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The nonprofit Friends of the Parks recently caused an uproar by promoting its vision of "completing" the lakefront park system from 71st south to the Indiana border and from Hollywood north to Evanston. Along with some environmentalists and other community activists, people who own lakefront property in those areas have raised a stink over the idea that acres of lake could be filled in to ensure a park stretches the entire length of the city.
Any doubts about where Mayor Daley stands on the matter were eradicated in an interview with his press secretary that the Trib ran over the weekend.
"It's one of his long-term goals," Jackie Heard told the paper. "If he had his druthers, he'd do it."
She meant that if he had the money he'd do it--though that hasn't stopped the mayor or the Park District before. And local opposition certainly hasn't been an obstacle. In that sense opponents to the lakefront extension may want to cheer for Chicago's Olympic bid. If we don't get the games, Mayor Daley will probably turn to some other big projects to try to enhance his legacy.
In the spirit of Adaptive Reuse, might it be possible to achieve this by using a million nonrecyclable (i.e. block rather than runner construction) old pallets, along with crates, plywood and other wood wastes now not being advantageously reused, to extend a zone of floating dockwork out into the lake? If over a hundred capped, air-filled plastic bottles (not very profitable to recycle) are fastened to the bottom of each pallet, this would be more than floatworthy. On top there could be planters with the same quality of vegetation, including trees, found in the rest of the park system. No bulldozing of present lakeside lands would be needed, and many manual carpentry jobs would be generated for south side citizens. At least one organization exists with a stated mandate to promote both reuse and recycling, i.e. the Resource Center, with operating locations on 70th St. and 135th Pl. and a fleet of trucks which could gather the pallets and other usable wood along with the recyclable materials presently being recycled.