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Byproduct Blues
LUKE WHITE Spring finally came to Chicago about a month ago, turning the lake from gray to blue and exposing endless lawns of dead grass. On the Southeast Side, along the banks of the Calumet River,...
View ArticleCitizens for an Unpolluted La Villita
On December 14, Mayor Rahm Emanuel spent the day in Little Village. He was the center of a ribbon-cutting ceremony at the newly completed Park 553, dubbed “La Villita” by residents and journalists,...
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On the Wing
Twice a year, birds cross innumerable boundaries in their voyages south to warmer areas during the fall and back north again in the spring. This week brings the heaviest influx of birds to the area...
View ArticleFind, Remove, Repeat
In 2004, concerns about foul-smelling smoke coming from the stacks of a Pilsen factory spurred an advisory referendum on lead contamination in the neighborhood, sponsored by the Pilsen/Southwest Side...
View ArticlePlanning Beyond Pollution
Late in March, the Committee on Zoning, Landmarks, and Building Standards heard testimony on a piece of new legislation from 10th Ward Alderwoman Susan Sadlowski Garza. Garza’s ordinance, which passed...
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Shoreline Abnormality
Down the Calumet River from a former petcoke storage site, several acres of early growth trees rustle gently in the breeze. It’s one of a few areas with sustained natural growth on the northern part of...
View ArticleDumping Dirty Industry
A new coalition of community and environmental activists met for the first time last Thursday to discuss their effort to fight pollution on the South Side. Members of four groups from McKinley Park,...
View ArticleConcerning the Environment
In his art gallery, which inhabits a small brick house at 64th and Dorchester, originally purchased by his grandfather in 1946, artist William Hill, a co-curator of the Experimental Station showcase...
View ArticleWill Chicago’s Next Mayor Prioritize Environmental Justice?
Chicago is considered the birthplace of the environmental justice movement—but mayoral candidates have never really been grilled about how they would address the issue. This year, the Chicago Food...
View ArticleTax Breaks for Hilco, Diesel Trucks for Little Village
Last Friday, City Council’s Committee on Economic, Capital and Technology Development voted to recommend that industrial developer Hilco receive a $19.7 million tax break from the Cook County...
View ArticleChicago nonprofits train South Side youth as energy efficiency ‘ambassadors’
The post Chicago nonprofits train South Side youth as energy efficiency ‘ambassadors’ appeared first on South Side Weekly.
View ArticleAn Asian American Lens on Environmental Justice
From bitter melon to bok choy, planting vegetables in backyard gardens has given immigrant families in Chicago a degree of food sovereignty, providing them access to specialty produce that can be...
View ArticleEmail Ties Alderman Cardenas to Polluter
Worried residents from seven Southwest Side neighborhoods met January 16 to discuss permitting that would grant an asphalt plant permission to continue to operate across the street from their largest...
View ArticleDiverting the Waters
Flooded basements and roads in Chicago are rarely the result of swollen rivers or overbank flooding from Lake Michigan. The culprit, instead, is rainwater. Overdevelopment and a lack of green space in...
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Risk Is in the Air
Léalo en español Once immortalized in Upton Sinclair’s 1906 novel The Jungle, the meatpacking factories that made Chicago “hog butcher for the world” and gave Back of the Yards its name left the city...
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El riesgo está en el aire: Para las comunidades que sufren de la...
Originally published on April 14, 2020, in English Traducido por Gisela Orozco Inmortalizadas en “The Jungle”, una novela de Upton Sinclair publicada en 1906, las fábricas de carne que convirtieron a...
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Voices from La Villita, Post-Demolition
Léalo en español Little Village residents are sharing what they experienced when the April 11 demolition of a smokestack at the former Crawford coal plant at 35th and Pulaski released a thick cloud of...
View ArticleVoces de La Villita después de la demolición
Originally published on April 28, 2020, in English Traducido por Jacqueline Serrato y Gisela Orozco Residentes del barrio de La Villita comparten sus testimonios de lo que vivieron cuando el pasado 11...
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The Smell Behind the School
Jazmin Sierra noticed the smell first. A sickly sweet, kind of plasticky odor that settled thick in the air. The sixteen-year-old had been away the whole summer, so when the fall semester started at...
View ArticleResident activists and environmental groups advocate more oversight for the...
Plans have been afoot for months for scrap metal recycler General Iron to move its operations from Lincoln Park to Hegewisch in 2021. But while the Illinois Environmental Protection Agency (IEPA) has...
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