Posted on 01/07/2009 8:55:30 PM PST by STARWISE
Sun-Times and NBC5 exclusive:
WIN-WIN LOSES | Everybody was supposed to benefit. But things didn't turn out as planned
It was supposed to be a quintessential City Hall deal. Help the homeless. Remove an eyesore from a booming neighborhood. And help Mayor Daley’s pal build a multi-million-dollar condo development.
The deal cost Chicago taxpayers at least $13.5 million.
But it hasn’t worked out as planned. One of the city’s oldest homeless shelters left its crumbling home in Greektown for a new $25 million, state-of-the-art building.
But the deal left the homeless shelter on the verge of bankruptcy, desperate to raise millions of dollars to continue its 100-year-old mission.
†So the charity — the Chicago Christian Industrial League — hired someone to raise money:
Illinois First Lady Patti Blagojevich.
But that hasn’t worked out, either. She’s raised little, if any, money since she started four months ago. And her job has gotten tougher since her husband’s arrest on corruption charges last month.
†And the mayor’s friend? Developer Michael Marchese and his partners, including indicted businessman William F. Cellini, built their luxury condo development where the homeless shelter once stood.
But the recession has hurt them. They’ve sold just half the 212 condos.
And as the tough economic times send more people to homeless shelters, the Christian Industrial League is so broke it can’t afford to operate its new building, which sits half-empty in Lawndale, one of Chicago’s poorest neighborhoods.
“We are not currently planning on bankruptcy, but it would be irresponsible not to talk about it,” said Paul Camenisch, the charity’s vice president.
He doesn’t blame the Daley administration for pushing the charity into an expensive new home so the mayor’s friend could build his condo development.
“They may have led us to do this,” Camenisch said, “but I’m not sure it was their responsibility to prevent it.”
The Chicago Christian Industrial League left Greektown so Daley pal Michael Marchese (top right) and his partners could build a condo development. The charity now can't afford to operate its $25 million new shelter (left) abd hired Illinois first lady Patti Blagojevich to raise money.
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Jeeeze ... it never ends. Chicago's New Orleans with highrises. Somebody: jail the corrupt criminals. Drain the swamp (not counting on Fitzie).
Let us not forget Meigs field.
If the swamp of Chicago is drained it will have a population of approximately 450.
Well, just as long as their intentions are good.......
Maybe they can move Barack’s illegal alien relative into the shelter, or Barack’s brother-in-law from the Kenyan hut?
"Blagojevich is paid $100,000 under a one-year contract that began Sept. 1."
"The charity won’t say how much Blagojevich has raised. But it has collected $10,000 to $15,000 in each of the past three months — the same as it did before she started, said president William Good."
LOL. So she “raises” the same amount of money that was already coming in before.
I supposed that Illinois citizens should be grateful that she hadn’t (yet) gotten around to shaking down all of the state contractors for donations.... or maybe a lot of those deals were in the works and went south after the Blago arrest...... or maybe she’s just a lazy little twit and isn’t actually doing anything for her $100K per year.
Well lets just say a hundred a pop, ten guys a night, Pat could raise a 100K by summertime.
Give a whole new meaning to ‘First Lady’.
If they were smart, they would relocate where it is cheaper to live and provide housing, food, and jobs in a cheaper economic location. 25 million dollars would go a lot further that way. I sometimes wonder what the true agenda may be if they do not do this.
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