But the landlord told the Sun-Times he is being falsely accused. Carlson claimed a witness saw the brewery burning before the fire spread to all four floors of his apartment building.
“It’s all about a landlord being guilty until they prove themselves innocent, right?” Carlson said. “As a landlord in the city of Chicago, guilty until you prove yourself innocent instead of the opposite way around. Thou shalt not bear false witness against your neighbor.”
Carlson said he got a message from the daughter of a tenant saying “she saw the Hippo, Hippo whatever it is, burning. And then the fire spread to my building, not the other way around. That’s it.”
He added that the brewery “had the highly flammable materials in there. I don’t blame anybody. But why are they blaming me?”
I feel you. I live in a good place but the anxiety over all this shit around me I can’t control or do anything more than say please. The walls aren’t mine, hell any fixes may count against me. I have no say in trying to get my neighbors to stop fighting at 2 in the morning aside from yelling at them.
I get why people move out to the countryside and live off the grid, as at least that way, it’s between you and luck/god regarding bad shit moving forwards.
The only real way to legally fight back against landlords is knowing their finances and where they live, and organizing your neighbors which is hard, especially in buildings with faster turnover.
I don’t know what options are left outside of violence to deal with the landlords.