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Navy Pier to Here | 2005 UIC City & Corporate Award Recipient Profiles

FEATURE STORY (continued) — January/February 2005


2005 Award Recipient Profiles

City Partner Peter J. Skosey MUPP '93 Vice President, External Relations, Metropolitan Planning Council, Chicago, IL

Making Plans
From innovative programs for children to improved accountability for public funds, urban planner Peter Skosey has made a difference

By Hugh M. Cook

At age 25, Peter Skosey, MUPP '93, was one of the new, bright stars that Chicago Park District Superintendent Forrest Claypool recruited in 1994 to help him restructure the CPD and make it more responsive to community needs. He was also the youngest of its 25 area managers.

"I was supervising people who had 25 years of experience," says Skosey. "So they were extremely skeptical. I think they felt they had drawn the short straw getting me assigned to them."

His subordinates needn't have worried. What Skosey may have lacked in experience, he made up for with ideas and passion, as demonstrated by his early efforts as a program director for Friends of the Parks, a Chicago-based advocacy group. There he worked closely with community groups, local park staff and school representatives to implement an innovative after-school program, Kaleidoscope for Kids, at eight sites. Its success led Claypool to establish Park Kids, a similar program citywide. "It's become one of CPD's most popular programs," says Skosey.

During that time, he also wrote a report detailing the inadequacies of several CPD programs. For example, Skosey found a staff-to-student ratio of two to one. "That's to say, there weren't a lot of kids enrolled in those programs," he explains.

That report caught the attention of Claypool and prompted WGN television news to air an investigation report.

At CPD, Skosey oversaw a staff of 63, nine park facilities and a $1.4 million budget. He enacted a number of improvements, including expanding staff resources at Russell Square Park, upgrading the facilities at Pietrowski Playground and establishing the Mann Park Science Club in partnership with the Chicago Museum of Science and Industry.

In 1996, Skosey was ready for a new challenge, one that would combine his passion for urban planning and his desire to work with communities. He joined the Metropolitan Planning Council as an urban development director, and began working with its new president, MarySue Barrett, to shift the 68-year-old organization's mission from research to advocacy.

One of Skosey's first projects at MPC was tax increment financing reform. His work helped secure improved financial reporting standards for TIF districts and changes in the ways that school districts can participate in TIF funding.

Skosey has also played key roles in MPC's efforts to improve Chicago's economic, social and cultural landscape. For example, working with the Southeast Chicago Development Commission, he helped create a vision plan for the site of U.S. Steel's defunct steel plant. And, in keeping with his personal credo, Skosey actively sought community participation in its preparation.

"We held a series of workshops and had more than 100 people involved," he says. "The vision plan they prepared was later adopted by the city."

In 1999, Skosey was promoted to vice president of external relations for MPC, and now oversees the organization's legislative advocacy work at the state level.

Even with his busy schedule, Skosey finds time for his alma mater; currently, he is the founding president of CUPPA's Alumni Association.

As for the future, he says, "I hope to continue working with different communities and see Chicago continue to grow and prosper."