I'm not a fly on the wall in their meetings, but my gut reaction isn't that HCP is being discriminated against because their clientele is mostly black. I think it's being discriminated against because their clientele is mostly poor, and the building is trying to present an upscale image.
The first is a civil rights violation. The second is definitely a lot more grey. Would be interesting to see how this shakes out.
My guess is that this has no merit, but I don't really know.
I can tell you that the Farbman family is very known for its support of Jewish causes and leans somewhat left. They're also fundamentally nice, low-key folks, and Andy Farbman is a smart, savvy guy.
That, in itself, doesn't really present a rebuttal, but I'm just saying...
This has nothing to do with the issue of the lawsuit... but should a non-profit trying to help the poor really be housed in a downtown Chicago highrise?
I bet the bang for the buck for contributions to that non-profit has a high percentage of "administrative" costs. I choose my philanthropic contributions with an eye on where they are located and their balance sheet of donations versus administration percentages...
Probably, yes.
Nonprofits helping the poor need to be in central, transit-accessible locations, so the Loop makes perfect sense.
And Farbman's Chicago portfolio is all low-rent Class B buildings. It isn't like these are fancy buildings. They're all marginal real estate, undesirable to corporate tenancy.
They should start government re-education camps and make corporate aholes like this live in them until they are convinced that diversity is the most important thing in the world.
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