The Metropolitan Planning Group (an influential group of business and civic leaders) came out strongly against the Chicago Children's Museums plan to relocate onto public land.
"We deserve better than being presented with the proposal to relocate the Chicago Children's Museum to Grant Park as a faitaccompli without the benefit of a thoughtful planning process which would have added and provided answers to many of the issues circling this controversial proposal," said the statement co-written by MarySue Barrett, the group's president and former top Daley aide. "In the absence of those answers and a public planning process, we cannot support this plan."A spokesman said the council has hired a lawyer to look into the long-standing court decrees banning buildings in the park. Ald. Brendan Reilly (42nd) and other opponents said the museum would violate those decrees, but museum officials said their largely underground design is within the law.
…there were no ideas generated or discussed on how to [create family-friendly activities at Daley Plaza] before the museum submitted its proposal, said Peter Skosey, the group's vice president of external relations.
The museum did not do enough to explain why other Chicago locations would not work, he said.
"They're asking for free public land out of Grant Park, access to funds from the Museums in the Parks and they will likely be asking for additional capital support," he said. "If they come to the public looking for concessions, we have a right to ask these questions."
…Museum officials have stated they will not seek public funding for construction of the $100 million site but may seek government grants for exhibits and projects.
[From Grant Park idea panned -- -- chicagotribune.com]
Billings for Hill & Knowlton just went up
