Mayor, Friends of Parks, Working on Lucas Compromise

By Bill Cameron, WLS-AM news

(CHICAGO) Getting the Lucas Museum is apparently no longer a lost cause. Mayor Rahm Emanuel is trying to make a deal with the Friends of the Parks to end their lawsuit that’s blocking the big project.

Emanuel is reportedly trying to negotiate a settlement. Friends of the Parks would drop their lawsuit and the mayor would push their “Last Four Miles Plan” to extend the ring of lakefront park land all the way from Evanston on the north to the Indiana line on the south.

Emanuel is not denying it.

“I believe and I’m committed to to try and find a way that all of us in the city, that love this city, people of different views, can work together and have a situation where Chicago’s cultural plans and open space, which are part of who we are as a city, work together in enriching the city economically, culturally and educationally,” Emanuel said.

And the mayor was very careful not to say too much.

“I’m not taking questions. I have one answer for all the questions.”

So it’s unclear whether they’re negotiating to put the Lucas Museum back on a Soldier Field parking lot or trying to raise more than a billion dollars to re-purpose the McCormick Place Lakeside Center.

Listen to Bill Cameron’s report for WLS-AM 890 News here:

In a statement released shortly after the mayor’s comments, Friends of the Parks says it is still committed to preserving the lakefront and says they are not dropping the lawsuit.

@ 2016 WLS-AM News