Advocates staged a tent city in the lobby of City Hall during Mayor Lori Lightfoot’s budget address on Monday, Oct. 3, 2022, calling on Chicago to provide a dedicated stream of funding to tackle the problem of homelessness. (Nick Blumberg / WTTW News)

Supporters of a proposal to ask voters during the February election to hike taxes on the sales of properties worth $1 million or more to reduce homelessness in Chicago have vowed to fight on, despite suffering a stinging defeat.

But as the deadline for final action looms, the push faces two massive obstacles: the implacable opposition of Mayor Lori Lightfoot and the fact that supporters are attempting to do something nearly unprecedented in Chicago’s political history.

As supporters’ paths to the ballot have been closed off, they have begun shifting the fight to the 2023 campaign for mayor and City Council, hoping to make homelessness — and the city’s approach to helping those living on Chicago’s streets and doubled up with friends and relatives — a key issue in the election.

Cook County Commissioner Brandon Johnson said Thursday he backs the push to raise taxes on the sales of properties worth $1 million or more to generate approximately $160 million annually to help the 65,000 unhoused Chicagoans.

Not only did Johnson back the measure known as Bring Chicago Home and commit to raising the city’s real estate transfer tax, he said he would work to make housing affordable across the city while expanding access to public housing.

“This administration has failed miserably, but the hope is with us today,” Johnson said Thursday alongside members of United Working Families, a political organization closely aligned with the Chicago Teachers Union, which has backed 18 candidates for the City Council.

United Working Families has long supported efforts to hike the city’s real estate transfer tax to fund programs to reduce homelessness, including during the 2019 election, when Lightfoot, a candidate, made it part of her campaign platform.

Even after Lightfoot’s decision to ask her allies not to attend a public hearing Nov. 14 that would have allowed the City Council to vote to put the proposal on the Feb. 28 ballot generated howls of outrage, the mayor showed no sign of altering course.

“None of God’s children should be living on the street, period,” Lightfoot said, while touting her efforts to reduce the number of unhoused Chicagoans with a combination of city funds and federal COVID-19 grant funds. 

But the cause of homelessness is complex, and the “practical realities” of Chicago’s real estate market make the proposed hike in the transfer tax risky, Lightfoot said, tossing cold water on calls for her to negotiate a revised proposal.

“I did not hear a call to meet and compromise, I heard a call to meet and agree to what they wanted,” Lightfoot said.

That means supporters of the proposal would have to call another special meeting of the City Council over Lightfoot’s objections — and convince at least 26 members to show up. Then, the City Council would have to call a third special meeting to vote to put the question before voters.

The deadline for both of those requirements to be met is Dec. 11, 79 days before the Feb. 28 election, officials said. Under state law, that is the deadline for no more than three questions to be added to the ballot.

The next regular City Council meeting is scheduled for Dec. 14.

Even if supporters of the proposal managed to hold those meetings and win those votes, the effort to change the city’s real estate transfer tax would just be beginning, since passing a binding citywide referendum is easier said than done, officials said.

It would likely draw fierce opposition from groups like the Chicago Association of Realtors, which has signaled it would hurt Chicago’s ability to attract new corporate headquarters.

“We are in competition for investment with every city now,” according to an April statement from the association. “We should be rolling out the welcome mat, not making it more expensive to live and relocate business here.”

If the referendum passed, the City Council would have to vote on whether to levy and collect the tax.

Unprecedented Effort to Ask Voters to Amend Tax

The last time Chicago voters passed a binding referendum that applied to the entire city was 1885, according to city records. 

At the time, Chicago was made up of townships — not wards — and each township voted to create the Chicago Board of Election Commissioners to administer citywide elections after a new state law allowed the switch to consolidated election administration. 

That meant that advocates for the measure to increase the real estate transfer tax face a double challenge: winning support for the policy while explaining the process to their colleagues.

That made a difficult task nearly impossible, supporters said.

Most Chicago elections have asked voters — both citywide and in specific wards — to weigh in on issues facing the city, like an elected school board and the call for the city to reopen shuttered mental health clinics. Known as advisory referenda, those measures do not have the force of law.

No more than three questions can appear on each ballot, under state law.

Lightfoot and her allies were prepared to put three innocuous questions on the Feb. 28 ballot, which will also feature contests for mayor, clerk, treasurer, all 50 alderpeople and 66 police district council members.

That could have blocked the measure to increase the real estate transfer tax from the ballot, even if it passed the City Council.

In 2018, former Gov. Pat Quinn collected more than 86,000 signatures to ask voters to approve a measure limiting Chicago mayors to two, four-year terms in office and to create an elected consumer advocate position.

However, voters never got a chance to vote on those referenda, after elections officials tossed out Quinn’s effort, saying he erred when he collected signatures for both measures on the same petitions.

Since then, dozens of Chicago precincts have voted every year on what officials call local option referenda to allow — or ban — the sale of alcohol, a vestige of laws put in place after Prohibition was ended in 1933.

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In 2019, Air Wellness, of Chicago was providing safety consulting at construction sites and had about $127,000 in annual sales and owner Adrian Mobley was the only employee.

But Mobley linked up with HIRE360, a Chicago-based nonprofit that helps minorities, women and veterans, especially those in underserved communities, find careers in the building trades and seeks to help small contractors get more business.

“We originated doing training and safety,” Mobley said. “We would go out to a construction site and evaluate it, to make sure that people were working in line with OSHA (Occupational Safety and Health Administration) standards.”

Through HIRE360, Mobley learned of other opportunities, but also secured a $10,000 loan from the group and later a $150,000 line of credit to expand to other areas.

In 2020 Air Wellness landed a four-year, $4.5 million contract with Chicago O’Hare International Airport and is now providing maintenance, flagging and fencing services there.

“We were successful in doing that, but as we grew we needed more money in order to buy better equipment,” Mobley said.

Today, Air Wellness has more than 30 employees, has signed on with several unions and reported sales of $3.3 million in 2021. That figure is expected to rise this year.

“I hire people from the community and put them in the unions,” Mobley said. The company has 25 laborers, four masons, two iron workers and office staff, she said.

Jay Rowell, executive director of HIRE360, described Mobley as a success story, but said the group is working with more than 100 other minority-owned firms, also.

In September, The Philadelphia Tribune reported that a coalition of developers, corporations, labor unions and trade groups is launching an initiative called “Everybody Builds,” in Philadelphia, modeled after HIRE360.

“Everybody Builds is close to hiring an executive director and the work will begin in earnest early in the new year,” a spokesperson for the group said.

For years, city activists have charged that Black and brown people, women and others, have been systematically shut out of union construction jobs. These jobs, such as carpenters, electricians and plumbers, pay as much as $90 an hour.

In the next decade, that coalition expects to generate about $10 billion in construction and development in Philadelphia.

A who’s who of industry stakeholders in the city have signed on to be a part of this initiative, including the Bellwether District/Hilco Redevelopment Partners, the Philadelphia Building and Construction Trades Council (a coalition of 50 labor unions), Eastern Atlantic States Regional Council or Carpenters, General Building Contractors Association, the 76ers, Campus Apartments, Mosaic Development Partners, University of Pennsylvania, Penn Medicine, Drexel University, Thomas Jefferson University and Jefferson Health, Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia and Temple University.

The initiative will also identify diverse businesses that are seeking to grow and support these businesses with access to capital, bonding, estimating and insurance and help them identify and connect to contracting opportunities led by collaborating partners in the program.

