The SAVE THE POINT campaign was, I'll grant you, a brilliant marketing strategy. The slogan is so sweet and simple, the cause so pure. Who doesn't want to save the Point? Who doesn't love the look of limestone?
But what got swept under the rug were the details of the Compromise Plan that officials had hammered out with the original community task force (not with the Point Savers, but with the original Community Task Force for Promontory Point).
Just the title, Compromise Plan, tells you that the City, the Park District, and the Army Corps of Engineers made many concessions in the negotiation process.
But this is the only concession that matters to me:
Water Access.
Wait...make that Sanctioned Deep-Water Swimming Access.
Yes, my friend, if something else matters to you, then go ahead and contribute a post to this blog. All I care about is that I can jog to the lake with my family and my dog every available day in the summer and fall, and we can safely swim off the Point in deep water. All I care about is that my 78 year-old water-loving mother-in-law can safely swim off the Point if she wants.
The Compromise Plan had sanctioned deep-water swimming access, off of two, 150-foot-wide steps down into the water, one on the south side, and one on the north side -- the only deep-water access of its kind in the city.
That's 300 feet of step-down access, compared with what we have now, which are three slippery bottlenecks to get in the lake, all of which require the agility of an Olympic gymnast to navigate safely.
1 comment:
great pics.
it should be pointed out that, as originally constructed, the Point revetment had no water access. It was only have the revetment crumbled and tumbled into the water that we are allowed access.
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