Water main break! People in the area of Magnolia and Leland had a little excitement earlier tonight. Thanks to the Butternut Connection for the head's up and the photos, as well as his link about it.Update: A reader just sent in a pic from earlier this morning showing crews working to patch this water main at Leland and Magnolia.
This geyser has a twin sister just north of Montrose by Malden. Started spewing water in March.
ReplyDeleteScrolling down the pictures, I was struck by the derelict conditions that make up Uptown--
Decaying streets and sewers,
Dark, poorly lighted, streets,
Overflowing garbage cans,
Public drinking,soon drunks passed out,
Gunfire every night,
Wilson El station falling apart, dark and dangerous,
and an alderman who makes Howard Hughs look like an extrovert.
Another one bites the dust. This time the water line break was in the service line that runs from the 15-year-old water main on Magnolia to the home on the South West corner of Magnolia and Leland.
ReplyDeleteEven though the water main was replaced relatively recently, the city did not replace its over-100-year-old service lines that run from the water main to the Buffalo boxes (on/off valves) that then connect to the home owner's own service lines at the parkways.
In this instance, the city service line sprung a major leak in the middle of the road at 2:00 a.m. Sunday morning. The good news is that the Water Department patched it by 10:30 Sunday morning.
The bad news is that this is just a patch. These 100-year-old service lines and buffalo boxes will inevitably fail and more leaks and floods like this will occur in the future.
It is a good time to note that $58 million has been spent in the Wilson Yard TIF district, which was justified by outdated water and sewer systems in these streets. Yet, not one dime has been allocated to fixing the water mains and sewers on the streets in this TIF district.
In fact, many TIF districts in the city have been justified by blighted underground infrastructure. Other city departments - ones that have no relationship to the blight identified in the TIF studies - have feasted on TIF funds like pigs at a trough. Meanwhile, the Water Department has not gotten any of these TIF funds to address the serious decades-long backlog of failing 100-year old sewer and water mains.
And up from the ground came a bubbling crude, ..... No scratch that
ReplyDeleteUnder Alderman Shiller's reign, the Uptown Appalachian and Indians were displaced from Uptown by the wave of 6000 CHA and HUD project residents. They were left homeless, you know.
The 'twin sister' mentioned in the first post, just north of Montrose on Malden has not had ANY work done to it in weeks, maybe a month(if memory serves it was just before Easter when they were first there working).....there are barricades in the big square hole in the street which barely allow a car to squeeze through.
ReplyDeleteAny idea if the city/company who was doing the work will ever be back?
Sounds like another blast of 311 calls will get that unfinished hole fixed. I've used the 311 link UU has put up and that works fine. Although you don't get a reference #.
ReplyDeleteAnonymous 12:21 said this:
ReplyDeletethe Uptown Appalachian and Indians were displaced from Uptown by the wave of 6000 CHA and HUD project residents. They were left homeless, you know.
What makes you say this? Cite your source. I don't think there is any reason to believe that the reduction of white southerners or native americans living in Uptown by the late 1970s/early 1980s was do to them becoming homeless. I also question whether or not it is far to say that much displacement of these residents came from the influx of CHA or HUD residents. I think there is much more evidence to support the fact that these people moved to other parts of the city or left Chicago entirely. (Remember, white southerners and native americans would have only been in Uptown and Chicago for about a generation by the 1980s when the homeless population exploded.)
Since you have a different take on the situation, could you direct me to whatever data led you to make your comment? Thanks.
PS--I just looked at my previous comment. Of course I didn't mean to imply that Native Americans had only been around here for one generation! Clearly that is not true. I was referring to the Native Americans who left/were forced off reservations and migrated to urban centers where there previously hadn't been a very large native american population.
ReplyDeleteSaskia,
ReplyDeleteDitto to you regarding the correlation between condo owners being the cause of displacement of everyone else in Uptown.
How did a post about decaying water mains and the street geysers segway into Native American Indians and HUD?
ReplyDeleteSometimes reading the postings is like listening to conversation at an insane asylum. Only the inmates understand to connection.
So far Shiller is spending your property tax money (TIF) to build more low income housing, pay for part of Truman student parking, dump money into Holsten's bank account and completely ignore the Wilson El station, the falling apart, gang infested Clarendon Park, and do diddle squat about the streets, the sewers and the lights.
No wonder people are talking Wilson Yard lawsuit more and more.
Sometimes reading the postings is like listening to conversation at an insane asylum. Only the inmates understand to connection.
ReplyDeleteWaaa. That was mean! Sorry to have picked up and commented on something off topic and changed the thread a bit. I realize that is annoying but I do think it is important to not leave misleading comments unaddressed. However, you point is well taken. Let's get back to the sewers---an important topic indeed.
back to the sinkhole, has anyone seen the patch monday or today? it is pathetic and the cracks are getting further and further from the "patch". I say "patch" because it looked like someone dropped a bunch of black goo on the street and lightly pressed it down. that is the most ridiculous excuse for a patch i have ever seen.
ReplyDelete