Lake Shore Drive renaming hits roadblock

Lake Shore Drive, seen from the northbound on-ramp entrance at East 18th Drive. | Brian Ernst/Sun-Times

An eleventh-hour parliamentary maneuver on Wednesday derailed — for now — a controversial plan to rename Outer Lake Shore Drive in honor of Jean Baptiste Point DuSable.

Any two aldermen can move to “defer and publish,” which delays consideration of any matter for one meeting without explanation.

The parliamentary maneuver was executed by two aldermen: Brian Hopkins (2nd) and Ariel Reboyras (30th).

Before Hopkins declared his intention to delay the vote, Ald. Sophia King (4th) asked for a roll call.

“I saw the hand of Alderman Hopkins raised,” Mayor Lori Lightfoot declared from the rostrum.

“I had my hand up. I called for a roll call first,” King said.

Lightfoot countered, “Alderman Hopkins has had his hand up.”

“Oh, come on, President,” King said.

Lightfoot banged the gavel, declaring, “Alderman King, you’re out of order. Please.”

King replied, “I’m not out of order. I had my hand up before. I see the play here. ... This is just inequity, plain out. Right here in front of us.”

When Lightfoot held her ground, King said, “Wow. ... The roll call was called first. Can we get a legal opinion here?”

Ald. David Moore (17th) is the City Council champion for renaming the roadway to honor DuSable, a Black man who was Chicago’s first permanent non-indigenous settler. He was reduced to shouting from the floor. His microphone was turned off.

Supporters of the renaming of the outer portion of Lake Shore Drive gathered outside the Thompson Center, across the street from City Hall, in the Loop on Wednesday. But a measure to rename outer Lake Shore Drive after Jean Baptiste Point DuSable was delayed on a parliamentary maneuver by two aldermen.

Hopkins explained the delay in a text message to the Sun-Times before the meeting.

“Still unclear if downtown buildings are affected. Specifically 500, 505 and 474 N. Lake Shore Drive. Carving out inner drive doesn’t help,” he wrote.

City, state and CTA officials have put a $2.5 million price tag on changing road signs, maps and other displays on the Outer Drive.

But Hopkins argued the estimate “does not include the personal cost to hundreds of residents required to change their mailing address and paperwork.”

Moore vowed to join King in calling a special City Council meeting to accomplish the name change. He also promised to retaliate by playing his own brand of hardball from here on in.

“If they want to play politics, I take that personal and everything that comes before that Council, I’ll d-and-p,” he said, referring to “defer and publish.”

“Everything that comes before that Council, I’ll ask for a roll call on. If they want to do this, then that’s what I’ll do.”

He added, “It takes a little bit more than this to make me angry. But what I will tell you is that they’re going to be angry because I’m going to hold up every City Council meeting going forward regardless,” he added.

King agreed that the “votes are there” to pass the name change at a special meeting — which is why opponents are resorting to a parliamentary maneuver to stall it.

“When the votes aren’t there, you don’t have to resort to political shenanigans. The votes are there . . . That’s generally when folks resort to tactics to delay and try and intimidate folks,” King said.

South Lake Shore Drive at East 31st Street, looking north.

Lightfoot has made it clear she has “concerns” about the name change. She fears changing the name of Chicago’s most iconic and picturesque boulevard — made famous in song and movies — could hurt marketing of the city and be costly and cumbersome for homeowners and businesses.

She has offered, instead, to complete DuSable Park, create an exhibit honoring DuSable at the “most traveled part” of the downtown Riverwalk and rename the entire Riverwalk in honor of DuSable.

Even so, Moore said he blames individual aldermen — not the mayor — for Wednesday’s delay.

“Councilmen have their own voice. We’ve always talked about having a strong Council, weak mayor. That’s why I ran for office. So I could have a strong voice. Council men [and women] get to vote. The mayor don’t get a vote. If Councilmen kowtow to that, that’s because they’re weak. Not because the mayor is so strong,” he said.

King disagreed. She believes Lightfoot shares the blame.

“I wish the mayor were on board with this issue. It’s truly an issue of inequity. I wish she realized that. I don’t totally blame her. It’s the City Council that has to approve this and move this forward. But her leadership would be important in doing so,” King said.

“She missed cannabis. That was huge. And this is another opportunity to talk about racial ...healing and to make up for the past errors and ills of our city....This is the will of the people. It’s also a time of racial reckoning. He’s our founder. He founded our city in a very humble way. He embraced the indigenous people. He learned their culture, married them, married his wife. He should be celebrated.”

Moore said Wednesday’s maneuver amounts to justice delayed. Not justice denied. Like King, he is determined to get it done — sooner, not later.

“People care about this. People know that this is the right thing to do,” he told the Sun-Times.

“It’s about the children. When I introduced it, the number of kids from [local elementary schools] became aware of Jean Point Baptiste DuSable. All of those kids — when they called me — it was important to them. Even more young people began to learn about him. Even more people up north began to learn about him. That’s what this is all about.”