49th Ward Alderman Joe Moore is well known for taking contributions from extremely questionable sources, notably from Jay Johnson, the notorious slumlord, among many other slum owners and disreputable developers.
However, even some of the most corrupt pols might hesitate to associate themselves with a convicted arsonist. Go to http://www.geocities.com/ward49_mudzapper/tribute2strangeBedfellows.html for the story on Ivan Buljubasic, who contributed $2,500 to Moore's campaign for re-election in 2003. The author of the site, "Chicago's Ward 49 Mudzappers", who goes by the initials J.R., went on to say that, in his words:
" One of the more intriguing entries on Mr. Moore's donor list was that of Ivan Buljubasic, listed at 1705 Jonquil Terrace; he sent the alderman a check for $2500.00 on June 19 of this year. That's a pretty good chunk of change for an aldermanic campaign, don't you think? What makes Mr. Buljubasic particularly interesting is that he was convicted in federal court several years ago of arson and associated mail fraud and was sent away to a federal pokey for a 30-plus-year sabbatical at the government's (actually yours and my) expense. Specifically, Mr. Buljubasic was accused, tried, and convicted of torching one of his own rental buildings. Now that, I'm sure you would agree, is NOT a nice landlord. See http://www.usdoj.gov/osg/briefs/1986/sg860016.txt The question that comes to my mind is this: why is this man who was convicted of burning down a rental building he managed permitted to continue operating as a residential property manager in the city of Chicago? The only answer I can think of is that there is no legislation on the books that would prohibit him from doing so. "
The contributor referred to in the quote from Mudzappers in only one of many unsavory landlords and developers that have made massive contributions to Joe Moore, and have been permitted to operate as they please with no obstruction, while a desirable business like Island Groove is denied the right to operate. Could there be any connection between their failure to obtain their license, even though they had the blessings of most of the local citizens; and their failure to make a contribution to Moore's campaign coffers?
15 comments:
Excellent reporting! I've linked to your story on my site, and like your site so much I'm putting The North Coast on my blogroll. Thank you!!!
Excellent reporting? If you've been under a rock of 4 years. This story is sooooo old, it was on the old forum 49 in 2003.
FYI: Mudzapper is Dave Lawerence, who doesn't even live in the neighborhood anymore.
Plus, this didn't effect the 2003 election, so I doubt it's going to make a impact this time around.
It's no wonder tomblogger #2 has 2 to 10 readers a day.
Tomblogger #2 - here's some breaking news.
http://www.eaa.org/communications/eaanews/030709_meigs2.html
Craig, sweetie, I know how old this story is, and I read it years ago.
However I published it because most people in this ward are new to the ward and have no idea how Joe really is.
Many, many old stories about politicians, local and national, need to be retold now and then. Look at all the Holocaust deniers.
I want people to remember Joe's real record.
By the way, Craig, you are a Class A hypocrite on your own blog. Since this is MY blog, I can tell you that I find it incredible that you can rip Don Gordon's young daughter to shreds over a tacky youth party, yet forbid anyone to point out the nepotism in the Chicago Chamber of Commerce, in that Chris Adam's wife works there and he gets endorsed by the Chamber.
Do you really think that this is not nepotism at work, Craig? Are you really so blind you see no connection between that endorsement and the fact that Adam's wife has a managerial position there/
I guess you also don't see any connection between Toddy Stroger's position and his cousin's being given a peachy six-figure job with Cook County. I guess you figure she got it on merit and that it would be bad-mannered to criticize her.
Tomblogger, thanks for the kind thought. I've linked your site to mine, also.
Includes background on Buljubasic's arson scheme:
IVAN BULJUBASIC, PETITIONER V. UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
No. 86-1608
In the Supreme Court of the United States
October Term, 1986
It's not an old story. it's an on-going story.
Ivan and Dila Buljubasic to Citizens for Joe Moore
$1,000.00 1/11/2007
$1,000.00 on 11/18/2005
$1,000.00 on 1/21/2005
$1,000.00 on 8/19/2004
$1,000.00 on 7/24/2003
$1,000.00 on 1/21/2003
$2,500.00 on 6/19/2002
Ivan J. B. General Construction to Citizens for Joe Moore
1646 W Juneway
$2,500.00 on 1/18/2001
$500.00 on 3/14/2000
$1,000.00 on 11/18/1999
And
$1,500.00 1/18/2004 to Democratic Party of the 49th Ward
Moore did a zoning change for a Buljubasic building to permit liquor.
