U.S. charges 15 in city bribe-taking probe
By Jeff Coen and Dan Mihalopoulos | Tribune reporters
4:35 PM CDT, May 22, 2008
Greedy city workers and bribe-paying developers have corrupted Chicago's zoning and buildings departments, federal and local authorities said Thursday as they announced criminal charges against 15 people in an undercover sting operation dubbed "Crooked Code."
City Inspector General David Hoffman, who worked with federal investigators on the case, said corrupt developers were motivated by the desire to get things built cheaper and faster. Honest developers are unable to compete as a result, he said.
"There can be no doubt that we're talking about systemic corruption," he said. "This is completely unacceptable in this great city."
Daley's response was: "Whaa?"
6 comments:
Why didn't someone notice this 10 years ago, before dozens of buildings with dangerous construction problems went up here in Chicago?
The South Loop is stuffed with poorly -constructed buildings with really horrible problems, to the point where this neighborhood will be totally worthless in the future. A building in Bucktown, condos costing $1MM, had to be vacated a couple of years back because its structural supports were too weak and it was literally about to collapse.
You have to wonder if the mortgage melt-down was the worst damage we've taken as a result of the real estate hysteria. Seems to me that the vast numbers of really shoddy houses and buildings might be the worst, really, because we'll be stuck with this garbage long after we've written down the financial losses.
Two things. One, DO NOT BUY ANYTHING that was build after 2006. I'm sure plenty of corners were cut.
Two, EVERY kind of building work in the City will grind to a hault. knowing what kind of mushes the city hires to push paper around, NO permits will go thro. Now with out unethical go-betweens, those permit applications will never see the light of day!
I won't buy anything built or rehabbed after 2001.
I looked at numerous bad rehabs. One had a notice of litigation for an illegal sewer main that the developer had attempted to conceal. Another had totally gutted an old courtyard and run a corridor around the building, cutting holes in the fire walls that seperate the tiers of apts and destroying the building's fire protection in the process. I could go on..suffice it to say that I'm steeply underwhelmed by the quality of the construction I've seen in the past few years.
God knows what other flaws lurk within the walls of these places, that won't be manifest for another few years, after the developer has had ample time to fold up his LLC and scamper away from any liability.
On a seperate note, you should see all the mold in the REO SFRs I've been looking at. Total gut rehab jobs.....
If the mold is that bad, all you can do is tear the structure down. The mold spores are incredibly stubborn and resilient, and if they're present at all in the structure, you'll just have the problem again, down the road.
I'm now remembering an upscale subdivision, built in Vernon Hills in the early 90s, that was so badly built that houses were totally overrun with a really horrendous type of highly toxic mold. One family discovered that the spaces behind their walls had filled totally with this nasty growth, after parents and children both started to experience serious and baffling health problems. Seems like the builder had not permitted the framing of the house to dry properly after heavy rains before building out the interior and closing everything up, and the virulent life form had lots of nice dark, moist space to spread in before it was detected. There was nothing to do but vacate the house and tear it down. I wonder if it would even be safe to build on the same plot.
I don't know if the family was able to recover its losses from the builder or not. There was no follow-up article to tell of the final outcome of the family's suit against the builder.
I don't know if the family was able to recover its losses from the builder or not. There was no follow-up article to tell of the final outcome of the family's suit against the builder.
June 4, 2008 9:38 PM
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mark my words: this will be a big story in a short time. I have looked at numerous REO's (in good worhing hoods) and the banks are letting them rot!
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