CHICAGO — Mayor Lori Lightfoot on Monday said she will move forward with plans to develop a $40 million park for Jean Baptiste Point DuSable and hold yearly programming in his honor, even after aldermen voted to rename Lake Shore Drive for the Haitian explorer known as Chicago’s founder.
“I really do believe it’s very important not just to have a name out there,” Lightfoot said at an unrelated news conference. “We’ve got to teach our residents and particularly our young people about the history of Chicago. It’s way past time that people understood the importance of DuSable to this city’s founding.”
Lightfoot unveiled a plan late last month to honor DuSable by spending $40 million toward developing DuSable Park near Navy Pier, renaming the Riverwalk downtown for DuSable and creating an annual festival in his honor.
The plan was an attempt to fend off a competing proposal to rename Lake Shore Drive for the Haitian explorer. But Lightfoot’s counterproposal was unsuccessful as the City Council on Friday renamed the iconic lakefront roadway after DuSable.
It’s not clear if Lightfoot still intends to rename the Riverwalk, but she was explicit about having statues erected for DuSable, creating the $40 million park and “year-round programming so that people understand who DuSable is and his importance (to) our city.” The mayor’s office did not immediately return a message seeking comment.
The mayor said she expects her plan to potentially be up for a vote by September. It’s not clear how much appetite aldermen will have for more projects honoring DuSable.
Lightfoot’s comments came as a surprise since she criticized the effort to rename Lake Shore Drive on Friday by saying the council has more important things to deal with.
DuSable is credited as the area’s first nonnative settler for establishing a trading post along the river in 1779.
If Lightfoot’s plan is successful, it would become the latest of several honors bestowed upon DuSable.
There’s DuSable Harbor in Lake Michigan east of Grant Park, DuSable Museum of African American History in Washington Park and a bust of DuSable along Michigan Avenue just north of the DuSable Bridge downtown.
The DuSable Leadership Academy high school in Bronzeville operates out of a landmarked building that for decades housed the larger DuSable High School.
