Hairston Fail #3: Leslie's VIP Lot at 63rd St Beach and Other Parking Give-Aways

[This essay was originally posted as "Alderman Hairston's VIP Fireworks Parking" on July 6, 2010]

posted by Elizabeth Fama

57th St. Beach and fireworks, 7/4/2010.

Yesterday the Tribune reported that 5th-Ward Alderman Leslie Hairston reserved the 63rd Street parking lot on July 4th for an "afternoon anti-violence event." She said she distributed the spaces to "local organizations, vendors, and workers." Ordinary people driving to the fireworks were out of luck if they hoped to park there, even if they arrived early for the celebration.

So apparently free parking along the lakefront isn't a right, as Hairston has ballyhooed for more than a year, it's a privilege. I'd really like to know precisely who in her judgment merited permit parking at the beach on the 4th of July.

From the Tribune: "Hairston said....that she modeled the event after the Air and Water Show, where people have to walk to the area and have few parking options."

"'It's a bunch of bull,' said Alex Hall, 39, who arrived early hoping for a parking spot at the beach, where he has been celebrating the holiday since he was a child. 'We should be able to park and have our own Independence Day.'"

So much for Ms. Hairston's claim in April that spaces in the 63rd Street lot should be as accessible as possible to all Chicagoans, regardless of their means (Maroon, April 30, 2010). So much for her insistence that beach parking should be free. So much for her worry that installing meters is what "discourages people from using the parks."

And so much for the City's goal of making the fireworks more accessible and reducing congestion by moving the display from Grant Park to three separate locations along the lakefront.

I guess since Hairston paid an estimated $77,000 out of her discretionary funds to subsidize summer parking at 63rd Street, she figures she can be queen of the lot.

********

[Editor's note: Alderman Hairston claimed in a letter to the editor of the Hyde Park Herald (December 15, 2010) -- 5 months after the above post was originally written -- that the total subsidy for the lot at 63rd Street Beach was $42,000 rather than $77,000. At present there is no way to verify this claim. See further discussion of this issue here.]

Hairston Fail #1: The Point Collapse

posted by chicago pop

HAIRSTON FAIL #1:

Early in her tenure, Fifth Ward Alderman Leslie Hairston lost control of negotiations over the repair of a crucial and decaying stretch of lakefront, and ultimately lost $24 million in federal funding to fix it. Her lack of leadership led to the eventual rejection of the Compromise Plan of 2003 -- the best chance for a solution that met the demands of modern engineering and reasonable community input. Hairston was intimidated by a vocal group of activists and the plan was dropped in 2005.

Since then, funding has evaporated.

The lake shore revetment that surrounds what Hyde Parkers affectionately refer to as "The Point" is rotting. Every winter it is hammered by ferocious waves so that its once level and tiered limestone blocks (ca. 1920s-1930s) sink in a ragged jumble even further into Lake Michigan, and the steel and timber crib that originally held them all together juts out ever more visibly. The soil of Promontory Point itself is slowly eroding around the edges.

This is not how Promontory Point was intended to be. It may look nice from a distance and in fuzzy watercolor paintings, but it is incontrovertibly and dangerously dilapidated. It must be rebuilt. Its current condition is a danger to public safety, a disgrace to the Chicago Park District, and the fact that it was not fixed in the early 2000's is the most conspicuous HAIRSTON FAIL.

Harold Washington Park Advisory Council: Organizational Meeting Thursday, Nov. 18

Help form an Advisory Council

for Harold Washington Park

Please join us for our organizational meeting:

Thursday, November 18, 2010

6:30 PM

Hyde Park Art Center

5020 S. Cornell

We welcome and need your leadership, ideas and support. Let us make Harold Washington Park better, together.

What is a Park Advisory Council? A park advisory council is a group of individuals who meet regularly with the Chicago Park District’s local park supervisor to support the effective functioning of the park and advises them on the needs and concerns of the community.

Agenda will include Council Formation & Elections, meeting schedule. Once formed the Council will identify its goals and priorities. For purposes of this effort Harold Washington Park is defined as the area between 4900 S. Chicago Beach Dr. - 53^rd Street and between S. Hyde Park Blvd. and Lake Shore Drive.)

Please call Park Supervisor Heather Kelly at (773) 747-2703 with any questions.

City of Chicago, Richard M. Daley, Mayor

Chicago Park District

Timothy J. Mitchell, General Superintendent & CEO

Visit www.chicagaoparkdistrict.com or call (312) 742-PLAY; (312) 747-2001 (TTY)

Cornell Avenue Gets a Sidewalk!

posted by chicago pop

One of the lesser-known barriers cutting off Hyde Park from the rest of the world is the absence of a sidewalk along Cornell Avenue as it runs along Burnham Park from 49th to 47th Streets.

This leafy stretch, which in summer offers the rudiments of a Madison County fantasy to motorists, has also acted as a green buffer zone between the Indian Village area and 47th Street. As anyone who drives this road can tell you, the lack of a sidewalk forces pedestrians to walk in the street year round, sharing space with vehicles often moving at high speed in both directions.

Laying down a sidewalk along this stretch is therefore a long-overdue but major improvement in pedestrian safety, walkability, and connectedness with the rest of Chicago. Bravo to whatever arm of City bureaucracy (or perhaps the 4th Ward Alderman?) is making this happen -- if they can do this, surely they can fix a bus stop that doubles as a bottomless pit!

