Early life and education[edit]
Chris, only 30 days old, being held by his sister Kathleen
He grew up at his family home,
Hickory Hill, in
McLean,
Virginia, a suburb of
Washington, D.C., and attended the Our Lady of Victory Catholic School in McLean through the eighth grade.
[5] He transferred to
Georgetown Preparatory School in
North Bethesda,
Maryland, also a suburb of Washington, and graduated in 1982.
[6] While in high school, he volunteered at a home for
runaway youth.
Kennedy moved from Boston to Decatur to work for Archer Daniels Midland in the 1980s, and has spent his life working around issues of hunger, whether as the chairman of the
Greater Chicago Food Depository, or now helping to run the non-profit he and his wife founded, Top Box Foods.
[11]Kennedy was the president of Merchandise Mart Properties in Chicago, Illinois, from 2000 until 2012. The property was originally owned by the Kennedy family until it was sold to
Vornado Realty Trust, a
real estate investment trust. The Merchandise Mart, one of the properties of Merchandise Mart Properties, is the largest
commercial building in the world, serving as both a luxury
wholesale design center and one of the leading international business locations in Chicago. The Mart spans two city blocks and rises twenty-five stories for a total of 4.2 million square feet (390,000 square metres) Three million people come through the Mart each year to visit its retail shops, permanent showrooms, and office space as well as attend the numerous trade, consumer and community events hosted there.
Top Box Foods[edit]
In May 2012, Kennedy started the Chicago-based non-profit Top Box Foods. The organization was created as a way to get discounted groceries to families who live in areas that either lack grocery stores or have an abundance of fast food. Kennedy initially invested $150,000 to get Top Box started, and subsequently designed the organization to be self-sustaining.
Top Box as an organization purchases food, boxes it in various combinations and delivers it monthly to churches and organizations in mostly low-income neighborhoods. The food items in the box change from month to month and include a wide variety of fruits, vegetables, meats, and frozen meals, with box prices ranging from $19 to $39. The boxes can be ordered online or through the organizations where the boxes are delivered. These organizations, otherwise known as Top Box "host sites," range from small neighborhood churches with a few dozen families to some of the Chicago's largest, including
Trinity United Church of Christ and
Salem Baptist Church.
Personal life[edit]
Kennedy met Sheila Sinclair-Berner (born December 4, 1962), an Illinois native, while attending
Boston College. After graduating from college in 1986, Kennedy moved to
Decatur, Illinois, and married in 1987.
[13] The couple had four children, Katherine Frances Kennedy (1990-), Christopher George Kennedy, Jr. (1992-), Sarah Louise Kennedy (1994-),
[14] and Clare Rose Kennedy (1998-),
[15] whom they are raising in the Chicago suburb of Kenilworth. His wife earned a
law degree from
Northwestern University and practiced at
Sidley & Austin[citation needed] in Chicago before taking time off to take care of their children.
Political career[edit]
Kennedy attending Chicago's Pride Parade.
The
National Journal once quoted Kennedy as saying, "I have a lot to keep up with: a brother who might run for Congress, a sister and a brother considering races for governor, a cousin who might run for Congress, another in Congress, an uncle in the Senate and a cousin-in-law,
Arnold [Schwarzennegger], who is thinking of running for governor."
[16]Beyond his family, Kennedy has served in a variety of capacities for numerous political campaigns, including hosting a fundraiser for
Barack Obama in his bid for U.S. Senate.
[citation needed]Prior to February 8, 2017, when Kennedy announced his candidacy for the Democratic Nomination for Illinois Governor in 2018,
[21] he had never ran for any elective office.
[19]Kennedy during his campaign for governor advocated for "a property tax system that can't be abused by the wealthy and insiders" in a fundraising email.
[22] Kennedy criticized one of his fellow Democratic gubernatorial candidates,
J.B. Pritzker, for getting a large property tax reduction on a
Gold Coast mansion.
[23] "It's an inherently corruptible system and we ought to reject it," Kennedy said to reporters in reference to Pritzker's property taxes.
[24] "The Cook County property tax appeals business is notorious for pricing political connections at a premium," wrote the
Illinois Policy Institute, a conservative website.
[25] Kennedy has further gone on to state that what Mike Madigan is doing, referring to his conflict of interest from serving as the house speaker while working as a property tax attorney, should be illegal.
[26]Kennedy called for an open primary in the 2018 gubernatorial race, urging the Cook County Democratic party not to throw their weight behind any other candidate, instead allowing for voters to vet all the candidates in the race.
[28]On March 20, 2018, Kennedy lost the Democratic primary, finishing in third place behind Pritzer and state senator
Daniel Biss. He carried only two counties,
Ford and
Hardin.
Business and economic involvement[edit]
Since 2000, Kennedy has been a member of the
City Club of Chicago, a group that brings together civic and cultural leaders to discuss and debate issues affecting the Chicago area.
Since 2005, he has been a member of the
Commercial Club of Chicago, a group that brings together the city's business, educational, and cultural leaders on projects to improve central industries and create new economic opportunities.
Other civic involvement[edit]
- Since 1996, he has been a member of the Chicago Council on Global Affairs, a nonpartisan group that seeks to impact discourse on global issues through leadership, education, and policy.
- Since 1996, Kennedy has been on the board of directors at The Irish Fellowship Club,[30] a Chicago-based group dedicated to preserving and promoting Irish heritage.
- From 2006 until the Spring of 2013, he served on the board of directors of Catholic Theological Union, the largest Roman Catholic graduate school of theology and ministry in the U.S.[31]
- Greater Chicago Food Depository is a nonprofit food distribution and training center providing food for hungry people while striving to end hunger throughout Cook County, Illinois. It also offers education programs providing the knowledge and tools needed to break the poverty cycle.
- El Valor[32] is a nonprofit group seeking to enrich the local community by empowering the underserved, disenfranchised, and disabled while creating a sense of unity among all community members.
- Heartland Alliance[33] is a human-rights-advocacy group providing housing, healthcare, economic security, and legal protection for low-income citizens.
- Governor Pat Quinn appointed Kennedy to the Board of Trustees of the University of Illinois in September 2009. He served in that role until his gubernatorial appointment expired in January 2015.
- He served as a Member of the Executive Committee of the Chicago Community Trust until January 2015.
- He served as the Lund-Gill Chair in the Rosary College of Arts and Sciences at Dominican University (Illinois).[34]
- He is the chairman of the board of Innovation Illinois, a progressive 501(c)(4) non-profit advocacy group formed in April 2015.
Residential development[edit]
As Chairman of Joseph P. Kennedy Enterprises, Inc., Kennedy is responsible for the development of the Kennedy family real estate holdings in Chicago known as
Wolf Point, Chicago. The Wolf Point development site represents a billion-dollar commitment to the downtown core, and the site is zoned for construction of a residential apartment building, a self-park garage, and two additional high-rise buildings.
Kennedy also is a partner in Sudbury Station LLC, a development entity proposing a 250-unit luxury rental housing development with a state mandated minimum affordable housing set aside in Sudbury, Massachusetts, designed to meet local housing needs for seniors and the working class community. Proposed on a 39-acre parcel zoned residential near the
Historic District of Sudbury, the Village at Sudbury Station would satisfy the
Massachusetts affordable housing mandate for
Sudbury, would be located close to schools, parks, churches and public safety facilities, and would contribute significant additional tax revenue to the town.
[35][36] The project has received criticism from town officials and residents. Residents voted unamiously to hire a special counsel to stop the development, which they allege violates over thirty local zoning ordinances.
[37][38]
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