urban roots teen environmental justice program is a seasonal employment opportunity offered at garfield park conservatory in chicago to students from al raby high school. participants can learn to be conservatory docents, receive mentorship, and build a better relationship with nature through the program. 

max meyers, youth program coordinator, said that staff are in the process of finalizing participants for the spring session. but in order to make the program as accessible as possible, they try not to turn students away. 

“the number one thing we’re looking for is engagement. like being able to show up physically, emotionally and mentally in that space,” meyers said.

an evolving program for a changing world

when the program was started in 2016, students would give tours during their breaks in school. in 2022, the program shifted to being offered on a semesterly basis and as an after-school program. marqueketa glenn, director of youth education at the conservatory, was hired in march 2022 with the intention of taking the project in a new direction. 

“when i came into this role, i was just thinking how we could make this program less like school, and more geared around the youth’s interests and what they want to learn,” she said. “we still do docent training, but we’ve added the environmental justice component and the mentorship component that we’re still working on, but we’re trying to launch new things,” glenn said.

students learn how to plan and lead tours, maintain their own gardens, identify plants in the conservatory, as well as take field trips to different nature spaces and become engaged with local environmental justice issues. glenn said that the program also collaborates with organizations such as seed your future, which works to promote interest in green careers. 

“as far as green jobs and green education, i think they’re really important, especially right now. when in high school, [students] talk about all the jobs that [they] can have, and it’s usually the same types of jobs every time. ‘i want to be a doctor, i want to be a lawyer, i want to be a teacher.’ we want to give more awareness about what other jobs are out there,” said glenn. 

covid, however, affected some participation in the program, and glenn and meyers said that they are still in the process of trying to rebuild. but the program is the most “in-person” that it has been since the beginning of the pandemic.

“it was a pretty established program. and then covid came and it was totally restructured for remote learning,” said meyers. “since then it’s gone through a number of iterations trying to adapt to the pandemic.”

providing mentorship and guidance for chicago’s youth

the first iteration of the program did, however, keep some alumni around, such as a’shanti johnson, who now works as a program assistant for urban roots after being a participant in 2017. johnson was hired directly from the program as a front desk associate. she later took on the role as program assistant in june of last year.

she said that before being in the program, she had never been to the conservatory. nor had she conserider her potential role in tending to plants. 

“i don’t have a green thumb. if i were to have a plant and try to take care of it, it probably would pass away. but when i grew my garden, i loved it,” johnson said.

now she said that she knows plenty about how plants grow and adapt. as the program assistant she helps to facilitate lesson plans and to coordinate students’ needs. and being with the conservatory for over five years now, she’s able to offer important conservatory expertise to glenn and meyers.

“she has more knowledge about the program than either of us because she was in it and she was here longer. she’s been very helpful in structuring the docent training with the young people,” said glenn.

since johnson is closer in age with urban roots students, she said that she sometimes acts as a bridge between meyers and participants. but johnson still feels the difference between her generation and the younger one, saying that students now tend to be a lot more bold in talking about environmental issues than previous cohorts.

“we knew what was happening in the world. but when we got to the conservatory, it was a safe space where we really didn’t have to focus much on it or actually deal with it,” said johnson. “now it’s still a safe space, but students speak more openly about their pain, and how they feel in that safe space.”

while the program encourages students to pursue green careers, it isn’t the most important program outcome. 

“you don’t have to commit to going into the green industry [to be in the program]. it’s just about being an aware and responsible person on this earth and understanding your nature connection and why it’s important,” said glenn.

“it just makes no sense that a heavy industrial facility was able to be constructed seemingly overnight because of the connections and the clout that they had within the city and the state,” romo said in a may interview. “and here we are [four years later] feeling those direct impacts across from a park that is an open green space and a community center.”

romo serves as the executive director of the mckinley park environmental organization neighbors for environmental justice (n4ej). the group formed after the construction of the facility for asphalt mixing company mat asphalt, at 2055 w. pershing road.