In the thick of the Everybody Builds initiative is Ryan N. Boyer, business manager of the Laborers’ District Council on North Broad Street and business manager of the Philadelphia Buildings Trades Council, who described it as a unique forum.

According to Boyer, the coalition of unions and its many apprentice programs have “dedicated themselves” to “ensuring that Philadelphia’s union workforce is representative of our region’s population.”

Gov.-elect Josh Shapiro said in an interview with The Philadelphia Tribune that he supports the initiative.

“I applaud Ryan Boyer for being willing to sit in the room with all of the parties to address systemic inequities and make meaningful change,” Shapiro said. “It’s long overdue and necessary to create jobs and grow our economy.”

Meanwhile, Rowell, the HIRE360 executive director, said: “We are now working with 120 diverse contractors to help them scale up for the over $100 billion of mega-projects coming to the city of Chicago for the next 10 years, including CTA (Chicago Transit Authority), our transit agency’s Red-Purple Line program.”

These also include $8 billion in projects at O’Hare Airport and private developments worth about $6 billion.

“There has been a real focus of our partners, some of the larger contractors and trade unions to make sure that the work is done by contractors and individuals that reflect the diversity in the city,” Rowell said.

We have four parts to what we are doing, we have a diverse contractors scaling up component. We have a supply chain component where we are helping to create and expand diverse suppliers. We also have a youth engagement component for the workforce.”

For its part, the Everybody Builds initiative is following a similar game plan.

To get an idea for the corporate experience with HIRE360, The Tribune spoke with Keiana Barrett, director of diversity and strategic development at Sterling Bay, a Chicago real estate developer.

In 2019, Sterling Bay formed a partnership with HIRE360 to reduce the systemic barriers that women and persons of color typically face when entering the construction and commercial real estate industries, Barrett said.

“These barriers typically include lack of access to capital, limited networking and engagement opportunities, bonding, and insurance, along with compromised back end business systems,” Barrett said. “As part of our partnership with HIRE360, Sterling Bay has provided the program with $100,000 in funds that support its minority business loan pool.”

In addition, Barrett sits on HIRE360’s Business Development, Builders, and Loan Pool Committees to advise it on best practices and capability-building strategies from the perspective of a developer.

Some of several companies that received funding, are: Global Construction Source Inc., a construction material supplier, has been approved for a $100,000 line of credit from Providence Bank; P & H Divine Plumbing, one of the first female union plumbers in the city of Chicago, has been approved for a $10,000 line of credit from CNI (Chicago Neighborhood Initiatives); and Craft Mechanical, which will receive a line of credit of $35,000 from CNI, and this will allow them to hire an additional employee.

Last month, Sterling Bay and New York-based Botanic Properties, said they would build a 13-story life sciences lab and office building at 38th and Chestnut streets, with retail and parking.

“We, along with our co-development partners at Botanic Properties, look forward to replicating in Philadelphia the transformational and inclusive business, workforce and life sciences models, we have constructed in Chicago and other markets across the country,” Barrett said.

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Makita Gaddy

Makita Gaddy associated with the Sun City Bell office of Coldwell Banker Realty Arizona, 17001 W N. Del Webb Blvd., as an affiliate agent.

“I’ve always had a passion for assisting people in bettering themselves or developing a sense of positivity within their lives. It brings me joy when I’m able to help others,” said Gaddy. “In my education career, I was able to develop a strong sense of patience, efficiency, effectiveness and creativity. I believe these traits will help me succeed in the real estate industry and personally.”

Most recently, she was an admissions representative for the Universal Technical Institute and has worked in education for more than 10 years. She holds an Associate of Arts in education and completed the leasing agent program at the Chicago Real Estate Institute and the real estate program at American Realty.

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Construction on a new industrial park in Bay Shore will soon be completed, which developers say will serve as a regional hub for distribution, including for last-mile deliveries to Long Island residents. 

Rockefeller Group, a Manhattan real estate developer, is completing the construction of a 172,622-square-foot distribution center at 55 Paradise Lane after purchasing the land for $32 million in 2020. The construction is the final leg of development for the park, joining two other distribution centers on the 10.75-acre property. The center is expected to be completed in the spring, the company announced in a news release. 

No companies have yet leased the building, but Rockefeller Group senior managing director Meg Brod said local businesses and Fortune 500 companies were eyeing the space. Chicago real estate giant JLL will market and lease the property. Developers have been approved to construct more than 7,300-square-feet of office space and more than 21,000-square-feet of storage space if needed.

The two other distribution centers in the park are leased by Duro Dyne Corporation, a manufacturer of accessories and equipment for the HVAC industry; Lindenmeyr Munroe, a packaging and paper provider; and Rubie’s Costume Company, the world’s largest costume designer and manufacturer.

JLL found in its industrial market leasing report that industrial space reached a record leasing level this year on Long Island, with a projected 2.5 million square feet leased so far this year. The new center comes at a time of “unprecedented demand for high quality industrial space,” said Max Omstrom, an executive vice president on the JLL Northeast Industrial team.

“The new Bay Shore Industrial Park perfectly meets a long list of criteria for a successful distribution hub, including its close proximity to major population centers and a strong workforce, a location with a low impact on residential neighborhoods, easy access to an array of transportation options and spacious modern facilities,” said JLL Northeast Industrial team executive managing director Leslie Lanne. 

The Chamber of Commerce of Greater Bay Shore did not respond to a Newsday inquiry about the development.

Brinley Hineman covers the Town of Islip for Newsday. She previously was a reporter in Nashville, Tennessee, and is a native of West Virginia.

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Violet Hour/Photo: Michael Robinson

ART

Cornelia Arts Building Announces Holiday Open Studios

The Cornelia Arts Building announces their Holiday Open House Event. The building opens its doors to the public to shop for artworks and gifts directly from artists. It’s one of the largest all-artist buildings on Chicago’s North Side, with two full floors of working art studios featuring over seventy local artists and artisans at work, including painters, sculptors, photographers, ceramic artists, printmakers and jewelers. “Building on nearly four decades of fostering creativity, the venue nears completion on a multi-year remodeling effort, with double the studios and artists, and more art than ever before.” Established in 1986 in a former ice-house, the Cornelia Arts Building is located at 1800 West Cornelia, at the border of three distinct Chicago neighborhoods; Lakeview, Roscoe Village and North Center. Friday, December 2, 6pm-10pm and Saturday, December 3, 11am-3pm. Details here.

 

DESIGN

Chorus Grows To Preserve Damen Silos

“Eight organizations, led by Friends of the Chicago River and Openlands, signed onto a letter urging Governor Pritzker to halt the sale of the site to MAT Limited Partnership,” reports WTTW. Margaret Frisbie, executive director of Friends of the Chicago River, tells the station, “The governor should put this project on hold and open a meaningful discussion with the community about the future of the Damen Silos site for the betterment of public health and the ecological transformation of the Chicago River system… Any riverfront improvement opportunity should be part of a master plan that recognizes the Chicago River system as the wondrous natural resource it is rather than the uncared for alleyway it used to be.” The twenty-three-acre site, “home to abandoned grain elevators that have become popular with urban explorers, is strategically situated on a stretch of the river slated for restoration or improvement projects, including a pending multimillion-dollar revitalization of nearby Bubbly Creek, a famously polluted fork of the South Branch.”

One Of A Kind Show And Sale Returns

Chicago’s annual shopping extravaganza, the One Of A Kind Show And Sale, will return to THE MART from Thursday, December 1 through Sunday, December 4. In its twenty-first year, the show brings together 500 artists, artisans, and makers to offer fine art and handmade goods, gourmet cafes, bar areas, live entertainment and activities for all ages. A portion of ticket sales benefit the Ann & Robert H. Lurie Children’s Hospital of Chicago. Tickets to the four days of the holiday show are $15 here.

