Last week a faithful PRU reader submitted the above photo of a home in the 2nd Ward that was foreclosed and boarded up -- a neighborhood eyesore to be sure.
Our reader informed us that he contacted his Alderman and the City about the house and received a reply from the City indicating that the City could not locate the owner -- the PRU Crew thinks whoever responded in this way probably wouldn't have any better luck finding their own ass with both hands and a flashlight.
Our undeterred faithful PRU reader conducted an internet search and found the ownership information. He then provided the ownership information to the City, at which point our faithful reader was informed that the City has given the owner 90 days to remove the boards, in accordance with the Park Ridge Property Maintenance Code (.pdf).
22-8-12 CLOSING WINDOWS AND OTHER OPENINGS
Any building that is not secured and is abandoned or vacant shall have all unsecured wall openings including, but not limited to, windows, doors, and porch openings boarded up or otherwise closed until the building is properly secured. No building opening shall be boarded up or otherwise closed for more than 90 days unless approved by the Housing Inspector or Building Official. (Ord 2006-01, 1/9/06, S24)
Our faithful PRU reader also contacted the owner about this property and received the following response --
From: "Henry Jones" <jonesrealtyreo.com>
To: xxxx@comcast.net
Sent: Friday, April 24, 2009 10:41:49 AM GMT -06:00
Subject: RE: xxxx Hoffman Park Ridge
This house is owned and being sold by the Federal Government of the United States of America. They tell me what to do, how to do and when to do….If it sells hey, I make a few bucks. If it don’t. I still got a few bucks…. It is what it is….. Thanks for the inquiry….
Jones Realty Co
329 W 18th Suite 413
Chicago, IL 60616
312.602.9830
Fax 312.829.6340
corporate website: www.itsmyagent.com
Henry Jones Managing Broker
Does anyone else get the feeling that the managing broker doesn't give a shit?
This is the exact type of situation for why our City officials should -- because they are what is supposed to stand between carpetbaggers, chaos, and the health and welfare of our community.
Really? City staff couldn't find the ownership information? Really? Did anyone even try?
We've received a few reports like this now and so we're going to tell everybody that it is not only true that the Good Lord helps those who help themselves, but also that City staff does too.
The economy isn't going to get better overnight, and neither are the foreclosures -- according to one source, Realty Trac (click on the "Bank Owned" tab), there are currently 175 bank owned properties in Park Ridge.
It seems worth everyone's time to know the Property Maintenance Code (.pdf).
To our faithful PRU reader -- the Crew thanks you for sharing the information with us, your effort on behalf of your neighborhood and community, and finally for your patience with us -- we realize it took us longer than it should have to catch on to what you were trying to make us understand.
23 comments:
PRU, this is a sad sign of the times. Obviously the guy doesn't care.
I guess if you address it with the City Council, they would request funding to do a study on the situation. Allegretti probably has a "friend" who can do it. By God, approve $100k to spend looking into the situation, then get a report back with tons of typos and sloppiness, but just pay the bill.
See where I'm going? While we care, our representatives don't.
Maybe the customer service training the city is planning to spend money on is necessary after all?
Unbelievable.
Allegretti is the toady of the "friendly" consultant arrangement with a guy he claimed he didn't know, until he remembered that he knew him and talked to him.
It's a challenge picking the worst aldermonkey from this crowd, but every time he opens his mouth Allegretti is a contender.
Allegretti: The gift from Frimark - and later confirmed by his Fourth Ward supporters - that keeps on giving.
According to the Cook County Recorder of Deeds the property in question is owned by Deutsche Bank National Trust, which doesn't sound like the federal government to me.
I've been told that Henry Jones, the broker, is a relative (brother-??) of Emil Jones, the former President of the Illinois Senate, but I've not been able to verify that.
An interesting thought anonymous 12:41 except that customer service training only provides actual better service to the resident if the trainee believes it is in his best interest to give it.
