An entertaining piece from today's Sun Times.

http://www.suntimes.com/news/neighbo...oods21.article

Moms vs. mayor
NEW EAST SIDE | 'Who is he to say we're racist. He grew up in Bridgeport. Please. Give me a friggin' break.'

September 21, 2007
BY MARK KONKOL
A bunch of mommies from the New East Side want Mayor Daley to walk his "large tuchus" over to their neighborhood and call them racists to their face.
They don't take kindly to Daley's suggestion this week that they're a bunch of elitist bigots who hate kids because they don't want his wealthy pals to put their pet project, the Chicago Children's Museum, in a tiny corner of Grant Park. What they don't want is more traffic and less of a park, they say, and there's nothing racist about that.
They don't take kindly to Daley's suggestion this week that they're a bunch of elitist bigots who hate kids because they don't want his wealthy pals to put their pet project, the Chicago Children's Museum, in a tiny corner of Grant Park. What they don't want is more traffic and less of a park, they say, and there's nothing racist about that.
"I'm really pissed off and I'm kind of heartbroken the mayor would say something like that about us," says Susana Cuadros, a New East Side mommy.

What's in the New East Side?
This former railyard is now home to a few hotels, chi chi restaurants, plenty of businesses and high-rises with pretty spectacular views.

"I'm really pissed off and I'm kind of heartbroken the mayor would say something like that about us," says Susana Cuadros, a New East Side mommy.
And the irony that Daley comes from a neighborhood that doesn't like to be reminded of its reputation for being unkind to outsiders -- especially black ones -- isn't lost on them.
"Who is he to say we're racist. He grew up in Bridgeport. Please. Give me a friggin' break," say Ariel Elliott, a black mother of three girls. "He owes the neighborhood an apology, or better yet, me personally.
"I don't think he knows about our neighborhood. I mean, has he walked his large tuchus over here to see the place? He has no clue."
If she's right, you can't really blame Daley for that. Most people didn't even know the patch of high-rises between the river and Randolph from Michigan to Lake Shore Drive had a name before this museum fiasco.
Besides, there's really no reason to visit New East Side -- not to be confused with the original East Side, down around 106th and Ewing -- unless it's to get your car out of the city pound.
And until you walk around there, it wouldn't be unreasonable to think the towers overlooking Grant Park were home to only rich white folks.
The 60601 ZIP code, which includes the New East Side, is 65 percent white, 14 percent Asian, 11 percent black and 8 percent Hispanic. It's the second-richest postal district with more than 200 residents in the city, according to Claritas, Inc., a demographic research firm. (The richest is 60606, in the Loop.) Claritas defines the 60601 "lifestyle" as a healthy mix of working class bohemians, young over-achievers and wealthy empty-nesters. You can buy a condo in the sky for more than a million bucks, or rent a modest place for about $1,000 a month.
But those numbers tell just part of the story, the moms say.
"Sit in the park, and you'll see there's more diversity here than anywhere else," says Monique Boyer, who's black. "This isn't just part of Grant Park. ... It's the open space where our children can play."
It's where Katsue Katattira comes to socialize, find out the scoop on the best schools and park programs. It's not all white. She's Japanese and loves the neighborhood's diversity.
"You see so much a mix down here, and he call us racist. The mayor not study much. Do we look racist?" Katattira says, while heading to the park with her rainbow coalition of pals.
Elliott, a former Chicago public school teacher, says she moved to the New East Side from the South Loop so her girls could grow up in a more accepting environment.
"We lived down the street from the mayor. We walked past his little sleeping cop parked outside his window, and we moved because it was so uncomfortable," she says. "My kids will tell you: The white kids played with the white kids, and the black kids played with the black kids over there. That's why we moved here."
The land slated for the museum would take that away, the mothers say. Not to mention it would bring more traffic and congestion to a neighborhood that pretty much has one way in and one way out -- Randolph Street. They're worried that school buses and carpoolers and suburbanites who don't know their way around the city will turn their stretch of Randolph into a parking lot. Traffic is a real issue. Chicago is the second-most congested city in the nation, according to a national transportation study released Tuesday.
Daley didn't have to make the children's museum into a stand against racial injustice, or some pretend "fight for the future of this city."
That's preposterous. It's a museum where kids can play grocery store, for crying out loud. There's no need for our mayor to play the race card, when any ol' trump card would do.
It's probably too much to ask, but Daley could have been honest and say he wants the museum there "because I said so."
Any mom can relate to that.

MOMS
VS.
MAYOR

Great article! I have forwarded to several people. Thanks for sharing.

By the way, isn't it the New Eastside - not New East Side ?

Mark writes: "Most people didn't even know the patch of high-rises between the river and Randolph from Michigan to Lake Shore Drive had a name before this museum fiasco."

And to add to it, oftentimes people don't get the name right!