Much of the new $60 million Maggie Daley Park opened on Saturday, greeted with kids flocking to the children's play garden and hour-long lines to rent skates to be among the first to zip around the ice skating ribbon.
Next to Millennium Park, which was built under his administration, former Mayor Richard M. Daley helped cut the ribbon to open the 20-acre Maggie Daley Park named in honor of his late wife who died in 2011.
While Daley did not speak publicly at the opening ceremony, his daughter Nora Daley Conroy thanked everyone for honoring her mother with this downtown park.
"The wonder that this park experience brings to so many people from every neighborhood in our great city is something I know would have filled my mom with great joy," she said. "I can picture her beautiful smile as she played with her grandchildren and watched young people of all ages and abilities as they discovered something new."
Mayor Emanuel thanked the Daley family for sharing the beloved Maggie Daley with the city.
"She was your gift to us and this is our gift to you and the entire city of Chicago," he said. "She was the reflection of the best of who we are as a city and this park is a reflection of who she was as a person. This is one of a kind park as she was. It is graceful as she was. It is full of life as she always will remain in our minds and in our memories."
The new park's signature feature - the quarter-mile long and 20-foot wide J.B. and M.K. Pritzker Family Skating Ribbon - was quite popular on opening day with waits of at least an hour to rent skates. With 27,500 square feet of ice surface, it is nearly twice the size of a traditional skating rink.
"This is fun, not the typical round rink. It spices it up a little," said Kiley Coombe, 24, of Lakeview. She took her family visiting from Boston to the park where they skated for half an hour.
She's skated at various rinks in the city, including Millennium Park next door to Maggie Daley Park. "It's kind of boring going around in a circle but it's a nice view of the bean and the city," she said.
In addition to the skating ribbon which circled around the Malkin-Sacks Rock Climbing Wall, parts of the three-acre play garden and the renovated field house were opened to the public for the first time since construction began in 2012. The remaining play garden features such as the enchanted forest with honey locust trees placed upside down along with the climbing wall, the lawn areas and the concessions will open in the spring.
While the park's construction - easily seen from Lake Shore Drive, Millennium Park and nearby high-rises - has been highly anticipated, it's also drawn some criticism.
About a dozen dog owners on Saturday protested the decision to prohibit dogs on Maggie Daley Park property. More than 600 people have signed an online petition urging the park district to allow leashed dogs in the park. Other neighbors have been critical of the park design, saying it looks like an amusement park.
The new park was paid for with a combination of private donations and public funding.
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