Rogers Park beach access today is much the same as it was in the 1930s (photos above). Photos: 49th Ward Parks & Beaches Advisory Council
October 2004 | Election 2004 Special
Lakeshore Drive Referendum
Erin Meyer
Most beach-goers in Chicago have to go over, under or across Lake Shore Drive, but one way or another they have to traverse up to eight lanes of traffic before reaching the sand. Except for residents in Rogers Park. Residents in the city’s far northeastern corner can reach their 1.5-mile stretch of uninterrupted beach via many neighborhood streets. And now an advisory referendum on the November ballot is designed to let lawmakers know that they want to keep it that way.
Donald Gordon, chairman of the 49th Ward Parks and Beach Advisory Committee and some area residents are concerned that the City of Chicago has plans to cut through their neighborhood by extending Lake Shore from Hollywood Blvd. to bordering Evanston.
“We have credible sources that say we have real reason to be concerned,” said Francis Tobin, Rogers Park Community Action Network board member.
Gordon, Tobin, and other preservationists formed the Lakefront Coalition Task Force, which collected 2,000 signatures to put an advisory referendum on the November ballot that will ask residents in affected precincts of Chicago’s 49th Ward if they favor the construction of roads, commercial buildings, housing or marinas.
Many coalition members draw inspiration for their vision of Rogers Park from Toby Prince, who in 1950 founded the Rogers Park Action Network, to among other things, defeat a proposal to extend Lake Shore Drive.
U.S. Rep. Jan Schakowsky (D-Ill.) from the 9th Congressional District also drew attention and nervous speculation from preservationists by trying to secure federal funds to pay for a Lake Shore Drive extension study, Tobin said.
Schakowsky did request the funds for the study, but it was, in the words of her spokesman, John Samuels, “in no way an endorsement of additional construction or development on the lakefront” but rather a move to “secure the future of the lakefront.”
“Representative Schakowsky would never support any legislation to harm the lakefront or residents’ access to the lakefront,” Samuels said, adding she welcomes the referendum as “positive development.”
Erin Meyer is the associate editor of Conscious Choice.
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