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Museum march rolls on

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* Mayor on museum: No reason to fear 5 year olds

“I’m open to compromise, but what is wrong next to Millennium Park?” Daley said. “You see families. They’re not destroying the park. They’re in the Crown Fountain. Look at them there — all types of kids. Their parents are down there. They’re not destroying anything. … Now, those are a little older kids. But these are 5-year-olds. Now, do you really believe that a 5-year-old can destroy your property values?”

* Dennis Byrne: Free, clear endangered by our mayor

After all is said, the rationale for relocating the Chicago Children’s Museum into Grant Park comes down to this: Nothing’s there, something has to go there and it might as well be the museum.

Obviously, that reasoning flunks all tests of logic, but, at base, it’s the best that the move’s backers can do. Put aside all the red herrings (racism, classism, adultism) raised by Mayor Richard Daley. A Tribune headline succinctly got to the heart of the argument: “Fixing ‘nowhere.’” The northeast corner of Grant Park is “underused;” enter it from the serpentine bridge from Millennium Park and you’ll find yourself “nowhere.” Because large-scale work must be done on the parking garage below, we’ll have an opportunity to fix the supposedly desolate park by relocating the privately operated, fee-to-enter Children’s Museum from its cramped Navy Pier quarters.

* Tribune Editorial: Follow the money on Children’s museum move

As you weigh the proposed relocation of the Chicago Children’s Museum, consider this sentence from Sunday’s Tribune: “If located in Grant Park, the museum would also receive a subsidy from the Chicago Park District, part of a program that has netted millions for other museums on park land.”

What a nice bonus: In addition to getting a lease on a Grant Park parcel — perhaps 99 years at $1 a year — the privately owned, nonprofit museum would get a phased-in subsidy from Chicago property taxpayers.

This year, 10 cultural institutions are divvying up $33.8 million in Park District subsidies; the Lincoln Park Zoo gets a separate $5.6 million, according to the district. The money is allotted according to a formula that factors in their respective attendance figures and budgets.

* Mary Mitchell: Downtowners don’t fret about black children

Daley has been harshly criticized for playing the so-called race card in this dispute, which pits him against aldermanic newcomer Brendan Reilly (42nd). Reilly is backing residents who live in high-rises near the park site where the Chicago Children’s Museum would be located.

Last Thursday, Jean Pritzker, president of the board of the museum — and oh yes, a billionaire — told the Chicago Sun-Times that the uproar was “killing” her.

“I don’t think anybody has a right to be fearful of a bunch of little kids and their parents who simply want to go to a place that cares about them, nurtures them and helps them,” she said.

Now that’s two white people of means who hang out with other white people of means, and both of them think some of the naysayers are playing a race card of their own.

* No Navy Pier casino, says Daley

“When we decided to do Navy Pier, people had rumors: ‘Oh, there’s going to be a big gaming hall.’ I don’t know who’s getting these rumors out. This will never be a gaming facility. … Navy Pier is for families,” Daley told a news conference at Navy Pier, where he is hosting a “Hemispheric Forum” for mayors from North, Central and South America.

“When I closed … Meigs Field, they said it was going to be gaming. It’s not going to be gaming. And also, gaming is not going to be around McCormick Place because you have conventions. They want to do convention business. If we have an opportunity to do a casino, you place it … away from these venues.”

* Mayor Daley nixes site for Chicago casino

* Daley open to compromise on Children’s museum fight

* Daley on nephew’s deals

* Mark Brown: It’s deja vu over again for Daley’s kin

posted by Paul Richardson
Tuesday, Sep 25, 07 @ 6:55 am

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