Advisory Group Forms to Clean up Elm Park

posted by chicago pop

Good news about some neighborhood activity to clean up one of Hyde Park's seedier parks and playlots, Elm Park, located on Woodlawn just north of Kimbark Plaza. As we know from the example of the neighborhood parks and playlots, it takes dedicated neighbors to maintain a park and playground's quality. Like a number of others in Hyde Park, this one could use some help.

A meeting of the group is scheduled for Tuesday, July 13, 2010 at 6:30PM, Nichols Park Field House, 1355 E. 53rd Street.

For those interested, a statement of intention and recently circulated contact info is below:

May name is Timika Hoffman-Zoller. I am a resident of Hyde Park who is interested in forming a Park Advisory Council (PAC) for Elm Playlot Park which is located at 5215 South Woodlawn Avenue.

Members of the community and I will convene the initial Advisory Council Meeting for Elm Playlot on Monday, June 21st 2010, 6:30 PM at the Nichols Park Field House, located 1355 East 53rd Street.

At the initial Elm Playlot Park Advisory Council Meeting we will:

· Receive nominations for Park Advisory Council (PAC) officers

(Elections will be held for the offices of President, Vice-President, Secretary, and Treasurer.)

· Review and adopt the Park Advisory Council By-Laws

· Create committees deemed necessary and appropriate to fulfill the purpose of the Elm Playlot PAC.

· Set the date for the next meeting

We wish to form the Elm Playlot Park Advisory Council to help provide park visitors and neighbors with a safe, inviting, and beautifully maintained park. Through the development of the Park Advisory Council we can promote unique ways for the community to better utilize Elm Playlot Park, and help develop the physical space and creative programs that will provide a positive impact on Elm Playlot Park and the surrounding community.

Sincerely,

Timika Hoffman-Zoller

773 454-0499 cell phone

zollerfamily@gmail.com

Chicago Pop's Ranking of the Best Playgrounds in Hyde Park Kenwood

posted by chicago pop

Getting a drink at the neighborhood's best summer fountain
in Kenwood Community Park

The Hyde Park- Kenwood area is particularly rich in city parks, and especially in children's playlots. By one count, Hyde Park- Kenwood and the surrounding area are home to 30 city parks. For parents of young children, this is a particular boon, and one of the reasons HP-K is such a child-friendly neighborhood.

Naturally, the best park playground is (or should be) the one closest to home, just down the street, where kids can walk or be carried a short distance, to meet and be with people they know. Chicago playgrounds also come in a variety of packages. While most of them have the same basic equipment and general layout, they come in vastly different settings: some are new, some are old; some are loved and bustling, some are neglected and empty; some cater to a restricted demographic, some display the full range of Chicago's ethnic diversity; some are squeezed between apartment buildings, some take up entire city blocks; some are in larger parks with few amenities, some are among the city's most attractively landscaped jewels, surrounded by may other attractions.

So, all this being said, here are chicago pop's rankings of Hyde Park and Kenwood area playgrounds. There may be a few I missed completely, and a few that have striking qualities that deserve to be highlighted, even if they don't place in the Top 5. Let's hear about it, if so. But I'm confident that the Top 1 and 2 positions are there to stay.

The rankings here are based on the quality of the playground -- amount of equipment, condition, layout -- but just as much on the setting, the qualities of the surrounding park, and the demographics of park use. There is a slight preference for larger playgrounds in larger parks, but I also include a smaller favorite in recognition of the fundamental diversity of playground settings.



Hyde Park-Kenwood's Best Playground: #1 Harold Washington Playlot, Harold Washington Park


Hands-down, without-a-doubt, no-two-ways-about it, Hyde Park - Kenwood's best playground is the spacious, shaded, elaborately-equipped, and beautifully sited Harold Washington Playlot in the city park of that name.

Harold Washington dominates in every field. It is an outstanding, recently-renovated children's playground located within one of the most beautiful city parks in Chicago. It is unmatched in surrounding attractions and amenities. And it is one of the least segregated playgrounds in the Hyde Park area.

This last quality helped knock a few solid and serviceable playgrounds out of the Top 2 -- playgrounds like Bixler Playlot, on 57th Street, which is used by a heavily Caucasian crowd, and the vibrant playground at 47th and Cornell in Burnham Park, which is very popular for pick-up basketball and heavily African-American.

Urban density next to open lakefront space: the best of Chicago at Harold Washington Playlot

Harold Washington won out on a few basic measures: there is simply more stuff there than in any other park, it is bigger, and the stuff is in better shape. On a good Saturday morning or afternoon the park is humming -- as is the surrounding city park -- with people of all races, and even folks who have come from outside the neighborhood. During the week it is regularly invaded by summer camp kids from the adjacent Akiba Schechter Jewish Day School and other programs.

The surrounding park helped lift the playground to the top of the list thanks to a few key features, chief among them being one of Hyde Park's very few public restrooms. This is something that any parent should be able to appreciate, as well as a sign of confidence in the civility of park patrons.

See-sawing by the lake
at Harold Washington Playlot

The list goes on, and includes Chicago's only boat pond -- which we remain hopeful will one day rent boats for kids to sail -- newly resurfaced tennis courts right next door, chess tables nearby, access to the lakefront trail, Promontory Point, and Istria Cafe a few blocks away, as well as the coming rehabilitation of the Del Prado Hotel on the southwest corner of the park.

One of five major activity stations in Harold Washington Playlot

Enjoy your local playground this summer. But be sure at some point to stop into the best playground in the best city park that Hyde Park - Kenwood has to offer.


#2 Kenwood Community Park


Kenwood Community Park is the only other park in the neighborhood on the same level as Harold Washington in terms of diversity of activity stations, with one jungle gym for toddlers and another for older children, as well as one of the best play fountains. Like Harold Washington, Kenwood Community Park has abundant shade, is clean, and is frequented by a diverse group of residents from all of Hyde Park and Kenwood.

