Tell the City and Mayor's Office To Protect Chicago's Lakefront for People and Wildlife

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Tell the City and Mayor's Office to Protect Chicago's Lakefront

Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot is currently deciding whether or not to move a casino into the McCormick Place Lakeside Center on Chicago’s Lakefront, and we need your help to tell her to move the casino elsewhere. While a casino would provide an economic boost to local communities, locating it on the lakefront would have catastrophic effects on wildlife, specifically for migratory birds.

Mayor Lightfoot is making this decision any day now, which is why we need you to take urgent action and contact her now.

Chicago is a vital flyway for migrating birds making the journey between South America and Canada. However, Chicago is the most dangerous city in North America for migrating birds, and McCormick Place’s Lakeside Center is documented as one of the worst buildings in the city for bird mortality. Since 1978, over 40,000 dead birds have been recovered from McCormick Place. Birds are attracted to city lights; they then collide with glass on buildings because it is either transparent or reflective, mirroring a clear sky. Moving a casino into the McCormick Center will mean adding a flood of bright lights to the lakefront at night, which will inevitably lead to an increase in bird deaths on Chicago’s shoreline.

We are not suggesting that the city do away with the casino plans altogether. Rather, we request that Mayor Lightfoot choose one of the four other locations that the city has available for the casino, which will not pose such a high risk for migratory birds.

The fight to prevent the addition of this casino on Chicago’s lakefront is about more than saving birds rather it is about protecting our region’s public ecosystems for the enjoyment of people and wildlife.

Your voice matters, so please use it now to tell Mayor Lightfoot to protect our lakefront for people and wildlife.

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Tell the City and Mayor's Office to Protect Chicago's Lakefront

Chicago’s Mayor Lori Lightfoot is currently deciding whether or not to move a casino into the McCormick Place Lakeside Center on Chicago’s Lakefront, and we need your help to tell her to move the casino elsewhere. While a casino would provide an economic boost to local communities, locating it on the lakefront would have catastrophic effects on wildlife, specifically for migratory birds.

Mayor Lightfoot is making this decision any day now, which is why we need you to take urgent action and contact her now.

Chicago is a vital flyway for migrating birds making the journey between South America and Canada, and over five million migratory birds pass through Chicago each year. However, according to the Cornell Laboratory of Ornithology, Chicago is the most dangerous city in North America for migrating birds, and McCormick Place’s Lakeside Center is documented as one of the worst buildings in the city for bird mortality. Since 1978, over 40,000 dead birds have been recovered from McCormick Place. Birds are attracted to city lights; they then collide with glass on buildings because it is either transparent or reflective, mirroring a clear sky. Moving a casino into the McCormick Center will mean adding a flood of bright lights to the lakefront at night, which will inevitably lead to an increase in bird deaths on Chicago’s shoreline.

Your voice matters, so please use it now to tell Mayor Lightfoot to protect our lakefront for people and wildlife.

Chicago Mayor's Office

Subject: Protect Chicago's Lakefront for People and Wildlife

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Chicago is renowned for its lakefront by people throughout the world. But the lakefront is also vital for wildlife. Chicago is a major flyway for migrating birds making the journey between South America and Canada, with over five million migratory birds passing through Chicago each year.

According to the Cornell Laboratory of Ornithology, Chicago is the most dangerous city in North America for migrating birds, and McCormick Place’s Lakeside Center is documented as one of the worst buildings in the city for bird mortality. Since 1978, over 40,000 dead birds have been recovered from McCormick Place. Putting a casino in McCormick Place’s Lakeside Center, with increased traffic, light, and sound pollution would be more destructive to wildlife, especially birds, that depend on our lakefront habitat.

With climate change as a present threat to our local ecosystems and with so many species at risk of habitat loss and extinction, it is essential that we protect open spaces like the lakefront that provide habitat for migratory birds. The City committed to protecting migratory birds as part of upholding the integrity of our lakefront and Lake Michigan in its Lakefront Protection Ordinance. We ask you to honor that commitment now for the wellbeing of both these million visitors and the people of our City.

The building of McCormick Place’s Lakeside Center was a bad decision that hindered access to nature for Chicagoans, and putting in a casino at Lakeside Center would only double down on that bad decision. The city has four other potential sites to choose from, and the lakefront is not the choice that will best serve Chicago.

Please consider the other options Mayor Lightfoot, and do not put a casino on the people’s lakefront. This is an opportunity to demonstrate how development can be sited to honor and protect both our natural legacy and the health of our communities.

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Tell the City and Mayor's Office to Protect Chicago's Lakefront

Tell the City and Mayor's Office to Protect Chicago's Lakefront

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