CHICAGO | Obama Presidential Library

[Via Chicago]

i never once said i barely use it. again, please quote wherever that statement was made. youre pretty good at fabricating things. i golf in jackson park 10 or more times a year. i go to the japanese garden about as often. i have friends who live in the area and picnic there frequently. of course none of this matters, except you keep pushing the issue.

last i checked it is a CHICAGO park, and there is not a wall around woodlawn or montrose harbor or anywhere else that prohibits city residents who happen to live a few miles away from having a say in its ideal use.

[marothisu]

Originally Posted by Via Chicago

i never once said i barely use it. again, please quote wherever that statement was mad.e i golf in jackson park 10 or more times a year. i go to the japanese garden about as often. i have friends who live in the area and picnic there frequently. of course none of this matters, except you keep pushing the issue.

last i checked it is a CHICAGO park, and there is not a wall around woodlawn or montrose harbor or anywhere else prohibits city residents who happen to live a few miles away from having a say in its ideal use.

Ok, so basically we've established that everyone in Chicago's opinion matters - everyone who agrees and disagrees with you.

You still sound like an entitled prick because you mention race going to a house music fest as if it matters one bit what race you are and somehow it meant anything of importance. If you really think that my opinion on the fact that I think the Obama Library going into Jackson Park is perfectly valid is more divisive to the city than someone bringing up race when it's a moot point then I don't know what to tell you. It's not about you expressing your POV - it's about how you do it, and no I'm not going to apologize for calling you a prick. My opinion still stands.

[Via Chicago]

hey, now we're getting somewhere! now ill just patiently wait for an apology on the childish name calling for simply and earnestly expressing my POV.

[eaguir3]

Some areas of Jackson Park are underutilized and are in desperate need of TLC. It will be great to see the structures and fixtures dating back to the World's Fair restored to their original condition. The OPL will also encourage Metra to run more frequently. As a SE sider that commutes to the Loop via ME, this will be a dream come true. I, for one, prefer this location.

[Via Chicago]

Originally Posted by marothisu

It's my opinion that you're talking like an entitled prick because you think you have more of a voice than anybody else because you once went to a house music festival for a day in a park miles from where you live (and somehow mentioned your race, which has absolutely zero importance to what we're talking about). I'm sure the residents of Woodlawn would be beyond excited to hear about your privilege.

you keep editing your posts, which it makes it rather difficult to form a reply. that said, i mentioned my race simply as an effort to illustrate that i enjoy experiencing and exploring cultures other than my own. the fact that there are entirely different worlds in this city living side by side is what i love most about it. how you interpreted it beyond that, i cant say.

[marothisu]

Originally Posted by Via Chicago

you keep editing your posts, which it makes it rather difficult to form a reply. that said, i mentioned my race simply as an effort to illustrate that i enjoy experiencing and exploring cultures other than my own. the fact that there are entirely different worlds in this city living side by side is what i love most about it. how you interpreted it beyond that, i cant say.

I'm glad you do - I do too and it's great which is one of the best aspects of the city. I was merely saying that you mentioning race was a moot point. You can say you enjoy experiencing all sorts of cultures and races without having to mention your own. Anyway - I'm glad we both agree that everyone is entitled to an opinion, and that one person speaking doesn't mean their opinion is any more valid than anybody else's.


P.S. Most of my edits are pretty minor - a misspelled word here, or needing to add a helping verb somewhere else.

[pilsenarch]

Originally Posted by Via Chicago

you keep editing your posts, which it makes it rather difficult to form a reply. that said, i mentioned my race simply as an effort to illustrate that i enjoy experiencing and exploring cultures other than my own. the fact that there are entirely different worlds in this city living side by side is what i love most about it. how you interpreted it beyond that, i cant say.

You are a prick.

[pilsenarch]

Originally Posted by via chicago

I golf in jackson park 10 or more times a year. I go to the japanese garden about as often.

lol

[Via Chicago]

cool, im done here. enjoy the party.

[pilsenarch]

^Ha... must be on his way to one of his 20 visits a year to Jackson Park from Edgewater...

[UPChicago]

You guys are taking it too far the guy (Via_Chicago) simply said he wished it wasn't in the park which, if there were other viable options, I think most could agree with. He could be a white guy from Canada or a green guy from Mars and be well within his right to express that opinion. At the end of the day he nor I nor anyone here (mostly) are decision makers and likely don't have vested interest in those neighborhoods, so our opinions are just that.....opinions.

[Vlajos]

Museums in parks are generally wonderful. Where is FOTPL on this?

[Mr Downtown]

Friends of the Parks Executive Director Juanita irizarry in a July interview with DNAInfo, a piece which also has some very interesting observations about the Lucas Museum site:

We have been in conversation with the Obama library folks and expect that conversation will pick up any day as it's continued over the last few months. We said we will not sue over the Obama library, but we will continue to say it should not be built in a park. . . . It was decided by the board before I came on board that even though we think it's a really big problem, there were so many folks on the South Side who articulated an interest in having the library, regardless of it taking parkland, that we decided to back off on the threat of suing. If it's located in Jackson Park it's still located on public trust land potentially,* so it does bring up some questions, but we have been talking about promoting the addition of new park land in return, and we hope that those conversations are fruitful.

