SSW 05.19.22 - Education Issue

MAY 19, 2022

ARTS, CULTURE, POLITICS

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THE EDUCATION ISSUE

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STUDENT ESSAY CONTEST WINNERS, POLLUTION NEAR SOUTHWEST SIDE SCHOOLS, ELEMENTARY LSC MEMBERS, & MORE

SOUTH SIDE WEEKLY The South Side Weekly is an independent non-profit newspaper by and for the South Side of Chicago. We provide high-quality, critical arts and public interest coverage, and equip and develop journalists, artists, photographers, and mediamakers of all backgrounds.

Volume 9, Issue 16 Editor-in-Chief Jacqueline Serrato Managing Editor

Adam Przybyl

Senior Editors Christopher Good Olivia Stovicek Sam Stecklow Martha Bayne Arts Editor Education Editor Housing Editor Community Organizing Editor Immigration Editor

Isabel Nieves Madeleine Parrish Malik Jackson Chima Ikoro Alma Campos

Contributing Editors Lucia Geng Matt Moore

Francisco Ramírez Pinedo Jocelyn Vega Scott Pemberton Staff Writers Kiran Misra Yiwen Lu Director of Fact Checking: Kate Gallagher Fact Checkers: Grace Del Vecchio, Hannah Farris, Savannah Hugueley, Caroline Kubzansky, Yiwen Lu, and Sky Patterson Visuals Editor Bridget Killian Deputy Visuals Editors Shane Tolentino Mell Montezuma Staff Illustrators Mell Montezuma Shane Tolentino Layout Editors Colleen Hogan Shane Tolentino Webmaster Pat Sier Managing Director Jason Schumer Director of Operations Brigid Maniates The Weekly is produced by a mostly all-volunteer editorial staff and seeks contributions from across the city. We publish online weekly and in print every other Thursday.

Send submissions, story ideas, comments, or questions to editor@southsideweekly.com or mail to: South Side Weekly 6100 S. Blackstone Ave. Chicago, IL 60637 For advertising inquiries, contact: (773) 234-5388 or advertising@southsideweekly.com

IN CHICAGO How is that different from raising the bridges?

The first warm weekends of the year saw instances of gun violence in the neighborhoods, including shootings with multiple casualties and kids caught in the line of fire. Without many recreational spaces, productive activities or entertainment to rely on during this time, crowds of school-aged teenagers take public transportation downtown looking for something to do. But there's only so much you can do in the Loop; few venues and public spaces are able to (or have the desire to) accommodate multitudes of neighborhood children. After an incident in which a 17-year-old fatally shot a 16-year-old during a scuffle, Mayor Lori Lightfoot announced the enforcement of a 10 p.m. curfew downtown for unaccompanied youth and a 6 p.m. curfew at Millenium Park—and had stern words for parents. Critics say that instead of shunning predominantly Black children from everywhere, the City could find ways of adding programming, outlets, and safe spaces in areas with foot traffic. Others called for more funding for schools, parks, libraries, and afterschool and summer programs.

New study provides more detail on lack of internet access across South and West Sides In March, the Weekly published a story about Chicago’s digital divide, which describes stark differences in internet access and connectivity between various neighborhoods. Last week, the Internet Equity Initiative, a program of the University of Chicago’s Data Science Institute, published a data portal based on their research that shows more clearly how the divide looks at the neighborhood level. While around eighty percent of households in Chicago have access to the internet, the disparity is as wide as forty percent between certain neighborhoods.

On the South Side, for example, there are portions of Englewood, Roseland, and South Shore where only about fifty percent of households have internet access.

Unlike other studies, this data is broken down at the level of census tracts, which show in more detail how small parts of each neighborhood connect to the internet.

Researchers will next rely on volunteers to research what role price and internet infrastructure play in access across the city. Check out the data portal for yourself at internetequity.uchicago.edu Faculty join Art Institute staff union Non-tenured faculty at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago (SAIC) gathered on May 10 at a rally in favor of a union. Lack of access to benefits, issues with salaries, wages and growth in the job are key reasons that have pushed nontenured faculty at SAIC to push for joining a union. Back in January, the SAIC and Art Institute of Chicago (AIC) workers voted overwhelmingly in favor of unionizing and formed the Art Institute of Chicago Workers United (AICWU).

That effort was overseen by the National Labor Relations Board. A new letter posted to the school’s website states SAIC’s intent to unionize, and is signed by around 200 people. If the unionizing is successful, non-tenured staff would be a part of AICWU.

Cover Illustrations by Saadia Pervaiz and Emily Hammermeister

IN THIS ISSUE student essay contest winners

barbara peters, makylah hill, olivia torain, jessica marquez, afam anigbo, juliana gometz........................................4 making the invisible visible

Environmental Toxins Disproportionately Affect Schools on the Southwest Side, New Study Finds.

lily levine...............................................10 south side weekly staff and contributors win five lisagor awards

The 45th Annual Lisagor Awards Recognizes the Growing Impact of Community Journalism. south side weekly staff........................14 hacer visible lo invisible

La contaminación afecta más a las escuelas del lado suroeste, según mapas de monitoreo del aire.

lily levine...............................................15 what would community-centered development look like on the southeast side?

Some residents are skeptical if outside developers can be trusted given the region’s patterns of disinvestment and environmental injustice.

cam rodriguez........................................19 calendar

Bulletin and events. south side weekly staff........................24 meet chicago’s youngest elected officials

Interviews with four elementary school students who won spots on their local school councils. madeleine parrish.................................26

Student Essay Contest Winners

T

he prompt for South Side Weekly’s third student essay contest was inspired by sociologist, author, and poet Eve L. Ewing’s poem, “I saw Emmett Till this week at the grocery store.”

We asked students to write a piece of Chicago history—a person, an event, a place that no longer exists—into 2022.

Upon learning that our prompt was based on her poem, Ewing generously offered to sponsor a portion of our prizes, which—in addition to Weekly merch, gift cards to 57th Street Books/Seminary Co-Op bookstores, and a one-year print subscription to the paper—include $500 in cash for first place winners and $250 for second place winners, as well as signed copies of her books.

We received over sixty submissions from all over the South Side. We are so grateful for each of these submissions and for the time, energy, and care students put into writing them. The essays were wonderfully creative and meaningful, and they made our decision process incredibly difficult.

Madeleine Parrish, the Weekly’s education editor, formed the selection committee, which consisted of Chima Ikoro, the Weekly’s community organizing editor, Bridget Killian, the Weekly’s visuals editor, Jackie Serrato, the Weekly’s editor-in-chief, and Adam Przybyl, the Weekly’s managing editor. They decided to print first and second place for middle school and high school, as well as honorable mentions for both categories.

They Call Me Ida B. Wells Barbara Peters, Art Charter School First Place, High School

in

Motion

I pondered around the airport, maybe that’ll make time go faster. It was May 30th, 2020. I glanced and observed the people ready and speedy for their flights, big families, and teens, ready to enjoy their spring. I couldn’t help to notice this one person though, dressed like she was born in 1800, she stood out…a lot. She seemed a little overdressed for this weather, talk about a 4 SOUTH SIDE WEEKLY ¬ MAY 19, 2022

hot girl summer. Black comfy old corset, white dingy silk gloves that contrast her whole appearance, her hair slightly lumped in a front with a clip attached to it highlighting her afro-textured hair, she had this foreign presence about her, it made me feel kinda…safe? I didn't know I was staring at her for so long until I saw her coming up towards me. I repositioned myself because I knew she was going to ask for directions. Honestly, I'm a horrible communicator, but that didn’t stop her from coming closer, I was raised to be polite so I couldn't just ignore her. She tapped my shoulder and asked me when the nearest flight to Chicago was, her voice and manner were just as unique as her appearance. I take out my iPhone and check, and tell her that it’ll arrive in about 2 hours, which blew me just as much as it did her because I’m heading to Chicago too and I’ve probably only been sitting here for an hour. The antique-looking woman sighs and takes the seat next to me. I try to avoid possible conversations by flipping through games and apps on my phone. I was so deep in thought about her appearance that when she tapped me to tell me that they were calling onboarding passengers for my flight, I jumped. I double-checked to see if I left anything, and sped to my flight.

Of course, she was boarding the same flight as me. I boarded the plane then I settled in my seat and her next to me. I’m not one to believe in superstitions, but I felt like her presence was going to have a significant impact on me, good or bad, I just felt it. I tried to sneak a peek at her, but when I did, she was already looking at me, so I just played it off like I was staring somewhere else, and she chuckled.

She asked me what I’m heading to Chicago for, and I told her the pandemic, COVID was impacting my family. I didn't wanna be rude so I asked her the same thing. “If I heard a brother of mine got killed for being a brother I’d rush back and forth around this country we call the United States of America.” It took me a while to understand that she was referring to the killing of a Black man George Floyd by several white

BARBARA PETERS, ILLUSTRATION BY EMILY HAMMERMEISTER

police officers. “Oh yea,”. That's all I could give her, I’m completely pitiful. There are a bunch of protests going on in a lot of states. She pulled a bunch of peanuts out of her large purse and offered me some. I declined, however. She asked me how old I was. She wants to start some small talk being that we were sitting next to each other for the next 5-6 hours. “I’m 16.''

She turned away from me. A few minutes go by and she says “When I was sixteen I rode horses to Chicago from here in Jackson, Mississippi.”

Even though I wanted to so badly, I know how disrespectful it is to ask an adult their age, so I held it in, but she answered it anyway. “I’m 32, just as young as you.” I was surprised, even though she looked young she gave me a presence from an older woman. She reminded me of my grandmother, who I miss dearly.

“Barbara. My name. It’s Barbara.” I said to her, even though she didn't ask.

“That's a beautiful name,” she tells me. Is it awkward that I blushed? I’m not one

to start nor continue a conversation but I felt intrigued too.

“Do you think it is justified?” I ask her. She replied, “No.” “Do you think all the protesting and everything will help, I mean, they always win,” I implied. “One had better die fighting against injustice than die like a dog or a rat in a trap,” she says. Her confidence intimidated me. She’s no dog or a rat. All the fusing just might step on Lightfoot's toes, and maybe we can fix up this city for God’s sake. “The appetite grows for what it feeds on,” she adds. The weak. That's who they feed on. The Black, The poor, the Women.

I think I took a nap, and slept bout a few hours, because when I check my clock, the time flew, only 30 minutes left of the flight. The woman pulls out her antiquelooking mirror making sure her hair is intact. I could never. Be as confident, determined, and mind settled as her? Not at all. “How’d you become so confident in yourself, I could never?” I asked her. She turned to me gently, princess-like I’ll say,

“We are the blueprint sista, there ain’t nun but envy in our enemies eyes, don't listen to me,” she tells me. We land right at O’Hare. I’m not a people person but if I could stay with her I would. She checks her antique watch and pulls mini signs out of her purse with a marker. She’s making protest signs. Things that read, “Justice for Floyd,” and “The white man’s victory soon became complete by fraud, violence, intimidation, and murder.” She was the first one to get up and start getting her bags, she was in a crazy rush. “If God is good to all then I’ll see you around sista!”

She says. “WAIT! What’s your name?” I asked her in a hurry. “They call me Ida B. Wells! Catch me, protest!”

Lemons Always Keep Us Cool

Makylah Hill, 11th Grade, Kenwood Academy Second Place, High School I lived on a farm since Ma and Pa were not too fond of the "city" life. They told me it was too noisy and too many people and too many of everything. Plus, the virus was still wreaking havoc on the people who lived in the urban areas.

Because of this I've lived in a farmhouse in the big city, but in an area not so densely populated.

Our farmhouse was really nice. We had cable, WiFi, and we even had these overpriced Bluetooth speakers. Ma said she needed the speakers to listen to the Gospel,when in reality 95% of the time they were used to listen to Beyonce.

Now, I am no mathematician but 95 + 5 equals one hundred, right? The WiFi was terrible. I mean, we lived miles away from any sort of cell tower.

Being a girl from a small part of Chicago in the day and age of social media was terrible. I did post a few pictures every now and then and they would get a few likes. I think it was because people really didn't know who I was.

I didn't have many friends or anyone to talk to; I was an only child. Because of this I often found myself talking to the animals on the farm, writing in my journal, or fantasizing about what the city life was actually like. I did have a phone, but who would I even call?

Grandma came to visit one day. She

brought me this strange blanket and some lemonade. The blanket was shiny and silver, kinda like foil material. Grandma said she had felt like something was off these last few days. She had received no text-messages from her best friend Rose and her rollers were not sitting in her hair right. I didn't think any of it though, she was always crazy with these superstitions.

First, Rose has a dial phone, and the rollers were older than I was. Crazy.

After Grandma forced me to take a million pictures for her Facebook, I got to taste the lemonade. The lemonade was cool, it sat on my tongue like a penguin sitting on an ice cap. Grandma always said lemons would keep me cool in the heat. The heat stood no chance against my sweet, cold glass of lemonade.

My neighbors were the super sweet O’Learys, they were around Ma and Pa’s age. Which I think is around dinosaur age, but don’t tell Ma I said that—she would probably throw a fit. I’d see them tend to their farms. I’d always wave to them and they would return it. They were so nice that they’d even let me go tend to their cow! I loved cows since Ma and Pa didn’t have any.