Business Owners Want $5 Million TIF Cash For Surveillance Of Fulton Market

“A small group of business and community leaders urged city officials to use $5 million in tax increment financing money to buy 200 surveillance cameras for the swanky Fulton Market District and the historically violent Garfield Park area,” reports the Sun-Times. “Our streets are running with blood,” said Roger Romanelli, executive director of the Fulton Market Association in online press availability. “We have to put a tourniquet on the crime spree that’s happening in our city.” The ACLU of Illinois “has repeatedly raised alarms about the POD [police observation device] cameras, warning last February that the city’s camera system ‘continues to operate without any regulation or privacy or regular public reporting.’” ACLU spokesman Ed Yohnka: “It’s been this long-term kind of shadow game of saying just one more set of cameras will be effective, this is what we need… It never works, and the answer is always more of the cameras.”

 

DINING & DRINKING

City Bans Archie’s Tavern Hamm’s Sign 

Since the 1960s, reports Block Club, “the intersection of Iowa and Rockwell streets in Ukrainian Village has been illuminated by a red, white and blue Hamm’s beer sign perched outside Archie’s Iowa Rockwell Tavern.” When Archie’s “went to renew the bar’s liquor license this month, Arthur said they were told the city would put a hold on the renewal unless the Hamm’s sign came down… Archie’s sits on a residential street and is the only business for a several block radius.” (In 2017, Curious City investigated why so many Chicago taverns have Old Style signs.)

Cure For The Violet Hour

Two industry leaders will come together on December 8 as Cure, New Orleans’ James Beard award-winning cocktail institution, goes behind the velvet curtains of the Violet Hour. They will shake up signature drinks from each bar and celebrate CureCo. partner-mixologist Neal Bodenheimer’s new cocktail book, “Cure: New Orleans Drinks and How to Mix ‘Em from the Award-Winning Bar.” “It’s always great to be back where it all began,” Kirk Estopinal, founding partner of CureCo. and member of The Violet Hour’s opening team back in 2007, says in a release. “Being able to bring my very own team to a place that helped shape my journey and shake up some drinks with a few of my oldest friends in the industry is so special.” The event kicks off with a dual book signing and cocktail tasting sponsored by Chartreuse, where guests can mingle as Bodenheimer signs copies of his book, which features drinks and recipes from New Orleans chefs.

The Violet Hour founding partner and head mixologist Toby Maloney will also be on hand to sign copies of his cocktailing guide, “The Bartender’s Manifesto.” Both Bodenheimer and Maloney will jump behind the bar with bartenders from Cure and The Violet Hour to serve the evening’s menu of nine collaborative cocktails throughout the night. Two options are on offer: a seated, ticketed experience where guests can enjoy three curated bites by The Violet Hour alongside their choice of three four-ounce cocktails from the night’s featured menu for $75. There will be three seatings throughout the night: 5pm, 7pm and 9pm. For those who prefer an a la carte experience, walk-ins are welcome to order individual cocktails and bites from the bar with ample standing room, capacity permitting. Tickets for the seated takeover of The Violet Hour are limited and are on Tock here.

Old Town Spice House Collaborates With Iron Chef Masaharu Morimoto 

“For sixty-five years, the Spice House in Old Town has sold salts, pepper, and turmeric to Chicago customers. The fabled business has carved its own path away from founder Bill Penzey’s path at Penzey’s Spices, and Chicagoans can find Spice House selections, like Vulcan’s Fire Salt and more, at select neighborhood grocers,” reports Eater Chicago. “It’s kicking off a collaboration with Iron Chef Masaharu Morimoto. His blend features black garlic, black pepper and toasted onion. He’ll also be in the store on December 8 for a meet-and-greet with $75 tickets. Look for more collaboration with award-winning chefs in the future.”

More Legislative Opposition To Albertsons-Kroger Merger

“Congresswoman Pramila Jayapal is the latest elected official to voice opposition to the proposed Albertsons-Kroger merger,” reports Northwest Newsradio. “If these two giants merge, I am deeply concerned about the resulting effects on competition in grocery industry,” the Seattle Democrat said at a press conference in West Seattle. “Jayapal has sent a letter to chair of the Federal Trade Commission, asking them to investigate the proposed merger over anti-competitive concerns.”

Starbucks Shutting Down Seattle’s First Unionized Store

“Starbucks is shutting down the first store to unionize in Seattle. The Broadway & Denny store is the fourth unionized store to be shut down in Starbucks’ hometown,” relays More Perfect Union. “Starbucks is citing safety issues after refusing to provide any security.” Starbucks Workers United posts: “The company is closing the store on December 9, the one-year anniversary of the first union win, in Buffalo.” The Seattle Times: Starbucks “said that its attempts to address the safety concerns at the location were not effective.” A Starbucks spokesman said, “Unfortunately, despite several mitigating efforts, safety and security incidents at our Broadway and Denny store have continued to escalate.”

 

FILM & TELEVISION

An Oral History Of “Planes, Trains And Automobiles” At Thirty-Five

“Starring Steve Martin and John Candy, the John Hughes road trip comedy had a nearly four-hour runtime at one point.” Jason Bailey talks to cast, crew, and Hughes’ family at Vanity Fair. “When ‘Planes, Trains and Automobiles ‘roared into theaters on November 25, 1987, it was somehow both a sure thing and a big risk. Its writer-producer-director, John Hughes, was coming off a string of hits (‘Sixteen Candles,’ ‘The Breakfast Club,’ ‘Ferris Bueller’s Day Off’), modestly budgeted character-driven dramedies whose big grosses meant big profits; leading actors Steve Martin and John Candy were among the biggest comedy stars in the country. But Hughes, who had established himself as the poet laureate of eighties teendom, was telling a story about grown-ups… Martin, whose biggest film successes [were] broad comedies, was attempting to remake himself as a more intellectual screen presence. And although Candy was one of the brightest lights of the SCTV ensemble, he had found precious few film roles that put his tremendous talent to full use.” (A forthcoming physical media and video-on-demand release contains over an hour of previously unseen material.)

What “Punch 9 For Harold Washington” Shows About Unfinished Legacy

Joe Winston’s “Punch 9 for Harold Washington,” writes Leonard Pierce at Jacobin, “largely succeeds in its own aspirations. It uses a broad range of archival footage combined with interviews and historical context to tell the story of Washington’s gripping and often astonishing win over an entrenched political machine, an electorate galvanized along racial lines, and… interest groups paralyzed by infighting over who would get how much of Chicago’s power structure. It’s difficult to explain the importance of Washington’s election, both for nonlocals and for those too young to remember him; he accomplished a great deal of progressive reforms in a notoriously corrupt city… Some of the archival footage is astonishing: machine mayoral candidate Jane Byrne decked out in furs and chain-smoking in the back of a limo; Washington offering a tour of his small apartment, littered in every room with piles of books; an impossibly young-looking Barack Obama, his face bearing an enigmatic expression, staring at the newly elected Mayor Washington from across the room… Washington, as can be seen in almost every frame…was a remarkable figure, simultaneously a validation of and a refutation of the ‘Great Man’ theory of history. He was brilliant, incredibly well-spoken and charismatic, unsentimental about politics but with a genuine desire to make politics work for the most people in the most ways. While flawed—[the film] tends to gloss over the compromises he was forced to make, particularly with business, to achieve his extraordinary victory—he was a once-in-a-generation figure, and likely no one else could have accomplished what he did.”

