Add the environment to items at the top of new mayor’s agenda

Environmental issues should be among the items at the top of the agenda for the next mayor of Chicago. 

In many ways, environmental issues connect a wide range of concerns the new mayor will confront. What happens with the environment will impact the quality of life, public health, the image and marketability of the city and the long-term economy.

Yes, environmental issues are global, but they also are local. Around the world, much of the action is at the metropolitan level. Chicago should be a leader.

“If we want a city that is livable, where you want businesses to come and hire people, we need to have a city that has clean air and clean water,” said Jen Walling, executive director of the Illinois Environmental Council. “Whether it is economic development or housing or food insecurity, all of those issues are really premised on having a great environment for people to live in.”

Here is what experts on the environment tell us needs to be done.

• The city needs to re-establish its Department of the Environment and give it the capacity to work holistically across all neighborhoods. Environmentalists say disbanding the department has proved to be a disaster, leading to poor coordination among government agencies and reducing the number of inspections.
• The new mayor should lead an effort to tap into newly available federal resources. More money is available for environmental initiatives than we have seen in generations, perhaps ever. If Chicago doesn’t have its act together to pursue innovative and progressive programs, the city will leave money on the table.
• The new mayor should lead collaboration with surrounding municipalities and other units of government because environmental issues cross political boundaries. Air quality, as a recent study on Cook County reported, is a regional issue. So are watersheds, public health, transit and other concerns. The mayor and City Council should build relationships across the metropolis. One example the new mayor should double down on is the multi-agency Greater Chicago Watershed Alliance, which looks for nature-based solutions to environmental problems, such as water pollution, air pollution, combined sewer overflows, community flooding and urban heat islands. The new mayor should work to secure enough funding to support maintenance of the so-called green-engineering projects, not just to pay for installation.
• When people talk about improving urban environments, they often talk about trees. Chicago has one of the lowest tree canopy covers of any major city in the nation. The new mayor should push for more tree plantings as well as lead an effort to increase open space, both by expanding parks and creating new ones. Open space helps to fight climate change, and improves people’s quality of life, especially as more of us work from home. The additional green space also should provide native habitat.

• Lake Michigan and the Chicago River will need help. Scientists say future lake levels that fluctuate to a greater degree, along with stronger storms, will threaten shoreline infrastructure — including homes and businesses — erode beaches and cause flooding. Part of the solution, which the new mayor should pursue, is to continue to develop a regional watershed plan that eliminates combined sewer overflows into waterways and the lake.
• The new mayor should lead an effort to collaborate with the Metropolitan Water Reclamation District, the county’s second-largest public property owner, to increase urban farming. Urban farming can capture water run-off, fight climate change and alleviate food insecurity. 
• Replace lead service lines. Replacement of the lines, a source of dangerous lead in drinking water, is proceeding at a snail’s pace. Now, more federal money is available to pay for the work. The new mayor should work to speed up the replacement of the lines. 
• The Southeast and Southwest sides suffer from poor air quality. The new mayor should work to clean up or remove the sources of air pollution.
• An issue that quickly will be in the new administration’s hands is the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers’ plan to add 25 vertical feet to a Southeast Side “contained disposal facility” on a site where the community was promised a park. The site, which contains toxins, will be vulnerable to Lake Michigan waves driven by higher water levels and stronger storms.
• Other issues include fixing recycling problems at businesses, apartment buildings and condos; encouraging the replacement of appliances that burn fossil fuels; and supporting more bike lanes and public transportation — an environmental issue because vehicles powered by fossil fuels are a major source of greenhouse gases.

The Chicago We Will report, adopted by the Chicago Plan Commission in February, makes it abundantly clear that human health, livelihoods and infrastructure issues are tied to the environment. The report emphasizes the importance of parks, trees and open space.

Improving the quality of life in the city, for everyone, goes hand-in-hand with addressing environmental concerns.

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