The Shedd Aquarium has proposed a new admission policy giving Chicago residents discounts of up to 37 percent. Aquarium officials argue Chicagoans should get a price break because their local property taxes partially support the aquarium and eight other city museums.
As a Chicagoan, I welcome this break and look forward to paying $5 to visit this Chicago treasure, while friends from Geneva, Evanston and Oak Park get soaked for $8. But I also worry that this new form of discrimination could escalate into the metropolitan equivalent of a trade war that would further balkanize our region.
If the Shedd’s proposal is approved and proves successful, no doubt other Chicago museums whose budgets are supported by local tax dollars will be tempted to raise their admission prices for suburbanites and other non-residents. This domino effect could surely spread to revenue-starved attractions such as the Lincoln Park Zoo, the Peggy Notebaert Nature Museum, Chicago Historical Society and others. Why, the trend might even extend to Chicago institutions like the Chicago Symphony, the Lyric Opera and the Auditorium Theater. But then the CSO and the Lyric may think twice about discriminating against those from Lake Forest or Kenilworth who are regular sustaining members donating millions annually through charitable contributions.
Surely politicians in the collar counties will be pressured to respond to the price-gouging by Chicago attractions. If you think retaliation is unlikely, consider the ongoing battle royal over the expansion of O’Hare. Imagine the elements of the plans for retaliation that might be hatched by a coalition of angry suburbanites. Admission fees for the Morton Arboretum and the Botanical Garden would be boosted for all residents of Chicago. Suburban golf courses might exact increased green fees for those with a City of Chicago sticker on their vehicle windshield. And attractions as varied as the Kane County Cougars, the Ravinia Festival and the Holiday Star Theater might institute a special “Chicagoan excise fee.”
Oh, this is surely a price-discrimination war we don’t want to start because Chicago would clearly have to respond to the retaliation. Like the “mutually assured destruction” (MAD) theory of nuclear deterrence, Chicago’s next step would have to be swift and dramatic. Toll booths would be erected at the city limits where suburbanites would buy day passes for all cultural attractions. This one-stop admission ticket would include the special non-Chicagoan excise fee for police and fire protection as well as a special assessment for the new Millennium Park.
And ultimately Chicago would operate like a giant theme park, a grand Disney World or Great America, where visitors would pay one flat exorbitant price for one-day admission to the Aquarium, the Planetarium, the Art Institute, Navy Pier and all the other attractions that make Chicago so special.
All in all, the timing of this proposed Chicago resident discount couldn’t be worse. As urban planners dream and scheme over a regional plan to bring us all together, our Chicago metropolitan area is being balkanized by forces both symbolic and very real. These forces continue to tear at the fabric of our entire region at a time when a unified voice and strategic coalitions would yield enormous gains.
Examples of the forces balkanizing our region are everywhere. Petty we-they, city-suburbs squabbles over O’Hare have resulted in political gridlock over a regional aviation plan.
Round-the-clock rush-hour gridlock both ways has converted the city and the suburbs into virtual islands separated by an ever-widening gulf of frustration.
Area-code proliferation is a taunting symbol of the balkanizing of our region, as the simple 312/708 dichotomy has now splintered into half a dozen codes.
Even our politics are woefully fragmented, with more than 1,200 taxing districts in the six-county metropolitan region. In the context of all these divisive forces, the Chicago discount also might be viewed as a punitive surcharge on suburbanites, yet another wedge splitting our metropolitan region apart.
So as much as I’d enjoy taking advantage of my discount, I’ll gladly forgo the $3 per visit price break at the aquarium to spare our suburban neighbors those annoying toll booths at the city limits.