 

LIT

Chicago Public Library Posts Best Of The Best 2022 Books List

The Chicago Public Library has posted its Best of the Best for 2022, with lists of this year’s best books for children, teens and adults. The lists include 150 books for kids across categories including picture books, board books, fiction and informational books for both younger and older readers and libros en español; fifty books for teens, including fiction, nonfiction and graphic novels; and a hundred books for adults. The top ten books recommended for adults? “The Book of Goose,” Yiyun Li; “Constructing a Nervous System: A Memoir,” Margo Jefferson; “Demon Copperhead,” Barbara Kingsolver; “An Immense World: How Animal Senses Reveal the Hidden Realms Around Us,” Ed Yong; “The Invisible Kingdom: Reimagining Chronic Illness,” Meghan O’Rourke; “Night of the Living Rez,” Morgan Talty; “Olga Dies Dreaming,” Xochitl Gonzalez; “Solito: A Memoir,” Javier Zamora; “Stay True: A Memoir,” Hua Hsu; and “Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow,” Gabrielle Zevin. The complete list is here.

 

MEDIA

Lin Brehmer Returns To ‘XRT

“Beloved personality Lin Brehmer, who has been medical sabbatical since July, will return to the airwaves Monday, November 28 at 10am,” tweets WXRT. “While Lin’s chemotherapy continues, he’s coming back to host weekdays 10am-1pm. Welcome back Lin, you were truly missed and we celebrate this milestone.”

More U.S. Consumers Reading, Subscribing To Local News Publications

“Data from the Medill Subscriber Engagement Index shows that even as the pandemic eased, subscriptions have continued to rise at all three categories of newspapers tracked: large, medium and small,” writes Susan Chandler at Northwestern Medill’s Local News Initiative. “The headline is that the bottom has not fallen out,” says Ed Malthouse, a professor at Northwestern University’s Medill School. “Among eight large metropolitan dailies surveyed in the top tier of the Index, six showed sizable increases in subscriptions from September 2021 through August 2022. One showed only a small increase and another showed a significant decrease.”

Now It’s Okay For New York Times Reporters To Gamble

“For many years, the New York Times Ethical Journalism handbook prohibited gambling on sports with only three exceptions: Journalists were permitted ‘occasional recreational wagering on horse racing or dog racing or jai alai,’” reports Max Tani at Semafor. “In June, the paper changed its editorial guidelines around gambling for the first time in nearly two decades, saying they ‘may place occasional recreational wagers on sports they do not cover, in line with the laws where they live.’ It was a compromise that came as the Times attempted to rein in sports gambling by staff at the Athletic… which until recently allowed its writers to gamble on sports they write about.”

 

MUSIC

Double Door Uptown Renovation And Marquee Approved

“The Double Door’s sign on its Uptown home will resemble the iconic sign from its years in Wicker Park,” reports Block Club. “Double Door will inhabit the Wilson Theater building that debuted in 1908” as a vaudeville house. (The Commission on Chicago Landmarks approved the planned renovation and signage earlier this month.)

“Laughing At Kanye Doesn’t Help”

“Far be it from me to tell my people not to laugh at a time like this; since when have we not turned our haters into humor? But something about the stickiness [of a clip of Ye describing his doctor as Jewish], in specifically Jewish circles, broke my heart, because it spoke of a group looking for something, anything, to use as a raft or security blanket,” writes Mireille Silcoff at the New York Times Magazine. “Here, coming from a public figure so media-dominating that his actions were impossible to ignore, was undisguised ‘Protocols of the Elders of Zion’-style hatred, sitting in full spread in the middle of mainstream popular culture…. And here was Dave Chappelle, on ‘S.N.L.,’ beginning his monologue by reading the apology Ye might have given to ‘buy time’ and continuing to riff on how there are ‘two words in the English language that you should never say together in sequence: “The” and “Jews.”’ … Antisemitism felt like it was trending—moving, with bewildering speed, from something verboten to something floating casually around the culture. To take refuge in a spare moment of unintended comedy, one that made Ye look silly rather than dangerous, was an understandable balm. But the laugh still felt to me like the queasy titter of being backed into a corner, with nowhere else to go.”

 

STAGE

Gift Theatre Sets Season

The Gift Theatre has announced its 2023 season, featuring the Chicago premiere of Anna Ouyang Moench’s dark comedy “Mothers,” directed by Lili-Anne Brown, and a revival of Jim Cartwright’s award-winning drama “The Rise and Fall of Little Voice,” directed by Devon de Mayo. The full season will be presented at Filament Theatre as part of a resource-sharing residency beginning in January 2023. “As we were dreaming about our first season announcement as a trio, we went on a listening tour and chatted with our ensemble to see what dreams they had for the future of Gift,” co-artistic directors Brittany Burch, Emjoy Gavino and Jennifer Glasse write in a release. “Similar themes were echoed throughout the conversations—an excitement for taking risks, exploring out of the box, dark comedies and working with directors who meet us where we are and challenge where our ensemble and audience can go.” Gift Theatre managing director John Gawlik says, “As we continue our plans to open a new theater space in Jefferson Park, this temporary home at Filament provides our current audience a familiar neighborhood to experience our work and introduces us to a new audience base of adults among Filament’s following.” More here.

Post-Fire, Factory Theater Seeks Help

“A fire started in The Factory Theater’s heating and cooling system, causing $15,000 in damage,” reports Block Club. “The thirty-year-old theater company is asking neighbors to contribute to a fundraiser to keep the theater” in the Rogers Park neighborhood on Howard Street.

Pegasus Theatre Announces Thirty-Sixth Young Playwrights Festival

Pegasus Theatre Chicago has announced the authors and plays for the thirty-sixth Annual Young Playwrights Festival, January 4-28 at Chicago Dramatists. The 2023 playwrights include “Dead Boy Walking,” Elliott Valadez (Whitney Young Magnet HS, teacher: Elizabeth Danesh), directed by Enrico Spada; “Terms and Conditions,” Lucas Bigos (Lane Tech College Prep, teacher: Kirsten Hanson), directed by Ilesa Duncan; and “Another Star in the Sky,” Jonathan Soco (Lane Tech College Prep, teacher: Julie Allen), directed by Jason A. Fleece. The Young Playwrights Festival, the oldest festival of its kind in the country, has, “for thirty-six years, engaged and inspired high school students across Chicago by teaching them to craft one-act plays with the winning teen playwrights’ productions work-shopped and staged by industry professionals.” Tickets go on sale December 1. More here.

 

ARTS & CULTURE & ETC.

O’Hare Gets Okay For $7.1 Billion Global Terminal

“O’Hare International Airport got the official federal go-ahead Monday for a $7.1 billion project to replace Terminal 2 with a ‘global terminal’ intended to link domestic and international flights in one location,” reports the Sun-Times. “The project is expected to start with two new satellite concourses, providing about 1.3 million feet of gate and amenity space, which will ‘dramatically expand the airport’s ability to accommodate aircraft of all sizes,’ Mayor Lightfoot said. ‘This is a big deal for us.’”

Galesburg Sees Struggle As Amtrak Leaves Town

Galesburg officials had no warning of Amtrak’s decision, reports WGIL. “Local tourism officials and downtown businesses are bracing for a negative impact from Amtrak’s decision to suspend partial passenger rail service between Galesburg and Chicago. Amtrak announced earlier this week it was suspending two morning trains leaving and arriving in Galesburg… The two lines have been replaced with chartered buses as alternate transportation through January 16.” An Amtrak spokesperson said the temporary suspension is over staffing issues.

