The Grant Park Conservancy gets Businesses to Whip Planters into Shape

DNAinfo reports that many of the planter boxes along some of Chicago's most prominent streets need a makeover, and the Grant Park Conservancy has started finding the money to pay for it.

The Grant Park Conservancy has corralled a dozen Downtown landlords including Columbia College Chicago and Golub & Co. to pay for the beautification of 26 planters on Wabash Avenue from Jackson Boulevard to Roosevelt Road. The work, with a rough annual cost of $1,000 per box, will begin within a month as summer approaches, Grant Park Conservancy President Bob O'Neill said.

"The investment in parkway trees and plants and flowers more than pays for itself in economic development and tourism," O'Neill said. "When people go visit a city they notice those things right away."

"We've taken this upon ourselves because nobody's doing anything," he said.