204 Barack H. Obama: The Unauthorized BiographySenate, was in his district. So was Jones’s building with rats in the walls and Frizzell’s building
that lacked insulation. And a redistricting after the 2000 Census added another 350 Rezmar
apartments to the area represented by Obama. But Obama has contended that he knew nothing
about any problems in Rezmar’s buildings. After Rezko’s assistance in Obama’s home purchase
became a campaign issue, at a time when the developer was awaiting trial in an unrelated
bribery case, Obama told the Chicago Sun-Times that the deterioration of Rezmar’s buildings
never came to his attention. He said he would have distanced himself from Rezko if he had
known. Other local politicians say they knew of the problems.’ (Binyamin Appelbaum, “Grim
proving ground for Obama’s housing policy,” Boston Globe, June 27, 2008)
Obama may have plausible deniability on some other issues, but he certainly has none here.2004: A CECIL BUTLER BUILDING COLLAPSES
Things soon got so bad in the Cecil Butler concessions that the federal government had to step
into the midst of a mushrooming scandal. Given the regulatory laxity of the Bush regime, we can
gauge the horrendous situation that must have been required to get federal authorities to act.
Chicago’s struggles with the deterioration of its subsidized private developments seemed to
reach a new height in 2006, when the federal government foreclosed on Lawndale Restoration,
the city’s largest subsidized-housing complex. City inspectors found more than 1,800 code
violations, including roof leaks, exposed wiring, and pools of sewage. Lawndale Restoration
was a collection of more than 1,200 apartments in 97 buildings spread across 300 blocks of
west Chicago. It was owned by a company controlled by Cecil Butler, a former civil rights
activist who came to be reviled as a slumlord by a younger generation of activists. [...] In 1995,
Butler’s company got a $51 million loan from the state to fund additional renovations at
Lawndale Restoration. In 2000 Butler’s company brought in Habitat Co. to help manage the
complex. Nonetheless, the buildings deteriorated badly. The problems came to public attention
in a dramatic way in 2004, after a sport utility vehicle driven by a suburban woman trying to
buy drugs struck one of the buildings, causing it to collapse. City inspectors arrived in the
ensuing glare, finding a long list of code violations, leading city officials to urge the federal
government to seize the complex.’ (Binyamin Appelbaum, “Grim proving ground for Obama’s
housing policy,” Boston Globe, June 27, 2008)CECIL BUTLER’S VICTIMS RALLY AGAINST OBAMA, 2004
For those who had suffered from the rapacity of the “civil rights” slumlord Cecil Butler, there
was no doubt that Obama bore a major share of responsibility for the tragic decay of these housing
developments. At one point, the public rage was so great that Obama had to face a public
demonstration against his policies in the midst of his campaign to grab his Illinois seat in the U.S.
Senate. ‘In the midst of the uproar, a small group of Lawndale residents gathered to rally against the
Democratic candidate for the US Senate, Barack Obama. Obama’s Republican opponent, Alan
Keyes, trailed badly in the polls and was not seen as a serious challenger. But the organizers had a
simple message: Cecil Butler had donated $3,000 to Obama’s campaign. Habitat had close ties to
Obama. And Obama had remained silent about Lawndale’s plight. Paul Johnson, who helped to
organize the protest, said Obama must have known about the problems. “How didn’t he know?”
said Johnson. “Of course he knew. He just didn’t care.”’ (Binyamin Appelbaum, “Grim proving
ground for Obama’s housing policy,” Boston Globe, June 27, 2008)