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This just in: an alderman decides not to cave.
Forty-second Ward alderman Brendan Reilly has helped forge an agreement that allows Children's Memorial Hospital to proceed with its plans for a new facility in Streeterville--and requires it to conduct additional studies on the safety of a proposed heliport, a demand made by neighborhood residents.
"If there's anything left on the table we weren't able to solve, I don't know what it is," Reilly said Thursday afternoon, just before the City Council's zoning committee approved the hospital's plan with Reilly's support.
Reilly said this with a tone of both relief and weariness. After months of deliberation, negotiations between the hospital and members of the Streeterville Organization of Active Residents (SOAR) finally ended with a deal Wednesday afternoon. Along the way, supporters of the hospital--most notably Mayor Daley--accused SOAR and Reilly of insensitivity to the needs of sick children for daring to express concerns about traffic congestion and the proposed rooftop helicopter plan.
Even when the deal was done, neither side was completely satisfied. Mary Kate Daly, a spokeswoman for the hospital, said its team had conducted a series of safety studies already, and the new ones will add to the cost of the $850 million project. "But in the spirit of compromise, we're going to do it," she said.
"We're happy that Children's has recognized there's still a lot of work to be done," countered SOAR's Patty Frost. But "we still believe it shouldn't get zoning approval until it's determined [the helipad] is safe."
The hospital earlier agreed to produce updated traffic management plans every year to address SOAR's concerns about congestion in the area, which includes the Mag Mile, the MCA, and Northwestern Memorial Hospital. Under the new deal Reilly agreed to support the zoning change the hospital needs for the project--necessary because the City Council almost never approves zoning amendments without the local alderman's consent. In return the hospital agreed to the kinds of additional studies that experts hired by SOAR had recommended (read their conclusions here and here).
The full City Council is now expected to approve the zoning changes at its February 6 meeting. Then the additional safety studies will be conducted and forwarded to the Illinois Department of Transportation, which has final say on the helipad plan. Meanwhile, the hospital expects to break ground on the project this spring.
Reilly vowed that he'll be monitoring the plan at each step. And he admitted that the whole process seems a little ass-backward. "Logic would dictate that the state would do a safety review and say, 'Yes, it's safe,' before we can move forward [with the zoning approval]," he said.
We live in a world where the wheels turn, but the driver is in shotgun.
Anyone else agree?
So, what happens if the report comes back with a recommendation that there is no way to ensure the safety of a heliport at this location?
The hospital will get a heliport and it will be relatively safe. There is no perfect safety solution to anything. Personally I think the risk is worth the lives of kids that will be saved.
Then again I'm not a narcissist who believes my comfort and safety is more important than a kids life. "oh the helicopter may disturb me twice a week".
"Personally I think the risk is worth the lives of kids that will be saved."
So, the heliport now guarantees the saving of lives?
But does not guarantee the safety of those residing within the flight paths expected to be used?
"There is no perfect safety solution to anything."
Yet, you presume that the heliport will save lives, that, without it, lives are sure to be lost.
As if you possess the power to know the future.
Are you, perhaps, financially invested in this project going forward?
Hmmmmm.
"An alternative plan would be to let the helicopters land in the center of the jogging track at Lake Shore Park, just around the corner.
For years, Children's was happy with an arrangement where helicopters could land in nearby Oz Park.
I am sure the public would be thrilled to help Children's save lives by once again allowing them to land in a public space, and I would think Children's would be equally thrilled, since they would save upwards of a million dollars on a helipad, money which could go more directly to children's medical care."
"Brendan, another good solution might be to create a Meigs Field where the helicopters could land and then send patients on a short ride to Children's Memorial.
Run that by Daley."
So much for the hospital's assertion that this heliport is needed.
The Two comments immediately before this can pucker up and place a big wet kiss on my ample pale buttock.
There are some people who are so full of self regard that they don't deserve to be considered human. From now on consider yourself living turds.
I've had the distinct displeasure of being a passenger on helicopters, military, and I recognize the danger. I also recognize that often minutes matter when saving lives.