An ordinance (Application Number 14024) changing the zoning of the southwest corner of Paulina and Jonquil from B3-3 to B4-3 was introduced to the City Council at their 7/9/03 meeting, and referred to the Zoning Committee (see the Journal of Proceedings, page 3266):
http://council.forum49.org/Journal-2003-07-09-001.pdf#page=46
The zoning change was applied for under the name "LaSalle National Bank, as trustee under Trust Number 121974" to keep Moore's and Buljubasic's names off of it.
The Zoning Committee, of which Alderman Moore is a member, passed the ordinance at their 8/12/03 meeting.
At their 9/4/03 meeting, the City Council passed the ordinance (see the Journal of Proceedings, pages 7371 and 7372):
http://council.forum49.org/Journal-2003-09-04-014.pdf#page=30
The ordinance was passed unanimously by the City Council, including Alderman Moore (see the Journal of Proceedings, pages 7352 and 7353).
http://council.forum49.org/Journal-2003-09-04-014.pdf#page=11
B4-3 permits many more uses than B3-3. Among the uses permitted by the new zoning B4-3, not permitted by the old zoning B3-3, are:
"Restaurants, including live entertainment and dancing. ... Liquor may be served ... "
Thank you for all your information, Hugh.
Old stories never die in this ward, or in this world, and we can see that accepting money from someone convicted of serious crimes is no accidental slip on Moore's part.
The simple fact seems to be that the Mooron seems most comfortable dealing with slumlords and arsonists.
I find these accusations to be appalling against Ivan Buljubasic. So he gave Moore a bigger donation, if he is able to donate, why not? If you really want to know the man, ask his tenants who have lived in his building for YEARS, ask about his persistence to be on the premises of his buildings on a daily basis. Whether it is someone locked out of their apartment, or any other situation that may arise in the everyday maintenance of a building, Ivan Buljubasic is THERE IN THE FLESH for his tenants. Thank you Ivan Buljubasic, on behalf of the Rogers Park community whom appreciates the clean, maintained, management on premises from open to close, and conveniently located Laundromat.
First of all, I've lived in the neighborhood since i was born, and ivan's buildings were always the cleanest ones on the block. You never see people loitering around the building. I never felt unsafe living in his buildings. What happened to the building that burnt down.. happened almost 30 years ago and obviously, he's not in prison, so what does that say? People are wrongfully accused all the time. For example, just this week, a Chicagoan was just released after serving 20 years. 20 years of his life were wasted because he was wrongfully accused. if you really want to throw the stone, go ahead! Ivan is a good man and he's done so much for that neighborhood. His donations are nobody's busness but his and Moore's. You just wish you had a man like Ivan on your side?
I have known Dela and John for many years. The arson fire was part of an extortion concocted by Mike Pavlovic. John was 28 years old at the time. If you look at the records, you will see that it was John who tried to get people out of the fire.
Dela and John have long been champions of getting drug dealing and other criminal activity out of the north of Howard community. At great financial risk, they took over one of the buildings at the corner of Jonquil and Paulina that had long been a cancer in the community. They got rid of the corner store that was selling drugs. They put in a much needed laundromat, which is closely monitored for illegal activity.
If you notice, it has been a number of years since Dela and John have made political contributions. I think it is harmful to drag up old information without checking out what has happened in the intervening years.
Dela and John are assets to the north of Howard community.
Karen Hoover
In reply to the last three comments on here, the record speaks for itself.
To the person who calls himself or herself "Karen Hoover", I don't for one minute believe that you are the real Karen Hoover that I and other citizens of RP know, and you are wrong when you state that this is "old information" and that this guy has not contributed money recently. He did so in January of this year.
To the two anonymous posters, I have nothing to say, except that I notice you don't identify yourselves.
The record is the record, folks. As for the arson conviction being "old information", well, if the fire had resulted in fatalities and resulted in a murder conviction, would that be just old, irrelavent information, too?
In reply to the last three comments on here, the record speaks for itself.
To the person who calls himself or herself "Karen Hoover", I don't for one minute believe that you are the real Karen Hoover that I and other citizens of RP know, and you are wrong when you state that this is "old information" and that this guy has not contributed money recently. He did so in January of this year.
To the two anonymous posters, I have nothing to say, except that I notice you don't identify yourselves.
The record is the record, folks. As for the arson conviction being "old information", well, if the fire had resulted in fatalities and resulted in a murder conviction, would that be just old, irrelavent information, too?
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