The playground itself resembles Bixler to the extent that it is located in a park next to a school (Beulah Shoesmith), set in a residential neighborhood -- in this case, a charming square of old brownstones and single-family homes. Two blocks to the east is one of the Chicago Public Library's architectural jewels, the Blackstone Library.


Kenwood's configuration is somewhat unusual in that it is an oblong, narrow area, fit in between a baseball diamond and the park boundary. But this is a quibble. The adjacent tennis courts are frequently in use, and the sandbox is very popular. Kenwood Community Playground is the epitome of an active playground integrated into the fabric of an old, established Chicago neighborhood.


#3 Bixler Playlot


Bixler Playlot scores points for one reason above all: location, location, location.

It is quite popular among the PSN-mommy set, due primarily to its location in an area that is comparatively lacking in parks or playgrounds. It also has the convenience of being located across from one of the few stretches of commercial and dining activity in Hyde Park -- on 57th Street -- making it easy to grab a refreshment around lunchtime for the kids or a coffee to help the adults keep up with the youngsters. Because of this central location, it is almost always in use.

A hot, bright day at Bixler

With Bixler we move down to a different level from the #1 and #2 playgrounds. It is smaller, less well kept, and has fewer activity stations. Importantly for this ranking, Bixler is not nearly as diverse in the crowds it attracts. On an aesthetic level, it tends to be littered with junk and broken toys that someone, at one time, thought it would be generous to leave as gifts to the commons, but now mostly frustrate or trip the children who try to use them. It is also less well-shaded than either Harold Washington or Kenwood, making for hot times both for children or their guardians watching from the benches.


#4 Sycamore Playlot Park


Sycamore Playlot Park is my favorite among the smaller "pocket" parks laid out on one or two city lots between standing blocks of residential apartment buildings. Many of these parks are visited much less often than the larger or more popular parks in the neighborhood, and are often known only by locals. However, some of them are worth visiting on the basis of their own qualities, and Sycamore is one of them.

Located half a block from Barack Obama's Kenwood mansion, Sycamore is a well-shaded playground with one major activity station, two swingsets, and a sandbox. It is surrounded on three sides by the brick walls of adjacent apartment buildings, and opens up onto Greenwood Avenue. Several nearby in-home day-care services occasionally bring their toddlers into the park in warm weather.



Sycamore Playlot is not busy, and this may spook moms who don't like to be alone, even though there is a large Secret Service presence just around the corner. It also lacks any significant green space, giving it a very urban feel. All this being said, it is well-equipped for its size, the gear is in solid condition, and Sycamore has the advantage of being one of the more tranquil playgrounds on a calm summer afternoon.

And in the fall, Sycamore is distinguished by three young maple trees that are among the few in Hyde Park to turn a flaming red, contributing to the quiet beauty of the place.


#4 Nichols Park

Nichols Park is the dive-bar of neighborhood parks. That is partly what gets in on this list at all -- its very seediness. But it has several redeeming qualities that compensate for this run-downness and make it a major playground destination for the area. Above all, it is large, with some of the only and largest green space between the Midway on the south, Washington Park on the West, and the lakefront parks on the east.

A glorious summer day on the green in Nichols Park

This means that in summer months, it is always busy with picnickers, dog walkers, summer camp groups, tennis players, and parents with small children. Nichols Park itself is home to the Hyde Park Neighborhood Club, with its various childrens' activities, and it neighbors Murray Language Academy to the north, which has its own bustling playground.

There are two Park District playgrounds in Nichols Park, one with a more university-oriented crowd on the southern end near 55th Street, and another with a more neighborhood-oriented crowd on the northern end near 54th. Both are older and dilapidated, much like the rest of the surrounding park. Here is where kids will find those increasingly rare but very fast aluminum slides that heat up to 1000 degrees in dog days of summer.

Dilapidated but well-used playground at northern end of
Nichols Park

Nichols ranks high for diversity: I have heard more languages spoken in and around the two playgrounds at Nichols Park, especially the southern one, than at any other playground in Hyde Park. The presence of the Neighborhood Club guarantees that there are kids of all ages and backgrounds at the southern end of the park, while the northern playground is regularly used and reflective of the diversity of the neighborhood. All of this -- plus the central green and glorious surrounding timber -- helps Nichols Park overcome its dilapidation to place at #4 on our list of neighborhood playgrounds.


#5 Playground at Promontory Point in Burnham Park

The playground in this park ranks #5 on my list for purely aesthetic reasons: it is situated in a very pleasant location. (Pictures forthcoming!)

The playground equipment is by no means the newest, most modern, or most extensive (although the equipment is in better shape than the playgrounds at Nichols Park), and the playground is used only intermittently. Close to the Point, it is more remote from the central areas of Hyde Park. But the playground, at the southernmost end of vast Burnham Park and across from the Shoreland Hotel, is one of the loveliest settings of all the playgrounds in Hyde Park. It is shaded by several enormous cottonwood and basswood trees, which let a dappled sunlight filter down to the activity stations. The Point is steps away, and open green space is all around. Even when completely empty of other visitors, its open location and proximity to the lakefront path make it feel safe.


#6 ... Your Suggestions?

The Playgrounds of Hyde Park: Coming Soon

chicago pop takes a look at the playgrounds in Hyde Park - Kenwood and ranks the best of them.

Preview: Number One is not what you think!

Plus, selected rankings for special features. Stay tuned.

