Nobody donated legal services to Winick, who chooses his words carefully when talking about the case. He says he feels “victimized by people’s web of conspiracy theories,” and he’s quick to point out that during his career as an architect and urban planner he has worked for a number of nonprofit, public-sector organizations. While in graduate school, for example, he was an intern with Peoples Housing, a low-income housing-development organization based in Rogers Park. “If there’s any thought we were big developers–silk-suit, cigar- chomping guys from downtown–that’s not our background. Knowing who I am and the type of things I’ve been involved in, it was distressing to be thrown on the wrong side of an ‘us versus them’ issue. It was somewhat Felliniesque at times.”
At the time she bought the property, she and the neighborhood association had been trying to buy the next lot, 1440 Warner, for nearly a year. She says she bought the 1446 lot on her own, not on behalf of the GWCA, and she insists the purchase was not part of any land-acquisition master plan. In fact, she says, she bought the lot on impulse–because she got angry when a developer made an intemperate remark about one of her favorite trees. “I was just standing there in front of the lot, and a Century 21 man came by. I asked him, ‘Are you interested in this property?’ He said, ‘Yes, my client will have it by this afternoon.’ So I said, ‘What will your client do?’ And he said they were going to put up town houses. I asked him ‘How much will they sell for?’ He said $325,000 each.
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The case of Bradley W. Winick and Mark Leitson v. Graceland West Community Association, Lois Buenger, and Unknown Owners finally went to trial during the last week of July, in a small courtroom on the 24th floor of the Daley Center. Each side claimed to have a deed to the property at 1440 Warner, and Judge John J. Anthony Scotillo, presiding over a nonjury trial, would have to determine which was the true one. (Winick and Leitson actually had two, so there were three deeds to choose from.)
McGonegle conceded that there wouldn’t be.
Once the Retamals’ house burned down, the neighbors didn’t have to worry about Georgia and “her people” hanging around on the street. But they still had the house itself to contend with, since the Retamals never did anything to take care of the ruined structure. Eventually the city stepped in and demolished what was left of the building. As a result, the city had a lien against the property of about $4,500 for the cost of demolition.
