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player ready...Little Village residents wish an empty, dilapidated building at the corner of West 31st Street and South Kedzie Avenue would disappear.
They say the building, once home to the Washburne Trade School and still owned by the Chicago Board of Education, is an eyesore in their South Lawndale neighborhood. The windows are broken, graffiti covers the walls, and residents say it is a magnet for drug users and crime.
Ald. Ricardo Munoz (22nd) calls the building a “tragedy waiting to happen.” For more than a year, he and residents have been asking the city and Board of Ed to put a park on the 11-acre site instead.
He’s frustrated the building still stands. “I drive by that building four or five times a day–it just breaks my heart.”
In August, Munoz and a group of residents asked the board to follow through on an earlier demolition plan and got no response.
Malon Edwards, a spokesman for Chicago Public Schools, says the department is still discussing the best use of the site with the city. Jaime de Leon of Little Village Community Development Corp. says frustrated residents simply want the structure taken down, no matter what ends up there.
Here’s what people in the neighborhood think.
“Rebuild it and do something good for the neighborhood. I think it should be some kind of school … or another factory with some more jobs.”
Teresa Phillips, 36
“People smoke in there and tag. Gangbangers hang out there. They should make it a school or a library or a store so I could get a job.”
Myra Servin, 17
“They need to tear it down. It’s a waste and making the neighborhood look ugly. Make a park or fix it up and make another school.”
Juan Trevino, 37
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What’s the issue in your neighborhood? E-mail Kathryn Masterson at [email protected].