Above are the views of East Garfield Park I get every time I step out of school. Trash and abandonment surround Westinghouse, entrapping its students in hopelessness. For three years, I have been surrounded by the same bleak background every time I look out of my classroom window, with it only getting progressively worse.

These photographs were taken on the same day, June 4th, 2023. The first set of seven pictures is from Logan Square, and the second is from East Garfield Park. Though the distance between these neighborhoods is at most ten minutes, a significant difference in investment is apparent. It is no coincidence that what separates these two communities are the demographics. According to the CMAP, Logan Square is around 52 percent white, while East Garfield Park is roughly 85 percent Black. 

The Logan Square Chamber of Commerce has the mission statement of helping the economic growth of Logan Square. One way they achieve this is through the farmer’s market. Meanwhile, first-hand accounts published on ProPublica of people living in East Garfield Park show the abandonment and disinvestment. “All our buildings have been torn down, and we have totally vacant lots,” said Siri Hibbler, head of the Garfield Park Chamber of Commerce, about the challenges of luring new businesses to Madison Street.

The dramatic difference between these two neighborhoods is a recurring problem shown throughout the segregated city of Chicago. According to the Urban Institute, white households receive 4.6 times more market investment than Black households and 2.6 times more than Hispanic, Latino households. 

Change must occur to help build up all Chicago communities and not just the primarily white ones. Too often are the needs of minority communities in Chicago sidelined or wholly ignored. As Annette Britton (an East Garfield resident) described to ProPublica, “This was a working-class community with businesses. All of that has been stripped away.â€�

Improvements must be made to return to that standard and improve on it. For change to happen, the government needs to invest more in these communities and provide aid for those struggling through incentives for small businesses and affordable housing creation. 

A house can only stay up if it is structurally sound. If Chicago is the house, then that makes all of its communities, regardless of demographics, a crucial part of its structure and strength.

Esteban Balta is an incoming Senior at George Westinghouse College Prep. He aspires to become a photojournalist.

Originally from the Northeast, Esteban has been a resident of Chicago for three years. He was born in Northern New Jersey and spent his childhood in Central Connecticut.

Esteban is the son of Hugo Balta, Publisher of IL Latino News.

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The South Side of Chicago in particular, saw an outburst of steel production during World War II that at one point, accounted for ​​20 percent of all steel made in the U.S. But steel production in the ’50s and ’60s declined and many factories were abandoned, leaving behind harm to the land and its residents.

Promises by the government to clean up contaminated and vacant properties have been slow to materialize, leaving the community to come up with its own solutions. Organizations like the Urban Growers Collective are spearheading such efforts to make green spaces more just and equitable in areas that have been historically divested.

Darion Crawford, an Urban Farmer and Compost Coordinator with UGC spoke with with Hugo Balta, publisher of Illinois Latino News on the podcast, â€œ3 Questions With…â€� about supporting communities in developing systems where food is grown, prepared, and distributed within the community itself.

Crawford is also a cohort in this year’s Latino Policy Forum’s Multicultural Leadership Academy. MLA’s goal is to provide a diverse group of civic leaders with the leadership skills needed to facilitate collaboration between Latinos and African Americans through intercultural collaboration and social action.

“Like the farm spaces, it’s a safe space,” said Crawford of MLA. Being allowed to be vulnerable and be heard says Crawford, gives him support for the work he does with the Urban Growers Collective.

“3 Questions With…â€� is co-produced by the Latino News Network (LNN), an independent, multimedia digital news outlet with local newsrooms in the Northeast and Midwest, including IL Latino News  and CAN TV, Chicago’s hub for community centric news, hyperlocal stories and educational resources.

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CHICAGO – Days after being elected mayor of Chicago in the April runoff election against Paul Vallas, Brandon Johnson named state Sen. Cristina Pacione-Zayas as his first deputy chief of staff.

Pacione-Zayas, widely recognized for her career-long efforts to promote educational equity, sat down with Hugo Balta, publisher of Illinois Latino News on the podcast, “3 Questions With…”. “I think one of the advantages that we have is that Mayor Johnson is a former education,” Pacione-Zayas said. “What that will translate into is having some significant advocacy efforts around funding for our schools; ensuring more equitable distribution of resources.”

The incoming Deputy also shared her accomplishments in Springfield, as a state senator. Among them, her advocacy created the Early Childhood Access Consortium for Equity, which provides financial and wrap-around support for members of the incumbent early childhood workforce while earning degrees and credentials to improve the quality of early childhood services and programs. She led the Too Young to Test Act, which dismantles harmful testing procedures for young students in the state. Sen. Pacione-Zayas established the floor for economic eligibility for the Child Care Assistance Program to ensure that budgets are not balanced on the backs of families with limited economic resources.

