New Police/Fire Academy

By the old gas pumps behind Ferdinand and Tripp looks like. And let us just say, about damn time:

• Chicago’s cramped and antiquated police and fire academies will be replaced by a new $95 million “public safety training” campus in West Garfield Park, the Chicago Sun-Times has learned.
  
  The new shared training academy — with two buildings and outdoor training space — will have the capacity to provide training the U.S. Justice Department found so sorely lacking in the Chicago Police Department.
  
  The new campus will be built on 30.4 acres of vacant, privately owned land at 4301 W. Chicago.
  
  [...]
  
  The main building will include classrooms, labs, simulators, conference rooms, an auditorium and administrative offices.
  
  The second building will include a dive training pool, a shooting range and space for “active scenario training.” The outdoor portion of the campus will feature a driving course, a skid pad and space for “hands-on practice in real-world situations.”

This had us chuckling though:

• The mayor’s office refused to say how the project would be financed — only that the city would “identify funding as the project progresses.”

Really? But you have millions upon millions for DePaul, City Colleges, aldermanic bribe funding, bike lanes.....we'll stop here because our blood pressure is rising again.

And while you're at it, one request - a proper parking structure with a few floors on it. Street parking is non-existent over there, the neighborhood isn't exactly safe, and everyone knows exactly how the parking worked out at HQ. You need adequate parking if you want to be pushing through 100 recruits every month or every two months or even every three, not to mention the fire side. 500 or 600 spots minimum.