A Chicago neighborhood is redefining toxicity in pursuit of environmental justice

Since 2000, toxic tours have expanded from focusing on pollution to include systemic racism and mass incarceration.

February 23, 2022

A group of twelve people walks along a sidewalk in Chicago to reach La Villita Park’s soccer fields on a gray October day. It is a small oasis of green in a densely populated area. Gray skies are not caused solely by the clouds. Trucks emit dark fumes and rumble beyond the park’s boundaries. Near the park’s baseball field is a parking lot for Cook County Jail. These buildings are looming over the park and are populated by police vehicles. The vapors from factory smokestacks slowly mix with the gray clouds in our air. These industrial sites are a major source of pollutants that affect the low-income Latino community of Little Village. This is an environmental justice issue that similar working-class communities face across the country.

We are now standing in a Superfund site containing toxic pollutants. Edith Tovar is a community organizer for Little Village Environmental Justice Organization to the group that gathered in the area. This site was transformed into an open space for the community through years of community activism.

LVEJO was founded in 1994 by concerned parents. The parents successfully lobbied for changes to the renovation plans at Joseph E. Gary Elementary to protect their children’s health. This wasn’t the only danger to their children’s health.

Local industries were releasing pollutants into the lungs of residents outside the school. Little Village residents were more likely to suffer from asthma attacks and skin rashes than residents in more wealthy, less industrialized Chicago neighborhoods. Some babies also had high lead levels. These chronic health conditions were caused by the Celotex Superfund site (now La Villita Park), which used to manufacture asphalt roofing, and many other abandoned and polluted brownfields in the area. Fisk and Crawford’s coal power plants also spewed sulfur dioxide, nitrogen oxides, and more than 2,800 asthma attacks into Little Village. They also contributed to 550 emergency rooms visits and 41 premature death. According to a 2001 surveyHarvard School of Public Health

We need as many people as possible to ensure environmental justice. [as possible]Tovar believes that it is important to talk about environmental justice. To ensure that local campaigns and efforts are supported by front-line communities, we need people to listen.

Expanding the Scope

After lobbying successfully at the elementary school, the parents moved on to other threats in the neighborhood. LVEJO started giving to Little Village residents in an effort to educate them about toxic pollutants, and their detrimental effects on the health of the community. Toxic tours

The practice of toxic tours was first introduced in the mid-1980s by environmental activists who were first able to link race and pollution. These tours were designed to educate the public on what would become known as environmental racism. The conversation was catapulted forward by North Carolina: An exampleA report was made that showed that tons of PCB-polluted soil had been intentionally dumped in a Black community. Toxic Race and Wastes1987. Since then, the tours have been a popular tool for environmental organizations to highlight environmental injustices in their communities. BaltimoreTo the San Fernando ValleyAnd All over the globe.

Phaedra Pezullo explains her book Toxic TourismThe tours are a place for the public to meet and have meaningful conversations. They also provide a platform to see the effects of toxic pollutants firsthand. Most often, the tour guides are local residents who have experienced the effects. She wrote, “Toxic tours present or concretize the often ambiguous and abstract terms.” ToxicAnd PollutionSpatial practices like sharing stories, pointing out people who have died, mapping the locations of polluting industries to those who need them, and exposing tourists and others to the sights and smells of a place that is hard to imagine are all part of the daily lives of tour hosts.

Toxic Tours offer non-community members such as students, activists, legislators, or activists a way to really understand the effects of environmental injustices in a community. These tours have community stories being told by community members, using a very critical social justification lens. Karen Canales Salas, who was once involved in toxic tours in Little Village, is now LVEJOs environment justice educator. This allows you to have these conversations with groups that are based on your lived experiences.

From Education to Action

LVEJO began offering toxic tours in 2000. The tours now focus on the negative effects of toxic pollutants and the community activism that has resulted. Tovar states that the real purpose of the toxic tours are to inspire people to take action against environmental racism. We always invite people to join us wherever they feel most comfortable. [are]You are just curious to know more.

