Mayor's Office Shoots Down Cubs' Request To Close Clark And Addison During Games
CHICAGO (CBS) -- The Emanuel administration has rejected the Chicago Cubs' request to shut down Addison and Clark streets on game days as part of a new plan to increase security at Wrigley Field.
Cubs president of business operations Crane Kenney, at the annual Cubs Convention this weekend, said the plan includes adding walk-through metal detectors and extending a security perimeter around the ballpark 100 feet in each direction.
"Years ago, the thing that kept me awake was the quality of steel in our building, and falling concrete," Kenney said Saturday. "The thing that keeps me awake today is what's going on in sort of an international and national sense on the security side."
The security perimeter the Cubs wanted would mean shutting down traffic on Addison and Clark during Cubs games, except for public transit and emergency vehicles. Area residents cried foul, and the mayor's office has shot down the Cubs' idea.
"Of course we are not going to close Clark and Addison. Safety and security are everyone's top concern, and we will work with the community, Ald. Tunney and the Cubs to achieve that without having to shut down two major roads in a neighborhood," Emanuel spokeswoman Kelley Quinn said in an email.