Archives for the 'Burnham Park Yacht Club' Category
Thursday Unveiling for Northerly Island Plan (via Chicago Breaking News)
This may impact Burnham Harbor for boaters and concertgoers, and Meigs Field for pilots…
Thursday unveiling for Northerly Island plan
November 28, 2010 11:04 AM
What’s left of the former Meigs Field would be turned into a nature sanctuary and park, under plans to be unveiled this week by the Chicago Park District and its design team.Plans for what is now called Northerly Island include stripping the old terminal building of its walls, transforming the internal structure into an open-air pavilion. The area would also include an underwater paradise for fish, plants and birds and an eco-friendly concert venue near Adler Planetarium.
“It’s an amazing project,” said Bob O’Neill, president of the Grant Park Conservancy and Advisory Council.
The public meeting is scheduled for 6:30 p.m. Thursday at the Chicago Architecture Foundation, 224 S. Michigan Ave.
The design team is led by Chicago architect Jeanne Gang of Studio Gang Architects, which designed the award-winning Aqua tower, and JJR, a landscape architecture and urban design firm.
Aviation advocates who want to restore Meigs Field as an airport will not likely participate. Steve Whitney, president of Friends of Meigs Field, said the group feels shut out of the design process and therefore will not attend.
“They just want input from the people who support what they want,” he said.
Indeed, park officials are adamant about developing the 91-acre peninsula into a serene and natural playground. The peninsula is on the migratory route for birds flying from Canada to South America.
“The framework plan incorporates designs for a multiseason use, and has green-friendly elements in the design,” Park District spokeswoman Zvezdana Kubat said in an e-mail.
Initial designs for the peninsula — refined from concepts introduced at a public meeting a year ago — include turning the old terminal building into an open-air pavilion free of walls and glass, common and often fatal obstacles for birds migrating through Chicago.
A harbor for aquatic wildlife would be on the peninsula’s east side — opposite the boat harbor on the west side. Rock formations would be built underwater to attract plants, fish and birds.
And architects will unveil a permanent design plan for the temporary 7,500-seat Charter One Pavilion venue, including a “green” roof. Funds from future concerts would help pay for the peninsula’s upkeep, O’Neill said.
“There’s no city in the world that has this opportunity right now,” he said. “You have this enormous area in the front of the city, with the skyline and everything, and to turn that area into a world-class nature area is unprecedented.”
— Erika Slife
via Chicago Breaking News
Chicago 2016 Olympics Bid links
Chicago2016.com – “a comprehensive, balanced discussion about the Chicago 2016 Olympic bid.”
Chicago2016.org – Chicago 2016 Olympic Bid Committee website.
Citizen Media Law Project – Chicago 2016 v. Frayne – vexatious litigation by US Olympic Committee and Chicago 2016 Olympic bid organization against Chicago2016.com website domain.
Don’t Give Up The Ship – Chicago Yachting Association and Columbia Yacht Club boating advocacy support for Chicago 2016 Olympics.
The International Olympic Committee will choose the 2016 Olympics host city on October 2, 2009.
Chicago Tribune: Boat owners warned: Don’t make waves over Olympics rowing plan
Chicago Tribune:
Boat owners warned: Don’t make waves over Olympics rowing plan
Yacht club group tells members it fears retaliation from city if they protest proposal for Monroe Harbor
By Laurie Cohen, Kathy Bergen and David Heinzmann
Tribune reporters
February 12, 2009
Lots of boaters are unhappy with plans to use Monroe Harbor as the rowing venue for the 2016 Olympics should Chicago win the Games, but you won’t hear many complaints.
The Chicago Yachting Association, an umbrella group for 15 yacht clubs in the Chicago area, has asked members to keep a lid on it, noting in a memo obtained by the Tribune that yacht clubs “are vulnerable to retribution.”
Mayor Richard Daley’s office and the Chicago Park District have made it clear “that they do not wish to talk about issues that may be confrontational until after October 2009,” according to the memo by an association committee charged with formulating an approach to the city’s Olympic plans.
City officials say they aren’t trying to stifle dissent before Oct. 2, when the International Olympic Committee, which values popular support, selects a host city. But critics of the bid, from parks activists to concerned taxpayers, believe boosters have worked to suppress public criticism and withhold potentially controversial information.
The three-year Chicago campaign to win the Summer Games has been a study in how to carefully control the flow of information, with details parceled out only to the extent required to satisfy Olympic officials. The team has cited the intense competition among the finalists, which include Madrid, Rio de Janeiro and Tokyo, as a reason for keeping portions of its playbook private.
But critics want more information. The bid campaign “is not a very transparent process, and that makes it frustrating for us,” said Peggy Brennan, vice commodore of the historic Columbia Yacht Club, who wants more details on how use of Monroe Harbor as the rowing venue would affect boaters.
“When taxpayer dollars are involved, you’d like to be a little more transparent on these things,” said Allen Sanderson, who teaches economics at the University of Chicago.
Now, in formal bid documents due Thursday, Chicago and its rivals had to answer an extensive battery of tough questions from the IOC. The bid team has been saying for months that its book, to be released publicly in Chicago on Friday, will answer many remaining questions.
But other significant questions that aren’t required to be addressed will continue to go unanswered, including an accounting of donations to fund Chicago’s nearly $60 million effort to win the Games, information that would show who pitched in the most for one of the mayor’s favorite causes.
Chicago-area residents, while largely supporting the bid, doubt some of the city’s claims. A Tribune poll this month found that many Olympics supporters, as well as a vast majority of those opposed to bringing the Games here, don’t buy Daley’s pledge that private funds would cover nearly all the costs.
So far, the city hasn’t been quick to own up to the financial risks taxpayers would have to bear. Over time, it became known the city would make a variety of commitments, from a $500 million guarantee against the potential of operating losses to picking up the cost of city services and purchasing the site for an Olympic Village, for ultimate resale to a private developer.
Visit www.chicagotribune.com to continue reading this article.
Article:
http://www.chicagotribune.com/sports/chi-thu-olympics-transparency-20feb12,0,7405895.story
LMSRF Area III Boat of the Year series race –
August 9, 2008
another great day
long courses well-chosen to provide more racing, amidst rapidly changing conditions
spectacular views, interesting weather challenges
more later
Wednesday Night Beer Can Race – August 6, 2008
another great night
more later
