(Courtesy of NASCAR)

Racing legends Dale Jarrett and Dale Earnhardt Jr. took WTTW News correspondent Paris Schutz around the specially designed track that weaves in and out of Grant Park and provides some iconic views for spectators.

An aerial view of the Chicago Area Confined Disposal Facility, a 45-acre site on Chicago’s Southeast Side that has been in operation since 1984. Inset: The CDF is outlined in red. (Credit: Army Corps of Engineers)

The Army Corps of Engineers’ plan to build a 25-foot-tall “toxic tower” on Lake Michigan has hit a speed bump.

An aerial view of the Chicago Area Confined Disposal Facility, a 45-acre site on Chicago’s Southeast Side that has been in operation since 1984. Inset: The CDF is outlined in red. (Credit: Army Corps of Engineers)

Opponents of a toxic sludge landfill on Lake Michigan have filed a lawsuit to stop a plan by the U.S Army Corps of Engineers to expand the dump by 25 vertical feet.

The cinderblock shell of the National Museum of Puerto Rican Arts and Culture's proposed archive building in Humboldt Park. (Patty Wetli / WTTW News)
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It’s been months since the Chicago Park District discovered the National Museum of Puerto Rican Arts and Culture started construction on an unauthorized building in Humboldt Park. The half-finished cement box is still there. Is there an end in sight?

Neighbors, preservationists and park advocates are calling for the demolition of an unauthorized annex to the landmarked Receptory Building and Stable in Humboldt Park. The building is leased by the National Museum of Puerto Rican Arts and Culture, which began construction of an adjacent archive facility without permits. (Top photo: Patty Wetli / WTTW News; Bottom photo: Change.org)
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The National Museum of Puerto Rican Arts and Culture leases a historic landmark building in Humboldt Park. It began construction on an adjacent archive facility without obtaining permits.

Finding uses for Soldier Field's plazas beyond gameday was one recommendation from the Museum Campus working group. (City of Chicago)
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Vision includes ‘rewilding,’ creation of Climate Lab

The Museum Campus working group released its report Thursday and among the big wins for nature is a vision that includes establishing a Great Lakes Climate Lab on the city’s shoreline, positioning Chicago as a global leader in developing resilient solutions for urban areas. 

(Courtesy of City of Chicago)

Friends of the Parks is re-starting the conversation surrounding the gaps in Chicago’s lakefront park system and what those four miles could mean for shoreline protection, promoting biodiversity and delivering green space to areas where it’s in short supply.

Skyline views from Northerly Island Park. (Chicago Park District / Facebook)
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Green space advocates are in agreement that the north star of a new working group tasked to "reimagine" the Museum Campus needs to be the Lakefront Protection Ordinance. In short: No new building construction.

(WTTW News)
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Delivering on a promise she made when the owners of the Chicago Bears announced their purchase of the Arlington International Racecourse property, Mayor Lori Lightfoot announced the members of a working group tasked with reimagining the city’s lakefront museum campus.

An aerial view of the Chicago Area Confined Disposal Facility, a 45-acre site on Chicago’s Southeast Side that has been in operation since 1984. Inset: The CDF is outlined in red. (Credit: Army Corps of Engineers)

Community organizers on Chicago’s Southeast Side are marshaling their forces and looking for solutions to address what they see as yet another environmental threat to their already beleaguered neighborhood.

Students and educators from Village Leadership Academy spent the summer canvassing North Lawndale to gain support for changing the name of Douglas Park to Douglass Park. (Village Leadership Academy / Facebook)

Students from Village Leadership Academy will be honored Oct. 16 at Friends of the Parks’ “Parks as Democracy?” annual conference, which will include a presentation from the youth activists.

A bust of Jean Baptiste Pointe DuSable. (Wikimedia Commons)

Development of DuSable Park, stalled for more than 30 years, is finally inching forward. Advocates say Jean Baptiste Pointe DuSable set an example for multicultural harmony we’ve yet to follow.

A scene along Chicago’s lakefront on Thursday, March 26, 2020. (WTTW News)

Juanita Irizarry, executive director of Friends of the Parks, is worried that if Chicagoans flocks to the city’s parks on this warm spring day, officials will crack down on access to all our green spaces.

Now that it’s clear that “Star Wars” creator George Lucas will be taking his project to another state, what of the small nonprofit group that fell the mighty filmmaker and his supporter, Mayor Rahm Emanuel? Friends of the Parks Executive Director Juanita Irizarry joins us.

We got strong reaction from viewers about George Lucas’ decision to build the Lucas Museum in California. Hear what viewers had to say when read feedback from the "Chicago Tonight" website, and our Facebook and Twitter pages.

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The multi-episode saga to build the Lucas Museum of Narrative Art on Chicago’s lakefront is apparently over. In a statement sent just before noon on Friday, “Star Wars” creator George Lucas himself announced that the ongoing litigation from Friends of the Parks effectively killed off the project.