This reminds me of when Ohare used eminent domain to evict ⅓ of Bensenville's residents for the new runway construction - fucked up to think airplanes are now landing on all of those memories - someone's first kiss, where someone buried the family dog/cat. Where someone's kids and grandkids grew up, drew their height charts on the wall etc etc. They offered the residents pretty good $ at first but many declined. Over time ohare let the residential properties they owned get really dilapidated and overgrown, as a result more people would leave and so on and on and on. Eventually it looked like an episode of the walking dead in the neighborhood. As far as the holdouts- welp the economy crashed and property values plummeted. Ohare then used eminent domain to remove the last few people and pay them market value (which was jack shit compared to what they were offered the 1st time).
@michellem7300 I am unaware of any water quality issues being linked to the O'Hare expansion. I've documented this case extensively while it was happening.
@@Tankeryanker1994 they may clean the top soil but if it's leatched into the wells/aquifer then all in the area will be effected and possibly eventually told to leave. Unless you own the land you live on which most do not.
Man...to imagine that the original people to "invest" in these properties took out loans for 100k-200k and then to have no choice but to walk away and abandon these places. It's absolutely criminal.
I was shocked when another comment identified these homes as being in Westchester. Its been 60 years since I last walked back there, but I remember the area and those houses well. I grew up near there. The landfill mentioned was the old John Sexton limestone pits. Back in '55, they were dug for the gravel that built the adjacent Illinois toll road. Just to the east of these homes is open prairie that streetlights and fire hydrants can still be found spread out over the many acres of open prairie. Back in the 50's you could still see the outlines of streets that were never paved. The subdivision was started by Samuel Insul. My grandfather was a home builder and worked for him. The planned subdivision never got built, as Insul went bankrupt in '29. Unfortunately, he had sold most of the lots to new home buyers.The village of Westchester was developed by him. He was from England and wanted Westchester to be like the English village he grew up in. The lots were all 30' lot widths and never got built on, as building codes were changed after the war to a minimal 50' lot width to be buildable. So, the people that bought the lots just abandoned them. Those houses shown in this video all went up back in the 50's. It's no wonder their wells had water problems. They let everything under the sun be dumped in those deep gravel pits. Back in the summer of 1967 , my brother and I pushed a 1956 Chevy Belair convertible into the open pit. We watched as a bulldozer plowed it under. Once in a while as I drive down 31st street, past those houses, I think about that old '56 ragtop , still rusting away at the bottom of that pit, which is a pine tree covered hill today.
You know the strange thing about that you're absolutely right where it is. When ya turn off and you drive down HL while most of the houses are abandoned there still some people back there and one or two of them still living there I was amazed to see that. Knowing the dangers that under the ground to which is crazy.
I grew up pretty close to this. A lot of my friends got weird rare cancers in Highschool, come to find out we had the second most toxic landfill in america getting into the water. If you don’t believe me look it up! Near Wauconda Illinois
It’s a weirdly heart wrenching feeling seeing a neighborhood that used to be full of life just abandoned. I wish I knew the backstories of all the houses and the ones who lived there.
I grew up near this neighborhood and went to high school with a couple of people that lived there. I knew the people that lived in the house @ 2:14 of the video during the late '60s. I visited many times. It was a beautiful home back then. The owners sold in 1969 due to relocation out of state. Nobody knew back then that they would have a toxic landfill in their backyard.
This needs to happen to Satellite Beach Florida. People there have higher rates of cancer and it’s just swept under the rug. There were toxic waste dumps there that were just built over, yet no one does anything. I found maps of the waste sites on the internet a long time ago but can’t find them anymore.
I bet someone high up deleted those old maps, so years down the line developers can say, we didn't know anything about toxic waste there. The high ups go hmm that waste magically disappeared.
I am certain that the mortgage companies still went after these homeowners. Despicable. Hope you guys came out safe and healthy. Thank-You for sharing.
@@Kanamit. Not true. With an environmental disaster, either the homeowner or the banks are compensated and required to quit the property. It isn't an option. Either the state or federal government buys them out. Even without that, any mortgage holder can give the keys back to the bank and walk away from the property.
