By Steve Rhodes
About 70 people gathered outside the Lake Shore Athletic Club on Sunday in a protest “aimed at the City Council – specifically newly elected Ald. Brendan Reilly (42nd) – to persaude members to designate the club a historic landmark and prevent the club’s destruction,” the Tribune reports.
“It’s to put [Reilly] on notice,” Preservation Chicago president Jonathan Fine told the Trib.
“Reilly, who attended the protest and spoke to participants, said he is holding off judgment of the demolition and new construction until he has all the facts on the project,” the Trib reports.
The facts seem to be in hand, though. The developer who bought the property has already been issued applied for a demolition permit and is preparing the building for the wrecking ball. Reilly toured the building as far back as November, and preservationists and neighborhood residents have been making their case ever since.
It’s certainly possible Reilly has some secret strategy in mind, but his lack of commitment to saving the building has neighborhood residents and preservationists understandably skeptical.
UPDATE 7:24 P.M.: Someone who was there tells me he counted 119 people at the rally’s peak. The Sun-Times reported “more than 100.” Also, I should have made clear that the building is now under a 90-day delay triggered by the demolition permit application. That grace period expires on July 17.
MORE RESOURCES:
* WBBM reports that “Alderman Reilly says the original plan to develop this particular plot was written in such a way that it guarantees the property owner certain rights . . . so it appears that the developer would be allowed to put up a new structure, so long as it doesn’t go any higher than the current one.”
Of course, the original plan doesn’t require the alderman to keep his mouth shut; landmarking the building would also protect it from demolition. It’s pointed out to me as well that the mayor could also step in to save the building, and that he will have the ultimate say anyway.
* Video of the protest. Check out the basketball referee.
Send us your insights and tips.
Doing Daley
Brendan Reilly: Freshman suck-up.
Springfield Slugout
Recent activities at Wrigley Field have certainly been interesting, though Lou Piniella’s old-school act is child’s play compared to this guy’s (priceless) Nam flashback.
But how ’bout the governor clenching his fists and threatening state Sen. Mike Jacobs?
Gov. Baloneyvich
“The guy’s a liar,” Jacobs says of the guv.
Welcome to the club, Mike.
“None of this would be so bad if the governor could be believed when he quotes budget figures or makes a promise. But as members of the General Assembly know, without a written memorandum of understanding, what the governor says will get done might not get done,” the Springfield State Journal-Register‘s Bernard Schoenburg wrote last November.
The Mighty Quinn
Lt. Gov. Pat Quinn went back on the offensive this weekend against ComEd, citing the compensation package of John Rowe, CEO of ComEd parent company Exelon, as evidence that the utility’s proposed rate hike is sheer greed.
“Exelon disputed Quinn’s analysis,” the Sun-Times reports, “stating that ‘ComEd customers do not pay any part of John Rowe’s compensation – it is paid by shareholders.'”
And I don’t use any of the electricity I’m being charged for; my appliances do.
Book Report
* A bouncer at the California Clipper has written a memoir about his time in Iraq as an Army interrogator at Abu Ghraib, Tom McNamee writes in the Sun-Times.
“I don’t think of you as a torturer,” McNamee says to author Tony Lagouranis.
“If you keep a man awake for a month, that’s torture,” Lagouranis says. “If you subject a man to hypothermia, that’s torture. If you keep him on his knees on and off for a month, that’s torture.”
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“We do not torture.”
– President Bush, November 2005
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* A new photographic history “celebrates the ‘L’s’ ongoing contribution to shaping the city and the suburbs,” the Tribune’s Jon Hilkevitch writes. “It is a story that runs much deeper than just transportation.”
* The University of Chicago Press has just put out When the Press Fails: Political Power and the News Media from Iraq to Katrina.
“During the gravest moments of George W. Bush’s tenure – the response to 9/11, the buildup to war with Iraq, the Abu Ghraib scandal – the media largely reported reality as his administration scripted it,” the publisher says. “Why, in these times when we most need a critical, independent press, does this essential pillar of democracy fail us?”
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See what else is coming off the local academic presses.
Public-Private Partnership
The mayor’s public schedule is not so public anymore.
Hillary’s War
Love her or loathe her, Hillary Clinton has probably gotten the rawest deal from the press than anyone in America.
Circulation Station
The Sun-Times‘s current circulation is certainly worse than the last officially reported figures, but even those figures tell a story.
Average weekday circulation: 349,968.
Sunday circulation: 281,129.
The Sun-Times is the rare paper whose Sunday edition sells dramatically less well than its weekday edition – which tells you how dependent the paper is on its ease of use for train and bus commuters.
Which also helps explain, in part, the success of RedEye, which serves much the same niche but is free.
Cleared For Departure
When I heard that voice from a Southwest Airlines commercial the other day say “You are now free to move about the country,” I thought, “Why, did Bush leave office?”
Ford Tough
The car company wants to let Barack Obama in on a little secret.
Daley Dose
“Daley himself took an unusual interest, at one point asking his aides for a list of those buying homes in the project, known as Bridgeport Village.”
But when it comes to how hiring in his administration works, he knows nothing.
Keeping Up With Jones
Taxpayers don’t have anything to do with state legislators’ salaries; lobbyists do.
In Today’s Beachwood
* The planet’s best coverage of last night’s Democratic debate.
* The planet’s best Cubs column.
* The planet’s best column about songs that reference Chicago.
And over at Ferdy on Films, Rod Heath continues his Martin Scorsese retrospective with Goodfellas, and Ferdy takes on The Wild Parrots of Telegraph Hill.
The Beachwood Tip Line: Even a caveman can use it.
Posted on June 4, 2007