Thanks Again Daley

 

FROM SECOND CITY COP

Another $30 million the city doesn't have:

• After years of legal battles, a federal appeals court on Friday ruled that Chicago must hire 111 African-American firefighters and pay about $30 million in damages to applicants who were unfairly denied Fire Department jobs because of a discriminatory entrance exam given in 1995.
  The ruling by the 7th U.S. Court of Appeals likely ends a 13-year legal battle waged against the city over the exam, which kept more than 6,000 qualified applicants from getting jobs because results continued to be used through 2002, according to attorneys in the case.

Back pay, back seniority, the city didn't win a single portion of the appeals that have been going on for 14 years. The lawyer bills are going to be obscene.

But in one of Shortshanks' last official acts, he gives away a piece of property worth millions of dollars:

• A former police station on the North Side that once was a symbol of discrimination to Chicago’s gay community will become part of a housing development serving gay seniors.
  For $1, the city will sell the old Town Hall District station, 3600 N. Halsted, to Heartland Housing Inc., sources said. The nonprofit developer will incorporate the old station into new construction of about 90 apartments for senior citizens.
  The apartments will be priced for lower-income renters. The project is a final favor for the gay community from Mayor Daley, who leaves office Monday.

A corner lot. On a busy intersection. In Wrigleyville. What does anyone think the property alone might be worth to a city that at last count, had a projected budget deficit of $500 million? We couldn't really care less about who got the property - gays, straights, black, white, Martian, demons from Hell, whatever. But one fucking dollar? How about we'll bid $2 and turn it into a SRO where drunk Cub fans can sleep off a hangover?

If Daley was so intent on giving away property on the cheap, how about unloading the old 009 District station for $1 and someone can finally reopen the old Police Museum that is probably stuck in storage somewhere?