Can 80% of respondents be wrong?

About a week ago I briefly commented on Blair Kamin's infatuation with Soldier Field, in particular his (successful) push to remove landmark status after its recent renovation.

Well, according to the Tribune today, "80 percent of respondents said that Soldier Field deserved to lose its landmark status," in an unscientific Trib online poll. The paper took the opportunity to publish letters from readers for and against the landmark status removal. Here's a sampling.

HOMEWOOD -- Good architecture is in the eye of the beholder, not the eyes of a nattering nabob of negativism.

-- Thomas Bauer

CROWN POINT, Ind. -- As a writer and sometimes visitor to Chicago, I have always wondered why a city so famed for architecture always steps in the merde when it comes to sports. I mean, the ballpark for the White Sox could have been so retro and so cool, yet is just another spaceship on the plains. Then this Soldier Field debacle. How come the leaders couldn't just throw open a competition of architects to come up with real designs?

-- Mike Siroky

WEST DUNDEE -- I have been waiting for this day, but please do not mistake my satisfaction. Chicago needs an architectural review committee, without the influence of "Da Mayor," and to regain its crown as a world leader in metropolitan design.

-- Lew Nuzzie

(via Archinect)