In a saner, less hostile political world there wouldn’t even be a discussion about the ragged, junk-filled road in Uptown that runs from Montrose to Irving Park behind Graceland Cemetery and beneath the Howard Street el. City officials would have blocked that road off years ago and turned it into a park filled with trees and grass.
The debate goes back to 1984, when members of the East Graceland Organization–a block club consisting mostly of residents along Kenmore Avenue, the street just east of the el tracks–first proposed converting the road into a park. It seemed like a good idea. The unpaved, 85-foot-wide roadway had become a favorite site for fly dumpers; stolen cars were stripped, burned, and left there. Clumps of tangled weeds grew under the el tracks.
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In those days Jerome Orbach was the ward’s alderman. He promised residents he would use his clout with City Council majority leader Eddie Vrdolyak to have the city block the road off. But days turned into months, and the abandoned cars and litter remained. In 1987 Shiller defeated Orbach, and then, East Graceland members say, the real logjam began.
To meet this goal, Shiller divided her ward into nine zones, which were represented by zoning advisory boards of 11 constituents. The proposed park falls into zone three. Shiller says any delay in building the park resulted from the failure of East Graceland’s members to cooperate with the zone-three board.
That’s where the matter stood earlier this summer when the Cubs came along with their proposal to pave the road and turn it into a lot for 450 cars. Donald Grenesko, the Tribune Company executive who runs the Cubs, would not comment. But the proposal he outlined in a meeting before the zone-three board also calls for part of the land to be set aside as open space.
“The meeting was tense,” says Scaglione. “As I recall, someone called her a liar. This issue has dragged on for too long.”
“The party was not my idea, and I had nothing to do with it,” says Quigley. “I haven’t decided whether I will run, and that’s not the issue. The park is the issue. I live right behind where that parking lot would go, and I think it would be horrible if we allowed it to be built. There are already too many parking lots around here. As an environmentalist, I’m committed to preserving open space.”
