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City Drags Feet on Lucas Museum Suit as Construction Waits

By Ted Cox | March 9, 2016 12:32pm | Updated on March 9, 2016 2:13pm
 The city insists it's eager to start construction on the Lucas Museum, even as it drags its feet on a suit filed by Friends of the Parks.
The city insists it's eager to start construction on the Lucas Museum, even as it drags its feet on a suit filed by Friends of the Parks.
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Lucas Museum of Narrative Art

THE LOOP — A federal judge was confounded Wednesday as the city dragged its feet on the Lucas Museum lawsuit after insisting it was eager to get construction started.

Sean Morales-Doyle, attorney for Friends of the Parks, complained in a court hearing Wednesday that the city, the Park District and the Lucas Museum of Narrative Art were not complying with requests to turn over information to the park advocacy group as part of the lawsuit.

That left Judge John Darrah puzzled.

"I don't understand the reluctance to produce this information," Darrah said.

Sydney Schneider, an attorney representing the city, said it is "doing the best we can" to respond to Friends of the Parks' legal request, to which Darrah responded, "Why don't you just turn it all over?

"Chicagoans should be concerned about the city's basic lack of transparency on this matter," says Juanita Irizarry, executive director of Friends of the Parks.
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DNAinfo/Ted Cox

"What's the secret?" Darrah said.

Morales-Doyle said Friends of the Parks seeks documents on "whether the public-trust doctrine is being served" by the museum's construction on lakefront property between Solder Field and McCormick Place, "or really serves a private interest," namely that of museum founder George Lucas, the "Star Wars" Hollywood movie mogul.

In its bid to keep the museum from being located on parkland, Friends of the Parks would love to find documents of any sort suggesting the museum location was negotiated between Mayor Rahm Emanuel's administration and Lucas Museum officials without regard to the public benefit.

"Chicagoans should be concerned about the city's basic lack of transparency on this matter," Juanita Irizarry, executive director of Friends of the Parks, said after Wednesday's hearing.

Schneider said the city objects to the number of documents sought by Friends of the Parks, which Darrah rejected.

"The idea of the public good permeates the entire case [and] should be a matter of public record," he said.

He added that "taking your time" to get it right, as Schneider suggested, ran counter to the city's earlier urgency to get construction started. "It's in your client's interest," Darrah said.

Mayor Rahm Emanuel later Wednesday denied the city was dragging its feet on the suit.

"If anything, I'd like to start digging and building," he said at an unrelated event at CTA Headquarters. "I think that's everybody's desire."

Emanuel said the museum would "add to the cultural enrichment and educational enrichment of the City of Chicago," adding, "My goal is to keep the museum here.

"I know other cities are competing for that opportunity," he said.

The next hearing in the case is scheduled for April 12. In the meantime, Darrah's order preventing construction on the museum from starting still stands.

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