February 25, 2009
Investigation: Neighborhoods for sale
In an unprecedented investigation, the Tribune analyzed a decade of zoning changes to detail how real estate interests have funneled millions of dollars to the aldermen who dictate what can be built. The series has examined how aldermen ignore city planners and frustrated residents as they frequently permit new and bigger buildings that leave neighbors in their shadows. The series so far:
Part 1: How cash, clout transform Chicago neighborhoods
Part 2: Community input an illusion
Part 3: A curious tale of two properties
Part 4: He zones. She sells. And it's legal.
Part 5: Who calls the shots in your backyard? Not you.
Part 6: Congressman's $200,000 loan
Part 7: Gutierrez cashes in with donors
Part 8: House of cards emerges in zoning-change game
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NEIGHBORHOODS FOR SALE: PART 8
House of cards emerges in zoning-change game
Like so many Chicagoans, Walter and Alice Sopala didn't like how their alderman let a real estate developer build a new condo building that placed their home in its shadows.
NEIGHBORHOODS FOR SALE: PART 7
Gutierrez cashing in with donors
When U.S. Rep. Luis Gutierrez was looking to buy in the sizzling Bucktown real estate market, he teamed up with a developer and longtime political donor who sold him a plot of land and built him a new home.
NEIGHBORHOODS FOR SALE: PART 6
Congressman's $200,000 loan
U.S. Rep. Luis Gutierrez personally lobbied Mayor Richard Daley to back a controversial multimillion-dollar development for a campaign contributor who had just lent the congressman $200,000 in a real estate deal, a Tribune investigation has found.
NEIGHBORHOODS FOR SALE: SIDEBAR
City development a federal draw
How development takes place in Chicago's neighborhoods increasingly has grabbed the attention of federal authorities.
NEIGHBORHOODS FOR SALE: FOLLOWUP
Daley doesn't remember receiving Gutierrez's letter
A top aide to Richard Daley said Thursday that the mayor does not recall receiving a 2004 letter from U.S. Rep. Luis Gutierrez (D-Ill.), who wrote Daley on behalf of a developer who had just loaned him $200,000.
NEIGHBORHOODS FOR SALE: PART 5
Who calls the shots in your backyard? Not you.
City politicians call Chicago a national model for how to involve the public in real estate development debates. But the view from the streets of the city's neighborhoods is markedly different.
NEIGHBORHOODS FOR SALE: SIDEBAR
Tracking neighborhood changes
Steps to getting involved in changes in your neighborhood:
NEIGHBORHOODS FOR SALE: SIDEBAR
Zoning reality, reform divide
In the throes of a building boom eight years ago, Mayor Richard Daley appointed a blue-ribbon zoning reform panel to rewrite Chicago's real estate development rule book for the first time in more than 40 years.
NEIGHBORHOODS FOR SALE: SIDEBAR
Zoning code cutting edge, Banks says
Despite complaints from residents in many neighborhoods, the longtime head of the City Council's Zoning Committee says Chicago's new zoning code is a model for "many cities across the United States" and as far away as Eastern Europe.
NEIGHBORHOODS FOR SALE: PART 4
He zones. She sells. And it's legal.
It's hard to miss Barbara O'Connor's face on a drive through North Side neighborhoods, where her real estate signs beckon buyers to "find your way home."
NEIGHBORHOODS FOR SALE: PART 3
A curious tale of two properties
Friends of Mayor Richard Daley made out handsomely when land they owned was rezoned in the 11th Ward, helping them sell the property for about $2.4 million more than they paid for it.A critic of the Daley administration didn't do so well, however. He couldn't get a zoning change, and the value of his property diminished by about $4 million, according to court papers.
NEIGHBORHOODS FOR SALE: FOLLOWUP
Feds: City building inspectors bribed
A mole wore a wire for a year while acting as a bagman carrying bribes from developers and contractors to Chicago building inspectors, exposing systemic corruption in the Zoning and Buildings Departments, authorities said Thursday.
NEIGHBORHOODS FOR SALE: PART 2
Community input an illusion
Chicago aldermen wield near-absolute power over development in their wards, but most insist they get neighborhood input from community groups or handpicked advisory panels before approving or rejecting projects.
NEIGHBORHOODS FOR SALE: FOLLOWUP
Daley defends system of aldermanic zoning decisions
Mayor Richard Daley on Monday defended the Chicago tradition that allows aldermen to dictate the fate of development in their wards, backing a status quo in which the City Council routinely ignores the recommendations of planners.
NEIGHBORHOODS FOR SALE: PART 1
How cash, clout transform Chicago neighborhoods
Neighbors call it "the French Embassy."
NEIGHBORHOODS FOR SALE: SIDEBAR
City zoning process a family affair
The low-key chairman of the City Council's Zoning Committee, Ald. William J.P. Banks (36th), has sat atop the city's development process for almost 19 years, since Mayor Richard Daley took office. But he's far from the only member of the Banks family and their Northwest Side political clan with a hand in Chicago's vitally interconnected worlds of politics and development.
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