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.

,

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.

A rendering of the Lucas Museum. (Courtesy of Lucas Museum of Narrative Art)
,

Friends of the Parks’ executive director Juanita Irizarry insists the lawsuit is still on, but Mayor Rahm Emanuel said Wednesday he believes an agreement can be reached.

The preservation group Friends of the Parks is denying reports that it will drop a lawsuit against the Lucas Museum of Narrative Art and its quest to build along Chicago’s lakefront.

Hear what viewers had to say about the battle over the Lucas Museum and bobcat hunting in Illinois when we read comments from the "Chicago Tonight" website, and our Facebook and Twitter pages.

Friends of the Parks has made some powerful enemies in maintaining its opposition to any lakefront site for the Lucas Museum. Is it worth losing the museum in order to maintain the sanctity of the lakefront?

Hear what viewers had to say about the ongoing battle over the Lucas Museum when we read feedback from the "Chicago Tonight" website, and our Facebook and Twitter pages.

After Friends of the Parks declared its opposition to any lakefront site for the Lucas Museum, Mellody Hobson, wife of movie mogul George Lucas and board member of the Lucas Museum, said they were “seriously pursuing locations outside of Chicago.” 

Friends of the Parks pauses lawsuit, opposes any lakefront site

“We are now seriously pursuing locations outside of Chicago,” Mellody Hobson, wife of movie mogul George Lucas and board member of the Lucas Museum, said in a statement. “If the museum is forced to leave, it will be because of the Friends of the Parks and that is no victory for anyone.”

McCormick Place East is being proposed as an alternative location for the Lucas Museum of Narrative Art.  (TonyTheTiger at English Wikipedia)

A new lakefront location for the Lucas Museum of Narrative Art is being proposed in Chicago. Mellody Hobson, wife of movie mogul George Lucas and board member of the Lucas Museum, calls it a “good idea.”

Public plaza rendering of the Lucas Museum of Narrative Art (Courtesy of the Lucas Museum of Narrative Art)

At a court hearing on Wednesday morning, an increasingly impatient federal judge again asked why attorneys for the city of Chicago have yet to turn over documents which may shed light on the process by which the city leased out lakefront property where the Lucas Museum would sit.

Simultaneously, Mayor Rahm Emanuel says he's worried Chicago could lose the museum

A federal judge yet again denied the city's request to begin early construction on the Lucas Museum of Narrative Art, the 300,000-square-foot museum proposed by film mogul George Lucas which would occupy some 17 acres of lakefront property.