Elevator inspections on slow track in Chicago

Time after time, government fails in performance, and always blames budget cuts and short staffing..........

So, how then do they reconcile that consistent whine with the ever-increasing government budgets and taxes?

No news here.
I know of an elevator in River North that has been out of service 100 times in the past 12 years. Of course people have been stuck in it.
It was last inspected in 1996.
Chicago has become a joke.

The current national standard for elevators and inspections is the ASME A17.1 Safety Code for Elevators and Escalators. They recommend inspections every six months with testing of major safety devices every year and every 5 years.

Chicago is an embarrassment and an accident waiting to happen.

The same day the Tribune talks about elevators not being inspected the city is going to tell employees to take 16 days off. How does this help catch up on inspections?

Wny hire actual inspectors? The Building Department is a hack heaven for the connected at inflated salaries. Dan Allen who is Chief Electrical Inspector for instance is related to Alderman Tom Allen. Wouldn't you expect that the Chief Electrical Inspector would have served an apprenticeship in electrical work? Dan Allen didn't.
Who needs qualifications. The PAC donations that were lavished on Tom Allen during his unsuccessful run for State's Attorney by the International Brotherhood of Electrical Worker's were in part to ensure a friendly inspection department toward insider contractors.
The department is very short staffed on elevator inspectors, sign inspectors and others as well. For the lack of inspectors, there is an abundance of dunces in the offices practicing their air golf swing at inflated salaries.

The City Department of Buildings has about 200 employees,and 50 of them are Management. Supervisors never go into the field and make inspections,they stay in the office and do paper work. The reporting of code violations,is done by an inefficient system called Hansen. The City thats works.

Is the city and Mayor Daley going to wait until we have a major event such as they did with the porch collapse a few years ago

No excuse for allowing safety related issues to develop!!!

Spend some of the olympic money on the people that live here on a daily basis

This should be equated to a bad intersection that is in dire need of a traffic light. Government will NOT put a light at that intersection until somebody is KILLED ! Which is a sad state of affairs. The riding public deserves better. To me this is a major violation of "Public Trust".

Oh please, the Mayor's pet projects are getting done on time, why complain?
I bet the elevator buildings in the Mayor's olympic bid get inspected on time.

Perhaps the city should institute a program similar to the ones for a buildings facade, where buildings eight stories and higher must hire their own regular inspections by qualified persons. I am sure the elevator companies could pick up much of the slack.

I hope no one is concerned. After all, our mayor has been very busy planning games. You can't expect him to take time from his busy schedule of pyramid building to handle mundane things like making sure the elevators don't fall.

Wait! Donna Dunnings is available, And Tony Cole could be! Or how about this,-- the mayor's relatives form a company to provide elevator inspectors on a contract basis for the next 100 years? This is really getting good!

The Machine is going down wrote:

No news here.
I know of an elevator in River North that has been out of service 100 times in the past 12 years. Of course people have been stuck in it.
It was last inspected in 1996.
Chicago has become a joke.

Ummmm NO people like you are. This kind of stuff happens everywhere. The Only difference is that this city has alot more to offer than most cities. Of Course there are the 10-15 of you that hate Daley so much every thing that happens here its either "this city suck" Or.... "Daley Sucks" or both. I have had to live in so many big cities because of my former job and there is no Big City CLOSE to as nice all around than Chicago is. My suggestion to you is...... Move to a farming community or a small, small town so there wont be 3 million people and hundreds of thousand structures and thousands of miles of roads etc etc to work on and keep up. They do a damn good job of it here.

And before some Daley hater says it, No i dont work for the city. Just glad to be back home after living in LA, NYC, Houston,Tampa,Boston,Tahoe and Sraino ooops i mean Rweno.

I meant Draino i mean reno.

Here's another example of Daley's 'crew' letting the people of Chicago down.

I have noticed this as well. Especially at 820 W Jackson bearing 2006 certificates from another buiding. I worked there for a year and we were constantly going on "joy rides". Most elevators in the city of chicago do. Another building is 1725 W Harrison Elevator three. You have to jump a foot off that one! The story is correct some one will be in the "ER" before the city does anything. Maybe Strogers cousin can rehired do that.

Maybe Daley can just sell all the city elevators to the highest bidder for quick cash and forget about the maintenence entirely.

So these inspectors can do like 2 elevators apiece? This is a simple fix. Pass a law that states the buildings must provide the city with an annual inspection report from a licensed elevator maintenance company. Essentially this is farming the work out. But make the buildings responsible for the costs. THose things should likely be serviced regularly anyway, so this should not increase the cost to the buildings much, if at all. Plus it creates JOBS!

If every inspector takes 6 weeks off yearly, that leaves 46 weeks for 550 inspections per inspector. That is barely 2 inspections per day.
The actual inspectors are more likely to be qualified as someone's relative with little or no knowledge of elevators. Chicago is a crime enterprise.

Why am i not surprised. I guess because this is the way Chicago operates. "The city that works" Richie has no shame.

What a joke!

Ol Sparky wrote:

Wny hire actual inspectors? The Building Department is a hack heaven for the connected at inflated salaries. Dan Allen who is Chief Electrical Inspector for instance is related to Alderman Tom Allen. Wouldn't you expect that the Chief Electrical Inspector would have served an apprenticeship in electrical work? Dan Allen didn't.
Who needs qualifications. The PAC donations that were lavished on Tom Allen during his unsuccessful run for State's Attorney by the International Brotherhood of Electrical Worker's were in part to ensure a friendly inspection department toward insider contractors.
The department is very short staffed on elevator inspectors, sign inspectors and others as well. For the lack of inspectors, there is an abundance of dunces in the offices practicing their air golf swing at inflated salaries.

Brought to you by Lou Carlozo, laid off Tribune writer! Lee Ann is one of my mentorees and I pitched this story months ago to Tribune's page one team. The wheels grind slowly, I see.

My new Recession Diaries blog--the same one that the Tribune suspended two weeks ago when I was laid off--is now on AOL.com . You can find it here.

Building owners are responsible for the proper maintenance and operation of the elevators within their building.
The City of Chicago inspectors inspections are to verify that the owners are maintaining their elevators and the elevastors are operating correctly to ensure public safety.