Obamabucks are headed to Chicago…<\/p>\n
The city is borrowing $100 million to build a 6 block long park along the sewer known as the Chicago River.<\/p>\n
The River originally collected sewage and storm runoff and dumped it into Lake Michigan. Since the lake was also the city’s water source, it was realized at some point this was not a clever idea. About 100 years ago, the Federal government came up with a plan to lower the river and instead divert the sewage and industrial pollution southward and ultimately into the Mississippi River. Another fairly recent project is trying to deal with overflowing during storms in the broader Chucago area.<\/p>\n
The Chicago River is the North and West boundary of the Loop and Lake Michigan to the East. The Sothern Boundary is less defined, but generally around Roosevelt.<\/p>\n
So the Obama folks are agreeing to a $100 million loan + interest to build a 6 block park – the 35 year loan will be paid back by a tax paid by the two companies that currently run boat tours to tourists. When you ride those boats, you go down steps from Michigan Avenue to the same general area where the park will be.<\/p>\n
In this video, the general area around 15:00 in – they’re approaching the lake street “el” bridge, and they turn around. Lower Wacker Drive is on the right and the area is not park-like as much of the early footage was – the park site continues on the right side for most of the rest of the video.<\/p>\n