The famed civic architect Daniel Burnham uttered words that became both a mantra and a shackle: “Make no little plans; they have no magic to stir men’s blood.”
Well, today’s Chicago is broke. And, in the short term, it’s hard to imagine the city implementing anything like Millennium Park, the massively successful civic endeavor of two decades ago. We’re entering the second week of December and we don’t even have a 2025 budget or any clear consensus toward achieving one. Just plenty of red ink.
So we were glad recently to welcome Lou Raizin, the civic-minded CEO of Broadway in Chicago, and various other emissaries from an experienced pro-downtown group calling itself Team Culture and made up of the likes of Poetry Foundation President Michelle Boon, Joffrey Ballet Executive Director Greg Cameron, civic booster Michael Fassnacht, Obama Foundation Vice President Lori Healey, venture capitalist Howard Tullman, developer Al Friedman, Navy Pier CEO Marilynn Gardner, former Deputy Mayor Steve Koch, celebrity chef Rick Bayless, Civic Committee head Joe Ferguson, et al.
A selection of them showed up in our office with not so much a grand scheme to rival what Burnham came up with in 1909 but with an array of small, scaleable, potentially executable plans designed to breathe more life into Chicago’s struggling downtown core. And do so in matter of weeks or months, not years.
To wit:
How about installing America’s coolest bookstore inside a space such as The Rookery?
What about a floating farmers market on the Chicago River? Or a barge filled with food trucks that would dock at different spots? Or barges filled with actors, musicians and dancers plying the waterways? Or a lot more downtown festivals, especially ones taking place at night?
How about projecting opera on the colossal back wall of the Lyric Opera House so it would be visible from tour boats on the Chicago River?
Could we let visual artists activate the alleyways of the Loop? Or build light canopies over LaSalle and State streets, activating their vertical beauty? Or drape fabric over austere concrete buildings? Or build a food court with a hydroponic garden? Or use Lower Wacker Drive as a cool outdoor music venue? Or add light corridors, public gardens and green spaces as what once was a canyon of office buildings becomes a residential community?
Our visitors argued that Chicago needs to better understand that streets easily can be turned into interconnected destinations with the right kind of digital lighting installation, that outdoor dining needs massively to expand to help both State Street and Michigan Avenue, that rooftops and alleys remain underexploited civic assets, that cities such as Berlin and Rotterdam, where much of what is listed above has actually been executed, are leaving Chicago in the dust when it comes to repurposing and bringing to life an urban streetscape.
Not all the ideas were as practical or low cost: they also argued it’s time to revisit decking not just over the Jane Byrne Interchange, reconnecting the Loop and the West Loop, but also Cermak Road, the connective tissue between Chinatown, Bronzeville and McCormick Place. Both good ideas, to our mind, although the Kennedy ship likely has sailed.
But most of these ideas weren’t asking so much beyond some modest public incentives for private investment, more flexible zoning and other regulatory relief. Nothing was anywhere close in cost to a new stadium.
It’s not like Chicago is totally new to all this. Those of us of a certain age remember how the late Lois Weisberg, a great commissioner of Cultural Affairs in the Daley administration, got Chicagoans to love a herd of cows that sprouted with various paint jobs all over the city. Some are still around two decades later.
And, for the record, the city of Miami Beach has been making all kinds of news of late with a herd of life-sized wooden elephant sculptures interacting with visitors on its famous sands. Created by Indigenous artists, investing in these pachyderms has paid off and then some for Miami. Cows on parade come in many different guises.
Raizin said that downtown was “the heart that pumps Chicago’s blood” and that artists should be seen as “first responders.” He is branding his slate of ideas as an alternate to a sports venue, arguing that the economic and employment benefits would be far greater.
Ferguson argued vociferously that Chicago needs a better story as much as anything and it needs one pretty darn fast.
“The counternarrative needs to be built simultaneously with the dominant narrative,” he said, rhetorically thumping our table.
We all know the nature of the dominant narrative. You often can read about it on this very page.
When we asked about the buy-in from City Hall, our visitors either suddenly got quiet or looked at the floor. And we noted that many of those on the list of those involved in this project were thinkers, planners and administrators in previous mayoral administrations. Many, of course, have a vested interest in downtown’s prosperity. But we also were struck by both their frustration and sincerity.
The people who were in our office, trying to get us on board to get some cool things going, are not alone.
Take, for example, Nick Kokonos, the innovative Chicago restaurant entrepreneur who just cashed out his enterprises for many tens of millions of dollars.
“Chicago needs to take *risks* again,” he wrote on X Thursday, sounding very much like someone considering whether to stay or leave. “In our history we used to do that. Now, it’s about NOT doing things.”
He laid out his complaints with current leadership (“the lakefront? Zippo”) and finally wrote, “we need a Chicago Renaissance.”
We most certainly do. But we also have to live in the realm of the practical and get some things done, much as Kokonos got them done at his world-class restaurants such as Alinea and with his innovative reservation system, Tock. We have to start somewhere.
Aware of Chicago’s love of sports and the power of branding, Raizin has written on our pages that he wants Chicagoans to “reimagine all of our downtown as a cultural stadium.”
Very Burnham-esque. But we think this is the time for one small idea at a time. Raizin and his crew have about 100 of them; we especially like the many that are connected to food.
We hope City Hall gives them a meeting. Kokonos should come along too.
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