At the groundbreaking ceremony, Gov. JB Pritzker touted the project as a magnet for jobs and economic investment. California-based PsiQuantum<\/a> agreed to be the campus\u2019s anchor tenant and other tech firms, including IBM<\/a> and those funded by the federal Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), will also establish operations there.<\/p>\n But after months of talking with Southeast Side community<\/a> and grassroots organizations<\/a> seeking more transparency, Chicago-based podcasters and Respair Media co-founders Damon Williams and Daniel Kissingler found another point of view.<\/p>\n \u201cThe coalition of government, private industry and academia behind this project says that it has the capacity to solve unsolvable problems, but we\u2019ve learned that it also has the potential to displace communities, damage our environment and destroy digital privacy as we know it,\u201d\u00a0 Williams said.<\/p>\n Even though Illinois officials like Pritzker are excited about the prospect of the state becoming a leader in computing technologies, coalitions of residents and activists are pushing back, citing concerns about increased\u00a0water and electricity, regulation, sound pollution, infrastructure, digital privacy and extra surveillance.<\/p>\n Williams and Kisslinger\u2019s goal for their multimedia investigative feature, \u201cQuantum Entanglements,\u201d<\/a> is to ensure the public has a 360-degree view of the development and the quantum technology behind it.<\/p>\n Although the plans include a hospital, a 128-acre quantum computing facility and office space, there is little clarity about what will ultimately be on the quantum campus, Kissingler said. And while there is a vision for what the campus will be, there isn\u2019t yet a full blueprint for the site, he added, leaving area residents nervous.<\/p>\n Anne Holcomb, a South Shore resident and self-proclaimed \u201ccitizen scientist,\u201d said the community was not invited to the quantum campus ceremony. \u201cWe were never asked what we wanted for that land. \u2026 We were in the dark and then it\u2019s thrown at us. How do you think we\u2019re going to feel?\u201d Holcomb said.<\/p>\n She shared her experience during the 65-minute podcast, in which Williams and Kissingler discuss the quantum campus\u2019s origins, potential harms and unanswered questions surrounding the site. The podcast highlights the lack of transparency around the project and the ambiguity surrounding the technology.<\/p>\n \u201cThat\u2019s been the problem the whole time,\u201d said Holcomb, a community organizer and co-chair of ETHOS (Environment, Transportation, Health, and Open Space). Based on the South and Southeast sides, the grassroots environmental justice group is leading a push for a community benefits agreement at the site. The right way to do urban planning is to meet with the community very early on, Holcomb said.<\/p>\n Since plans for the quantum campus were announced in the summer of 2024, opinions on the development have been, like the community it will inhabit, diverse. Kisslinger and Williams point to ETHOS and several other local advocacy groups organizing campaigns, including the Alliance for the Southeast and Southside Together.<\/p>\n Southeast Neighbors for Quantum supports the quantum campus. Southside Together wants to stop it. And while ETHOS does not want to kill the development, Holcomb said, a coalition of advocacy groups is pushing developers to secure binding agreements on community concerns such as environmental and housing protections, jobs for residents and investments in area schools and parks. Holcomb sees the agreement as a harm-reduction strategy.<\/p>\n The conflict around the quantum campus is not unique. Much of this tension arises around megadevelopments in general, according to Antonio Lopez, co-director of the Chicago Frontlines Fund, which provides grants to grassroots environmental justice initiatives. Lopez pointed to other city developments, such as Lincoln Yards, the implosion of a 380-foot chimney at the former Crawford Power Generating Station in Little Village, and The 78 development near Chinatown. The developing quantum park falls among these.<\/p>\n \u201cIt continues that long pattern that\u2019s happened in the city in a lot of neighborhoods,\u201d Lopez said. \u201cThere\u2019s a lot of old wounds and a lot of distrust. These are very big projects that have a lot at stake, not just for these individual neighborhoods, but as to what Chicago\u2019s going to look like in 10 years. Are people going to be able to afford to live here anymore? There\u2019s a lot happening right now, and we appreciate the work that Respair is doing to raise awareness and explain complicated things in an accessible way.