honoring Jean Baptiste Point DuSable as the city’s first non-native settler. Although it was dedicated by Mayor Harold Washington in the 1980s, it has yet to be developed.
“We feel DuSable Park has been waiting for too long to be built,” said Serge Pierre-Louis, president of the DuSable Heritage Association in Chicago.
The association is behind an online petition close to reaching 100 signatures urging the city and Chicago Park District to fund and build a park on the peninsula.
“DuSable Park has yet to make any significant progress on its construction while other parks such as Millennium Park, Maggie Daley Park, and the 606 have opened in the near three decades since the initial DuSable park dedication,” a news release issued by the DuSable Park Coalition stated.
“The continued lack of attention and commitment on the part of the Chicago Park District to this particular project is deeply unsettling.”
The DuSable Park Coalition includes representatives of organizations such as the DuSable Heritage Association, Streeterville Organization of Active Residents, Friends of DuSable, Bronzeville Children’s Museum and Friends of the Parks.
The undeveloped park site sits on the east side of Lake Shore Drive across from the Spire skyscraper hole. Past attempts to build the park have been tied to the Spire because the developer made a financial commitment to help develop the park after using the site as a construction staging area.
But the Spire never got built and now Related Midwest owns the skyscraper site. The online petition encouraged the separation of the park site construction from other development projects.
The park site has faced issues with thorium contamination and the seawall needing to be replaced. Environmental remediation was completed three years ago.
The three projects mentioned by the coalition—Millennium Park, Maggie Daley Park and The 606—have been funded through a combination of public money and private donations.
The DuSable Park Coalition is in the process of creating a foundation for the main purpose of raising money to build the park, Pierre-Louis said. At the same time, the Haitian community has been working with the DuSable Heritage Association to raise money for a piece of art that reflects the connection between DuSable and Haiti—DuSable’s birthplace—that can be offered as a gift to the park, he said.
Pierre-Louis said he would like the park to keep the 2006 design, which was pegged at $12 million.
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Additionally, he would like to see the city and the Park District help move the project forward.
Last fall, Chicago Park District CEO Michael Kelly told RedEye the park was not included in the Park District’s capital improvement plan but it remained a priority. The main issue: money to build it.
“There should be partners on that project whether it’s the local elected [officials], Navy Pier, city of Chicago, all of the above, including us. We should partner on it,” he said. “The park needs a champion, and it’s too costly for us to go at it alone.”
A funding source for DuSable Park has yet to be identified, a park district spokeswoman said Friday.
On Wednesday, the DuSable Park Coalition plans to walk over to the site after laying a wreath at DuSable’s bronze bust in Pioneer Court, near Michigan Avenue and the Chicago River, during a memorial ceremony for the 197th anniversary of his death.