The Chicago World`s Fair 1992 Authority has approved what is billed as the ”final” plan for the Fair. It is not quite that–for one thing, it must still be approved by Mayor Washington, the city council and Gov. Thompson–but it is an encouragingly long step toward the goal.
As outlined by Executive Director James Compton, the plan is a sharply scaled-down version aimed at cutting projected costs and thus increasing the hoped-for gains. It emphasizes permanent benefits in the shape of
neighborhoods rebuilt or opened up to pedestrian traffic. And because the new plan calls for only 47 acres of landfill at Burnham Harbor instead of 180, it eases worries about interfering with the lake`s ecology.
The Fair`s ”core” site at Burnham Harbor would itself be reduced from 575 acres to 522. A number of possible satellite sites are mentioned, including Navy Pier, the Prairie Avenue historic district and a stretch of what is now railroad yards along the south branch of the Chicago River. The point is to redevelop these sites permanently as cultural, sports or entertainment facilities. But as the 88-page plan makes clear, the satellite sites need not be limited to the central city or even the metropolitan area;
Downstate too might have its share of them.
These changes from earlier plans give the Fair a more promising look. They attack the main objections: that a world`s fair would cost too much for the benefits, that landfill on a huge scale would damage the lake and that only central-area Chicago would gain from it.
That does not mean the opponents are satisfied. Critics of the plan range across the Chicago political spectrum from Mayor Washington–who suspects that arrangements for the Fair are being hustled out of his hands–to Ald. Bernard Stone (50th), who calls the new plan ”totally unacceptable.” (For Mr. Stone, any proposals other than his own are unacceptable. And his own proposals are simply wacky.)
The objections are of various kinds. Some are genuine, based on analyses
(right or wrong) of costs and benefits; others show only a determination on somebody`s part that some political enemy shall not have his way, Fair or no Fair.
The serious objections still must be sorted out from the frivolous ones, and answered in detail. The new plan should make that process easier; at least it makes the target a lot smaller.
