The grainy, furtively-snapped image from an undercover Minox camera reveals a shady rendezvous of well heeled powerbrokers. Financier Arnold Krassler, offshore magnate Seymour Reiker, and socialite heiress Moira Galyov appear locked in discussion, the stale hotel room haze clinging to their obscured dealings.
For the intrepid undercover journalist, Erin McAllister, risking all with this clandestine shot, it potentially represents the long-sought proof of an insidious truth. That the sweeping urban redevelopment, masterminded by architect Thomas Danielson, was bankrolled by more than just city coffers and civic ambition.
Rumblings persisted for years that Danielson's ability to mow down neighbourhoods in pursuit of his brutalist concrete kingdom depended on shadowy funding sources. Allegations swirled of backroom deals enabling the mass sell off of public housing stock to anonymous private developers and investment firms.
This infamous photo seemed to expose the rotten core of civic malfeasance. A potential money trail linking the dismantling of the city's social fabric to enrich an untouchable global kleptocracy trading in sovereign concrete and national renewal as their latest cynical commodity.