On Leslie Hairston's Parking Populism, or: Panem et Circenses

posted by chicago pop

Alderman Leslie Hairston (seated) together with Goddess of the Hyde Park Herald (standing)
Signal for Chicago Park District Reps to be Thrown to Lions

"Bread and circuses" (or bread and games) (from Latin: panem et circenses) is a metaphor for handouts and petty amusements that politicians use to gain popular support, instead of gaining it through sound public policy. The phrase is invoked not only to criticize politicians, but also to criticize their populations for giving up their civic duty.

In this week's Hyde Park Herald (April 14, 2010), both Alderman Hairston and the paper's op-ed make a handful of arguments against the coming of metered parking at a few lakefront, Park District lots.

Since the arguments are virtually identical, I refer to their advocate as "Herald Hairston". They are all fundamentally misguided, if not wrong. Here's why. Herald Hairston asserts, drawing deeply from a reservoir of bathos put at her disposal by the creative writers of the our local paper, that;

1. Parking at, and enjoyment of the lakefront parks, is and has historically been "free".

2. Metering lakefront parking is regressive because it prevents the disadvantaged (people with cars) from accessing the lakefront

3. No one told us this was going to happen and we are shocked.

Herald Hairston errs on each of the above points in the following ways:

1. Nothing is "free" in the web of obligations known as "society." We all pay for the facilities and upkeep of Chicago's parks through our property taxes. Parking spots in all parks are subsidized by city taxpayers even if they themselves don't use those spots. Those who make intensive use of the lakefront benefit from the largess of those who don't.

Parking at these and other heretofore unmetered locations has therefore never been "free," only subsidized, by the good graces of one's neighbors and the degree of fatness in the city budget at any given time, both of which are independent variables.

We pay: just not at the point of use.

2. People who own cars are not disadvantaged. Vehicles don't come with free gas or car washes. They shouldn't come with free parking. Making parking free amounts to a first-come first-serve policy that does not equitably distribute the resource.

The assumptions hidden within the contrary argument are that a) people have a right to park a car on the lakefront if they own one, and b) charging them a minimal fee for use is more economically burdensome to them than their private decision to own and care for a vehicle.

a) is problematic because the lakefront could not possibly accommodate every city resident with a car, which is what a) assumes, and which is unjust to those who cannot find parking. Those who find parking at the expense of those who cannot are not only freeloading, but also preventing their fellows from enjoying the fruits of their taxes.

b) reinforces a deeply held prejudice that owning cars should be costless, and that public treasure should be dispensed to facilitate everything -- including recreation -- being centered around automobiles.

The argument that a meter policy "will cause inconvenience and expense for people least able to afford it" is sophistry of the purest kind.


3. If you didn't know this was coming, you are ignorant.

If you are ignorant, Herald Hairston did nothing to prepare you.

If Herald Hairston did nothing to prepare you, it was the better to cultivate your outrage at "not knowing" in the run-up to an election year, the better to manipulate your discontent with bread, circuses, and parking.

Grown-ups in the rest of Chicago read about this in the papers and heard about it in the news for months well over a year ago.

To sum up our response to the 3 points above:

1) Parking was never free, so it free parking cannot be taken away. Metered parking is based on the principle that, in addition to base support from property taxes, those who use the facilities most assume some level of responsibility for paying for them.

2) That mythical poor family who can afford to buy and maintain an automobile, but not to enjoy 2 hours worth of parking for $1, needs to sell their vehicle and get a CTA pass.

3) Surprise!

Leslie's Lack of Leadership: Case #1

posted by chicago pop

When it comes to 5th Ward Alderman Leslie Hairston, this blog has one thing to say:

FEBRUARY 22, 2011

That's the date of the next city elections in Chicago. In an ideal world, it should be the last day of Alderman Hairston's job.

There are a lot of reasons why we think this -- serial instances of disastrous community leadership running from the Promontory Point fiasco, her utter invisibility in the Doctors Hospital controversy, through to her bizarre power plays in the replacement of popular bus stops with free parking, and most recently, her protection of the stealthy NIMBYs roosting next to the Shoreland Hotel property at 5490 South Shore Drive (more on that, later).

But let's start with something simple. Hairston is holding a meeting next Thursday (see details at bottom) on the subject of new parking pay boxes being installed in Jackson Park and surrounding areas.



This latest circus act promises to involve the shooting of a hapless Chicago Park District in its barrel by Hairston, one of five Aldermen who voted against the parking deal. (We've given our opinion on the deal here). You can argue that the deal was a bad one, but it's done. And you can't argue that free parking optimizes access or is equitable. In fact, as has become visible in streets throughout the city, it's now easier to park almost everywhere.

Peruse, if you will, the following news article, forwarded to us from an exasperated reader living in East Hyde Park. As usual, EDITORIAL REMARKS ARE INSERTED IN PARENTHESES:

A South Side alderman is blasting the Chicago Park District over its moves to put parking meter “pay and display” boxes in South Side parks and other facilities. (YOU VOTED AGAINST IT ALDERMAN, BUT IT'S NOW IN EFFECT CITYWIDE. WHY SHOULD YOUR CONSTITUENTS BE EXEMPT?)

5th Ward Alderman Leslie Hairston says some residents in her area were upset (NO KIDDING -- PEOPLE LIKE FREE STUFF) when they saw pay and display parking meter boxes being installed in the park near the Museum of Science and Industry, the South Shore Cultural Center and even (EVEN!) near some basketball courts.

