Airline Crews' Ghetto Living Fails Chicago's City Ordinance Test

Flight crews participating in crash-pad living in the vicinity of Chicago's Midway airport have fallen foul of City Hall. Crewmembers paying a mere pittance to hot-bunk in the vicinity of the airport will now have to shell out for hotel accommodation after a crackdown on building owners operating such establishments. One SWA pilot was the owner and operator of nine such unlicensed rooming-houses. Other residential owners were charged with illegally converting attics and basements into living accommodation. The whistleblower also referred the authorities to Internet Bulletin Boards being used to online book the overnight accommodations. The complainant claimed that some converted doss-houses were providing shelter for up to 30 transient crew-members a night. According to a city zoning administrator, some of the rooms featured up to eight bunk-beds. The whole ruckus tends to blow away the glamor image of airline crews, and helps explain SWA's ongoing successes in the low-cost gladiatorial arena. The other objection the City has to the arrangement is that provision of car-parking at many of these premises is denying the city its entitled parking fees at Midway airport. One wonders what larger can of worms this sleepy-time initiative will be opening up.