Title
REQUEST TO INITIATE 45-DAY NOTICE PERIOD
TO NAME CHICAGO PARK DISTRICT PROPERTY
LOCATED AT 140-412 WEST CHICAGO AVENUE
PARK NO. 560 FIELDHOUSE
Body
To the Honorable Board of Commissioners of the Chicago Park District
I. Recommendation
It is recommended that an order be entered authorizing the General Superintendent or his designee to initiate a 45-day notice period to solicit public input to name the newly constructed field house at Park No. 560, developed in collaboration with the Jesse White Foundation, in honor of Jesse White.
Proposed Park Feature: The Park No. 560 Field House
Location: 410-412 W. Chicago Avenue
Community Area: Near North Side
Ward: #27
Proposed Name: Jesse White Community Center and Field House
II. Explanation
Pursuant to Chapter VII, Section E of the Code of the Chicago Park District, (the Naming Ordinance), which governs the naming and renaming of parks and park features, states that if a proposed name honors a person, the (i) person shall have been deceased for a least one (1) year prior to consideration; and (ii) the person shall have demonstrated a continued commitment and made an extraordinary contribution to civic betterment, locally, nationally or internationally.
Exceptions to the above criteria may be made upon a finding of an extraordinary circumstance by the General Superintendent. In this case, the General Superintendent has recognized just such an extraordinary circumstance in the proposed recommendation to name the newly built fieldhouse at Park No. 560 after Jesse White non-posthumously.
Jesse White is extraordinary not just because he was an accomplished athlete, scholar, visionary, teacher, mentor, coach, war hero, public servant, community leader and public official at the highest levels of government. Jesse White is extraordinary because he has made it his life's work caring about young people in a way that profoundly emphasizes the ethos of the Park District's "Children First" ou...
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