CHICAGO (AP) — The head of a small nonprofit that stood its ground and blocked "Star Wars" creator George Lucas' private museum from being built on Chicago's prized lakefront is unapologetic in the face of attacks that its campaign merely protected an existing parking lot. Lucas' wife accused them of denying "black and brown children" opportunities and a prominent Catholic priest even compared them to a street gang. [...] as crowds fill the ribbon of green along Lake Michigan this Fourth of July, Friends of the Parks Director Juanita Irizarry urges people not to take for granted the dazzling open spaces that generations of activists have fought to preserve. Folks have called us elitist and a bunch of rich white people, but the history of the organization actually is very much connected to this effort to make sure that brown and black folks on the West and South sides got better served. The site is currently a parking lot for Soldier Field, yet you say leaving it as such is preferable to allowing construction of a private museum — even one that adds acres of new parkland around it — because it would violate the public trust doctrine meant to guard public land. Emanuel, meanwhile, says your lawsuit and Lucas' departure last week cost the city thousands of jobs, millions of dollars in economic investment and countless educational opportunities. A: There's always (going to be) folks who care about the environment who think that open space should be open space and real estate developer people who think open space is space to be built on.