Sick Building
- Mayor Rahm Emanuel has been ordered to take “immediate corrective action” to remedy serious safety violations endangering police trainees at a shuttered North Side school used as an auxiliary training site.
The demand from Illinois Occupational Safety and Health Administration Director Ben Noven stems from a July 12 complaint filed by Fernando Flores, a Chicago police officer assigned to O’Hare International Airport. Flores also serves as a Fraternal Order of Police trustee.
Flores alleged that the building at 1450 N. Larabee St. — formerly the Near North Career Metropolitan High School — has inadequate ventilation, temperatures exceeding 100 degrees, roach and rodent infestations and high levels of lead and asbestos.
The following day, Noven fired off a letter to Emanuel that was obtained by the Chicago Sun-Times.
OSHA isn't coming out of course - they just "demand" that Rahm fix everything his inspectors find. We'll bet that happens almost instantly!
This is one of the "sickest" buildings in the entire system and it's shameful that they actually use it for training. The air is dead and stale - no movement whatsoever - and we doubt there's any sort of functioning ventilation. When we went through, there were portable wheeled air conditioners in the rooms and a few hundred feet of hose to vent exhaust out a hole in the wall. It was a very pleasant 85 degrees outside that day.....and about 98 inside. The staff helpfully provided free water bottles since you'd have to be insane to try drinking from a water fountain in the building. The bathrooms flooded three and four times a day. The cockroaches and water bugs are at least as big as potato chips.
The staff mentioned the building is scheduled for demolition this year and the clouds of asbestos-laden dust should be a welcome addition to the neighborhood. Perhaps a few hundred IOD reports for exposure would grant the police victims class-action status?
This is one of the "sickest" buildings in the entire system and it's shameful that they actually use it for training. The air is dead and stale - no movement whatsoever - and we doubt there's any sort of functioning ventilation. When we went through, there were portable wheeled air conditioners in the rooms and a few hundred feet of hose to vent exhaust out a hole in the wall. It was a very pleasant 85 degrees outside that day.....and about 98 inside. The staff helpfully provided free water bottles since you'd have to be insane to try drinking from a water fountain in the building. The bathrooms flooded three and four times a day. The cockroaches and water bugs are at least as big as potato chips.
The staff mentioned the building is scheduled for demolition this year and the clouds of asbestos-laden dust should be a welcome addition to the neighborhood. Perhaps a few hundred IOD reports for exposure would grant the police victims class-action status?
Labels: safety issues
posted by SCC at 12:04 AM
57 Comments:
Talk about a hostile work environment:
document your days & hours, supervisors,
building location, last health dept. inspection.
Demolition is no excuse for inhuman working conditions.
Stagnant water: Legionella
Asbestos: lung cancer, COPD
Lead: heavy metal poisoning; early onset dementia;
damage to sperm & eggs
(the inmates at CC Jail have better conditions)
Rahm knew the building was unsafe but did nothing. Just another example of hi shirking his responsibility to keep the officers safe. He'll deny that he knew the place was dangerous just like he denied having seen the Laquon Macdonald shooting video before the public did.
I always enjoyed the zen water feature in the classroom which consisted of roof rain water dripping through the ceiling tiles into a giant garbage can. Ahhhhh so peaceful.
The entire bottom half of the building also floods. Big argument over last several years as to who was going to get it to sell. CPS or the Coty? The problem was that the building isn’t really the property of the city or CPS either as it was part of the projects. Mayor’s legal team looking into it for his entire term now. Fucking morons.
This Flores guy I’m starting to dig. He’s got balls of steal for filing a second complaint afternRyan shutdown.
Fuck you Rahm!
Why would anyone do repairs in that building? Solution: stick a bunch of dynamite throughout that building and then boom! Problem solved.
Fun Fact: Near North H.S. was the replacement school for Coolie High which was nearby.
That land is worth a fortune. Rahm will sell it for a $1 for a campaign contribution.
