On the north end of the 29^th Ward there once was a very profitable factory called Zenith. You know the place, it's the one where the quality goes in before the name goes on. In its heyday it employed many people but as times got rough the factory had to eventually close its plant.

In its wake was left a rather large building along with many parking lots. The City of Chicago decided to use one of these parking lots to dump material. Naturally, the monkey see and monkey do syndrome followed and the parking lot got buried in all sort of waste.

Community residents would complain but their voices went unheard by the then impotent alderman Sam Burrell. Sam's approach was real simple -- do nothing for the north end of the 29^th Ward.

Sam needed a little kick and we gave it to him. By contacting the EPA, who then got involved because there were dangerous chemicals being dumped, we gave Sam the spirit to move forward and clean up the lot. What was unfortunate about all this was the fact that there was a children's playground right across the street. Children would play not only in the playground but on the dumpsite. After all, a 10+ feet mound of dirt makes a great natural "King of the Mountain" spot.

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