![]() The ordeal devastated a then-9-year-old Edwards. The family became homeless, sleeping in the car or living as squatters in an apartment basement when an uncle could sneak them into the building. Her parents didn’t have that option when they were forced to move because of the Dan Ryan Expressway.Įdwards’ parents were compensated for the loss of their home, but it wasn’t enough to sustain their new house. But she is fighting for the railroad to do more than buy her existing home she wants it to buy outright a new home of her choosing so she won’t have a mortgage. Looking from her front porch at the barren lots where friends and neighbors once lived, Edwards knows the inevitable is near. And the city’s working class and communities of color such as Englewood are close to the tracks and rail yards residents coexist with the diesel fumes and train noise so they can have an affordable place to live. Susan Terpay, a spokesperson for Norfolk Southern, would not discuss the case because it is in court, but she said Chicago’s rail bottleneck has been widely reported in the media.Ĭhicago is the nation’s largest rail center six of the seven biggest rail carriers cut through the region, including Norfolk Southern. “If you are laying some railroad tracks, putting in a highway, I would just have to abide by the realities of the law. “What they are doing is not for public use and public benefit,” he said. ![]() Rogers, who like Edwards is fighting the Fortune 500 firm in court. ![]() Norfolk Southern hasn’t proved that expansion of the rail yard will alleviate freight train congestion, said Steven S. In Englewood, the definition of public use - that is, who benefits from the rail yard expansion - is at the center of the railroad fight. ![]() Critics say the ruling allows government power to be leveraged for private gain and could hurt the redevelopment of communities of color, which often are seized and razed under the blight provisions of eminent domain. City of New London (Connecticut), the court allowed governments to condemn property and give it to a private party for economic development. Supreme Court expanded the scope of public use. But under state laws, railroads and utility companies can invoke the authority for projects deemed for public use. It needs Edwards’ home to do that.Įminent domain is typically associated with government entities, not private companies such as railroads. Norfolk Southern has already purchased and razed dozens of homes in a 20-block area to expand its 200-acre freight yard from 47th Street pass Garfield Boulevard to 61st Street. The Virginia-based company has filed condemnation proceedings against her and two other residents, claiming the project is needed to alleviate the city’s notorious freight rail congestion. Edwards, who has lived in her home for 52 years, is among the last holdouts against the $285 million rail yard expansion. Most of her neighbors were bought out by the railroad over the last few years. ![]() Norfolk Southern is using its eminent domain power to take Edwards’ and others’ homes in this predominantly African-American community on the city’s South Side. Edwards now will have to leave her home in Chicago’s Englewood neighborhood to make way for another infrastructure project - this time, a rail yard expansion. Joyce Edwards’ family was forced to move from their Wells Street home to make way for the construction of the Dan Ryan Expressway in the late 1950s. ![]()
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