In Pilsen, community effort builds to close Chicago’s last big scrap-metal shredder

Mary Gonzales at St Paul’s Catholic Church, 2127 W. 22nd Pl. She’s leading an effort calling for the closing of a scrap-metal shredding operation in Pilsen owned by Sims Metal Management. (Anthony Vazquez / Sun-Times)

At a West Side church last spring, Mary Gonzales trotted out a classic community organizing tactic, asking a group of elected officials and bureaucrats — one by one in front of a crowd of several hundred people — to pledge to do everything in their power to reduce pollution in the neighborhood.

Each person was asked: “Will you, within your authority, act to reduce air pollution in the next two years?”