Apr 7, 2008 5:47 pm US/Central
Supporters Continue Push To Move Children's Museum
Proposal Would Make Grant Park Museum's New Home
CHICAGO (CBS) ―
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The Chicago Children's Museum at its current Navy Pier location.
CBS
Supporters of a controversial plan to relocate the Chicago Children's Museum from Navy Pier to Grant Park are upping the ante, enlisting some clout-heavy help in the fight against the local alderman.
First there was Mayor Richard M. Daley's support, and now a group of 70 plans on bringing the proposal in front of the City Council on Wednesday.
As CBS 2's Joanie Lum reports, a diverse group of educators and community activists say the children deserve a bigger place to play and learn.
Even the woman who once wrote that Grant Park should remain forever open, clear and free now agrees with that position. In a huge reversal, Lois Wille supports the museum's building plans.
"What a terrific way to complete Millennium Park, the synergy of Millennium Park," she said of the plan.
The group displayed a revised plan in response to neighborhood complaints about building in Daley Bicentennial Park.
The museum would be in ground, where the field house sits. The field house would be enlarged and moved west. The neighborhood playground would not be disturbed.
The tallest part would be a glass entrance, half as high as the Harris Theatre, and six times shorter than the band shell in Millennium Park.
But that doesn't matter to the local alderman.
"What we have here, though, are four Illinois Supreme Court decisions that have clearly stated to build any buildings, any new buildings, in Grant Park is illegal," said 42nd Ward Ald. Brendan Reilly.
Area residents don't want the congestion, and the issue at one point turned ugly.
"I was insulted when people said to me 'why don't the children do something in your neighborhood? Why do we have to have children bussed into our part?'" said Fr. Michael Pfleger of St. Sabina Church. "Those kind of statements are offensive to me."
Reilly said, "Racism is not a factor… and if you oppose the move, that doesn't mean you don't like children."
Ald. Reilly gave the museum board a list of alternate locations, including the Museum Campus, a place near Lincoln Park Zoo and Northerly Island.
The board is not considering those alternatives.
But Ald. Reilly says the board should get ready for a big legal fight.
(© MMIX, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.)
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