Fancy Bet On Casino Costs

“Bally’s executes sale-leaseback on newly acquired Freedom Center site, raising up to $500 million to develop Chicago casino,” headlines the Trib. “Days after buying the 30-acre Freedom Center printing site, Bally’s has sold the land to a Chicago real estate investment firm, leasing it back for ninety-nine years and raising up to $500 million to help build its proposed $1.74 billion Chicago casino complex.” Crain’s: “Oak Street Real Estate Capital’s purchase of the Tribune’s Freedom Center plant property adds a new layer of complexity to Bally’s push to build a casino on the site.”

 

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When the U.S. Department of Labor filed a lawsuit against a Chicago-area employee benefit fund early this year, it alleged a litany of improper loans, transfers of fund assets, and unreasonable compensation had siphoned more than $2.8 million from the plan since 2015. But there was far more to the story than what the Labor Department outlined in its complaint. 

The United Employee Benefit Fund, the fund targeted in the lawsuit, provides life insurance to about 63 employer-sponsored benefit plans nationwide, according to regulators. The Labor Department started investigating alleged mismanagement and inflated compensation at the fund more than 16 years ago, according to regulatory case summaries released in response to a Freedom of Information Act request by Georgetown University’s Center on Health Insurance Reforms. Some of the same players named in the complaint this year were scrutinized by the Labor Department for violations at the same fund at least as early as 2006, the case summaries show. A decade ago, the Labor Department reached a settlement with the fund relating to nearly 200 improper loans that hadn’t been repaid–only to see millions of dollars allegedly misappropriated from the fund in the years that followed. 

The case is part of a broader pattern of regulators struggling to catch up with fraud involving multiple employer welfare arrangements, or MEWAs, according to Labor Department veterans and employee-benefits experts. These plans provide benefits–often health insurance coverage, but also in some cases life insurance, disability coverage or other benefits–to the employees of two or more employers. In 2021, there were over 700 such plans covering roughly 3 million participants ranging from Major League Baseball team employees and Nashville musicians to farmers and construction workers, according to regulatory filings–although that’s likely an undercount because many MEWAs fail to file the required forms, according to regulators.  

MEWAs can allow smaller employers to pool their resources and obtain cheaper health insurance and other employee benefits than they might find on their own. But they’ve also been plagued for decades by fraud and insolvencies that can leave piles of unpaid claims, researchers say. Last year, a MEWA providing health coverage to employees of several thousand New Jersey small businesses declared bankruptcy, saying it couldn’t withstand the volume of members’ COVID-related claims. 

Concerns about MEWA mismanagement and fraud are growing as litigation and state legislative changes pave the way for broader use of these plans and similar arrangements, employee benefits experts say. The ongoing legal and political battle over the Affordable Care Act has contributed to a recent uptick in scams involving MEWAs, said Robert Wake, general counsel at the Maine Bureau of Insurance and chair of a National Association of Insurance Commissioners working group that helps monitor and coordinate the state and federal regulatory response to sham health plans. “Where there is legal confusion, there is a business opportunity for scammers,” Wake said. Like bootleggers, he said, many MEWAs “try to sell a cheap product, and it’s often toxic.”  

In some cases, MEWA operators tap-dance between federal and state regulators, who have joint responsibility for overseeing the arrangements, researchers say. States vary widely in their approach to regulating the plans. In response to questions about the United Employee Benefit Fund, an Illinois Department of Insurance spokesperson said the state does not have a MEWA registration statute, and the department has no record of any regulatory or enforcement action against the fund.  

In another sign of the regulatory challenges, the United Employee Benefit Fund in a statement to MarketWatch disputed the Labor Department’s assertion that it is a MEWA, saying the fund is a “Taft-Hartley” trust, which would make it subject to a different regulatory regime. The fund said it “has successfully provided death benefits to union employees who subscribed to its benefits and thereby provided security to working families.” The fund said it disputes the Labor Department’s complaint against the fund and its current trustees, adding that allegations involving those trustees relate to a period when they were advised by service providers and attorneys who are no longer involved with the fund. The fund has filed lawsuits against its former service provider, fund manager, and attorneys, looking to recover over $5 million allegedly “wrongfully dissipated” by those people, the fund said. 

The federal agency that oversees employee benefit plans has noted in its recent Congressional budget requests that it has been outgunned by MEWA fraudsters. The agency’s inability to effectively protect participants from fraudulent and mismanaged MEWAs is “an especially stark example” of the impact of its limited budget, the Labor Department’s Employee Benefits Security Administration said in a fiscal year 2023 budget document. The agency lost 89 investigators, or 22 percent of its current investigative staff, in the five years ending with the 2020 fiscal year, and it can’t afford to replace them, the document said. The agency now has less than one investigator for every 12,000 employee benefit plans, according to the document. 

The Labor Department’s inspector general said in November that it plans to audit the effectiveness of certain related enforcement efforts, including those involving MEWA sustainability and fraud. The Labor Department said in comments to MarketWatch that it “continues its long-standing efforts to seek out and shut down abusive” MEWAs and proactively identify known fraudulent operators. As its budget declined in real dollars, the EBSA agency responsible had “no option but to downsize,” the Department said, adding that “the impact on the enforcement program has been particularly severe.” 

The public remains largely in the dark about the scale and extent of scams and mismanagement in these plans, experts say. Researchers, consumer advocates, and other groups have pushed the Labor Department in recent years to release records on MEWA compliance and enforcement. The Department ultimately released thousands of pages of MEWA investigative files in response to Georgetown’s open-records request. The files included hundreds of cases, many involving repeat players and impacting participants in multiple states, as well as many plans failing to file required forms and regulators struggling to catch up.

Fund assets allegedly diverted into a foreclosed home

Some of the money allegedly siphoned from the United Employee Benefit Fund was poured into a five-bedroom brick home in Wilmette, Ill., according to the fund’s complaint. A real estate listing for the home shows an interior filled with high-end decor: A grand piano in the living room, a crystal chandelier in the dining room, monogrammed towels in the bathroom, a bedroom closet overflowing with clothes. A sign on a rec room wall reads, “McDowell.” 

Herbert McDowell III is a former fund trustee and service provider who was instrumental in creating the fund in the early 1990s, according to court filings. Through a series of transactions in 2016 and 2017, fund assets were diverted in an elaborate plan to rescue McDowell’s home from foreclosure, the Labor Department alleged in its complaint filed early this year. Fund officials and McDowell terminated several whole life insurance policies owned by the fund to get the cash surrender value and applied, on behalf of the fund, for a loan on a participant’s policy, funneling the money into transactions that ultimately led to McDowell’s home being purchased by a company owned by a Chicago real estate attorney, the Department alleged. McDowell, who had been evicted from the home with his personal property remaining locked up inside, then moved back into the home as a renter–but he couldn’t afford his rent, the Department alleged. By mid October 2017, the fund had allegedly paid $85,000 in rent on McDowell’s behalf, the Department said.     

“‘Where there is legal confusion, there is a business opportunity for scammers’”

— Robert Wake, general counsel at the Maine Bureau of Insurance

Even as the alleged scheme to rescue McDowell’s home was unfolding, the Labor Department was scrutinizing at least two McDowell-affiliated entities, United Preferred Companies and American Workers Master Contract Group, according to the case summaries. The Department decided to take no legal action despite its findings of violations of federal law and failures to take corrective steps, the case summaries show–only to open a fresh investigation into the United Employee Benefit Fund in spring 2018, according to court documents. 

