LETTERS: All the ways we can’t trust Jackson Park redevelopment plan

Today I walked the perimeter of the proposed changes necessitated by the Obama Presidential Center and the Tiger Woods Golf Course.

The building of the parking garage and returning the athletic fields between 62nd Street to 63rd Street to the Park District is a positive development. I also believe that the assumption of the costs for the parking garage by the presidential center is good for the taxpayers. I would hope that the presidential center considers placing the sledding hill above the parking garage.

The widening of Lake Shore Drive will impact first the Lawn Bowling site; secondly require a new bridge over the entrance to the 59th Street harbor and probably require the shutting down of the harbor for some period of time; third it will require the removal of mature trees and the new vegetation planted in recent years by Project 120 and the Army Corp of Engineers, and finally the closing and extension of the pedestrian tunnels located just north of Hayes Drive and at 59th Street.

Adding two lanes to Stony Island Avenue between 63rd Street and 59th Street, to make it an eight-lane roadway, will require a great deal of parkland, which might not be necessary. The Chicago Department of Transportation should consider restricting parking on Stony Island Avenue during peak hours of usage and installing a reversible lane instead of widening the street.

The proposed CDOT changes will be expensive and the claim of additional parkland being created is dubious.

Michael Hoke, Hyde Park

‘Sad for all involved’

How did they — we — get to a place where two kids who could be our sons, our nephews or, in these new times, our very young fathers, brazenly run through the streets, guns out, simply ready to take a life? This is the reality in which we exist.

This image will evoke many different things in many different people, with some feelings and opinions not shared — despite the emotional strength behind them. When I look at the image, I am overwhelmed with emotion. I am filled with the thought: “Why does this image look as if it’s taken in, say, Jamaica or Haiti?” (At least my “movie” idea of what the violence levels are like in those two places, which is stereotypical and not cool, but…) But then to realize that these two guys are just outside — I mean they could literally be outside my window, my door. It is absolutely amazing … and scary … and so incredibly sad.

Sad for all those involved.

Patrick Edwards, Grand Crossing

A suggestion for billionaire politicians

I just read that Gov. Bruce Rauner is spending $100 million of his own money in his bid for re-election and that J. B. Pritzker is prepared to match him, dollar for dollar.

Here’s an idea. Why don’t we change the election laws so that the ultra-rich who spend obscene amounts of money to be elected to public office have to donate one dollar to reduce the state’s deficit for every dollar spent on their campaign, instead of saddling the working man with that debt.

Larry Meinen, Park Ridge