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A bunch of preservation organizations, including Promontory Point Conservancy, have been locked in negotiations for the past two plus years about the future of the limestone revetment at Promontory Point. We’re wrestling with the Chicago Army Corps, the Chicago Department of Transportation (CDOT) and the Chicago Park District to come up with a binding preservation agreement to govern the design and construction at the Point. It’s not going so well. Once upon a time, back in 2006, we were just as stuck — going round and round in circles. When Obama was our State Congressman, he’d seen how passionate the community was about preserving the limestone. At an early community meeting at the South Shore Cultural Center, I was standing near the door when he walked in the room. As soon as he saw the huge, noisy crowd that had come to protest the planned demolition of the limestone, he expressed himself in characteristic eloquence, “Holy sh*t”. When he got to be U.S. Senator Obama, the controversy was still raging. He decided to take action. The community had already shown that the limestone could be saved and for less money than concrete. We’d paid for three independent, unbiased engineering studies that said so. But the City wouldn’t budge. Obama and U.S. Rep. Jesse Jackson Jr. supported the community's plan for preservation and knew what had to be done. They put all the contending parties in the same room, about 20 of us, and locked the door. It was hot in there. But, when we finally came out, we had an agreement — the 2006 Obama Scope of Work. It was an agreement that baked preservation into the design and construction for the needed repairs at the Point. And it made the community a full partner. Thanks to Obama, all parties reached consensus, including the Army Corps, CDOT and the Park District. But, in 2007, Mayor Richard M. Daley refused to sign the document. So here we are again, back going around in circles with the government agencies. All our local elected officials — U.S. Congresswoman Robin Kelly, State Senator Robert Peters, Cook County Commissioner Bill Lowry and Alderman Desmon Yancy — stand in support of the community’s desire to preserve our piece of paradise at the Point. We’re now asking them all to "do as Obama"— turn up the heat on the agencies, close the door on demolition and concrete, and save the Point. From the very beginning, this community has been rational, relentless, smart and, yes, someting adamantly insistent, but always peaceful. Now that means negotiating a strong preservation project agreement for any design and construction planned at the Point. We're about to release our fourth coastal engineering study that makes it harder and harder and harder for the agencies to back into demolition and replacement with concrete. The community's work is close to a climax. Very best, Jack Spicer President and co-founder of Promontory Point Conservancy 
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