Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot on Thursday halted a planned demolition at a former generating station in the city's Little Village neighborhood where just one month earlier a separate demolition created a cloud of dust and sparked outrage among residents.
Inspectors determined that the building poses a public safety hazard because the building is structurally unsound and must be dismantled, Lightfoot said in a statement Thursday night.
"In order to allow additional time to continue discussions with the community about the structurally dangerous condition of that small building, the city has ordered that for now, the demolition will not move forward over the next several days," she said.
On April 11, Hilco Redevelopment Partners conducted a scheduled and previously approved implosion of a smoke stack at the now-closed Crawford Power Generating Station. The smoke stack was successfully imploded, but the demolition released a large plume of dust into the air, which then settled on homes, vehicles and businesses throughout Little Village.
