Cubs may have leverage with the lure to Rosemont-it worked for others

Fri, 22 Mar 2013 06:00:00 -0500

Rosemont Cubbies.

It doesn't roll off the tongue very well.

But it has to be a consideration as Rosemont Mayor Brad Stephens is making a generous offer to the Cubs and its owner, Tom Ricketts, to acquire 25 acres of land.

The team should at the very least feign interest. Because it may bolster ongoing negotiations for Wrigley Field and the rooftop owners.

It is all politics. And all the fans can do is sit back and watch it unfold. It would not be the first time a Chicago team has tried and to some extent succeeded in using the suburbs and other locations to move.

Thirty-eight years ago, Bears owner, George Halas – unhappy with Soldier Field – allegedly had serious talks with Arlington Heights to move the team to the northwest suburbs.

The location near Arlington Park race track was more than appealing. With a train station and Route 53 at the doorstep, it was an idle location. A couple of obstacles killed the effort (high bond rate was one).

There was also the famous rant from Mayor Richard J. Daley, telling Halas the name Chicago would not be allowed for the Bears if they left the city.

It would be curious if the name topic has come up at City Hall about the Cubs. Would Mayor Rahm Emanuel make that same demand on if the Cubs took their bat and ball and move to Rosemont?

Papa Halas would threaten to move to South Bend, Ind., and Evanston before inking a long term leasing deal for Soldier Field.

As the years went by, the team was still not satisfied with their deal or the condition of the stadium. The public didn’t see the huge cracks in the foundation and the other problems of the lake front venue. Picking up with where his grandfather left off, Bears owner President Michael McCaskey had a land option in Roselle and tried again in Arlington Heights.

Other locations included Hoffman Estates, Warrenville and near O’Hare Airport. The zinger by Mayor Richard M. Daley was a good one: “They can go to Alaska.” Not having political allies thwarted those threats for the Bears. The team was rescued by Bears President Ted Phillips after he was able to hammer out a deal with the Chicago political forces that had eluded McCaskey, finally Soldier Field was renovated and reopened in 2003.

The team may well have earned political capital when they back-stepped from seeking city financing for Wrigley renovations.

However, their political fight is with 44th Ward Ald. Tom Tunney — and wrangling with the rooftop owners is now the main event. Tunney suggested on Wednesday to get rid of Wrigley’s scoreboard was one of the lamest ideas to date.

On the South Side of Chicago, the White Sox threat to move to various locations was legendary, Milwaukee, Seattle and Addison. The one location that was minutes from actual coming to fruition was the move to Tampa-St. Petersburg, Florida. Many of us were hunkered down in the press box on June 30, 1988, waiting for the Illinois legislature to vote. The deadline was midnight, at 12:03 a.m., Gov. Jim Thompson strong armed enough votes to keep the Sox in Chicago and get a new stadium.

There is no doubt the man that can come to the rescue for the Cubs is Mayor Rahm Emanuel, he could play the same role as Thompson did for the Sox.

Meanwhile, the Cubs should use the threat of a move to shake the reality of the situation to the city and the Wrigleyville neighborhood. Do the Cubs need the city and the nearly one hundred year old stadium to retain popularity? Or would a move to the ‘burbs with a new stadium near a hub of expressways and public transportation with the opportunity to make millions more dollars in revenue be intoxicating to the Ricketts and the Cubs?

The team’s deadline for a deal is coming soon-Opening Day-April 1^st no fooling.

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Chicago's Rosemont Corridor

Mon, 04 Feb 2013 07:15:00 -0600

You can find a little bit of Chicago in the strangest places.

In 1945 the federal government transferred 1,080 acres of land near Mannheim and Higgins to the City of Chicago. The site was to be used for a new commercial airfield, the future O’Hare.

Though Chicago held title to the airport land, the site itself was a few miles beyond the city limits. That fact might cause legal complications--could the Chicago police even issue parking tickets? Early in 1956, the city council opened hearings on annexing unincorporated land between the city and the airport.

Part of the plan was to annex forest preserve acreage along the Des Plaines River. The Cook County Board was controlled by Chicago Democrats, so that would be easily done.

At the same time, the city was going to annex a 66-foot-wide strip of Higgins Road. This narrow corridor would stretch from the existing Chicago border (Canfield Avenue) to the airport land (Mannheim Road). Chicago would then have a physical link with O’Hare.

Meanwhile, out on the prairie, the homesteaders in Park Ridge and Des Plaines were alarmed. Those city slickers were invading their territory. What would happen to their peaceful country lives?

Now both Park Ridge and Des Plaines began their own annexations, trying to block Chicago’s land grab. The newly-incorporated village of Rosemont followed suit. To help things along, Leyden Township officials volunteered to co-ordinate the new suburban borders.

Mayor Richard J. Daley of Chicago wasn’t about to let a few little hamlets interfere with the greater good of his city. Daley met behind closed doors with officials from the rebellious suburbs on March 28^th. When the meeting ended, the mayor announced that the matter was settled, and the Chicago annexation would go forward.

By virtue of that strip along Higgins—which was only 33-feet wide in some places—O’Hare was now connected to the City of Chicago. But the solution was only temporary. In 1959, in a different case, the Illinois Supreme Court questioned the legality of such “shoestring” annexations.

Daley didn’t wait for the court to take up the Higgins annexation. He reached a deal with Rosemont to swop the Higgins strip for a 185-foot wide strip along Foster Avenue, on Rosemont’s southern border. Now the matter really was settled.

Today there’s nothing to identify the little corridor along Foster as part of Chicago, except for a few city street lights. The old suburban street signs are still in place. And in a final bit of irony, the Rosemont land to the north has undergone massive redevelopment, while the Chicago land is occupied by single-story industrial buildings.

WBEZ | Rosemont

Cubs may have leverage with the lure to Rosemont-it worked for others

Chicago's Rosemont Corridor