According to residents who attended last night's Beat 2311 CAPS meeting at Truman College, word is circulating that both the "Wilson Men's Club" and the "Darlington Hotel" have several building code violations such as fire code violations. They apparently have been in violation for a while now and nothing has been done. Someone, or something is protecting them from being shut down or investigated. We encourage our readers to fill out a quick report at the "Chicago Inspector General's" website. The address for the "Wilson Men's Club" is 1124 W. Wilson, and the address for the "Darlington Hotel" is 4700 N. Racine. The photo above is a view of the "Wilson Men's Club" from Clifton. Notice the particle board covered windows that are now exposed and showing insulation (click photo). Since it is also highly possible (tongue in cheek) that there is even more corruption in our ward, we will add the "Chicago Inspector General's" link off on the right for residents to report other concerns.Update: Since it appears that this could be a bigger issue that the local media needs to take notice of, here is our handy "News Media Contact At Your Fingertips" post from a while back. Click the links listed in that post to contact local news media.
If you see a violation, such as blocked stairwells, broken windows, falling bricks/tuckpointing etc you can call 311 and register a complaint - make sure you get a complaint number. Also I believe but cant confirm that there is a city of chicago web site that list all violations. Does anyone know if this exist/
ReplyDeleteyou can go on the city of chicago.org web site and look under buildings - checking 1124 W Wilson and 4700 N Racine I found that the last entries were from 2002 - sean derrig owns wilson mens club and maz dolan the darlington - it is very strange that nothing since 02 has been entered - time to ask mayor daley and helen why
ReplyDeleteSounds like our news media needs to be alerted.
ReplyDeleteIt sounded pretty serious. That there were so many violations for both buildings that the amounts both buildings would owe from the violations would put them out of business. It was expressed that the building owners were not worried about the violations because Shiller and The DBA do not want to displace those residents if they have to shut down the buildings.
ReplyDeleteOf course If we wanted to express our concerns we were to write Shiller and DBA (Department of Business Affairs & licensing).
This sounds like a pretty serious issue that a professional reporter needs to look into.
So rather than displace, it is preferred that people be exposed to living in hazardous conditions that could potentially take their life? Heaven forbid there is a fire.
ReplyDeleteIf our alderman is protecting the owners from cleaning up their properties, she is seriously demented.
And why no one has gone after Sean Derrig for his "Wilson Mens Club" is beyond me. He rehabs buildings in Buena Park and then shits on Wilson, just to appease the powers that be. Scum.
On Jan. 16, 2003, Sean Derrig, recent past owner of the Wilson Men's Club, donated $5,000 to Citizens for Shiller. Money talks.
ReplyDeleteIf Sean is "recent past owner" who is current owner? I was not aware it had been sold.
ReplyDeleteBTW, am in total agreement that Sean trades favors with the alderman. He does portray himself as the cooperate good guy down in Buena Park where it buys him block club cooperation but then he is more than happy to facilitate Shiller's shennanigans on Wilson. This is the building that always has residents that show up to vote that don't live there, but just try to canvass that building and you get no where. He's just a suburban developer with who has loyalty to his pocketbook, whatever it takes.
Right after the building sold, the building code violations started appearing. The new owner is Jay Bomberg, another big Helen contributer.
ReplyDeleteLooking at that plywood hanging out the window, I think those windows have been missing for more than a few "new owner" months. Looks more like years of neglect to me.
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