You want to know how predictable Rham is? Just think to yourself how would someone scam their way out of “discovering” what is known to have existed for years? The answer of course is to avoid doing anything and shutting down the building permanently before the deadline is met. If there was ever going to be a through investigation of the place, there’s a liability issue for the city waiting to be exposed
What I think is more troubling is all those house mouses for, what, 15+ years have known the dangers of this place and subjected themselves and everything walking through to it. Why wait until 3-4 months before it’s going to be demolished to issue a formal complaint? The answer is those officers were afraid of losing their inside spot. They’d rather make unlimited OT, be under no supervision, and have basically a two day work week. It’s worth the possibility of future health problems, they thought.
I’ll never forget this one instructor for TTU at Near North. He was going on for days about all the dangers of the building and said, “we’ve been complaining for years but the city and state aren’t listening. Well, unknown to him one of our classmates was married to an employee at OHSA, and after looking into it says not ONE formal complaint had been registered by someone working there. They needed an employee to speak of the day to day conditions and what they’ve observed, but surprise surprise; no one came forward until now; months before demolition. Cowards.
And how many OSHA complaints about the known
and notorious cancer cluster/upper respiratory
ailment cluster Chicago Police stations have
been deliberately stonewalled over the years?
A BUNCH of Policemen have been poisoned and
killed by these toxic places and yet NOTHING
has been done by THE CITY to correct or mitigate
the ongoing conditions.
Just a few that we know of personally:
011, old 012, old 013,
old 006, old 007, 019 West...
Shortshanks and Rahm al-Ghoul
should be sharing a prison cell
over this shit.
This video doesn't do it justice!!! The place was FILLED with an orange color smoke shortly after, sparks flying.... It's a great building.
https://streamable.com/zucro
Another Hall of the Clouted. The air may be poisoned but they still climb over each other to get a Mon thru Fri. spot there and the fuck off the street.
One of two are even qualified.
Wow, and Garry McCarthy told Dick Kay on WCPT that building a new academy for training is a waste of money. He said “the police have plenty of quality off sites throughout the city that can be used for training”.
All Officers Forced to take Forced Mitigation training at Near North HS please document the days you went in class action law suit
Why doesn’t Flores run for FOP president? Nice to see a guy there have a set
Rahm won’t put 1 cent into the building. He’d rather tear it down and pocket a couple million from one of his Gold Coast developer friends.
Wake up !!!!!
Rahm only allowed this to be reported in order to push the {money making for him and his cabal} New academy agenda.
Never let a crisis go to waste …...
That place is facking dump, l used to work nearby it, did not know it was still being used. Unfackingbeliveable! Good riddance.
City needs to be classactioned sued by officers trained there.
Reopen the swimming pool and cool off.
Mesothelioma High School
Add 025 to that list, the place is a toxic dump.
Keep the old academy as the off site training facility once the new academy gets built (if ever built). Knock down and sell Near Nortb location, We know this won’t happen as the land for the academy is worth a ton of money.
Training should be immediately canceled in that building. If not officers scheduled to go there for force midigation training should refuse to go there
they are doing the mandatory fore mitigation training there. The dept will soon come out and praise on how good they did reforming its officers in this bullshit training while failing to tell the truth about it. How many officers are really going to gain any real training there. They sit in a hostile condition just waiting to get the fuck out of there. but don't worry the dept will say you are trained though. meanwhile all you really learned was how the dept really don't care about its officers well being both physically nor mentally
Our Chernobyl..
Anonymous said...
This video doesn't do it justice!!! The place was FILLED with an orange color smoke shortly after, sparks flying.... It's a great building.
https://streamable.com/zucro
I remember that day. The bearings from the unit began raining down then there was a loud thump which then started the orange smoke filling the gym. Good thing that was gas mask training day on the bikes!
