Mayor Emanuel Says He Fears Lawsuit Could Cost City Lucas Museum
CHICAGO (CBS) -- Mayor Rahm Emanuel says he fears the continuing lawsuit to block construction of the George Lucas Museum near Soldier Field will cost the city of Chicago that project, reports WBBM Political Editor Craig Dellimore.
Mayor Emanuel says he has tried to persuade George Lucas and his wife Mellody Hobson to put the $400 million Lucas Museum on the 17 acre lakefront site given over by the Chicago Park District, but the group Friends of the Parks is pressing the lawsuit against the giveaway.
The mayor suggests Lucas and Hobson aren't interested alternative sites.
"It's only human to have your heart set on something given that a task force made a recommendation, a park district made changes, the Chicago Bears made changes, the state legislature passed a law, all part of a vision that was set out years, decades ago of a museum campus," Emanuel says. "This fulfills it."
The mayor says other competing cities won't wait for that lawsuit to conclude, they're lobbying for the museum now.