CHICAGO (WBBM NEWSRADIO/AP) -- A federal judge ruled against Southeast Side residents, who filed a lawsuit seeking to prevent a car-shredding operation from moving into their community.
Since the announcement that General Iron would be moving its car-shredding operation from the mostly white Lincoln Park neighborhood to the mostly brown and black East Side neighborhood, Southeast Side residents have contended racism was behind the move.
Two Southeast Side residents and a clergyman filed a civil rights lawsuit arguing the city sought to move the General Iron operation, since renamed Southside Recycling, out of Lincoln Park to make way for Lincoln Yards, a multi-billion-dollar residential development.
Now, U.S. District Court Judge Mary Rowland said she wouldn’t prevent the city from issuing a final permit to General Iron because residents couldn’t prove racial discrimination was involved in the move.
“Their contention that the prospective nuisance is reasonably likely to occur does not meet the high standard,” the judge wrote of the plaintiffs lawsuit.
The residents argued a two-page “term sheet” between the city and representatives of the business determining a timetable to move General Iron from Lincoln Park to the Southeast Side pointed to a coordinated effort with the city. The judge noted the term sheet seemed unusual, but it did not guarantee a permit would be granted and the plaintiffs didn’t prove that there was a racial bias.
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The city has not yet decided whether to issue a permit for the company to begin operations as Southside Recycling.
Meanwhile, residents are not giving up. They plan to continue to fight to keep another pollution-causing company from their neighborhood.
(WBBM Newsradio and The Associated Press contributed to this copy.)