Get to know WTTW's Geoffrey Baer

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: Q+A : Geoffrey Baer : Geoffrey Baer, the affable host of several popular WTTW Channel 11 programs about the Chicago area, presents Chicago's Lakefront. Baer documented the lakefront nearly a decade ago and now returns to explore the lakefron's changes. : -Interview by Michael Austin : This is a great idea. So much has changed in 10 years. : Well, that's kind of the main reason we did it. There's really two. One is we can't run the lakefront tour we did in 1999 because it's obsolete. We have the new Soldier Field, the closing of Meigs Field, Millennium Park, the rebuilding of Burnham Park on the South Side. The second reason is, I don't have any hair anymore. It's also coming up on the 100th anniversary of the Burnham Plan. : : Do you think Burnham would be pleased with the lakefront today? : That's a great question. (Pause.) No one has asked me that before. Certainly the lakefront has been preserved for the people as a park, more or less. So on that front he would be pleased. But much of what was envisioned on the South Side was not fully realized. There was supposed to be a chain of islands running from Northerly Island all the way down to Promontory Point. Lately a lot of attention has been paid to the south lakefront, which was long overdue. But he envisioned the park going north to Wilmette or even Winnetka. On the south it was intended to go down to the Calumet River or even farther. : : Do you have any special memories of the lakefront? : Oh yeah, sure. I grew up in Highland Park until I was 9, and then I lived in Deerfield. So we used to go to Park Avenue Beach. We had these metal beach tags that were octagonal, like a stop sign, and you would take a safety pin and pin them to your bathing suit. Anyone from that era who reads this would remember them. : : I was going to ask if you grew up here, which would make you a Chicago Baer. : Ahhh, yes. I am so not a sports fan. Well, I love the Cubs. I went to college in Ohio, and when I sat for my picture the photographer was trying to make small talk and he said, "So, how about those Chicago Bears?" I was so not a sports fan, so I thought he was talking about my family, the Baers. : : Do you think people take the lake for granted? : Yes. I think most people in Chicago love the lake. They love that view of the lake. But as somebody who goes sailing, I'm always amazed at how few people actually go out on the lake in a boat. It's like the museums. People say, "I never go unless I have friends in from out of town." : : (North Shore Magazine)

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