Johnson blasted for failing to deliver on environmental promises
Mayor Brandon Johnson has failed to deliver on promised reforms following a federal civil rights investigation that found the city's practice of placing polluters in low-income communities of color is discriminatory, three groups that brought the complaint said Wednesday.
Despite promising to fix city policies, Johnson has made no progress in a number of areas, all requirements laid out in a binding agreement with federal officials, the South Side groups said in a letter sent to the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development on Wednesday.
The civil rights complaint was filed with HUD in 2020 in response to the city’s multiyear involvement in moving the scrap metal operation General Iron from white, affluent Lincoln Park to East Side, a low-income Latino-majority community. The relocated metal-shredding operation was fully built at East 116th Street along the Calumet River, but the city — under pressure from community organizations and other advocates — ultimately refused to issue an operating permit. That permit denial is still being fought in court.
Even though the business, which shreds junked cars and other large metal objects, was not allowed to open, the actions taken by the city showed a pattern of discrimination, three community organizations argued in their complaint. HUD launched an investigation that led to findings in 2022 that the city did violate the civil rights of its residents, which led to a negotiated agreement that Chicago would change its policies to continue to receive millions of dollars in HUD funding every year.
No progress has been reported by the city, the groups said Wednesday citing at least a dozen examples of Johnson’s shortfalls on pledged improvements. The three-year binding agreement was signed by former Mayor Lori Lightfoot on her last day in office May 2023.
“The city is at risk of failing to fulfill multiple [agreed upon] commitments,” the groups said in the letter signed by their lawyers.
One of the most important promises that has not been fulfilled is Johnson’s pledge to introduce an ordinance aimed at changing longtime city practices of dumping polluters in the same South Side and West Side communities, the letter said.
Other failures include addressing potential updates to the city’s industrial corridors and putting in place air monitoring in neighborhoods overburdened with air pollution.
The letter cites a December article by the Sun-Times that pointed to a stalling of air pollution monitoring in neighborhoods, something noted in the agreement and badly wanted by community organizers.
The groups want HUD to step in to push the city toward action.
Just months after taking office, Johnson gave a full-throated promise that he would act on reforms.
“In the greatest city in the world, no neighborhood should have to suffer the burdens of pollution more so than any other neighborhood,” Johnson said during a City Hall news conference in September 2023.
The three groups demanding that Johnson act brought the civil rights complaint. They are the Southeast Environmental Task Force, People for Community Recovery and the South East Side Coalition to Ban Petcoke. In a statement, they said they are losing patience with Johnson.
“Our health continues to be threatened by all of the industry that surrounds us, the three groups said in a statement to the Sun-Times. “It’s not a coincidence that we are burdened with pollution while other areas of Chicago are not. Although this has been a result of decades of racist policies, we can’t continue to do nothing. We need protections for our health now more than ever and that is why we are continuing to fight for an end to Chicago’s sacrifice zones.”
A HUD spokesperson declined to comment.
City Hall officials didn't respond to requests for comment.
General Iron operated in Lincoln Park along the Chicago River for decades, but the city had plans for redevelopment of the land under former Mayor Rahm Emanuel. His administration pushed for the business to be relocated to make way for a multibillion-dollar proposed real estate development that never fully got off the ground. Lightfoot’s law department signed an agreement that set a timetable for General Iron to move.
The letter does give the city credit for re-establishing a Department of Environment, something that had been eliminated under Emanuel.
In fact, the letter proposes rewriting part of the agreement to involve the new department, which is still relatively small.