Tuesday, October 22, 2013

O'Shea Delivers!

SUCCEEDS WHERE OTHERS HAVE FAILED


At a press conference on Oct. 12, Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel, Chicago Park District (CPD) Superintendent Mike Kelly and 19th Ward Ald. Matt O’Shea announced that property on the southeast corner of 115th Street and Western Avenue will be redeveloped to offer local athletes a venue for gymnastics—and ice skating—in the Beverly/Morgan Park neighborhood.
The Morgan Park Sports Center will be the first and only gymnastics center and indoor ice skating rink in the city of Chicago, Emanuel said, and it couldn’t be built in a better spot.
“If I heard once I heard a thousand times about the need for an ice skating rink and for a gymnastics center here on the Southwest Side in the Beverly community,” Emanuel said. “It should be where people have been asking for this. … I think after 30 years we can have a development that actually represents the community. So this dream deferred is a dream delivered.”
According to Emanuel, the sports center has been on O’Shea’s wish list since before the alderman was sworn into office in 2011. The center will be built on property that has been vacant since 1981, Emanuel said. The property on the northeast corner of 115th and Western, which will accommodate the center’s parking lot, has been vacant since 1985.
O’Shea concurred with the mayor’s remarks, telling the hundreds of people in attendance that developing the two vacant lots has been one of his administration’s top priorities.
“Right now, we are standing on more than two-and-a-half acres of blight,” O’Shea said. “What’s worse, we’ve lived with this problem since the Reagan administration. Today, thanks to the Emanuel administration, we’re finally going to do something about it.”
According to a news release from the mayor’s press office, construction of the 55,000-square-foot complex is slated to begin in the summer of 2014 with a target completion date of summer 2015.
The indoor ice rink will accommodate year-round competitive hockey, figure and recreational skating with a National Hockey League regulation-sized rink measuring 85 feet by 200 feet. Currently, the park district operates one other indoor ice skating rink at McFettridge Park, 3843 N. California Ave.
The gymnastics side of the complex, featuring a large pit area and in-ground trampolines, will be equipped to host training opportunities and USA Gymnastics competitions for youths and adults. The park district currently operates eight other gymnastics centers in the city.
Other features of the complex include a concessions area, meeting and party rooms, viewing areas to accommodate 1,200 spectators, offices and team locker rooms.
According to O’Shea, the center will be a state-of-the-art facility that will offer local residents the type of “recreational development that matches the superior caliber of our residential housing stock.”
In addition, O’Shea said, the center is a public investment that creates sorely needed jobs and will serve as a major economic engine for the region.
According to O’Shea, the concept of a sports complex at the corner of 115th and Western has been in the works since the days of former aldermen Mike Sheahan and Ginger Rugai. In recent years, O’Shea had proposed installing a “passive greenspace” on the south lot that could be used for lacrosse, soccer and other youth activities until funding was available to build the facility.
The sports center is expected to cost approximately $12 million, O’Shea said, using approximately $8 million in combined monies from the state capital bill, the park district and existing tax increment financing (TIF) funds. The remaining $4 million, he said, will be financed, and future TIF funds will be used to pay off those loans.
With preliminary financing in place, the city’s next order of business will be closing 115th Street to through traffic from Western Avenue—a caveat of the development from the beginning, O’Shea said. Creating a cul-de-sac on 115th Street east of the parking lot, officials said, will allow patrons to access the sports center from the parking lot without crossing a street laden with heavy traffic.
O’Shea said he conducted a survey this summer in which 60 percent of the respondents said they would be in favor of closing the street to help spur redevelopment of the corner.

20 comments:

  1. Anonymous10/22/2013

    I am glad to hear that this area of blight will be fixed. I would not overstate how great this is for the average 19th Warder. Most of us do not have kids in hockey programs....yes there are some....but it is not the top sport or even the second or third most participated in sport activity among the 19th Ward youth. Lets not give O'Shea the keys to the city over it. Also, I am sure Rugai was working on this for years and it probably would have happened already were it not for the economic tsunami of 2008. O'Shea LOVES Obama....I have heard him talk. It is a shame that he is a koolaid drinker for the leftist Democrats. Whatever happened to the middle of the road reasonable 19th Ward Democrats?

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    1. Anonymous10/22/2013

      Matt is anything but a leftist.

