My central memory, besides the phalanx of six mounted Chicago policemen cantering up an otherwise deserted Wabash Avenue, is of the streets around City Hall.
They were jammed with equipment — big pumps, banks of high-powered lights, communications gear and command centers — was rushed to the scene.
“God bless America,” I thought. We might be as woefully inept as anybody, but when disaster strikes, we’ve got the resources.
Sometimes. Had the crack been fixed in a timely fashion, the repair might have cost $10,000. Instead, billions were lost, the result of being overly addicted to regulations. Someone could have said, “Screw the bidding process; just get it fixed.” Someone didn’t.
That happens a lot. We gawp at a problem until disaster strikes. I’m still shaking my head over how the city torpedoed the Friday Morning Swim Club at Montrose Harbor.
You’ve certainly heard of the swim club — a couple of young professionals started jumping into the lake Friday mornings to kick off their busy weekends. Quickly hundreds, then thousands, of young folks joined them.
It wasn’t just innocent fun; it represents something important.
Think about it. What’s the biggest problem facing Chicago? Besides residents being robbed or shot. That’s only a contributing factor to an even larger problem: the hollowing out of downtown. Emptied by COVID and post-George Floyd unrest, ruthlessly mocked across the country as a nest of crime. Employees happy to work in their underwear at home. Tourists staying away.
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The Chicago Park District has for years been against people having fun in the lake. Their lifeguards go out in their rowboats & have a shitfit if people go into water deeper than their knees! I'm surprised they never had the cops sent into the Playpen to arrest all the boaters who gather their for parties!
ReplyDeleteThey refuse to build more indoor pools, even though our climate makes using an outdoor pool useless for more than four or five months a year.
They refuse to make being a lifeguard a profession, by basically only hiring college students on their summer break, so they're always short of them!
In the '70s, Chicago a police boat came into what is now called the playpen to stop us from being in a small inflatable boat. The 26 foot cabin cruiser we had could barely pull a skier and we had to offload a few people so the others could have a turn. No matter what Commander Cody said, the Chicago police stopped us from having too much fun.
DeleteHow sad. Maybe this is just another sign of our litigious society. The beaches in Indiana are a bit more lenient, but not on days with a rip-tide. Sometimes that’s the reason you can’t swim. Things are always different in Chicago, however.
ReplyDeleteYou know the Chicago Park District is its own little fiefdom.
ReplyDeleteDid they have special super-strong horses to carry the big pumps and lights and communication gear?
ReplyDeleteI dunno. Don't wanna sound like a killjoy, but when I used to go to the rocks at Montrose, I didn't swim there. The water is chilly and deep and people have drowned there over the years. When I saw the coverage of thousands of swimmers on the network news, I immediately thought: "Will they shut it down before somebody dies?" Too much of a good thing, I suppose. A victim of its own popularity. And the city HATES floatation devices. Always has.
ReplyDeleteChicago is a strange place. All sorts of illicit fun is tolerated, winked-at, and even encouraged. But good, clean fun (sorry, couldn't resist it) at the lakefront gets the heavy hand of the cops and the Park District. Hell, I've always said that if Daley had just let everybody party and sleep in the parks for a week,1968 would not have been the embarrassment that it was. But the hippies got Da Hall's Irish up...and now the yuppies are now doing the same thing, all these decades later. That's Chicago.
In the late '70s I used to swim off Diverse Harbor. No lifeguards, no cops. I survived but I am a pretty strong swiimer.
ReplyDeleteThe photos of the Friday Swim Club and their floaties reminded me of the final scenes of The Meg. Perhaps the Chicago Park District is worried about megaladon attacks.