One particular day, Ms. O’Leary said I could go and see my favorite cow, Bessie. Bessie was this huge, beautiful,

MAKYLAH HILL, ILLUSTRATION BY EMILY HAMMERMEISTER

perfectly coated cow. Despite her being so beautiful, she was a known trouble maker. A trouble maker that was scared of the dark, that is! She always needed some sort of light to not go completely haywire around the other cows. That's what I liked about her, she found some fun in this recluse of a farm, no matter how chicken she was about the dark.

After quite a bit of playing around with Bessie, I had grown tired. I brushed off my overalls and stood up from the bushel of hay I was resting on. I picked up my lantern and made sure the lantern by Bessie was lit. I gave her a reassuring pat on the head and walked to my barn. That night was unreasonably windy–I thought my overalls would rip at the seams.

I woke up from the sound of Ma screaming. She was saying something about a fire. As soon as fire came out of her mouth I jolted out of bed. All around me smelled like heat and I felt like I was in an overworked oven right after a Sunday’s dinner. I ran out of the house with Ma and Pa and seen the O’Leary house and barn up in flames.

Tears grazed my eyes. My vision went blurry. No sound escaped my mouth.

Bessie was gone. My only friend was gone. I was snapped out of my thoughts by Ma putting this weird thing

around my shoulders. Crinkle. Crinkle. I looked down and seen that same blanket Grandma had dropped off the other day.

The police and fire department came and rescued us. They took me far away from the place I had called home. They took us to the station and asked us so many questions about the fire. We didn't know anything, so we were no help. They told us the fire was spreading and was spreading fast. Buildings far from the farm were being affected. Ma held back tears and so did Pa. Days turned into weeks. Weeks turned into months. The governor tried to rebuild the city as best he could. He built these new pretty homes, and new parks. He even set up a stand outside, on Roosevelt, and gave out phones.

But, nothing could replace what the city once was.

I had one opportunity to go back and visit the barn to see if anything was standing. There was the pitcher of lemonade, intact in a pile of rubble.

A Meeting in May

Olivia Torain, 11th Grade, Kenwood Academy Honorable Mention, High School Underneath the heavy May sun, Birds drowsily lay on the air currents, Old buildings sagged against each other for support, Weighted feet beat on the sidewalk, And the paper in front of me seemed to weigh down on the weak table As if it were freshly cut from the tree.

The pen seemed far away at that moment, Just as much as the idea.

My mind was nowhere to be found, And my heart, although heavy, didn’t make a sound.

Eyes scanning heavily over the blank page, It was easy for me to miss the clouds shuffling above, An old pipe bursting below, the previously steaming cup of coffee in front, And the hushed voices of those with loaded minds in back.

So easy.

Weight kept my lids heavy, So when weightlessness rushed through the hefty door, Airy curls wrapped around a head, MAY 19, 2022 ¬ SOUTH SIDE WEEKLY 5

a chiffon dress wrapped perfectly around a balanced structure, And a sepia bag bouncing at the hip, My eyes didn’t know where to look.

Flowing to the rough countertop, She filled the vacant cafe, With a new air that took up wherever the heaviness was.

Good morning, can I have a black coffee?

Two cream and three sugars.

Her head tilted lightly, The smile, not visible to me but exists nonetheless from the small of her back.

Sure. And can I have the name for your order?

The air shifted and a heavily light voice rang out, Ah yes, you can put down Margaret— Magaret Walker.

My eyes widened even more as I stared at the woman at the counter, With light steps, her eyes followed every line of the cafe, Till they found mine.

A small squint and nod passed on her face, heavy with light.

I think I smiled back, But the blank page in front of me was enough to capture my attention once again.

With a heavy sigh, I looked out at the flattened landscape, Much like a little architect, Lacking a blueprint or even the weight of an idea.

So light.

I felt the touch before it landed on my slouched shoulder.

Excuse me?

Turning slowly, my eyes touched hers once again.

Looking out at the vast landscape, A clear and bright glint covered her face.

Apologies. I couldn’t help but notice one of my own.

Taking a seat across from me, The clouds, as if on cue, separated– Letting in the golden light that illuminated the vacant cafe.

Blinking, I looked down at the sheet Feeling the heavy gaze from the opposite side.

So, you seem to be having some mind troubles?

I watched as the long sepia bag came to a soft rest on the table, 6 SOUTH SIDE WEEKLY ¬ MAY 19, 2022

Despite the many papers inside.

And then it was that gaze again.

Solid, yet malleable.

All-knowing, yet curious.

Sure, yet cautious.

Always the student before the teacher, She leaned forward lightly, Studying the land and its fertility.

Attempting to fill up the space, With a heavy tongue I said, It's a personal assignment.

I'm listening.

I´ve been trying to write something for days, but no idea seems to stick.

Leaning back in the rickety seat, She seemed to ponder my answer along with the twirling motions of her pencil.

Let me tell you something–there’s a difference between writing about something and living through it, I´ve done both. When searching for things to write, seek out the human condition– The one in everyone else and the one in you.

Speechless, I watched the woman in front of me in awe.

She simply smiled.

A slightly lopsided thing, that made me return it.

The air grew heavy with something delicate,

JESSICA MARQUEZ, ILLUSTRATION BY SAADIA PERVAIZ

Till suddenly a sapling sprouted from a small place in the dirt, And the pen, nor the idea seemed as far away as it did a couple minutes ago.

Peering at her watch, I watched her eyes widen deliberately.

Oh, I best be on my way–this mail won't mail itself.

Stuffing the documents back into her bag, Weightlessness stood, Pushing the noisy chair back, without noise.

And letting a light glance fall on me once again before heading– Wait wait !

Turning on her heels, the woman stood near the exit, A questioning look on her face.

Realizing that my breath grew shallower, I grabbed the pile of documents left on the table.

You seem to have forgotten this miss And yet again, that smile returned.

Clutching her bag and with squinted eyes, And the weight of light at her back, Margaret Walker dipped her chin, Sending her curls in slight disarray and said to me I don´t believe I have.

And was out the hefty door, as swiftly–

like a breath of air–as she had entered.

I sat down.

Lightly.

Looking at the documents, Heavy in my hands I saw what seemed to be an early edition of a book, Native Son,

By Richard Wright.

I smiled.

The landscape was up and alive around me yet again.

Only this time, There was an idea.

Gazing at my little sapling, In its little–practically insignificant– patch of dirt, I picked up my pen, And my heart, Stretched and wide, Poured out, along with my mind.

On the blank sheet, Reminded of the woman I met in the coffee shop that day.

I wrote out my first line as, A Meeting in May.

Anita Jumps the Red Lines

Jessica Marquez, 8th grade, Joseph E. Gary Elementary School First Place, Middle School I remember the times when redlining was normalized I used to go door to door trying to get people to help stop it But I got told that I had to keep my mouth shut I didn’t listen and continued the fight Until my people got their rights I wasn't going to stop And now here I stand I stare down across the street at a bank, I never thought I’d see Its walls are red, Its life is drained A building so tall, I never used to see People used to think this was going to change their life Not for worst Not to get cursed They wanted a good change They wanted to live free But this red bank has done it all People get in, people get out Tears forming in their eyes, some of joy others of sorrow, they didn’t get their dream

I see through the window, and stare at a man, only he's not white, but brown instead With a loan in his hand he runs happily across the street I followed him cautiously, amazed by his speed He reaches his destination A tall brick house it seems Astonished by joy I continue to see He knocks on the door, and it opens quite quick A white man steps out, but he seems discontent With cars zooming by I can't really hear as they speak But suddenly I hear a loud voice, a tone of sadness and anger reaches me across the street “Porque me trata así? ¿Es porque no hablo su idioma? O es por mi piel?”

Why do you treat me like this?

Is it because I don’t speak your language?

Or is it because of my skin Why do they treat my people like this?

My community is full of culture that they don’t see Our Art, Music and Food they enjoy without being frightful They don't understand we came here in search of the American dream I hear sirens approaching, what could this be?

The police walks towards them and suddenly I see He gets taken away, as I'm about to step in A hand in my shoulder quietly speaks “Let’s wait and see, and we’ll take action if need be” I look back at the men, I hate to see him suffer like this “Take that crazy man away, put him in jail, he doesn't deserve to be free” This just strikes directly to my heart, how dare they say things like this I guess racism won’t stop Why is it that some people don’t understand, we all are humans, no one is more, no one is less “Déjeme le digo una cosa, la última, mi piel me representa y todo el trabajo duro que he hecho, no voy a pelear, te voy a probar que estas equivocado sobre mí ” Let me tell you one thing, the last one, my skin represents me and all the hard work I've done, I'm not going to fight,

I'm going to prove you wrong about me Sad to see some things never change, this man is right He knows there is no need to fight Those words said it all No matter who you are, Black or Brown, Immigrant or not, the judgment doesn't stop This is sadly just life “I wish I could do something, but my hands are tied” The hand behind me whispered to me “What do you mean your hands are tied, I see them and, they are free” “You know what I mean!”

I didn’t know what he meant, But his words made me realize your hands can never get tied If you can’t work with the system, then change the system He grabs my hand and he walks me to the bank Now I see a black man standing there Sad face all around, I assume he didn’t get the loan Sadness again, truly hard to see I fought for a change once, I fought for it!

But people don’t care The man runs from the bank reaching Logan Square We follow close behind “I am sorry, I can’t sell you the house, I wish I could but I am getting threatened, and I am not afraid for myself, I am more afraid of what they can do to you.”

I am speechless This man just told him the truth He seems to care but what can he do?

Not getting the house is an unforeseen truth “Even if I couldn’t get the house, you were kind, thank you and goodbye.”

I look at the men next to me “I still don’t understand” “I can’t do anything about this, people are different some are nice, some are not, What gets done is unfortunately not up to me” I am surprised, that's all I can feel, “Listen please, you can make changes, we must keep on the fight after all, It’s our legacy that we leave behind” We part ways after our exchange I just sadly roam the streets Thinking about my legacy, the things I have seen and the little I’ve done

The thing is some people don’t see it happen Obviously they no longer have maps with red lines drawn Yet the generations of red lining can still be seen They divided our people, they divided everyone Making some think that they are above us and that we are not good enough But this is not about leaving it for others to solve We have to show how bad life has become Our parents bought homes generations ago Our kids live in them now 10 more generations to go We can paint a house and sell it again, yet the neighborhood remains the same Brown and black these are the colors that don't seem to change We stand back and relax hoping for progress, we think future generations will solve the crisis This is all hidden history They, silent minorities, they make people segregate They shut their doors right in our face They don’t do this for good When will we wake up and see

AFAM ANIGBO, ILLUSTRATION BY SAADIA PERVAIZ

This isn’t a dream It's a nightmare we live We can't sit and wait for the pinch One step at a time is all we need Fighting for change cannot continue to be a dream As Our future generations will be left in the dark Living in our ignorance for the fight we didn't fight.

Bronzeville Sisyphus Afam Anigbo, 8th grade, Homeschool Second Place, Middle School

After a long night of Halloween festivities with his children and grandchildren, Justice D. Harry Hammer went out on an evening stroll. As he was walking, he realized this was the first time he had taken the time to enjoy the crisp nighttime air and calmness of the moonlight in years. After making a mental note to take more nighttime strolls, he turned to his left and saw an unfamiliar face staring at him from the first-floor window of the building across from his.

At the time, he thought it was strange because his neighbors rarely had guests, MAY 19, 2022 ¬ SOUTH SIDE WEEKLY 7

especially at this time of night. However, he did not give it much thought.

The next morning as he was drinking his coffee and enjoying the sounds of birds chirping and trees rustling, he saw a couple he had not seen before taking a morning walk with their dog.

Seeing them brought back bittersweet memories of his wife, who had died two years prior. He chuckled to himself, remembering how his wife had hated dogs. Then something happened that banished all happy thoughts to the back of his mind and filled him with anger and disappointment. The couple had let their dog poop in his yard, and not only that, but they had also trampled the flower bed that he and his wife had started before she passed away.

After getting over the initial shock, he turned his attention to the street, scanning for the couple who had defiled his wife's garden. He saw the couple almost immediately. They were talking on his neighbor's porch, the same neighbor that had the suspicious visitor the night before. He stared at them through the window for some time deciding whether to confront them or not. Ultimately he decided to confront them. The woman of the couple turned and noticed him as he walked toward them and waved.

He considered waving back but decided against it. After realizing that he would not wave back, she turned back to her conversation. As he neared the steps, he realized that he was too old to climb the steep cement steps leading to the porch.

He decided that the adversity of the stairs would not deter him, so he planted his feet firmly on the ground and said, "I'm sorry to interrupt your conversation, but I think your dog pooped in my yard," in the calmest voice he could manage.

The group responded, "It seems like my dog loves your grass."

"That is not a valid reason or an explanation of why you left the poop in my yard or why you trampled my wife's garden," he said.

The conversation continues with Justice D. Harry getting increasingly frustrated, and the group is defensive, passive-aggressive, and annoying.

