Connecting some rat dots
Friday, Oct 2, 2026 - Posted by Rich Miller
* WGN TV…
The piles of nuts first began appearing outside a Lincoln Park home a few years ago, attracting a swarm of squirrels.
Since then, workers carrying matching shoulder bags have been spotted dumping piles of nuts a few blocks away in the park, and no one can figure out why.
It’s like a luxury mélange of really nice nuts: I’m talking Brazil nuts and walnuts…these are not acorns,” said Lincoln Park resident Caroline Novak.
Novak’s husband David Pike said he counted 42 rats digging holes near the nut piles and running rampant when he recently walked through the park. […]
Ald. Timmy Knudsen (43rd Ward) says the City has traced the feeding frenzy back to a specific homeowner who, he says, has been undeterred by fines and a warning letter threatening further action.
“We’ve never dealt with the situation where it’s like ‘feed for hire’ for lack of a better term – where someone’s paying several employees to feed the animals in the surrounding area,” Knudsen told WGN Investigates. “Typically, when you ticket somebody it stops their bad behavior. This has not stopped it. If anything, the behavior is increased – the feeding has increased since we’ve been ticketing them.”
* The address posted in the accompanying video points to a house owned by Barre Seid, who is one of the quietest billionaires in Chicago but is nevertheless a major contributor to various causes. This is from 2022…
An elderly, ultra-secretive Chicago businessman has given the largest known donation to a political advocacy group in U.S. history — worth $1.6 billion — and the recipient is one of the prime architects of conservatives’ efforts to reshape the American judicial system, including the Supreme Court.
Through a series of opaque transactions over the past two years, Barre Seid, a 90-year-old manufacturing magnate, gave the massive sum to a nonprofit run by Leonard Leo, who co-chairs the conservative legal group the Federalist Society. […]
Our reporting sheds additional light on how the two men, one a judicial kingmaker and the other a mysterious but prolific donor to conservative causes, came together to create a political war chest that will likely supercharge efforts to further shift American politics to the right.
Also 2022…
Seid has funded climate denialism as well as a national network of state-level think tanks that promote business deregulation and fight Medicaid expansion. He’s also supported efforts to remake the higher education system in a conservative mold, including to turn one of the nation’s most politically influential law schools into a training ground for future generations of right-wing judges and justices. […]
Seid has also funded the State Policy Network, a group of influential state-level think tanks that push for deregulation and tax cuts, according to an email written by a friend of Seid’s. The head of the group once compared it to IKEA, The New Yorker reported, offering state think tanks a “catalogue” of successful projects, including opposing health care subsidies and imposing new voting restrictions. The network has also opposed efforts to expand Medicaid coverage.
That state policy network includes the Illinois Policy Institute. Seid’s state and local campaign contributions are here.
The moral of this story appears to be: A few municipal fines apparently ain’t gonna stop billionaires from hiring people to serve upscale treats to rats.
Discuss.
- NIU Grad - Friday, Oct 2, 26 @ 1:53 pm:
The juxtaposition of a billionaire being such a softie that he’s worried about the squirrels and rats eating nice food, while also bankrolling nationwide campaigns to throw people off life-saving benefits and eliminate all environmental protections (killing who knows how many squirrels around the country).
These people live in odd bubbles.
- Socially DIstant Watcher - Friday, Oct 2, 26 @ 1:57 pm:
@NIU: Occam’s razor says Seid wants his part of the world to be filled with happy cavorting animals, and he doesn’t care about your part of the world.
- Candy Dogood - Friday, Oct 2, 26 @ 2:11 pm:
===Discuss. ===
Another billionaire that doesn’t care about anyone else that doesn’t bother following rules that are intended to protect other people. I am surprised to learn that he is supporting literal vermin at the expense of the public. Usually that’s a metaphor.
I’m not as prepared as someone else might be to assume that his desire to feed literal vermin is motivated out of any sense of altruism. It is just as easy for me to assume a level of cartoon villainy to match the hundreds of millions of dollars he has spent to make the lives of hundreds of millions of people worse.
Maybe he wants the city to have a rat problem.
Maybe he delights in watching the city expend resources to fight his rat nutrition supplementation project.
Maybe he delights in using his money to feed literal rats instead of doing something to improve the lives of other human beings that he thinks are worse than rats.
===The moral of this story appears to be: A few municipal fines apparently ain’t gonna stop billionaires from hiring people to serve upscale treats to rats===
I bet there’s a way to elevate this activity to criminal charges and that should be considered. Not enough billionaires are getting jailed.
- GoneFishing - Friday, Oct 2, 26 @ 2:12 pm:
The city should just fine the actual individuals doing the nut drop off. It won’t happen if the individual workers can’t afford to do it.
- Rich Miller - Friday, Oct 2, 26 @ 2:13 pm:
===individual workers can’t afford to do it===
Ever heard of reimbursable expenditures?
This has been another edition of: Simple solutions are usually neither.
- charles in charge - Friday, Oct 2, 26 @ 2:16 pm:
==I’m not as prepared as someone else might be to assume that his desire to feed literal vermin is motivated out of any sense of altruism. It is just as easy for me to assume a level of cartoon villainy to match the hundreds of millions of dollars he has spent to make the lives of hundreds of millions of people worse.==
This is exactly what I was thinking, but you said it so much better than I could have.
