Palmisano Park needs water help; it better arrive before the DNC folks

I was showing a friend Palmisano Park Friday when I spotted a guy seeming to fish in waders on the flooded pier.

Palmisano Park, the model of a 21st Century green space park with fishing, native plantings, innovative trails, boardwalks and a top view of downtown from the hill, is a gem of the Chicago Park District.

It's the kind of place I love to share with people. When people ask me where to take a kid fishing in the city, I say Palmisano Park. It's a cool space and they will catch fish.

People will find it when the Democratic National Convention hits town in less than three weeks.

But the gem has a major flaw this year. The fishing pier, actually in a place with good fishing (not true of all fishing piers), has been flooded for many weeks. The wide medal platform at the end, perfect for kids and people with handicaps, is under several feet of water. The steps on the south side, normally very family friendly, are also flooded.

There has always been fluctuations in levels at the lagoon on the northwest corner of the old Stearns Quarry site on the west side of Halsted between 27th and 29th.

This is different. The problem is not being addressed. The platform part of the pier has been unusable for weeks.

Hard-core anglers are used to adjusting. And they adjust at Palmisano Park. They fish around the edges and utilize the flooded vegetation.

When I walked down to talk to the guy who waded out into the water, it was Jeffrey Williams, who gives reports for the Midwest Fishing Report. He was not in waders, but in swim trunks and clogs. He was catching largemouth bass.

The issue isn't with people like him, he's an expert angler. The issue is the flooded pier prevents or limits groups of kids and those with handicaps from fishing there.

The park has been operational for 15 years. The park district knows how to manage the levels. The water levels should be addressed quickly for the surrounding neighbors as a matter of course. Not to mention long before the DNC crowds arrive.

Illinois hunting

Squirrel hunting opens Thursday, Aug. 1, though few public sites are open for it in August. . . . Applications for the free upland game permits (greatest hunting program in Illinois) open Thursday, Aug. 1.

Wild things

I spotted a record 15 rabbits Sunday in the rain on my morning ramble with Lady. As a teenager, my favorite activity was hunting rabbits around fencerows and woodlots. An old-timer once solemnly told me that rabbits would not hole up if flushed in rain. In the country, unlike suburbia, they utilize holes more regularly. I've never figured out if that was true. I should ask a biologist sometime.

Stray cast

My spring mushroom season will be blander next spring with the Cubs trading my guy Christopher Morel.