Quote:
Originally Posted by UPChicago
Look, I'm not excusing him knocking the house down without a permit, that was sleazy and wrong. I think the fine is fair and I am a "freemarketeers" as you say. I work in zoning ordinance enforcement and people do these things (work without a permit) every single day, on purpose or by accident. Most people don't get caught for years down the line.
If the fine should be $750,000 + jail time for this offender, then it should be the same for each offender even those who may have offended by mistake. I would be more agreeable to the public outrage if it just centered on him doing work without a permit and not just because it was some charming little house. If it were a 70's suburban house with vinyl siding no one would even be discussing this right now and they would be outraged he had to paid $7,500.
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How many demolitions of entire structures without permits have we had recently? There's no reason why there shouldn't/couldn't be massive differences in fines and introduction of other criminal penalties for demolishing a structure - as opposed to, say, a minor alteration without proper permits.