Fence to be built around park next to South Loop School 

By Julie Sammarco 

In a brief but emotion-filled meeting held at South Loop Elementary school on Aug. 23, Chicago Public Schools (CPS) officials announced to a room packed with community members that workers will erect a fence around the perimeter of Mary Richardson Jones Park.     

            CPS officials claim the fence will increase safety for school children who play there, while some Dearborn Park II residents, who have been fighting the fence’s construction for about a year, claim the action is a "land grab" by the school and the fence will limit the neighbors’ use of the park.

            David Pickens, deputy to the CEO of CPS, opened the meeting—which lasted just 16 minutes—by declaring its purpose was to inform the community the fence will go up. He added the meeting was not an open forum, meaning officials would not answer many of the questions or hear the opinions that several community members came to express.

On hearing this, some audience members shouted, “It’s not your land,” and “Then why are we here?”

            Pickens then provided background on the fence issue. He said the CPS received a request to put up the fence from South Loop School's previous principal, after which fence construction began almost immediately. Apologizing for starting the project so hastily, he went on to say the CPS then slowed the fence building process to address confusion that many neighbors expressed about the issue.

Pickens added the CPS then gave the community an opportunity to give input in a series of meetings. Community resident Mike Shapow disagreed, however, charging, “They never talked to the community about this.”

South Loop School's current administration then sent CPS a second request for the fence, and the CPS decided to resume the project. 

"Our main concern happens to be the children of the Chicago Public Schools," Pickens said. "It is because of that that we have decided to honor the request that was made to put a fence around Mary Richardson Park.” 

            Some community members fear the park eventually may be blacktopped. Shapow said, “Ninety-eight percent of Chicago Public Schools have fences, and the majority of those schools have blacktops" within the fences. "Then the blacktops are used for parking lots, bringing more traffic to the neighborhood. What’s more unsafe than that?”

He and others expressed concern that if the park is fenced and blacktopped, it might be used as parking for Soldier Field events.

            Mary Richardson Jones Park is a public facility, and several neighbors claimed access to it will be limited to before and after school hours because during the day the park will be used by schoolchildren for recess.

“I’m just shocked that they’re doing this," said 20-year area resident John Mulopulos. "It’s a public park.” 

            Pat Adams, South Loop School Local School Council chairperson, said much of what the community has heard about the fence is unfounded.

“Rumors say that a black top will be put in, but it is not true,” Adams said. As for being able to use the park as desired, she said, “Everyone will be able to access it at all times, even during recess times,” she said.

Adams agreed with Pickens about increasing safety, saying, “The safety of our children is our number one priority” in putting up the fence.

            Shapow criticized newly elected 2nd Ward Alderman Robert Fioretti on the fence issue. During the election season, Shapow claimed, Fioretti wrote in a letter to the voters, “If a fence is necessary at the park, I would support a fence around the playground area only, not around the entire green space.” Shapow claimed that last month, however, in a letter to Arne Duncan, CEO of CPS, Fioretti wrote, “I am writing to express my support for the fence around Mary Richardson Park at South Loop School.” 

“Fioretti went against his campaign promise,” said John Mulopulos.

The intensity of community residents’ emotions about Fioretti was evident this week when his office was vandalized. Multiple copies of the letter he wrote to voters were stuck to his office walls.

             Hannah Jubeh, spokesperson for Alderman Fioretti, stated the fence issue "was above us—it was an issue that Mayor [Richard M.] Daley and the Chicago Public Schools were handling. We explained this to a community group.” 

Jubeh agreed the fence’s purpose is to protect children, noting the City is trying to prevent other incidents like that of a four-year-old girl who was struck by a car elsewhere in the city last month after she chased a tennis ball into the street. After hitting the child, the driver fled, allegedly leaving the girl unconscious with a fractured skull and pelvis and three broken ribs.