More good jobs in Little Village come with a price

SHARE More good jobs in Little Village come with a price
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Kimberly Wasserman, executive director of the Little Village Environmental
Justice Organization, wants the city to rethink its redevelopment plans for the shuttered Crawford coal plant and other industrial developments across
Chicago. | Madison Hopkins/For the BGA

I read with interest in Monday’s Sun-Times about the Little Village Environmental Justice Organization. I learned that  more manufacturers are moving from the North Side to the South and West sides.  You would think this would be great news for the residents of those communities. All we have been hearing, for years, is that gun violence is plaguing those parts of the city because there are no jobs.

Just in past month, the Dan Ryan and Lake Shore Drive were closed down at enormous taxpayer expense as community leaders, activists and even our own police superintendent unlawfully demonstrated as a means to bring awareness of these problems and injustices to the spoiled, affluent and indifferent snobs who live on the North Side.

SEND LETTERS TO: letters@suntimes.com. Please include your neighborhood or hometown and a phone number for verification purposes.

But wait. I also learned from the Sun-Times report that Kim Wasserman and the LVEJO resent the intrusion of these businesses into their communities. They are unhappy about stinky processing plants and noisy, smelly trucks driving through their neighborhoods, belching diesel fumes. According to them, there is environmental prejudice at work here. No other communities have to deal with these inconveniences.

Well, which is it, LVEJO?  Do you want jobs and some of the inconveniences that come with having industry and manufacturing in your neighborhoods, or do you want unemployment and gun violence to continue?

Ed Stare, Belmont Heights

Chicago’s weekend of bloodshed

My heart breaks for Chicago..my hometown. I don’t know what the answer is but this can’t keep happening every weekend. To the people of Chicago..you are in my prayers.

Patricia Kinney Hakes, via Facebook

This past bloody weekend followed two recent marches intended to bring an end just such a bloodbath. It should be clear to everyone that demonstrations and prayers have had absolutely no effect on the gangs terrorizing parts of Chicago. The city is at a crossroad. Is it going to allow the police to go after the gangs and harass and lock them up, or will the city continue to be plagued by violence?

Whenever the police have tried to be aggressive with gangs, they have faced a hue and cry that minorities are being targeted and that the answer to the gang problem is more jobs. The reality is that most gang members are high school dropouts who possess few skills to hold a job. They have forsaken education and jobs. They have shown themselves to be callous and brazen, with little regard for human life.

We have been told that the city cannot arrest its way out of this situation. I say let’s give it a shot.

Ned L. McCray, Tinley Park

Those strict gun control laws and marches really helped!

Marlene Grzeskowiak Brzoska, via Facebook

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