Lightfoot rejects Southeast Side metal shredder’s plan to open

Read the full story in the Chicago Sun-Times.

Mayor Lori Lightfoot’s top public health official has determined that a car-shredding operation will not open on the Southeast Side, ending an almost three-year battle between her administration and residents who said they can’t tolerate any more air pollution.

Southside Recycling, the renamed, relocated business formerly known as General Iron, had expected to open about a year ago under an agreement with the city. Community organizers fought back, saying the industrial Southeast Side already suffers from very poor air quality. The fact that the business was being moved from white, affluent Lincoln Park to a working-class Latino neighborhood surrounded by Black communities is racist, residents said. That claim drew a federal civil rights investigation that is ongoing.

Leave a comment

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.