“there were zero public meetings or public notice of any kind from any of our elected officials or regulatory agencies: not our alderman, not the illinois epa, not the chicago department of public health,” according to n4ej’s website.

the work of n4ej and other environmental justice groups aim to challenge business-as-usual chicago politics that push heavy industry into neighborhoods of color, often within the city’s industrial corridors. victories on this front are increasing yet locally focused in recent years, but systemic change may be on the horizon.

enough is enough

a two-year investigation from the federal department of housing and urban development (hud) concluded in july, ruling that the city violated residents’ civil rights by deliberately placing heavy industry facilities in industrial corridors largely concentrated in the city’s predominantly black and latino neighborhoods. 

in a july 19 letter to chicago mayor lori lightfoot, hud threatened to withhold its community development block grant to the city (amounting to $375 million) if it does not change unlawful planning and land-use policies. 

the hud ruling and the opportunity for realignment of power in the city council where several aldermen have resigned could have an impact on city council and mayoral races in chicago’s municipal election on feb. 28, 2023. 

hud initially launched the investigation in october 2020 after three neighborhood-based environmental organizations filed a complaint against the city regarding this industrial relocation. the complaint was sparked by outcry over a proposed move of metal-scrapping facility general iron from predominantly white lincoln park to the heavily black and latino southeast side.

gina ramirez, board president of the environmental justice organization southeast environmental task force (setf), emphasized the importance of the block grant funding—which supports public health and social programs for low-income communities.

“it would be horrible if the city is that stubborn to lose funding that impacts the people that need it the most,” ramirez said.

the lightfoot administration was initially defensive, calling hud’s accusations “absolutely absurd” and signaling that it would take the matter to court. however, hud said in an oct. 20 statement that the two sides have opened up negotiations over potential reforms. the lightfoot administration did not respond to requests for comment regarding the lawsuit or the negotiations. 

setf was one of the organizations that filed the initial complaint. ramirez said that one of the demands that setf will bring to the negotiating table is the establishment of a bill implementing compliance history as a factor in granting facility permits.

“if you have a record, it’s really hard to get a job. but when you’re in industry and have a record [of polluting], the city is like, ‘we don’t care, you can still get a new permit and operate wherever,’” ramirez said. 

a broader trend

for chicago’s low-income communities, the complaint and hud ruling represent the culmination of decades of environmental mistreatment. the city also reported in 2020 that an estimated 5% of all premature deaths in the city come from conditions attributable to breathing pm2.5 pollution. pm (particulate matter) refers to microscopic droplets of solid or liquid pollution that humans breathe in as it sifts through the air; pm2.5 is particularly harmful because it’s small enough to reach deeper into the respiratory tract and even the bloodstream (in contrast to the larger pm10, for example) to inflict bodily damage and disease.

as the proposed home for general iron’s new facility, ramirez’s native southeast side neighborhood was the centerpiece to the three-year fight against the metal shredding-plant. 

this fight included a monthlong hunger strike launched in february 2021 that included a local cps teacher, environmental advocates and politicians—such as ald. byron sigcho-lopez (25th). sigcho-lopez’s ward is nowhere near the southeast side, but he empathized with the community’s struggles based on similar conditions of mistreatment in his neighborhood of pilsen, a vibrant latino community in the nearby south side.

“i have close friends and people i live with who have died because of cancer or who are dealing with respiratory illnesses or asthma. i have kids that i’ve personally taught or coached who are dealing with these effects. so, i certainly empathize with their situation,” sigcho-lopez said.

sigcho-lopez explained how the health impacts felt by neighborhoods like pilsen, the southeast side and mckinley park are detrimental, especially to at-risk groups like seniors and children.

“the cognitive development effects that this dirty industry and pollution can have on our kids will permanently live with them and their future… we can not condemn entire generations because of the inaction and complicity of city government,” sigcho-lopez said.

the lightfoot administration did eventually block the final general iron permit in february, signaling a victory for neighborhoods like ramirez’s. rmg, the parent company, has challenged this denial in a lawsuit, complaining that it was “political.”

to romo, the city has taken advantage of neighborhoods that have characteristics making them less able to fight new polluters.

