February 2016 - Parks & Recreation - 42

SOCIAL EQUITY

Residdents of Chicago's Little
Village neighborhood worked for
15 years to reclaim and restore
blighted property in their community and transform it into a
vibrant local park.

Latino Residents Champion for
Green Justice in Little Village
By Mariela Fernandez, Ph.D., and Antonio Lopez

O

n a trip to 26th Street in Chicago's Little Village neighborhood, visitors are struck by the rich Mexican culture and the thriving business
activity. Regarded as the capital of the Mexican Midwest, Little Village is also the second-highest provider of tax revenue to the city of
Chicago, behind only the Magnificent Mile in downtown. A recent article in
Crain's Chicago Business marveled at the economic prowess of the community:
" The strip lacks the glamour of
Michigan Avenue or the wealth of
Lincoln Park. Instead, the area between Kedzie and Kostner Avenues
is dotted with family-owned restaurants, bakeries, barbershops, grocers
and clothing shops, plus an occasional Western Union and Verizon outlet.
Nothing about the simple signage or
interiors hints at the huge volume of
cash being spent: some $900 million
annually, according to the most recent figures available. "

40	 Parks & Recreation

If the thriving business environment in this immigrant community
is a surprise, then the neighborhood's
standing as a center of environmentalism in Chicago is even more startling. Low-income Latinos from Little
Village have waged successful campaigns that closed a coal power plant
in the area and transformed a superfund site into a 22-acre public park.
Working alongside the Little Village
Environmental Justice Organization
(LVEJO), a local nonprofit, these

| F E B R UA R Y 2 0 1 6 | W W W. N R PA . O R G

community-led victories for clean air
and open space are two of the most
important grassroots environmental
justice success stories to occur across
the country in recent years.
Overcoming Environmental
Obstacles
As a densely populated environmental justice community located on the
southwest side of Chicago, Little
Village is an excellent case study of
a community that has endured environmental racism. According to
a 2008 Huffington Post article, Little
Village's ZIP code was regarded as
having the " second-worst air quality
in the eight-county region of Chicago, [and] children in this area had the
ninth-highest rate of lead poisoning



February 2016 - Parks & Recreation

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