"We can't control where our dogs decide to poop," they said in a vaguely annoying way.

8 SOUTH SIDE WEEKLY ¬ MAY 19, 2022

"Even if that was the case and you truly didn't have control over where your dog poops, you have control over whether you pick it up, and you have control over whether you trample my wife's garden," he contorted.

"Animal poop is a perfectly natural part of the ecosystem. Birds, rabbits, and other animals don't pick up their own poop, and you don't expect them to, so why do you expect dogs too," they quipped.

"Dogs are not rabbits or birds, and that still does not explain why you thought it was ok to trample my wife's garden," he said with undertones of anger.

The man in the group took a long, drawn-out sigh as if he was about to lecture a screaming toddler about table manners and said, "dogs are just like birds and rabbits because they're all part of the same ecosystem."

"I did not come here to talk about ecosystems, or whether dog poop is natural, I came for a real explanation of why you let your dog poop in my yard and why you trampled my garden," he said, feeling like he was trying to convince a carrot that it's a beautiful Victorian mansion.

"That is a real explanation," the group responded, still refusing to admit their wrongdoings.

He decided that there was nothing he could say to make them admit their wrongdoings or apologize. There was no sense in arguing with people who had already made up their minds. So he thanked them for the conversation and started walking back home. He realized that he had always been "the bigger person" throughout his life as he walked back. Constantly having to apologize when he was not at fault, constantly conceding and compromising himself and his opinions in the hopes that one day he would have climbed high enough to be himself and to let the people in his community be themselves without fear of repercussions. Then something jarring happened, something more unexpected and mind-boggling than winning the lottery, than getting robbed and beaten up by a sea turtle wearing a Big Mac as a ski mask. He heard a woman's voice yell, "this is how you treat your new neighbors."

Had he been a little more theatrical and

less self-conscious, he would have fallen to the ground wailing.

The interaction left him feeling drained and hopeless, like a modernday Sisyphus rising every day motivated by the slim but ever-present possibility of something new, rolling the boulder right up to the precipice of change close enough to clip its nails with a baby nail clipper only to be dragged back down by hundreds of angry hands. Every day, another one of his neighbors was gone, pushed out of the neighborhood by gentrification or increased property taxes. He was doing everything he could to prevent this displacement as the alderman of Chicago's 4th ward.

However, nothing he did seemed to have any positive impact. He was beginning to feel like a pigeon screaming in a bread crumb vending machine every day.

Sometimes he considered moving to the suburbs and leaving his worries about the community and his legacy behind.

These thoughts of migration were always quelled by the few families that remained and the memories of his deceased wife.

However, now that most of those families were gone and his wife's flower garden had been trampled, the place that had once been his home was nothing but a building.

The Regal Theater

Juliana Gometz, 6th grade, The Ancona School Honorable Mention, Middle School After school ends, I bolt home. I throw my bags on the floor, homework can wait. I am just too excited. I glide to the kitchen with auspiciousness forming a halo around my head. “MOM,” echoes through the house as I look at the mail.

My mom walks downstairs and looks at me as if I am a hitchhiker begging for a ride. “Yes, what do you want,” she sighs.

I grin and say, “Can I go to the Regal Theater tonight with my friends? Lily’s mom will be there and Alisa, she’s 14, and”–she cuts me off with a quirky smile and asks, “Did you do your homework?”

I play with my fingers and before I open my mouth, she says, "as long as you are back by five and pick me up a pastry from one of the restaurants.” I hug her and start skipping down the block.

I see Alisa and as soon as I turn the corner she runs and screams, “OMG, I am so freaking excited for this, you ready?” “Yes,” I chuckle, “but be quiet, we don't want the entire 46th street to hear us.” We walk to Lily's house and see her and her mom waiting for us on their porch. “Ready to dance like you have never danced before,” Lily's mom says. As we walk, we converse about homework, our crushes, and what songs we think they’ll play. We turn on to 47th street and it all hits me. The flashing lights twinkle in my eyes. The music dances in my ears.

The smell of food climbs up my nose.

The words bounce off my tongue. The air brushes against my skin. Everyone has a welcoming atmosphere. The music makes me feel like dancing in a field of flowers.

I am so excited I could run around the earth, floating over the oceans, flying to the peaks of even the highest mountains.

I am home.

“What are you girls waiting for?

Let’s go in,” Lily's mom says as she stares in awe. We all slowly step forward to the magnificent building. When we walk inside, we see the band up on stage. They are so focused on the music and making sure the audience is joyous when dancing.

We join the mob of people, standing, dancing, singing, and laughing. A waitress brings over a menu with a "what-canI-get-you" smile. I kindly ask for water to start and continue this resplendent dream come true. Once she's gone, I look carefully over each item. “What should I get,” I think to myself. When she comes back, she asks, "what'll it be?" "I'll have the sliders with fries," I say. As we wait, we watch several bands and singers, each one with a different hope and dream, bow and blush as they come off the stage.

The stage is red with wood accents on the edge. It is about one and a half feet tall. In the center, there is a mic, silver, and gold, just waiting for the next bright soul to pick it up and give a breathtaking performance. In that mic, thousands of voices had been spoken softly and loudly, depending on the person. Now, I think peculiarly, I might not know who will walk on this stage next, but I know thousands more will sing and perform at the Regal Theater. ¬

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MAY 19, 2022 ¬ SOUTH SIDE WEEKLY 9

EDUCATION

Making the Invisible Visible New study finds schools on the Southwest Side are disproportionately exposed to environmental toxins.

BY LILY LEVINE

T

urning onto 47th street from the Dan Ryan, Kate Zanetti feels like she is entering a haze of dust and emissions as she commutes to her job at Back of the Yards College Prep. As she passes truckyards, stockyards, and factories, she watches her students walk to school through heavy thickets of dust kicked up by the large trucks that cruise by. These particles will inevitably enter their small respiratory systems as they inhale and exhale on their way to class.

“When I first started working here, I was shocked at how many students had asthma until I really sat down and realized that it is extremely likely [their conditions were] due to the air pollution in the area they grew up in,” Zanetti said. “It frustrates me because this environmental injustice was most likely the cause for my kids having lifelong ailments. The City officials continue to disparage certain communities.”

A new environmental justice tool aims to equip community members, organizers, and policymakers to combat these disparities.

The Midwest Comprehensive Visualization Dashboards (MCVD) is a series of interactive maps that show emissions burdens for Chicago Public Schools (CPS) students. The threepart preliminary study—conducted by the UIC School of Public Health (UIC-SPH) Emergency Management and Resiliency Planning (EMRP) program—found environmental hazards in Chicagoland are more likely to be concentrated in neighborhoods with CPS schools containing higher Latinx enrollment.

The study, which aims to give community members access to data to educate others and substantiate their own environmental justice claims, was 10 SOUTH SIDE WEEKLY ¬ MAY 19, 2022

initially created four years ago when a group of grassroots organizations and local residents from the Southwest Side approached the UIC researchers in search of a way to bring issues of environmental justice to light. Specifically, they were concerned with the development of a potentially hazardous asphalt plant in McKinley Park, MAT Asphalt.

Adopting a community-based participatory design (CBPD), the researchers implemented an input approach to engage local stakeholders.

During this time frame, they collaborated with the Southwest Environmental Alliance (SEA) to hold focus group meetings and organize presentations with various policy decision-making entities, including 25th Ward stakeholders, the Latino Caucus of Chicago, the Committee on Environmental Protection & Energy, and the larger City Council.

“This is a grassroots movement.

These are just regular people working amazingly,” said UIC-SPH-EMRP researcher Michael Cailas. “[They organized] two meetings with the U.S. EPA Region Five director—that doesn't happen. So it's because of them that the official agencies' servers are responding.”

The result of these talks was the creation of an interactive electronic story map that shows the distribution of select hazard sources deemed to pose a threat to Chicago communities, including toxic release inventory (TRI) facilities, rail hubs, asphalt plants, and brownfields, which are properties “the expansion, redevelopment, or reuse of which may be complicated by the presence or potential presence of a hazardous substance, pollutant, or contaminant,” according to the EPA. Users can input a specific address and set the proximity radius from 0.5 to

2 km to determine the quantity and type of hazards near their location of interest, including Chicago Public Schools. The map shows many of these industrial sites clustered near schools in Back of the Yards and La Villita.

Cailas said it was important to focus on schools mainly due to the duration of exposure. It is important to note that hazards (things that can cause harm) are not synonymous with risk (the likelihood that a hazard will cause harm). Their research does not attempt to find a direct link between hazards and health outcomes, he said; their study only makes claims about people’s exposure to hazards.

“You have environmental contamination in the area where they live and where they're walking to and from and where they're spending half their week,” said UIC researcher Apostolis Sambanis.

“And so there’s this contamination and potential that they can be exposed to, [which] needs to be considered.”

While this study does not have any bearings on health outcomes, its importance lies in its ability to visualize the effect of cumulative hazardous emissions from multiple potential sources in the same area. When granting permits to potential facilities, the Illinois Environmental Protection Agency (IEPA) and City of Chicago only take into account the risk of that singular facility to the nearby community—they do not not consider the cumulative impact of many facilities within close proximity to one another.

The researchers behind the MCVD are hoping it will be used as a tool for community members and organizers to document their status in terms of environmental pollutants, identify community health disparities, and validate their environmental justice

claims. Though this is only a decision support tool, said Cailas, the map can be instrumentalized to help policymakers with influence make more informed decisions on issues relating to sustainable urban development and the environment.

“We’re trying to give [community members] a voice to articulate themselves,” said Sambanis. “When they originally approached us, it was one asphalt plant [permit] that they were concerned about, whereas this now gives them the 30,000 foot overview of the bigger picture, and that's what we're trying to have them see.”

In recent years, Southsiders have united to battle myriad environmental injustices. They organized to fight against the demolition of the Hilco smokestacks; protested against the permit that would grant access to Sims Metal Management to operate in the area; pushed back against the shady establishment of the MAT Asphalt plant; and most recently, won against General Iron to deny the permit that would have allowed the company to relocate their scrap metal facility to the South Side.

Using this tool, community organizers and activists will have more visible evidence to tackle issues of climate justice and address the larger problem of structural discrimination in Chicago.

S

acrifice zones” refer to land, air, water, and soil that have been compromised by heavy polluting industries, who thrive economically— but at the cost of low-income people of color, said Citlalli Trujillo, a member of the Pilsen Environmental Rights and Reform Organization (PERRO).

Environmental climate justice is about informing the community about the injustices by bringing them to the forefront, she said on an Earth Month

EDUCATION Celebration panel presented by the UIC Latino Cultural Center on April 21.

Recently, many Chicago-based activists have spoken up to do just this.

Theresa McNamara has been involved in community organizing for most of her life. As a child growing up in Pilsen, she followed her mother and sister, who participated in creating Fiesta del Sol and later, were active in the 1974 construction of what is now Benito Juarez High School. Since then, she and her family moved to McKinley Park, where she first heard about MAT Asphalt coming to the community. Not knowing anything about the environment, she sought out to learn more.

When her husband came back from work one day, they began knocking on all the doors on their block. Of the ten doors that opened, McNamara was shocked to hear that eight of them housed people that had some form of cancer.

“That was totally eye-opening, because you see your neighbors every morning while you're going to your car and you just say ‘Hello,’ you never say ‘Hey, what's your sickness? What do you have?’” she said.

After asking if they would talk further, seven of her neighbors reconvened at McNamara’s home to discuss their issues. In private, one neighbor shared that she had taken her daughter to the hospital a year and half prior for a brain damage operation. The neighbor said that while she was there, she had met another person on their block, whose child was getting a shunt implanted for an upper respiratory condition related to cancer.

At that moment, McNamara recalled the neighbor’s daughter came running to the door with a baseball cap on and a cotton ball on the inside, covering up the indentation on her skull.

McNamara decided to take issues into her own hands and arranged a group meeting with 12th Ward Alderperson George Cardenas, who assured them that they were installing two air monitors, one on Ashland Avenue and one on Western Avenue. At the meeting, one woman shared how every morning, when she would go to her backyard to drink her cup of coffee, she would have to clear off her table and chair because it was covered with dust.

“It started me thinking there has to be a bigger picture. And as I started pulling back the map of McKinley Park, I realized that we are surrounded by industrial corridors,” she said. “And so I even went so far as taking people into MAT Asphalt as [a] tour guide; I wanted them to see, because how can you fight something you don’t know nothing about?”

Normally, an asphalt company has to go through a formal process to notify their neighbors and send out letters to the community alerting them of their presence. However, McNamara noticed that MAT had done this all in a suspicious three weeks. When she called Mayor Lori Lightfoot—who had run on a platform of supporting the Latinx community and had personally told McNamara she was going to restart the environmental committee—Lightfoot ignored the calls.

Frustrated, McNamara started a petition in 2020 and began organizing regular meetings with neighbors and community members to inform them of pertinent environmental issues. Thus,

SEA was born to fight environmental racism through direct action. Currently, it’s working with UIC and the EPA to distribute air quality monitors to Bridgeport and Brighton Park. They also collaborated with UIC on the MCVD study in the CBPD phase.

