Who is responsible for signing off on this project?: part 1
We decided to do some investigative work on Saturday around the construction site and found this sign showing the “South Lincoln Park Athletic Field”, signed off by the Commissioners of the Chicago Park District
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M. Laird Koldyke has four children in Latin School and is also on the board of the Chicago Park District. He is the son of the founder of the investment firm Frontenac, and worked for his father in the firm until he spun off his own investment companies. He was named to the board of the Chicago Park District by the mayor. The family is very powerful. His wife, Dede Koldyke, is on the advisory board of the Trust for Public Land, which is supposed to be protecting the very land that the family is taking for their own children’s private use. Here’s an excerpt from the TPL’s website:
(One of the main missions of TPL is to work “in cities and suburbs across America to ensure that everyone – in particular, every child – enjoys close-to-home access to a park, playground, or natural area.”)
The Park District has said that Koldyke did not participate in the vote that would give his children exclusive access to park land that he controls as a board member of the park system. But with this kind of connection on the board, would you expect anyone else on the board to raise a fuss? The fix was in.