LVEJO Quarterly E-Newsletter - June 2019

What's going on with the Little Village Industrial Corridor Modernization Process? Updates on the new developments and new aldermanic leadership

The process to modernize the Little Village Industrial Corridor (LVIC) continues! LVEJO, with the help of community, has successfully pushed back the initial timeline of the Department of Planning and Development (DPD), and extended it from a 3-month process to a 9-month process. DPD has not hosted a meeting since the end of January, however, they are continuing to accept public comment. The DPD has released a plan that does not prioritize the health and environment of La Villita community members. La Villita has the 2 nd worst air quality in the state of Illinois, yet the DPD is encouraging the growth of Distribution, Logistics and Warehousing (TDL), which will increase the amount of diesel powered semi-trucks in the neighborhood and make the air quality worse. Here is a link to the plan. DPD is accepting public comment on the plan at DPD@cityofchicago.org or to the following address: Department of Planning and Development Division of Planning, Design and Historic Preservation c/o Gerardo Garcia 121 N. Lasalle St., Suite 1006 Chicago, IL 60602

LVEJO has continued to host meetings and discussions regarding new developments within the industrial corridor. Recently, LVEJO learned that People’s Gas would be expanding their facilities near 35th Pl and Pulaski Ave., and build a Highway Freight Center, which will house a Central Shop Field Service Center and a Logistics Center. The Central Shop Field Center construction began in December 2018, and is scheduled to finish in April 2020. Construction of the Logistics Center, which will have a Warehouse and Meter Shop, begins in June 2019 and is scheduled to finish by July 2020. Additionally, they will make some improvements to West 35th Place beginning in July 2019, and ending in December 2019. The warehouse size will be 100,000 square feet on 10.9 acres. Neither the People's Gas development or the Crawford Coal Power Plant redevelopment of a 1-million square foot warehouse were part of the Little Village Industrial Corridor Modernization Process. Nor has this information been shared with the community directly, either by People's Gas or the City of Chicago. The total estimated daily vehicle count for the People’s Gas development is 1,376 passenger vehicles and company vans, and for Hilco’s redevelopment of the Crawford Coal Power Plant is roughly 1,500 diesel trucks and passenger vehicles. This is nearly 3,000 vehicles a day that will be added to the intersection of Pulaski Ave and 35th Place, one of the most congested streets in the area.  LVEJO is hoping that new Aldermanic leadership in the community will have the best interests of the community as it relates to environmental health. La Villita is an environmental justice community precisely because of past injustices and land use decisions by the City of Chicago, the Department of Planning and Development, and former Aldermanic leadership. The time has come for city and local leadership to right the wrongs of the past, and to stop interfering with La Villita’s struggle for environmental justice! The fight continues!

#NoDieselLV Campaign Update: As the school year comes to a close, we want to highlight the amazing work local high school AP Stats students have been doing. Their expertise and presentations have been instrumental in educating our community members of the heavy diesel truck traffic. These students have gone beyond what is expected of them and have gone outside their school setting to community spaces to present their findings.

Get Involved! 1) Host a stationary air monitor outside your home: this applies to community members who live in an area that is considered a "dirty diesel corridor," or a place that is heavily trafficked by diesel trucks. The monitors require access to wifi and an outlet. 2) Join our outreach team and volunteer to flyer for future community meetings! 3) Help us collect truck counting data! If you are interested in either one of those opportunities please reach out to Nancy Meza at nmeza@lvejo.org or call our office at 773.762.6991

At our past State of Zapata meeting, AP stats students co-facilitated with LVEJO and presented their updated truck counts. They found approximately 1 truck passes by every minute on the intersection of Kostner and 26th, where Zapata is located. About 1.3 trucks per minute pass by the intersection of Kostner and 31st and about 2.09 trucks per minute pass by the intersection of Pulaski and 31st. These numbers were alarming for community members because of the number of schools, parks, homes, and businesses that are located on those intersections or near them. At this meeting community members were also able to learn that Zapata elementary school is burdened by a lot of factors. Zapata was one of the schools that tested positive for lead in their water and suffers from poor air quality; this is due to the school's placement in Little Village’s industrial corridor, that was approved by ex-Alderman Ricardo Munoz in 1995. One of the solutions for fear that our students and community members might be exposed to lead in their drinking water, was to provide pitchers and tumblers with filters that clear out the lead and follow up for replacement filters. Another proactive way that community members can get involved is through truck counting. We want to continue collecting data on diesel trucks to document the potential increase in truck traffic as new warehousing and logistic centers move into our neighborhood. Little Village already is ranked as having the 2 nd worst air quality in the state of Illinois. We're home to the 2rd largest industrial corridor in the city, which is why we decided to conduct our own truck counting. Throughout the industrial corridor modernization process, we've seen a complete disregard for health and environment from the City's Department of Planning and Development we rank second for worst air quality in the state of Illinois, and currently house the 3rd largest industrial corridor in the city, the quantitative data students are able to provide us with is backed up by our burdened quality of life. It is important to note that it is local youth gathering and analyzing data and there is so much power in that.

