Something that should be said about park planning downtown (“Mulling over North Grant Park,” Chicago Journal, May 27) is that the public input process has become more sophisticated at our urging. It is important for the public to know that the Northerly Island and North Grant Park planning processes are as productive public input opportunities as you could see. We want to raise the bar so that people do get opportunities to have their input heard in a manner that creates discussion and we want people to be inspired and to inspire.

There is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for the public to have input into making Grant Park history at the north end. We will do this through a process that is not people screaming over each other and shouting others down, but listening and having focus groups and break-out sessions that truly work. We will also aim at urban planning education and engagement and inspire people to have open minds.

Unlike Millennium Park, a great project but lacking in true public input, North Grant Park will truly engage the public. With Millennium Park, we reached out a lot to the public but the horse had already left the barn. This time the horse is comfortably eating oats in the barn.