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In its most recent appeal, Protect Our Parks said the ongoing Jackson Park project is putting the city’s parkland in “grave danger” by endangering mature trees, disrupting annual bird migratory flights and closing four main South Side thoroughfares. The appeal further argues the foundation’s takeover of 19 acres of parkland “was in violation of the public trust doctrine” and that the 99-year agreement in which the city and the Chicago Park District leased the land to the Obama Foundation for only $10 was a “giveaway,” compared to the “priceless historical” parkland designed by Frederick Law Olmsted.
Summary and audio linked here.
Chicago’s political leadership is floating a pension buyout program as evidence it is seriously addressing the city’s thirty-six-billion-dollar unfunded pension liability, but Mark Glennon, founder of the Illinois policy research organization Wirepoints, said that the proposal moves debt from one column to another rather than reducing it, and that the broader fiscal picture facing the city continues to deteriorate across every measurable dimension. Audio here.
Expect no retraction or apology. This what they do.
The state’s existing buyout program for its own pensions is the precedent for Chicago, which should be a warning: Look out for similar exaggerated claims and shoddy analysis.
Full interview and summary linked here.
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Already an ugly scar on a once beautiful and historic part of Chicago. Such a shame. Pride goes before the fall.
Not only is this monstrosity spoiling valuable park land, just wait until folks see what it looks like. You can already tell from the few stories that have been built so far that it will look like an industrial cooling tower in the middle of their neighborhood.