*The site described by the Tribune, west of Cornell, is not public trust land.

[pilsenarch]

^What's interesting about that statement is that FotPL is under the impression that it IS or MIGHT BE Public Trust Land, but are apparently willing to compromise their principles in deference to public opinion.

Why didn't they do that with the LMNA? It clearly had the support of the majority of the city including the head of just about every other museum in the city...

Again, just more evidence that FotPL's number one priority isn't the parks, but rather politics...

[pilsenarch]

^good point, and, LMNA was proposed for a parking lot rather then an Olmsted designed park... go figure

[ardecila]

Originally Posted by pilsenarch

Why didn't they do that with the LMNA? It clearly had the support of the majority of the city including the head of just about every other museum in the city...

I'm not sure LMNA enjoyed the broad support you seemed to think it did. Minority groups didn't really care one way or the other (Father Pfleger excepted) while progressives generally didn't think it was appropriate for a billionaire to build a vanity project on public land. Bears fans were sore about the loss of tailgating.

Of course, many of the progressives I talked to seemed to think this was usable park space, instead of a Bears parking lot... several people moderated their opposition after I showed them the Google map. Really this area of the lakefront is only used by Bears fans and South Siders, so it's kind of an unknown for a lot of Chicagoans which allowed FOTP to control the public opinion to an extent.

At the Obama Library, you have the opposite situation. Minority groups generally don't have a dogmatic opinion to preserve parkland at any cost - Dyett High School and countless other CPS facilities across the South/West Sides were built in parks because the land was free (to CPS) and neighborhood residents valued education more than the sanctity of green space. Minority groups also place the Obama Library and honoring Obama's accomplishments at a very high priority, also higher than the sanctity of green space.

Meanwhile, white North Siders are generally in favor of the Library but don't really care one way or the other about green space that they never visit. FOTP knows this is a losing battle because they don't have anybody lined up in support.

[rlw777]

Originally Posted by Mr Downtown

Friends of the Parks Executive Director Juanita irizarry in a July interview with DNAInfo, a piece which also has some very interesting observations about the Lucas Museum site:

We have been in conversation with the Obama library folks and expect that conversation will pick up any day as it's continued over the last few months. We said we will not sue over the Obama library, but we will continue to say it should not be built in a park. . . . It was decided by the board before I came on board that even though we think it's a really big problem, there were so many folks on the South Side who articulated an interest in having the library, regardless of it taking parkland, that we decided to back off on the threat of suing. If it's located in Jackson Park it's still located on public trust land potentially,* so it does bring up some questions, but we have been talking about promoting the addition of new park land in return, and we hope that those conversations are fruitful.

*The site described by the Tribune, west of Cornell, is not public trust land.

Executive Dbag Juanita Irizarry and all the clowns at FotPl can shove it. I mean thanks for the info lol

[nomarandlee]

Originally Posted by marothisu

And some residents in the actual community spoke up and told people from outside the community (including you and me) to stop trying to decide for them how they want to use their park land. I guess you didn't actually understand part the article or anything I quoted. Obama got what he wanted to, you're right - but at the same time - as the article clearly shows - there were many residents who were not against giving up some of the park land in their own community for it.

Why even have a mayor. It should all be alderman and local control after all.


.....Anyway, great the city is getting the library but I'm not gonna lie in that I'm really disappointed at the choice of the site. I think it is a rather short sighted and a pretty large missed opportunity. I just don't imagine the surrounding neighborhood getting the same lift nor having the exciting potential of transformation of the Washington Park site. Also I was hoping that the Obama's would have the respect and modesty to not build the actual structure within actual present park space. That would have still been possible on the Washington Park site but is an impossibility on the Jackson Park site. Oh well.

[eleven=11]

is it going where the golf course is?
the CUBS built there new spring training stadium
where a old golf course was.....

[marothisu]

Originally Posted by nomarandlee

.....Anyway, great the city is getting the library but I'm not gonna lie in that I'm really disappointed at the choice of the site. I think it is a rather short sighted and a pretty large missed opportunity. I just don't imagine the surrounding neighborhood getting the same lift nor having the exciting potential of transformation of the Washington Park site. Also I was hoping that the Obama's would have the respect and modesty to not build the actual structure within actual present park space. That would have still been possible on the Washington Park site but is an impossibility on the Jackson Park site. Oh well.

I wish it was in the Washington Park site, but I can understand the allure of Jackson Park. Also, there's actually been a small amount of gentrification going on in Woodlawn as well - there HAVE been full home renovations in the area, some new construction (mixed income), a few new community type of buildings, Strand Hotel renovation/conversion, and recently a 24 unit building broke ground on a vacant lot there.