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Jun 20, 2023

West Humboldt Park residents concerned about swastika on building

Community members in West Humboldt Park shared concerns Thursday about a man

Community members in West Humboldt Park shared concerns Thursday about a man prominently displaying a red and yellow swastika sign from scaffolding atop a building close to a school.

Activists with the West Humboldt Park Community Coalition neighborhood group said they have heard little in response from authorities about their fears at a news conference outside the office of Ald. Emma Mitts, 37th.

"This is not safe," said Farrah Walker, coalition secretary. "People are outraged. People are shocked. People are scared."

In a statement to the Tribune on Thursday, Mitts said she was "angered and revulsed" by the swastika sign. Her office has worked with the Building Department and Chicago Police Department to investigate, she said, adding that the sign was taken down and the building owner was given a citation.

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The sign was once again affixed to the scaffolding tower Thursday morning. It was prominently displayed alongside an upside-down American flag — a signal for distress — as well as a Chicago flag, a smiley face flag, a Ukrainian flag and an Army 1st Infantry Division flag flying from flagpoles atop the cluttered scaffolding at North Kedvale and West Chicago avenues.

In May 2022, Chicago police responded to a gunshot detection alert near the building where the scaffolding is up when a man on a roof on the same block pointed "an unknown object with a laser" in the direction of a police helicopter, the department said.

The building where the swastika sign was displayed is close to Orr Academy High School and across the street from a school bus facility.

The swastika has gone up and down since police responded to the home several weeks ago, according to several workers at nearby businesses who declined to give their names. Officers shut down several blocks along Chicago Avenue during the response, the workers said.

The man displaying the sign loudly plays a wide range of music, from opera to salsa, sometimes throughout the day and night, they said. He occasionally broadcasts hateful rants, including ones targeting President Joe Biden, they added.

Farrah Walker, secretary of the West Humboldt Park Community Coalition, answers questions at news conference near the office of Ald. Emma Mitts, 37th, June 1, 2023, about safety concerns in the community. (Eileen T. Meslar/Chicago Tribune)

Attempts to contact the building's resident via phone were unsuccessful.

The group is highlighting the sign to prevent any potential violence, said Walker, of the coalition.

"If this was Lincoln Park or River West, that sign would’ve been taken down the day we reported it," she said.

The community coalition members also discussed a so far unused Amazon facility in the neighborhood during the news conference.

The 140,000 square-foot Amazon delivery station had been set to open by the end of 2022 and employ 500 full- and part-time workers, but an Amazon spokesperson told the Tribune in December it was not yet operating because of supply chain concerns and "business reasons."

The activists again shared calls they made before the facility's construction that the corporation sign a community benefits agreements including a variety of promises, including a $28.50 starting wage and the hiring of 60% of the facility's workers from the community.

[ West Humboldt Park neighbors pushing for benefits agreement before Amazon facility arrives ]

The group, joined by activists representing other labor and social justice organizations from across the city, called on Mitts and Amazon to meet with them and be more transparent about the facility's future.

While activists are working to see how they might be able to pressure Amazon to sign an agreement, city leaders should change laws to make it a requirement for companies building major work sites, attorney Ramsin Canon said.

"The city needs to take leadership. They write the laws. They write the codes. They write the rules. They can't pretend like their hands are tied," Canon said.