Daley: Museum critics want kids underground

I first saw this yesterday on the Capitol Fax. He's making some pretty convenient arguments in favor of this children's museum in Grant Park. It's either that those downtown dweller's either hate minority kids or they just plain hate kids. I'll let you decide if that rhetoric has value or not. Clout St:

Mayor Richard Daley said Monday that the proposed Children's Museum in Grant Park is designed to be mostly underground because opponents don't want to see children.

Daley, when questioned about the most recently proposed museum design, which placed even more of the facility beneath a green canopy, said that was done “because of the community. First of all, the community didn’t want to see the children. They didn’t want to see the children coming out of a bus, so they put them below ground, so you won’t see these kids.”

Daley went on to say: “What’s wrong with seeing children? That’s the thing I don’t understand. The community wanted them below ground, so they are on the second level of Randolph Street.”

Activists opposed to placing the museum in Daley Bicentennial Plaza—a portion of Grant Park just east of Millennium Park—have not decried the presence of children in the park, a very common sight at Millennium.

They have, however, said that putting the museum in the park would violate historic legal precedent that Grant Park remain open and clear of buildings as decided in a series of state court decisions.

And a City Planning Department spokesman said Friday they asked the museum to revise the plan to place it further underground.