Joe Ortega’s Story:
Climate Injustice on Chicago’s South Side and the Importance of Role-Models
Written by Emma Zimmerman in collaboration with the Sunrise Movement
On a Wednesday evening, 31-year-old Joe Ortega sipped on a tall glass of beer in a Logan Square café. At 7pm, any commuter walking by would have assumed Joe, a Chicago-based real estate professional, was simply unwinding after a long day at work. But that evening, Joe wasn’t thinking about property tax redemption or quitclaim deeds. There was something else on his mind, something more consequential, something that had begun to sprout when he was nine years old. Besides, we weren’t there to talk about his realty work.
Two weeks earlier, Joe Ortega had spent the weekend in Philadelphia with a group of Sunrise Movement activists from states as far as Alaska, discussing anti-oppression and other skills necessary for climate activism. The night before our meeting, he stayed up until 2am to celebrate the birthday of another Sunrise Chicago hub-member. That morning, he awoke at 7am to begin his workday. The next weekend, he would lead a training for aspiring climate activists. When he wasn’t immersed in trainings, he would assist with fundraising to help the Sunrise Chicago hub reach a more diverse group of young people. Joe works in real estate, but he is really an activist. And most of all, he acts as a role-model to younger climate activists throughout Chicago.
In fact, the role-model piece of Joe’s identity most drives his climate work. Growing up in South Chicago, a working-class neighborhood on the southeast border of Lake Michigan, Joe learned the value of mentors. As a young boy, Joe lived with his mother and two grandparents. From the time of his parents’ divorce, when he was three years old, Joe yearned for a father-figure to connect with. Luckily, he didn’t have to look too far — his grandfather played the father role and more.
“He was just one of the sweetest guys that I ever knew,” recounted Joe. “He had this contagious laughter…He always cared for me when I most needed someone to be there.”
Joe will always remember the times he shared with his grandparents — his grandfather’s homegrown vegetables sizzling on the stove top, and his grandmother’s smile and calm demeanor, even in times of catastrophe. However, memories of their neighborhood, South Chicago, will not float on with the same force. In fact, Joe has noticed his neighborhood slowly disappear from many Chicagoans’ consciousnesses.
In the 1950s and 60s, this neighborhood swelled with the lives of industrial workers and their families. Partially responsible for this vibrancy, U.S. Steel’s South Works plant sat on a 600 acre plot of land and employed 20,000 people. In the 1970s, steel became a less prominent industry, and the plant began to downsize its labor force, laying off many diligent workers. Joe’s grandfather was one of them.
In 1992, the South Works plant closed entirely, drifting out of the Chicagoan consciousness like a forgotten dream, and taking South Chicago along with it. In fact, most of the friends Joe met during his college years at DePaul University — just fifteen miles north of his childhood home — had never heard of South Chicago, let alone the South Works plant. Yet, the many South Chicago families affected by South Works will never forget.
When his grandfather was laid off, Joe’s grandmother began to support the family through her work as an accountant at a medical clinic. Joe remembers his grandmother’s long hours at work, her bright outlook, and the example of tenacity she set for her family — otherwise plagued by pain. At the same time, he remembers watching his grandfather slowly deteriorate. During the years Joe’s grandfather spent working at the steel plant, he was exposed to high levels of carcinogens. When Joe was nine years old, he lost his greatest mentor to cancer of the esophagus.
Yet, Joe’s grandfather was not the only victim. In fact, as more families spoke out about their lost loved ones, they banded together to file a lawsuit. While the families affected by South Works eventually received compensation, nothing could ameliorate the pain that reverberated throughout South Chicago.
“No amount of money can compensate for a lost life,” said Joe, glancing down at his beer. Despite the scar it has cast upon the neighborhood, U.S. Steel maintains a sizable presence in South Chicago — a constant reminder of grief for many families residing there.
After the plant’s 1992 closing, U.S. Steel enacted an EPA-supervised cleanup of the property. However, in 2018, when a developer introduced a plan to revitalize the land, soil contamination remained. The developer hoped to build 20,000 homes on the old South Works site, but the project was terminated that same May. It remains unclear whether the site will require additional environmental remediation.
