Roseland residents demand action on overgrown lot turned dumping ground

CHICAGO - Residents on Chicago’s far south side are speaking out after a neighbor's overgrown lot led to mice getting into their homes.

Frustration is growing in the Roseland neighborhood as a piece of city-owned land has turned into an unofficial dumping ground.

"It's better downtown than here. And we paying too much tax and then the next person," said Ethel Williamson, a Roseland resident.

The lot, located in the 300 block of West 99th Place, is filled with tires, plastic bottles, and all kinds of trash. Residents say years of neglect have turned the dead-end street from peaceful to cluttered chaos.

"There were two men… and they would cut the grass and clean up down there. And they've since gone in. So we don't have anybody that does it," said Adrienne Anglin, a Roseland resident.

Since then, the area has become overrun with weeds and run down. Williamson and Anglin have lived on the block for 50 years. Williamson said she called 311 and her alderman.

Fox 32 reached out to the 9th Ward Alderman Anthony Beale. His office sent these before-and-after images from March of this year when the area was cleaned up prompted by that 311 call, but residents say the current state is anything but satisfactory.

"It's unacceptable," Anglin said.

Alderman Beale says the area is now on the list to be cleaned up.