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But it’s increasingly clear that politics are going to push the Daley administration toward ever-greener policies that extend beyond downtown demos. People across the city are bugging their aldermen about environmental issues, and aldermen don’t like to be bugged that much. And say what you will about Daley, but he’s not going to let aldermen out-green him.
Approval of Malec-McKenna was never in doubt, but aldermen took the opportunity to tell her how much they’d like to see the environment department become more prominent and aggressive. Each seemed to make an appeal for new initiatives in their wards: Carrie Austin (34th) asked her to make asbestos remediation and lead poisoning prevention top priorities, while fellow south-sider Leslie Hairston (5th) said she wanted the department to work harder to find out why the 63rd Street Beach keeps getting closed for high bacteria counts. John Pope noted that his Tenth Ward, on the far southeast side, has a host of environmental problems dating to its days as the home of steel mills and other heavy industry, and asked that the environment department work more closely with the planning department to clean up brownfields and push green building.
The committee’s chairman, 19th Ward alderman Virginia Rugai, appeared to be amazed by all the brainstorming and advice. “This committee has seen a change,” she said. For example, she noted that 12 years ago, “There was minimal interest in recycling–it was seen as an elitist activity. Now everyone is interested.”