Can I see the future. Partially yes. I see some kids dying if they are delayed getting to an operating room. I see the idea of placing the pad across the street in Olive Park as costing a few lives.
Now perhaps during horrible weather an emergency landing in Olive Park makes sense utilizing the police to cordon off a "backup" pad.
During good weather the risk is worth it and if perchance their is an accident and you two are the only dead victims then the world will be a tiny bit better.
Profanity should go here.
If you two don't like it
.........then pucker up and bon apetit.
A passenger?
That sure makes you an expert.
Lucky for the rest of us, the only place 'experts' such as yourself can find employment is as city or county 'consultants'.
Even that isn't a good thing, but sometimes tolerable.
Did you, by any chance, have anything to do with the Montrose Ave collapse?
Maybe as one of the contracted Water & Sewer 'inspectors'?
I am not a contracted sewer and water inspector. I am actually Mayor Daley and in another life I was General Pershing.
Some of the people who oppose the helipad genuinely fear for their safety. Same types who are worried about that satellite coming down from the skys and hitting them.
Others are more concerned with their lifestyle than someone else's life.
No matter what I have done wrong in my life I can still be thankful that I am NOT one of you.
As for me being a "passenger" on helicopters it gave me an idea of the danger they can pose.
Life is about making choices. Everything has risk. It is a question of risks and rewards.
You walk outside you may get hit by that decaying satellite. If you don't then you won't be able to hang out on Rush Street and tell the ladies how you are the "sausage king of Chicago".
Life IS about making choices, and life IS filled with risks.
As you've failed to notice, the very risks inherent in the location of this proposed heliport will be experienced not only by those who live within the flight paths, but also by the helicopter pilots, their crews AND passengers, you know, those kids you presume will be at no risk during the flights and landings.
That's why there is the insistence on the safety assessment being genuine and thorough.
That's why this location for a heliport must be approved by the relevant State and Federal agencies.
That's why this particular proposed project merits every possible scrutiny.
That's why your feeble-minded support of it is feeble-minded.
Or, more likely, financially motivated, as is typical of most all of what goes on, here in the City That Works (for crooks) and the County of Crooks.
So, Richie, who do ya think you'll be in your next life?
(Notice I did not ask 'what' you'll be. Presumably, since you appear to be determined not to learn this time around, you'll continue along the same path in your next incarnation.)
since I'm not a Hindu do I get to eat the "sacred cow" of "safety" you claim to all about.
As I said you are a turd. A living breathing turd. I hope you wet your pants when you see a helicopter in your window. Then I hope you move. While moving perhaps you will be involved in a traffic accident. Hopefully, you won't need to be choppered anywhere.
That would be karma.
Toodles.
Keep counting your gold, it will all remain here, after you've gone to wherever....
And your "That would be karma." comment informs us of how meager your knowledge is on the subject.
That's to be expected, given all the other subjects you have a meager understanding of.
Including the dynamics of operating a helicopter.
Because, it ain't the same as anything you've ever experienced.
I will agree that you have intimate knowledge of turds, though, thus your statements concerning their relationship to rational commentary is a verification of your dishonesty.
Check em out and enjoy the sound of the rotors as the helicopters fly in and out of the future hospital.
That's assuming you don't die of fright first or piss on yourself and slip and break your neck.
Now if you will excuse me my sacred cow burger is nearly done in my George Foreman grill.
Knock back a dozen burgers, laddie, but skip using the Foreman grill.
You don't want to cheat death, do you?
I'd say a second concern would be that the purpose of the heliport is to transport ONLY kids that are dying or ORGANS to into dying kids.
That means there MUST be an agreement that the heliport will NOT be used to ferry or impress doctors, hospital officials, government officials, celebrities, donors, news media. It must not be used to deliver lunches, either!
Also, the lighting on the heliport should be off when the heliport is not in immediate use.
A heliport has the potential of ruining the peace and property values of those within blocks. It is also risky and dangerous for crashes and collisions. It must be planned carefully.