Yet, even if the land is entirely cleared of contamination, Joe fears that any private company buying the land will not revitalize it in a manner that benefits the community. Perhaps, that’s where the Sunrise Movement and their push for a Green New Deal comes in.
“The whole idea of a Green New Deal — and I think it’s very important — is that there has to be a power that takes a look at this land, chooses to get the community involved in its restoration, and then gives that land back to the community, or creates opportunities for people within that community.” Whether dealing with the effects of climate change or other environmental degradation, Joe is invigorated by the prospect of fair, community-based approaches to remediating environmental harm.
Due to his experiences with injustice, Joe values efforts to amplify the voices most affected by environmental harm. Reflecting on the Sunrise Movement Training for Trainers event he attended in Philadelphia the weekend before, Joe appreciated the prevalence of not just white cis people, but also queer people and people of color. In fact, Joe has noticed that a large number of Sunrise Movement hub coordinators and training leaders have been women of color. Of course, much work remains if we truly wish to make environmental activism as accessible as possible.
In an email, Joe reflected on the Sunrise Chicago Hub’s efforts to become more representative of the people facing environmental oppression in Chicago: “The matter of our hub becoming more diverse, equitable, and inclusive is something that’s still in the preliminary stages, but it’s immensely important to the people of color in our hub, emerging as leaders, that [it] becomes more justly representative of people in historically marginalized communities on the South and West Side of Chicago. We absolutely must be committed to building partnerships with people that have been oppressed through racist policies involving redlining, structural, racial segregation (i.e a consequence of the Dan Ryan Expressway), and environmental oppression… I feel optimistic that we can accomplish that and take our movement to new places.”
When asked how his activism work might evolve leading into the 2020 election, Joe does not hesitate. While he has enjoyed training young activists, he now wishes to reach Americans who are a little less energetic about climate action. Specifically, he wants to reach voters who sit passively on the side of climate action. These voters may voice their knowledge of climate change, and they may even express concern about the catastrophe upon us, but often, they hold countless reasons for inaction.
For these people, there are always errands to run, families to feed, trains to catch, bills to pay, and perhaps a second or even a third job to perform. For these people — and for good reason — little time remains for activism. Yet, if these individuals can access a ballot — a much more difficult feat for some Americans — they can vote. When speaking with these passive supporters, Joe hopes to inspire them to vote for a president that will lead us towards climate action, environmental justice, and other progressive policy areas.
“I want to connect with [potential voters] in a way that would make them want to come out and vote. I think that’s the key…the more people who vote, the more you can affect change.” While discussing his passion for inspiring others, we return to Joe’s childhood, and the person that inspired his own environmental work.
“My grandfather was a green thumb. He would get vegetables from his garden and incorporate them into his cooking. Looking back, I really wish he was around long enough to impart [more] of his lessons about being a good steward of the land,” said Joe. He wonders what his life would have looked like had he been awarded more time with his role-model. What lessons would he have learned, and what memories would he hold, if the steel plant hadn’t stolen his grandfather’s life?
“I don’t want what happened to me growing up to happen to other people. I want a world where [kids] can have influential, important people in their lives. I hate the idea of any possibility of that being taken away. But when it comes to profit motives, there is often no regard for compassion or human life,” said Joe.
Yet perhaps without realizing it, Joe provides the perfect example of the climate role-model he envisions. Through Sunrise trainings, Joe strives to lead the largest amount of people — armed with signs, petitions, chants, and even just with votes — to stand on the side of climate action. Yet, Joe understands that not everyone can spend hours each week fighting injustice. Rather, through his own mission of inclusive activism, Joe demonstrates that we must make room for the industrial workers, the farmers, the teachers, the single parents, the real estate agents, and so on. At the same time, we must make room for people of color and other folks of marginalized identities. For, they can teach us, through experience, what is truly at stake: human life.
It seems that all Joe wants is to make room for everyone to sit at the table of climate action. Then, together, we can ensure a healthy future — a future where children grow up and teach their grandchildren what it means to act as true stewards of the land.