While McNamara is fortunate enough in her daily life to afford an air filter and a water filter to prevent lead exposure, she recognizes that not everyone can do the same.

With lead still in the pipes and MAT Asphalt bringing in 200 trucks a day— despite the hundreds of complaints about it that have been filed with the IEPA and the City’s health department— McNamara continues to call for justice and encourages her community to do the same.

M

ather High School student Gianna Guiffra is from the Chicago Lawn neighborhood and started noticing how certain areas of Chicago were being polluted more than others. In her sophomore year, she got

ILLUSTRATION BY KEVIN MOORE JR.

involved with the Sunrise Movement to uplift her beloved neighborhood and help enact green policies.

“It just makes me upset that our City isn't really prioritizing the health of our community and the environment,” she said. “Instead, they're continuously polluting our neighborhoods, [despite] increasing climate change. But knowing this, it motivates you to get involved and see what we can do as a city—either in CPS or in our neighborhoods—to allow our community to breathe cleaner air.”

Since joining the Chicago Hub of the Sunrise Movement, Guiffra worked to engage more youth by recruiting highschoolers for a Chicago Climate Summit that took place on Earth Day. In the future, the young activist hopes to get more neighbors and CPS students involved with environmental curriculums.

She also continues to fight for greater regulations on polluting companies as well as the creation of more green jobs to provide renewable energy to the city.

MAY 19, 2022 ¬ SOUTH SIDE WEEKLY 11

EDUCATION

T

hough issues of environmental justice affect people of all ages, one population is especially vulnerable: children. Kindergartners through eighth graders are especially susceptible to the negative effects of pollution.

According to a 2018 World Health Organization report, “air pollution can impact neurodevelopment and cognitive ability and can trigger asthma and childhood cancer,” and children are especially vulnerable because they breathe more rapidly than adults and live closer to the ground where some pollutants are most concentrated.

In addition to disrupting brain development, environmental hazards can affect students’ academic performance. A 2016 study found that children in Florida who were conceived within two miles of a toxic waste site were 7.4 percentage points more likely to repeat a grade and 6.6 percentage points more likely to have a disciplinary infraction, versus a sibling who had been born once the site was cleaned. Black and low-income children in this study were more likely to be exposed.

2019 research by the National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER) also revealed when students attend schools with higher levels of traffic pollution, they tend to show declining test scores, more behavioral incidences, and

12 SOUTH SIDE WEEKLY ¬ MAY 19, 2022

increased absenteeism.

“Here on the South Side, you see [kids] sitting there playing with something, and you take a closer look, it's actually their inhaler that they're playing with,” said McNamara. “You'll see their mom say ‘put it in your pocket,’ but the shame of it all is to see so many of them.

And it's because of the neglect of the City and the government [for] dropping all these companies here in one area,” she said.

Founding member of Neighbors for Environmental Justice (N4EJ) Anthony Moser has been using public records to monitor air quality in Chicago for years, paying special attention to the health impacts on youth. “[Air pollution] is a magnifier for COVID; it both increases the risk of getting it and also the risk that if you do get it, it will be more severe,” he said.

One study linked the impact of air pollution on mental health. According to the review, an increase of ten micrograms per cubic meter in the level of particulate matter was correlated to a ten percent higher risk of getting depression.

To demonstrate the disparity in who experiences poor air quality, Moser created a data visualization map that compares air quality to where CPS schools are located.

Users can filter the schools by various demographic ranges to observe who is most at risk. The map helps to show how

issues of environmental justice stem from systemic, citywide segregation and racist zoning practices that situate industrial facilities and polluters in neighborhoods with more Black, Brown, and lowincome people who don’t speak English, said Moser.

“It makes me angry, but it’s also completely unsurprising. They say that every map of Chicago is a map of segregation. These are long standing patterns [where] the City chooses to put these kinds of facilities in these places, right. And MAT Asphalt is a great example of it. When you consider that they're running essentially on City contracts, it's not just that they're being approved–the City is actively funding this,” said Moser.

Though there are regulations in place to protect children, schools have not been heavily regulated. The 1997 Executive Order (EO) 13045 calls for federal agencies to prioritize mitigating environmental health risks that disproportionately affect children. The EO also led to the creation of the Office of Children’s Health Protection (OCHP) to ensure EPA actions address children’s unique vulnerabilities.

And yet environmental hazards have existed within CPS for years and remain a large concern for the Chicago Teachers’ Union (CTU).

Science teacher at Northside College

Prep and doctoral student at UIC College of Education Ayesha Qazi-Lampert has been a member of the CTU Climate Justice Committee for nearly two years.

With the help of the committee and CTU education policy researcher Sarah Rothschild, the group used CPS’s 2020 school facility assessment reports to compile data on asbestos, lead, and air quality from eight schools, including George Washington High School, George Washington Elementary School, Chopin Elementary, Lincoln Park High School, Bridge Elementary, Barton Elementary, and Harlan High School.

According to their findings, CPS’s reports show myriad areas of concern.

For example, there was asbestos material in 224 areas of George Washington High School, and the school’s ventilation system was over sixty years old. In Barton, there was water damage and cracks within the plaster walls and ceilings and thirty rooms did not have functional windows.

In Harlan, the main electrical service of fifty years was “substantially corroded” and they found unsafe levels of lead in the faucets—as deemed by the CDC— with the greatest amount of 103 parts per billion of lead in the drinking fountain in the girls’ gym.

Furthermore, CPS’s air quality tests were conducted in empty rooms, which is against industry standard since the test must evaluate the level of carbon dioxide

EDUCATION and total air exchanges per hour. Thus, the group concluded that community members cannot trust CPS’s air quality assessment, which deemed the schools safe for occupancy.

CTU Director of Communications Chris Geovanis believes that a substantial part of the problem when it comes to understanding what the conditions are truly like in school is CPS’s inability to make the information available.

“They have really fallen down on the job in terms of producing the kind of state mandated regular facilities updates and reviews. It's just been an area of chronic neglect for decades. They have a $2 billion backlog, and they need to do better,” said Geovanis.

These health hazards are amplified when looking at the surrounding environments of schools on the North Side versus the South Side.

T

he MCVD study reveals that children on the South and West Sides of Chicago face greater exposure to environmental hazards.

“The issue is not a specific facility; the issue is how the facilities are distributed within the city. This is the core of the distributive environmental justice principle,” said Cailas.

The map from the SIMS metal shredder facility report (undergoing permit revision) illustrates this point.

On the right, Eliza Chappell Elementary, a school on the North Side, sits within a one-mile radius of an industrial corridor but is not near any TRIs, railyards, or brownfields. In contrast, Whittier Elementary School, a school on the Southwest Side, is not only within a one-mile radius of an industrial corridor, but it is also near one railyard, one brownfield, and five TRIs emitting sixteen different toxic chemicals, including the carcinogens trichloroethylene, tetrachloroethylene, methyl isobutyl ketone, nickel, lead, and di(2-ethylhexyl) phthalate.

According to data from the 20162017 Chicago Public Schools Database, Whittier had 299 students enrolled, 92.1 percent of whom were low-income and 99.1 percent of whom were Latinx.

Another stark example of this disparity is seen in Back of the Yards

College Preparatory High School (BOYCP), which is located in an area that scored sixteen times above the city average for its proximity to toxic facilities. According to the map, the school is situated within a one-mile radius of a brownfield, asphalt plant, and ten TRIs emitting various chemicals: trimethylbenzene, toluene, zinc fume and dust, glycol ethers, lead, xylene, and hydrochloric acid. Within the same bubble, there are also four other schools that are affected by the same pollutants.

Zanetti has been teaching physics, biology, and anatomy and physiology at BOYCP for three years. In their last unit, she had her junior and senior anatomy students explore the respiratory system by completing a lab that mimicked respiratory distress. At this time, students who had respiratory disorders, mostly asthma, shared their own experiences of what distress felt like to them.

The class then observed the air quality index both seasonally and over longer periods of time in Chicago in order to make claims about how the quality of air affects respiratory function. All of the students brought up the facilities as well as the large trucks and eighteen-wheelers that constantly go up and down 47th street, said Zanetti.

“I did this mini project so they could not only see the effects of this pollution on their own individual health but also so students could question why this is happening so abundantly in their neighborhood, but not all neighborhoods,” said Zanetti. “I wanted students to see the environmental injustice, want to stand up for their community, and provide push back to City officials, because this is not fair for them to have to deal with.”

Since moving to the North Side in 2019 and commuting to work on the Southwest Side, Zanetti said the racial and socioeconomic disparities within the city are abundantly evident.

“It is very clear to me that City officials want to maintain this clear divide between the North and South Side neighborhoods, and the environmental racism that takes place in these communities is an unfortunate side effect of that injustice,” she said.

Mateo Curiel, a twelfth-grader at BOYCP stated his concern for their

budding gardening club, and how the air quality would affect the plants’ ability to grow.

“Honestly, that's really a shame because we'd like to have more opportunities for our students here. And so to hear that, it's quite disheartening,” he said.

The disparity is apparent to BOYCP twelfth-grader Lorena Espinoza. “We live in a place where we’re surrounded by factories. Like you could walk North, East, West, South–you’re going to see a factory. And I feel like it definitely has to do with the fact that we don't see any factories on the North Side. It’s more a general problem, and not just [of ] Back of the Yards,” she said.

Guiffra believes students should not have to worry about their health.

“Students should have a clean [learning] environment. It's their education; it’s their future.”

O

n a small scale, installing air filters in classrooms has been shown to effect substantial improvements in student achievement, found assistant professor of economics at New York University Michael Gilraine.

At the municipal level, Sambanis believes improved urban planning will ensure that schools are not placed between industrial zones with heavy traffic and equipment.

Furthermore, at the state level, there is a new bill (HB4093) that would invoke an “environmental impact review evaluating the direct, indirect, and cumulative environmental impacts to the environmental justice community that are associated with the proposed project.” This would entail a qualitative and quantitative assessment of emissionsrelated impacts to the area as well as an assessment of the health-based indicators for inhalation exposure.

Though these interventions will certainly alleviate the problem, it is imperative to ensure these issues are widely known in the first place.

A large part of Qazi-Lampert’s work focuses on making South and West Side residents aware of the environmental hazards that affect them. While some communities have the resources to be aware of what is happening in their environment, she said, there are

others that just need more access to that information.

“A lot of folks may or may not be aware of what materials are put into the foundation of their schools and what the water quality [is like]. We tend to be very reactive when we see photos of dirty water or we see mold, like those are noticeable things. But it's all about how do you make the invisible visible?” she said.

Furthering the discussion outside of school hours, Qazi-Lampert and the Climate Justice Committee are currently working with schools on the Southwest Side and beyond to win school renovations. Through speaking to teachers and initiating the Climate Justice Education Project, she and her team have been able to teach about eighty educators and community members on the concept of climate justice and climate awareness.

“Environmental justice is not just about the environment, it’s health justice, mental health justice, social justice, economic justice, and education justice,” she said. “And when we think about students and their learning environment, if their needs are not being met, then that learning experience is going to be quite challenging. So we want to make sure as a community that everyone creates an environment that's safe. And our committee is doing the work to make sure this happens as soon as possible.”

Though the MCVD study can aid as a powerful decision support tool, it will be up to the public, community organizers, and politicians to change the policies surrounding Chicago’s greatest pollutants. According to Sambanis, this research will allow activists to initiate conversations in an intellectual way.

“Everyone cares about well-being, especially [that] of loved ones. And if we don't do something or we don't act, it's only going to continue to get worse over time. It's not fair, and it's not right. No one deserves to be exposed,” he said. Lily Levine grew up in Los Angeles and is a current student at the University of Chicago studying global studies and health and society. She last wrote about CPS layoffs.

MAY 19, 2022 ¬ SOUTH SIDE WEEKLY 13

South Side Weekly Staff and

Contributors Win Five Lisagor Awards

The 45th Annual Lisagor Awards recognizes the growing impact of community journalism.

BY SOUTH SIDE WEEKLY

I

n what was the first Peter Lisagor Awards ceremony for the handful of South Side Weekly editors and contributors who attended, the 45th anniversary celebration was a reaffirming event for nonprofit, community, and ethnic media in Chicago.

South Side Weekly had an unprecedented (for the publication) thirteen nominations, and on Friday, May 6, at the Union League Club of Chicago, the newspaper took five awards.

The Weekly’s COVID-19 features

14 SOUTH SIDE WEEKLY ¬ MAY 19, 2022

earned them three awards, one for the series, “The Ripple Effects of COVID in Englewood, La Villita, and South Shore”

by Marie Mendoza, Ester Wells, Yvonne Krumrey, and Courtney Kueppers; and two for “What Went Wrong in Cook County Jail” by Kiran Misra, about the thousands of incarcerated people who battled COVID-19.

Jim Daley’s in-depth reporting of “How Chicago Policed Protests” in 2021 deservedly won an award; and for best education reporting, it was

Lily Levine’s cover story, “CPS Layoffs Shock Teachers." The Weekly’s friends— including the Hyde Park Herald, the Reader (there were copies of the paper at the Lisagors), City Bureau, and The TRiiBE—also took it home.