“once you identify what those characteristics are, you find less education, language barriers, essential workers working multiple jobs or working for heavy industries. so i think that the system by design continues to target these vulnerable communities,” romo said.

chicago’s politics, pollution, and perpetrators 

sigcho-lopez is one of 50 aldermen on chicago’s city council, who each represent different wards of the city. david teeghman, political chair of the environmental political action committee sierra club, explained how, to him, the council is set up for unaccountability.

“we still do have a political system in chicago where you have 50 wards with basically 50 different political fiefdoms,” teeghman said in a may interview. “if the alderman approves something in their ward, most other aldermen are not going to have anything to say about it.”

romo said much of the blame for mat asphalt falls on mckinley park’s former ald. george cardenas (12th). cardenas, who was also city council’s chair of the environmental protection and energy committee, approved the plant despite public backlash before (and after) its construction.

cardenas resigned nov. 30 as the 12th ward’s alderman in preparations to fill the unopposed 1st district seat on the cook county board of review. he could not be reached for comment.

in 2021, mat asphalt accumulated the highest number of air pollution complaints of any address in chicago. however, matt baron, a mat asphalt media representative, said that the facility is treated as a scapegoat and actually upholds a high standard of environmental friendliness. he provided documents showing that many of the odor complaints directed at mat asphalt were filed on days when it was closed.

“they don’t want to listen to a narrative that does not align with their narrative. a complaint is a complaint—it’s not proof of a problem, it’s proof of someone making a phone call,” baron said.

“there’s two other asphalt plants not that far away—what are the data points on their emissions?” he added. “we continually are urging organizations and challenging the media to ask those entities what the results of their studies are; we’ve been transparent about ours and they haven’t about theirs.”

baron said that mat asphalt spent an extra $580,000 to install non-required environmental technology including on-site sweeper and water trucks, a rooftop over its waste storage area and three condensing units.

“there’s been these decades and decades of environmental injustice, and we’re the new kid on the block with the most advanced and environmentally sound technology and we don’t get any credit for that,” baron said.

according to teeghman, power shifts in the city council could have major implications for the city’s environmental future. sierra club has expanded its political endorsement program to include these city council races for the upcoming chicago municipal elections.

to scope out candidates for the first step of their endorsement process, the group created a questionnaire with the help of local environmental organizations that they’ve sent to incumbent aldermen running for reelection.

teeghman said that romo helped sculpt several questions on the questionnaire, including the one about a cumulative impact ordinance. such an ordinance would require the city to take into account the community and existing environmental burdens when considering permits for new facilities. 

sigcho-lopez advocated for this ordinance in the city council’s nov. 7 vote on the city budget, but could not get a “firm commitment” on its implementation. he voted against the budget because of its lack of funds for reinstating a chicago department of the environment cut by former mayor rahm emanuel.

sigcho-lopez said he hopes voters will elect candidates who represent the interests of communities being damaged by environmental injustice.

“the candidates are going to try to fool people on election day, and i hope that the residents have the opportunity to elect local officials that represent the best interests of the public and not their wallets,” sigcho-lopez said.

tellock saw a lot of food takeout packaging, utensils and plastic bags, and she began recruiting others to help her cover more ground. 

“i started cleaning my own neighborhood, then i ventured out to other areas and i eventually started to find such intense litter that i just could not do it myself,” tellock said. “so, i posted about it online and i started to gather some people to help.”

a communal effort

miranda carrico of the lake view east neighborhood was one of the first people to help tellock. both of them co-founded cleanup club chicago (cuc) in july of 2020, a volunteer group tackling litter pollution through land and water group cleanups, city outreach, and waste reduction advocacy. 

the environmental group has burgeoned to about 350 members from all over the city, carrico said. as of october, they collected 1,359 kitchen-sized bags of litter since their inception. cuc often collaborates with other organizations, companies, colleges, and wards like university of illinois chicago, dill pickle food co-op, and ward 25.

cuc has two group cleanups per month, running from april to november, and you can sign up here. tellock and carrico encourage people to always report litter issues through their alderman or 311 — the number that connects to city services like the department of streets and sanitation.

chicago generated 4.13 million tons of waste in 2020, but most recent data from 2018 reveals chicago’s average recycling rate is just 8.81%. cuc focuses on plastic litter, encouraging members to remove plastics from the environment whenever possible as the items can have detrimental impacts on habitats and animals like turtles and birds, trapping them, tellock said. 

