For Adelina “Lina” Avalos, living on Chicago’s Southeast Side made her care about environmental justice before she even knew what it meant.
“When you drive through my neighborhood, you see factory facilities, you see smokestacks, you see stuff that you normally would not picture in a Chicago neighborhood. And that’s the reality for my community and a lot of communities across the city,” she said.
When she started attending high school downtown, public transit became the thing she relied on — and the thing that frustrated her the most. On her nearly two-hour train commutes to and from school, she wondered why it was so much harder to get around without a car. At that time, she didn’t have the tools to explain why.
As a high school organizer, Lina began leading student walkouts for climate action in 2018. Joining The People’s Lobby was the first time she learned about environmental justice, a term coined by South Side organizer Hazel Johnson while fighting against industrial pollution and city negligence that disproportionately impacted Black, brown, and low-income communities.
“Environmental justice can look like a lot of things. It can look like industrial zones or zoning policy changes. It can look like fully funding public transit so that everyone, everywhere, regardless of their income, can get on a bus, train, or some kind of publicly funded good to get where they need to go.”
Since joining The People’s Lobby, it’s been her political home for the past six years. Now, she serves as the co-chair of the Environmental Justice Task Force and is a member of the board of directors of The People’s Lobby Education Institute. She is also advocating for Illinois to pass legislation that will merge our long-siloed transit agencies and build a world-class transit system for the Chicagoland region.
This interview has been condensed and edited for clarity..
What first made you interested in environmental justice?
I’m from the far southeast side of Chicago, a neighborhood called East Side. I’ve been here my entire life, except for going to undergrad at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. I still live with my mom and dad, and this is definitely my home.
Unfortunately, the Southeast Side of Chicago is what we call a “sacrifice zone.” That means we have much higher pollution levels than what is considered safe, and also much higher than our other counterparts in Chicago. There are other neighborhoods with cleaner air, better infrastructure, and safer streets because they’re not sacrifice zones.
Due to government regulations across the board, it makes it a lot easier for polluters to come to my neighborhood. Large companies, factories, and dangerous work sites are more attracted to and can operate in my neighborhood. We’re surrounded by pollution, not only on the Chicago side but also because my neighborhood is on the border of Indiana. There’s a whole other ballpark of pollution in Indiana because that state line says I don’t have any standing there—I can’t say I’m a constituent even though their pollution affects us. Pollution doesn’t care about borders.
Going to high school and realizing that this is something unique to my neighborhood, but also a very familiar feeling for a lot of Latino and Black neighborhoods across this country, really made me deeply invested in environmental justice. It’s just unfair. It makes my life harder. It makes my family’s lives harder because it affects our health. It doesn’t make us feel empowered or safe to go outside.
When did you first notice that disparity between other neighborhoods and yours?
The disparity really hit me when I started commuting to Whitney Young High School in the West Loop. My commute was an hour and 45 minutes each way using the train—I would take the Metra to the Blue Line. I had to get up at 5 a.m. every single day, while some of my friends could wake up at 7 or 8 a.m. and be at school in 10 minutes.
Whitney Young is so diverse in terms of income, demographics, and backgrounds. I saw some of the richest people in the city send their kids there, and I saw how different their lives were from mine. It felt very unfair that I had to travel that long to get an opportunity, and the infrastructure made it worse—the Metra either came at 6 a.m. or 6:40 a.m. If I took the 6:40 a.m. train, I’d be late. If I took the 6 a.m. train, I’d get to school 25 minutes early just because that’s how the schedule worked out.
How did you get involved with The People’s Lobby?
I first got involved in 2019 when I was a junior in high school. I was doing climate strikes and organizing alongside Fridays for Future, but I felt like something was missing. I was at a climate protest, giving a speech about environmental justice, when Will Tanzman, our Executive Director, approached me afterward and connected me with our Environmental Justice Organizer at the time, Kylah Johnston. Honestly, I thought I was just getting a cup of coffee, but I was actually being organized into a member-based organization! She invited me to the Environmental Justice Task Force, and I’ve been around ever since.
In college, I studied environmental economics, and I believe that when people have good jobs that pay well, a lot of social justice problems naturally improve because people aren’t fighting for scraps. We need to make sure people can live healthily and have jobs that pay them well.
What has working on our transit campaign taught you?
The biggest thing is how dominant narratives take over everyone. People who daily take public transit and know it’s good still say, “We shouldn’t put more money into it because it’s dirty and slow.” But it’s dirty because we don’t have funding to keep it clean!
When we talk to transit riders and tell them that a better world is out there—that we deserve good public transit and can get more funding if we work together—it’s all about meeting people where they are. Everyone has a story about when the train or bus ruined their day, and those stories are powerful organizing tools.
I don’t want to go to Springfield on my day off to ask my representatives for basic things I need to live. I’d rather be at the beach or home with my dog. It’s even more enraging because this affects everyone—not just immigrants or young people or women. Public transit impacts literally every single person, and they still don’t care. We have to fight for scraps while there are billions of dollars in the budget.
Why should someone join The People’s Lobby as a member?
People should for several reasons. First, if we’re trying to build a grassroots movement and asking for time commitments from our leaders, that includes our resources, too. I donate $25 a month myself, and I’m considering increasing it because we need to meet the moment.
Second, the Trump administration is cracking down on nonprofits. People are getting subpoenas and threats for doing racial justice work. Government grants are being pulled, and foundations are scared to invest in this work. We need money from our own people that doesn’t come with compliance worries. And it’s a great way to have ownership over the organization. When you invest your time or money in The People’s Lobby, we invest right back in you.
What are you reading that’s inspiring your work?
I’m rereading We Do This ’Til We Free Us by Mariame Kaba. It’s focused on abolition organizing and gives a step-by-step vision of how, if we defund police and invest in mental health care, education, and teachers, the quality of life will improve. It’s about organizing, building power, and the idea that justice and accountability can happen within our communities.
Want to join Lina and The People’s Lobby in fighting for environmental justice and world-class public transit? Learn more about getting involved or consider making a monthly donation to support this crucial work.