By Ben Joravsky
Such arguments hardly placate the residents. They say the city has failed even to acknowledge the dangers of having four to six feet of sewage in their basements. They say neither Mayor Daley nor Governor Edgar toured the flooded area, and over a month passed between the storm and the official request for federal relief, which came only after angry home owners marched on City Hall and the State of Illinois Building. Residents of North and South Austin say they still can’t get a meeting with the health commissioner to talk about potential safety hazards, just as residents of Belmont-Cragin haven’t been granted a meeting with the sewers commissioner or budget director to see if there’s money available for new sewers.
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It’s a curious thing, this contrast in perspectives. For Mayor Daley prides himself on having learned the lessons of the blizzard of ’79, when Mayor Michael Bilandic was bounced from office for not responding to the needs of a snowbound city. “It’s not just that the politicians didn’t tour our neighborhoods, it’s that they dismiss the whole thing like it was no big deal,” says Dianne O’Quinn, a resident of North Austin. “Our basements filled with the most disgusting sewer water and they still don’t pay attention. They decided that the flood wasn’t a big deal and nothing we say will change their minds.”
It doesn’t help Strnad’s cause that he lives in a political no-man’s land. Younger Mexican-American families have been replacing older white ethnics in an area that’s moved from ward to ward in recent remappings and has no strong ties to any politician willing to press its needs. A few years ago it was dumped into the 29th Ward against the wishes of the black incumbent alderman, Sam Burrell.
Burrell agrees. “The flooding and the sewers are not related,” he says. “It’s a floodplain, see, that’s what’s going on. They built on floodplain. The sewers have nothing to do with it.”
Many of the same complaints are heard in North Austin. “I don’t think the city ever realized how devastating this flood was to our communities,” says O’Quinn, who lives near the intersection of Cicero and Crystal. “Two people on our block died of electrocution during the flood when they touched their freezer in their flooded basement. The Fire Department laid their bodies in the backyard. They lay there uncovered for two hours until a neighbor put a sheet over them. They were there from nine at night until one in the morning. That experience was devastating to people around here.”
