Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel yesterday "rejected two requests from the Cubs -- one for non-stop construction seven days a week to speed up a bleacher reconstruction project delayed by frigid temperatures, and a revised request" to build from 6:00am-10:00pm CT Monday through Saturday, according to a front-page piece by Fran Spielman of the CHICAGO SUN-TIMES. Emanuel said that there would be "no exceptions to the ordinance confining construction work" to 8:00am-8:00pm. Spielman notes this means that if the right-field bleachers "won’t be ready until early June and the bleachers in left and center field don’t open until May 11, so be it." Emanuel: "We want to see the opportunity for both a healthy Wrigley Field and a healthy Wrigleyville. But the ordinance ... is pretty clear. It’s not pretty clear. It’s absolutely clear (when) it comes to 24-hour construction.” Wrigleyville residents "have already accused Emanuel of going too far by giving the Cubs the go-ahead to play more night games, put up two video scoreboards, four other outfield signs and extend the Wrigley footprint onto public streets and sidewalks without compensating Chicago taxpayers." Emanuel is "not about to infuriate Wrigleyville residents further" now that he is "fighting for his political life in the April 7 runoff" (CHICAGO SUN-TIMES, 3/4). Emanuel said, "I do believe in modernizing Wrigley Field, but doing it in a way that's, as I've always said, I want to see Wrigley Field and Wrigleyville succeed together, not separate" (CHICAGO TRIBUNE, 3/4).
NOISY NEIGHBORS: A CHICAGO TRIBUNE editorial states, "The last thing Emanuel needs is for the stadium's neighbors to lie awake at night in the weeks leading up to the election, cursing the noise -- and the mayor." Wrigleyville residents are "accustomed to round-the-clock commotion," so "a little banging from the bleacher area might not be a big deal to many of them." But others are "already out of sorts about the daily disruptions associated with the project," and those neighbors are in "no mood to make further concessions to the wealthy Ricketts family" (CHICAGO TRIBUNE, 3/4).
