By Ben Joravsky
To the south and east of the harbor rise the skyscrapers of the near north side, hovering over the lake. “It’s that view, that vista, with the lake sweeping out to the horizon that makes this spot so special. It’s a spot that makes me appreciate how wonderful Chicago is. There’s no place like this spot in the east. My husband is from India, and he says it reminds him of the oceanfront in Bombay.”
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One day last year she noticed a series of uprights planted along the harbor’s northern edge. “They call them tie-ups,” she says. “They’re for people who want to harbor hop from one harbor to the next. They boat in, tie up, and go about their business. It’s nice for the boaters, but the tie-ups are intrusive for everyone else because they block the view. I wish I had taken action as soon as I saw them. I should have known something worse was about to happen.”
Breckenridge understands that her complaint might seem insignificant when compared to, say, crime in the streets. But that’s just the point. There was no need to make changes at Diversey when there were so many more important things to do. Here was yet another case of unnecessary intrusion, the city taking something good and making it worse. “Now there will be no place to pause, no place for quiet contemplation,” she says. “There’s only the loud roar of engines, the smell of gasoline, the blare of radios, the trash the boaters leave behind.”
As for Westrec, Altman says the company should be applauded. “I think Scott [Stevenson] has been wonderful throughout this. He’s a wonderful individual, a sailor by the way, who understands community process. His biggest concern is not ramming it down people’s throats. He went to the Diversey Harbor Advisory Council, he went to the Diversey Harbor Yacht Club, he even went to the Diversey Harbor Neighbors, which is a group in a high-rise not far from the park. This woman [Breckenridge] just missed the boat.”