Participants are invited to participate in one of the many campaigns of the organization. This could be helping to maintain the Semillas de Justicia neighborhood garden, counting the number diesel trucks passing through the area on their way to the industrial corridor, fighting for clean waters in the Collateral Channel, volunteering to teach environmental justice to youth, or fighting to transform brownfield and Superfund sites into community spaces.

Toxic tours have also influenced young people’s perspectives and encouraged pride in the neighborhood. Jacqueline Vazquez joined LVEJO seven year ago as a summer internship. She learned about community management and restorative Justice, and has since progressed to become a park organizer. I used to hate Little Village. But then, LVEJO helped me see the beauty and not the problems that kept getting highlighted. [in the media]Because there was so many good things being done there.

Vazquez, a member of LVEJOs Mi Parque Leadership Project spends their time in La Villita Park, where they engage the community in its maintenance and growth. Vazquez has witnessed a significant improvement in the area since they were interns. Vazquez claims that since the Mi Parque program began, there has been very little bad behavior. The only exception is the occasional person who smokes a cigarette.

The Toxicity Of Policing And Incarceration

There is still much to be learned. LVEJO expanded its definitions of toxicity in the community to include systemic racialism, policing and mass incarceration in recent years. The toxic tours in La Villita Park now also include the Cook County Jail, which is the largest single-site incarceration facility the United States. It incarcerates mostly Black and Brown people.

LVEJO argues that immigration detention centers, jails, and prisons are another form environmental violence against immigrant communities and communities of color. Statement on Violence, Policing and Immigration.Cook County Jail covers 96 acres, which is more that twice the area of green space in the neighborhood. It is clear that environmental injustice and violence are intertwined, as more land and resources are devoted to policing and imprisonment.

Vazquez claims that police presence in the area creates fear. For some, it could be a death sentence.

Salas believes it is important to show the public this type of toxicity through the tours too. This allows visitors to see the effects over-policing, mass incarceration firsthand, and hopefully has deeper discussions about the effects on systemic racism in Little Village.

She says that toxic tours should reflect the changes in the neighborhood and the different needs.

The Limits of Toxic Tours

However, toxic tours will not solve all the environmental racism in Little Village and other similar areas across the country. Because the tours require community outsiders to travel to the site and spend time participating, they are limited in reach. People who are most in need for education and inspiration on environmental justice issues (such people involved with toxic organisations) are often the least likely participants.

LVEJO continues to work with Spanish and English speaking tour operators to make their toxic tours more accessible.

LVEJO’s toxic tours have been affected by the ongoing COVID-19 epidemic. Tovar said that COVID has been a challenge for them. It is not as easily accessible to the community. Although we have been able do some toxic tours online, I believe it would be beneficial for us to find ways to engage and get good interactions.

A Stop to Toxification

The group started out as a group concerned parents. It has evolved over the past 28 year to include toxic tours and other initiatives to make a difference within the Little Village community. Toxic tour hosts pose a simple challenge. If you want to live and for the next generation of children to be able to live, you can join us in the fight against the ongoing toxification of the world. Toxic Tourism. This call is not just one of belief and agreement (again, who are you?). ForToxic pollution?It is a call to action, not to ignore it.

LVEJO was recently awarded a Chicago Community Trust grant for its next action to clean up the Collateral Channel, an abandoned and stagnant waterway along the Chicago Rivers South Branch. LVEJO’s goals are to remove toxic sediments and odors, improve native landscapes and create fish habitat. They also plan to develop open space along the river. This would make both the river and wildlife safer, and also improve its quality. Connect it to the community.

Tovar sees a place for LVEJOs and toxic tours in communities across the country. She believes that the effort doesn’t have sole responsibility. I think the tours are a great way to highlight the issues visually. Highlighting the achievements and resistanceShe says. It’s not just about reading about it. Because you can actually see it, you can experience it and truly see environmental justice in action.