Nov 5, 2009 10:41 pm US/Central
City Says Crumbling Lakeview Garage Is Unsafe
CHICAGO (CBS) ―
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City inspectors say the owners of Mid City parking garage in Lakeview "failed to maintain the building in a structurally safe and stable condition."
CBS
"Park at your own risk." There's no sign like that at a Lakeview public parking garage, but some think there ought to be. According to the city, the place is unsafe, but it's still open for business. CBS 2's Mike Parker takes us on a tour.
The two-story garage sits on North Broadway in the East Lakeview neighborhood. It's been there for decades, and it shows its age.
Go ahead. Pull in to the Mid City parking garage and look for signs of danger. A year and a half ago, city inspectors did and found the owners "failed to maintain the building in a structurally safe and stable condition."
Nothing much has apparently changed.
CBS 2 sent independent structural engineer Chad Fischer into the garage.
"I would agree with their assessment. It seems reasonable," Fischer said.
He found what the city found: big problems with chunks of concrete in danger of falling from the underside of the second floor.
"You could easily have a loose piece of concrete, the size of a baseball or even bigger fall off, hit somebody's car or even hit somebody on the head," Fischer said.
CBS 2 also found evidence that the brick outer walls of the second floor are bulging outward over the sidewalk outside. We pointed all this out to one of their customers.
"I probably wouldn't park here ever again," said Anthony Barry.
The city filed complaints against the owners a year and a half ago, and ordered them into building court at the Daley Center. The city law department says the owners and their attorneys never showed up for several scheduled hearings.
Treasure Island food store magnate Frank Kamberos is one of the garage owners.
"I don't think we were notified there was a court hearing," Kamberos said. "I'll talk to my attorney. We have an architect looking at it so we can do something to continue."
But Kamberos said he absolutely agrees that the garage needs work.
"I would not want to be parking my car in there too long," Fischer said.
Frank Kamberos really should check with his attorneys. The city law department says that because of no-shows, the owners are now legally in default with the city.
The next possible step is a contempt of court citation, which could mean fines of up to $500 a day until it's all worked out.
(© MMIX, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.)
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