Dozens of community members from six municipalities in the Calumet region came together Friday to celebrate progress on a collection of flood mitigation projects funded by American Rescue Plan funds, ranging from better stormwater diversion to retrofitting homes for flood resilience.
Miriam Savad, chief strategy and program officer for the Center for Neighborhood Technology, which created the flood preparedness plans now being put into action, said the goal was to center the needs and perspectives of residents.
“We know that you need an equitable process to end up with an equitable solution,” Savad said. “I think this is a project that really exemplifies that. We need community participation in communities that have been explicitly disinvested in.”
The six communities involved in the project are Dolton, Robbins, Blue Island, Calumet City, Calumet Park and Riverdale.
Each of the municipalities has its own steering committee made up of volunteer organizers, many of them seniors, who were tasked with determining the priorities for their towns.
“We chose our project. We chose what type of project it would be, all based on the input of these individuals,” said Val Williams, who works for the community and economic development department of Calumet City. “And it’s good, you know. They’re retired lawyers, retired doctors, retired health care professionals, retired caregivers. They’re all retired people of different perspectives that still have a lot to give back to the community.”
The project the Calumet City steering committee chose was to create stormwater bumpouts at Sibley Boulevard and Wentworth Avenue, creating a safer crossing for a nearby day care.
The Center for Neighborhood Technology developed the RainReady plan for the region about 10 years ago, Savad said, but there was no funding at the time to put the project into practice.
It wasn’t until rescue plan was signed into law in 2021, dispensing billions in funds for pandemic relief and infrastructure improvement, that the project was able to get moving. Cook County committed $6 million of funds it was allotted to making the center’s plan a reality.
“It’s climate resiliency. We know that we have more flooding. We also know we have more heat. And these are all ways, in a lot of ways, nature-based solutions, as well as infrastructural solutions, to address some of the biggest aspects of this,” said Suzanne Malec-McKenna, director of the Cook County Department of Environment and Sustainability.
The relief funds expire in November 2026, meaning that is the deadline for completion for the RainReady projects in progress. Malec-McKenna stressed there is still a lot of climate adaptation work to be done in the south suburbs, which will require finding more funding sources.
“A lot of people look at tree-planting and flowers as this nice additional thing, if you have the additional money or what have you,” said Malec-McKenna. “But instead, it’s some of the most important infrastructure we can put in, because they’re hard-working nature solutions. We know a tree does cooling. Oaks, which are being planted, support 600 species.”
Bo Kemp, vice chair of the Center for Neighborhood Technology and CEO of the Southland Development Authority, said he hoped the community input model of RainReady could set an example for the rest of the state.
“For decades, not just in this area but all throughout the region, there’s just been a lack of focus and infrastructure investment in, in particular, Black and brown communities,” Kemp said.
Kemp said the south suburbs were particularly vulnerable to flooding because of the geology.
“This area is a very unique geological area, because of all the snows, essentially, that melted to create the Great Lakes, it creates a really high water table,” Kemp said. “You can’t dig 4 feet before you hit water out here. And so a lot of what RainReady is about is addressing what should have been an obvious issue, but an issue that had not been appropriately invested to solve.”
Many community representatives said they were driven to involve themselves with the project due to personal experiences with flooding. Alma Hill of the Calumet Park committee said her first experience with happened just six months after moving in.
“It was real bad. My whole basement was destroyed,” Hill said. “I sat there and I cried and cried and cried.”
Mary Carvlin of the Blue Island committee said involvement helped her to regain a sense of agency after her home was flooded.
“I have had up to 4 feet of water in my basement. I live at the bottom of the Blue Island ridge. It was a very crushing experience, as you can only imagine,” said Carvlin. “My involvement with CNT, I will say, has helped me to turn from being a victim to an advocate, and that’s the most important thing that’s happened to me personally. We’re not victims.”
Carvlin said she’s looking forward to a plan underway with the Metropolitan Water Reclamation District to create of a major water detention pond, a depression meant to hold excess stormwater and release it slowly into the ground.
“If that happens, I’m going to have waterfront property instead of water in my basement,” Carvlin said.
Lorée Washington, a community organizer in Riverdale, said once the RainReady projects were completed, she hoped to see the same level of local engagement sustained in future infrastructure work.
“These are singular projects, and they are wonderful projects, but they don’t address all the flooding issues,” Washington said. “What that means is there’s a lot of more work to do.”
elewis@chicagotribune.com