The Labor Department said it does not comment on decisions regarding investigations. Nearly $1.4 million was restored to the fund after the Labor Department told the parties it intended to file the 2022 complaint, the department said. Darren VanPuymbrouck, an attorney for McDowell, said that McDowell has denied the Labor Department and fund allegations against him and filed a lawsuit against a former fund attorney L. Steven Platt, alleging that he relied on Platt’s advice in determining that the transactions at issue were legal. Platt directed questions to his attorneys, who did not respond to requests for comment. Platt, who is also a defendant in the lawsuits filed by the Labor Department and the fund, denied in court filings that he provided substandard legal advice and alleged that he relied on misrepresentations of fact by McDowell and fund officials in providing legal services to the fund. 

In April, McDowell was indicted on federal tax evasion charges for allegedly causing money to be paid to his company United Preferred Companies and spending it for his personal benefit. He pleaded not guilty. 

The Labor Department’s scrutiny of the fund goes back at least as far as 2006, according to the case summaries, when the Department found that no payments of principal or interest had been made on millions of dollars worth of defaulted participant loans. In 2012, the Department said that fund trustees had approved at least 194 improper loans from the fund to individual participants and allegedly made no effort to collect payments. One of those trustees, David Fensler, is also a defendant, along with McDowell, in the 2022 lawsuits filed by the Labor Department and the fund. Attorneys for Fensler did not respond to requests for comment. In court filings, Fensler has denied allegations that he failed to act in the interest of fund participants and violated his fiduciary obligations to the fund. 

One participant who took loans from the fund roughly 20 years ago told MarketWatch that he was never asked to repay them–but for years, fund regulatory filings said his loans were in default or uncollectible. The fund’s most recent form 5500 regulatory filing, for plan year 2018, lists 11 defaulted or uncollectible loans taken between 2001 and 2007 by the participant, George Riskus, with a total unpaid balance including principal and interest of more than $305,000 at year-end 2018. Riskus, 66, of Burr Ridge, Ill., said he didn’t repay his loans because fund representatives told him the repayment would be deducted from his roughly $5 million death benefit after he dies. The fund took a similar position in a statement submitted with its 2013 plan year regulatory filing, saying it disagreed with its auditor’s opinion that certain participant loans listed in the filing–including Riskus’s–were in default because the borrowers’ death benefits would provide payment on the loans. Riskus also said he paid income tax on the loan proceeds around 2012. “Why would they say they’re in default?” he asked. 

The fund said in a statement to MarketWatch that while there are still some participant loans on the books, it is “attempting to collect these loans and will vigorously pursue repayment.” The fund said it is “unaware of any representations made to participants that the loans were excused.” 

Riskus first got involved in the fund more than 20 years ago, he said, after he’d sold off some land he’d developed and was looking for a tax-sheltered investment. He contributed roughly $600,000 to the fund over the years, he estimates, including a $55,000 contribution just last year to keep the policy in force. McDowell was his primary contact for information about the fund, he said. Then in August of this year, Riskus received a letter from the fund’s new acting manager, saying that his participation and benefits under the fund were being terminated because “you no longer have union employees who participate in the Fund,” according to a copy of the letter reviewed by MarketWatch. 

“This just came out of nowhere,” he said. “Not having any life insurance, that really fries me,” he said, noting that he was hoping the death benefit would provide for his three children. “I don’t know who the con artist is,” he said. “I’d like to get some money back. I’d like to know what is going on.”  

In recent weeks, McDowell was still suggesting that Riskus talk to him about insurance coverage, according to emails reviewed by MarketWatch. In a late October email, McDowell asked Riskus if he had been contacted by the fund. “If not, we should get together to discuss your options… including plan design for future coverage,” he wrote. 

Another fund participant, Ronald Futterman, alleged in a lawsuit he filed against the fund in late 2020 that he had also been burned. Futterman received a letter from the fund dated May 2020, saying that “suggestions have been made to improve the overall administrative efficiency of the Trust, strengthen the Trust’s legal position and longevity,” and therefore “for participants 65 and over there will be a 30% reduction of their life insurance death benefit.” Futterman, a retired lawyer in Riverwoods, Ill., who is now 79, claimed in court that the fund had no right to slash his death benefit, which was vested through approximately age 90. There was also a loan balance reflected on his 2020 life insurance policy statement, even though he had never requested a loan, Futterman claimed. 

Futterman paid about $300,000 over the years “for a policy that was the cornerstone of his estate planning,” Futterman’s attorney Peter Dowd told MarketWatch. The fund responded in court that Futterman had not been injured because “his Plan benefits were never reduced,” adding that his “benefits were never protected or vested.” In a statement to MarketWatch, the fund said that Futterman’s company had defaulted on the requirement that it remain a union employer and pay annual assessments to the fund and therefore all employees’ benefits had been terminated in 2013. The fund invented that argument this year, Dowd said, “because it was clear they were losing” the case. The fund has been telling Futterman for the past 20 years, he said, that he’s covered by the policy. 

“I’ve never seen anything this bad, in terms of the misconduct of people who are supposed to be fiduciaries,” said Dowd, who has been practicing employee-benefits law for nearly 50 years. “These people felt somehow they could operate in a gray area and avoid complying with the rules and regulations.”  

‘The same old song with a different orchestration’ 

While lawsuits involving the United Employee Benefit Fund wind through the courts, more dubious benefit plans designed to skirt regulations are popping up, employee benefits experts say. One arrangement raising particular alarm among veteran regulators is Data Marketing Partnership, which allows individuals to obtain health-insurance coverage in exchange for downloading software that lets a third party track their internet activity. Despite what critics see as the lack of a genuine employment relationship, Data Marketing has successfully argued in court that it’s a self-funded single-employer benefit plan, allowing it to skirt state insurance regulation and some requirements of the Affordable Care Act. After an appeal from the Department of Labor, the Fifth Circuit court of appeals largely sided with Data Marketing in August. 

While it may not be a MEWA, “it’s the same old song with a different orchestration,” said Marc Machiz, former Philadelphia regional director for the Labor Department’s Employee Benefits Security Administration. “I fear that because of the Fifth Circuit opinion we’ll see a lot of copycat activity,” he said, as other operators following the same blueprint can say, “we’re going to sell insurance in the individual market and disguise it by pretending there’s an employer involved, when in fact the employer is a sham.” Attorneys for Data Marketing Partnership did not respond to requests for comment.

The pandemic, meanwhile, has raised new questions about MEWAs’ financial stability. Affiliated Physicians and Employers Master Trust, the New Jersey MEWA that declared bankruptcy last year, was a major provider of health coverage in New Jersey’s small group market, according to a letter the trust sent to state legislators last year. The trust was overwhelmed by COVID testing and treatment claims from members, which included many healthcare and other front-line workers, the letter said, adding that participating employers would have to cover about $18 million in losses as a result of those expenses. The trust told employers in a mid July 2021 letter that they’d have to get new coverage for workers and their dependents by the end of the year. 

Henry O. Baker Insurance Group, a Dover, NJ-based insurance agency that had roughly 30 employees and family members covered under the plan, scrambled to find new coverage for workers and had to pay a roughly $45,000 assessment to help cover the MEWA’s losses, said Staci Grant, the company’s vice president of benefits. 

Many other participating employers have been either unable or unwilling to pay the amounts demanded by the MEWA. About 1,200 employers are in a queue to be sued for the amounts owed, said Don Clarke, an attorney for the trust. “Many people were not certain what they were entering into” when signing up for the plan, he said, despite the trust’s disclosures that members would be on the hook for any shortfall in the trust. The trust is still working to pay off several million dollars’ worth of medical claims, he said. 

