The city has mile after mile of underutilized lakefront park, and it made no sense to destroy Meigs just to add a few hundred yards more.

So ruining Meigs was a mistake, and Daley doing it in his I’m-the-King-of-Chicago-I-can-do-what-I-please manner made it worse.

Time is a balm, however. Asked if digging up Meigs was the right thing to do, Emanuel initially said, “It is right, yes, on this level, this way: Meigs Field is no longer there.”

But that seemed to be saying that the ends justify the means. Whatever works, just do it.

“I’ll leave it to others to make that judgment,” Emanuel continued. “I think it was the right thing to do.”

Which is it?  So Emanuel approves of Daley’s most power-mad act?

“No way, no how,” his office replied.

Well, that’s a relief. So does that mean — follow-up question! — that the mayor is not laying the groundwork for his own extra-legal, unilateral acts? That he won’t, oh, decide to fill in Belmont Harbor? Because really, who enjoys that? A handful of rich boaters. That’s all. Why indulge them when the city could seize the lagoon and fill it in. More campground for poor kids!

Read more at the Chicago Sun-Times