Silent on Chicago Reagan apartment, Chicago Tribune editorial board calls on Obama to make Pullman District a National Park

Chicago Reagan apartment being torn down

Five months ago the University of Chicago tore down the only Chicago home--a six-flat in the Hyde Park neighborhood--of Ronald Reagan. "Dutch" was the only president born in Illinois.

The Chicago Tribune editorial board was silent on the issue.

But it wants President Obama to declare the Pullman District--a onetime company town dominated by architecturally-significant rowhouses that was later annexed to Chicago--a national park.

From its op-ed:

So we'll cut to the (train) chase: Use your executive authority under the Antiquities Act of 1906 to declare Pullman part of the National Park System.

You have used the act during your presidency to declare eight national monuments around the country. A national park is a big deal — we won't use the exact phrase Vice President Joe Biden whispered into a hot microphone when you signed Obamacare — but you get the idea. Declaring a national park requires a more rigorous process than does designating a monument.

Uh, wow. First of all, only Congress--with presidential approval--can create national parks. Notice how the Trib dances around the issue. Presidents can name national monuments, as Bill Clinton did--with great controversy--when he set aside large parts of southern Utah for the Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument in 1996. That expanse--yes, I've been there--is run by the Bureau of Land Management, not the NPS.

A national monument, not a national park

What the Trib has in mind is something along the lines of the Keweenaw National Historical Park on Michigan's Upper Peninsula. I've been there too--I love the place.

I've visited Pullman, too. Parts of it are nice, parts are rundown. Is it worthy of preservation? Yes. But the federal government, the Tribune fails to point out, is running record deficits. The state of Illinois and Chicago don't have the money either. Private concerns--free of political and union entanglements--can and should redevelop Pullman.

That middle phrase is key--let me repeat it: free of political and union entanglements. Take away the latter and the fix-up job would be quite cheap on Chicago standards. Besides, a Pullman National Park will appear on few travelers' bucket lists. The Trib is naïve.

As for the Reagan apartment, which was owned by the University of Chicago but was razed for a parking lot, saving it would have cost federal taxpayers nothing. Even local taxpayers would have probably been spared---just as Reagan would have wanted it.

The Chicago Tribune years ago lost its conservative bearings. It's now part of the dominant "gimmee-gimmee" culture that is destroying this nation.

Related post:

(Exclusive photos) Mourning in America: Univ. of Chicago completes demolition of Reagan home

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