Wintust Arena is set to host the Big East Women’s Basketball Tournament this weekend. Check out our preview in Sports, page 25.
The Weinstein sentencing could mean an end to #MeToo. See Opinions, page 12.
DePaulia
The
Volume #104 | Issue #17 | March 2, 2020 | depauliaonline.com
DePaul developer reflects on role in Syrian revolution By Brita Hunegs Staff Writer
Emad Mahou spends his days writing code and building tools for DePaul’s various digital interfaces as one of the university’s software engineers. But nine years ago this month, he was building something very different.
In March 2011, Mahou was building a grassroots movement that helped incite the near-decade of civil war in his home country of Syria. Instead of navigating the halls of DePaul’s administrative offices, he was navigating the streets of Damascus while trying to dodge the wrath of President Bashar Al-Assad’s forces.
“When I was 23, I was fighting in Syria for freedom. I was leading the revolution 2011, but today I have to do a login for a trustee,” he said. Mahou was born in Lebanon in 1989 to a Lebanese mother and Syrian father. His family immigrated to Syria when he was 6, settling down just outside of Syr-
ia’s capital, Damascus. Though he began studying architecture at the University of Damascus when he was 20, he never got to finish his degree. Civilian results — which would later be known as the Arab Spring — began three years later in Tunisia and Egypt, forcing the countries’ respective leaders to step down.
As these unprecedented events unfolded, Mahou said he felt it was time to force a change in Syria. Hafez Al-Assad ruled Syria from 1970 until 2000 when he was succeeded by his son, Bashar. Hafez had ruled Syria oppressively, and there was hope the
See SYRIA, page 11
Breath of fresh air
MACKENZIE MURTAUGH | THE DEPAULIA
Outside the MAT Asphalt factory on Pershing Road on the Southwest Side. The factory, which releases fumes when in operation, is adjacent to McKinley Park and near a K-12 charter school.
McKinley Park residents try to block controversial asphalt plant By Lauren Paris, Hector Cervantes, Francesca Mathewes, Patsy Newitt
R
obert Beedle moved to McKinley Park in 2015, looking to settle down with his wife in a family-friendly, tight-knit community on Chicago’s Southwest Side. The neighborhood seemed like a perfect fit until an aroma he described as mimicking gasoline mixed with burnt pavement started filling the air, preventing Beedle from opening his windows on many warm summer nights. It was as if the MAT Asphalt plant was built overnight, marking the start of just one of many ongoing environmental battles. MAT Asphalt’s plant, located at 2055 W. Pershing Road, was opened in the heart of the McKinley Park neighborhood in April, 2018. The plant, which primarily produces road paving material, faces McKinley Park, and is next door to the National Latino Education Institute and a few blocks from
Contributing Writers & Asst. News Editor
Horizon Science Academy: McKinley Park, a K-12 Charter school. Other McKinley Park residents cite similar scenarios. “The fumes emitting from the asphalt have been extraordinarily strong today. It was difficult for me to walk from my car to inside our building without being physically affected by those fumes,” said an email from an employee of the National Latino Education Institute to the City of Chicago in 2019. The email then said the maintenance team had to turn off their air conditioning system because the fumes were so strong. The plant seemed to appear overnight, built without IEPA notification to the surrounding community, according to residents and activists. MAT Asphalt operates up to six days a week roughly from midApril to mid-December.
MAT Asphalt was owned by a partnership that includes Buildsmore LLC, owned by Tony Sanchez, Mckinley Park LLC, owned by Charles and Dan Gallagher and MAT Asphalt LLC, owned by Michael Tadin Jr. Tadin is the son of Michael Tadin Sr., longtime friend of former Mayor Richard M. Daley and owner of both equipment firm MAT Leasing and the Marina Cartage trucking empire. Marina Cartage and MAT Leasing have done at least $100 million in business with the city of Chicago, according to Crain Chicago Business. Tadin’s firms benefited from the scandal with the city’s hired truck program that was shut down in 2005 by then-Mayor Richard M. Daley after a Sun-Times investigation found that the $40-million-a-year hired truckers did little or no work.
McKinley Park’s population is primarily Hispanic, according to U.S. census data. More than 20 percent of residents are living below the poverty line. This area, among many other Southwest Side Chicago neighborhoods such as Little Village, Pilsen and Brighton Park, is embedded in the South Branch industrial corridor, which has been the hub of industries such as coal plants, manufacturing plants and other industrial facilities for decades. This area is zoned in Chicago’s Central Manufacturing District, making it the prime location for the opening of these plants. Beedle, now the president of the organization Neighbors For Environmental Justice (N4EJ), got involved after learning
See ASPHALT, page 4