And yet...

September City Council resolution

Why is the document listed above not worth the stationery it was printed on? Why is it approaching half a year since this document was created, and the meeting hasn't even been held? It is because it is an empty promise. It doesn't say the council will convene a meeting, it doesn't specify a date, or a true function, or any commitment whatsoever.

All it says is that it would be just dandy if someone who was interested would volunteer to bring all of these people together to chat about this issue in front of the Parks & Recreation Committee.

That's why there has been no meeting and the field is halfway completed.

Well, I know I didn't vote for any one of them.

Daley and Eastwood probably didn't know about "Latin Field"

I have to revise what I wrote earlier: I sat in on the LPAC meeting Wednesday, Jan. 9, and Chuck Eastwood was there. At the meeting, everyone in the group -- with a good deal of sincerity and feeling -- explained how they were duped as well about the soccer field.

They said that Jim Chronis of the Park District came to them in September, 2006 -- three months before the clandestine agreement was signed -- and gave an apparently benign dog-and-pony presentation about five new soccer fields that the district was planning citywide. Asked directly by LPAC whether one of these fields was contemplated for Lincoln Park, Chronis emphasized very clearly that Lincoln Park was not currently on the list. That, Chuck and other LPAC members stated, was the last they heard of soccer fields until after the election. The only public notice ever made was a small ad in the back of the Sun-Times, that only mentioned a Park District meeting (where, we now now, the vote was quietly passed) -- and nothing else. I spoke with Chuck after the meeting and he really was sincere.

But this is not to let Vi Daley and Chuck Eastwood off the hook. They are still responsible. They could have changed things, even after the fact. They could have, and should have, stood up to the clandestine deal, just as Brendan Reilly is doing with the Children's Museum. They had three avenues of authority at their disposal, and a moral obligation. But they are politically fearful of both Mayor Daley's people and powerful Latin School parents. That is the worst possible excuse.

The actions of the "Machine progressives" speak volumes

Just a quick sanity check (in case it isn't obvious to the world) regarding the growing controversy about the Latin School soccer field deal:

43rd Ward Alderman Vi Daley and her chief of staff, Chuck Eastwood, claim they knew nothing about the agreement between Park District officials and Latin School (signed in December, 2006). The development is in Vi Daley's ward. Chuck Eastwood sits on the Lincoln Park Advisory Council, a group that should have been in the loop. Logically speaking, they should be outraged by this sleight of hand. Yet, although they momentarily expressed a kind of belated surprise, they have expressed no outrage at all.

This is prima facie evidence that they knew all about the deal beforehand. What else would explain their quiet acceptance of the deal?

And now it's blowing up in their faces.

There's nothing democratic about sleazy backroom deals. Yet Chuck wants us to vote for him to be our "democratic" ward committeeman next month. How will you vote?