While the city has not yet officially announced when, or where, the 2023 Taste of Chicago will take place, officials are already blasting an apparent plan to move the festival to Navy Pier, and to hold it the same weekend as a NASCAR race shuts down the event’s normal home at Grant Park.
According to Ald. Brendan Reilly, whose 42nd ward covers parts of the Loop and Near North, the city’s plan would be to hold the Taste on July 1 and 2 at Polk Brothers Park, located just outside of the gates of Navy Pier.
Meanwhile, the NASCAR race that will shut down Grant Park and close down multiple key arterial roadways through downtown will also take place on that same Saturday, making for what officials warn could be a huge problem logistically.
“(It’s a) logistical disaster,” Reilly said. “Polk Brothers Park is very small. It’s not even close to the footprint they’re used to using, never mind the fact you have a circular driveway that goes around the park, the pedestrian issues, and the fact that Lake Shore Drive will be closed for the NASCAR race.”
The city says that it intends to hold the Taste of Chicago, despite it not being on the calendar of events at Grant Park this summer, but adds that no firm dates had yet been set.
Officials at Navy Pier also say that there is no agreement in place to hold the event at Polk Brothers Park.
“There is no agreement in place with Navy Pier,” a spokesperson for the venue told NBC 5.
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As a result of the furor around a possible move, Reilly said that the City Council’s special events committee has postponed a vote to approve the summer calendar that the Department of Cultural Activities and Special Events put forth, a move that is normally a formality.
“Typically in years past this is approved with hardly any discussion, but because these decisions are being made in the dark, we have no choice but to slow it down,” he said.
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Public officials aren’t the only ones expressing concerns about moving the event from Grant Park. Celebrity chef Rick Bayless, a restaurateur who operates six establishments in Chicago, also expressed concerns that moving the Taste to a significantly-smaller venue, but still close to the sprawl of the NASCAR race, could spell doom for smaller eateries.
“I’m worried that the city is sidelining the greatness of our food scene,” he said. “A lot of small, ethnically-diverse restaurants used the Taste to gain recognition and make much-needed revenue for growth. Lots of restaurants are still struggling as we come out of the pandemic. Sidelining the Taste certainly won’t help that, nor will it help our city be aware of the dynamic restaurant scene we have.”
Both Reilly and Ald. Brian Hopkins, whose second ward covers parts of Streeterville and Old Town, blasted Mayor Lori Lightfoot for her actions in greenlighting the planned NASCAR race, as well as her administration’s seeming insistence on having the Taste on the same weekend.
“It means all that traffic to Navy Pier for the Taste of Chicago is going to go on Illinois and Grand, two streets that run through a neighborhood,” Reilly said. “They’re not designed for that kind of traffic volume.”
“(It’s) further evidence of very poor planning on behalf of the Lightfoot administration,” Hopkins added. “It’s insulting she would leave the next administration to clean up her mess. It’s setting them up for failure, and that’s unconscionable.”
Reilly says that the city is essentially “trying to fit too much into a five-pound bag,” and stressed his support for moving the Taste to the fall, when Grant Park will once again be open.
“You can’t access Grant Park because there’s a big race track built around it, so rather than extend the date to the fall when we can have more special-event bandwidth in Grant Park, they decided to keep this scheduled for that weekend,” he said.
He also says that despite being the member of City Council whose ward would be most-impacted by the race and Taste, he was never consulted about the logistics of the events.
“I never received a phone call from the mayor’s office, ever,” he said. “I still haven’t. I heard this from Navy Pier because it’s being dumped in their front yard. It’s very frustrating.”
Reilly also expressed concerns about stretching Chicago police too thin, as they’ll have to guard entry and exit points on the NASCAR course in addition to providing security around the event.
“It’s going to be a real mess,” he said.
