The IRE Resource Center is a major research library containing more than 23,250 investigative stories — both print and broadcast. These stories are searchable online or by contacting the Resource Center directly (573-882-3364 or rescntr@ire.org) where a researcher can help you pinpoint what you need. Browse or search the tipsheet section of our library below. Stories are not available for download but can be easily ordered by contacting the Resource Center:
Search results for "demolition" ...
-
Detroit lags on vacant house demolitions
The author investigated the Wayne County Medical Examiner's office and the mayor's office to see how well they were keeping up their promise to demolish vacant homes in the city.
Tags: accountability; city government; mayor; promise; watchdog
-
Tons of Questions
After wildfires destroyed 365 homes in San Diego, the city rushed to enter contracts with two companies to haul away mounds of potentially toxic debris. The Union-Tribune investigated and found that the contractors, A.J. Diani Construction C. of Santa Maria and Watsonville-based Granite Construction Co., claimed to haul far more rubble than privately hired companies did from comparable lots, failed to provide accurate documentation of how many tons they removed and billed the city millions more than stated in their contracts.
Tags: contractors; natural disasters; restoration; fraud; overcharging; demolition permit applications
-
NOAH Housing Program Investigation
WWL-TV's 50 part investigation into a non-profit City of New Orleans agency revealed a post-Hurricane Katrina house gutting program designed for the poor and elderly may have been a scheme to funnel money to contractors. The investigation showed homes the non-profit claimed to have gutted using federal dollars, but the work was never done. Through extensive research, the WWL-TV team also found significant links between the highest paid contractors and the executive director of the non-profit. And one contractor was even linked to the city's mayor, Ray Nagin.
Tags: house demolition; contractors; federal funds; charity fraud; property owners; non-profits
-
Collapse
This series offers a look into how the buildings of Baltimore are collapsing one at a time. This has happened so frequently that the newspapers don't even bother to report the accidents.
Tags: demolition; city inspectors; contracting; architechture; safe zone
-
House of Hoard
This FOX 42 Prime Assignment follows an Omaha woman who is battling the city over whether or not her trash-filled home and yard are fit for living. Hidden cameras spy on her as she rummages through neighbors' trash cans and court dates mount as she has almost 50 outstanding charges against her.
Tags: TAPE; TRANSCRIPT; health hazard; demolition; trash; housing code; Omaha; code enforcement; hidden camera
-
Deadly Moves
The Chicago Housing Authority's Plan for Tranformation was an effort to demolish the city's public housing buildings and replace them with mixed-income neighborhoods. But the demolition puts competing street gangs and drug dealers in small public housing spaces. The number of murders has increased since 2000. The reporters uncover whether this plan has a negative or positive impact, and what the city plans to do about the growing conflict.
Tags: Chicago Housing Authority; Plan for Tranformation; public housing; mixed-income neighborhoods; territorial disputes
-
Were warning signs ignored?
The first modern suspension bridge in Maine and chosen as the world's most beautiful bridge in 1931, the Waldo-Hancock bridge now faces demolition. The Herald and the Maine Sunday Telegram detail this 2040-feet long bridge's history, its safety problems and their causes. Their investigation reveals that engineers had predicted structural problems with the suspension bridge's main cable as early as 1959. Furthermore, various state documents reveal confusion by state engineers over safety issues and also, the mistrust between state engineers and consultants who were hired.
Tags: MDOT; Gov.John Baldacci; Maine Historic Preservation Commission; bridge weight
-
Overtown and the CRA: Agency May Have Wasted Millions
When Oscar Corral of the Miami Herald began questioning the location of parking lots being built by the Community Redevelopment Agency (CRA), he quickly realized something was "seriously awry with the CRA's management." The nearly year-long investigation that followed centered on Overtown, one of Miami's poorest neighborhoods -- and discovered "a pattern of mismanagement, questionable spending decisions and failed projects. The result: The community has virtually nothing to show for $70 million in spending over the past decade," and the neighborhood "remains a near-wasteland of poverty and substandard housing." The primary program charged with "revitalizing the neighborhood" spent millions of dollars, but "completed only five of 36 proposed projects and has not pushed a single housing initiative." What's more, back-door dealings resulted in dubious contracts being awarded, some of which were never fulfilled despite the CRA paying for them -- and the nepotism even included the hiring of a former prostitute and thief to run errands for the CRA chairman. More than 50 interviews with frequently elusive sources, along with numerous documents and computer-assisted analyses of databases including enforcement cases, delinquent loans, property records and building demolitions, went into getting the stories -- which resulted in city, state, and FBI investigations into the CRA.
Tags: development; business; neighborhood; economic; housing; public body; nepotism; mismanagement; building; parking lot; Florida; Miami; Overtown
-
This Cold House
Collins investigates the business of Ernest Karr, "Detroit's largest and most brazen slumlord." The story reveals that Karr evades city taxes, ignores city laws and overturns city policies in court, meanwhile renting houses without heat and running water. According to the entry questionnaire: "The story sheds light on an antiquated and convoluted city bureaucracy that neither enforces its own codes and laws, not tracks and punishes scofflaws."
Tags: housing; landlords; building codes; city's demolition list; tenants; FOIA; developers; city government
-
The Missing Links
"This is a story about the largest New York City contract ever involving the private operation of a municipal park facility. Golf legend Jack Nicklaus and his development partners are attempting to build New York City's first luxury golf course on top of an old landfill at Ferry Point Park in the Bronx, a site that has had a long history of environmental troubles. The developers are operating a new private landfill at the city park site, collecting construction and demolition debris worth tens of millions of dollars -- money that is helping finance construction of the golf course. After dumping began, levels of gases at times reached near-explosive levels, requiring emergency remediation work to protect residents of a nearby public housing project. Under the franchise agreement, the developers contend, the city of New York is liable for any further costs of environmental clean-up. The golf course project, a favorite of former Mayor Rudolph Giuliani, got rammed through city government without getting reviews and approvals required by city law."
Tags: Jack Nicklaus; golf; New York City; government; Rudolph Giuliani; environment; Ferry Point Park; clean-up