Business as Usual

And still it goes on. In the face of allegedly massive federal investigations:

• Friends of Mayor Richard Daley made out handsomely when land they owned was rezoned in the 11th Ward, helping them sell the property for about $2.4 million more than they paid for it.
  
  A critic of the Daley administration didn't do so well, however. He couldn't get a zoning change, and the value of his property diminished by about $4 million, according to court papers.
  
  Both decisions were made by a Daley ally—James Balcer, the 11th Ward alderman who calls the shots on zoning in his South Side ward.

Connected people making unholy sums of money based on who they know, who they contribute to, who they can "persuade" to adjust zoning law. Sometimes it's only companies swindling each other before they pass it on to consumers. But many times, it's the taxpayers who are saddled with the entire bill:

• DiPiazza and Ferro have done well in other 11th Ward real estate deals under the Daley administration. The Tribune previously reported that they bought contaminated land along the Chicago River for $50,000 in 1998, just before the city sought state funds to buy the property. Six years later, they sold it to the city for a park for $1.2 million.

Crooked as the day is long.

(UPDATE: inadvertently left out the Tribune link - corrected in the top line of text)