As we have seen in recent comments the unions have even this blog covered so well that every printed word testifies to how wonderful every city employee is. And just look at the budget. Therefore each one can count on life time employment, general pay increases annually with guaranteed overtime and exponentially increasing retirement packages featuring early outs for many negotiated by Managers who share in what they give away and inept alderman.
Give me one reason any why employee gives a damn about providing anyone any service, including to the Aldermen.
And the proof is in todays' foreclosure example. Foreclosure guy got just what you get in this town when it comes to service from the city employees, basically the very minimum if anything.
What training will get you is the basic nothing but with a derogatory, disrespectful "Sir" on the end, or if you are a 15 year old caught in a cemetery, and a policeman shows up you might get the shit kicked out of you while the cop's supervisor stand by and watches.
Save the money.
Outsource everything!!
well that turned ugly quick
Anon@1:36 --
Yea that poor kid. Just an innocent teen out for a leisurely stroll through the cemetary, at 1a.m.
We wonder what caught the attention of police officers in the area? Maybe you could answer that question since it sounds as if you are pretty close to the case?
We'll give anyone a hard time if we disagree with what they are doing, so take heart -- the unions don't have our blog covered. We didn't think we were too nice to staff today when accusing the responder of not being able to find their ass with ample assistance.
We feel we've encouraged city staff to seriously consider the trade off between a wage freeze and lay offs -- we meant that and we still do.
That kid in the cemetary at 1 am obviously lost his marbles . . .
one at a time . . .
with a slingshot . . .
into traffic . . .
Still, the behavior does not justify a beating.
Thank you.
Anon@2:13 --
We didn't say it did.
We also didn't say the kid got a beating -- that is the claim being made in the kid's lawsuit.
An alleged beating by an off duty PR police officer driving around during the wee hours of the morning.
Speaking of municipal codes-how do they apply to abandoned commercial buildings and property. ASA thankfully took down the old car dealership and will be putting sod down until they figure out what they are going to do with the property. What about the EOP property owned by Andreani's Norwood Realty company? What about the old Napleton Cadillac property? These sites are looking very unruly and overgrown and run down.
Gypsy, it started to get ugly at 12:09. Park Ridge Underground, your coverage is always fair but you can't stop the piling on and personal attacks that go on when anti union comments are made. How can you?
Go to a Council meeting the next time a police station vote comes up and see the two rows of cops sitting there with their arms crossed in an intimidation mode if you want to see a next possible step in customer service for the aldermen and the residents.
Anon@2:36 --
We did not realize there was a curfew for off duty police officers. We learn something new every day.
Excellent questions regarding the vacant commercial properties. We suggest employment of the property maintenance code.
Anon@2:39 --
You have the option of not reading here, as you seem not to be able to fairly read our fair coverage.
The entire Crew is familiar in the extreme with the police station issue and the demonstration of personal interest in building a new station as demonstrated by the officers who show up to those Council meeting and who work in the current shit hole.
We just don't whither in the face of crossed arms and stern looks. We're too old and crabby for that to work.
Very few employees anywhere are of what the experts have dubbed the "intreprenurial" spirit - i.e. they act like entrepreneurs who take responsibility for a company not theirs. That scarcity applies to public-sector employees as much as to private-sector employees, if not more. Most people are average -- duh! -- and skillful, passionately invested management with a vision and a solid, measurable approach to achieving it is how you get extraordinary work out of average workers. Unions get a bad rap because they blunt the prowess of the merit pay concept, but it's not their fault. Far too many managers are untrained, unfair and unprofessional, so what's a working stiff to do? The real problem is that elected officials don't consistently insist that management hold staff to high service standards. Instead, they mouth pious pap about how we have the best staff in the cosmos, bow to management's insistence that elected officials not "micromanage," and then wonder why staff sets everything up for their own convenience, not ours.