Shout out to the TRiiBE for closing the night with Best Community Media award! And congratulations to columnist Dahleen Glanton for the 2021 Lifetime Achievement Award.

The most rewarding part about the event, according to editor-in-chief

Jacqueline Serrato, was not just the plaque (or Olivia Obineme MCing) but hearing the resounding cheers of peers and supporters in what sometimes feels like an uphill battle. “There was an energy in the room that felt like a shift,” Serrato said. ¬

EDUCACIÓN

Hacer visible lo invisible

ILLUSTRATION BY KEVIN MOORE JR.

La contaminación afecta más a las escuelas del lado suroeste, según mapas de monitoreo del aire.

BY LILY LEVINE

A

l dar vuelta en la calle 47 al salir de la autopista Dan Ryan, parece que Kate Zanetti entra en una neblina de polvo y contaminantes en camino a su trabajo en la secundaria Back of the Yards College Prep. Mientras pasa terrenos con camiones, áreas de almacenamiento y fábricas, observa a sus alumnos caminando a la escuela entre remolinos de polvo levantados por los camiones que pasan. Estas partículas inevitablemente entrarán en sus pequeños sistemas respiratorios mientras inhalan en su caminar a clase.

“Cuando comencé a trabajar aquí,

me sorprendió la cantidad de estudiantes que tenían asma, hasta que realmente me senté y me di cuenta de que es muy probable que [sus condiciones] se deban a la contaminación del aire en el área en la que se criaron”, dijo Zanetti. “Me frustra porque esta injusticia ambiental probablemente fue la causa de que mis estudiantes padecieran condiciones de por vida. Los funcionarios de la ciudad continúan menospreciando a ciertas comunidades”.

Una nueva herramienta de justicia ambiental tiene como objetivo equipar a los miembros de la

comunidad, organizadores y legisladores con información para combatir estas desigualdades.

Los Paneles de Visualización Integral del Medio Oeste (MCVD, por sus siglas en inglés) son una serie de mapas interactivos que muestran las emisiones en relación a los estudiantes de las Escuelas Públicas de Chicago (CPS). El estudio preliminar de tres partes, realizado por el programa de Manejo de Emergencias y Planificación de Resiliencia (EMRP, por sus siglas en inglés) de la Escuela de Salud Pública de la Universidad de IllinoisChicago (UIC-SPH, por sus siglas en

inglés), encontró que es más probable que los peligros ambientales en el área de Chicago se concentren en vecindarios con escuelas de CPS que contienen una mayor inscripción latina.

El estudio, que tiene como objetivo dar a los miembros de la comunidad acceso a datos para educar a otros y fundamentar sus propias alegaciones de justicia ambiental, fue iniciado hace cuatro años cuando un grupo de organizaciones comunitarias y residentes locales del lado suroeste se acercaron a los investigadores de UIC en busca de una manera de exponer cuestiones del medio ambiente.

MAY 19, 2022 ¬ SOUTH SIDE WEEKLY 15

EDUCACIÓN Específicamente, estaban preocupados por el desarrollo de una planta de asfalto potencialmente peligrosa en McKinley Park, MAT Asphalt.

Al adoptar un diseño en colaboración con la comunidad, los investigadores implementaron una estrategia para involucrar a las partes interesadas locales.

Durante este período, trabajaron con la Southwest Environmental Alliance (SEA, por sus siglas en inglés) para realizar reuniones de grupos de enfoque y organizar presentaciones con varias entidades políticas, incluyendo del distrito 25, el Caucus Latino de Chicago, el Comité de Protección Ambiental y Energía, y el Concejo Municipal en general.

“Este es un movimiento de base.

Estas son personas normales que trabajan de manera increíble”, dijo Michael Cailas, investigador de UIC-SPH-EMRP. “[Organizaron] dos reuniones con el director de la Región Cinco de la EPA de EE.UU.— eso nunca sucede. Entonces es gracias a ellos que los funcionarios de las agencias oficiales están respondiendo”.

El resultado de estas charlas fue la creación de un mapa electrónico interactivo que muestra la distribución de fuentes potencialmente contaminantes que se considera que representan una amenaza para las comunidades de Chicago, propiedades “cuya expansión, desarrollo o reutilización pueden verse complicadas por la presencia o presencia potencial de una sustancia peligrosa, o contaminante”, según la EPA. Los usuarios pueden poner una dirección específica para determinar la cantidad y el tipo de peligros cerca de su ubicación, incluidas las Escuelas Públicas de Chicago. El mapa muestra a muchos de estos sitios industriales agrupados cerca de escuelas en Back of the Yards y La Villita.

“Hay contaminación ambiental en el área donde viven y adonde caminan y donde se pasan la mitad de la semana”, dijo Sambanis, investigador de UIC. “Y entonces existe esta contaminación y el potencial al que pueden estar expuestos, [que] debe tomarse en cuenta”.

Aunque este estudio no tiene ninguna relación con los resultados de salud, su importancia radica en su 16 SOUTH SIDE WEEKLY ¬ MAY 19, 2022

capacidad de visualizar el efecto de las emisiones peligrosas acumuladas de múltiples posibles fuentes en la misma área. Al otorgar permisos para más instalaciones, la Agencia de Protección Ambiental de Illinois (IEPA) y la Ciudad de Chicago solo tienen en cuenta el riesgo de esa instalación singular para la comunidad cercana; no consideran el impacto colectivo de muchas instalaciones cercanas una a otra.

Los investigadores detrás del MCVD esperan que se use como una herramienta para que los miembros y organizadores comunitarios documenten su estado en cuanto a contaminantes ambientales, identifiquen las disparidades en la salud de la comunidad y respalden sus reclamos de justicia ambiental. Aunque esta es solo una herramienta de apoyo a la toma de decisiones, dijo Cailas, el mapa se puede utilizar para ayudar a los legisladores con influencia a tomar decisiones más informadas sobre temas relacionados con el desarrollo urbano sostenible y el medio ambiente.

“Estamos tratando de darles [a los miembros de la comunidad] una voz para expresarse”, dijo Sambanis. “Cuando originalmente se acercaron a nosotros, lo que les preocupaba era un [permiso] para una planta de asfalto, mientras que esto ahora les da una visión de 30,000 pies del panorama general, y eso es lo que estamos tratando de que vean”.

En los últimos años, los residentes del sur se han unido para luchar contra una serie de injusticias ambientales.

Se organizaron para luchar contra la implosión de las chimeneas de Hilco; protestaron el permiso que le daría acceso a Sims Metal Management para operar en la zona; empujaron contra el permiso para la planta de asfalto MAT; y, más recientemente, ganaron contra General Iron para que se les niegue el permiso que le hubiera permitido a la empresa reubicar su planta de chatarra al lado sur.

Con esta herramienta, los organizadores y activistas de la comunidad tendrán evidencia más visible para abordar los problemas de justicia climática y abordar el problema más amplio de la discriminación estructural en Chicago.

E

l término "zonas de sacrificio" se refiere al terreno, el aire, y el agua que se han visto afectados por industrias muy contaminantes y que prosperan económicamente, pero a costa de las personas de color de bajos ingresos, dijo Citlalli Trujillo, miembro de Pilsen Environmental Rights and Reform Organization (PERRO, por sus siglas en inglés).

La justicia ambiental se trata de informar a la comunidad sobre las injusticias exponiéndolas, dijo en un panel con la temática de la Celebración del Mes de la Tierra presentado por el Centro Cultural Latino de UIC el 21 de abril.

Theresa McNamara ha sido organizadora comunitaria durante la mayor parte de su vida. Cuando era niña en Pilsen, seguía a su madre y hermana, quienes participaron en la creación de la Fiesta del Sol y, más tarde, participaron activamente en 1974 en la construcción de la que ahora es la escuela secundaria Benito Juárez. Desde entonces, ella y su familia se mudaron a McKinley Park, donde escuchó por primera vez que MAT Asphalt llegaría a la comunidad. Sin saber nada sobre el medio ambiente, buscó aprender más.

Un día que su esposo regresó del trabajo, comenzaron a tocar puertas en su cuadra. De las diez puertas que le abrieron, McNamara se sorprendió de escuchar que detrás de ocho de ellas habían personas que tenían algún tipo de cáncer.

“Eso fue totalmente revelador, porque ves a tus vecinos todas las mañanas mientras vas a tu carro y solo los saludas con un ‘Hola’, nunca dices ‘Oye, ¿qué enfermedad tienes? ¿Qué padeces?’”, dijo.

Siete de sus vecinos volvieron a reunirse en la casa de McNamara para platicar de sus problemas. En privado, una vecina compartió que había llevado a su hija al hospital un año y medio antes para una operación de daño cerebral. La vecina dijo que mientras estaba ahí, había conocido a otra persona en su cuadra, a cuyo hijo le iban a implantar una derivación por una afección en las vías respiratorias superiores relacionada con el cáncer. En ese momento, McNamara recordó que la hija del vecino llegó con

una gorra de béisbol puesta y un algodón debajo, cubriendo el hueco en su cráneo.

McNamara decidió tomar el asunto en sus propias manos y organizó una reunión con el concejal del distrito 12, George Cardenas, quien les aseguró que estaban instalando dos monitores de aire, uno en Ashland Avenue y otro en Western Avenue. En la reunión, una mujer compartió que todas las mañanas, cuando iba a su patio trasero a tomar su taza de café, tenía que limpiar la mesa y la silla porque estaban cubiertas de polvo.

“Me hizo pensar que [esto es un problema] más grande. Y cuando comencé a analizar el mapa de McKinley Park, me di cuenta de que estamos rodeados de corredores industriales”, dijo. “E incluso llegué a llevar a gente a MAT Asphalt como [una] guía turística; quería que ellos vieran, porque ¿cómo puedes luchar contra algo de lo que no sabes nada?"

Normalmente, una empresa de asfalto tiene que pasar por un proceso formal para avisar a sus vecinos y enviar cartas a la comunidad alertándolos de su presencia. Sin embargo, McNamara notó que MAT había hecho todo esto sospechosamente dentro de tres semanas.

Cuando llamó a la alcaldesa Lori Lightfoot, quien se había postulado con una plataforma de apoyo a la comunidad latinx y le había dicho personalmente a McNamara que iba a reiniciar el comité ambiental, Lightfoot ignoró sus llamadas.

Frustrada, McNamara inició una petición en 2020 y comenzó a organizar reuniones con vecinos y miembros de la comunidad para informarles sobre cuestiones ambientales pertinentes. Así nació SEA, para luchar contra el racismo ambiental a través de la acción directa.

Actualmente, el grupo está trabajando con UIC y la EPA para distribuir monitores de calidad del aire en Bridgeport y Brighton Park. También colaboraron con UIC en el estudio MCVD durante la fase comunitaria.

McNamara tiene la suerte de poder comprar un filtro de aire y un filtro de agua para evitar la exposición al plomo, pero reconoce que no todos pueden.

Con plomo todavía en las tuberías de agua y MAT Asphalt trayendo 200 camiones por día —a pesar de las cientos de quejas al respecto que se han presentado

EDUCACIÓN

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EDUCACIÓN ante la IEPA y el departamento de salud municipal— McNamara continúa pidiendo justicia y anima a su comunidad a hacer lo mismo.

E

l estudio de MCVD revela que los niños en los lados sur y oeste de Chicago enfrentan una mayor exposición a los peligros ambientales.

“No se trata de una instalación específica; el problema es cómo se distribuyen las instalaciones dentro de la ciudad. Este es el núcleo de la justicia ambiental distributiva”, dijo Cailas.

La escuela primaria Eliza Chappell, una escuela en el lado norte, se encuentra dentro de una milla de un corredor industrial, pero no está cerca de ninguna instalación riesgosa. En cambio, la Escuela Primaria Whittier, una escuela en el lado suroeste, no solo se encuentra dentro de una milla de un corredor industrial, sino que también está cerca de una estación ferroviaria, una zona industrial abandonada y cinco sitios que emiten dieciséis sustancias químicas tóxicas diferentes, incluyendo los carcinógenos tricloroetileno, tetracloroetileno, metilisobutilcetona, níquel, plomo y ftalato de di(2-etilhexilo).

Según los datos de la base de datos de las Escuelas Públicas de Chicago de 2016-2017, Whittier tenía 299 estudiantes matriculados, el 92.1 % de los cuales eran de bajos ingresos y el 99.1 % eran latinx.

Otro claro ejemplo de esta disparidad se ve en la Escuela Secundaria Preparatoria Back of the Yards College (BOYCP), que está ubicada en un área que obtuvo dieciséis veces más cifras que el promedio de la ciudad por su cercanía a instalaciones tóxicas. Según el mapa, la escuela está situada dentro de una milla de una planta de asfalto y diez sitios que emiten varios productos químicos: trimetilbenceno, tolueno, humo y polvo de zinc, éteres de glicol, plomo, xileno y ácido clorhídrico. Dentro de la misma área, también hay otras cuatro escuelas que se ven afectadas por los mismos contaminantes.

