Forever Free and Clear

 Chicago Sun-Times Letters January 26, 2001

"Take part in the planning of Chicago's front yard!" urges Chicago Park District promotional material for the Grant Park Framework Plan public forums. Although the forums are an important opportunity for the public to direct the future of the Chicago's lakefront centerpiece, it appears that the Park District is shying away from correcting Grant Park's largest design flaw.

Any serious plan to improve the park must confront the eight-lane superhighway that severs the park from the Lake Michigan shoreline. After all, who wants a freeway in their front yard?

A quixotic grassroots group pushes for the unpaving of Lake Shore Drive

by Lydialyle Gibson, Chicago Journal, March 15, 2001

Early last spring, it seemed like a crazy, quixotic idea, even to the fervent bicycle activists who dreamed it up. But the more they thought about it and talked about it and told their friends, even dabbled in a little research, the more the idea began to take on feasibility, weight, hope.

As cyclist Gareth Newfield said, "Why should it be normal to have an eight-lane highway through a park? Why should cars be in the park at all?"

by Eric Zorn, Chicago Tribune, June 25, 2001

Daniel Burnham and I made a little plan: He and his friend Aaron
Montgomery Ward would meet me on the east side of Buckingham Fountain and we'd ride our bikes a mile south to Soldier Field.

As the dispute rages over whether the proposed redesign of the stadium
will be a monstrosity or a civic improvement, I decided to go to the
source--the two most significant visionaries in the history of Chicago's
beautiful front yard.

Around the turn of the 20th Century, Ward almost single-handedly led the successful fight to clean up and block construction projects in what is now Grant Park. Shortly thereafter, the eloquent architect Burnham,

By Kathy Schubert

To the editors of the Sun Times and Tribune:

I was riding my bike on the lakefront path on Wednesday morning with a visitor from Holland. I wanted to show him the countdown lights between Buckingham Fountain and Queen's Landing because I feel they make the pedestrian feel they are less important than the automobile traffic.

But the countdown lights weren't there. There weren't even any crossing signals. There was a temporary fence. There was a truck with city workers. They had JUST removed the crossing signals. I asked them why we aren't allowed to cross Lake Shore Drive at Buckingham Fountain any more.

Rogers Park plan finds few backers

 By Hal Dardick -- Chicago Tribune

Rogers Park voters sent a clear signal to Mayor Richard Daley and Park District officials Tuesday, rejecting the idea of extending Lake Shore Drive north to Evanston in a non-binding ballot question.

Of 4,124 residents in 10 lakefront precincts who voted on the advisory referendum, 88 percent said any new landfill north of Hollywood Avenue should not include roads, marinas or commercial buildings.

Thanks to work by Transportation Alternatives New York City as greatly restricted the traffic through Central Park. Now New Yorkers can enjoy their premier park without the din and smog of automobiles for much longer periods of time! Let's show that Chicago is as serious about its premier park as the Big Apple!

Michael Burton's Letter to the Editor reproduced below is the featured letter for the Sun Times today!

As more than 20,000 cyclists enjoy a car-free ride on Chicago's lakefront during Bike the Drive on Sunday, it is important that we all remember the many historical battles that were fought to preserve our shoreline as open space and the many challenges that remain.

Chicagoans can thank many of our courageous forefathers for bequeathing the city a largely uncluttered lakefront. The Canal Commission of 1836 first proclaimed that Chicago's shoreline shall remain ''Forever open, clear and free.'' Ma and Cap Streeter used a shotgun to defend Chicago's lakefront from encroaching development. Montgomery Ward fought numerous legal battles to preserve Grant Park as open space. Daniel Burnham's 1909 Chicago Plan included a tranquil green shoreline.

Boston Highway Project Said Full of Leaks

By Steve Leblanc
Associated Press

BOSTON - The Big Dig is riddled with leaks that are dumping millions of
gallons of water into the $14.6 billion tunnel system, according to an
engineer hired to investigate the cause of a massive leak in September.

Locating and fixing the hundreds of leaks could take up to 10 years, said
Jack K. Lemley, a consultant hired by the Massachusetts Turnpike
Authority to investigate the problem. The last major leg of the Big Dig
project opened less than a year ago.