“plastic pollution has some negative effects, especially on waterways and our soil,” tellock said. “along the river you can see very nakedly the impact that plastic pollution has on wildlife. it’s in their habitat, in their nests, they’re swimming in it.” 

a clean chicago

chicago has litter reduction initiatives, like the single-use foodware ordinance of jan. 18, which only restricts restaurant-caused plastic waste if patrons turn down disposable utensils. federally, the break free from plastic pollution act of 2021 is a proposed bill to reduce the production of certain products like packaging, paper, and containers. lastly, on the state level, the polystyrene foam ban bill seeks to prohibit stores from distributing disposable food containers made of the synthetic polymer polystyrene. yet, littering of this material continues with the lack of enforcement of these initiatives.

carrico said the pandemic increased the waste of single-use plastics and other items like gloves and disposable face masks, partly because the chicago parks district was not hiring maintenance workers, who typically target littering in parks across the city. 

carrico said cuc gives volunteers instructions and equipment like grabbers, gloves and buckets before each cleanup.

“we’re using eventbrite for people to sign up, which provides them instructions,” carrico said. “we will describe to them the goals of the cleanup, where we’re going and tips.” 

she added that the group holds activities like litter bingo and trash competitions to keep things engaging and fun.

tellock said the group is gaining many volunteers in communities across the city, especially south and west sides, so far doing work in humboldt park, pilsen, and hyde park, among others. tellock said cuc is a group that fosters community.

“i think it is a nice way to meet people that have a common interest in taking care of the community, and to get outside and do something productive with their time,” tellock said. 

the farm itself, just off of storefront-lined lawrence avenue, interrupts the cityscape, appearing like a lush jungle apparition. 

although the farm has “training” in its official name, linda seyler, the director of the farm, says that there’s not much that she or farm manager haley lerand have to teach them. 

“they were farmers in their home country. they’re the best farmers i’ve ever met,” seyler says. 

their training does, however, focus on preparing farmers for chicago’s climate, as well as introducing new crops that the farmers might not be familiar with, such as swiss chard. 

than naing oo, one of global garden’s market farmers, says “kale, chard, spring onion, they love the cold.”

lerand says that farmers might not be immediately excited about growing more typical american produce, but that it eventually grows on them. in fact, she says some market farmers might not have even tried eating some of the american vegetables that they grow. 

naing oo, on the other hand, is curious, and although he didn’t initially like arugula, he’ll eat it after pickling it in a brine of water, dried rice, and salt. 

naing oo has been selling his yields as a market farmer for two years now, but has been farming with global garden since its inception in 2012. 

farm essentials for a global community

before coming to the u.s., naing oo spent 20 years in a refugee camp in thailand. he is karen (pronounced kah-ren), an ethnic identity that is a point of contention in myanmar due to karen people’s ongoing persecution in the country. most farmers at global garden – about 75% in fact – are refugees from myanmar (previously burma). many of them dislike being referred to as burmese, a term that challenges their people’s sovereignty.

farmers like naing oo have brought traditional fruits and vegetables to chicago to grow in their garden, while also integrating local cultivars. known as his “signature” are chinese long beans, which he likes to prepare in a salad with fish sauce, lime, and other veggies.

in late september, he had picked his plants bare, taking what he could before the end of market season.

amaranth is another popular crop with the farmers, including naing oo. it is indigenous to the americas, but is mostly seen as a weed.