Zanetti enseña física, biología, y anatomía y fisiología en el BOYCP desde hace tres años. En su última clase, hizo que sus estudiantes de anatomía 18 SOUTH SIDE WEEKLY ¬ MAY 19, 2022

de tercer y cuarto año exploraran el sistema respiratorio con un laboratorio que imitaba la dificultad respiratoria.

En ese momento, los estudiantes que tenían trastornos respiratorios, en su mayoría asma, compartieron sus propias experiencias sobre cómo era sentirse angustiados.

Luego, la clase observó el índice de calidad del aire en Chicago, tanto en las distintas estaciones del año como durante períodos más largos, para hacer asesoramientos sobre cómo la calidad del aire afecta la función respiratoria. Todos los estudiantes mencionaron las fábricas, así como los camiones de dieciocho llantas manejan constantemente por la calle 47, dijo Zanetti.

“Hice este mini proyecto para que no solo pudieran ver los efectos de esta contaminación en su salud individual, sino también para que los estudiantes pudieran preguntarse por qué esto sucede tan abundantemente en su vecindario, pero no en todos los vecindarios”, dijo Zanetti. “Quería que los estudiantes vieran la injusticia ambiental, que quisieran defender a su comunidad y presionar a los funcionarios de la ciudad, porque no es justo que tengan que lidiar con esto”.

Desde que se mudó al lado norte en 2019 y empezó a trabajar en el lado suroeste, Zanetti dijo que notó que las disparidades raciales y socioeconómicas en la ciudad son muy evidentes.

“Es muy claro para mí que los funcionarios de la ciudad quieren mantener esta división clara entre los vecindarios del lado norte y sur, y el racismo ambiental que ocurre en estas comunidades es un efecto secundario desafortunado de esa injusticia”, dijo.

Mateo Curiel, un estudiante de cuarto año de BOYCP expresó su preocupación por su club de jardinería y cómo la calidad del aire afectaría la capacidad de crecimiento de las plantas.

“Honestamente, es realmente una pena porque nos gustaría tener más oportunidades para los estudiantes aquí. Y escuchar eso es bastante desalentador”, dijo.

La disparidad es evidente para Lorena Espinoza, estudiante de segundo año de BOYCP. “Vivimos en un lugar

donde estamos rodeados de fábricas.

Si caminas hacia el norte, este, oeste, sur, vas a ver una fábrica. Y siento que definitivamente tiene que ver con el hecho de que no vemos fábricas en el lado norte. Es más un problema general, y no solo [de] Back of the Yards”, dijo.

Guiffra cree que los estudiantes no deberían tener que preocuparse por su salud. “Los estudiantes deben tener un ambiente [de aprendizaje] limpio. Es su educación; es su futuro”.

A

pequeña escala, se ha demostrado que instalar filtros de aire en los salones produce mejoras sustanciales en el rendimiento de los estudiantes, según el profesor asistente de economía de la Universidad de Nueva York, Michael Gilraine. A nivel municipal, Sambanis cree que una mejor planificación urbana garantizará que las escuelas no se ubiquen entre zonas industriales con mucho tráfico y maquinaria.

Además, a nivel estatal, hay un nuevo proyecto de ley (HB4093) que requeriría una “revisión del impacto ambiental que evalúe los impactos ambientales directos, indirectos y acumulativos para la comunidad de justicia ambiental que está asociada con el proyecto propuesto”. Esto implicaría una evaluación cualitativa y cuantitativa de los impactos relacionados con las emisiones en el área, así como una evaluación de los indicadores de la exposición por inhalación.

Aunque estas intervenciones ciertamente aliviarán el problema, es imperativo garantizar que se sepan de estos problemas en primer lugar.

Una gran parte del trabajo de Qazi-Lampert se trata de concienciar a los residentes de los lados sur y oeste de los peligros ambientales que los afectan. Si bien algunas comunidades tienen los recursos para estar al tanto de lo que sucede en su entorno, dijo, hay otras que solo necesitan más acceso a esa información.

“Mucha gente puede o no saber qué materiales se colocan en los cimientos de sus escuelas y cómo [es] la calidad del agua. Solemos ser muy reactivos cuando vemos fotos de agua sucia o vemos moho, esas son cosas que se notan. Pero se trata

de ¿cómo hacer visible lo invisible?” dijo.

Continuando con la discusión después del horario escolar, QaziLampert y el Comité de Justicia Climática están trabajando para ganar renovaciones escolares en el lado suroeste y en otros lados. Hablando con maestros e iniciando el Proyecto de Educación de Justicia Climática, ella y su equipo han podido enseñar a unos ochenta maestros y vecinos sobre el concepto de justicia climática y conciencia climática.

“La justicia ambiental no se trata solo del medio ambiente, es justicia de salud, justicia de salud mental, justicia social, justicia económica y justicia educativa”, dijo. “Y cuando pensamos en los estudiantes y su entorno de aprendizaje, si no se satisfacen sus necesidades, entonces esa experiencia de aprendizaje será difícil.

Por eso, queremos asegurarnos como comunidad que todos creen un entorno seguro. Y nuestro comité está trabajando para asegurarse de que esto suceda lo antes posible”.

Aunque el estudio de MCVD puede ayudar como una poderosa herramienta de apoyo en la toma de decisiones, dependerá del público, los organizadores comunitarios y los políticos para cambiar las políticas referentes a los mayores contaminantes de Chicago. Según Apostolis Sambanis, esta investigación les permitirá a los activistas iniciar conversaciones de manera intelectual.

“Todo el mundo se preocupa por el bienestar, especialmente [el] de sus seres queridos. Y si no hacemos algo o no actuamos, solo seguirá empeorando con el tiempo. No es justo, y no está bien.

Nadie merece ser expuesto”, dijo. Lily Levine se crió en Los Ángeles y actualmente estudia estudios globales, salud y sociedad en la Universidad de Chicago.

Ella escribió anteriormente sobre los despidos en CPS.

DEVELOPMENT

What Would Community-Centered Development Look Like on the Southeast Side?

A proposed subsurface shipping and logistics facility that is trying to engage with the community has residents thinking about—and pushing for—a different kind of investment.

BY CAM RODRIGUEZ

F

or residents of Chicago’s Southeast Side, new developments tend to come with asterisks attached.

A new small business selling sports uniforms and equipment—that doesn’t have the customer base to support its higher prices. An apparently cutting edge coal-to-gas plant that was proposed in 2011—that couldn’t pass emissions tests and verify its clean status. Or a new gas station—that would have to compete with ones with lower taxes and prices just blocks away across the Indiana border.

More recently, Reserve Management Group (RMG) closed its General Iron facility in Lincoln Park and attempted to build a metal recycling plant on the Southeast Side despite a long history of environmentally damaging impacts. After a pressure campaign led by local residents to stop the proposal, which featured a month-long hunger strike, the Chicago Department of Public Health denied the permit in February.

But as organizers of the campaign celebrate their victory, East Side residents are already contending with a new development proposal. Ozinga Ventures, the venture capital arm of Chicago’s concrete giant, is financing the development The INVERT, which wants to build a sub-surface shipping and logistics facility at 11118 S. Buffalo Avenue in East Side, immediately north of General Iron’s proposed lot. Among its efforts to win over the community, The INVERT claims it will bring green jobs and is soliciting local input before putting forth a proposal to City Council.

Yet some residents are skeptical—

not only of whether The INVERT development will be good for their community, but if outside developers can be trusted given the region’s patterns of disinvestment and environmental injustice.

For Olga Bautista, an East Side resident and Executive Director of the Southeast Environmental Task Force, the focus of organizations and community members shouldn’t shift from one private company to the next—it should remain squarely on the City of Chicago and its regulatory policies for industrial corridors.

“My problems are not with these companies. My problem is with the city, because they have such a low bar when it comes to public health in industrial areas, and because we live in a worldclass city, you would think that protecting public health, and policies that are rooted in equity, would be easy to do,” she said.

“Everything that our mayors and our elected officials talk about, like equity and all these flashy words, [like] sustainability, all these things. But I’m more interested in the how. How will you do that, exactly?”

E

ast Side, a neighborhood tucked in the far Southeast part of Chicago between the Calumet River and the Indiana border, has been dealing with the impact of inadequate environmental policy for generations. With the area historically anchored economically by the steel industry, as steel crumbled across the Rust Belt and companies began shutting down their mills and processing plants in the 80s and 90s, East Side and neighboring South Deering and

Hegewisch felt the brunt of the impact.

But the influence of the former plants is far from gone, and has lingered in the form of polluted soil, drifting particulate matter, and environmental issues. Respiratory issues like asthma and COPD are common, and the soil of parkland and front lawns typically yield higher than acceptable levels of cadmium, manganese, and nickel.

Prior to arriving at her post at the Southeast Environmental Task Force, Bautista worked with the Alliance for the Great Lakes, pulling together the Calumet Connect Databook—a compendium of research and development guides for planners and residents about the industrialized nature of the region. The research team, including Bautista, ran its own testing of temperature and air quality and stacked it against that of the city and other peer-reviewed journals, painting a portrait of the neighborhoods within the Southeast Side and what needs to be done moving forward.

“What we discovered was that our neighborhood has the highest incidences of COPD, of heart disease.

We’re a community that is medically underserved,” she said, adding that “the burden of proof is on the community members,” and that they’ve “stepped up to the challenge” by conducting their own research and data collection and training residents in citizen science.

Not every industrial corridor in Chicago shares this fate. Lincoln Park, on the city’s North Side, had one of the most dense concentrations of industrial and manufacturing properties along the

North Branch of the Chicago River for a large part of the city’s history. But that neighborhood, which is whiter and more affluent, has flourished economically after years of remediation and redevelopment.

Lincoln Park residents are also healthier. In 2019, researchers with the University of Illinois at Chicago’s Great Cities program compared the socioeconomic and environmental impacts of these regions’ industrial legacies. They found that in addition to residents of the Southeast Side region

having an average life expectancy of three years below the citywide average of seventy-seven, there were stark differences between the formerly industrialized and affluent Lincoln Park and their study region, which spanned East Side, South Chicago, and South Deering. Those differences included drastically different MAY 19, 2022 ¬ SOUTH SIDE WEEKLY 19

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DEVELOPMENT rates of health insurance coverage, in addition to higher concentrations of lead toxicity and asthma in the latter region.

So not only are residents of the Southeast Side, who are largely low income and people of color, forced to learn about, vet, and in some cases combat the moves of multimillion-dollar polluters—they do so while navigating chronic illness and an impacted quality of life caused by industry.

Over the years, industrial companies based in Lincoln Park have moved out, some to the Southeast Side. In 2014, Finkl Steel moved from Lincoln Park’s Clybourn industrial corridor to a new spot in Burnside, at 93rd and Kenwood.

RMG tried, unsuccessfully, to move its General Iron facility from Lincoln Park to the East Side. And while Ozinga hasn’t announced plans to move the Lincoln Park location of its concrete business, it is actively looking to develop in the Southeast Side, by buying up land and investing in The INVERT. The proposed INVERT development would be located on the site directly north of the General Iron/RMG site and directly south of the East Side Little League field. The site, which is largely grass and shrub, is a brownfield site, an under-utilized, industrialized lot with potential or actual contamination from hazardous materials. The INVERT’s team was drawn to the property because of its potential for reuse, according to public relations head Jim Sibley, and inspired by past projects like SubTropolis, a fifty-five million square foot abandoned mine-turned-storage site in Kansas City that is now host to one of the country’s largest shipping and logistics operations.

In order to build on brownfield sites, developers typically have to remediate them⁠—clean them of pollution to a passable level determined by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), so the construction process doesn’t further spread contaminants or create a hazardous environment for residents and builders alike.

According to the INVERT, the land they want to build on is contaminated, but remediation isn’t necessary because the contaminants are “buried in gravel, slag and other crushed material,” up to thirty feet below ground. The developers’

construction approach—vertical shafts, to minimize the amount of surface-level disturbance—is “located away from the hotspots” that are monitored by the EPA, with the system for trucks to course in and out being located where contaminants aren’t, on the east side of the lot.

11118 S. Buffalo Avenue, the proposed location for INVERT, and its surrounding lots are currently listed as being owned by Whitehorse Properties, a company headed by Alan and Simon Beemsterboer, of Beemsterboer Slag Corporation, according to the Secretary of State’s office. In 2014, the company fled Chicago amid legal challenges and pressure from then-mayor Rahm Emanuel to cease storing and importing petroleum coke, or petcoke, on its property at 106th Street. Petcoke has been directly tied to worsening respiratory issues, and open storage of it—when the substance is stored openly in massive piles, often uncovered—is routinely fought by environmentalists and public health experts. The company has since removed its store of petcoke.

Another company, KCBX Terminals, was also wrapped up in the discussions about proper petcoke monitoring. Piles of petcoke, while monitored, still sit directly next to The INVERT’s proposed location and the houses beyond.

T

he East Side’s fraught connection with industrial developments— and their effects on locals— means residents are careful when approaching potential developments. But the region’s history as an industrial and manufacturing powerhouse, and the roots of many families in that history, is hard to ignore as companies eye abandoned sites for redevelopment.

