Wrigley Expansion Still Faces Community Opposition
Residents Will Vote On A Nonbinding Referendum On Election Day

POSTED: 4:14 p.m. CST March 15, 2002
UPDATED: 6:31 a.m. CST March 16, 2002

CHICAGO -- Two ads that appeared in Chicago newspapers on Friday are the latest curve ball thrown at the Wrigley Field expansion proposal. The ads are an open letter to Mayor Richard Daley and were placed by residents in the Lake View neighborhood who are crying "foul" over the current plan. They claim that not everyone is supporting the project.

NBC5's Mat Garcia spoke with community members who are taking their fight to the mayor.

"Let's make it good for everybody," said Charlotte Newfeld, who opposes the current plan. "That's what we're here to do."

The Lakeview Citizen's Council, a nonprofit group, and eight other community organizations paid a total of $25,000 for the two ads, which call on Mayor Richard Daley and to clear up what the LVCC calls a misperception of community support for the Tribune Co.'s expansion plan at a public meeting last week at LeMoyne School."

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"We have anecdotal information that says the Tribune Co. actively solicited people to come to the meeting (at LaMoyne)," Gregg Kiriazes of the LVCC said.

Through the open letter, the council wanted to inform the mayor that there are thousands of residents that do not support the latest plan. Garcia reported that the current proposal calls for adding 2,000 more bleacher seats and additional night games, without first addressing issues such as traffic congestion and public safety first.

Tribune Co. officials would not comment on the ads.

David Mimick, a Lake View resident who attended the meeting, said that the notion that the Tribune Co. stacked the meeting with it's own people is absurd.

"I had the opportunity to speak just like every other citizen," Mimick said. "Everyone who wanted to speak could have spoken."

The community, as a whole, will have a voice in just a few days. The proposed expansion project will be put to a vote in the form of a nonbinding referendum in eight precincts on election day, March 19.

Citizens will vote yes or no as to whether neighbor's issues of traffic congestion, inadequate parking and public urination need to be resolved before any seating expansion of Wrigley Field is permitted.

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