Neighbors object to planned elementary site in Chicago

From The Chicago Tribune: Chicago wants to build an elementary school on polluted property near the Indiana border, and that has raised the ire of neighborhood parents. The district has paid more than $3 million for a triangular parcel of about 2 acres that is near a heavily congested traffic corridor, train tracks and industrial plants. Preliminary testing at the site, which had been home to a gas station and a carwash, has uncovered eight underground gasoline storage tanks, one known to be leaking, and unsafe levels of the chemical benzene in the soil. Neighborhood residents have for years complained to district officials about crowding in their schools, particularly Gallistel Elementary Language Academy, where 1,400 students are spread among three campuses and many portable trailers.