SUN-TIMES: “Friends of the Parks ‘prepared to fight for the lakefront’ in battle over new Bears domed stadium”

“Friends of the Parks is ‘prepared to fight for the lakefront’ but not ready to say if that will mean mounting a legal challenge to prevent the Bears from building a domed stadium.

“Gin Kilgore, acting executive director of the group, tried hard to thread a needle Tuesday in her first extended interview since the Bears unveiled their $5.9 billion plan to build and finance that stadium and retire existing debt used to renovate Soldier Field and Guaranteed Rate Field, current home of the White Sox.

“The group blocked movie mogul George Lucas from building his interactive museum on Soldier Field’s south parking lot, and the domed stadium could ultimately end up in court. But filing another lawsuit is ‘not the first thing you want to do,’ Kilgore said.

“‘We are prepared to fight for the lakefront. We are prepared to stand on behalf of the doctrines, the principles that say our lakefront should be forever open, clear and free for public use. … [But] this is not a fully fleshed-out proposal,’ she added.

“‘There are many, many, many, many reasons to be concerned about this proposal, which is why we’ve been calling for them to slow down the process, involve stakeholders and scrutinize, scrutinize, scrutinize.’

“‘It is common in Chicago for promises to be broken — whether willfully or through ‘Oops, we’ve run out of money.’ And there are very few details about what happens in Phase 2 and Phase 3 ,in addition to the fact that we have no guarantees. And we have examples over and over of where these amenities promised to make a project palatable don’t happen.”

“‘What is the impact of taking attention and resources away from the park district and local parks? … Where are the details? There’s a lot of, ‘Just trust me’ going on,’ she said.

“Tearing down Soldier Field “in and of itself is highly problematic, in terms of it being a veterans memorial,’ Kilgore said. Instead of doing that to create parkland, ‘Why aren’t we investing more money in making sure that more young people can play in their neighborhoods?’

“‘It is disingenuous to say there is nothing new to see here. This is new. It’s a new building. It’s a huge new project. It’s a new location. It’s gonna be a new arrangement. The Public Trust Doctrine is not just about what we have or build on the lakefront. It’s about who it’s for, how it’s used, how it’s accessed. Everything about this is different.’ (Spielman, Chicago Sun-Times, 5/7/24)

Read the full story at the Chicago Sun-Times

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