Bridging the Budget Gap

I just learned that located inside the southwest bridge tower on the Michigan Avenue Bridge is the McCormick Bridgehouse & Chicago River Museum. In fact, on May 10th of this year, it was the 90th anniversary of the bridge and a party was held. Wish I had been invited! Information about the museum can be found at http://bridgehousemuseum.org/home The web site describes the museum as,”The McCormick Bridgehouse & Chicago River Museum uncovers the marvels of the Chicago River. Visitors find themselves inside the southwest bridge tower of the Michigan Avenue Bridge where each of the five-stories of the Bridgehouse Museum captures a critical moment in the history of the Chicago River. Surrounded by snippets from various stages of the river’s uses, visitors explore visions for the river realized or forgotten. The historic bridge tower is itself a relic of another time, when bridge tenders operated the opening and closing of the bridge from the narrow tower. The Bridgehouse Museum also houses the gears of the landmark bridge. Visitors to the Bridgehouse Museum are treated to a rare look at the interworkings of the bridge that is lifted by two 100 horse powered engines.”

After reading about the Museum I thought, is it right to desecrate the museum by decorating it for Halloween?

The Chicago City Council just passed an ordinance allowing Fresh Picked Media the opportunity to sell corporations the right to decorate, through a sponsorship agreement, one of 14 (those with the highest traffic usage) Chicago River bridge houses for $1 million-a-year-per-bridge. The sponsoring company would be allowed to hang the decorations for the month-long period preceding four major holidays --- Halloween, Christmas, Easter and 4th of July. The exact wording of the ordinance is to “utilize certain Chicago River Bridge Houses and the Riverwalk development project as venues to advertise and promote tourism, special events, holidays and commerce in the City of Chicago.”

Phillip Lynch, president of Fresh Picked Media said, “We’re looking at a projection of $250,000-per-month per [holiday] or $1 million on an annual basis for a sponsor…Based on the 14 bridges at 100 percent occupancy, that’s $14 million in gross revenue and $10.5 million to the city.” Fresh Media will keep 25% of the sponsor fee as their commission.

Since the ordinance also states that, “Promotions to be undertaken by FPM must be approved in advance by the City Department of Transportation (“CDOT”) with full disclosure of all material terms and conditions,” I guess we won’t have to worry that Trojan will be a sponsor and turn a bridge house into a giant penis covered with a condom.

Ald. Eugene Schulter (47th) said,” The idea is a good one. I’m just kind of concerned about the size [of the corporate logos.]…We could come back, maybe, later on and wish we didn’t do it if it’s too large.” John Yonan, deputy commissioner of engineering for the city’s Department of Transportation, assured Schulter that corporate logos would be the “smallest dimension possible,” adding, “We’ll try to scale it down as much as possible.”

So if the corporate logo would be the “smallest dimension possible,” why would a corporation spend $1 million to sponsor a bridge?

On March 29, 2009, I wrote a blog about how KFC wanted to sponsor the naming rights of potholes in exchange for repairing hundreds of thousands of them. The state of Kentucky was already doing it. I wrote, “KFC (Kentucky Fried Chicken’s official name) has offered to patch the pot holes for free in exchange for leaving behind a stenciled brand on the patch informing the public that the road has been “Re-Freshed by KFC.” KFC has already done this in Louisville and earned a testimonial from Mayor Jerry Abramson, who noted that “finding funding for needed road repairs is a continuing challenge.” The reason the city turned down the offer came from Brian Steele, a spokesman for the Chicago Department of Transportation who said, “We don’t allow any type of printing or advertising placed on a city street or sidewalk.” So advertising on streets or sidewalks is a “NO”, but advertising on bridge houses is a “YES”. I wonder about the decision making process. I seriously doubt that there will be companies willing to spend $1 million to sponsor a bridge house so this discussion is probably moot. But come October, I hope the BridgeHouse Museum is not covered with slime promoting Ghost Busters III.