SAVE South Shore Bay from LANDFILL!
Alderman Greg Mitchell, Representative Curtis Tarver, Senator Robert Peters, Mayor Brandon Johnson, Governor Pritzker, Representative Robin Kelly, Senator Richard Durbin, Senator Tammy Duckworth
We need your support to STOP Friends of the Parks (FOTP) LANDFILL project!
Friends of the Parks is no friend to South Shore! Yet again, they want to destroy our bay with landfill and concrete revetment walls.
- FOTP and outside interests want to dictate what happens to our lakefront and our community.
- FOTP’s landfill threatens public safety. Police and emergency services will have no direct access to it.
- FOTP’s landfill would destroy the natural ecosystem and vital animal habitat of this historic bay.
When the FOTP tried to force their plans on South Shore in 2008, we didn’t let them. We took it to the polls and an overwhelming 93% voted in favor of not destroying this beautiful bay.
The bottom line is this: FOTP’s plan is unnecessary, unsafe, expensive, and it is not wanted by our community.
Please share your voice and help us STOP these outsiders from coming into our neighborhood and using OUR taxpayer money on THEIR project.
Petition by
Sponsored by
To:
Alderman Greg Mitchell, Representative Curtis Tarver, Senator Robert Peters, Mayor Brandon Johnson, Governor Pritzker, Representative Robin Kelly, Senator Richard Durbin, Senator Tammy Duckworth
From:
[Your Name]
Dear Representative,
We need your help and your representation! We are a small (about 1,500 households), predominantly African American community, mostly seniors living around what we call South Shore Bay. Geographically this region is between 71st and 75th St and South Shore Drive along Chicago’s lakefront. We are writing to you because our community's peace, safety and wellbeing is yet again threatened by the Friends of The Park’s (FOTP) plan to fill in our bay with landfill.
We are asking you for your resolute NO to the FOTP’s landfill project.
In 2008, we held a referendum and South Shore voted overwhelmingly (93% in against) telling the FOTP that we did not want their vanity landfill project destroying our beautiful bay. Now these community outsiders are back again trying to tell us what to do with our lakefront. We believe their project is unnecessary, unsafe, and expensive and it is not wanted by our community!
Why this landfill is unnecessary:
FOTP’s plan will siphon valuable dollars away from pressing issues that have long been neglected in our community, such as the deterioration of South Shore Drive and other local streets. We have a solution that protects the intersecting streets and nearby buildings from lake storms without destroying the bay. One segment of the community plan and part of the solution between 71st and 72nd Place is already complete. With funding in place to protect 73rd Street and 73rd Place there is absolutely no need for outside interference.
This landfill would serve purely as a transit route and as such it will not be of any use to neighborhood residents.
Why this landfill is unsafe:
FOTP’s plan will dump landfill in the bay to create an isolated area along the lakefront that will be a source of increased crime, especially for community members who live near the landfill. This area will be difficult to monitor for safety and security.
The landfill will also destroy one of Chicago’s last natural shorelines, which will have adverse effects on the area’s wildlife and the area’s appeal for recreational fishing, boating, and kayaking.
How expensive is this landfill:
FOTP’s website for this project lists the cost of this project ranging at least $75 million!
What a frivolous waste of money this landfill would be in a neighborhood that could use better schools, bus shelters, groceries, recreation facilities, medical centers, opportunities for our youth, improved public safety, etc… FOTP’s plan is a frivolous waste of public funds!
In Conclusion:
Right now South Shore Bay is a safe and welcoming harbor for many local families as well as a rich natural habitat for a plethora of animal species.
Please help us protect this wonderful bay from destruction.
Please help us protect our people.
We fear that greed and self-righteousness could undo generations of careful work to maintain this delicate ecosystem – not to mention the possibility of this struggling community losing one of the last sources of well-being in its proximity to the lakefront.
We hope that we as citizens can continue to protect the most vulnerable communities and landscapes that allow for peaceful living of all life, rather than giving in to individual vanity projects.
Thank you for your time and service.
Sincerely,
Save South Shore Bay Action Council