The Blog

Lets clear navy pier of all the little brats,I need this space,for slots and Blackjack. With all the suckers in Chi-town,even the average Gambler can make a nice living. Put the kids in the park,so that we can make way for high rollers like myself.

We don't want no colored kids coming into our private/public park. Free and Forever clear is just a pre-text to mask our real feelings.

You are probabily on the payroll of that Gigi Pritzker bitch or Gravy train Daley. This not a race isuue but one of power. Daley took Pritzker's money now she wants results. Remember Pritzker is the finance Chairman of Barack Obama's campiagn. The Children's museum is nothling more than foundation used to clean up money for weathly types. The Chicago mob,and the Pritzker hotel chain, want to bring gambling, the kid are in the way. Does Barack Obama support the arrogant moves of his Finance Chairman?

Chicago Board of Ethics List of Registered Lobbyists as of 3/14/08 http://egov.cityofchicago.org/webportal/COCWebPortal/COC_EDITORIAL/Reg-Lob-031408.pdf client Chicago Children's Museum Theodore J. Novak Partner DLA Piper http://www.dlapiper.com/theodore_novak/ Jesse W. Dodson Associate DLA Piper Marilyn Katz MK Communications http://www.mkcpr.com Meredith O'Connor Jones Lang LaSalle http://www.joneslanglasalle.com

It's a full court press, this many firms lined up on one issues is unusual, it's Reilly vs. the world Piper will be handling the aldermanic envelope drops, but we won't see them on the disclosures until July

Complete and total BULL----!!! Essentially, the Children's Museum says "Go to hell" with the Majority...yes, the MAJORITY that is AGAINST this farce of a museum in Grant Park. So, the will of the majority means nothing compared to the will of the few...with fist fulls of money, and therefore power to do whatever they damn well please, all others be damned!!! The very fact that the asinine museum has to hire a PR firm should SCREAM that they know full well the majority are against it, but they want to try to "convince" the majority that the move to Grant Park is a "good thing." Daley is a sycophant to Pritzker and and anyone else who gives him money. The hell with them all.

gigi pritzker is not the Obama campaign it's Penny. still bs though tell all GIGI to go to hell

People fail to realize that Grant Park belongs to the entire city, it is not a typical "neighborhood" park. Unfortunately, some of my racially intolerant neighbors see Daley-BiCentennial Park as their own private park. Bring on the Museum and diversity. This area needs it.

apparently Hill & Knowlton has a blog practice

"Friend of Grant Park" Quite a generalization you make...much like Daley...that to be against a Children's Museum move to Grant Park equates being racially intolerant. Where is your evidence? There is PLENTY fo diversity throughout Grant & Millenium Park...what needs to remain is PARK space unfettered by more development, especially in the guise of "a museum for the children." This museum is NOT for the children...how many kids enjoy a day at a museum, children's or otherwise? This is a financial boondoggle for the museum to get their greedy bastard hands on the federal funds that come with being placed in the park, vs. no funding from feds at the MUCH better situated location at Navy Pier.

How about Pilsen, or Little Village or Englewood? Give those kids a great museum if Daley really is concerned about minority kids

Danny, your kind of mentality is why we warehoused poor, minority people in concrete high rise jungles, to keep them away from us. The kids in Englewood and Pilsen have as much right to enjoy a downtown amenity as anyone else.

Friend of Grant Park: I don't think Danny means "give the minority kids a separate museum in Pilsen, Little Village, or Englewood." I think he means "if you really care about minority kids, put the Children's Museum within easy reach and make the rich white kids go there."

Danny and my neighbors are classic NIMBYs.

No, fiend of the Daley Crime Family, there are no nimby's, only 'where's mine' motherfuckers. Karl and Danny both have the Right Idea, IF the Children's Museum owners really cared about 'diversity'. And I bet it isn't the 'rich white kids' who wouldn't want to 'visit' the Pilsen, Englewood or Little Village neighborhoods, but rather it's their 'rich, white parents' who prefer to avoid diversity. This bullshit from the 'rich, white snobs' who control the supposedly not-for-profit Children's Museum is a new low for the mayor, though Daley achieving new lows has become a regular occurrence lately. And the comment "...The Children's museum is nothing more than a foundation used to clean up money for wealthy types. The Chicago mob, and the Pritzker hotel chain, want to bring gambling, the kids are in the way...." hits the nail on the head. If there were any truth to the claim of wanting a diverse clientele, the Children's Museum would be expanding it's locations, via multiple museums, within the neighborhoods from which they claim they want their visitors to come from. After all, just how much space does the present location utilize and at what cost? With the monies projected to be used to construct this proposed new museum, couldn't they develop multiple museum locations within the very neighborhoods they claim to want to offer their services to?