Chicago Park District Spokeswoman Jessica Maxey Faulkner says the metered spaces are no surprise (EXCEPT FOR LESLIE HAIRSTON). She says the North Side parks already have meters, and plans for the South Side parks were announced some time ago (BUT SOUTH SIDE NIMBY'S ARE SPECIAL).

Alderman Hairston says there should have been a public meeting first (WAY TO GO WITH THAT FAR-SIGHTED LEADERSHIP THING). Maxey Faulkner says the boxes will not be activated until a meeting takes place later this month (AND THEN THE BOXES WILL BE PUT UP ANYWAY AND HAIRSTON WILL KEEP HER VOTES ANYWAY).

Analyzing this situation, what do we find? A number of aggrieved people who think that the public streets in Hyde Park-Woodlawn-Jackson Park are somehow not a part of the now private meter franchise that manages parking for ALL OF CHICAGO, including LAKEFRONT AND CITY PARK PROPERTY. Acting on a matter of principle, they chose not to complain when pay boxes were installed elsewhere, but only when it eventually affected them.

Not only is the upcoming publicity stunt wrong-headed in its probable defense of free parking, but it is only one of many examples of the way Hairston acts to appease every NIMBY reflex in the 5th Ward.

Help get Antheus rolling along with the Shoreland, Alderman, instead of putting on floor shows like this one.

********

Meeting Date: Thursday, April 15 2010

Time: 6:30 PM

Montgomery Place 5550 S. Shore Drive

For more info call: 773-324-5555

Let's Go Spelunking at Promontory Point!

posted by Elizabeth Fama

I mentioned in my previous post that the Promontory Point revetment is becoming dangerous in many sections, and it's my guess that the City gives a few tickets to swimmers every year just to protect itself against future liability lawsuits if (or when) someone is seriously hurt or killed.

If you haven't walked along the promenade and examined the erosion of the revetment from top to bottom, as I've suggested in the past, you might be surprised to see how far it has deteriorated in many sections. Let's explore one of those sections in detail...

There are currently two (accidental, unsanctioned) water access sites on the north side of Promontory Point, and this is one of them:

You can just make out a cave in the revetment steps in the background of this photo (look for the black hole, surrounded by shrub-like weeds, just above and left of center).

This is a view of that caved-in section, from the water:


The promenade is completely gone. And can you see the two side-by-side limestone blocks in the stepped revetment behind it that are seemingly balanced on nothing (again, above and left of center)? Well, here's the view just to the right of those two "suspended" blocks:



Now here's a photo of the cave under the two blocks, to the left:

A small child could fit in here. But I don't recommend taking your kids along this section of the Point. To tell you the truth, my own kids were annoyed (in that lovingly protective way they have) that I was teetering on the lack-of-promenade, taking these photos.

Doesn't anyone want a free Fix the Point bumper sticker?

Hyde Park Herald Gets Uppity Over Promontory Point Swimming Ban

posted by Elizabeth Fama

Rogue swimmer, scofflaw, repeat offender

The Herald's fiery, retro-anti-establishment editorial was, to quote the very frank C-Pop, "A doozy." The editor's tirade over the City of Chicago enforcing the no-swimming ban at the Point is laughable, given that the Herald was instrumental in rejecting the Compromise Plan, which included sanctioned deep-water swimming. As the mouthpiece for the Save the Point group, the Herald has helped to stall the re-building of the Point for seven years. I'm sorry, but it was the original (2001) Task Force for Promontory Point that won swimming rights in the Compromise Plan, not the Holy Point Savers, who have been heard to say they'd sacrifice swimming for aesthetics if the Preservation Gods required it.

And don't get me started on Crystal Fencke's Page One story about Fabio Grego's ticket from the police. She didn't learn a thing from HPP's blow-by-blow dismantling of her previous, inaccurate Point article: she's still dutifully calling the Compromise Plan a "demolition," "concrete-and-steel" plan, even though it reuses all of the existing limestone blocks, and even though any plan will require the revetment to be completely dismantled before it's re-built. But given that her own editor is misleading his readers by pointing to the "monstrosity" between 51st and 54th Street as the design the Point Savers are fighting against, I shouldn't be surprised.

Now on to the Letters-to-the-Editor section, and the strange notion prevalent there that "We've always swum here" somehow means the City shouldn't enforce the law. If only these folks would campaign instead for the Compromise Plan. If people who are passionate about swimming at the Point had been involved all along, we might even have been able to modify the Compromise Plan to include sanctioned swimming on both the north and the south side (currently it's only slated for the south side, although both sides will have the same water-access design).

Finally, I have to just say it outright: the Point has become dangerous. Most of you know I love the place with every cell in my body. But I totally understand the City's quandary: it needs to give out a few tickets every year, just so that when someone is killed or seriously injured, Mara Georges, the City's top lawyer, can say, "Whoa! We've never allowed swimming there! Look at these tickets!"

In that sense, Mr. Grego can consider himself to be the most recent sacrifice to the Point Savers' Gods of Preservation.

Hyde Park's Best Public Art

posted by chicago pop

The concrete dolphin children's fountain in Bessie Coleman Park, on Drexel at 54th Place, hands down. How could you not love this one? Who needs Sea World?

Stay tuned for a jam session on the Hyde Park Neighborhood Club, and whether one of HP's oldest voluntary organizations can stay alive in the 21st Century.

Prognosis: Maybe. But it won't be business-as-usual.

Save the Point = Cavity Search for Grandma

posted by chicago pop

Here's a question: what's the best way to get everyone's grandma a cavity search, courtesy of the Chicago Police Department, at Promontory Point?