The legal limbo surrounding a Trump administration MEWA-related rule, meanwhile, heightens concerns about oversight of these arrangements, policy experts say. In 2018, the Trump administration proposed making it easier for businesses to band together to obtain health coverage through lightly regulated “association health plans,” a type of MEWA. Machiz, the former Labor Department official, wrote in a comment letter that the proposed rule “promises to unleash a wave of fraud on an unsuspecting public.” The rule was blocked by a federal court, but the federal government appealed the decision in 2019, and the case remains in a holding pattern with a federal appeals court. The situation alarms many employee benefits experts, who say the Labor Department should rescind the rule. 

“They need to rescind it, because it’s still a source of confusion, and some folks out there still use it in trying to get states to loosen up the rules” governing association health plans and similar arrangements, said Mila Kofman, a MEWA expert and former Labor Department regulator who is now executive director of the DC Health Benefit Exchange Authority, which oversees the District of Columbia’s Affordable Care Act marketplace.  

States are also opening the door to looser regulation of multiple employer arrangements. Virginia, for example, this year passed a law allowing association health plans similar to those in the Trump administration rule. 

The Labor Department’s Employee Benefits Security Administration started a MEWA solvency project in fiscal 2019, aiming to proactively identify plans heading for insolvency and protect participants. So far, the project has recovered more than $90.1 million, the Labor Department said. 

The Labor Department should also be required to provide annual analysis of MEWA regulatory filings and summarize its MEWA enforcement efforts for Congress, Kofman said. The Department said that it plans to publish details in the coming months on its MEWA enforcement activities over the past five years.  

The Department has acknowledged that those enforcement efforts often come too late. Describing the collapse of fraudulent and mismanaged MEWAs in its fiscal 2022 budget request, EBSA wrote, “as a rule… EBSA only learns about these cases after catastrophe has occurred.” 

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Sell My House Fast Chicagoland is improving and expanding its house-buying service to Cook, DuPage, Will, and Lake counties

Get rid of your burdensome property fast and hassle-free using our simple and transparent home-buying solution. It means you can get a FREE proposal and know what we’ll pay for your house in cash.”

— Brett Singer

CHICAGO, ILLINOIS, USA, November 21, 2022 /EINPresswire.com/ — Sell My House Fast Chicagoland, a highly-rated and one of the leading house buyers in Chicago, is happy to announce its improved house-buying solution and its service expansion to Cook, DuPage, Will, and Lake counties.

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Leaflet map created by Adam Farence | Data by © OpenStreetMap, under ODbl.

Cook County’s condo sales maxed out at $5.8 million last week as industry heavyweights warned of a cooling housing market.
The top 10 condo sales registered in the MLS, accessed via Redfin, for the county ranged from $1.5 million to $5.8 million, with a sale at Lincoln Park Twenty Five Fifty taking the top spot after it was listed a month earlier for $6 million.

Tim Salm with Sotheby’s International Realty had the listing and Suzanne Gignilliat with @properties Christie’s International Real Estate worked with the buyer for the 35th-floor unit. The price breaks down to $1,239 per square foot.

Waldorf Astoria Condo 4002 at 11 East Walton Place ranked as the second priciest buy with a $5.3 million price tag and comes to $1,333 per square foot. Julie Harron with Jameson Sotheby’s International Realty represented both sides of the deal.

Like the Lincoln Park sale, this one closed after a markdown in price — this time by 18 percent. The condo was listed on the market for $6.5 million in 2019.

The average price for the top 10 sales was $2.7 million, with a median price of $2 million. In total, the top ten sales came to $27.3 million trading a square foot total of 27,637.

Industry scions have warned that the housing market is headed for a downturn. At The Real Deal’s real estate showcase in Miami, Florida, real estate pros — including one who invoked the iconic Game of Thrones catchphrase “winter is coming” — voiced pessimism about the near future of the market.

The cracks are showing in other markets. Prices for the top 10 sales in Florida’s Miami Dade county ranged from $1 million to $5 million, compared with $1.7 million to $11 million the previous week.

This continues a broader trend from October, where metrics for luxury condo sales showed a downturn in the market.

Here’s a breakdown of the top 10 Cook County sales from Nov. 6th to Nov. 12th:

Most expensive

Lincoln Park 2550, 2550 North Lakeview Avenue, unit T3501 | $5.8M | $1,239 psf | Listing agent: Tim Salm with Sotheby’s International Realty | Buyer’s agent: Suzanne Gignilliat with @properties Christie’s International Real Estate

Least expensive

2350 North Orchard Street Residences, 2350 North Orchard Street, unit MZ102 | $1M | $744 psf | Listing agent: Cadey O’Leary and Gabrielle Cavalier with Jameson Sotheby’s Intl Realty | Buyer’s agent: Lucas Blahnik with @properties Christie’s International Real Estate

Data from Redfin

Contact Adam Farence

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Once upon a time, there were seven very large paintings that dominated the wall behind the palette-shaped bar at Riccardo’s Restaurant and Gallery, which was as lively an oasis as this city has ever known.

The paintings were first unveiled in 1948, a stunning addition to the restaurant Ric Riccardo (born Richard Novaretti in Italy) opened in 1934 at the corner of Rush and Hubbard Streets. He had been a ship’s mate (and painter, dancer and musician) who married a woman named Mimi, performed with her at a Georgia nightclub, tried to sell his paintings, worked in magazine publishing and ran a restaurant/speakeasy on South Oakley Avenue.

He opened his place on Rush Street in a small space where he allowed artist friends to hang their work (for sale) on the walls. He painted three large female nudes and mounted two of them on the ceiling. He soon expanded into the next building and in 1947 boldly into the southernmost building, creating a bar in the shape of an artist’s palette and placing above it on the wall seven paintings representing the “Lively Arts.”

Riccardo’s was, as I have written, a “remarkable gathering place for artists, writers, journalists, opera singers and movie stars, admen, drunks, scalawags and bon vivants, real and would-be. It was called the ‘Montmartre of the Midwest.’”

Madron Gallery director Rachel Wakeman with the exhibit of the famous “Lively Arts” murals that once adorned Riccardo’s. (E. Jason Wambsgans / Chicago Tribune)

For a time, the paintings were believed to have been lost, as noted in a fine 2001 book, “Guide to Chicago Murals,” by Mary Lackritz Gray, who declared them “missing,” with critic Franz Schulze adding in the book’s forward that they had “simply disappeared.”

But the paintings were in the process of being reunited, and they were, and now they hang in all their compelling glory as the largest part of an exhibition, “Palette and Palate,” at the Madron Gallery (1000 W. North Ave.; www.madrongallery.com). Grouped beside one another on one wall, the paintings are stunning and, for many of a certain age, able to evoke marvelous memories.

Rachel Wakeman is the charming and knowledgeable director of the gallery, which has been handsomely fashioned from what had been the Peter Hand Brewery from 1891 to 1978. She is decades too young to have ever been to Riccardo’s but she has enjoyed hearing stories from those who went.

“The opening was so special,” she said. “Many were quite moved by the paintings but also by what memories they brought back. Some thought these had been lost to history, so there was considerable joy. Me? I think that I would have liked having a drink at Riccardo’s. My favorite of the paintings? That changes from time to time but ‘Literature’ has really been growing on me.”