Public-sector managers are scared to death of the "micromanaging" possible by taxpayers who are also knowledgeable private-sector managers. I think it's usually pretty clear when an official has a personal, nutty axe to grind, but most of the time, he or she is actually trying to apply what works In The Real World to public-sector operations. Elected officials should stop funding consultant studies and start acting like the top stockholders they actually are, on behalf of the REAL stockholders -- the taxpayers. And we should elect them on that basis.
Ex Alderman Parker is famous for his proposal that the police department should be located on the site of the old Toyota garage so that officers could jump into their cars and get to the scene of an incident even if a train was coming; until he was reminded that police officers should be spending their on duty time in their cars(or the 911 center or on parking patrol) not hanging out in the current shit hole as you put it.
As for the shit hole I expect that you would find that turnover is very low until they reach their early out pension age when they go off to another police job with a promotion or to a good security job.
I am sure that danger will come up next so I expect that the "danger index" for citizens involved with PR police in accidents and incidents is much higher than the danger index for PR police officers due to incidents with civilians
Anon@3:49 --
Old Shotgun Parker. Always good for a laugh.
Turn over isn't as low as you seem to think it is, and we will even readily admit there are far more applicants for openings than there are openings.
Still it's good to know you don't seem to have a problem investing in the early years of training for officers who then leave to go off to another police job with a promotion or to a good security job.
Danger index is an interesting word choice.
I've been in the police station on several occasions over the past few years, including taking one of those tours they were offering when they were trying to persuade us that they needed a 40,000 sq. ft. facility. And when it's described as a "shit hole," I recall how stuff was piled all over willy-nilly, cabinet doors left ajar, etc., kind of like the library staff books all over when they were trying to persuade us that they needed a big new library.
Can anybody name a cop who quit the PRPD to go elsewhere for LESS MONEY, just so he/she didn't have to work in a "shit hole"? Or taking a page from Allegretti's playbook, can anybody name a prisoner who was seriously injured because of the condition of the inside or outside of the "shit hole" (and not because the cops beat the crap out of him)?
PR underground 3:58 I'm not ok with the training lost. One can't begin to collect an early out pension until you leave. Same idea as Schenke, Derifield and Saccomanno, the latter who now wants to be an Alderman, except a different program
If one is really good at this one can do two 20(or 10) and outs and then become a consultant on what size police station to build
Yeah, 4:23, you're on to us......We also planted the mold and asbestos in the "turn of the century" locker rooms you probably didn't get to see. Station issue's dead anyway, moron, so why don't you get a new trumpet to blow on?
"We shall repleate all shitholes of officers so that they may beat other city workers into a fine productivity."
- Abraham Lincoln
There are several bills in Springfield that would help municipalities in dealing with foreclosure issues including being notified of said foreclosure as well as leining said property for maintenance work performed by the mnicipality. Check out:
HB 153
HB 688
HB 967
HB 2451
anon @ 830--thanks for getting back to the topic
Well a similar problem they had in Boca Raton FL was eliminated by the town council their, an ordinance was passed to protect the folks form all those homes being abandoned, which actually was passed to tell all the banks/mortgage companies that they could just leave them to be an eye sore or depreciate adjacent properties...
What do you think??
Similar problem, Boca Raton FL, large numbers of residences being foreclosed on, banks don't care how long they sat or what it did to the neighborhoods they sat in, the passed an ordinance that required up keep, lawns, windows and such. Banks weren't happy, but the people are.
I guess either way, we’re paying for the problem… just throw it on the list.
Thank you for the positive comments here and the Parker name once again surfaces.
Yes - who was that ex-alderman seated in the front row at Mayor Dave's first mtg!
Why it's the leader of the Democratic Maine Township party Rex Parker.
With his support from the Dems, his printing machine in the basement, his connections through Danger Dan Kotowski ( you remember him - the 350K man ) Rex is no fool in sucking up here.
What have the Dems got up their sleeves - now. Can't be Howie...he's toast.
Just like Burris will be too!!!
As far as the Daley machine working the abandon homes here - its no secret.
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