By Steve Rhodes
Has anyone asked Allstate whether their naming rights deal is contingent on the Grant Park location? Just wondering. Maybe State Farm would buy in at an alternate location – like a good neighbor.
Museum Musing
“I believe the musuem’s proposed move to Grant Park offers the opportunity to promote inclusiveness,” Chicago Urban League president Cheryle Jackson writes to the Tribune.
First, the paper ought to note that a batch of letters it is receiving or will soon receive are orchestrated by Hill & Knowlton.
Second, what relevance does the Urban League have to the siting of a private children’s museum? Is Jackson suggesting opponents who prefer, say, moving the museum to Northerly Island or the old post office or one of 20 other possible sites are racist? Are you saying that, Cheryle? Be clear.
Third, did you have an opinion on this, Cheryle, before the mayor and/or Hill & Knowlton got ahold of you? Have you studied the other possible locations? Was political pressure brought to bear on you to do this – or are you doing it for future political gain?
Fourth, why isn’t Jackson lobbying for the museum to move to a neighborhood that could really use it? Why, for example, shouldn’t the Children’s Museum move to, say, Englewood as part of a city campaign to stop the violence against children, perhaps as an anchor to a new zone that could be dubbed “the most kid-friendly” in Chicago?
Bad Call
I just want to note that our 3 a.m. piece is a lot funnier than theirs.
Kelly Kelly Kelly
“R. Kelly Case Shrouded In Secrecy.”
Thank God the headline didn’t say the case was in the closet.
*
Maybe this has something to do with it:
“Prosecutors in the upcoming R. Kelly child pornography trial want to introduce evidence of other crimes allegedly committed by the R&B singer, court records show,” the Sun-Times reports.
Tiger’s Tank
There has been some chatter that Woods isn’t just an amazing golfer, he’s one of the great athletes of this era,” our very own Jim Coffman writes in SportsMonday. “In a word, No. Athletes have to do something slightly more strenuous than walking and swinging golf clubs to earn a spot in the pantheon of athletic greatness.”
Think Tank
“Finding the Right Deodorant: We Know Our Armpits Should Smell Like Something Else, But What?”
Bloody Hands
This is from Sneed, but I think it’s actually accurate because I’m pretty sure it’s already been reported:
“It’s no secret Mayor Daley is furious with renegade Ald. Brendan Reilly and his battle to quash Daley’s dream of placing a new children’s museum in Grant Park.
* Behind a previous battle scene: Sneed hears Reilly’s earlier, unsuccessful attempt to squelch construction of a rooftop heliport at the new Children’s Memorial Hospital in Streeterville drew this admonition from Ald. Reilly to Daley: “The first helicopter that goes down will be blood on my hands.”
* Daley’s response: “The first child who loses his life [if there’s no heliport], you’ll have blood on your hands.”
Of course, Daley’s response is nonsense. A children’s hospital has little business being downtown, especially with a heliport (hey, what happened to the mayor’s no-fly zone?)
Maybe the children’s hospital should have moved to Englewood . . .
Collision Deductible
The Spindle is for sale on eBay. Why not put it in Grant Park? Sponsored by Allstate.
Sox Rock
“Gavin Floyd strikes The Sox Report as the type of guy that would be more interested in listening to Interpol than throwing a no-hitter,” our very own Ricky O’Donnell writes in The White Sox Report.
Tax-Free Trib
“A 2004 U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) study found that 61 percent of American corporations, including 39 percent of large companies, paid no corporate income taxes between 1996 and 2000,” Parade noted on Sunday. “Last year, corporations shouldered just 14.4 percent of the total U.S. tax burden, compared with about 50 percent in 1940.”
And with the deal Sam Zell structured, Tribune Co. joins the ranks of companies not paying corporate income taxes.
Steno Spielman
Ron Huberman: “You often see customers hear something and then run down the stairs.”
Fran Spielman: “The days of running down the stairs when you think you hear the rumble of an approaching CTA subway train are coming to an end.”
*
Doesn’t it seem like we’ve been promised schedules and trackers and alerts for years? Besides, not knowing when the next train is arriving is not really the problem. Trains that don’t work is the problem. Delays, slow zones and mechanical failures are problems. Message boards with news and advertising is a good idea, but a better idea would be to focus on preventing tracks from rotting.
*
“Four years ago, Daley returned from a weeklong trade mission to China and Japan determined to bring to CTA riders the same kind of bend-over-backwards courtesy he had seen in Asia.”
Right. Daley was so determined he did . . . nothing, while the Blue Line burned.
Newspaper of Children
“The mayor clarified things a bit Friday, when he said he doesn’t plan to scratch the ‘Urbs in Horto” citywide and replace it with “Babes in Horto” – or something like it.”
He never planned to do it; he made an offhand remark (“We’re the city of flowers. We’re the city of trees and gardens and all that. I’d like to maybe change that motto to, ‘City of Children.’ I really believe that.”) that the Sun-Times blew up into a story.
Crusty Dusty
“The number of times during the Reds series that Cub fans will be happy they no longer have Dusty managing their team +/- 18,” our very own Marty Gangler writes in The Cub Factor.
Division Street
Don’t forget to visit me there.
Coyote Ugly
Around the Coyote is moving out of Wicker Park. What, the Bank of America lobby in the Flatiron Building didn’t make for good exhibition space?
The Beachwood Tip Line: Piped in.
Posted on April 14, 2008