13-Jun-16 – Chicago’s greatest asset – its coveted Lake Michigan parkland – is in political play along Lake Shore Drive from Evanston south to the Indiana border.

Desperate to end a legal battle between the City of Chicago and Friends of the Parks over the Lucas Museum of Narrative Art being built on a lakefront parking lot near Soldier Field, insiders say Mayor Rahm Emanuel is offering a $1 billion bribe.

Apparently, Emanuel is willing to support development of 525 acres of new in-fill lakefront parkland and extend public access to four miles of new green space along Lake Michigan from Hollywood to Howard Street on the Far North Side and from 71st to 95th Streets on the Far South Side.

All the Friends of the Parks has to do is drop its lawsuit regarding the Lucas Museum, and the public interest group would win a tempting victory that could possibly bring the ambitious 1909 Burnham Plan of Chicago to completion.

Foremost under Daniel Burnham’s original goals was reclaiming the lakefront for the public. “The lakefront by right belongs to the people,” Burnham (left) wrote. “Not a foot of its shores should be appropriated to the exclusion of the people.”

The plan recommended expanding the parks along Lake Michigan’s shoreline with landfill and much of that was done after the Chicago Fire and in the early 20th Century to create Grant Park.

Of the city’s 29 miles of lakefront, all but four miles are public parkland today. The plan also called for creation of man-made islands, such as Northerly Island, along with lagoons, beaches, harbors, meadows, and playfields.

By “creating new acreage from landfill, excavated material, and general wastage from the city,” the Burnham Plan envisioned lakefront improvements stretching from Chicago’s northern suburbs south to the edge of Indiana.

From carriage path to freeway

Historians say Lake Shore Drive started as a carriage path along the downtown area, with horses limited to a six mile per hour speed limit. In 1933, LSD was extended from Belmont Avenue (3200 North) to Foster Avenue (5200 North). In the 1950s, it was extended to Bryn Mawr Avenue (5600 North) and then in 1957 to Hollywood (5700 North).

(Above) Lake Shore Drive as it passed Lincoln Park in 1905. Image obtained from Library of Congress. Click on image to view larger version.

The 1950s LSD extension utilized landfill, rubble, and debris from the destruction of homes raised for construction of Congress Expressway, now called Eisenhower Expressway.

In 2004, Chicago Park District considered a feasibility study to extend Lake Shore Drive about 2.5 miles north through Rogers Park and into Evanston. Activists say the plans for the expansion were actually drawn.

Residents protested, however, saying the expansion would cut off Rogers Park and Edgewater from the lake. A November 2004 referendum rejected the proposal.

In 2005, Chicago Park District spent $350,000 on plans for new marinas along LSD, including one at Devon and Granville. At that time federal funding of $800,000 to $1 million was obtained for a study to extend the Chicago North Lakefront Path.

In 2008, Friends of the Parks proposed extending the lakefront park system north, possibly through off-shore man-made islands linked by bike paths. This proposal also met with resident opposition.

The next year, Friends of the Parks marked the 100th anniversary of the Burnham Plan by unveiling a visionary sequel – adding 525 acres of new lakefront parkland at a cost of $450 million. This land would be created by adding landfill, stone, and concrete seawalls to create a continuous chain of parks, islands, beaches, lagoons, and bike trails on the North and South sides. Daniel Burnham said in 1909, “Make no small plans.” Today, the cost of creating 525 acres of lakefront parkland might approach $1 billion, experts say.

Rahm should use connections and excavated earth to expand lakefront

Maybe now – 107 years later – is the time for Mayor Emanuel to utilize his connections in Washington, D.C., to obtain the necessary federal funding for a noble goal of creating more lakefront parkland.

The job may take 20 years to complete, in stages. Why not start now by first extending North Lake Shore Drive to north suburban Evanston while expanding parkland, beaches, and bike paths? The city likely has landfill public works projects, excavated earth from caissons of dozens of downtown high-rise apartment towers and from razed abandoned homes on the South Side to start the job.

If private land controlled by a handful of condominium associations on the north lakefront is not for sale, let the city acquire it by eminent domain.

Here’s a final word on the proposed Lucas Museum (right), which architectural critics say is designed to look like a pile of rock salt. Why not build it on a landscaped, elevated concrete platform on the west side of LSD over Illinois Central railroad air rights?

Just about every Chicagoan this writer polled believes erecting this private museum on 17 acres of leased lakefront property is a bad idea. Imagine the blob-like Lucas Museum floating between the remuddled Soldier Field and aging McCormick Place East.

A former landmark that originally resembled the Greek Parthenon, Soldier Field (left) was removed from the National Register of Historic Places after it was “renovated” to look like a flying saucer crashed on it.

The darkly foreboding McCormick Place East was designed in the image of a World War II aircraft carrier.

Lined up across Chicago’s beautiful lakefront, those three stooge-like properties could be renamed “Curly,” “Larry” and “Moe.”