That place was horrible! Yes, there was flooding but it was contained to a room and hallway and it came from the pool. Yes the roaches are a huge problem but at least it wasn’t mice or rats. Summer time the heat gets into the 100s and winters you wear a jacket. The place should have been knocked down decades ago!
The best part is that Rahm came there for many press releases, mostly for when we trained recruits for Impact Zone cycling. Every time he was to show up a week prior to the visit city services would show up and clean inside and out anywhere Rahm may walk. That was the only time that building got cleaned!
Reading the article “google-me” made it sound like SWAT guys were the only ones training there. Yes, for the most part TTU is the mainstay but they teach more than SWAT guys. We used that building 8 years on bikes but at least 4 of those hours a day were outside on rides.
Who I feel bad for is the instructors at Force Mitigation. I recently took the class there and the first day in the old TARA room was unbearable. From what I understand, for over a year their sergeant has been requesting better working conditions but not much has happened until last week. Hope this is true, sitting in that room all day was miserable (one of the instructors said the temperature was 102 degrees in the room that day).
My question is why something wasn’t done after the first participant passed out during training? Did they really need three more before something was said? Or maybe something was said each time and the big bosses refused to fix the problem?
When I came on the academy was on O’Brien street. The only thing different was the noise from the Dan Ryan.
The range at Solder’s Field was also a delight.
Can’t believe it took legal action for him to fix a building that everybody knew was falling apart and dangerous since the creation of police training there
If the condition of that Sidewalk in the photo is any indication of how the interior of the building is, that 'thing' should be bulldozed ... yesterday. And it's a new building, relatively speaking.
What the hell, doesn't anyone know how to do anything properly any more (that's rhetorical).
The world is full of fucking imbeciles today. We've found that 'Professional Installation' only means that the person doing the installation gets paid for what they're doing, not that they know what the fuck they're doing.
That's today's 'Professional', incompetents. The result of a 'Everyone Gets A Trophy' society. So once again, thanks for nothing liberals.
(It's all shits & giggles, until someone dies)
"as big as potato chips."
You have a way with words. Well said.
Condemned for the chiltren but good enough for police operations.
That’s some sweet property value just waiting for the Right Deal for the Right Time™️.
I wonder what developer reneged on the land deal, why it’s been undeveloped sooooooo long or is there a package deal with the proposed new Public Service Training Academy?
Bundle those purposely neglected city properties for the most profit Rahm - but it looks like your timing is bad, re-election wise.
Didn’t ShortShanks professionals at Davis-Vanecko teach you anything about sell low, collect high upfront, re-inflate the value and get out?
Been years since I was there but didn’t they refuse to drain the pool...cesspool?
And the toilets that didn’t flush?
And what about the lead in the water?
Asbestos floor tile?
For the record, 025 was only slightly better because there wasn’t a swimming pool but a dark, ominous and dreaded shower, but ask 011 and they’d gladly find it an improvement over their building.
Thank god I was only in there for a few training sessions. MFF training was probably the longest. I feel for the guys that were assigned there. The city could care less about their employees. I bet city hall is free of these conditions?
Another plot of land for Lincoln Yards and Sterling.
@01:29:00 AM.
Amen to that. Remember 35th & Normal and how disgusting that place was?
RIP 🙏🏼 to the many who passed away from cancer from working in and around all of the contaminated buildings including the old 11th & State.
So what's the latest on the Cancer Cluster study by the University of Chicago for the areas of Mt. Greenwood, Beverly, Oak Lawn etc.?
Yet there is still force mitigation training scheduled there, WTF!
The former Sieben brewery site.
The staff helpfully provided free water bottles since you'd have to be insane to try drinking from a water fountain in the building. The bathrooms flooded three and four times a day. The cockroaches and water bugs are at least as big as potato chips.
The free bottled water had been expired for about five years and it was discolored, staffer drank it and said it was safe, R.I.P...