\u201d<\/p>\n Lopez\u2019s fund provided a grant for the completion of that \u201cQuantum Entanglements\u201d project.<\/p>\n \u201cAfter numerous attempts to develop the site with mixed-income housing and other commercial development, the feeling of \u2018there\u2019s something where there has been nothing,\u2019 is very alluring,\u201d Kisslinger said. \u201cBut what that something is really matters. It has to be \u2018Is the thing we\u2019re bringing in to fill the void going to actually be able to meet our needs?’\u201d<\/p>\n Those needs include a community-accessible credit union on the site, as well as public restrooms and water fountains at the adjacent Steelworkers Park.<\/p>\n While the park\u2019s amenities aren\u2019t as robust as others, it still meets a community need for public space, Kissingler said.<\/p>\n Williams said issues around quantum technology narrow down to issues of self-determination and displacement.<\/p>\n \u201cThe ways in which communities can or cannot shape their environment, respond to harms and hazards in a way that is democratic, or respects the autonomy of people\u2019s lived experience,\u201d he said. \u201cBringing in developments that are not in line with the economic base of the community are other ways that displacement can occur.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cQuantum Entanglements\u201d was released in July after 16 months of research. The latest work was funded in collaboration with the Alliance Matters campaign, an initiative of Chicago Independent Media Alliance (CIMA) and the Field Foundation. The project is available in print,<\/a> video<\/a> and audio<\/a> (with a listening guide).<\/p>\n \u201cA lot of what\u2019s happening now feels very top down for a lot of people,\u201d Lopez said. \u201cWe want to democratize that. We think it\u2019s better if community members in these neighborhoods have a say on the types of development happening in their local areas.\u201d<\/p>\n Since Kisslinger and Williams interviewed Holcomb over a year ago for \u201cQuantum Entanglements,\u201d ETHOS has held monthly dialogues with developer Related Midwest and the Illinois Environmental Protection Agency. ETHOS volunteers monitor the site regularly to ensure the developer is doing the work responsibly.<\/p>\n As work continues, special fencing and street cleaning are measures to mitigate dust and dirt kicked up during construction and remediation, and to prevent soil transferred from truck tires from reaching public roads.<\/p>\n ETHOS has initiated discussions with the developers about housing, parks and education. They have yet to meet about jobs, Holcomb said.<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019re making some headway,\u201d Holcomb said. \u201cThey are working with us. It takes time and ideally we would get a signed document, but if the work gets done, the work gets done.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"In Steelworkers Park, butterflies and dragonflies flit around native plants and flowers that have grown waist-high. Public art…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":989240,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[5124],"tags":[960,340663,5386,1818,396691,46082,396692],"class_list":["post-989239","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-chicago","tag-chicago","tag-community-activists","tag-il","tag-illinois","tag-quantum-center","tag-southeast-side","tag-steelworkers-park"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/117060694978916409","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/989239","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=989239"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/989239\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/989240"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=989239"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=989239"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=989239"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"Community](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/ctc-l-quantum-entanglements-1122_286144.jpg\")
Community organizers Salvatore Consalvi, left, and Anne Holcomb walk to an event in the South Chicago neighborhood on Aug. 7, 2026. (Vincent D. Johnson\/for the Chicago Tribune)<\/p>\n![\"Trucks](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/ctc-l-quantum-entanglements-1188_cc96b0.jpg\")
Trucks enter and leave the construction site of the Illinois Quantum and Microelectronics Park in Chicago on Aug. 7, 2026. (Vincent D. Johnson\/for the Chicago Tribune)<\/p>\n![\"Kids](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/ctc-l-quantum-entanglements-1215_1219a2.jpg\")
Kids take part in a Chicago Park District rock climbing class at Steelworkers Park in Chicago on Aug. 7, 2026. (Vincent D. Johnson\/for the Chicago Tribune)<\/p>\n