Kristina Lee fights Chicago City Hall

When most people purchase a home, they put everything at risk. When you purchase a new home you expect a very small amount of maintenance problems. In most cases, when you purchase a home on Chicago, the plumbing code, if enforced should provide years and years, of trouble free service. Yesterday, I had a wonderful lunch with Ms. Lee, she explained her situation at her new Chinatown condominium in Chicago. Ms. Lee is a very well educated, and a classically trained String Bass player. Ms. Lee is a Chicago Clout fan, so I decide to help. Ms. Lee lives in a new condo at the 2229-2245 South Canal a 24 unit project. Two years ago she started to have sewer back-ups. Not long after she had repairs totaling tens of thousands of dollars.]]>The sewer back-ups were ruining the residents floors and creating a heath hazard. The back-ups were coming out of the downspouts outside of the building also creating a hazard in the public way. Much of the basic plumbing clean-outs could not be found. Ms. Lee is trying to find the blueprints and was refused a copy. She contacted Alderman Danny Solis for his assistance. Instead Donald Ball came out to issue a ticket. Donald Ball calls himself a "City Inspector Sewer". (What is that?) My first look around showed a 4" ductile water service that was reduced to a 2" meter and than increased to a 3" copper service. In a twenty four unit building you need at least a 3" inch meter and a booster pump. Also you need clean-outs accessible and man-holes to allow proper service. The Grease interceptor on the property is much too small. I again have problems with sewer companies working on plumbing systems with no permit, and charging large amounts of money. Ms. Lee has resolved herself to obtain an attorney to fight for the rights of the condo-board. As Steve Burnett, a Roosevelt College History Professor said, " Plumbing has been around since the Pharaohs, the basis of Civilization requires good plumbing". If you know a good construction lawyer in Chicago, please leave their name in the comment section. If your new Chicago Condo or home is having issues, contact us at Chicago Clout. Photo by Patrick MCDonough

8 Replies to “Kristina Lee fights Chicago City Hall”

  1. Sounds like all this corruption going on in the city;s ‘building’ department is starting to really stink.

    Without honest people being elected to be our honest government officials, how ill there ever be honest people being employed, by governments. to honestly serve the public’s interests?

    The reality of ‘shit rising to the top’ is what we’re living with.

    No longer is it that the ‘cream rises to the top’.

    HAVE NO DOUBT, VOTE INCUMBENTS OUT

  2. Hey Pat!

    Good story… don’t post this, but it’s Alderman Danny *Solis* of the 25th Ward. Still working on my timeline, and it will make everything clearer.. but instead of two years ago, the problem started showing up in unit 1D beginning mid-May 2006. Close enough, I guess.

    The new repair guys and the insurance girl came out at the same time (this was 20 minutes after you had called me while i was dropping my bass off for repairs…) so sorry if I cut you off so soon. THANKS for your help, talk soon! ~KL

  3. Typical result of city corruption. hope kristina goes to cityhall room 1109 and requests history of her building and the unit. also go to 9th floor DCAP and get zoning/permit record on her property. would ask for condo board minutes notes and find out if this problem existed and was discussed earlier. best of luck.

  4. I will fix the sewer. When Kristinas in trouble i am not slow, Its hip hip hip and away I go. But first notify the news crews cause I gotta have my camera, and phony hero fix. I’m on the way there Patty Boy wanna rub my bald head Pat?

    (Response) funny, but your spelling is making me sick. USE SPELL CHECK.

  5. When a developer builds in Chicago, every step of the process has to be signed off by city officials. Lots of times, city inspectors let things slide, leading to problems that unit owners will have to deal with after the developer is long gone. My husband and I have dealt with many plumbing issues in our building, too – sewage backups into units that led to one unit’s first floor flooding with raw sewage water (our unit). After studying the plans for our building’s plumbing with All Power Sewer, we found that our problem was a result of city code not being followed when it came to our catch basins, storm drains and more – we are talking about major overlooks. I could go on and on about our incident, but the bottom line is that developers are getting off the hook and we have to know what form of corruption is taking place to allow for such ignorance on the part of city officials. Could it be bribes? Or maybe lazy inspectors? I’m sure we are not the only people dealing with problems like this either. My biggest question is how Donald Ball could issue a ticket for something that Kris’ association had no part in creating? The developer and city are at fault and should step up and take the hit!

  6. “Could it be bribes? Or maybe lazy inspectors?”

    It’s bribes.

    There are no lazy inspectors, only honest, hard-working inspectors and dishonest, bribe-taking, hard-working inspectors, as in inspectors working hard to get bribes.

    It’s one thing to bribe an inspector to not f*** you with fabricated ‘violations’, because you failed to hire a contractor with connections.

    It’s another thing for an inspector to take bribes from, quite likely, those same connected contractors, to overlook egregious and dangerously sub-code ‘work’.

    I can live with paying off the inspector who doesn’t approve of my choice of quality contractors, just because my quality contractors are honest and refuse, themselves, to bribe said inspector, (to get an honest evaluation of their quality work), but those who purchase property built by dishonest and sub-standard contractors, (who bribe the inspectors to approve their sub-par work), are completely justified in raising every type of hell available for them to raise.

    It appears it ain’t enough, for some, to make an honest profit, they’ve got to squeeze every penny they can, using cheap and under-sized materials, the health and welfare of the buyers be damned.

    As far as “… what form of corruption is taking place to allow for such ignorance on the part of city officials.”, well, it’s the form quite familiar to us life-long residents of this City That Works (for crooks) and this County of Crooks.

    We elect these fuckers and then are shocked, shocked, I say, to discover the various kinds of dishonesties practiced by same.

    My advice:

    REGISTER TO VOTE

    VOTE IN EVERY ELECTION

    HAVE NO DOUBT, VOTE INCUMBENTS OUT

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