Again I encourage you to question Indoor Air Quality conditions at the firing ranges - Academy, Grand/Central, 111th/Calumet, Belmont/Western, 51st/Wentworth (if they're still active). You'll want to see the certified results of any air monitoring/testing, do not just take CPD/Bonnie A's word for it; also hammer on 2FM Bldg Engineers and their bureau's upper management. Find out how often the vent system filters are changed and how it's done (requires full moon suit w/respirator).
Asbestos exposure,drinking dirty water,respiratory problems,cancer sometimes linger and pop up suddenly and before you know it your off the job and no health care as vicious,lying,thieving rahm took away retirees health care! This clown just keeps collecting millions in payoffs for putting this city further into the hole!
Anonymous Anonymous said...
And how many OSHA complaints about the known
and notorious cancer cluster/upper respiratory
ailment cluster Chicago Police stations have
been deliberately stonewalled over the years?
A BUNCH of Policemen have been poisoned and
killed by these toxic places and yet NOTHING
has been done by THE CITY to correct or mitigate
the ongoing conditions.
Just a few that we know of personally:
011, old 012, old 013,
old 006, old 007, 019 West...
Shortshanks and Rahm al-Ghoul
should be sharing a prison cell
over this shit.
7/24/2018 01:29:00 AM
Dont forget the old 008 and the current 001 all the cancer cases from being built on an old containment junkyard! they are going to build the new academy on land that is deemed uninhabitable due to ground contamination!
(OT) You have to admit this story is hilarious he crossed the line went to DuPage County to rob the gas station not in crook county and He gets 21 years sentence for armed robbery if he was in crook county he would’ve got an ankle bracelet for maybe a week and then he would’ve did whatever he wanted to do at least in DuPage County they still honor the rule of law;
Willowbrook man sentenced for Darien gas station robbery
http://www.chicagotribune.com/suburbs/burr-ridge/news/ct-dbr-darien-robbery-sentence-tl-0726-story.html
Awww, come on SCC! Ole Rahm is just trying to give you guys the full on-street, in the ghetto hellhole, experience BEFORE you encounter that nonsense up close and personal.
It's realism at it's finest. You can trust the 9.5 Digit Midget to have your best interests at heart....
LOL
This building should have never been used by CPD unless a full renovation was completed. Its a run down smelly neglected high school. The mayor talking about fixing infrastructure all the time but does a horrible job of maintaining city buildings period. Why build anything new when you don't properly maintain it after its built. Its not only Near North look at the terrible work done on the newer police stations. Where is all our tax dollars going?!!!!!
Makes O'Brien St. look like the Taj Mahal.
Since it is apparently scheduled for demolition, remove, even by breaking, all windows above, say, 16' higher than ground level. All windows. Offer salvage to anyone who proves capability to complete task in a professional manner. That's the pay, the salvage.
No takers? Volunteers to bust them all out from the inside. Street sweepers and truck vacuums clear the debris. Bet there will be plenty of volunteers.
Don’t know if it’s still there but at the Academy By the double doors to the atrium) along the wall of the Deputy’s office, just before the windows of the duty desk. Look up toward the second floor out side the window. There’s a huge rusted c clamp holding it all together. And in the warmer weather mold grows on the floors.
They have throw in Chicago police officers into this pit of disease, scum, contamination of the highest degree, but yet it was not good enough for the children in school because of all of the problems but then they say it’s great for the police officers! How many of the police officers that are stuck working in this shit hole have developed medical Problems, or in the future will lose their good health, and the city already removed retiree health-care the mayor basically says along with the alderman sorry for the Vulgarity Fuck the police! Do you like your officials are just like the black lives matter crew and other cruise who are against the police, they say fuck the police just like Laurie Lightfoot and goofy Sharon dead putting cases and police officers pathetic sickening and criminal!
This freaken old high school building should have been knocked down many year's ago. This freaken building is not even suited for any training. Unfunctionable washrooms, no air conditioning, no windows for fresh air supply, and unsanitary rooms and enclosures .