Ask Jack Spicer or Don Lamb and anyone else on the poetically titled Executive Committee of the Community Task Force for Promontory Point. Because if weren't for them, everyone would have safe, legal swimming at the Point. Right now. Instead, on the Spicer/Lamb watch, the Point has become still more of a deathtrap, and the only real surprises are that no one has died yet, and that the CPD hasn't brought in more paddy wagons to cart away all the scofflaws.

The unwieldy and Kakanian title of our protecting Committee of pustchists attests to a sort of bureaucratic "short guy syndrome": the less of an argument you got, the longer you make the name of your committee. But the fact is, the Executive Committee of the Community Task Force for Promontory Point was offered everything in the Compromise Plan, and walked away back in 2005. Hyde Park's Sharm el Sheik, with its own Yassir Arafat -- in Birkenstocks instead of a keffiyeh.

In the years since this failure of leadership, the Point has become even more of an obvious safety hazard, more swimming grandmas have been ticketed, the clock is only ticking until someone dies on the broken rocks and exposed pilings, and now millions of taxpayer dollars for a "third party" study are going to be spent to essentially determine what we already know: that we need to Fix the Point. Using concrete and steel with limestone frosting.

But what the Army Corps folks who are doing the study (different Army Corps folks, guys from Buffalo, who somehow will have a different paradigm of revetment engineering) stand a chance of not concluding is what all the parties except the Executive Committee of the Community Task Force for Promontory Point were willing to accept in the Compromise Plan of 2003: reuse of all of the existing limestone, and legal, safe, ADA-compliant swimming access to the Lake.

But blowing through other people's money while you try to sort out your own problems is a classic Hyde Park tradition. We saw it up close with the Co-Op, and now we're seeing a gleeful example from representatives of the Executive Committee of the Community Task Force for Promontory Point and their hopes that a Federally funded, taxpayer subsidized study will relieve them of the need to realize how badly they screwed up.

Meanwhile, brainwashing missives worthy of the Myanmar junta, or even its elder Chinese cousin, continue to appear in the Herald, a journalistic zoo where facts roam unchecked, reminding us that the "rescue" and "preservation" of the Point are "in view," and suggesting that the Demolition-Clique, in a secret conspiracy with the exiled Concrete Cartels, had barges offshore ready to dump cement all over, and would have done so, were it not for the vigilance and stewardship of the Executives of our Community and their Committee.

If lack of legal swimming access is what the Herald and all the local grandmas are upset about, then there's clearly a local problem with recent historical memory, and the capacity to put 2 and 2 together. Certainly our local paper isn't helping. Because by now, as should be well-known, we could have had legal, safe, and ADA compliant swimming access, with all the old limestone to look nice, and all the concrete you need to keep Lake Michigan from eating the landfill. Had not the local practice of activism-as-performance-art prevailed.

Herald editors and disconcerted swimming grandmas should refresh their memories, and check to see if they ever put one of those "Save the Point" stickers on the bumper of their car.

Because, if they did, then they're getting what they asked for. Which is the latex finger of the CPD uncomfortably inserted where the sun don't shine.

Promontory Point Update: or Rebutting the Herald...Again.

posted by Elizabeth Fama

Mysteriously tucked away in the Real Estate Guide of this week's Hyde Park Herald is a muddled article about the Point entitled "Learning the Latest about Promontory Point's Rescue." I'm a little alarmed by its contents -- which imply that the future of the Point is being decided in private meetings between Jack Spicer, Don Lamb, members of Jesse Jackson, Jr.'s staff, and the "third-party" representative, Horace Foxall.

My consolation is that the author, Crystal Fencke, got so many facts wrong or out of order, perhaps she's also misinformed about the nature of the meetings. For an accurate timeline of the Point Controversy, read this.

The Herald article begins with a self-assured proclamation that Robert Mugabe might enjoy: "The preservation of Promontory Point is clearly in view."

Honestly, the word "preservation" is a Point Savers red herring. The Point must be completely rebuilt. This process is not about historic preservation. It's about rebuilding, using a design and materials that maintain the character and uses of the site.

It goes on to say, "The limestone revetment will be restored."

Huh? We've already established that the final plan must have a concrete and steel base to meet the Army Corps' engineering standards.

"In 2006, Promontory Point made Preservation Chicago's List of Most Endangered Places."

Preservation Chicago is a private organization with no state authority. It's not the same as the Illinois Historic Preservation Agency (IHPA), which is an actual player in the Point controversy. Fencke may as well have told you that my private organization, Fama Family Swimmers, has placed Promontory Point on its list of Build the Frickin' Compromise Plan Already.

"The Chicago Park District, the Army Corps of Engineers, and the City of Chicago signed a memorandum of agreement (MOA) in accordance with the Secretary of the Interior's standards to ensure that the project would protect the historic value of the structure."

Here she perpetuates a classic Point Saver myth that some omniscient Preservation God duped the City into signing an agreement to protect the old revetment. The truth is that the City instigated the MOA way back in 1993 -- to block the Army Corps' first proposal of a rubble mound. Furthermore, the language of the MOA does not specify the building material, it merely says that the step design must be retained.

"The Illinois Historic Preservation Agency stopped the project."

The IHPA never stopped the Point project. And here's a little-known fact: the IHPA has actually approved the Compromise Plan which the Point Savers rejected out of hand. It's the Point Savers who have never stipulated any criteria that would make a proposal acceptable.

"Only Promontory Point and the area around Diversey Harbor have been left alone."

Construction along the Diversey Harbor stretch is proceeding, with something inferior to the Compromise Plan.

"[When the City unveiled its Compromise Plan] the community didn't accept this 'concreting over' of the sensitive historic site."

