Cheryl Johnson has been battling polluters around her Far Southeast Side community for most of her 64 years.

Now she’s making an impassioned plea to City Council members to give her some help even as business and union groups try to kill or weaken a plan to protect South Side and West Side neighborhoods from dirty industry.

“So, our community doesn’t have a voice when we’re subjected to poison?” Johnson said in an interview. “There’s a quality of life for people that should be available for all the people of Chicago.”

Johnson is pushing for an ordinance named after her late mother Hazel Johnson that would change the rules on how polluting businesses can locate in low-income communities of color. The proposed law would force the city to consider the health impact on neighborhoods, includ

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