Quote:
Originally Posted by nomarandlee
Nothing to disagree with anything you said. The matter of the location will be barely an afterthought in ten years. Heck, it is already an afterthought. Also, it will bring in $$$ as you say. We have an apathetic public that lets political elites make bad choices with our money and land because they are "popular".
That in itself doesn't counter that in modern times we ought to expect more than wasteful spending for road relocations and tens of millions/new acre of "park" which is just a horrible ROI, especially when other sites were just as good if not superior. It is only due to Obama's ego that this site HAD to be chosen. It's a sorry state of affairs to effectively surrender to the idea that we ought to avoid how much egoism doesn't matter, how the community wanted it at any cost (debatable), or how the city/UC had to offer anything could to win Obama's affection. I just don't think we ought to ever normalize it as the way things OUGHT to be done. This was already "green space" that was not destined to be a 10-acre parking lot, unlike the Lucas Museum. There would have likely never been a priority to remove Cornell Drive if not for the assistance of the location for the OPL.
|
The whole point of the Obama Center was to improve Jackson Park and
showcase the
best of the South Side with an attraction that millions of people will visit.
To be frank, a useless strip of lawn between two egregiously dangerous roads was worse than the Lucas Museum parking lot. Because the parking lot actually gets used by several thousand people throughout the year.
Just because a vacant lot is covered with turf and romanticized as “green space”, doesn’t actually make it a worthwhile public space.
Good riddance to Cornell Drive.
It destroyed Jackson Park. With the Obama Center, it might actually be pleasant to stroll in a circle around the park again.
In the future, the city will probably have to spend billions to remove the other highways through the city parks anyways. Might as well get a billion dollar unique museum in exchange for this one.