If I can get that land for a buck it won't take me long to raise the money to build something on it.

And now you're going to compare a paean to the ego of a movie maker to real museums.

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Ecclesiastes 5:8

I understand it had his name on it like almost all museums have the name of the founder but how was it not a real museuem?

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You do not talk to me like that! I work too hard to deal with this stuff! I work too hard! I'm an important member of the CSFMB! I drive a Dodge Stratus!

It's a commercial vanity project. It's not a civic-minded endeavor. And it shouldn't be compared to Marshall Field donating to support an educational museum. This is more like if Field had created a Museum of Retail with all kinds of exhibits aggrandizing himself and a mini-Fields in the lobby. If Lucas wants to build a monument to Star Wars he should buy the land and build it.

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I'm not 100% sure this is true. The Rams, who had already moved to Anaheim because the L.A. Coliseum was a dump, moved to St. Louis because Georgia Frontiere, who definitely had nothing at all to do with her husband drowning, wanted to move the team to her hometown and sabotaged the team in order to facilitate the move. Bitter Raiders fans have come up with this narrative that L.A. was a Raiders town and had rejected the Rams, and while that may have been true to some extent of the city itself (such as it is), Raiders attendance always sucked. Los Angeles supported the Rams well enough for years.

Trying to split Los Angeles between the Rams, the Chargers, the Las Vegas Raiders, and the teams everyone likes from back home is going to be absolutely disastrous. The NFL got greedy and fucked this whole thing up. The Rams should have had Los Angeles to themselves because of how touchy the L.A. market still is after two decades with no NFL and all the other mitigating factors. Not only do locals not seem to want the Chargers very much, a lot of people are pissed that the Chargers have been thrust upon them the way they were. I can't remember another instance where a city's sports fans have more or less told a team to go back where it came from.

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There are MANY locations in Chicago that Lucas could've choose from. Specifically, the West side and South side of Chicago would have warmly welcomed his museum, especially since his wife was so concerned about brown and black children having access to museum's collection.

It isn't a Star Wars museum. Of course there will be Star Wars things in it. If there already was a museum like this then Star Wars stuff would be in that. It will cover many other subjects that are relevant. It's hard to take the criticism seriously of this museum when you intentionally mislead about what the museum actually was.

As for the Fields, they are all over the Field Museum, and they literally controlled it for decades. Ironically, nearly the exact same battle existed back then too. I'm sure Chicago would be much better off if that had gone the other way. http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/opinion/commentary/ct-perspec-flash-moguls-0529-md-20160526-story.html

I hope you enjoy the parking lot!

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You do not talk to me like that! I work too hard to deal with this stuff! I work too hard! I'm an important member of the CSFMB! I drive a Dodge Stratus!

They could have built the Field Museum there too! Now, the Field Museum is one of the things that defines one of the most popular areas in the city.

But hey, that parking lot certainly is nice too!

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You do not talk to me like that! I work too hard to deal with this stuff! I work too hard! I'm an important member of the CSFMB! I drive a Dodge Stratus!

Okay.

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Ecclesiastes 5:8

That must be BRick's quote because it sure isn't mine.

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Ecclesiastes 5:8

Ya, sorry.

It literally isn't.

Do you also have a problem with the Motown Museum? It was founded by the Gordy family. Was that just a commercial vanity project?

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You do not talk to me like that! I work too hard to deal with this stuff! I work too hard! I'm an important member of the CSFMB! I drive a Dodge Stratus!

JORR, if you could play God/Daniel Burnham, what would you develop the parking lot into? Would you revert it to parkland? Just curious because I think we need to chip away at this false binary of Star Wars junk versus parking lot.

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The problem is a benefactor can not dictate where he wants the museum simply because he's footing the bill.

It's not false. There is NO plan to do anything with it besides it being a parking lot. In twenty years, it will likely be a parking lot especially since it seems like the Obama library has no shot at being there either.

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You do not talk to me like that! I work too hard to deal with this stuff! I work too hard! I'm an important member of the CSFMB! I drive a Dodge Stratus!

Of course it is. Yeah, the guy wants to put some of his Norman Rockwell crap in there too. Great. He never gave you anything other than vague plans about what was really going to be in there.



I'd have a problem with it if it was built on free public land, particularly on the lakefront.

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Ecclesiastes 5:8

Within reason he certainly can. They tried a few different options and all got shot down. The city has the right to say no and the benefactor has the right to take his museum someplace else.

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You do not talk to me like that! I work too hard to deal with this stuff! I work too hard! I'm an important member of the CSFMB! I drive a Dodge Stratus!

Ideally it would be converted to green space, but even if it remains a parking lot that's a vast improvement over some giant structure with a 75 year free lease blocking views of the lake.

Whether Rick understands it or not, the little guy won this one. That's something that rarely happens in Chicago.

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Ecclesiastes 5:8

Very wrong. The lakefront was his only choice. Just like in San Francisco he only wanted to steal park land too.

The website has some pretty good details. I would recommend reading it.
So you don't care that it is a commercial vanity project?

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You do not talk to me like that! I work too hard to deal with this stuff! I work too hard! I'm an important member of the CSFMB! I drive a Dodge Stratus!

I think parkland would be my ideal choice too. I thought maybe a new MCA would be neat because I think the current MCA is ugly, but a new one would probably be worse. The Star Wars museum looked like the smokestack of a nuclear plant had melted.

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The friends of the park also promised to fight against the alternative locations unless they were in the middle of nowhere.

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You do not talk to me like that! I work too hard to deal with this stuff! I work too hard! I'm an important member of the CSFMB! I drive a Dodge Stratus!

Don't let the door hit the "benefactor" in the ass on his way back to San Francisco. Maybe he can build that shit on Alcatraz.

If I can get that land for a buck I'm proposing a Hamburger Museum. I have a meeting out in Oak Brook this morning and I'm getting together to discuss it with the Telegram Sam family this afternoon. At least we're keeping it local.

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Ecclesiastes 5:8

I hope the little guy enjoys the parking lot!

It's a shame that Montgomery Ward wasn't able to stop Field from putting his museum on the lakefront too! Imagine how many more parking lots we could have!

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You do not talk to me like that! I work too hard to deal with this stuff! I work too hard! I'm an important member of the CSFMB! I drive a Dodge Stratus!

The beauty of purchasing private property instead of seeking a public handout! No need to involve Friends of the Parks!

So who is the intentionally obtuse one now?

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You do not talk to me like that! I work too hard to deal with this stuff! I work too hard! I'm an important member of the CSFMB! I drive a Dodge Stratus!

Do you really find Stars Wars more scintillating than hamburgers? Personally, I do not.

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Ecclesiastes 5:8

The museum was about much more than Star Wars.

Now, if you were talking about a culinary museum and a billion dollars of your own money then we can talk.

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You do not talk to me like that! I work too hard to deal with this stuff! I work too hard! I'm an important member of the CSFMB! I drive a Dodge Stratus!

We could have had the Kroc-JORR Museum of Hamburger Art but Joan wasted all her money on NPR.

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When are the Friends of the Park going to sue about the Field Museum?

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You do not talk to me like that! I work too hard to deal with this stuff! I work too hard! I'm an important member of the CSFMB! I drive a Dodge Stratus!

Could you expound on that?

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Ecclesiastes 5:8