Olympics? Not In My Backyard

Tennis center vs. bird sanctuary

By STEVE RHODES

Updated 3:58 PM CST, Tue, Jul 21, 2009

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Chicago 2016

North Side residents might not want the Olympics in their backyard.

In a meeting Wednesday night reportedly marred by shouting matches, "The Lincoln Park Advisory Council stalled a resolution opposing the proposed location of a $31 million Olympic tennis complex," the Tribune reports, "after a local alderman said the door was open for a site change."

An Olympic official later defended the original site, however.

Shouldn't this have been figured out before the city submitted its bid?

"The Chicago 2016 Olympic bid committee is willing to consider two alternative Lincoln Park sites, both of them north of the current site at the Waveland courts, Ald. Helen Shiller (46th) said," the Trib reports.

But Chicago 2016 spokesman Patrick Sandusky sounded less accommodating than Shiller's representation.

"The Waveland location is the 'natural home' of North Side tennis, he said, and it will leave 20 new tennis courts as a legacy to the community," the Trib reports.

"The current plan works well within our compact Games," he said.

The Reader's Ben Joravsky predicted last month that Lincoln Park would be the site of the next local Olympic battle.

"Just wait 'til they learn what the city has in store for the field west of the bird sanctuary near the Waveland Clock Tower: a 10,000-seat tennis arena," Joravsky wrote. "In January Olympic committee officials gave a presentation to the Lincoln Park Advisory Council, drawing a chorus of critical questions and concerns. The committee promised to return with more specifics."

The Tribune has reported, though, that the bid team "hasn't responded to requests for an environmental study on how a proposed tennis center would affect a nearby bird sanctuary."

Shiller says she opposes using the Waveland site for the tennis center, but that two parking lots in the area could each serve as alternative settings.

It's not clear if Chicago 2016 officials agree.

Steve Rhodes is the proprietor of the award-winning Beachwood Reporter, a website named after a bar called The Beachwood Inn at the intersection of Beach and Wood.