CHICAGO (AP) — Mayor Rahm Emanuel is using everything but
Jedi mind tricks to persuade "Star Wars" creator George Lucas to put
his planned museum of art and movie memorabilia in Chicago.
Lucas
has been talking to San Francisco about a location. At first blush, the
West Coast bid seems obvious. It’s Lucas’ hometown. It’s a premier
center of technology and innovation, and it’s closer to the nation’s
movie-making heartland. San Francisco Mayor Edwin Lee on Thursday sent
Lucas a letter offering the museum a spot on the city’s scenic
waterfront.
Emanuel, a former White House chief of staff, is known
for going after big amenities that can burnish Chicago’s global
reputation (he’s currently pushing for President Barack Obama’s
presidential library), and he sees himself as the city’s
salesman-in-chief.
But what can Chicago offer in the war for the Lucas Cultural Arts Museum? Here are five things to know
about Chicago’s bid:
HEY, CHEWIE. MEET DA BEARS
The
city is offering up a slice of real estate along the Lake Michigan
shorefront and near other big attractions such as the Shedd Aquarium.
The site is currently a parking lot south of Soldier Field, meaning fans
dressed up as Chewbacca and Darth Vader might have to cross paths with
rowdy Bears tailgaters.
IS EMANUEL BEING PLAYED?
All good
negotiators know you need to play one side against another. And
assertions by local news outlets that Chicago is or was a front-runner
may have helped wrest a better deal out of San Francisco, which rejected
Lucas’ first choice of a location near the Golden Gate Bridge. Lee has
acknowledged his city wasn’t a shoo-in but said he wouldn’t easily give
up the fight.
Either way, Emanuel stands to gain, if only from the publicity that comes with contending for big-time
attractions and events.
THE SECOND CITY IS LUCAS’ ‘SECOND HOME’
Lucas
feels an affinity for Chicago, where he has spent a lot of time, since
his wife, prominent businesswoman Mellody Hobson, is from the city.
Chicago closed down Promontory Point on the lakefront so the couple
could host a star-studded party to celebrate after their California
wedding. In a statement welcoming Chicago’s bid, Lucas even called it
his "second home."
THIS MAY — OR MAY NOT — BE THE CITY YOU’RE LOOKING FOR
Emanuel’s
Chicago fancies itself a big-league center of high-tech and innovation,
and it does have some street cred there, with companies such as Boeing
and sensations including Groupon. And while the San Francisco area can
boast companies including Apple and Google, Lucas spokesman David Perry
has praised Chicago for the attention it lavishes on culture,
architecture, innovation and education — some of the lofty themes the
museum will seek to promote.
WHAT CHICAGOANS SAY
Some of
Chicago’s most important civic leaders are behind the push to bring the
museum. Emanuel has enlisted a task force with the likes of architect
Jeanne Gang and Walter Massey, president of the School of the Art
Institute of Chicago.
But not everyone is so keen. Northwestern
University English professor Bill Savage, in a column this week for
Crain’s Chicago Business, suggested the museum would be a glorified
holding tank for movie props better suited to Las Vegas.
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