Seeking Environmental Justice, Community Battles Railroad and Rahm

[marmar]

(In These Times) Residents of Chicago’s predominantly African-American community of Englewood are fighting Mayor Rahm Emanuel and Norfolk Southern (NS)—a major railroad corporation that posted $1.7 billion in profits last year—over a proposed freight yard expansion in their neighborhood that they argue will significantly increase diesel pollution, which is linked to asthma attacks, cancer and heart disease. Community activists say NS and the city have largely ignored their concerns.

Englewood residents first learned in late 2011 of the Emanuel-backed plan to expand NS’s existing 140-acre intermodal terminal at 47th Street—where trains and trucks swap freight containers—by an additional 84 acres. At the time, NS had been quietly buying up private properties in the area for about three years and had started bulldozing them. Only after the Resident Association of Greater Englewood (RAGE) exposed this apparent land grab and it became public knowledge that the company was in talks with the city to purchase 105 city-owned lots for the expansion was a public meeting finally convened with representatives of the railroad.

“(NS) came with guns,” says Asiaha Butler, president of RAGE. “They had armed security at a community meeting at a high school, as if they were going to be attacked.” She says this was only one example of a pattern of disrespect by the company toward the residents.

Rev. John Ellis, who lives near the planned expansion site, says he is particularly disgusted with the city. “[The city has] been terrible,” he says, citing the lack of proper notification given to the residents of the plan. “They feel they don’t have to notify anybody—‘this is a black neighborhood so who the hell cares?’ I mean it, that’s basically what it is.” ....................(more)

The complete piece is at: http://inthesetimes.com/uprising/entry/15497/seeking_environmental_justice_community_battles_railroad_and_rahm/

[Supersedeas]

1. proper notification...I'll say