@@katitcha There was a landfill directly west of the properties. The landfill was not properly built. Vinyl chloride was found to have gone from the landfill into the water wells of the homes. A water line was constructed in the late 80s providing city water to the houses, but people still ended up leaving.
KG- I’ve explored two of those houses you went in about a year ago. Be careful because it’s a “private drive” down that street and I’ve seen cops patrolling. Very cool to explore though. Great video!
Awesome videos boss, really give a great insight into how luxurious and full of life these neighborhoods/mansions used to be, and seeing what they’re reduced to now. Truly sad… Keep up the great work!
i live near this area and explored it recently. about 2 or 3 of the houses in this video are now gone, every house on that street is now completely abandoned and just about every one is boarded and locked up. so interesting!
Girlfriend and i did some exploring there today. Not a soul living there today. We parked at the golf course to the west. There are about 5 houses there still. Everything is borded up. Houses and yards are amazing. Would have been incredible to live there. Girl and i kept talking about how nice and peaceful the small street may have been to live on.
Dude, when you go into any of the building, you need to ware a N95 to protect yourself from black mold spores, Rat droppings and any air borne fungus. Don't touch anything with out disposable gloves on and wash your hand at the car before getting in. Some of the health effects from above can take months or even years to develop. Be safe : )
Back then I had a friend who lived in Riverside (another suburb going down) and her father worked at Brookfield Zoo and he knew many of these people that were in the process of packing up to leave. At the time he told us (we were teens) we didn't think much about it. But later it thinking about it, was a sad ordeal. Imagine, losing all your hard-earned money, literally down the drain. But the only good thing about this was the time it happened and unlike now, most people bounced back; the were driven to not let that be a halt to their future, like today's society, unfortunately.
While it is sad what this neighborhood became, I can assure you that no one lost all their money on these properties. After one section was sold to a developer, many other parties became interested in the rest of the land. By that time, most owners were ready to sell. The state and the forest preserve paid good prices for the homes. The few who didn’t want to leave were offered a favorable rental agreement.
Today's society as you mentioned it is alot different to back then things arnt cheap as hell anymore housing is barley affordable my wife and I bot make 22.40 an hour and still struggle sometimes thats the problem with your generation you think were all lazy when the truth is most of us arnt lazy but we are being crushed to death by the inflation and trillions if dollars if debt that yiu and all the previous us generations left us to inherit so next time you wanna judge us think about that before you open your old mouth to judge us cause we're living with your generations mistakes were just doing the best we can with what you old asses left us to inherit so if you wanna be mad at someone be mad at your generation fir screwing us over we were in debt before we were even born thanks alot Grandpa
So sad and I grew up in Chicago and never knew about this situation. Devastating, but you're right...I wouldn't have thought much about it either, but now I totally feel the pain. Ugh, I can't imagine.
@@WeggieQueen2005 "...I grew up in Chicago and never knew about this situation." Perhaps you "never knew about this situation" because this place is NOT in Chicago. 🙄🙄
I was there on the bike 2 weeks ago. Still houses standing but no hazards or keep out signs, so I figured I was OK to look around. Never knew there was abandoned houses 2 miles from home all these years.
That's what I was thinking for the water being so toxic. Why is there so much vegetation there and it's still growing. Plus there's older trees that I'm pretty sure we're there before they even found out about the toxic water, that are obviously still there that are bigger and thriving. Im pretty sure of that and I'm sure the roots found any type of water that is available underground. That's just really weird and strange.
I just can't comprehend how a community of top end higher class homes can lay dormant and empty without someone doing something, anything to bring them back to a liveable state of repair. Yes I'm all too well aware of big companies like Amazon, etc, buying up communities and farmland on order to erect their huge warehouses and distribution centres, for yes we have them here in the UK. I'd go so far as to say that due to a downturn in online shopping due to 'in part' the Covid Pandemic and the current financial depression, Amazon have closed several fulfilment centres here in the UK and ut makes you wonder what will become of these Super-warehouses. With the current numbers of people living on the streets and being homeless, what would it take/cost to renovate these homes and take people off the streets? Great content guys .. 🇬🇧
Question: Why tax citizens for the clean up? That's what happens when you want the govt. to do something. Owners and builders of the landfill need to be held responsible.