Mother's Day Celebration  On May 18th, we had our 2nd Annual Mother's Day Celebration at our Semillas Garden. Although cut short by the rain, we had plenty of time to play Loteria, gift each other plants for pollinators, and celebrate the tremendous work and love the many Mothers, Aunts, and Grandmothers gift to us each year. Thank you!

Somos el Color de La Tierra Photo Exhibit On April 13th, we had an amazing, packed, and beautiful event celebrating beautiful photographs that honor the work of Chicago's Black and Brown gardeners and farmers. Many thanks to Jordan Campbell from Soup Photography, Taryn Randle from Getting Grown Collective, for organizing this event with us, and to the Let Us Breathe Collective for hosting us!

LVEJO Spring break activities   During this school year's Spring Break, LVEJO Youth Leaders came together for some cute activities! We started our seedlings for our garden youth beds and cooked a delicious and nutritious meal from the Veggie Mijas' Casa Verde Cookbook =P

Earth Day  On April 20th, we celebrate Earth Day by giving some much-needed love to our Semillas de Justicia Garden. Established gardeners and new families joined together in great land work by adding mushroom compost to their beds, cleaning up around the garden, engaging with little ones, and eating delicious food!

LVLHS Youth for Environmental Justice Club This past quarter, we took our 1st field-trip!  Youth for EJ Club members wanted to learn about aquaponics methods and growing food at large-scale. We visited the Farm on Ogden and learned about their local work for food systems and we hope to bring this knowledge back to the HS. & congratulations to the Seniors this year who are graduating! We can't wait to see the good you all will do in your future endeavors.

AP Stats Celebration LVEJO staff joined the Infinity Math, Science and Technology HS AP Stats class for a celebration including homemade flautas, LVEJO Swag, and plants! This year, this class collected qualitative & quanititative data, presented at LVEJO Community meetings, and tabled during school events to share their findings on the amount of trucks in our neighborhood. They showed a lot of dedication and did a lot of hard work!  Thank you Mr. Venegas and the 2019 AP Statistics class!

Poisoned Onion Youth Participatory Science Student Conference  LVEJO was honored to have been a part of the Poisoned Onion Youth Participatory Science Student Conference this year! It was great working with students and their teachers to talk about Environmental Justice and why some communities are disproportionately affected by environmental harms. Students from 5 high schools and one elementary school presented their research and findings on lead and mercury in their environment. Nancy Meza, Karen Canales, and Jose Acosta facilitated workshops with students on the Industrial Corridor Modernization Process and the Native American knowledge and skills that allowed Chicago to be a key city in the movement of goods. Congratulations to all of the students on their research, we're incredibly humbled by your brilliance and fight for justice.

Dyke March Chicago  LVEJO is a proud sponsor of Chicago Dyke March which is taking place for it's 3rd time in Little Village! CDM collective is a grassroots mobilization and celebration of dyke, queer, bisexual, transgender, and lesbian resilience. It is an anti-racist, anti-violent, volunteer-led, grassroots effort with a goal to bridge together communities across race, ethnicity, socioeconomic status, age, size, gender identity, gender expression, sexuality, culture, immigrant status, spirituality, and ability. March with us! We'll be starting at Little Village Academy at 2:30pm and ending at Piotrowski Park with food, performers, vendors and other local orgs. Save the date: Saturday, June 29th!!

SOJO Sophomore Door-Knocking Shout out to Ms. Levingston & Mr. Sanchez for asking Joanna and Karen, LVEJO organizers, to conduct a door-knocking 101 training for their sophomore class. A group of about 50 students went around the neighborhood and raised awareness about Lead in water and encouraged community members to request their water test kits from the City of Chicago. We were honored to have supported this work and to witness future organizers in action.

LVEJO Summer Youth Internship Applicants  This year, LVEJO is trying to make our summer internship even more intentional to the learning of issues and organizing. Youth were able to apply to individual campaigns based on which interested them the most. HUGE thank you to everyone that applied for our internship! We received over 80 applications, the most we've received for our internship program. We're looking forward to the summer and hope you all stay up-to-date with the amazing work youth will be doing.

Events Coming Up!

What's a great way to stay updated with our work? Follow us on social media!

‌ ‌ ‌ ‌