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Lucas Museum Advocates Demand Jobs, Protest Against Friends Of The Parks

By Ted Cox | May 19, 2016 2:26pm
 Protesters used the highly detested
Protesters used the highly detested "Star Wars" character Jar Jar Binks to lampoon Friends of the Parks.
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DNAinfo/Ted Cox

THE LOOP — Dozens of advocates of the Lucas Museum protested Thursday outside the offices of Friends of the Parks to call on the group to drop its resistance to filmmaker George Lucas' project.

"It is important that the Friends of the Parks become our allies rather than Public Enemy No. 1," said the Rev. Leon Finney, pastor of the Metropolitan Apostolic Community Church and organizer of the Coalition 2 Build the Lucas Museum.

"Get out of the way! Stop the delay! We're not going away! We will be back time and time again until you deal with the will of the people," he said.

Sporting a hard hat and a safety vest along with dozens of others, Finney led chants of "We want jobs" and "Jobs over land."

 The Rev. Leon Finney donned a hard hat and a safety vest to call for construction jobs in building the Lucas Museum.
The Rev. Leon Finney donned a hard hat and a safety vest to call for construction jobs in building the Lucas Museum.
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DNAinfo/Ted Cox

Finney insisted the Lucas Museum of Narrative Art would add $800 million a year to the local economy in tourism. "Chicago needs the economic stimulus that would come from this museum," he said.

"The goal of this protest is to let Friends of the Parks know that we will not back down from supporting the Lucas Museum," Finney said ahead of the march. "Our young professionals and people of color need viable, well-paying jobs, and this project will provide that. We need the whole community to understand that we will always prioritize lives over land.

"In addition to the fact that the Lucas Museum will bring 1,500 high-paying technical and service jobs to our community, as well as 8,000 construction jobs," Finney added, “the entire community will benefit from the museum being built at the currently proposed location, McCormick Place East."

Friends of the Parks has thus far been successful at blocking construction of the museum. A suit filed by the group held up construction at the originally selected site, a Soldier Field parking lot between the stadium and McCormick Place East, also known as Lakeside Center. It suspended the suit when Mayor Rahm Emanuel suggested moving the museum onto the Lakeside Center site, only to reassert its opposition to either location along the lakefront.

For that, the group has already been targeted by museum advocates, who protested outside its Loop headquarters earlier this month on what's commonly called "Star Wars Day" by fans of the George Lucas movie franchise.

Although Lucas selected Chicago as the location for his Museum of Narrative Art, influenced by his wife, Chicago financier Mellody Hobson, reports have recently suggested he's reconsidering a shift back to San Francisco in the face of the opposition in Chicago.

Hobson recently blasted Friends of the Parks, calling it "a small special-interest group."

Mayor Rahm Emanuel has insisted the public supports the museum, and he continues to fight for it.

Friends of the Parks has defended a ban on development east of Lake Shore Drive, and based its suit on a public-trust doctrine, as the land east of the Drive in the Museum Campus is on a landfill protected by the state. The group has suggested other locations, including the old Michael Reese Hospital site to the south of McCormick Place.

Friends of the Parks did not respond to requests for comment on the protest.

"We will be back time after time after time after time until we win," Finney said.

"This is an unparalleled opportunity for our city, a billion-dollar gift," said Steve Compton, who identified himself as a "Star Wars" fan, complete with light saber. "May the force be with Chicago."

 

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