“When I was a kid, coming up, that was kind of where we saw ourselves. We saw ourselves as the parents or other family members working in the mills, you know, one day I’m going to go up, and I’ll probably work in there,” lifelong resident Roberto Eckes said. “But once the stuff closed down, the economy, if you will, was devastated.”

“A lot of people and family members that I knew were hanging around. Always hanging around because they thought the jobs were going to come back.”

Around 2010, a redevelopment proposal was made to turn the shuttered US Steel South Works site in South Chicago into housing with a privatepublic partnership including almost 14,000 single-family units and a possible lakeshore events venue. Known as the McCaffery Development, Eckes said the response was incredibly mixed. Sure, housing was good, he remembers people saying at community meetings, but weren’t jobs better? And for people who already have homes here, why would they need a different one?

“People in our community need jobs, especially. Like, people are selling drugs or selling their bodies, you know, because they don’t have these opportunities.

And this is what you’re not offering us,” Eckes said.

Eckes, who is a member of the grassroots community organization R.I.S.E. South East Chicago, partnered with other organizations to try to put a stop to the development itself over fears of gentrification and a lack of investment in the community. The development was axed in 2016 after U.S. Steel and McCaffery “split,” according to a DNAinfo article.

This idea—of investing in the future for people to potentially relocate to a community, instead of pouring resources into the present and the people who already live there—is something that former Southeast Environmental Task Force executive director Peggy Salazar is all too familiar with. As someone who has lived in the South Chicago and East Side communities for decades, who grew up across the street from steel mills and whose husband worked in them, Salazar’s commitment to seeing her neighborhood succeed runs deep.

“One of the difficult things for communities like ours is that for decades, we are ignored and there’s no investment in them. Then when they do come to invest, they do things with the hopes that—and we know this to be a fact— the current residents who are here will not be able to stay and afford to live here once they do revitalize the area,” Salazar said. “So we know that’s the pattern.

It’s a given. It’s a pattern...Where’s the balance? How do we balance that?”

The pattern of transitioning formerly

industrialized areas into ones that can generate revenue for developers is a pattern that exists far outside of just Chicago. And for a city with a prominent manufacturing history, Chicago—and especially the North Side—hides it well, according to urban planner Nicholas Zettel. While conducting research at the University of Illinois Chicago, Zettel closely looked at how cities develop and redevelop our industrial zoning and corridors. According to him, emerging manufacturing corridors aren’t as visible within central business districts and more affluent parts of cityscapes as they used to be, especially as developers pivot to sleek, green builds.

“Manufacturing doesn’t mean that something with smokestacks is going to come into your neighborhood all the time anymore, so the toughest thing in a high land value market is trying to convince people that you could repurpose land for what the next thirty or forty or even fifty years look like for manufacturing resurgence,” said Zettel. “And this is going to be cleaner industries. It’s going to be smaller; they might change faster.”

According to Zettel, when it comes to redeveloping industrial land and imagining a future for manufacturing, developers “just don’t have a concept of how to use that type of zoning or how to focus on that type of land use, because in urban development the first, most important thing everyone looks at is to make sure you get ‘highest and best use’ out of every single parcel.”

“That to me is like the biggest challenge right now, because a lot of developers and people who are in real estate...they just won’t hear it. They do that traditional 1980s-style development still, where as soon as manufacturing becomes obsolete, you shift over to highend residential, and that’s how you make your money on your land,” he adds.

It’s this kind of approach that leads to a shut-down steel mill to be redeveloped into a multimillion-dollar housing, entertainment, and retail project—and that’s not McCaffery. That’s what has happened to the abandoned site of Finkl Steel on the Chicago River in the city’s North Branch industrial corridor, now rebranded and redeveloped into Lincoln Yards, a sprawling riverfront MAY 19, 2022 ¬ SOUTH SIDE WEEKLY 21

DEVELOPMENT megadevelopment slated to break ground later this year after years of tense dialogue between neighbors and business owners in the area.

According to The INVERT, in the first stage of its process, the developers project they will create 300 construction jobs, with “the potential to add over 250 permanent jobs” per year in addition to construction-related positions until the development is completed.

“This could be the biggest jobcreating project on the Far South Side in decades,” said Alberto Rincon, the head of The INVERT’s community impact efforts. Previously, Rincon was an environmental activist and director of the neighborhood’s Southeast Side Coalition to Ban Petcoke.

For Eckes, the idea of a brandnew megadevelopment with jobs that might be inaccessible or not permanent to the neighborhood it’s in isn’t a tenable solution.

“The area itself has always kind of served as a gateway for immigrants and working class people looking to get their start, you know, and there’s still a lot of people like that in the area,” said Eckes. “We want to make sure that they are provided the opportunities and other people that want to come in and build themselves up have those same opportunities. Unfortunately, if the city is successful in what their vision apparently is, it’s not going to be that community. It’s going to be more of a Lincoln Park–style place for the wealthy on the north end and then, you know, the people on the south end being poorer, dirty, suffering more, smaller, with smokestacks.”

Eckes added that heavy reinvestment into the communities already calling a place home can allow them to reinvest in their own neighborhoods and establish a stronger tax base. “If we’re given jobs, if we’re given opportunities, we’re educated, and we have all this, we can be the ones to open up the businesses, or open up the shops, and do other things to help boost up the area, if you will.”

Zettel believes the city needs to be investing more in clean opportunities for the Southeast Side that marry the need for workable jobs with non-polluting industry. “[We] have got to bring that cleaner stuff to the Southeast Side too. [We]

22 SOUTH SIDE WEEKLY ¬ MAY 19, 2022

shouldn’t keep perpetuating the history of environmental racism where you say, ‘Okay, so now the North Side’s getting these like clean, innovative, new waves of manufacturing and the South Side gets, you know, the scraps shredder.’ That’s not good for anybody,” Zettel said. “So, you kind of have to look at the whole region and say,, what does environmental justice look like? How do we end environmental racism? And how do you convince people that these new changes in manufacturing

[warehousing], you know, they’re well above ground, right? Why did he need to build under? It just doesn’t make sense.”

“They’re a startup. What is it, like ninety percent of startups or something like that fail? What you’re talking about is you’re building this giant underground excavated point where you don’t already have customers lined up.

There’s no guarantee that you’re going to be successful,” he said. “And if you’re not successful, we’re stuck with this big

are viable?” aking new changes viable is exactly what The INVERT is trying to sell.

According to Sibley, The INVERT won’t be tied to any one company or industry because it will be a space for many potential tenant companies. “We’re talking about roughly six million square feet of space,” he said. “If you think about the Southeast Side, that community at one point was almost entirely dependent on one industry, and when that went away, so did the economic interest of that community.”

For Eckes, the idea of this kind of innovation—an underground development—is too large of a risk, both for his community and for the environment.

“I don’t see it. There’s no other explanation I could think of for why they need to build underground,” Eckes said. “I mean, we have NorthPoint

giant hole.”

According to the INVERT team, they’ve undertaken a deep engagement process within the community to reduce harm in the East Side area, which has been deeply scarred by the injustice of environmental racism and neglected by the city and state.

“It’s certainly been an active space,” Sibley said, referring to the developers’ “Community Engagement Center” at 10548 S. Ewing. “Just to have frank and open dialogues about the project with people...and you know that the response has been very positive. The INVERT team is very interested in listening to all those points of view and gathering input, making adjustments, and that has been extremely helpful.”

“I think sometimes you see in other developments where an application is applied for—there’s an application for development with the City of Chicago, and then after that application is put in

M

place, then sometimes developers go and engage the community. Here, in this case, The INVERT did the opposite. They also inverted that process,” Sibley said.

But it’s this overcommitment to the company’s idea of engagement that, ironically, leaves community members questioning the developers’ intentions, particularly when the project is so financially lucrative.

“This is the first time that a facility has gone to this trouble to win. You know, they throw out the first pitch at the Little League game. They’ve co-sponsored every Music Fest and neighborhood fest.

In the neighborhood, they’ve donated money to the high schools. And they aren’t even here yet. I think they want to make it really difficult and make it really confusing for people to like, they want to dominate the narrative,” Bautista said.

Sibley claims that, pending the results of the impact studies, which will assess the impact that construction will have on the site and surrounding communities, as well as feedback they receive from the community, the INVERT team expects to break ground late this year. The development, still very much in the planning phase and not yet brought before the city’s department of Planning and Development, hinges on that feedback.

“People [would] ask us questions early on that we hadn’t had the answer for yet,” Sibley said. “Because it’s so uncommon to actually sit down and have a conversation about an idea before ever putting a shovel in the ground or making a formal application or anything like that. So, when the team didn’t know the answer to the question, they were very open about that. We don’t know. We have to think about that.”

Regardless, Bautista isn’t convinced.

“Ozinga has always been a battle... their mission is not to protect the public health of the community. That’s my mission. Their mission? Their plans? To make money.” Cam Rodriguez is a data journalist currently working for education newsroom Chalkbeat, and likes reporting on issues involving local history, infrastructure and communities.

This is Cam’s first story for the Weekly.

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MAY 19, 2022 ¬ SOUTH SIDE WEEKLY 23

BULLETIN Guided Tour of Historic Former Wabash YMCA

Former Wabash YMCA, 3763 S Wabash Ave, Every other Saturday, 10:30am– 11:30am. Suggested donation $20. bit.ly/ FormerWabash Every other Saturday, the Renaissance Collaborative is leading tours of the former Wabash YMCA, an historic center of Black social life. Built in 1911, in the heart of the Black Belt, it was the only Y in the city that admitted Black people for many years. In 1915, the Association for the Study of Negro Life was founded here and went on to create a precursor to Black History Month.

The tour uses archived newspaper articles and archival photos to tell the story of the building and the people who congregated there. (The link may say the event has ended, but if you click on 'View Details' it will take you to the page where you can select a different date.) (Adam Przybyl)

Adler Planetarium Free Days

Adler Planteraium, 1300 S Lake Shore Dr, Wednesdays, 4:00pm–10:00pm. Free. bit. ly/AdlerFreeDays The Adler reopened March 4 and is once again holding free days for Illinois residents on Wednesday evenings.

24 SOUTH SIDE WEEKLY ¬ MAY 19, 2022

Whether going on a date or taking your family, your ticket will let you watch a simulation of the Chicago night sky without light pollution, learn fun facts about the solar system, and examine old telescopes and sun dials. You'll have the option to pay to upgrade your ticket to include sky shows, half-hour movies in the dome theater about the moon and a mysterious ninth planet, among other topics. (Adam Przybyl)

South Side Critical Mass Bike Ride

purchase an alcoholic beverage from the Taproom, you must be 21+. (Kevin Lilly, Bubbly Dynamics)

The Hamilton Park Cultural Center is hosting free skate sessions every Tuesday and Thursday. Bring your own gear.

There may be someone there to teach, but be prepared to be on your own. Must be eighteen years or older. Registration fee is $10. Sign-up in person or online at chicagoparkdistrict.com (Adam Przybyl)

Mobile City Halls

The South Side Book Fair

Nichols Park, south end, 1300 E 55th St, First Friday of the month, 5:45pm– 10:00pm. Free. bit.ly/CriticalMassBike

The Plant, 1400 W 46th St, Sunday, May 29, 1:00pm–4:00pm. Free to attend. bit. ly/3F8SiNa

Do you want to bike around Chicago, but are worried about being the only cyclist on busy streets? At the critical mass bike ride, you can join a large group of cyclists and bike for around fifteen to twenty miles at a moderate pace. The organizers of the event remind attendees that you come at your own risk and to bring water, a bike lock, a mask, and to wear a helmet. The group will meet at the south end of Nichols Park and ride at 6:15pm. The event takes place on the first Friday of the month throughout the year except winter. Next dates are June 3rd and July 1st. (Adam Przybyl)

Come purchase books and other items from local vendors, learn about great organizations doing amazing work, enjoy some pizza and beer from Whiner Beer Co., and renew your Library Card!

Vendors will include Back of the Yards Library, Pilsen Community Books, Open Books, Liberation Library, Haymarket Books, and more. Also on the program for the day is an optional hour-long tour of The Plant at 2pm, though you must register online beforehand. Meanwhile, Whiner will hold a complimentary tour of their brewery at 3pm, and their taproom will be open until 8pm. The Packingtown Museum will be open from 11am-3pm, and admission is free.

The event is family-friendly, however, to

Rollerskating at Hamilton Park Hamilton Park Cultural Center, 513 W.

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72nd St., Every Tuesday and Thursday, 5:30pm–7:00pm. $10 Registration fee. chicagoparkdistrict.com

Various locations, Saturday, May 21, 10:00am–1:00:00pm.

The City is once again offering mobile city halls, a collection of traveling city services that will stop at various points around Chicago over the next few months. Many of the locations will be in parks. Residents can purchase dog licenses, apply for a CityKey, purchase City stickers and residential parking permits. Some of the next mobile city halls will appear at Scottsdale Park on May 21, Chicago High School for Agricultural Sciences on June 4, and Archer Park on June 16. They take place from 10am-1pm. No appointment is needed. Check out chicityclerk.com/ mobilecityhall for more info.

