JESSE WHITE FIELD HOUSE — The Chicago Park District started the process Wednesday to rename Buckthorn Park in honor of slain Kenwood teen Hadiya Pendleton on Wednesday.
The Chicago Park District Board of Commissioners voted unanimously to start the 45-day process of changing the name of the park at 4347 S. Calumet Ave.
The change was proposed in March by Ald. Pat Dowell (3rd) to honor Hadiya, a King College Prep sophomore shot and killed in 2013 at Vivian Gordon Harsh Park.
"I think it's a phenomenal gesture to have the park named after our daughter," said Cleopatra Cowley-Pendleton, Hadiya’s mother, when the name change was first proposed.
The Park District said it plans to expand the park by nearly 2 acres, incorporating vacant lots around the quarter-acre pocket park.
The expansion was approved in 2011, but delayed while the city cleaned up areas north of the park on 43rd Street, near the former Calumet Food and Liquors.
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