Last year in the earlier stages of the migrant crisis, four Chicago Park District field houses — at Brands Park, Gage Park, Piotrowski Park, and Broadway Armory Park — were abruptly taken out of service. The fact that thousands of Chicagoans were left without desperately needed services seemed to be an afterthought.
At the time of the park closures, city officials promised community residents that they would reevaluate the situation after six months, which came and went on Feb.1 without any additional word about reopening the parks.
Now comes news that the city has closed four other shelters while the parks remain off-limits to community residents. This is an insult to all the users of those facilities.
Despite repeated requests from community members and elected officials, including 48th Ward Ald. Leni Manaa-Hoppenworth, whose ward contains Broadway Armory Park, the city still has not provided any plan or timetable.
The vast majority of Broadway Armory Park was closed off to the community. More than two-thirds of its vital programs were shut down. The city promised alternative after-school sports programs, but due to limited capacity, transportation difficulties and problems posed by crossing gang lines, 70% of former Broadway Armory users were no longer enrolled. Additionally, the community lost a safe space for children from preschool to teens, an early voting site, a community meeting venue, a warming and cooling center. Broadway Armory has a multitude of other uses.
Users of the Broadway Armory and other out-of-service park district field houses have already significantly sacrificed for this challenge. It’s time that Mayor Johnson established a firm policy that critical public buildings should not be used as shelters.
With the enrollment deadline for spring programs looming, it’s imperative that our field houses be restored for their intended purposes. It’s time to reclaim our parks.
Hussain Mohammed, president; Troy McMillan, vice president; Killian Walsh, treasurer; and Ginger Williams, secretary, Broadway Armory Park Advisory Council
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Remembering ‘Shoebox scandal’
Michael Sneed’s Sunday column reminded readers about Illinois Secretary of State Paul Powell’s death in 1970, after which about $820,000 in cash was found largely in shoeboxes under his bed and elsewhere. It also reminded me of how a feisty church in the Austin area of Chicago, Third Unitarian, responded at a Sunday service soon after Powell’s demise. The church’s equally feisty minister, the Rev. Don Wheat, gave an amusing sermon that included speculations on the sources of all that money, and then he had shoeboxes passed around for the usual church collection. The Chicago papers had some fun relating that story.
Michael A. Collins, Barrington Hills
Give state stake in White Sox
Let’s see. According to Forbes, the White Sox are worth in the neighborhood of $2 billion, while Jerry Reinsdorf wants $1 billion for a new stadium. How to make this happen? Easy. In exchange for the money, Reinsdorf gives the state half-interest in the team. That’s how things work in the business world, and the business world always talks about government needing to get more business-like. This is the perfect time and place to start. Oh, and if this is such a can’t-miss deal, Reinsdorf and Related Midwest should have no problem lining up financing on their own. What’s a little interest on a loan for a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, right?
Douglas Bukowski, Berwyn
