Street Vendors or How to Get Killed in Chicago

[Greg Stevens]

Have you heard these two stories??

A roaming street vendor selling corn...CORN...was killed the other day because he scolded a kid who did something wrong. The kid goes and gets two older kids and beat the guy to death w/ baseball bats!!



Then an ice cream vendor got whacked for something equally as stupid the other day. Man, it's tough out there...but sheesh!

Crazy people...and I live here!

[ChiS2K]

Hey there's no messin' around in CHI-TOWN!!!!

+ + = My kinda town!

BTW...think i'm going to stay away from the Taste this year. I thought Milwaukee's summerfest would be better but it's way too crowded too. I couldn't even see the concert I went up there to see.....the band shell area was so packed!

[Yellow Streak]

Wasn't the football game hazing in your neck of the woods too?

-YS

[WestSideBilly]

The hazing incident was out in the 'burbs...

[ChiS2K]

Wow...such a coincidence.....I drove by where that vendor got whacked. Not a good neighborhood. It was on the south side..on Kedzie.

Usually I don't go south but my friend is getting married and it was where the church was (I had to be a witness...some catholic thing).

It's weird though. I'm driving on the south side and I realize how Chicago is SOOOO segregated. Especially south. One minute minute, i'm in a predominately black neighborhood...then the next hispanic...then white. There are definate lines drawn. Unfortunate.

[Greg Stevens]

Laird, I hear ya about Summerfest and similar types of events....TOO BIG! I don't even do Taste, Bluesfest or any of the big festivals any more since I really...REALLY...hate to be in huge crowds with gross sweaty people eating ice-cream-on-a-stick. No thanks...

I hate big crowds...

And yea, it has always struck at how Chicago is 'divided' ... having every little neighborhood for every ethnicity on the planet sounds good, but here it seems that people just migrate to what is familiar rather than experience a different culture. It's really striking how you can go from block to block and see the predominant ethnicity for that area. And only to have it change a few blocks down the road.

I guess the upside is that there is all kinds of great food to be had from every corner of the earth and you know exactly where to go to get it!

[C G]

We can now add this to the How to get killed in Chicago file.

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=578&ncid=578&e=3&u=/nm/20030629/ts_nm/life_porch_dc

By Andrew Stern

CHICAGO (Reuters) - Twelve people died on Sunday in the collapse of a three-story wooden balcony overloaded with party-goers, authorities said.

"There was chaos. People were screaming and crying in the alley" when rescuers arrived, Chicago Fire Commissioner James Joyce said.

Witnesses reported hearing a creaking sound as the overloaded top floor of the wooden structure gave way, crushing people on lower floors into a tangled mass of bloodied bodies and shattered wood.

Survivors of the early morning collapse tried to pull people from the pile, and were soon joined by Fire Department rescuers who used chain saws to cut through to victims trapped at the basement level.

"As they got deeper into the pile of humanity the injuries were more serious," Joyce said.

Many of the more than three-dozen injured suffered broken bones, with 10 listed in critical condition.

Witnesses estimated at least 50 people might have been crammed on the porch when it gave way, Joyce said. "It appears to be a case of too many people in a small space," he said.

One unidentified man, who said he arrived soon after the collapse, told local radio "there were bodies and people everywhere. It was mayhem."

The skeletal railings of the structure, which authorities said appeared to be fairly new, were still standing hours later minus the missing floorboards and staircases.

The accident occurred behind an apartment building in the upscale North Side neighborhood near DePaul University, an area popular among young adults for its numerous nightclubs and bars.

The Cook County Medical Examiner's office said it had received 12 bodies from the accident, both men and women. Most of the dead appeared to have been standing on the second floor.

"The third floor collapsed, taking the second and first floors with it and trapping people underneath," city Emergency Management Director Cortez Kennedy said.

The wooden balconies are a common sight at the rear of Chicago apartment buildings, and collapses can occur as the crudely constructed structures age, sometimes with deadly effect.

The city's building department recently sent out a warning to inspect the structures with the arrival of summer. "Porches are not designed for large parties," the press release said.

"Common sense should prevail at some point," Kennedy said when asked if there were official guidelines.

Sunday's accident was the latest to hit America's third-largest city.

[Greg Stevens]

Oh wow...that sucks. I haven't heard the news yet, but I'm sure it's big news here. What a bummer...

That exact thing seems to happen quite a bit here. I went on a date several years ago with a girl who was injured in a falling balcony accident. Her back was permanently messed up and there were several poor souls killed in that accident, too. I think it's got something to do with the age of the buildings here, but this one said that was a relatively new building. I just can't imagine being out of a balcony with so many people even BEFORE I knew of these accidents. You would never find me out of with more than a couple people.

