CHICAGO -- Little Village has a very big problem. There are an estimated 20,000 kids under the age of 10 in the Southwest Side neighborhood, but only one park. This being Chicago, of course there is a battle going on about where to build a new one.

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Video: Fight For Park

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Little Village is one of the most underserved neighborhoods in the city when it comes to too many people but too little in the way of recreation or parks. Two aldermen each have a solution about how to fix the situation, but the competing plans have become part of the problem.

Alderman Ric Munoz, of the 22nd Ward, took NBC5's Carol Marin on a tour of where he wants to build a new park. Shuttered and vacant since 1997, Munoz wants to use the old Washburne Trade School at 31st and Kedzie, located on the eastern end of his ward. The largely industrial corridor is his choice to put a place for kids to play.

"This is Chicago. No place is ideal for a park," he said.

Alderman George Cardenas, whose the 12th Ward takes in about 20 percent of Little Village, says the Washburne site is better suited as a business site.

Any reasonable person would take a look at the corner and say, 'Why would you want to put a park there?'" Cardenas said. "What would be the cost of killing an industrial corridor that provides hundreds of jobs ... our communities need jobs."

Cardenas wants a park in his ward, on 22 acres across the street from the Cook County Jail.

Until 1982, the site was the home of a roofing company called Celotex. It is highly contaminated and an EPA Superfund site.

A gravel cap is in place in an effort to prevent hazardous waste from leaking out from the contaminated ground.

The EPA said an open space park could be built on the site, but to build a field house or swimming pool would require a multimillion-dollar cleanup.

"Celotex is severely contaminated ... in order to be able to put a park or homes on it, you need to spend roughly a little over $48.6 million," Munoz said.

About 95,000 residents call the community home, including Kim Wasserman, with the Little Village Environmental Justice Organization.

"We need a park now. We don't need a park five years from now," Wasserman said. "Unfortunately, it's a question of politics and who has the bigger guns -- who is going to get this park?"

For more than six years, Munoz has worked to get a new park built. He thought he had a deal last spring, when the Chicago Board of Education entered into a contract to demolish the Washburne site.

Five days later, out of nowhere, the demolition order was stayed by the city, Munoz said.

He believes the answer may lie in one of the most powerful and controversial political machines in Chicago -- the Hispanic Democratic Organization, which has been implicated in a city hall hiring scandal.

"Somebody is playing politics here. I'd like to think not, but somebody is," he said.

Munoz is an independent. Cardenas, who was elected with HDO support, says he had no role in stopping the demolition. He also said no one is telling him what to do.

"I don't have any acronym stenciled on my forehead," Cardenas said. "This community has been neglected for 20 years plus. Nothing has ever been done, and I think that it is time that changes."

But Munoz thinks he and Cardenas disagree on a more fundamental level.

"He's pro business. I'm pro parks. It's as easy as that," Munoz said.

In the end, it is a fight over two tracts of land, neither of which is ideal. And in the balance are thousands of children who simply want a better place to play caught, says Kim Wasserman, in a game of politics.

When asked if she thought the battle amounted to a titanic clash of two political cultures, Wasserman said she thinks so.

"I think exactly that's what it is, and unfortunately, the community is the one who ends up paying for it, because we need the park today," she said.

There is very little open space for new city parks. The two sites are within a few blocks of each other.

Washburne is already owned public land, and has fewer environmental issues than the Celotex site. But the ultimate decision will rest with the Chicago Park District, where no decision has been made.