Explosion of Exploitation: The Tragedy of Little Village’s Implosion
Tanya Joshi 
• Bookmarks: 25
Imagine one day being awoken to a sound like a bomb-blast, and all you can see or feel is a cloud of dust and smoke. For many residents of Chicago’s Little Village in 2020, when a discontinued industrial smokestack was imploded, this was a reality. For decades, the West Side neighborhood was the host of the Crawford Generating Station, a coal-fired producer of electricity. In the early 2000s, the Crawford operation was the most polluting plant in the US. Crawford was finally shuttered in 2012, eight years before its smokestack met its fate.
The planned smokestack implosion was a success in only one sense: the smokestack was indeed brought to the ground. This operation, however, resulted in the simultaneous release of large masses of dust, asbestos, and other particulate matter into the atmosphere. Thick clouds of dust descended on nearby communities, which were then coated with the nasty grime and soot. (Here is a link to a video of the implosion filmed by a resident.) Two and a half years later, many Little Village residents still face health problems, including asthma associated with the dirty air from the implosion.
At least the nearby residents received ample warning about the implosion and the risks – except in many cases, they did not. Flyers written in English and Spanish were haphazardly distributed in the neighbourhood on the day before the destruction, but many residents learned about the implosion mere hours in advance – and some only learned when they heard the noise and saw the dust cloud. They remain to some extent in the dark, as the city refuses to release its full report on the devastating aftermath of the implosion.
The implosion was part of a redevelopment effort by the private company Hilco Redevelopment Partners, one that now has resulted in Illinois’ largest Target warehouse facility located on the old Crawford site. The traditional release of coal residue from the location has been replaced with a steady stream of diesel exhaust from the trucks that serve the warehouse, leaving residents no less frustrated. The icing on the cake? Despite the botched nature of the implosion, the developers received a $19.7 million tax break for the Crawford redevelopment project, much larger than the overall $443,000 they paid in fines and community services stemming from the implosion.
Responsibility for the defective demolition goes beyond Hilco and its subcontractors. City officials recognized the dangers well in advance, but their warnings went unheeded. Chicago’s Department of Buildings turned a largely blind eye to the looming catastrophe. The initial permit plan did not involve explosives. When the plan changed, the permitting was not reviewed or revised.
Little Village has been decimated by COVID, to an extent unmatched by any other Illinois neighborhood. During the height of the pandemic, the smokestack implosion treated residents of Little Village to another assault on their respiratory systems. How was it that such a risky implosion received the go-ahead, despite precautionary measures (such as a thorough soaking of the land around the smokestack, to prevent a dust storm) not being in place? Why was such a large use of explosives within the city limits of Chicago not monitored more closely by the city government? Would the approach to the implosion have been the same in Lincoln Park or another wealthy Chicago neighborhood?
Legislative changes must be made so false promises do not coat neighborhoods like Little Village any longer. Permits issued to developers should be monitored more regularly and contain quantitative environmental metrics to track success. These permits should be approved and regularly monitored by the Department of Buildings and the Bureau of Environmental Health and Safety Management. A certified city official from both departments should review and sign off on any major demolition or implosions involving explosives on the day of the scheduled process. Maximum emission limits within neighborhoods can be set and monitoring equipment including olfactometers and PPM calculators should be installed throughout the city to ensure that the burden of polluting projects does not predominantly fall on select, disfavored neighborhoods.
The Crawford smokestack implosion is an example of a preventable tragedy, not an understandable mishap. The lack of care smacks of environmental racism rather than bad luck on a neutral policy field. As demonstrated by the thorough planning for the upcoming demolition of General Iron, the Lincoln Park metal recycling facility, similar environmental issues faced by richer, whiter North-Side Chicago communities are often treated with care and caution. The city government must ensure that such care is uniform throughout Chicago and that another tragedy like Little Village’s does not diminish the voices of those who are already marginalized.
The Public Policy Studies major at the University of Chicago attracts scores of excellent undergraduate students. All of these students take part in a capstone experience in their senior year. A new option for the capstone experience is the Policy Project Seminar, a one-quarter course devoted to honing policy analysis and communication skills. The theme adopted for the inaugural Autumn 2022 Project Seminar was “Chicago Through a Policy Lens.” The Chicago Policy Review is pleased to present this op-ed as part of our “Outside Voices” series.