Detail of “Literature” by Rudolph Weisenborn, one of the “Lively Arts” murals now at Madron Galley. (E. Jason Wambsgans / Chicago Tribune)

The show opened in early September and and there are conversations about mounting it elsewhere too. The massive paintings, collectively known as “The Seven Lively Arts,” are 96-inch by 48-inch oil paintings, the work of Ivan Albright (“Drama”), his brother Malvin Albright (“Sculpture”), Vincent D’Agostino (“Painting”), Aaron Bohrod (“Architecture”), William Schwartz (“Music”), Rudolph Weisenborn (“Literature”), and Riccardo himself (“Dance”).

These are embellished by other paintings depicting Chicago street scenes, and by photographs, menus, magazine stories and a matchbook. Many of those latter items are on loan from Phil Koch, an acclaimed local filmmaker who has been working for a decade with his wife and filmmaking partner Sally Marschall on a documentary about the place titled “Everybody Came to Ric’s: Chicago’s Golden Age 1934-1954.”

“I was stunned at how beautiful they are,” he says. “I had never seen them together and in so doing I was transported back to Riccardo’s in its glory years. What a gift for Riccardo to have commissioned these. What a man and what a place. There has never been anything like it, before or since.”

Koch and Marschall will be at the gallery in January to talk about and screen portions of their film. “We are so close to being finished,” he says, “just looking for finishing funds. It has been a labor of love for us and this is a must-see exhibit.”

Over the palette-shaped bar at Riccardo’s Restaurant and Gallery in Chicago are murals representing the “Seven Lively Arts.” (Chicago Tribune historical photo)

The exhibition is accompanied by an informative essay by writer Alex Cornacchia. They write of the history of the paintings, Riccardo and his desire to give “new and homegrown talent a chance to be seen where other galleries and museums might not.”

Riccardo commissioned the paintings from his artist pals. It’s said he might have paid $1,000 or so for each, in addition to providing the artists free food and drink.

They were an immediate hit. As noted in his 1953 book “Chicago’s Left Bank,” writer Alson Smith deemed “These murals the pride of the restaurant.”

But pride is fragile. After Ric’s death in 1954, the restaurant carried on. It would be run by Ric’s son, the dashing and handsome Ric Jr. (by first wife Mimi), but his heart was elsewhere. Aspiring to a career in theater, he would eventually have three ex-wives along with attendant alimony and child support payments. To meet those financial demands, he sold Albright’s “Drama” and Bohrad’s “Architecture.” They were replaced by photographic reproductions, and in 1974 the restaurant was sold to capable restaurateurs, brothers Nick and Bill Angelos. There was a terrible irony when Ric Jr. died in 1977, choking on a piece of food at a restaurant in Buckeye, Arizona.

The five remaining Lively Arts paintings remained behind the bar until 1995, when Riccardo’s closed its doors for good. I was there that final night, sitting in a booth with my mother, Marilew, who had met the man who would be my father at Riccardo’s in 1948, and with MaeJuel Riccardo Allen, who was married for a time to Ric. They both shared stories, full of affection.

Detail of “Architecture” by the artist Aaron Bohrod, one of the “Lively Arts” murals now at Madron Galley. (E. Jason Wambsgans / Chicago Tribune)

They are both now gone and the paintings were gone by 2000 when the restaurant became Phil Stefani’s 437. That closed in 2016 and the building has been vacant ever since.

But back to the paintings. If there is a hero to this story it is a fascinating self-made millionaire named Seymour Persky. He was, as my former colleague Blair Kamin noted in his obituary, a “colorful Chicago real estate mogul and preservationist who amassed a dazzling collection of architectural artifacts.” He visited Riccardo’s as a young man and was compelled in 2000 to reunite the seven paintings. He worked with lawyers and art experts and noted local preservationist and collector Barton Faist to find them. It took two years and many hundreds of thousands of dollars to put them together again, and “a certain amount of financial recklessness,” he said.

After some minor cleaning, the paintings were displayed in 2002-03 at the Union League Club’s Rendezvous Bar, where Persky was a member. At the time he told writer Jeff Huebner in the Reader, “I had the time and I had the money. I felt it was an artistic coup to put them all back together again. It’s a part of Chicago history.”

The paintings then traveled and were exhibited at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts in 2007, and the Chicago History Museum in 2008. Since Persky’s death in 2015, they have been part of the Seymour H. Persky Trust, “living” in an art storage facility before arriving at Madron.

The opening night reception in September attracted more than 300 people. One of them was Ric and MaeJuel Riccardo’s 80-year-old daughter, Jill Riccardo Begley, who had driven here from the Lexington, Kentucky, home she shares with her husband Ron.

“It was unbelievable,” she told me by telephone. “I was so glad I went. I was not feeling well but there was no way I was going to miss this. And it made me feel so much better, the nostalgia, the memories. I kept getting up to stare.”

Now, there is ever a tendency to romanticize the past and its landmarks, but in the case of these seven huge paintings, it seems not only justified but meaningfully so.

rkogan@chicagotribune.com

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Authorities have ousted two squatters who took over a vacant Maryland house for three weeks as a couple was in the middle of finalizing ownership.

Squatters taking over a Clinton, Maryland home. (Photo: YouTube/WUSA9)

Realtor Melea King said her clients had just signed a contract with US Bank for property in Clinton, Maryland, when they saw a U-Haul truck in the driveway and the men moving into the home.

How the Squatters Moved Into the Home

The lock box had been removed. The squatters had a lease and put up a “No Trespassing” sign.

Prince George’s County State Attorney Aisha Braveboy launched an investigation into the incident, and King said the lease turned out to be “bogus” with fraudulent signatures. Police officers ordered the squatters to leave the property on Nov. 3, or they would be arrested.

“They found out that all of that information was inaccurate. It was a lie,” King told Atlanta Black Star.

However, it was a little too late for the couple who had planned to close on the house late last month. They backed out of the deal. However, King called another client who was interested in the property, and they were able to close on the home on Tuesday, Nov. 10.

“As a realtor, it’s my duty to fight for my client. I am here to protect them through the process of the purchase and that’s mainly them signing documents and that extends over to the property itself,” King said.

Melea King is a Realtor in the Maryland-Washington D.C. area. (Photo: Facebook/Melea King)

King believes the squatters have been going around trying to take ownership of other properties. She said the investigation revealed that they had attempted to get the deed and utilities transferred to their names and had even connected cable at the house.

“This is a real business out there where people are literally trying to take ownership of properties,” King said.

The realtor said she has been contacted by other victims of squatters. Some have been locked out of their houses for months because someone has fraudulently moved in, she said. King’s situation is rare. She was able to get the squatters removed quickly because of the media attention and with assistance from the state attorney, who launched a criminal investigation.

How to Get Rid of Squatters

Reports show squatters have been known to take over homes after people die and the house is empty. In April, squatters took over a woman’s Maryland apartment while she was on vacation.

It could take months in some cases to evict a person from the home, reports show. However, laws vary from state to state. King plans to push for laws in Maryland that would protect property owners. She believes they should be a separate eviction process in place for squatter situations.

Experts recommend consistently inspecting vacant properties or hiring property managers to monitor the space. King recommends using “No Trespassing” signs to warn off trespassers, while Chicago real estate attorney Mo Dadkhah told ABC 7 property owners should also consider paying off squatters to move out.

King believes if she did not sound the alarm about the Clinton property, the issue would still be ongoing. Police officers who initially arrived on the scene the day the squatters moved in told her client that it was a civil matter and a judge would have the final say, but she was adamant about getting them out.

“I was persistent. I was not giving up. I stayed in contact with the state’s attorney’s office,” she said. “I stayed in contact with the police department for them to really press on this thing to really get my clients that property.”

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