@@theirmom4723..and they were, I know under the Superfund Act. I'm in the consulting business in the west suburbs, but nvr saw this property, though familiar w the case. Co.s that sent chemicals for disposal sued by the EPA as well to pay for the "cleanup"
The only time anyone will abandon their property is if there’s something going on with the water or the environment is Toxic like a gas leak or the soil and water are contaminated 😮😮😮 something definitely happened there!
Ever Wonder Why all these houses that were worth something, even in disrepair, were closed off? But yet, Houses on South side, nastier than hell, still be livable 🤔🤔🤔🤔🤔🤔🤔🤔🤔🤔🤔
@@StringerMedia lol that's awesome! hit me up if your in my area Gary. Can't lie I've been searching online for that spot since I've watched your video.lol watched it 3 times! Great work! 💯
Abandoned homes in riverside? Where? My gf and I explored every square foot of riverside ( atleast I thought we did). Such a cool town. Never found anything abandoned there.
@@killeruploadz9037 Riverside Lawn, IL unincorporated Cook County. There was a historic home built in 1899 that sat abandoned for awhile, until it burnt down in 2018. They've been trying to return the area to Forest Preserves for years.
There was a subdivision off of ciecro next to I-57 that all got torn down recently that was abandoned and me and my friends would go there to explore the houses
It's funny. That land was not contaminated, just the water table under it. So, pipe in water from an outside source, or put in a modern local water plant with the new tech we have today to purify it. Not that hard at all now. Amazing that they condemned this much acreage. Some tech and finance saavy smart guy WILL achieve this in the future. I guarantee it. And it will be totally safe for the residents.
They did just that. City water was brought in when the chemicals were found in the wells. However, some residents still wanted to leave, and at the same time, multiple developers became interested in the property. Long story short, the property is almost all owned by the state and forest preserve to be an extension of the neighboring prairie. Houses should’ve been torn down years ago, but Illinois has bigger fish to fry.
Soooo many beautiful doors, windows, banisters, etc that could have been repurposed. Such a shame it was all left to be vandalized or demolished to add to the earth’s trash. 😡
@JdeC1994 eh, it's kinda weird how Chicago talks about stuff. Like "the suburbs of Chicago" or "a suburban Chicago neighborhood" it's all weird. Another thing is the county Chicago is located in, Cook County has a lot of smaller areas that get absorbed into Chicago over time, like around o'hare Airport. It's a mess here
@@michaelmorrison4201 How do you know that homeboy lives in the city? The O'Hare expansion is very exceptional. Other than that, Chicago's borders haven't been expanding for generations. 🙄🙄
Where is this. I grew up near an area that was dumping VC for 18 years. Huge lawsuit prior to my diagnosis of GBM. People pretty much but boned or died.
I really think that you should go down in the basement of that abandoned house since it’s so decayed. Please do so and don’t forget to post a video. You may even….get a Scooby snack. 🙂 Also please show us the toxic water in the other basement.
@@lmnop29 I just wanted a photo from the stairs. I didn’t mean to walk through the water. If he could see the water he could have aimed the camera that way to give us a little peek I’m sure with no extra risk. No one is asking anyone to die. Sheesh!
What's the name of this suburb? I don't know. Third base. Seriously, there is no reason to omit the name of the suburb, if for no other reason so people will know where to stay away from.
NO! It's a groundwater issue.... Why would there be asbestos??? Too many unscientific alarmist types. People, PLEASE use our ubiquitous access to knowledge to actually learn things. smh.
Hi, why are there people still living around there if it's so toxic? It seems like they would have died from the Toxic fumes in the air n water!! That's weird. Don't make sense. And what about all the wild life? I heard birds chirping n singing. How are they alive because I'm pretty sure they would drink out of that nasty water. This is just so strange.
I was wondering the same thing about the poor birds. I'm sure there's still alot of people out there who don't care if wildlife is exposed to deadly toxins or not, as long as it doesn't affect themselves
