As a sustainable design professional, I’m thrilled to see Chicago’s mayor putting our city on track to join dozens of other jurisdictions making new construction greener and healthier via the Clean and Affordable Buildings Ordinance (CABO). I advise my clients that all-electric is not just the only path to cutting emissions, but also, it is increasingly affordable and has proved to work in climates colder than ours.
Peoples Gas and the American Gas Association had statements in the Jan. 22 article “City ordinance could curb natural gas use” focused on maintaining consumer choice. This sounds like the last-resort argument of someone who can’t truthfully say the product they’re selling is safe, healthy or environmentally preferable.
But let’s unpack it a little more: When you last looked for an apartment or house in Chicago, how many did you find that ran on electricity only? Do you remember a headline you’ve seen about gas stoves and childhood asthma or a news clip about a gas line explosion? Did you realize those were risks you had no choice but to live with? After you moved in, did you expect a low utility bill only to find yourself stuck paying at least $30 every month even when you weren’t running your heat?
Right now, we as a city are so locked into Peoples Gas’ fossil fuel system by default that most Chicagoans do not, realistically, have the “consumer choice” to rent, buy and work in places free from the pollution, fire hazards and related ever-increasing bills.
I want the builders and developers I work with to have plenty of choices when it comes to floor plans and finishes. I don’t want anyone, knowing what we know in 2024, to have the choice to keep making the climate emergency and human health worse by connecting to a fuel source that should be obsolete.
I am asking our City Council to follow the example set by New York, Los Angeles and so many others by passing CABO. I hope Chicago shows the next round of cities considering a gas ban that it can be done.
— Emily Purcell, Chicago
This week, Mayor Brandon Johnson announced support for the Clean and Affordable Buildings Ordinance (CABO), which would help transition new buildings away from natural gas.
This is a promising development to protect Chicagoans from the harmful effects of natural gas.
Gas appliances pollute indoor air quality with benzene, a chemical that is linked to cancer. They also emit nitrogen oxides and fine particulate matter that increase the risks for respiratory illness, especially in children.
Children living in homes with gas stoves are 42% more likely to suffer from asthma symptoms than those in homes with electric stoves, according to a 2020 report by the Rocky Mountain Institute, Physicians for Social Responsibility, Mothers Out Front and Sierra Club. Here in Illinois, 1 in 5 of all childhood asthma cases are attributable to cooking with gas, according to a recent peer-reviewed analysis.
I’ve lived on the South Side for more than 30 years, and for residents in neighborhoods like mine, decades of industrial pollution and legacy contamination have already hurt our health. I have asthma, and so do both of my children. Not being able to breathe is the worst experience that I’ve ever had. If we weren’t living in a home polluted by gas, these experiences might have been avoided.
CABO is a necessary first step away from gas infrastructure in homes and buildings and toward cheaper, healthier ways to heat new buildings. The data is clear — natural gas is unhealthy. Now that we have the information and the technology to move away from gas, we need the political momentum to make it happen. For our health, and our kids’ health, we need to see the City Council pass CABO.
We know what the solution is to protect our health and the health of generations to come. What are we waiting for?
— Kendrick Hall, Chicago
I am retired, but for the majority of my working career, I have been associated with retail in some form. I was a salesperson at the store level and graduated to management and general management. Then for more than 25 years, I managed and did leasing for shopping centers.
So I have a soft spot for retail, and besides working in the trade, I enjoy going to brick-and-mortar stores to shop. I have been following the rise in retail store theft, especially as it relates to large stores that have self-checkout lanes. Actually, when I first saw these self-checkout lanes, I thought that it wouldn’t be that difficult to steal merchandise just by not scanning items. I was right. It seems customers do it intentionally and by accident. I am guilty of forgetting to scan something.
I just read an article that stated two large retailers have partnered with a firm that can do a better job in monitoring shoplifting and catching and prosecuting shoplifters. I know the reason stores originally installed the self-checkout lanes was to save money on checkout clerks. But now they are losing money from unpaid merchandise leaving the store and from paying for special service providers.
Wouldn’t it just be easier to admit the self-checkout lanes were a mistake and bring back the checkers?
— Hymie Brandelstein, Chicago
I was most interested in the op-ed that appeared in the Nov. 18 Tribune titled “Letter writing is essential to human connection.”
I have always loved writing letters. I began to do this in earnest during World War II when I decided that no serviceman I knew would be without mail on mail call day! I wrote to my uncles, cousins, neighbors and in particular to the man who would become my husband after the war.
After the war and up to and including the present day, I continued to write letters. When we would spend winters in Arizona, I had the habit of writing a short update on our activities and sending it to about 20 people each week. My husband said to me: “Betty, what makes you think they are interested in what we do?” My reply was: “Well, they can just throw the letter in the trash, and I’ll never be the wiser!”
One day, he received a telephone call from his oldest sister. She asked: “Is Betty OK?” He assured her that I was and found out that what prompted her call was that she had received a frantic call from another sibling, who was very concerned, because they had not received their weekly letter from Betty!
So, I totally agree that “letter writing is essential to human connection.” Not everyone uses a computer or a cellphone, and things that are sent to these devices are read and, I think, immediately lost!
— Betty Helsper, Schaumburg
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Submit a letter, of no more than 400 words, to the editor here or email letters@chicagotribune.com.
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