That building should have been never used and demolished. They used it to stabilize the area with extra police in the area. The excuse to build a new police academy is weak. We can’t afford it and Rahm wants to reward his friends. How about use a different abandon school.
Fernando Flores should run for FOP president. He’s accomplished a lot more than Squire Graham has. He’s got my vote.
Everybody chimes in but NO ONE in our "union" or ranks has the balls to do what needs to be done which is EVERYONE forced to go to "Force Mitigation" have the exact same symptoms on the exact same weekend(preferably around JVD Verdict). The city council has 0 respect for us, the "community" has no need for us and we have no more stomach for either of them. NOW is the time to force the city to negotiate our contract and abandon the "Consent Decree" and provide us a fair contract, and force the city to stop us from training in a bldg worse than a housing project in China.
For years officers have been told to keep their mouths shut about obvious OSHA violations. The 011th District is a glaring example. A major fire, but yet we were only out of the building for about 10 days. And what did the city do? Slap a coat of paint over the soot. Just look at the vents!! The same black shit was STILL THERE when we got back!!!
Dont worry...Graham is out after hit term expires!
The FOP should be visiting all roll calls and getting a list of names who have been at the High School (for training) and use the FOP lawyers to file a class action lawsuit. Or should we call Levy and Levy?
The FOP needs to take their lawyers for a walk through and see just how bad the conditions are then the FOP lawyers need to subpoena-get OSHA to show up and evaluate the building. I can almost guarantee that even the OSHA people would join in on the lawsuit after walking through that shit hole. Call channel 7 I- Team and show the public on just how bad our training really is and the poor conditions we are forced to do training in. Sadly enough after your retirement this city will still be affecting our health...that building has doomed us for life. WAKE THE FUCK UP GRAHAM!
How about the academy? I don’t know if anything was done to address the mold problem but few years back mold was growing everywhere in plain sight. I remember one instructor left few drops of coffee in his cup over night and the next morning the cup was overtaken by mold.
You should see the Cook County Sheriffs firearms staff offices basement in Maywood. Blackmold. Horrible air quality. 3 Officers have died of cancer from being assigned through the years.
Anonymous Anonymous said...
The FOP needs to take their lawyers for a walk through and see just how bad the conditions are then the FOP lawyers need to subpoena-get OSHA to show up and evaluate the building. I can almost guarantee that even the OSHA people would join in on the lawsuit after walking through that shit hole. Call channel 7 I- Team and show the public on just how bad our training really is and the poor conditions we are forced to do training in. Sadly enough after your retirement this city will still be affecting our health...that building has doomed us for life. WAKE THE FUCK UP GRAHAM!
7/25/2018 08:17:00 AM
Here are a few points to look at. The bathroom with crime scene tape at the bottom of the ramp outside the gym. The entire area of the locker room and shower area and kitchen are behind the gym. Human feces blocked in the toilets that’s dried up for years. Toilets all dried up with no water which then allows for the toxic sewer gas and bapors to make I past the traps. No functioning electricity in many of those areAs which are still areas used for “training”. No AC. The gym ceiling and pipes in back area are all asbestos wrapped and the wrap is cracked and hangin down off the pipes which means it is airborne in the building if it’s cracked or open then the asbestos is exposed. Water fountains that are non functioning. Dust and grime everywhere because of no maintainace
Years back I got sick and tired of not having air conditioning in one specific district I worked in. The city repair guy came there maybe 3 consecutive years during the summer pretending to fix the problem and the answer always was “oh we need to order a new part”. It took the whole summer to wait for the part and by the time September rolled around the repair guy said “well, it’s gonna get cool again so there’s no need to repair the air it’s gonns get cool soon”. Three years in a row we went thru this bs. I finally asked the unit rep to file a grievance and he warned me that if I do file a grievance the department is going to retaliate against me. I did it anyway. I was wondering who would not like air conditioning when it’s 100 degrees outside. Just to show how we are intimitated by our own rank and file not to stir the pot. Sad
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