Still, despite the large body of work during her tenure as state senator, Pacione-Zayas admits there is still more (work) left to be done because of institutions not “designed to have folks with my lived experiences, and other lived experiences, particularly people of color, people who grew up with limited economic resources to be at those decision making tables to really make government more humane, more of a system of care, and more people centered.”

The only child of two community organizers, Pacione-Zayas grew up in public housing on Chicago’s northwest side. Experience that helped shape her life’s work. “Community is family; we show up for each other,” she said when sharing how her parents work, including ensuring that families had their basic needs met, instilled in her a sense of social responsibility.

“3 Questions With…” is co-produced by the Latino News Network (LNN), an independent, multimedia digital news outlet with local newsrooms in the Northeast and Midwest, including IL Latino News  and CAN TV, Chicago’s hub for community centric news, hyperlocal stories and educational resources.

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Since September, housekeepers at Bucktown’s Midtown Athletic Club have been advocating for better working conditions. They claim they were understaffed, overworked, and operating in dangerous conditions, resulting in injuries for some. However, their pleas went unanswered after the luxury fitness center and hotel abruptly fired them on April 13. 

Ex-staffer Vanessa Vasquez, 30, says she feels humiliated and useless. Vasquez worked at Midtown Athletic Club for two years and says that she was shocked when she learned she was fired through an email.

According to the email, Midtown decided to “expedite the previously-communicated transition to a third party housekeeping team� meaning workers’ positions were terminated effective immediately.

This email followed another sent on March 23 in which the club first notified housekeeping that their positions would be eliminated on May 1, as the club outsourced the positions to Advanced Cleaning Technologies (ACT).

In both emails, the club stated workers had the option to reapply for their jobs with ACT directly, but that their positions were not guaranteed by the company. 

“We want to be clear that once this transition takes place, the new service provider will be your employer. They will supervise you and be responsible for your terms and conditions of employment including wages and benefits,� Midtown Athletic Club said in the March 23 email.

Workers are now feeling devastated and blindsided as they believed they had until May 1 to try to negotiate with the gym to improve working conditions and retain their jobs. 

The dismissal has fueled ex-staffers to speculate that the club’s decision to fire them just weeks before the May 1 deadline was in retaliation for them speaking out about poor working conditions.

Workers spent the past six months organizing for better working conditions, allegedly filing several complaints.

“There were many complaints, even by email. We said it through texts, we wrote to them, there were many and with the help of Arise Chicago they began to help us,â€� Vasquez says. 

Arise Chicago, an organization that helps non-unionized workers organize, educated the workers on their rights and supported them in filing complaints with the Illinois Department of Labor, Chicago Office of Labor Standards, National Labor Relations Board and Occupational Safety and Health Administration. 

“First talking to these workers, they were raising the concept of a union. They liked the idea of being able to come together and bargain collectively with their employer. But their big focus was around democratizing the work,â€� Jose Uribe, a campaign organizer with Arise Chicago. 

In those complaints, the workers alleged that the club refused to provide them with adequate sick leave and endangered workers by exposing them to unsafe cleaning chemicals without proper protective equipment.

“They would cancel our sick days and said we needed a note from the doctor. It was impossible knowing we had a right to our sick days,â€� Vasquez says. 

In an interview with Block Club Chicago, Midtown’s President Jon Brady said the cleaning staff had the same amount of sick time as every other club employee. 

Vasquez says that she was one of the workers who suffered injuries while at work, claiming that she suffered an eye infection after chemicals splashed in her eye. The injury left her on a month-long disability leave. She also noted that she began experiencing skin irritations when working inside of the gym.

“We had no protection,� she says.� We were exposed to many illnesses that caused our skin to become irritated.�

Vasquez says coworkers found needles and blood-stained towels but had no place to safely dispose of the materials. According to the United States Department of Labor Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA), human blood contains infectious bloodborne pathogens that can cause disease in humans. In order to reduce the hazards of occupational exposure to pathogens, OSHA requires employers to implement an exposure control plan that must include providing personal protective clothing and equipment, employee training, and other provisions required by OSHA’s Bloodborne Pathogens Standard. 

In response to speculations of retaliatory behavior on the gym’s part, Brady told Block Club Chicago that the long-planned layoffs had nothing to do with retaliation and that staffers were all paid through May 1. 

Workers have filed additional complaints in response to the layoffs in hope their pleas will be heard and that they can return to work.

