Sun-Times:Daley defends takeover of Harold Washington Cultural Center

BY FRAN SPIELMAN City Hall Reporter

Without a City Colleges purchase made possible by a $1.8 million city subsidy, Bronzeville’s Harold Washington Cultural Center would become another “vacant building,” Mayor Daley warned Thursday, defending the hostile takeover he proposed to save an auditorium built primarily with city funds.

“We want to keep the Harold Washington Cultural Center alive. We want to keep it alive with young people, keep it alive with artists and rebuild the 47th Street dream of … wonderful music — not for Chicago, but for the world,” Daley said of the 1,000-seat auditorium at 47th and King Drive.

“It’s in foreclosure. We want to make sure that, when you drive by there and you look at that building, it’s not gonna be vacant. It’s gonna be used by young people. It’s gonna be used by community people. We want to keep that alive, just like the dedication [Harold Washington] gave to the people of Chicago. That should not be a vacant building.”

Tobacco Road, the not-for-profit organization that runs the Harold Washington Cultural Center, is directed by the daughter of former Ald. Dorothy Tillman (3rd).

Tillman has branded the proposed City Colleges takeover “totally illegal … political harassment” and vowed to fight the lame-duck mayor “tooth-and-nail.”

On Thursday, Daley fought back.

He argued that Tobacco Road has had every opportunity to make a go of it and ended up in default of a grant agreement that provided $7.7 million in city funds used to build the facility.

Armed with an independent audit, the Daley administration has accused Tobacco Road of falling more than 200 events-a-year short of its booking obligations.

“It has nothing to do with Dorothy. The building is foreclosed and they have not fulfilled their responsibility. … I want that building to be alive with younger people. … That should be the center of attention. … City Colleges can do that,” he said.

“We think we can have more use of it through City Colleges. We have many, many programs. And with the Board of Education in there. We think we can do a much better job.”

The latest in a string of controversies surrounding the theater that Tillman hoped would anchor a “Chicago Blues District” along 47th Street was triggered by a $1.3 million foreclosure lawsuit filed last year by the now-shuttered ShoreBank.

The Chicago Sun-Times reported earlier this week that Daley wants to give the City Colleges $1.8 million in tax-increment-financing funds to purchase the center’s foreclosed mortgage and turn the 1,000-seat auditorium into an education and performing arts center.

City Colleges Chancellor Cheryl Hyman has acknowledged that she doesn’t have a “full-blown plan” for the center. But, she talked about providing “credit courses” in performing arts and about operating the center “as you would any other college.”

“We could share it with area high schools and local performing artists. We could build out a student-run jazz and blues-themed restaurant and create a museum celebrating the rich history of Bronzeville. We’re looking at a lot of different options with academic and community focus,” she said this week.

Civic Federation President Laurence Msall has questioned whether City Colleges have the “resources to operate” the troubled facility. Msall noted that Hyman is consolidating nursing and other programs to ease an “operating deficit.”

 

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