      Delete
    2. Anonymous10/22/2013

      I did not say he was a leftist....but he is in the tank 100 percent for the Democratic Party (who are incidentally being run by the most far left President in our history, including Carter). Matt supports Rahm, he supports Dickie Durbin two of the more liberal politicians in our state history. They make Paul Simon look moderate. Matt works hard. I respect him. But when they tell him to jump...he will say the words we all know..."how high". He will harvest the votes of the 19th Ward saps who think their unions give a crap about them. Those votes will go to support Quinn (activist liberal, taxaholic), Durbin, Obama, etc....And he may be anything but a leftist....but he sure supports every last one of them....and unfortunately so do we in "The Formerly Fighting 19th"

      Delete
  2. Anonymous10/22/2013

    Should work out as well as the BAC!
    Hey, I know, raise my cable tax to pay for it.
    Glad I don't smoke, let someone else pay for the poor's eyecare. Wait a minute, wasn't Obamacare supposed to take care of that?
    Its good to see that real estate project on 103rd is back in business. Hold it, someone didn't get paid off, union on strike.
    The city that works, for a few.

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  3. Anonymous10/22/2013

    Way to go Matt. Ginger couldn't get anything done.she cared about wax red brick. Look at 95th. Bunch of vacant red brick buildings.

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  4. Anonymous10/22/2013

    He delivers alright! Speed cameras, higher fees, higher city stickers.

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    Replies
    1. Anonymous10/23/2013

      None of it his idea.

      Delete
  5. Anonymous10/22/2013

    He seems to deliver, work hard, and has the general support of us "liberals" and some of you conservatives. I think we liberals and conservatives all oppose those accursed photo enforcement machines. And what is with the over-eagerness to ticket people in our ward? Is it because our demographic is more apt to pay?

    Best of luck with all of this ward's endeavors!

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  6. Anonymous10/22/2013

    I cant waits to shoot some hoop.

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    Replies
    1. Anonymous10/23/2013

      Hockey not basketball you idiot.

      Delete
    2. Anonymous10/23/2013

      Why didn't he say these lots have been vacant since 1985, the Harold Washington administration? Why was it the "Reagan administration"?
      Because like Obama and the bleeding heart leftists, it's easier to blame Republicans for all of society's ills. He pats Emanuel on the back while throwing a shot at Reagan. Like Reagan was the reason for the vacant lots.
      If he was only using it as a timeline as I'm sure some apologists will say, he would've said Washington's administration.

      Delete
    3. Anonymous10/23/2013

      Yeah hockey.....the least played sport in our neighborhood....and that probably includes lacrosse too.

      Delete
  7. Anonymous10/23/2013

    You should really attribute where the information you are posting is coming from; in this case, it's The Beverly Review.

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    1. I do not know where this information came from. One of the news wires perhaps who may have lifted it from the Beverly Review. In the event I use a story from the BR, by all means, I will attribute it.

      The Beverly Review is a great paper which provides an immeasurable amount of valuable information and does so much to create good will. I am a faithful subscriber and I encourage every household in the neighborhood to subscribe.

      Delete
  8. Anonymous10/24/2013

    Way to go Matt. However, at present the ward needs to know where you,Cunningham Kelly-Burks are on the gay marriage issue. In fact, perhaps the whole 19th ward office including staff as well as former elected officials should go on the record.

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    1. Anonymous10/24/2013

      I am not entirely sure this is an aldermanic issue. I would sincerely hope that Matt supports gay rights in a broad sense and gay marriage in a general sense. I supposed that Matt was in favor of gay marriage.

      Delete
    2. Anonymous10/25/2013

      The city is broke, pension crisis looming, BAC in default, so let's discuss gay rights. Is it any wonder why we continually elect inept lifetime political cronies who keep screwing us? You people keep missing the point; WHERE"S THE MONEY COMING FROM??!??!??
      Why is this your big issue, is it a religious thing? You elected an abortionist president, how does that sit with your religion? Your party supports abortion and birth control for teenagers. Your hallowed Notre Dame covers up its religious icons when your leader comes to give a speech. And awards him a degree!
      You know where the 19th Ward officials stand on gay marriage, right next to your president and governor.

      Delete
  9. I did not vote for the man, but from where I sit (I've worked with him and his office on an ongoing matter) he's delivering in spades, running circles around his old mentor. Everything he does won't be perfect, but he's truly on "on the ground" pol, and he's accessible. His stance on gay marriage has nothing to do with anything.

    As far as BAC goes -- what is your problem? Would you rather that lots stay vacant?

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    1. Anonymous10/26/2013

      "As far as BAC goes -- what is your problem? Would you rather that lots stay vacant?"

      Your right, the solution is to drop a big tax payer funded non-viable white elephant on all the empty lots.

      You want to ice skate, flood the empty Borders parking lot this winter. Put some mats down in that empty shell and do gymnastics.

      Take off the rose colored glasses Mary, your property taxes are going up again! Morons

      Delete
  10. Put down the shotgun. Tell me what BAC has cost you. Tell me what this new complex will cost you. Nothing. Last time I looked, there are no property tax increases in Tiny Dancer's budget. Hey, better look -- I think there's some kids on your lawn; time to yell "Get off my lawn."

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