‘Slow water’ fixes may be critical
Promontory Point is crumbling under a fierce Lake Michigan
This Thursday, advocates and other enthusiasts will gather to mark the 85th anniversary of Promontory Point in the Hyde Park neighborhood and to declare May 26 “International Point Day,” in honor of its designer, the famed American landscape architect Alfred Caldwell.
The Point, as it is affectionately known, deserves some love. For over a decade I’ve been part of the early morning “Point Swimmers,” a loosely affiliated group of all ages and abilities, drawn together by their appreciation for this spot. I love the Point’s abundantly flowering trees and beautiful structures, like the stately stone field house and the elegant circular fire pits or “council rings” along the Point’s perimeter, which offer panoramas north to Chicago’s stunning skyline, south to the steel mills of Indiana and east onto the boundless expanse of Lake Michigan.
I love that its compact 40 acres can be jampacked with activity and still feel serene and secluded and that the Point is one of the most diverse scenes in the city, drawing people of all races and backgrounds. Caldwell wanted to create a place “you go to and you are thrilled, a beautiful experience, a joy, a delight,” and wow, did he succeed.
Still, the Point is in trouble. Its distinctive limestone wall and promenade running around the entire peninsula is crumbling. Sections of ground along the rim have caved in. Swimmers clambering up and down its four stone steps joke that someone keeps making them steeper. That would be the lake, whose fierce waves crash against and under the Point, shifting the rocks to reveal new gaps and divots, like a giant game of Jenga. This winter alone, the lake popped a limestone slab weighing hundreds of pounds out from one tier onto the level above.
These conditions are not new, but they are worsening as lake levels have become more volatile over the last decade. In fact, this week’s gathering, hosted by the Promontory Point Conservancy, is both a celebration and a call to action — again.
Since early 2000, the conservancy has been at odds with the city and Army Corps of Engineers over how best to fix the Point. When Chicago began replacing aging barriers, or revetments,
along the lakefront with long smooth lines of concrete, some Hyde Parkers saw a threat to the park’s historical limestone and, in true Chicago fashion, organized.
Years later, despite endless meetings, revised plans and attention from then-U.S. Sen. Barack Obama and later Mayor Lori Lightfoot, nothing has been resolved. As big a threat as crumbling infrastructure and changing climate are, this political impasse could cause more harm.
A new book by journalist Erica Gies offers a possible way out. In “Water Always Wins: Thriving in an Age of Drought and Deluge,” which will be published in mid-June by the University of Chicago Press, Gies takes a fascinating look at the consequences of our attempts to control water in an age of climate instability. Whether we dam, divert or concrete it over, from California’s Central Valley to Iraq’s Mesopotamian Marshes, the results are the same: too much water where we don’t want it, not nearly enough
where it is needed.
Gies makes a persuasive case that to preserve ourselves, we need to consider what water wants. Inspired by the way Indigenous people manage local water resources, through a reciprocity that is both ethical and pragmatic, Gies advocates for a “slow water” movement, restoring natural systems to delay the course of water, enabling it to seep into rather than spill off the land, replenish aquifers and support the life cycle of aquatic creatures.
Given how long we’ve been engineering our way out of water woes, from reversing the river to fabricating a lakefront out of landfill, her vision might seem a nonstarter. Gies claims that “multiple small interventions across a landscape add up to a big impact.” Wetlands, natural dunes and ribbons of urban wilderness have been reintroduced along our lakefront, small changes that could mitigate flooding and erosion, especially if scaled up. More significantly, they represent
a less adversarial and more accommodating stance toward the lake, helping water go where it wants, not containing it behind concrete barriers.
These projects could expand thanks to new money from the federal infrastructure bill to assess current shoreline needs along Lake Michigan. The Point is one of the priority areas for study, so the Army Corps and the conservancy will meet again. With the Point now on the National Register of Historic Places, the terms of their conversation will have to shift. These adversaries should, too, from a defensive debate over concrete versus limestone toward a more holistic view.
Listening to water might mean studying the Point not in isolation but as part of a continuum of South Side lakefront, stretching from Morgan Shoals to Rainbow Beach and beyond. This could allow planners to integrate more dunes and wetlands or even introduce beavers, like the ones at Montrose Beach. Why not look to Northerly Island or the new plans for the Shoals, both of which the Army Corps has a hand in, as a model for restoration that respects the lake and the humans who seek its beauty?
Wherever their conversations go, we all need to be involved — getting the Point right matters because it is a proxy for the challenges facing our entire lakefront. Just recently, a group of North Side neighborhoods concerned about drowning dangers got the Chicago Park District to install life rings along the shore, despite initial opposition. What’s heartening about reading “Water Always Wins” is its many examples of people with conflicting views finding ways to work together.
Beyond the officials and activists, there is a place for all of us at the table.