Friday, October 26, 2007   Corruption In Chicago  Business as
usual  According to Mayor Daley, this is "not a sweetheart
deal:" ...developer Thomas DiPiazza and a partner bought the
highly contaminated 1.8-acre parcel at the juncture of the
river's South Branch and a tributary known as Bubbly Creek for
$50,000 in 1998. The city paid 24 times that in 2004 when it
bought the land for a park, which still has not been built. The
Sun-Times notes: Daley could not explain why the purchase price
paid by the city was not based on the land's industrial zoning
designation at the time. Instead, the appraisal assumed that the
land was zoned for residential use. I can explain why in one
word: corruption. Consider this: The Tribune reported that
Bridgeport Village, a single-family home project bordering the
waterway for which DiPiazza was a highly paid consultant, also
benefited from the city pricing policy. City Hall paid a price
for the DiPiazza land based on residential zoning even though it
was zoned for industry, but t