Alderman Fioretti send two very dangerous messages with one vote:
- campaign and other donations to the city get results for the donors, and
- what the citizens want doesn’t matter, the city should always get its way.
Bob Fioretti believes that if your names sounds like Crown or Pritzker and you donate lots of money to the city (a la Millennium Park) the you should be able to take some of the most valuable land in the city (Grant Park) and turn it into a commercial enterprise against the wishes of the people who live closest.
Wrong. It is just plain wrong.
Additional stories here, and here, and here, and here.
P.S. The lawsuit to block this action is moving forward. But the Mayor really wanted to make sure the city’s position was overseen by someone with the skin in the game so he appointed Mr. Pritzker to the Chicago Park District Board.