A new park in Chicago aims to turn 140,000 acres of under-used and post industrial land along the Second City's southern rim into the country's largest urban park. Governor Pat Quinn hopes to add private funding to the $17m allotted by the state.
Illinois hopes that the park will be "the first viable, large-scale attempt to protect and enhance the Lake Calumet area through an integrated, cooperative approach to land and resource management," said the Sierra Club.
If completed, the park will be easily larger than Central Park, which is a mere 843 acres, and Lincoln park, currently Chicago's biggest at 1,200 acres. The largest urban park deserving of the name in the contiguous United States is Phoenix's South Mountain Park, at more than 16,000 acres. Enclosed by the Phoenix-Glendale sprawl, the dusty stretch of rocks and rolling brush is home to rattlesnakes and lizards.
Read the full story: A Plan For America's Largest Urban Park
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Desperate measures: Advocates weigh draining Lake Powell to fill Colorado River
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In Texas, data centers are swallowing promised parkland
Residents who moved to Taylor, Texas for a rural community now have to contend with three data centers in their backyard.
How a Chicago-sized wind farm beat the odds and powered on
The project spanned five presidential administrations and a standoff with a U.S. military base.
MTA gives itself 30 days to transform pit into basketball court
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