Ryland Pietras

An editor and reporter who studied solutions journalism at Northeastern Illinois University. My interests as a reporter are in environmentalism and social justice.

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Featured Articles

Explore a featured selection of my writing work below.
SouthSide Weekly •

Final Mayoral Forums Tackle Environmental Racism and Police – South Side Weekly

In a final effort for voters and mayoral candidates to engage each other directly, two public forums were held on the South Side last week that focused on environmental racism and addressed police and campaign finances.

Paul Vallas and Brandon Johnson, who are facing off in the April 4 runoff election, spoke at a Pilsen event titled “The People’s Dialogue on the Environment” on March 27 and then debated at the University of Chicago’s Institute of Politics on March 30.
Documenters.org •

City Council

-The debate over accepting emergency state funding for providing the influx of migrants with food and shelter became incendiary after 4th Ward Alder Jeanette Taylor criticized the Lightfoot Administration for its lack of transparency about where it would house the migrants.
-One of the points made by opponents of the funding was that they felt the city was doing more to help those who weren’t from the city than it was doing for those who were. Proponents of the funding said if it was homelessness that they cared about, they missed that opportunity when the Bring Home Chicago ordinance was brought before the council and 25 alders chose not to attend the meeting.
-A nearly 3 ½ year old ordinance finally made its way out of council chambers. Social service workers now have the right to unionize.
Documenters.org •

Community Development Commission

-The City is entering into negotiations of market-rate sales of vacant lands in the South and West sides of the city, which is great for local communities, but might be more beneficial if some of those lands were sold at an even more affordable cost. For instance, if a parcel of land is vacant for longer than 10 years, it might be more economical to sell it at a reduced price which would potentially create more proposals for the use of the land.
-The landmarked building at 2222 S. Michigan appears to become a great fixture of the South Loop and of Motor Row, but it was the only item on this meeting’s agenda to receive any public comment. Both of the comments were in opposition to the project due to its inability to guarantee high-quality jobs for residents of the community. Although it was approved, this should be something that should be considered for future developments.
Documenters.org •

Committee on Ethics and Government Oversight

-“Our current campaign finance system is a mirror of the social and economic inequality that plagues our communities today,” said Alisa Kaplan, Executive Director of Reform for Illinois, an organization that advocates for the fair election program.
-Inspector General Deborah Witzburg said according to Section 2-56 of the Municipal Code, the chair of this committee has jurisdictional authority for all work of the OIG having to do with City Council other than violations of the ethics ordinance.
-Additionally, Witzburg stated that there are already existing rules within the Chicago Police Department that should in effect call for the termination of any member with open associations with an extremist organization.
-Kaplan said that among New York, Seattle, Washington DC, and Los Angeles there are 30 other municipalities and jurisdictions throughout the country that have some form of a fair election program that involves matching campaign funds.
Documenters.org •

Committee on Workforce Development

-The proposed ordinance would have required anyone who uses hoisting machinery with a weight capacity of 1,000 pounds to obtain a crane operators license and commercial general liability insurance. The national standard from OSHA is 2,000 pounds.
-This was a highly contentious meeting between labor unions that never should have made its way to City Council, but rather have been taken up by Chicago Building Trades.
-Around 15 representatives from seven different labor unions were arguing against an amendment that only one union was in favor of.
-Ald. Leslie Hairston made clear the overreach that this amendment would have by providing the example that retail workers and small home contractors would be required to have crane operating licenses.
NEIU Independent •

Interdisciplinary Climate Change Stories

Spring not only brings life back to all of those who have laid dormant over the winter, but it also brings revitalization back to the NEIU campus and its community. It is only fitting then that Earth Week occurs right in the middle of it.

This year, NEIU held six Earth Week related events throughout the week that began on April 19. The Independent was only able to cover one of the events—the Interdisciplinary Climate Change Stories held that same evening.

Students presented different cases for
NEIU Independent •

Is It Safe to Drink the Water Coming from Your Tap?

Water, like the sun and air, is crucial to our existence. By some accounts it is recommended that we drink half of our body weight in ounces per day. We are all fortunate to live in a city that has some of the cleanest drinking water in the country.

But just because the water that comes from the Jardine—the giant purification plant at the edge of Lake Michigan— is safe to drink, it does not mean that it will still be that way by the time it reaches our taps.

The Jardine, which opened in 1968,
NEIU Independent •

Chicago Climate Action Plan 2022 Town Hall

On Jan. 22, the City of Chicago held a virtual town hall meeting on its 2022 climate action plan. It was the first of its kind and the first on a climate action plan since 2008.

A representative of the Mayor’s Office moderated the event which featured plenty of climate-concerned citizens, the City’s chief sustainability officer and a representative of the Mayor’s Youth Commission.

“As Chicago’s future leaders, we’ve already begun to inherit a world without clean air, with neighborhoods covered
NEIU Independent •

Prairie Burn on Campus

On the morning of Dec. 9, a group of volunteers, made up of faculty, staff and students of NEIU conducted a prescribed burn on the swamp white oak savannah areas near NEIU’s physical education complex.

An oak savannah is a lightly forested grassland wherein fire plays an important role. Before the settlement of Europeans in the region, fires set by lightning or Native Americans would ensure that the prairies to the west of the Mississippi wouldn’t turn into forests, like in the east.

Due to we