What to do About Northerly Island?

Most Chicagoans have finished laughing, crying, or both, about what happened at Northerly Island that dark night in 2003 when Meigs Field (CGX) was turned into a meadow.

What's left of the old CGX runway

If you've visited the place lately, you've seen that in spite of claims that it's now a bird sanctuary, the land is clearly available for development.  Soon we will get a chance to see what kind of development that might be.

November 10, 2009  at 6:00pm there will be a public meeting at the Spertus Institute (610 South Michigan Avenue) where architects and design firms will present their ideas for what to do with the artificial island off the coast of Grant Park.

Downtown Chicago from Northerly Island

We haven't heard anything about the proposals, but they're all expected to be along the lines of parkland preservation.  Whether that means quiet formal gardens or a Millennium Park-style Disneyscape is hard to say.  But now that city aldermen are talking openly about the possibility of putting a casino at Block 37 (108 North State Street), we can cross that off our list of conspiracy theories.