Brown: Fighting disrespect — one illegal tire dump at a time

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The illegal dumping of old, used tires in the 15th Ward got so bad last month that Ald. Raymond Lopez demanded a city inspection of tire shops in the surrounding area.

He received the results this week — the very same day a fresh batch of tires was found discarded in a Brighton Park alley.

Lopez said he was shocked someone would have the “audacity” to continue disposing of tires illegally in the midst of the city crackdown.

“This is about more than just tires. It’s about respect for my communities,” said Lopez, a new alderman whose ward is one of the poorest in the city.

Lopez made that statement Wednesday morning. By mid- afternoon, he was calling me on his way to look into a new report of yet another, smaller batch of old tires someone had dumped in the ward.

Lopez said he has already had 18 “major” instances of tire dumping in the 15^th Ward this year, compared to an average of just seven in prior years.

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Tire dumping in the city is an old problem that seems to be making a resurgence.

It’s a subset of the larger fly-dumping problem that plagues neighborhoods with vacant and abandoned properties.

Lopez said his ward, which includes Brighton Park, Back of the Yards and West Englewood, suffers from a wide range of illegal dumping, including construction debris and landscaping waste.

But he said he decided to single out tire dumping for special attention because it poses unique public health dangers — and also because he thought an existing city ordinance that governs proper tire disposal might make it possible to trace the source of the tires turning up in his ward.

At Lopez’s request, the city’s Department of Business Affairs and Consumer Protection conducted inspections at 45 tire shops in the 60609, 60632 and 60636 zip codes between June 2 and June 8.

Three of those businesses were cited for failing to adhere to provisions regarding the proper disposal of tires — which include record-keeping requirements about the disposal facility where the tires were sent and the name and license number of whoever transported them.

Just because some of the businesses weren’t maintaining proper records doesn’t necessarily mean they were illegally dumping their tires.

But Lopez said it’s a “red flag” for possible wrongdoing.

Lopez believes some tire shops, most of which are mom and pop operations, may be illegally dumping tires to avoid the cost of doing so properly at a landfill, which includes a $3 per tire fee to the city.

Tires are regarded as a particular hazard because water collects in them, making the tires a breeding ground for mosquitoes.

Lopez said his biggest concern is with tires dumped in abandoned garages and vacant buildings, where they add to the potential fire hazard. Burning tires make for an especially nasty fire.

This week’s illegal dumping of about a dozen tires was discovered near 47^th and Western, the third time tires had been dumped at that location, Lopez said.

“This is an organized effort, not just a guy throwing out a loose tire,” Lopez said.

In addition to the health risks, there is a cost to city taxpayers, who have to foot the bill for Streets and Sanitation workers to clean up the sites.

It’s important to remove the tires right away, Lopez said, because otherwise they proliferate.

I suppose somebody will think Lopez’s concerns are misplaced considering that his ward is also on the front lines of some of the city’s worst gun violence.

But I think he’s trying to gain a foothold against the perception his ward is just a dumping ground for the city’s problems, whether its guns or drugs — or tires.

A community that wants respect has to show self-respect when it can.

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