- Streator Curmudgeon - Friday, Oct 2, 26 @ 2:20 pm:
The theme of the 21st century might be “Billionaires Behaving Badly.” The ironic part is that their grandchildren and great grandchildren will be choking on the air and water they helped pollute.
As for Mr. Seid, the Almond Joy candy bar slogan comes to mind.
- Yellow Dog Democrat - Friday, Oct 2, 26 @ 2:24 pm:
He was feeding squirrels in his yard, the neighbors complained (about the squirrels, not any rats I don’t think) and the city ticketed him.
He responded by hiring people to dump nuts in the park instead.
It’s an act of civil disobedience by a man who considers the ordinance against feeding squirrels in your own yard unjust.
The city could keep fighting the one guy whose probably willing to spend $10 million feeding squirrels just to prove a point.
Or they could deal with him the way Rahm Emanuel dealt with Ken Griffin when he complained about cracked bike paths.
Amend the city ordinance that bans all squirrel and bird feeders in Chicago, and just require the feeders not attract rats.
Seid can feed his squirrels, Chicagoans will once again be able to legally feed hummingbirds, everybody wins.
- Dotnonymous x - Friday, Oct 2, 26 @ 2:25 pm:
Speaking of mysterious influences, Grover Norquist and Leonard Leo are two of the most influential strategists and power brokers in the modern American conservative regime. While they operate in different spheres, Norquist primarily in fiscal policy and tax reform, and Leo in the judiciary and constitutional law areas, their combined efforts have fundamentally re-shaped the legal and economic landscape of the United States over the last several decades…and I wonder how many voters even know their names?
- Joe Bidenopolous - Friday, Oct 2, 26 @ 2:33 pm:
I’m partial to Candy’s thesis.
Although I’ll also entertain dementia
- Keith - Friday, Oct 2, 26 @ 2:40 pm:
Clearly, this guy’s nuts.
- Rich Miller - Friday, Oct 2, 26 @ 2:43 pm:
===Or they could deal with him the way Rahm Emanuel dealt with Ken Griffin when he complained about cracked bike paths.===
For all his flaws, Ken Griffin was not destroying bike paths or having thugs slash bike tires.
You have no idea what his goal is here and neither do I. But someone in that household is allegedly feeding rats and that’s gotta stop.
It was basically the same thing in Jaime Andrade’s former district when some old lady was buying giant bags of bird food to give to pigeons living under an overpass on the NW Side. All she wanted to do was feed the birds, not make a point.
This has been yet another edition of: Simple solutions are usually neither.
- Dotnonymous x - Friday, Oct 2, 26 @ 3:01 pm:
The Marble Freedom Trust is an American conservative political advocacy group structured as a 501(c)(4) social welfare organization. Leonard Leo is the group’s trustee and chairman.
- The Ford Lawyer - Friday, Oct 2, 26 @ 3:07 pm:
Perhaps he is also a rat denialist: “Rats existed long before human civilization. Nothing we do effects whether there are rats. This rat scare is just another effort by lefties to control people.”
- old man poodle owner - Friday, Oct 2, 26 @ 3:17 pm:
So folk want other folk jailed for leaving nature ( nuts ) in a park ( nature) for nature ( rodents) to eat.
Got it
- Rich Miller - Friday, Oct 2, 26 @ 3:42 pm:
===Got it ===
You obviously don’t.
- Michelle Flaherty - Friday, Oct 2, 26 @ 3:43 pm:
The GOP’s Rat Man of Lincoln Park.
- Jagged Little IL - Friday, Oct 2, 26 @ 3:46 pm:
A steep penalty enhancement could help with the City’s budget woes
- DuPage Saint - Friday, Oct 2, 26 @ 3:56 pm:
Someone should hire that gigantic rat that shows up at labor disputes and have it stop by his house for a picture
- Candy Dogood - Friday, Oct 2, 26 @ 4:00 pm:
LOL — it just occurred to me that this guy would rather spend considerable amounts of money to feed nuts to squirrels than support Darren Bailey’s campaign.
Money spent feeding rats is better than money spent on Darren Bailey’s campaign.
- Dotnonymous x - Friday, Oct 2, 26 @ 4:04 pm:
Barre Seid fought hard against the ban on DDT… which nearly drove the bald eagle to extinction in the mid-20th century by causing severe eggshell thinning that crushed developing embryos…that’s exactly how much he cares for nature.
- Streator Curmudgeon - Friday, Oct 2, 26 @ 4:10 pm:
Secretive billionaire trying to control the world? Must be a member of the Illuminutti.
- Cicero Slav - Friday, Oct 2, 26 @ 4:17 pm:
For people who live in dense, urban areas, it is necessary that people follow the basic rules of decency or the living situation can go to he!! quickly. One building or one neighbor can really ruin things for all of the other people on the block. In Chicago, as well as Cook County suburbs like Berwyn, Cicero, Oak Park (+ others), people are crammed together. I could maybe jump from a window in my home to a window in either of my neighbor’s homes. So, things like loud music and open windows or a party carrying on past midnight are disruptive for everyone and can make life miserable.
- Verminator - Thursday, Oct 8, 26 @ 6:53 pm:
This guy made his money in data centers. Data centers & tech did well during the pandemic by things the Executive did under National Emergency laws, things that were decided by the courts and especially by the US Supreme Court. Why a billionaire pays a staff to feed rats is weird, but doing so at the exact time the media is pushing a literal plague scare makes this crazy story suspiciously timed at the very least…