CHANGING LANES?
Sneed is told there is a move afoot to rename Museum Campus Drive, which winds throughout a lakeshore campus including Soldier Field, the Shedd Aquarium and the Field Museum.
The new name: Special Olympics Way.
The move would highlight Chicago as the birthplace of the Special Olympics in 1968. ( The Special Olympics was the brainchild of Illinois Supreme Court Justice
Anne M. Burke when she worked for the Chicago Park District.)
Sneed hears the renaming of Museum Campus Drive may be introduced Friday in tandem with a City Council ordinance introduced by Aldermen Brendan
Reilly ( 42nd) and Sophia King ( 4th) to rename Balbo Drive after legendary civil rights crusader Ida B. Wells.
The move is the result of criticism last year that Italo Balbo, a World War II Air Force marshal, was a fascist symbol who should be erased as a Chicago landmark because he served under Italian dictator Benito Mussolini.
Sneed is also told the Balbo ordinance may include a plan to change the name of Congress Parkway ( near Grant Park and the Congress Expressway) in honor of a famous or prominent Italian-American from Chicago, selected by the Italian- American community.
Stay tuned.
Burke’s law . . .
Sneedless to say . . . state Rep. Dan Burke, who lost his re- election bid and narrowly carried the 14th Ward bastion of his brother Ald. Edward Burke ( 14th), is pretty chill about his “retirement” from Illinois politics.
“Tension sometimes outweighs pension,” quipped Burke — no stranger to the world of political gamesmanship.
Piano man: Burke, who plays the piano, tells Sneed he has always kept a keyboard in his office as a way of “entertaining people seeking funding for projects the state CAN’T afford.”
“After their request, I’d ask them to name their favorite song,” he said.
“Then I’d hit the keyboard to play it,” Burke chuckled.
“I’m sure as they exited the door, they knew that’s all they were getting from a state where there is not a dollar to be had!
“I’m also sure they were wondering: “What the hell just happened?”
◆ Bark blather: Burke claims his 13- year- old, 175- pound giant Schnauzer, Dolan, who has been his co- pilot when driving to and from Springfield, will “now be able to spend more time in his 14th Ward backyard than a downstate condo.”
AmBush ’ em . . .
On the heels of former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush’s visit to Elmhurst College the day after the death of his mother, former first lady Bar
bara Bush, comes a second Bush trek to Oak Brook by Jeb’s son,
George P. Bush, to keynote the DuPage County’s Lincoln Day Dinner June 6 at the Marriott Hotel.
◆ Backshot/ Buckshot: The younger Bush, who won a statewide campaign to become Texas land commissioner, is considered a rising star in the Republican Party . . . except, perhaps, by the Trumpster.
Sneedlings . . .
Condolences to the family of Patricia Marion Lavin, the much- loved widow of the late Chicago newspaperman John
“Jack” Lavin, who died recently. . . . I spy: Former White House ethics attorney and current CNN commentator “Big” Jim Schultz spotted dining with PR Executive
David Zapata at Swift & Sons Wednesday. . . . Iron Chef Masa
haru Morimoto spotted Sunday at Ramen- san and RPM Italian. . . . Milwaukee Buck and Chicago native Jabari Parker at Studio Paris Nightclub on Saturday. . . . Food Network personality Anne
Burrell and “Real Housewives of New York City” star Tinsley
Mortimer and boyfriend Scott Kluth at RPM Steak recently. . . . Ditto for former Bulls coach Tom
Thibodeau. . . . Congratulations to Chris and Lauren Scialabba on the birth of their first child Monday, Benjamin Allen. . . . Today’s birthdays: Stacy London, 49; Aly Raisman, 24; and Mike Myers, 55.