Seems like they (PR firm, CCM, etc.) are being kind of selfish. Grant Park is public, and I agree with the satellite museums idea.... why one big museum to hold them all?? Small, neighborhood museums similar to library branches would be convenient, and a better education in real diversity than trying to create a gathering place downtown. Also, there is the Nature Museum (kid friendly), the Barn petting zoo at LPZ, the American Girl Place (which many white suburbanites treat like a museum), Navy Pier, and other spots for kids to go. Why doesn't CCM hold a kid-friendly Kidapalooza in Grant Park, and park its permanent walls elsewhere?

I'm itchin' to cast my vote - when can I vote against Daley when he's up for re-election?

So Penny Pritzker is Barack Obama's finance Chairman. It seems like the whole Daley mob is on Barack's campaign staff.Does the Daley mob want to play the Children card, to achieve their objective. Legalized Casino gambling.

seems like Team CCM has an online strategy, and it is all online discussions will be race discussions

The race card is nothling more than a smoke screen. Stealing Public lands,for the benefit of a few seems to be the agenda. Gambling and not the kids,is the real reason for this land grab. Foundations do an excellant job of cleaning up money,for weathy people. Take away CCM 501c3 status and see how long the wealthy will support it.

Bob Kettlewell is the new brains at Hill & Knowlton, and it appears the new strategy of the Hill & Knowlton team is to salt the blogs with inflammatory comments that are supposedly coming from Grant Park supporters. They're trying very hard to change the subject because they know Grant Park is illegal and there's no public support for it. Heck, if there was public support for it, they wouldn't have hired Hill & Knowlton, which reportedly made $80,000 a month working for ComEd to convince us the lower electric rates were a bad idea. Let's remember that Hill & Knowlton's former clients include not just ComEd, but the government of Uganda (under fire for torture and human rights violations), and the selling of the Iraq invasion. Not to mention pioneering under-handed, "astroturf" campaigning for big tobacco. Go read what SourceWatch.com has to say about Hill & Knowlton. They're a frightening, do-anything-for-money, say-whatever-we-have-to bunch. Fine, Bob. You want to play hardball? We'll play hardball.

"Friend of Grant Park" works at Hill and Knowlton or for some other paid, I mean extremely well paid, PR firm. This is "astroturfing" at its worst - so don't be duped by it. "Friends of Grant Park" is probably billing the Museum $400 an hour to put out the lies about racism being a factor in the opposition. This is shameful at best.

My only comment is that when I read the coverage in the Trib on this issue months ago, I didn't get the sense racism was the issue. Daley has alot of nerve playing that card with the little he has done to improve the quality of life for the poor in this city. He wants the "image" of things it seems to me. Let's plant flowers everywhere but we don't recycle worth a damn. Let's have a Kid's Museum to show how tolerant we are of diversity, but do nothing to help with a housing crisis or help the same kids get a decent education. It's really pathetic.

I have no problem,moving all those kids out of Navy Pier. Pritzker and Daley should just lay their cards on the table. The city could use the revenue a Casino would bring into this cash starved town. Lets cut out all this B.S about diversity. The Casino would produce enormous racial diversity. Personally I do care were the kids go. Even a n average Gambler like myself could make a nice living ,with all the stupid suckers in Chicago.

I hope the opponents of the Museum in Grant Park are prepared to pay the damages that will ensue should they be on the losing end of a protracted court case. A similar threat took the air out of potential lawsuits regarding Meigs Field and Soldier Field renovations. The loser is liable to the winner for costs associated with the delay due to a court case. Something for the tree huggers to think about.

So what there always as long as I owe you fiend you will never go broke. We will charge it. Nobody goes to jail for debts. Are you the message boy for Pritzker or Daley.Who cares about the bootlickin Aldermen Daley has, in is refuse can.

re 'Friends of Grant Park': First, it's play the (PHONY) race card, said card played, not by the 'race' in question, but by the exploiters of that race, (and the exploiters of every other race that they can profit from exploiting), then, it's the 'threat' of, 'Oh My God', financial liabilities for the losers of any contemplated civil suit opposing the criminal misuse of PUBLIC LANDS, said losers presumably being those who would dare to oppose the will of the wealthy. What is the phrase, something like "...remain free and open forever...." concerning our city's Parks? Here's a thought: If the CCM really wants to serve the public, let them commit to providing FREE access to their contemplated new museum, TOTALLY FREE FOREVER, 7 days a week, open to the public from, say, 9am until 9pm, rain or shine, winter, summer, spring and fall, accessible to any and all, just like Grant Park is now. NO ADMISSION charge, ever. And no parking fees, since those kids that the mayor's knuckleheads are claiming to be being discriminated against, and their parents/guardians, are supposed to be from neighborhoods some distance away from the lakefront. Let's see if this so-called charitable organization is truly a charity. If they don't like the previously suggested idea of multiple smaller museums, located within every neighborhood of this city, (especially those neighborhoods where the kids that they claim to want to serve actually live), being a better way to serve their intended clientele, let them bring some 'skin' to this game and offer a proposal that ensures that their 'public service' will truly be public, as in ABSOLUTELY FREE ADMISSION, AT ALL TIMES, FOR ALL CHILDREN AND THEIR PARENTS or GUARDIANS. That would be an authentic act of charity.