The Compromise Plan isn't a "concrete" plan -- it's a mixed use of concrete and the existing limestone blocks -- and the "community" didn't reject it, the Point Savers did it on our behalf, in a room that they stacked with a misinformed crowd, including children with picket signs. Even the Point Savers' own architectural proposal uses abundant concrete.

"The third-party review will be a three-day charette, or engineering planning meeting, with the community. "

An intensive engineering charette is going to include the "community?" I find this hard to believe, because until now Obama has been saying that the third-party review would be completely independent. Besides, two people do not a community make.

"The funds for the independent study have been authorized by the House and Senate, and now they're just waiting for approval."

Or the funds have already been appropriated, depending on which issue of the Herald you read. No one really understands this process, but the Herald likes to keep us updated anyway!

Don Lamb says that Horace Foxall (the head of the third-party review) is a "super, super guy."

I wonder how long Mr. Lamb's affection will last, given that Mr. Foxall is an Army Corps guy from Buffalo. Will Foxall overturn the Compromise Plan, which the Army Corps helped develop?

In the end there are only two outcomes from this charette: 1) more delays, and/or 2) approval of the Compromise Plan with tiny revisions, some of which may be bad (for example, the Point Savers have never been much interested in swimming access).

If #2 happens, you can bet the Point Savers will be claiming credit for a "preservation design"...and sweeping the eight years of unnecessary delay that they imposed on us under the rug.

Public Art and its Artists

posted by Elizabeth Fama

I harp a lot about, um, disappointing public art. So you can imagine how fun it was to find these photos in the University's Archival Photographs collection.

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There are no dates on these photos, but the clothing looks like it's from the early 1960s to me. Above you can see Gary Wojcik with what is labeled his "prize winning" fountain sculpture for the park at 55th Street and Kimbark Avenue (Nichols Park). You'll recall that Chicago Pop was merciless in a previous post, nicknaming it Medusa at Rest. The photo on the left above was taken at the "Garden Show," so I assume that's a non-functioning prototype of the winner.

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This is Jerome Skuba with his entry for the park on 54th and Blackstone Avenue (Spruce Park). I remember this sculpture from my childhood. So I walked by Spruce Park the other day to visit it (OK, I really wanted to snap an unflattering photograph of it), and lo and behold, it's gone. Now how do you suppose that happened in our Nothing-Must-Ever-Change neighborhood? It gives me hope that another little eyesore might disappear soon, too.

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And last, but not least, here is Yvonne R. Hobbs with what must have been a runner-up in the contest. The archives indicate she proposed it for Nichols Park, but I presume she lost out to the dynamic Medusa. Her creation would have been six feet tall; a nice, sharp, rusted steel climbing object for generations of children. But I have to admit: I want her glasses.

All photos: Archival Photofiles, Special Collections Research Center, University of Chicago. Archive number appears below each photograph in brackets.

"Yes, we're saving the Point, honey, now go back to bed."

posted by Elizabeth Fama

The Point Savers inspect their recent "save."

There was a letter from the supposed Community Task Force for Promontory Point in this week's Hyde Park Herald. I say "supposed" because I didn't elect them, and I don't believe they speak for the community. Regular readers of this blog know that I call them the Point Savers, or the SAVE THE POINT group.

The letter reminded me of a mother trying to calm an upset child. It was soothing. It was lilting. It repeated the words "slow and steady" like ocean waves lapping the shore. We are supposed to feel lulled into ignoring the fact that (a) the Point Savers squashed reasonable negotiations with the City, and (b) nothing -- repeat nothing -- is happening to repair the Point at all right now. Yes, the real community is a giant the supposed "community" task force prefers would remain asleep.

The main lullaby of the letter is the "news" that Obama's coalition to study alternative plans for the Point will be funded "hopefully in early spring," that it will take about a year for the "stakeholders" to draw up a preservation plan, and that Obama's staff "meets regularly" with the Point Savers. Let's deconstruct that bit by bit:

1) How can the funds can be appropriated this spring if the 2008 fiscal budget has already passed Congress?

2) Only someone very inexperienced with architectural projects could believe that it would take a year to come up with a new plan for the Point. And remember, this is supposed to be a collaborative architectural project with seven players (the City, the Park District, the Army Corps of Engineers, the Illinois Historic Preservation Agency, Obama's staff, the alderman, and the Point Savers).

3) The "stakeholders" with the worst reputation for rejecting any and all plans are part of the process. Heaven help us.

4) Frankly (if I believed it in the first place, which I don't) I object to the idea that Obama's staff might meet regularly with the Point Savers outside of the larger coalition, which will include sane members of the Great Lakes Army Corps of Engineers. But, as I said, I just don't believe it: Obama's staff -- right down to the college students who cold-call voters -- aren't even sleeping lately, let alone thinking about the Point.

5) Who are these Point Savers anyway, and why are they representing us? The letter was placatingly condescending -- "none of this could have been accomplished without the support and patience of the community." Um, did I ask you to mess this up?

Wake up, you sleeping giants out there! Since the Point debate started seven years ago we've had the 53rd Street Vision Meeting. We no longer believe that the group with the shrillest voice or the most memorable bumper sticker gets to speak for us.

Rub your eyes! The Point is in a serious state of disrepair, and it has only gotten worse over this tough winter. The City would be just as happy to shut it down, and frankly, when you look at the photos in my last post, you wonder why its lawyers haven't already done it. I personally can't live several years without the Point, how about you?

Get out of bed! The Point hasn't been saved. It's time for the rest of us to have a say. Let's fix the Point.