“I was one who loved it and we liked it because it was already our second home. You start to make friends with the members,â€� Vasquez says. “We love our work and we want to return to our work.â€� 

Ex-staffers aren’t the only ones concerned about the club’s response and treatment of these workers. Katherine Bissell Córdova, who’s been a member of the gym for over a year, says she and other members were “shocked� and “upset� when they heard how housekeeping was being treated, adding that they were the “backbone of the club.�

Bissell Córdova says she wants the company to hire the workers back or she and other members will find another gym to work out at.

“We really want them to rehire these workers or a lot of people I know are considering no longer being part of the club,� Bissell Córdova says.

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IL Latino News covers the social determinants of health and democracy. Neighborhood and Built Environment have health impacts for the people who live there. Aspects of neighborhood environments include walkability, land use mix and urbanity, retail, recreational areas, restaurants, fast food outlets, cultural and education institutions, and pollution, such as from traffic or waste sites.

IL Latino News applies the principles of Solutions Journalism in its invesitgative reporting.

Activists across the South Side of Chicago demand transparency from the Department of Water Management as the city attempts to combat lead contamination in drinking water.

While the City has not publicly reported new results since the end of 2021, existing data from the City of Chicago website shows that a significant portion of water tests with elevated lead levels were recorded in Black and Hispanic communities.

Linda Gonzalez, a member of the People’s Council of Southeast Chicago, is advocating for change following her experience with the city-sponsored Equity Lead Service Line Replacement Program.

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Gonzalez resides in the South Deering neighborhood of Slag Valley. In addition to ongoing concerns over air quality, the far South Side community is characterized by old buildings and a high concentration of lead service lines, which, according to the Illinois Department of Public Health, can be a significant contributor to lead contamination of drinking water.

Gonzalez was found eligible for a free service line replacement by the city and began the process to replace service lines on her property in fall 2021. She worked with two contractors, one assigned by the city and another representing the construction company.

The process took between six and eight months, according to Gonzalez. While the replacement itself came as a relief, Gonzalez identified potential problems for other homeowners looking to take advantage of the program.

“Getting the required documents always makes the process more difficult. But if you have the documents, then do you have access to the Internet? Are you getting notifications? Do you know how to upload documents? There are a lot of limitations,� Gonzalez said.

The activist suggested methods to counter the lack of transparency and provide further assistance to concerned homeowners.

“[Water filters] should be offered standard to anybody having this problem. People should be notified on an annual basis that lead pipes need to be replaced and that the City’s trying to do something about it,â€� Gonzalez said, emphasizing the importance of communication.

Gonzalez also recommended increased accessibility, including printing bills in Spanish as well as English. 

Gina Ramirez, a prominent activist and Southeast Chicago resident, strives to raise awareness about lead contamination in her own community.

“Growing up on the Southeast Side with my father working downtown, I really learned, from a young age, the tale of two cities, how different and much cleaner the air was in downtown Chicago,� said Ramirez, who currently serves as the senior advisor of the Southeast Environmental Task Force, a member of Chicago Environmental Justice Network, and Midwest Outreach Manager at the National Resource Defense Council.

While Ramirez fights to direct attention to a variety of climate issues including air pollution, water quality has been an area of increasing focus.

The issue hits close to home for Ramirez.

 â€œMy mom is disabled and low-income, and my sister and my nephew live with her, and she’s very concerned about her lead service lines. It’s an over-100-year-old home,â€� Ramirez said.

“She has been struggling to fill out the Equity Line Replacement Program paperwork. It’s been almost two years of red tape and them coming down, saying that she’s still missing a piece of documentation.�

Requested documents included the deed to the house, utility bills and Ramirez’s nephew’s report card.

“She was like ‘Gina, they basically want to see my underwear.’ I have to keep pressuring her to follow through, but she has really given up hope for this program,� Ramirez said.

One home in Ramirez’s neighborhood reported lead levels of 1,100 parts per billion, according to City of Chicago water test data. This measurement is near 65 times the Environmental Protection Agency action level of 15 parts per billion.

Under the EPA’s Lead and Copper Rule, a city must take steps to control corrosion and possibly replace service lines if lead concentrations exceed 15 ppb in more than 10% of customer taps sampled. The city must also inform the public of ways to protect their health.

In communities like Ramirez’s, residents have adopted measures to safeguard their own health.

“I grew up drinking bottled water. You’ll see, in shopping carts in my neighborhood, cases of water. It’s just something that’s not talked about enough, that a lot of community members don’t trust the tap,� Ramirez said.

Ramirez took steps to monitor water quality in her own home, but was quickly confronted by limitations faced by the community at large.

“I ordered a water testing kit. It took a month for me to get it, so I’m in the process of getting my water tested,� Ramirez said. “But it’s like an extra chore, and when you live in an environmental justice community, you’re struggling to put food on the table, trying to get to work, you have children to raise, you might not even have the Internet to go on the website to order the test…the onus is on the person.�

Ramirez slammed the City of Chicago for deflecting attention from water quality issues through efforts like Chicagwa, a free giveaway of canned Lake Michigan water in summer 2022.