“if you had a corn or soybean farmer come and visit they would look at us like we’re crazy for cultivating it,” lerand says. but she explains that amaranth is more nutritious than spinach, and farmers often use it for stir frying.

another common fruit on the farm is bitter melon, which lerand says is most commonly used for medicinal purposes. farmers might eat it with eggs, or if they’re really brave, on its own, because, as seyler says, “it is really bitter.”

naing oo makes a soup with water, garlic, bitter melon leaf, and squash flowers steeped in hot water, which he says is good for digestion. he says he isn’t much of a cook though, and likes to bring the ingredients home for his wife to make.

also on the farm, naing oo likes to grow thai chilis, a popular farm snack that farmers tend to eat on its own raw or wrapped in bitter melon leaf to eat with their stir-fried vegetables and rice – common in lunch boxes. 

lerand says that there’s lots of sharing of cuttings and seeds on the farm, creating a sense of community. naing oo was able to get hingala seeds, a plant that’s native to myanmar, from another farmer at global garden. 

“and pretty soon, you have people from all different cultures growing a particular plant, which is really cool to see,” lerand says.

sustaining in spite of it all

but things don’t always work smoothly on the farm. seyler says that they expect a lot of turnover at the garden, as she says there’s “a natural loss of participants.”

“they end up moving out of chicago, because it’s expensive to be here and hard to figure out how to buy a house here, and they don’t need our little garden plot anymore,” seyler says.

she also cited the previous presidential administration for the reduced participation after former president trump put caps on the amount of refugees who could enter the united states. even this year, the biden administration has missed the mark on refugee admissions, with only 20% of the allocated spots being filled.

while the farm wants to prioritize newly arrived refugees, most farmers have been with them for years, with the newest family joining three years earlier. seyler and lerand are happy with the community space the farm has also been able to provide.

lerand says that she and seyler have hopes of finding another plot of land in chicago to expand farming opportunities. global garden refugee training farm is not the first refugee agricultural project in the u.s., but it is important that spaces like this one continue to be created for farmers like naing oo so they can stay connected to their traditions.

that night, the student organization hosted their “2018 environmental justice keynote speaker,” jade mazon. mazon is an optimistic and endearing latina woman and lifelong resident of south deering, a resilient, southeast neighborhood of chicago. she is also the co-founder of the rebel bells collective, which came to fruition to educate southeast side girls of color about empowerment and social justice.

she returned to loyola university chicago’s lakeshore campus that evening—after graduating from the university herself years ago—to talk about her community, the environmental injustice happening there, and what it is she has done and is doing about it.

south deering lies just a few blocks west of the indiana border and just southwest of lake michigan. lake michigan creeps inland through the calumet river, collecting in lake calumet, the largest body of water within chicago, not even 10 miles inland on the southwest side of the neighborhood. the river continues on past lake calumet meandering its way both westward through several chicago suburbs—eventually reaching the mississippi river many miles later—and eastward into northwest indiana.

once home to a plethora of wildlife within its marshes, lake calumet, due to its historical connection to lake michigan, is a huge industrial corridor for numerous hazardous industries. “during the 1880s, there was no such thing as regulation. in fact, we didn’t even have the u.s. epa until (1970),” adds cheryl johnson, executive director of people for community recovery. people for community recovery (pcr) is a chicago-based organization, founded by johnson’s late mother hazel m. johnson—known as the “mother of the environmental justice movement”—and turns 40 in 2019.

with johnson at its reigns, pcr works on a gamut of issues regarding the environment, housing, health, safety, and education that all encompass equity, hoping to affect policy and curate change. johnson adds, “when regulation came into play, many industries did not know how to come into compliance. the industries only care about profit at the expense of the poor or communities that don’t know any better.”

within south deering, there are dozens of industries in the area, including landfills and recycling facilities. in addition to the factories that reside within the borders of south deering, there are also outside threats, like the bp oil refinery just across the border in whiting, indiana. looking at a map of whiting, the refinery is so extensive it is twice the size of the residential area—it’s basically its own city. according to bp’s website, this refinery is “bp’s largest refinery anywhere in the world.”

