If you ask me, Peter Zelchenko’s outburst at the August 21 Chicago Plan Commission meeting was rather run-of-the-mill as far as City Hall eruptions go.
So it’s a happy ending, right? Well, not for Zelchenko and other members of Protect Our Parks, who don’t want any field in this patch of Lincoln Park, no matter who gets to use it. That’s why he and about 20 other north siders went to the City Council chambers for the Plan Commission meeting.
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By the time it was Zelchenko’s turn to speak, 20 other people had testified and, by his own admission, he was a little distracted. He never yelled, but his voice rose and cracked with emotion. “I should have stayed focused,” he says now. “But I wanted to respond to things that had been said.”
Technically, they hadn’t. I have a tape of the hearing, and having timed Zelchenko’s speech, I can tell you that he was at 2:57. Count the time taken by Migala’s interruptions—as Zelchenko insists you should—and he had at least another 12 seconds of speaking time. “The point is, I was ready to finish—they could have easily have just let me finished,” says Zelchenko. “I wasn’t going to take more than a few seconds.”
Since he wouldn’t leave on his own, the police slapped on the cuffs and hauled him away. He was taken to the lockup at 1718 S. State, thrown into a cell, and held for about eight hours.
After the public testimony, the commission unanimously endorsed the installation of the field. If all goes according to plan, the crews will finish in October, right around the time Zelchenko goes to court.v
