DID you know...
- Parker is one of the largest private schools in Chicago. So how is it that they need more space?!
- Parker has SIX acres of land, making it one of the largest private school campuses in Chicago.
- Meanwhile, Lincoln Elementary School exists on less than a quarter of that land serving almost as many students.
- Parker's 940 students share a full-size turf field, three outdoor playgrounds, and three gyms.
- Meanwhile, Lincoln Park's 2175 high school students and 857 elementary school students have no fields on which to practice, forcing them to transform school hallways into track straightaways.
- Parker has SIX acres of land, making it one of the largest private school campuses in Chicago.
- Parker exploits tax payer money to fund their bad behavior!
- Parker pays ZERO real estate taxes on their SIX acres of land, meaning they DO NOT contribute to Chicago’s public services like the police department, fire department, EMTs, as well as sidewalk, roadway, and parkway tree maintenance. Yet, they fully rely on these services without contributing to the maintenance of these services.
- Parker has been granted daily street closure privileges, removing public parking and creating traffic jams throughout the community.
- Parker staff take up what little free street parking is left despite having two parking lots. This reduces access for visitors to park economically to visit the lakefront, Lincoln Park Zoo, the Conservatory, Grandmother's Garden, Clark street businesses, and playgrounds.
- Parker commuters destroy our roads and contribute nothing for their upkeep.
- Parker makes living in our community less safe!
- Parker's drop-off and pick-up lines full of idling cars release emissions into an area with high foot traffic, large outdoor recreational spaces, and groups of pre-school children.
- Parker puts pedestrians at risk with their block-long rows of double parked cars resulting in poor visibility near crosswalks full of commuters and joggers.
- Parker's car lines ruin our roads increasing the chances of bike accidents and car accidents due to potholes.
- Parker bullies people to get what they want!
- In 2019-20, Parker deceptively and viciously wrested two historic condo buildings from their tax-paying owners - by their trustee’s own admission, “under the cover of night.” These heartless actions forced 34 families to lose their homes. And forced all of us to grieve the loss of our neighbors and friends.
- Reducing residential housing reduces eyes-and-ears on our streets, spending at the shops on Clark Street, kids’ attendance of our local public schools, and the access that rentals provide to housing for so many.
- Parker is robbing our community of $500,000 every year!
- Parker wants to evict more renters in those same historic condo buildings, so that they can annex the properties into their non-taxpaying corporation. This will cost the city of Chicago $500,000 of annual property taxes, in perpetuity.
- Parker students come from over 50 zip codes; and less than a third of Parker attendees live in the 43rd Ward.