Comments on Uptown Update: Au Revoir, Hotel Chateau?

ALL of your comments are very true but what you do...

2009-05-10T19:02:00.000-05:00

ALL of your comments are very true but what you don't know is that the hotel is a DUMPING ground for Threshold's Mental Health services and other mental health providers. A mentally ill person moves in, gets hooked on crack and then there's a deeper problem. The employees themselves are drug dealers and involved in scamming the mentally ill. On any given first of the month, when tenants get their monthly government checks, you can smell crack through-out the building. What does District 23 do? Nothing. What do the mental health providers do? Nothing. They just keep feeding the hotel with money. Yes, it is a firetrap and yes, the building is full of vermin (bed bugs, roaches and mice). You're allowed to have a cat just to kill the mice. As soon as someone NEEDS to depend on the "cheap" rent and lives there, they can become a victim of the building in no time. Should anyone need police assistance there, you are told to use the outside phone as they will NOT call the police as they are there, daily! IF you pay off a night clerk, you can have people stay there all night. Stolen goods are traded, especially with Rudy, the janitor. I could write a book of the terror and the drama that continues to happen there on a daily basis, all this as District 23 and other officials turn there eyes in another direction. 5/2009

The next hearing on the Hotel Chateau is Thursday,...

2008-02-18T09:25:45.764-06:00

The next hearing on the Hotel Chateau is Thursday, February 21, Daley Center---Rm 1111 at 11 am.

This is a continuation of the motion to vacate the nail and beauty salon from the 14th of Feb. This is health and sanitation issue caused by inadequate drainage in the sinks in the salon.

The Hotel is in the Gang and Drug House program. It currently has over 80 code violations that need to be addressed. Fortunately, (or unfortunately), none of the code violations are considered "dangerous or hazardous" so there isn't as much time pressure as there would be if there were hazardous conditions.

And where the heck is our 23rd police district nui...

2008-02-17T11:29:27.188-06:00

And where the heck is our 23rd police district nuisance abatement team? It only takes a few incidents in a fixed time frame to put this building into an intensive inspection program. Why hasn't this been done, particularly when it is adjacent to a public park and across from a public school?

I've been asking that same question for 15 years and gotten no response. Oh yeah. The police don't see anything because they are just too busy fighting gangs that moved away 10 years ago and being served lunch at the IHOP by our missing child sex predator.

The "hotel" is right across the street from a scho...

2008-02-16T12:48:37.287-06:00

The "hotel" is right across the street from a school too. The one the president came to to speak about the success of No Child. It was interesting when El Mariachi had a hard time getting a liquor license because it was too close to the school but the illicit activities at the Chateau continue while everyone continues to look away.

And did Alderman Shiller show up for this hearing ...

2008-02-16T10:20:17.103-06:00

And did Alderman Shiller show up for this hearing like she did for the one to put a day-labor operation across from an elementary school and senior citizen building?

Didn't care about the Chateau? Didn't think so.

Sinks won't drain in a nail salon and that's not o...

2008-02-16T10:17:42.894-06:00

Sinks won't drain in a nail salon and that's not ok. City Hall must spring into action immediately.

Prostitution, Crack-cooking, sub-standard housing conditions. Poor living in squalor. City Hall and police yawn and look the other way.

Building owner drives off in his Jaguar laughing.

This hearing was ONLY for the businesses on the fi...

2008-02-16T09:39:01.751-06:00

This hearing was ONLY for the businesses on the first floor. The nail salon has to close until they fix the sinks that aren't draining properly.

The city doesn't give a rat's-ass about the tenants and their safety. When these issues come up in housing court, the owner says, "I have the permits." A new court date is set way in the future and nothing gets done. It happens all over Uptown with the poor living in substandard housing.

so what happened???

2008-02-14T17:25:27.091-06:00

so what happened???

And Lake View Citizen Council has lead the charge ...

2008-02-14T13:09:48.945-06:00

And Lake View Citizen Council has lead the charge because it's in their area, right? Are those crickets I hear in the deadening silence? LVCC where are you on crime issues? Playing in the park again or just lobbying for more low-income housing -for Uptown, of course.

People who stay there tell me that they hate the p...

2008-02-14T13:05:42.534-06:00

People who stay there tell me that they hate the place too. Ironically the place has many stupid little rules but few important rules - like the ones about open prostitution and drug dealing. When I ask them why they stay there they tell me it is because they are one of the few places that allow single-day rentals.

Wonder if our dear owner will be driving his Jagua...

2008-02-14T13:03:43.353-06:00

Wonder if our dear owner will be driving his Jaguar down to the hearing? He certainly knows his priorities in his spending habits.

Look what I ran across.....Since staying at this h...

2008-02-14T11:54:21.721-06:00

Look what I ran across.....

Since staying at this hotel I've witnessed:

1. Prostitution, any time of the day or night (on the second/third floors).

2. Power outtages for hours on end.

3. Wires in the circuit breakers popping and sizzling.

4. Mass Roaches and Bed Bugs (which are widespread throughout the bldg.)

5. Mucus all over the elevator doors, walls, and floor.

6. Hearing and seeing Domestic Violence.
7. People smoking crack in the back of the building.

8. Drunks threatening to slice one another's throat, etc..

9. Plugged up sinks for weeks.

10. One mattress after another with various stains: blood, hair, etc.
11. Out of order washing machines.
12. Seeing people with large sores from bed bugs all over their bodies.

13. Watching tenants hang out and drug deal within the building and also between the Carlos Hotel and Chateau.

14. Seeing tenants beg for change in front of starbucks, either because they're greedy or want someone to pay for their drug habit.
and the list goes on..........

That place needs to go!!

2008-02-14T11:32:44.051-06:00

That place needs to go!!

Hmmm... Would this be a temporary closure? Looki...

2008-02-14T10:17:57.115-06:00

Hmmm... Would this be a temporary closure? Looking at that building, I don't know how it has made it this long without major code violations. Helen Shiller must be reigning in the Building Department, which is completely unethical. She protects these aging firetrap SROs in the name of affordable housing, but they are high-risk buildings that really need to be updated. If the owners can't afford this, they should be shut down.