with lots of production in indiana comes lots of waste—but where does it go? right across the border to illinois. up until 2015, the rebel bells collective’s mazon explained, the infamous waste product of the oil refining process called petcoke, which according to the environmental protection agency is highly hazardous, was stored out in the open for years along calumet river, right in the heart of her community. due to lack of zoning regulations, hazardous waste was permitted to be stored within the ward that includes south deering.

growing up, mazon said, no one knew just how toxic this material was. the neighborhood just thought of the industry as an inconvenience: having to stop for constant trains, which hauled petcoke; being forced inside to play with neighborhood kids during windy days; and not being able to have anything white on the exterior or interior of the house as it would eventually be turned black from particulate debris.

the saturday after mazon was at loyola, she headed to under the bridge art studio to be one of the featured guests on a live recording of “the hoodoisie,” a live and live-streamed show and web series about local news happening within gentrified neighborhoods across chicago. other guests included kate koval and olga bautista, both founding members of the southeast side coalition to ban petcoke, and 19-year-old rebel bells alum kat west. together, they spoke of the mistreatment of their community through its history.

it wasn’t until recently that members of this community began to educate themselves on the reality of these industries. after the community rallied together to halt the establishment of a coal gasification plant along the river — and across from the local high school — a handful of years ago, residents began to come together, bautista says, who is also a board member of the southeast environmental task force and the director of community leadership of our city our voice. after realizing how harmful petcoke truly was, bautista, koval, and other residents formed the southeast side coalition to ban petcoke, joined later with supporting community members, like mazon.

other speakers throughout the night gave their insight as well. angela tovar, who grew up within the community and is now the director of community development at the point community development corporation in the bronx borough of new york city, explained that “environmental justice is part of your daily life” when growing up in areas with so much industry and injustice.

south deering isn’t alone. other parts of the city have faced similar situations, such as pilsen, also known as chicago’s lower west side. historically, pilsen, like south deering, has been an industrial hub for the city of chicago. the neighborhood lies on the north side of the south chicago river branch, just east of little village. after battling against these industries for more than a decade, little village and pilsen shut down the coal-fired plants in their neighborhoods, the crawford and fisk generating stations, respectively, in 2012.

still, these communities continue to face injustice. “the fisk generating station is currently in the process of being reopened,” jose requena, a community organizer at pilsen alliance explained. pilsen alliance is monitoring the situation closely, however, requena reassured me. “little village environmental justice organization was able to completely shut down the crawford generating station,” requena said, “but now, hilco redevelopment partners is currently in the process of getting a contract to demolish the building and repurpose the space for a trucking and logistics complex, which could be just as detrimental to the neighboring communities.”

unfortunately, like pilsen, south deering is now fighting a new injustice: manganese. air monitors originally installed because of petcoke have now unveiled the presence of this heavy metal. s.h. bell, another industrial facility along the calumet river, processes, handles, processes, packages, and stores metal. high concentrations of manganese have been recorded in the air and have leached into the nearby community’s yards, prompting the u.s. epa to get involved. unfortunately, the search for a solution is still ongoing, but these communities are resilient in their efforts toward justice.

from an industrial standpoint, more can be done. “it speaks to the greater systemic conversation that needs to be held. do we want to keep operating in this way that puts lives in harm?” said kyra woods, the clean energy organizing apprentice for the illinois sierra club chapter, currently working on a ready for 100 campaign in chicago. woods adds that it’s not a responsible choice to continue to use harmful methods when there may be better alternatives.

but still, woods is hopeful. “by addressing these environmental issues, we can solve other issues, too,” she said. “by switching to a 100% clean energy future, we can actually empower communities, do some fantastic job training, and get people employed, especially in a city like chicago.”

these communities—south deering, pilsen, and little village—all keep fighting back. the support of groups like the sierra club and pilsen alliance, standing in solidarity with them, makes them even stronger. as cheryl johnson said to me, it is important to “follow what you believe is wrong to try and make it right.” and that’s just what these communities are doing.

—

(editor’s note: story updated jan. 8, 2019, with current broadcast medium for the hoodoisie.)

in this podcast, frisbie speaks with colin boyle, a planet forward environmental correspondent out of chicago, about the past, present and future of the river.