Tunney lashes out at Rickettses
Ald. Tom Tunney (44th) is accusing the billionaire Ricketts family that owns the Chicago Cubs of targeting him — and trying to elect a puppet alderman in his place — to pave the way for a “Disneyland” agenda that will make life miserable for Wrigleyville residents.
Tunney fired back on Friday, one day after Cubs Chairman Tom Ricketts took to sports radio to make the case for defeating the 17year veteran alderman.
The Ricketts family has yet to choose a horse in the 44th Ward race. But the Cubs owners have targeted Tunney after doing battle against him since they bought the team from the Tribune Co. in 2008 over virtually all matters pertaining to Wrigley Field. Tunney thinks he knows why.
The Cubs want to “control the local aldermanic seat” so they can change the rules, change the zoning, “do whatever they want” and “get government out of our way.”
“No restrictions on night activities whatsoever. We get to do whatever we want on our private property. Beer garden 365 days a year. Concerts every weekend . . . . Forget the remote parking . . . . Shut the streets down. . . . We might as well close from Belmont to Irving for them,” Tunney told the Chicago Sun-Times.
“They want to change the zoning in the rooftop district. Close off Waveland and Sheffield and do [a Fenway Park-style] Yawkey Way. Now that the rooftops are obsolete based on the sign package we granted them, [they’ll say], ‘If we build higher and if we change it all from residential to commercial use, just make it party time over there, for them.”
“We’re not building Disneyland here,” Tunney said.
Recently, Cubs board member Laura Ricketts, a prominent Democratic fundraiser, wrote an op-ed piece in Crain’s eviscerating Tunney’s record in a way that rebutted the alderman’s argument he’s being targeted to push family patriarch Joe Ricketts’ “rightwing agenda.” On the eve of the Cubs convention, Tom Ricketts joined in the anti-Tunney tag team during an interview on WSCR-AM 670, the station that broadcasts Cubs games.
He argued that Tunney has been a roadblock “from the very first sign in left field to fighting us on the rooftops, to fighting us on stadium renovations and doing the scoreboards, to fighting us on creating the Gallagher Way plaza outside, to fighting us on allowing us to have the same rules that other bars in the neighborhood have.”
On Friday, Tunney categorically denied he was beholden to rooftop owners who filled his campaign coffers before the signs were installed and the Cubs started buying up the buildings and that he’s still beholden to bar owners now.
“They had spent millions to re-invest and to keep their business alive. And then, we screwed the rooftops by the sign package. My goal was, ‘I’ll give you the signs. But you have a private deal with these rooftop guys that lasts another 10 years.’ It’s like a lease,” Tunney said.
“I’m not embarrassed or ashamed by any of the campaign contributions I received because I am the advocate for business on the Council,” Tunney said.