This American Life this week

[ToLiveIsToFly]

The first story is on my block. Ugh.

[ToLiveIsToFly]

Well, my neighborhood. But the featured building is a week away.

[ToLiveIsToFly]

Sorry to keep bumping this. But I keep thinking about it. The building that they're talking about, the developer cut every imaginable corner and then took off for Bosnia with the money, leaving the developers holding the bag. The people who live in the basement unit, they had to have a plumber come in, and the plumber told them that underneath their fancy hardwood floor there was no concrete foundation, just dirt.

On the one hand, I feel lucky. We bought in a building that a wasn't a new conversion - someone else had lived in it for 3 years, it's not a new luxury place that's only half-occupied - all 12 units have people in them, and no one's in foreclosure. But it makes me worry about the neighborhood. I wouldn't have bought here in the late 90s - it would have been right at my tolerance level for a safe neighborhood living by myself, but below it for settling down and raising a family. When I came back in '05 it was night and day. Still not a hip neighborhood (which is good, I neither wanted to live in, nor pay for, one), but dramatically safer-seeming. This is the city - there's still drug dealers if you want to go looking for them, people still get arrested in the neighborhood, you can't leave your car unlocked, etc. But it's a nice neighborhood - there's families up and down all the blocks, of all income levels and colors, there's affordable restaurants, a bank and a grocery store within walking distance, good public transportation (the El is less than a quarter mile), the movie theater is being renovated, and the beach is a ten-minute walk away. I worry about how many unoccupied apartments there are here, how many squatters we'll get and what's going to happen with the crime rate.

But I don't get how you can end up buying a place that has no foundation. Our bank made us have a building inspector go over the place. Maybe I'm naive. I mean, I know I'm naive about some things. But how could an inspector miss problems that are that major? If it's unusual that problems that big go unnoticed, why haven't they sued the inspector? If it's not unusual, what's the point?

[MarleysGh0st]

Sorry to keep bumping this.

Now those of us who didn't listen to the show have some idea what you're talking about.

I'd suspect there's some corruption going on with that building inspector, but surely nothing like that could take place in Chicago!

[ToLiveIsToFly]

Sorry to keep bumping this.

Now those of us who didn't listen to the show have some idea what you're talking about.

I'd suspect there's some corruption going on with that building inspector, but surely nothing like that could take place in Chicago!

Maybe. It never occurred to me that the building inspectors work for the city. We paid for our guy ourselves - I guess I always thought of him as a private contractor.

[ulysses5019]

Sorry to keep bumping this.

Now those of us who didn't listen to the show have some idea what you're talking about.

I'd suspect there's some corruption going on with that building inspector, but surely nothing like that could take place in Chicago!

I think the city inspector should check to see if there are things such as a concrete pad in place. But you're right, it's Chicago.