The Chicago Tribune reports:
Mayor Rahm Emanuel's administration on Monday unveiled the details of its last-ditch plan to put "Star Wars" filmmaker George Lucas' museum along the lake, a lift so heavy the mayor might have to learn to summon The Force to make it happen.Rahm and George Lucas' struggle to rip-off taxpayers. You don't think George Lucas and Rahm Emanuel care that taxpayers will have to "subsidize" something that Chicago can't afford?
Not only would Emanuel have to persuade state lawmakers and the governor to let the agency that runs McCormick Place to borrow an additional $1.2 billion, they'd also have to go along with five future tax hikes. In an election year. At a time when they can't even agree on a budget amid a partisan impasse the likes of which Springfield has never seen.
Against that political backdrop, the mayor gamely continued the sales pitch on his complicated backup plan for the Lucas Museum of Narrative Art, one that would see McCormick Place's Lakeside Center torn down, the futuristic-looking museum built in its place and a new convention building added west of Lake Shore Drive.
Speaking at an unrelated news conference, Emanuel, who is dealing with an increase in shootings, a major Police Department overhaul and the threat of a teachers strike, called the museum plan a "win, win, win" that the city should not let escape its grasp.
