A mayoral task force released
a report Saturday with broad guidelines for how to redevelop the site
of two Chicago coal-fired power plants on the Southwest Side that shut down in
August. A main recommendation was that the sites be used to
create local jobs in non-polluting industries.
Community advocates
who live in the Pilsen neighborhood, the site of the closed Fisk plant, and
Little Village, home of the shuttered Crawford plant, credit Mayor Rahm
Emanuel not just for working with Midwest Generation company to
shut down the plants, but also for using a task force to spark community
dialogue.
“Usually task forces are where something goes to be
forgotten,” says Nelson Soza, executive director of Pilsen Alliance and a
member of the task force. “But this task force raised the profile of
these sites.”
However, the panel did not weigh in on a central
concern of community residents: who will take on remediation, i.e. the
process of cleaning up the industrial site. The report reads that, “The issue of
remediation was discussed by the Task Force, but the Task Force was
unable to reach consensus on a recommendation for further action.” Read more »
