JANE’S DAY
Led by Ald. Ed Burke, the City Council follows Sneed’s lead and proposes several possible tributes to former Mayor Byrne
On the eve of his prostate cancer surgery, Ald. Ed Burke did not forget to honor the forgotten legacy of an ailing former Mayor Jane Byrne.
Burke, who had rescheduled his cancer surgery to accommodate a Wednesday City Council meeting — he hasn’t missed a meeting since taking office — urged his peers to name an appropriate venue after the city’s one and only female mayor.
“I would ask this entire body to come together to find a way to do so,” Burke said.
“And I would suggest the time for action is now.”
A series of four resolutions unveiled by Burke and read into the record by Chicago City Clerk Su
sana Mendoza — a big supporter of a memorial honoring an ill and frail 81-year-old Byrne — involved renaming:
1) The Clarence F. Buckingham Memorial Fountain on Columbus Drive.
2) The International Terminal at O’Hare Airport.
3) The Water Tower Plaza surrounding the historic Water Tower along Michigan Avenue.
4) The Grand Ballroom at Navy Pier.
“I am suggesting these as a range of ideas — proposals designed to advance the conversation in the forum of public opinion,” said Burke, who asked for signatures advancing a lasting tribute to Byrne, who served in office from 1979 to 1983.
Since Sneed first launched the campaign back in May to honor our forgotten mayor, we’ve been flooded with emails, calls and letters filled with suggestions on how to do it.
Two weeks ago, Gov. Pat Quinn instructed the Illinois Department of Transportation to begin the process of naming the Circle Interchange — where the Kennedy, Dan Ryan and Eisenhower expressways meet — after Byrne.
Quinn told Sneed: “Mayor Jane Byrne is an icon who has been ignored — but will no longer be forgotten — if I have anything to do with it.
“It will be called the Jane Byrne Interchange, thereby enabling her name to be on the lips of every traffic reporter daily in the city,” Quinn said.
Mayor Rahm Emanuel also tells Sneed he intends to honor Byrne’s legacy and has assured her daughter, Kathy, that he is working on it.
The Burke resolutions, which were signed by an immediate lineup of 32 aldermen, were referred to the City Council finance committee for a hearing. If there is an agreement on a site, it will go before the City Council for adoption.
Sidenote: When the aldermen started lining up to sign Burke’s resolutions, Ald. Bob Fioretti (2nd) snapped a photo of the lineup to send to Byrne’s only child, Chicago attorney Kathy Byrne, mother of Byrne’s only grandchild, Willie.
“Kathy would love to see this,” chirped Fioretti. “I’ve never seen us line up so fast to sign anything.”
Kathy Byrne, who had included all but Buckingham Fountain on her wish list, stated: “My mother is one of the original trailblazers.
“And any type of honor or recognition that the city deems appropriate would be a wonderful inspiration to women and especially young women . . . that they can be a mayor or a president.
“It is not a matter of breaking the glass ceiling, it is to say there is no ceiling . . . and I believe she is an example of that,” she added.
Backnote: Byrne likely would have been pleased to see the new Lucas Museum of Narrative Arts will be near her brainchild, the city’s Museum Campus. Tough and controversial, Byrne allowed the police to unionize, memorialized the city’s Vietnam vets when they returned home to less than a welcome, and passed the first city ordinance to ban handguns.
So many Sneed readers wrote they had forgotten about Byrne or didn’t even know the city once had a woman mayor.
“I don’t think she will be forgotten now,” Burke said.
Rahm ’em . . .
Wrist twist: Mayor Rahm Emanuel is now sporting a colorful wristband on his mini-fingered right hand: a $1 handmade “Peace” bracelet sold to him by a 6-year-old boy at a Wal-Mart near the North Side school he had just visited one morning two weeks ago. Rahm urged the boy to charge his bodyguard $2 for a bracelet.
The name game . . .
Sneed hears rumbles that the price of the naming rights at the new DePaul University basketball stadium near McCormick Place may be falling. The university had hoped the naming rights would go for $1 million to $2 million smackerolees, but they may have to settle for $500,000.
Aren’t they counting on their naming rights as a crucial part of their funding?
I spy . . .
Sting and wife Trudi were spotted having lunch Wednesday at Gene & Georgetti.
Sneedlings . . .
Thursday’s birthdays: Derek Jeter, 40; Ariana Grande, 21, and Aubrey Plaza, 30.