“The City came out with this campaign about how the great the water is, and that it goes through this 10-step purification process. No matter how purified this water is, it goes through a lead straw, which defeats the point of the purification process,� Ramirez said.

“I think they’re trying to put a Band-aid over this issue. I thought it was a huge slap in the face when the mayor spent over $100,000 on this public relations campaign, and that’s a few lead service lines that could’ve been replaced in an [environmental justice] community.�

Spokespeople from the City of Chicago Department of Water Management say that municipal drinking water is safe for consumption.

According to an email from spokeswoman Megan Vidis, Chicago’s drinking water follows all standards including the EPA’s Copper and Lead Rule. A recent test of a small subset of homes yielded results of 5.6 parts per billion, well below the 15 ppb standard set by the EPA.

While the homes tested were a small subset of homes in Chicago, Vidis said, results from the entire testing kit program, in which homeowners tested their own drinking water, showed similar numbers.

These results directly contradict the September 2022 analysis by The Guardian journalists and water engineer Eileen Betanzo. Across four zip codes on Chicago’s South Side alone, eight to 10% of tests fell above the action level of 15 ppb.

Vidis said that the analysis was not conducted by an independent, third-party laboratory.  

Regardless of the action level, the EPA has set the maximum contaminant level goal for lead in drinking water at zero parts per billion. According to a guide on the EPA website, lead is a toxic metal that can have damaging health effects even at low exposure levels.

Ramirez expressed frustration with Vidis’ response.

“Those action levels don’t mean anything to me, as the mom of a son who has autism. We know that there’s no safe level of lead. I’m sure her children are drinking out of a non-lead service line with a filter, unlike my child,� Ramirez said. “It’s crazy, these excuses that these officials make, and it’s just same old, same old.�

The matter of lead contamination of drinking water is not limited to Chicago. Other cities across the United States face the same problems and have addressed them with varying degrees of success.

One notable example is Newark, New Jersey. In under three years, the City’s Lead Service Line Replacement Program completed nearly 24,000 free service line replacements. The effort initially began in March 2019 and was projected to last up to 10 years. By September of the same year, however, a $120 million bond from Essex County eliminated the cost for residents and reduced the program’s timeline to only three years.

Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot set a goal to replace 650 service lines in 2021 following expansion of the Equity Lead Service Line Replacement Program. However, only 280 homeowners had lines replaced under city programs over the past two years, according to a December 2022 report.

Other states including Connecticut, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin are collaborating with the EPA through its Lead Service Line Replacement Accelerator initiative. The program will support these states in directing funding from President Biden’s Bipartisan Infrastructure Law towards the replacement of service lines.

Illinois is not listed as a collaborator on this initiative.

To combat inaction by the City of Chicago, Gonzalez and Ramirez work with local activist groups to campaign for transparency.

Through her work with the Southeast Environmental Council, a group that has since expanded from its humble beginnings on Facebook, Gonzalez fights for policy changes through cooperation with local government.

“I’m glad to be in conversation with all the candidates who are excited about this community,â€� Gonzalez said. “The idea is that [the Southeast Environmental Council] is going to be around no matter who the candidate is, but things need to change in terms of how decisions are made. That can be uncomfortable work, but I’m excited to get this message out.â€�

Ramirez spoke further to the impact of community-based advocacy groups.

“I think people want to believe that the city has their best interest in mind. People I talk to day in and out say, ‘That’s why we have the EPA, right? They’re the ones who are supposed to be protecting us.’ And I’m like, ‘That’s why organizations like NRDC exist, because they’re not always doing the best job, and are underfunded and under-resourced,� Ramirez said.

“I think [environmental justice] groups are really great at having peer-to-peer interaction about what is needed in our communities. I distrust the government because I’m in it. But if I’m thinking about it from an outside perspective, I don’t think they realize.�

According to Ramirez, progress in environmental justice communities has a long way to go.

“You want to believe that your city is protecting your health, but then you see issues like General Iron,â€� Ramirez said, referencing former administrations’ cooperation with the planned move of a metal-shredding facility to the Southeast Side.

“I think the distrust of the city government is really on the rise, especially after you see the perpetual disinvestment on the South and West Sides of Chicago.�

Cover Photo by Steve Johnson

Mackenzie Tatananni is a graduate student at Northwestern University’s Medill School of Journalism. Her reporting focuses on public health and environmental justice.

IL Latino News partners with Medill School of Journalism in providing students mentoring and real work experiences.

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