CHICAGO (WBBM NEWSRADIO) — A drowning off a North Side Lake Michigan pier over the weekend has prompted an alderwoman to renew a demand that the Park District install life rings along the lakefront.
Ald. Maria Haddon from the North Side posted a video on Facebook, saying, “Chicago Park District, this is another reason why it is long past time for us to have life rings at our beaches.”
“There should have been life rings along that Pier. There were people there who could have tossed the life ring to this person,” Haddon said.
Jessica Leon’s father drowned in the lake in 2018. Since then she has fought for life rings. What seems to be a losing battle.
"How many lives do we need to lose because the park district repeatedly is negligent,” Leon said.
That from a board meeting in April, during which Park District General Council Tim King said, from a legal standpoint, the best thing to do is nothing.
“We are taking the best practices approach and that is to leave unmanned areas as they are as an at your own risk,” King said.
An online petition demanding life rings along the lakefront has more than 3,000 signatures.
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