Community should be able to call a cop, not Costco Security

Déjà vu all over again, as Yogi Berra might say.

          It is not so many years ago that the Gazette was writing about the City's bait-and-switch move concerning a property at Michigan Avenue and Roosevelt Road.

That was the site of a hotel whose owner wanted to do a rehab to create a much-needed low-cost alternative to expensive hotels on south Michigan Avenue. The City, however, wanted to acquire the property by eminent domain, claiming the site was needed for a jazz and blues museum. The City got its way, and before one could blink an eye the museum was forgotten and the property was conveyed to a favored developer who built a highrise residential tower on the site.

Five years ago, the City acquired a property on Ashland Avenue between 14th and 15th Streets, claiming it needed the land for a new police station. Now, however, the City wants to turn over the property to Costco for a big box retail store, with plans for an alternate site for the police station about as real as plans for the jazz and blues museum—in other words, nonexistent.

Never let it be said that the City ever met a corporation it didn't like.

We have no problem with Costco—the company is one of the better big-box retailers and is known for treating its employees fairly. We have a huge problem with the City reneging on its promise to build a new 12th District police station when the old one is tiny, outmoded, and ancient. We have an even bigger problem with the City thinking the community needs retail more than it needs the better police protection a new station will afford.

This one won't be as easy for the City as switching a highrise for a jazz and blues museum or deciding to locate a Children's Museum in Grant Park. The property in question lies within the boundaries of the Illinois Medical District (IMD) which, even though it conveyed ownership of the parcel to the City, still has jurisdiction over use of the property. Furthermore, the parcel is not big enough for a Costco, and so the City wants the IMD to turn over even more land that the City can then give away to a corporation.

We urge the IMD commissioners to stand fast and refuse to allow the parcel to be used for retail and to additionally refuse to provide more land for the sweetheart deal the City wants to provide for Costco. We urge the City to build the police station the community wants and needs. And we urge Costco to find a parcel of land elsewhere. Even within the IMD boundaries, there are many empty lots. Why go after one where the community wants a police station?

The next time there's a crime, we don't think calling a Costco security guard instead of a Chicago Police officer is going to be a reasonable alternative.