Sunday, August 10, 2003
Chicago Tribune

Chicago -- I applaud the Tribune's July 20 editorial "Fixing the forest preserves," urging Gov. Rod Blagojevich to sign Senate Bill 83.

And I welcome your acknowledgment that a shortage of capital repair funds over the last decade has been a major problem.

Tax caps have crippled the Cook County Forest Preserve District's capital budget and impeded its ability to maintain its 68,000 acres and two world-class cultural institutions, Brookfield Zoo and the Chicago Botanic Garden. Tax caps were meant to slow the growth in taxes, not to halt necessary capital repairs.

Despite the severity of this unintended consequence of tax caps, further cuts and management reforms alone may not erase the need for additional resources to alleviate this problem.

Last year, in the midst of an unprecedented fiscal crisis--not unlike what Blagojevich is facing -- I made the decision to privatize the operations of our golf courses, to cut the budget by nearly $7 million and to eliminate 473 positions, nearly half of our workforce. An additional $3 million is budgeted this year to begin paying down historic deficits.

These cuts have presented our management team, led by a new general superintendent and a new chief financial officer, new challenges as they attempt to continue to implement meaningful reform.

We have managed the operations of the Forest Preserve District within the limitations of tax caps and will continue to do so. My record demonstrates that I view a property tax increase as a last resort.

The Forest Preserve District is not alone in its inability to address its capital needs. There are 16 suburban park districts that are also anxiously awaiting Blagojevich's signature as they, too, are faced with a serious capital crisis. Without this bill, the district cannot issue bonds until the year 2013. That means patrons of the forest preserves will see 10 more years of crumbling picnic shelters, potholes and closed paths and bridges.

This is an important public issue, one that should most appropriately be debated by the elected members of the Forest Preserve District Board of Commissioners. This legislation has been supported by the environmental community, private citizens, civic groups and 16 of the 17 commissioners of the current Forest Preserve District Board. The governor's signature on SB83 is necessary to begin an open and public debate in Cook County, and I look forward to working with my colleagues on the board to address this serious issue.

Chicago Tribune Editorial
July 29, 2003

When members of the Cook County Board met last week on the fate of the old county hospital, at least two questions were settled.

Can it be saved? Yes, from an engineering and financial perspective, renovation of the old hospital into lofts, offices or other commercial uses is feasible. It is no more outlandish than the conversion of the Reliance Building in the Loop into a hotel, or the Montgomery Ward's headquarters on the Near North Side into condos.

Does anyone want to do it? Again, yes. Several of the city's top developers expressed a strong interest in the project.

So the two major reasons for knocking down the building -- that it is unsuitable for other uses and would be too costly to convert -- were demolished during the presentations.

Yet the process for razing the hospital is going ahead. The board has formally approved a $2.9 million contract to a demolition and asbestos cleanup consultant and half of that money already has been disbursed. Meanwhile, interested developers have little to go on other than an offer to get a tour of the empty building next week and a promise by the county board to entertain their ideas.

The commissioners deserve credit for keeping an open mind regarding renovation of the building, but that option ought to be formalized by the issuance of a request for proposals. That will signal taxpayers and community groups, and commercial developers locally and nationwide, that their proposals and concerns will be considered as seriously as the demolition option, which has been rolling already for several years.

Ever since it commissioned a study of the condition of the old hospital in 1988, the county board has sailed forth on the assumption it would be demolished. The study determined that building a new hospital would be more practical and economical than saving the old building. That was based on cost estimates for renovation that ran as high as $200 per square foot.

But that was based on the assumption that the structure would continue to be used as a hospital. That's no longer on the table. Developers are talking about conversion into condos, rental units or offices and peg the cost at about half that $200 figure. The market appears to be there: Approximately 20,000 people, many of them professionals, work at one of the medical facilities surrounding the old hospital.

The drive to demolish the hospital building has been fueled partly by a longstanding assumption that that was the only option. The strong interest by private developers shows there are other alternatives.

County commissioners assumed demolition was the cheapest alternative. That clearly is not the case. Commercial reuse of the building would generate property taxes for the county, city and schools, and spur more development of the already bustling Near West Side.

Though the decision properly belongs with the county commissioners, there's no question that Mayor Richard Daley could have enormous influence on the building's fate. The hospital is located firmly in the heart of Chicago. So far, though, the mayor has been notably silent.

Persistent lobbying by the late Eleanor Daley was key in saving the old Chicago Public Library building. Her son is not averse to intervening in favor of preservation either, as he did during the debate over landmark designations for South Michigan Avenue and the Armitage and Halsted area. A show of support from the mayor would greatly help the effort to save this imposing building, which has played so important a role in the history of the city.