South siders call for Mayor Brandon Johnson to ‘revoke the permits’ for a controversial quantum computing facility

More than 350 people crowded into a hot auditorium at Arnold Mireles Academy on Saturday, chanting “revoke the permits” and demanding Mayor Brandon Johnson explain his support for Quantum Shore, a megadevelopment underway on Chicago’s southeast side that includes a quantum computing research and development park and a controversial data center. 

Southside Together, a community advocacy organization that has long opposed the development, organized the town hall after months of pressing the mayor to face the community about his role in bringing it to South Chicago. As chants of “shut it down” continued, South Chicago resident and Southside Together organizer Renee Redmond took the stage with Johnson and addressed him directly. 

“Mayor Johnson, you have always talked about standing by your values,” Redmond said. “Knowing what you know now, do you believe the Quantum Shore development, which includes the quantum facility and the data center, aligns with your values and vision for this community?”

The mayor took the microphone to mixed reactions from the crowd. As he began to speak, calls to answer the question with a direct “yes” or “no” rang out across the crowd, but Johnson never gave one. Instead, he said his values have not changed and pointed to the project’s developers, Related Midwest and CRG, who he said are working to environmentally remediate the site, formerly home to U.S. Steel South Works, where over a century of steelmaking left the land contaminated with heavy metals and petroleum.