Concrete versus Limestone

posted by Elizabeth Fama

You've got to hand it to the SAVE THE POINT group: they had a brilliant marketing campaign. Look at this (horrifically misleading) ad they put in the Hyde Park Herald in April of 2003, when they knew full well that the stretch of all-concrete revetment between 51st Street and 54th Street was no longer what the City was offering us:

Apparently, all's fair in love and marketing.

Implicit in this visual message is not only a critique of design, but also of material. The concrete is photographed to look cold and sterile (at the sight line of a rat), and the limestone is photographed from above, with warm human beings delighting in their surroundings.

In typical bureaucratic fashion, it took the City too long to come up with its own visual campaign of what it was really offering:

Some of our readers have commented that they do prefer the look of limestone, and they have wondered all along why the City can't just re-build Promontory Point out of limestone. After all, the limestone blocks from the 1930s are fully intact, while some of the cement sidewalks the City poured just last year in Hyde Park aren't.

I'm not a structural engineer, but I'll tell you what I know about concrete versus limestone.

1) Yes, individual limestone blocks are hard and durable. But the Army Corps of Engineers will not build a revetment for us that does not have a steel and concrete core. Why? Because limestone blocks can't be anchored against wave action and the shifts and separations that freezing and thawing cause.

2) If good-quality concrete is poured in the right way and at the right temperature and humidity, it's durable -- very durable. The contractual requirement for the lakeshore project is that the concrete must resist 5,000 lbs of pressure per square inch. As the contractors pour the concrete, they pour sample cylinders on site for the Army Corps to test after the concrete has cured.

3) The Army Corps and the City are willing to re-use all of the existing limestone, by (a) making the top two steps of the revetment out of limestone blocks, (b) building limestone steps into the water for swim access, and (c) covering the steel pilings with a tumbled limestone toe berm. These non-structural uses of limestone will at least allow us to retain some of the beauty of the stones, to sit on them, and to wade on them. The Illinois Historic Preservation Agency has said that this mixed-material design satisfies its requirements for historic preservation. The famous Memorandum of Agreement (a document that I'll recap in a future post) does not specify building materials, nor does Barack Obama's "Scope of Work" document.

Here's a series of photos that I find revealing about the strengths and weaknesses of limestone:

In the foreground of this shot you can see how the wood pilings and steel rails have failed, and the limestone blocks have shifted and fallen. (The old sub-structure is a "crib" or cage of wood pilings, steel rails, and tie-rods, which is filled with "stone aggregate," or coarse, crushed stone.) In the background of this photo you can see the "concrete coffins" at the tip of the Point -- a concrete repair of the promenade that took place around 30 years after the Point was built and is now itself around 45 years old. The concrete coffins are still very much intact.


Thus, concrete as a material is sturdy enough to handle 45 years of crashing northeast waves, and 45 winters of freezing and thawing. But that's only part of the story. Since the sub-structure at the tip of the Point was never repaired, the wave action is still eroding the stone aggregate underneath the concrete promenade, and causing the limestone steps behind the coffins to buckle:

The stone aggregate must be almost gone under this section. But even beyond that, the erosion of the waves is sucking dirt and sand from under the grassy meadow-side of the revetment as well:


When the Point was built, the soil level reached the top of the top step of the revetment. Now my friend Gerald can stand 3 - 4 feet deep in the ditch behind the top step.

And just look at these caves:

(My kids are not allowed to walk above this section.)

The new revetment won't have a "crib" by the old definition. The contractor will drive strong, stable steel piling, and then backfill with crushed stone before pouring the concrete promenade. The concrete is reinforced with rust-resistant rebar (rust would cause the rebar to expand, which would crack the concrete around it). The steel piling does most of the structural work, and the concrete core protects the backfill from erosion because it doesn't allow water to penetrate.


In the end, the longevity of the core of the new revetment will depend on sound engineering and quality control of inputs and labor, not on whether it's built of limestone, or concrete, or kryptonite.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY!

posted by Elizabeth Fama

It's a birthday today of sorts: the birth of the Promontory Point Controversy. And in honor of that anniversary, Hyde Park Progress is offering FREE BUMPER STICKERS!

Git 'em here. Git 'em while they're hot.

Seven years ago, on January 17, 2001, the City held a public meeting to show the community its plans for the stretch of revetment between 54th and 57th Street. A Community Task Force was formed. Healthy negotiations with the City occurred. A 9-Point Plan was unveiled. The "Point Savers" rejected it and took over the Task Force. A Compromise Plan was unveiled. The Point Savers rejected that one, too.

Let's see what else has happened since January 17, 2001:

-George Bush was sworn in as President. Twice.

-The twin towers fell.

-We started two wars.

-Slobodan Milosevic was caught, tried eternally, and eventually died.

-We lost a Beatle (*sniff*).

-The EU switched dozens of countries over to the euro.

-SARS, Avian Flu, E Coli.

-Meigs was demolished overnight.

-Martha Stewart was tried, went to jail, got out, and re-established her empire.

-The Bam earthquake, the Indian Ocean Tsunami, Hurricane Katrina.

-Qadaffi transformed himself into a man-about-town.

-Edvard Munch's paintings were stolen. Two years later they were recovered.

-Arafat died, Sharon was incapacitated.

-We found out who Deep Throat is.

-The White Sox won the World Series.

And much, much more. Feel free to add your favorite event of the last 7 years.

And if you'd like a bumper sticker, send an e-mail to me at fama.elizabeth@gmail.com , give me your postal address, and I'll mail you one.

The Point has not been saved. It's time to fix the Point.