(Adam Przybyl)

EDUCATION Assata's Daughters Spring Programming Free. bit.ly/37mwoK8

Assata's Daughters' spring programming is for young Black folks of high school age in Chicago who want to build community with their peers, learn

movement history and organizing strategy, and support their community, all while earning money. Priority is given to those who are ages thirteen to seventeen, girls/women, and gendernonbinary folks. Sign up at bit. ly/37mwoK8. (Maddie Parrish)

Saturday until October 29.

(Martha Bayne)

After School Matters Summer Programs

Happening over Memorial Day Weekend, this festival, which has taken place most years since 2009, features dozens of local restaurants and chefs who will compete to present the best mole. The festival will be located on 18th St. around Blue Island and Ashland Avenues, and include a market where you can find local art and crafts, music, dancing, and lucha libre wrestling matches. (Adam Przybyl)

Various locations, Tuesday, July 5 to Saturday, August 13. afterschoolmatters.org After School Matters's summer programs run from July 5 to August 13 and are mostly in-person with a few remote options. Chicago teenagers ages 14-15 can apply for apprenticeships that offer a paid stipend, and teenagers ages 16+ can apply for advanced apprenticeships and internships, which offer stipends or hourly pay at $15/hour.

Program opportunities fall into the four major categories of arts, such as dance, photography, painting; communications and leaderships, like public speaking and community organizing; sports, like basketball officiating, martial arts, and bicycle repair; and STEM, like architecture, music production, and computer programming. Learn more at afterschoolmatters.org (Adam Przybyl)

FOOD & LAND 61St St. Farmers Market

Experimental Station, 6100 S. Blackstone Ave., Every Saturday until October, 9:00am–2:00pm. Free to attend. experimentalstation.org/market With spring in full gear, come find farm-fresh vegetables, seedlings, and other products from local farmers and creators. The 61st St. Farmers Market will kick-off fully outdoor markets next Saturday, May 14 at the Experimental Station. Vendors include Ellis Family Farms, Mick Klug Farm, Gorman Farm Fresh Produce, Faith's Farm, Mint Creek Farm, Stamper Cheese, The Urban Canopy, and others. As ever, the market accepts LINK and Senior Farmers Market Coupons, and will match LINK purchases up to $25 per customer per market day, as long as funding holds out.

Customers must wear masks while inside the building. The market will be every

Mole de Mayo

18th St. between Ashland and Blue Island Avenues, Friday, May 27, 12:00pm. Free to attend. moledemayo.org

ARTS Art and Race Matters: The Career of Robert Colescott

Chicago Cultural Center, Exhibit Hall, Fourth Floor, 78 E. Washington St., Through May 29, Free. bit.ly/3NOq12l A comprehensive retrospective exhibits the work of Robert Colescott, a Black twentieth-century artist and satirist who took aim at race, class, and gender in America, will be on display through May 29. ( Jim Daley)

Young Chicago Authors Wordplay Open Mic

Instagram Live, Every Tuesday, 6:00pm–7:30pm. Free. instagram.com/ youngchicagoauthors One of the longest-running youth open mics, Worldplay, is back every Tuesday on Instagram Live. The virtual open mic is hosted by DJ Ca$hera and showcases music, spoken-word performances, and a featured artist. (Chima Ikoro)

Chess Records Tours

Chess Records, 2120 S. Michigan Ave., Tuesdays through Saturdays, 12:00pm– 4:00pm. $20 donation. info@bluesheaven.com Willie Dixon’s Blues Heaven, the foundation that owns the building formerly known as Chess Records, is resuming tours of the place that saw

some of the most legendary Black artists in the '50s and '60s: Muddy Waters, Chuck Berry, and Etta James, among them. The second floor is dedicated to Dixon, and the recording studio displays period artifacts. Tours are Thursday through Saturday afternoons. (312) 8081286 ( Jackie Serrato)

Rudy Lozano Exhibit

UIC's Richard J. Daley Library, 801 S. Morgan St., 7:00am–9:00pm. Free.

Chicago's most well-known Chicano activist is the subject of a new exhibit at UIC’s Richard J. Daley Library, “A Search for Unity: Rudy Lozano and the Coalition Building in Chicago,” which runs until next fall. The exhibit is made up of papers, photographs, posters and other memories about Lozano, who was murdered in Little Village when he was 31, after losing a bid to become the city’s first Mexican-American alderman.

Saturdays closed. Check the library's COVID guidelines. ( Jackie Serrato)

Latinoamérica en Chicago Exhibition

of ten visitors per hour, and all visitors must wearScan masks. to Tuesdays view thru theFridays. ( Jackie Serrato)

calendar online!

Invisible Warriors: AfricanAmerican Women in WWII

DuSable Museum of African-American History, 740 E. 56th Pl., Wednesday May 25, 6:00pm–8:00pm. Free. bit.ly/3ll3ptq The DuSable Museum of AfricanAmerican History is hosting a screening of Invisible Warriors. According to their website, the movie "explores the wartime experiences of 600,000 AfricanAmerican 'Rosie the Riveters.' Black Rosies were pioneers who courageously triumph over racism and sexism to help win the war, creating job opportunities in industry and government for themselves and future generations of African-American women." Film creator Professor Gregory S. Cooke will be there for a discussion following the screening.

Registration online is required. An earlier screening at 10am will be for schools. (Adam Przybyl)

Dragonfly Gallery and Creative Spaces, 2436 W. Madison St., 6:00pm– 9:00pm. Free.

A showcase of seventeen Latinx artists expressing how they live their culture in Chicago. Artists include Rene H. Arceo, Carlos Barberena, Alma Dominguez, Jada Nave, Juan Hernández, and Reynaldo GuAracibo Rodriguez. ( Jackie Serrato)

Gómez-Peña’s Casa Museo

Jane Addams Hull House Museum, 800 S. Halsted St.,Tuesdays through Fridays, 9:00am–5:00pm. hullhousemuseum.org/ reserve-your-visit

SCAN TO READ ONLINE

Pioneering conceptual-performance Mexican artist Guillermo Gómez-Peña takes up residence in Jane Addams Hull House Museum. The exhibition layers one house museum on top of two others, located in San Francisco and Mexico City, highlighting the many affinities between the identities of Gómez-Peña. Following recent updates to UIC’s guidelines of COVID-19, guest reservations are limited to a maximum MAY 19, 2022 ¬ SOUTH SIDE WEEKLY 25

EDUCATION

Meet Chicago’s Youngest Elected Officials Interviews with four elementary school students who won spots on their local school councils.

BY MADELEINE PARRISH

T

his year, for the first time ever, elementary school students in sixth through eighth grade in Chicago Public Schools were able to run for their schools’ Local School Councils (LSC). These students will be working alongside parents, community members, and teachers on their LSCs to make decisions in their schools (aside from voting on contracts, the allotment

of teaching and staff resources, and the principal’s evaluation). The Weekly sat down with four elementary school students who won a spot on their school’s LSC to get to know them and hear about their vision for their schools.

Zariyah Thompson

George Washington Carver Elementary School, Riverdale Seventh grade Can you introduce yourself?

My name is Zariyah Thompson and I’m in the seventh grade here at Carver Elementary. I enjoy helping my technology teacher out. My true passion is baking, and it’s called Sweetz’s treats.

I started it when I was eleven years old, about two years ago, and I’m determined to own my own bakery as an adult. My favorite things to bake are butter cookies, chocolate chip cookies, caramel pound cake, and red velvet cake. I also like writing romance and comedy.

What inspired you to run for Carver’s LSC? I was inspired because I wanted to be the voice for the students here at Carver and I wanted to be a part of the changes that were gonna be made.

PHOTO BY MADELEINE PARRISH

26 SOUTH SIDE WEEKLY ¬ MAY 19, 2022

What changes would you like to see made at Carver Elementary?

The kinds of changes I want to see are better funding for updated computers, and to make that happen, we would need more community events and fundraising.

I would like to see more parent volunteers for trips, and more educational trips to colleges, high schools, and art museums for kids for the future. And tutors, more one-on-one tutoring for students who don’t understand the work.

What are you most excited for in your new role as an LSC member?

I’m most excited about being a part of the changes that are gonna be made, and I’m excited to work with my teachers and the parents.

PHOTO BY MADELEINE PARRISH

Paris Embry

Ray Elementary, Hyde Park Seventh Grade Can you introduce yourself?

My name is Paris Embry. I'm a proud member of Ray Elementary and I'm in homeroom 301 in seventh grade. I'm primarily interested in football, math, reading and video games.

What inspired you to run for Ray’s LSC? I was mostly inspired by the fact that I will be able to speak, as a student, what I can do to help and improve the Ray

EDUCATION school. Also, this will look good on my high school and college applications. I aspire to be a computer engineer when I grow up, and I think this will help me in my development in the future.

What changes would you like to see made at Ray Elementary?

Since I came back from virtual learning, our principal has changed a lot and made the school much better. She has added new walls, rugs, and put the decor on the stairs. But there's some small spaces for improvement. For example, all the boys’ bathrooms I’ve been to, they’ve been a little dirty. I know the janitors try hard to keep them clean, but it doesn't last long since the students violate them. But I'm sure the girls are in the same predicament, they might not be, that’s something I couldn’t tell.

The cafeteria’s food could also improve a little bit. We have a good selection and the food isn’t horrible or anything. But some days the food isn’t quite as appealing as it could be. So I was thinking this year we could incorporate a special meal once a week or once a month.

Also, I've noticed a few conflicts. It’s not horrible or anything, but it mostly happens when we're playing competition-based games, or any type of sports. We have staff and security mostly around watching this, so it doesn't go bad most of the time, but sometimes it can get out of hand. So I was thinking of brainstorming with the security and the staff that watches what I can do to help them and even if I could talk to them—they're my peers—and see what’s wrong when they play sports. Also, today, for example, I got into a bit of a conflict myself, a student approached me with bad intentions. And since I'm on the LSC, I reacted differently than another student would.

What inspired you to run for Walsh’s LSC? My friends inspired me to run, specifically Donna. But my brother and parents listened to my plan to run and they said, “Go for it!”

What changes do you want to see made at Walsh?

What are you most excited about in your new role as an LSC member?

I'm mostly excited to talk with other LSC members to see what I can do to help improve Ray Elementary. Also, I'm excited to speak on behalf of the other students on what they want to see change within school.

Hazel Negrete

Gunsaulus Scholastic Academy, Brighton Park Sixth Grade Can you introduce yourself?

I’m Hazel Negrete. I'm in sixth grade. I like to use wire to make jewelry, do arts and crafts, bake, do my acrylic nails and also play with dad’s guitars.

What inspired you Gunsaulus’s LSC?

to

run

for

One of my teachers, Ms. Cornejo, told me about the opportunity and that I could help make changes in the school and help other students’ voices be heard.

I was interested in running after hearing more about that and that made me feel happy because I had the chance to help make my school a better place and a better community.

What changes do you want to see made at Gunsaulus Scholastic Academy?

PHOTO BY MADELEINE PARRISH

covered strawberries. She loves them too!

I love playing basketball with my brother Bruno. We are making a basketball court in my backyard this summer. I love visiting with my dad every weekend. He takes me shopping and we get to have special father and daughter time together at the mall.

PHOTO BY MADELEINE PARRISH

I would like to see less bullying, teaching everyone to be kinder with their words and also the repercussions their words can have on others. Also, I would like every student to have the ability to fill out a weekly check-in survey to see how they’re doing. Both teachers and student leaders could look these over and see which students may need a check-in.

What are you most excited for in your role as an LSC member?

I will get to be a part of the decision making at the school. My voice and other students’ voices will be able to be heard and to learn new things and to help make a difference.

Maria I. Zarco

John A. Walsh Elementary, Pilsen Sixth Grade

I want to change the environment of all schools so students feel safe when they come each day. I don’t think much needs to change at Walsh because our teaching staff and security are great. As far as other schools, I want to make sure that all teaching staff treat students equally.

What are you most excited for in your role as an LSC member?

I am excited to see the improvements and changes as they happen. We have a garden now thanks to Mr. Gomez and Ms. Serr. It’s a nice improvement. Also, our bathroom stalls are getting murals painted by the seventh graders. It's great to see these things happen. I am kind of nervous about my new role because I don’t know what is going to happen in the future but I want to be a part of it. Madeleine Parrish is the Weekly’s education editor. She last wrote about segregation in Chicago Public Schools in partnership with WTTW’s FIRSTHAND: Segregation series.

Can you introduce yourself?

I am in sixth grade at Walsh Elementary School. I enjoy baking with my mom.

She teaches me a lot about cooking. We enjoy baking cupcakes every week for my family. My favorite treat is chocolate MAY 19, 2022 ¬ SOUTH SIDE WEEKLY 27

August Wilson’s

TWO TRAINS RUNNING

MAY 13 - JUNE 12

DIRECTED BY RESIDENT ARTIST

RON OJ PARSON

Sponsored by Allstate Gustavo Bamberger and Martha Van Haitsma Neil Ross and Lynn Hauser Ron OJ Parson’s residency is supported by The Joyce Foundation Art by Daniel Minter

Tickets: (773) 753-4472 CourtTheatre.org 5535 S Ellis Ave, Hyde Park Free Garage Parking