What a shame...

[C G]

Several years ago I sensed a problem developing and told my friends we needed to get the hell off of a crowded wooden pier at the Pink Pony Pub in Gulf Shores, AL. A few minutes later the pier collapsed injuring a lot of people who were on or under the pier. Alcohol and common sense don’t go together very well.

BTW, remember the coach that had his arm removed by a shark a couple of years ago? He was swimming next to this same pier.

[Greg Stevens]

I've been kind of following the reports and 12 people have died, between the ages of 19 to 30 an 57 people have been injured. Here is a list of the victims...

http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/2003-06-30-porch-victims_x.htm

Having been in Chicago for going on 7 years, this kind of thing seems to happen 'almost' once a year. You would think that people would know better due to all the of the deaths and injuries that have occurred. Not even trying to blame the victims here, but they are estimating that up to 80 people were on each floor's patio. That is completely insane and it's really too bad that common sense didn't prevail here and they would somehow limit or prevent that many people from hanging out on the balconies. That, to me, is very irresponsible. Hopefully this will be the one time that people think about when something similar is about to happen.

I know the area that it happened in...lots of older buildings with wooden porch structures. Very, very sad....

[MugenSS2000]

80 people on each patio?

Darwinism...

[WestSideBilly]

Originally posted by Greg Stevens
...Having been in Chicago for going on 7 years, this kind of thing seems to happen 'almost' once a year. You would think that people would know better due to all the of the deaths and injuries that have occurred...

One would certainly think...

Growing up in Oshkosh, ice fishing on the Winnefox system was quite popular (non-cheeseheads: Winnefox system is Lakes Winnebago, Butte Des Morts, & Poygan and the Fox & Wolf rivers - quite a bit of water, in other words). Every year, without fail, at least one group of idiots decides that ice fishing in late March/early April is a good idea, and ends up adrift in the middle of the lake. Unfortunately, the DNR has the means to rescue them (at the stranded individuals expense, I might add), and they don't get weeded out of the gene pool. Every year. I remember a couple years where people were falling through, and a week later there were still people ice fishing... "it won't happen to me" mentality? I don't know. But common sense is far from common.

[Urmil]

Tally on the porch incident is now 13 people dead.

[WestSideBilly]

Saw the pictures in the paper finally (I was a day behind) - Pretty gruesome looking.

[Greg Stevens]

Yea, so now, that *&@#$)#$ bozo in the mayor's office is going after the guy who built that structure. And they are likely going to sue to get damages. And this now that only hours after the collapse did the REMOVE THE WHOLE STRUCTURE! It's gone...! How in hell can they have an investigation that's worth a crap when they whole thing isn't event there any longer...?!?

Man, why does Dick give me so many reasons to hate him??

And how about the folks who threw the party...shouldn't they be sued for allowing so many people to hang out on the balcony that the builder was so negligent in building!??

ARGHHH!!!!!


And get this...

Guess how many building inspectors there are in Chicago...? Think about it and scroll down.












































THREE!


THREE!!!!!!


What a joke...

The cretins running this city dive into whomever has the deepest pockets, all the while exonerating themselves of any responsibility trying to look like knights in shining armor...!

Boo hiss!!!

And they will nail this builder to the wall, sue him to his last penny when he never even fathomed that this structure was ever even INTENDED to support this many people. Man, this pisses me off...!



just say no to Dick!

[racezx9]

they were having a keger on the back porch. Did anyone mention the fact that some of these people were under age drinkers!!! did the City go after the Party givers for that one !!! That might help prevented some of these parties! Not that I don't feel sorry for the families and the victims, but a keg on the back of a woooden porch, under-aged drinkers and too many people, just sounds like a accident ready to happen. There may be only 3 inspectors, but there are thousands of cops. I'm suprised that more of these thing don't happen more often.

[Greg Stevens]

You're right on...and I'm going to sound like an unsympathetic jerk here, but why should people in their 20's need to have cops tell them there are too many people on that kind of structure. They should have known better. What bugs me is that the buck is being passed here. The City wants to sue everyone involved (except the victims) and yes, at least one of those who died was underage...what about that? Why aren't they going after them?? Now I hear that at least one family is going to file a suit against the builder now.

What a maddening shame this whole thing is. Is there no responsibility placed on those who actually caused the thing to collapse!?? Instead a builder is held to account because the structure that he built couldn't withstand something that it was never intended to withstand?!? That's BUNK!

Too many lawyers with too much time on their hands. This country desperately needs a 'loser pays' system. This is just ridiculous....