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Originally Posted by cityofneighborhoods
I'm still surprised that anyone who really knows Jackson Park well would argue that placing the OBC in that part of the park would do anything other than greatly enhance the park. Cornell Drive essentially ruins what could be Chicago's best lakefront park. I think Michael Van Valkenburgh Associates will do a great job of bringing back some of Olmsted's vision to that stretch along with creating engaging landscape design people will actually be excited about. The truly beautiful sections of the park like Wooded Island, Bobolink Meadow, etc. will either be untouched or eventually get more resources for improvements. It really is an opportunity in investing to make Jackson Park Chicago's greatest park - a great catalyst for improving the South Side. If park groups were actually out there advocating and raising money to make improvements to our parks, I would fully support them. It's baffling to me how much energy they instead spend protecting concrete.
Another argument that I’m having trouble understanding is that putting this cultural institution in a public park while simultaneously increasing the actualized and useable park space is worse than having essentially glorified lawns with all non native vegetation intersected by a 4-6 way road with cars driving by at 50 mph. City parks are human made for human engagement and are meant to be improved and evolve over time. No one is arguing a museum should be built on a forest preserve.
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EXACTLY. Plus i think you get more people going there if it is next to MSI than you would someplace else. Also, with them redoing the golf course and removing Cornell they can really transform the south end into a much better park. I have no problem with them using the park land, my issue is more that tax payers are going to be on the hook for Cornell.