Over the past two months, the Conservancy has journeyed through high points and low points and back again. Here's the backstory to the Mayor's pledge for preservation last week.
At our press conference on May 26, the first annual Point Day, we announced U.S. Congresswoman Kelly's funding authorization for the 2007 appropriation for a preservation study of Promontory Point. The press conference was a high point as all elected represenatives but Mayor Lightfoot publically endorsed both the community's 22-year efforts to save the Point and Kelly's preservation proposal. On June 14, at the partners-stakeholder quarterly meeting, it was confirmed that the Chicago Army Corps, Chicago Park District (CPD) and the City (CDOT) were not pausing the current GRR study of Promontory Point to wait for Kelly's preservaton study in 2023, making Kelly's study moot and obsolete. We also discovered that CPD hired its principle contractor SmithGroup to conduct a condition study of the Chicago lakefront for erosion damage. CPD acknowledged that the study and the portion for the Point are completed but refused to provide us a copy even though it technically is in the public domain. Mayor Lightfoot’s own press statement that the Point is washing away and sadly can’t be saved suggested that the Mayor was well informed about the SmithGroup condition report for the Point and its proposed demolition and concrete reconstruction. In response to the Mayor's comments, the Conservancy wrote an op ed in the Hyde Park Herald and invited the Mayor to tour the Point with us and see for herself that it's not washing away and can be fixed. The Mayor accepted our invitation and on the 4th of July, she joined members of the Conservancy and Alderman Leslie Hairston at the Point. We walked together around the Point for an hour, discussing and examining how the limestone revetment can be repaired and restored. Since then, the Conservancy was in suspense until last week when we learned about the Mayor's endorsement of a preservation approach at the Point.
0 Comments
In response to questions posed by Marc Monaghan, Hyde Park Herald, Mayor Lori Lightfoot pledged to preserve the limestone revetment at Promontory Point. This is a cause for great relief and celebration!
Promontory Point Conservancy is extremely grateful and delighted that Mayor Lightfoot has agreed to a preservation approach to the repair, restoration and rehabilitation of the historic limestone revetment at Promontory Point. It is our understanding from the Mayor’s statements that Promontory Point will not be prioritized or impacted by the current GRR undertaking which is studying the entire Chicago lakefront. We too are happy to wait for the funding of U.S. Congresswoman Kelly’s third-party, independent study for a true preservation approach under the Secretary of the Interior Standards for Preservation. Kelly’s pending funding authorization of the 2007 appropriation for a preservation study brings us all back to the 2006 Obama Scope of Work which lays out a comprehensive plan for early and ongoing community input and engagement. We are pleased too that the Mayor is committed to serious community input in the preservation study. This makes a preservation approach at the Point a win-win for the City and for the community. We look forward to working with the Chicago Park District, the City (CDOT) and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to restore, repair and rehabilitate the historic limestone revetment and to craft a creative, world-class ADA adaptation so all have easy access to the restored revetment and the water. Thank you, Mayor Lightfoot, for supporting preservation of the limestone and taking demolition off the table! Chicago's youth poet laureate Nue, when asked what is your favorite place Out South, said,
"The Point. The Point. The Point, the Point, The Point. It's the place that I can go to and literally just sit at, and just be at peace. I have a lot of East Coast friends and they'll be like 'you never been to the beach, yada, yada, yada' -- I don't care what nobody says, Lake Michigan is an ocean. It's The Ocean, it's my ocean!" -- South Side Weekly interview, July, 28, 2022. p. 4 On July 8th, the Hyde Park Herald reached out to the Mayor to get some clarity about the City's intentions for Promontory Point. The following are our questions and the Mayor's spokesperson’s responses:
Question 1) Following your tour of Promontory Point with the Conservancy group on July 4th, has your understanding changed of whether a preservation-approach to the repair and restoration is feasible or not? Response to Question 1) "The Park District, along with the Army Corps and Chicago Department of Transportation have a role in ensuring that Promontory Point continues to remain the community asset that it has always been. We are committed to working with the community on a design that properly addresses the historic nature of the Point. The Mayor was grateful for the opportunity to visit the Point with the Promontory Point Conservancy and hear their concerns directly. We are committed to a preservation-based approach and there will be extensive outreach to the community during the planning and design process." Question 2) It is the Herald's understanding that the Promontory Point Conservancy group is concerned that the GRR study will eclipse the independent third-party study requested by Kelly, in effect making the Kelly-requested study moot. Can you comment? Response to Question 2) "If funded, this independent study would not impact the timing or focus of the GRR. The purpose of the GRR is to evaluate the lakefront to determine the next priority locations for revetment/stabilization in partnership with the USACE and CDOT. The Park District and Department of Transportation support a preservation approach to Promontory Point, which the Kelly independent third-party study will help to advance. The GRR proceeding forward will not make any design decisions with respect to the Point. The GRR is a study conducted by the Army Corps of Engineers to re-evaluate the shoreline and consider potential Federal funding as well as local cost share of both the Point as well as new Chicago Shoreline lengths that were not included in the previous shoreline study." Question 3) Will the Park District, Department of Transportation and all other involved city agencies await the outcome of the proposed Kelly study — the independent third-party study to determine a preferred preservation approach for the design of the Promontory Point Shoreline Project — before making decisions about what approach will be taken to repair and restore Promontory Point? Response to Question 3) "Yes." Question 4) Is there going to be a community process that will result in a framework plan for Promontory Point, such as was done for the Morgan Shoal section of the lakefront? Response to Question 4) "Consistent with other significant capital projects, the City, and the Chicago Park District will engage the community before finalizing a plan to restore Promontory Point."
Ben Joravsky, writing in the Chicago Reader about the lakefront Lucas museum proposal in 2014, summarized by mentioning Promontory Point:
"If anyone should appreciate the resolve of Chicago’s open-land activists, it’s George Lucas. After all, he got married at Promontory Point—a site he probably chose because it’s one of the most gorgeous stretches of lakefront land in Chicago. And it’s so gorgeous precisely because an energetic band of kick-ass activists had the fortitude to fight Mayor Daley to keep him from mucking it up with a horrendous revetment project. After he lost that fight, Mayor Daley threw one of his classic hissy fits, saying he didn’t care if Promontory Point fell into the lake. [A sentiment echoed by the Chicago U.S. Army Corps in summer 2022 by the way.] Of course, that didn’t stop him from showing up to George Lucas’s wedding, where he probably danced the Funky Chicken. On top of everything else, our powerful mayors apparently have no shame." This press conference will be held at the Experimental Station, 6100 South Blackstone Avenue, Chicago. The event will start promptly at 4:00pm, run one hour and will be recorded.
Great press in UHigh Midway from University of Chicago Lab School journalist Adrianna Nehme: Fight to Save Promontory Point Reinvigorated After Demolition and Construction Proposed, April 6, 2022.
Landscape architect Johann Friedl captures the serenity of the Point and the clatter of the concrete alternative in this stunning video...
|
Categories
All
Archives
April 2024
AuthorDebra Hammond is currently an officer of Promontory Point Conservancy. She has always been tall for her age |