May 12, 1880 – A Criminal Courts judge upholds the right of the city to transfer the
control of Michigan Avenue and Thirty-Fifth Street to the South Park
Commissioners, upholding the Boulevard Act of 1879. The judge states that on February 21, 1869 the
charter of the Board of South Park Commissioners gave that body the
responsibility for existing highways and “to lay out new ones within the
defined limits of the South Parks, and to manage and control them, free to all
persons, but subject to such necessary rules and regulations as shall from time
to time be adopted by said Commissioners for the well ordering and government
of the same.” [Chicago Daily Tribune, May
13, 1880] Subsequent legislation added to the charter but did not impair
it. The Boulevard Act of 1879 went even
farther as the judge observed in his opinion, “It is an act to enable the Park
Commissioners ‘to take, regulate, control, and improve public streets leading
to public parks, and to levy and collect special taxes or assessments to pay for
the improvement itself.’ It authorizes
the Park Commissioners to ‘connect’ the present park system, including existing
boulevards and driveways, with any point within the city by the use of
‘connecting street or streets, or parts thereof,’ and it authorizes the city,
town or village ‘to invest any such Park Boards with the right to control,
improve and maintain any of the streets of such city’ … ‘for the purpose of
carrying out the provisions of this act.’”
The commissioners, in other words, had the legal authority to connect
any road leading to or abutting a park to city streets that would make a
connection to a park, and they had the right, with permission of the city, to
levy taxes to build and maintain such connections. The judge upholds the right of the South Park
Commissioners to assume responsibility for Michigan Avenue south of the river
since it is an important connection to the roads and boulevards leading to city
parks. The above photo shows Michigan Avenue in 1885 at its intersection with Van Buren Street.
May 12, 2011 – The Chicago Tribune reports that the U. S. Environmental Protection Agency has ordered Chicago to improve its sewage treatment system so that the river will be clean enough for “recreation in and on the water.” [Chicago Tribune, May 13, 2011] The new order goes far beyond those of a state panel that a year earlier had issued guidelines that would make the river clean enough for canoers and paddlers who “briefly fell into the water”. The ruling will necessitate the overhaul of two out of three of the city’s massive sewage treatment plants. The Metropolitan Water Reclamation District estimates the cost will be close to $1 billion while the EPA puts the estimate at something less than $250 million. “We’ve got a chance for our generation to do something big for this important river,” says Senator Dick Durbin.
Posts
No comments:
Post a Comment