Text Of Open Letter To The Mayor
The Lake View Community Activists Place Open Letter In Newspaper Ads
An Appeal to Mayor Daley

March 15, 2002

Hon. Richard M. Daley Mayor, City of Chicago 121 North LaSalle Street Chicago, Illinois 60602

Dear Mayor Daley,

Last week, the Tribune Co. publicly presented its latest proposal for expansion of Wrigley Field at LeMoyne School in the Lake View community. The reaction of the people who attended the meeting appeared to suggest that the majority of Lake View residents warmly received the proposal.

Mr. Mayor, nothing could be further from the truth! The voice of the true Lake View community was not heard at the meeting, much to our dismay.

This open letter, signed by the Lake View Citizens Council, who for more than 50 years has represented the community, the member organizations that would be most impacted by expansion of our beloved ballpark, and paid for by Lake View voters and businesspeople, is designed to state with utmost clarity the real views of Lake View.

We have heard from thousands of community residents by e-mail, telephone, and in a series of community meetings. This is what they have told us to tell you:

Lake View is not opposed to changes at Wrigley Field. We ask only that any expansion of Wrigley Field respect the quality of life that this community holds near and dear.

The most recent bleacher expansion proposal is still simply too much for our community to handle. Putting 2,000 more people into our community on game days is a burden that we cannot shoulder. While the Tribune Co. and the Cubs will survive with the addition of far less than 2,000 bleacher seats, our community will take a real hit if expansion is anywhere near the proposed 2,000 seat total.
The proposed bleacher support columns are unacceptable as a safety hazard with respect to crowd movement, as an invitation to crime, and as a collector of dirt and trash. The community has suggested a cantilevered structure instead. We understand that this will require strengthening of the existing aging bleacher structure, no doubt increasing the cost. If there is any weakness in the current bleacher structure, it should be corrected before the structure is enlarged, or corrected, at the least, as part of any expansion program.

The current plan significantly impairs the historic integrity of Wrigley Field, diminishing if not obliterating the view from the inside of the park looking out.

The community will also make its real views known when it votes "Yes!" to quality of life and neighborhood protections over unreasonable expansion of the "Friendly Confines" in a nonbinding referendum on March 19th.

Mr. Mayor, we hope that this public appeal makes the real feelings of the Lake View community clear to you, clear to the rest of Chicago, and clear to Cubs fans. We merely seek a reasoned expansion that balances some changes to Wrigley Field with quality of life issues for our community.

Sincerely,

Lake View Citizens Council East Lake View Neighbors Triangle Neighbors Southport Neighbors Association Hawthorne Neighbors Sheil Park Neighbors Belmont Harbor Neighbors Citizens United for Baseball in the Sunshine (C.U.B.S.)