While the city of Chicago won concessions, including increased rent, from the group that runs Millennium Park’s restaurant, records reveal City Hall and the Chicago Park District racked up a final tab of more than $7 million in legal fees to wage the years-long legal fight over the restaurant owners’ so-called “sweetheart deal.”
The city of Chicago and the owners of the Park Grill restaurant in Millennium Park have reached a settlement to end the years-long legal saga cutting across Chicago’s culture of politics and clout.
Despite months of negotiations and public pronouncements signaling a deal, the Chicago Park District has yet to initialize a deal with the owners of a restaurant group who are seeking to open a restaurant in Maggie Daley Park, according to a response to an information request from the Cook County Record.
A restaurant and tavern group, which operates nearly a dozen sites sprinkled throughout the Loop and Chicago’s North and Near West sides,and which hopes to open a new restaurant in Chicago’s Maggie Daley Park, has been hit with a class action lawsuit, alleging it left customers with no options to cash out or transfer rewards credits toward free food and drink when the group transitioned to a different customer loyalty rewards program.
The Illinois Supreme Court will weigh in on the question of whether Illinois law can constitutionally exempt hospitals from paying property taxes, and whether the city of Chicago can use curfew laws to keep protesters out of Grant Park over night.
Opponents of the George Lucas museum proposed for Chicago’s lakefront have won the latest episode in the long running legal wars over the planned attraction, after a federal judge refused to dismiss their lawsuit against the city and park district.
The legal fight over the fate of the Park Grill restaurant in Chicago’s Millennium Park will continue in the courts in 2016 and perhaps beyond, as the city of Chicago and the restaurant’s operators each prepare for appeals and counter-appeals of a Cook County judge’s decisions in a case over an allegedly crooked restaurant deal that has already cost taxpayers millions of dollars in legal fees and court costs.
After taking a second look, a state appeals panel has again upheld as constitutional a Chicago ordinance prohibiting anyone, even protesters, from remaining overnight in Grant Park without special permission. On Dec. 22, a three-justice panel of the Illinois First District Appellate Court ruled the city of Chicago did not march on the First Amendment rights of Occupy Chicago protesters when police arrested protesters who refused to leave.
Employees of the Chicago Park District, represented by the Service Employees International Union have challenged the constitutionality of a state law reforming the Park District’s public employee pension fund, which supporters believed would help the district stabilize its pension liabilities. On Oct. 8, SEIU Local 73 and named plaintiffs, Chicago Park District retiree David Biedron and current Chicago Park District employee Heather Kelly, filed suit in Cook County Circuit Court.
While Chicago city officials sued the owners of the Park Grill restaurant to collect millions of dollars in taxes and fees that would otherwise have been paid into the city’s coffers, the years-long litigation which failed to persuade a judge the deal was too crooked has cost the city’s taxpayers millions in legal fees, as well. In September, Cook County Judge Moshe Jacobius shot down the lawsuit brought by Chicago City Hall to undo a deal cut by the Chicago Park District with a group of invest
Brookfield Zoo sits on publicly owned land. And every year, it receives a large amount of tax dollars to help fund operations. But the zoo should not enjoy the same protections from lawsuits given to governmental organizations and their offshoots in Illinois, the state’s high court has ruled.
In the latest scene in a years-long saga cutting across Chicago’s culture of politics and clout, a Cook County judge has said Chicago City Hall and Mayor Rahm Emanuel cannot undo a deal cut by the Chicago Park District under former Mayor Richard M. Daley to allow a group of Chicago investors – including some with ties to the former mayor – to operate the restaurant in Millennium Park, simply because city officials wished to now get on the right side of bad publicity surrounding the “sweetheart d
A Cook County woman is suing the city of Chicago and its park district over claims she sustained injuries when she fell into an uncovered sewer opening.
O'BrienA jogger injured while running on the city's Lakefront Trail has sued a bicyclist who she claims collided with her.Erin DiPaola filed a lawsuit Jan. 26 in Cook County Circuit Court against John Brennan, alleging negligence and violation of city ordinances.According to the complaint, DiPaola was running northbound on the lakefront trail east of Lake Shore Drive on May 30, 2013, when the Brennan
A woman is suing over claims an abrupt end to a trail on the city's lakefront caused fall nine feet to the concrete ground and become partially paralyzed.
The City of Chicago did not violate the constitutional rights of Occupy protesters three years ago, when police arrested hundreds who refused an order to leave Grant Park after it closed at 11 p.m., a state appeals court ruled late last month.
