Lost Somewhere so Familiar
Aimlessly walking through Lincoln Park.
The location of my walk was the most important aspect of this assignment to me, I wanted to discover new places and see new things. I wanted to go somewhere that I did not know very well, somewhere this walk would be more like an adventure with surprise and suspense with every turn. It was about 1:00 pm, I am sat in my dorm room trying to decide where I should take my solitary walk, then it hits me: Lincoln Park. What better place to explore than your own neighborhood? Even though I moved here less than a month ago, this part of the city feels like home to me; I have decided if Lincoln Park is my new home, then I better start creating my mental map of it.
1:13
I begin my walk.
Walking out of Corcoran, I start to walk south along Wish Field. There is a guy wearing a black, backward hat and converse practicing tricks on his skateboard. The clacking of the wheels to the concrete with every flip of the board became rhythmic, echoing under the metal structure of the L. Continuing my walk, once I reached the edge of Wish Field I went and met the main road at Sheffield, still walking south. As I was walking past the Ray, a group of people passed by carrying dress clothes; even though I assumed it was for a formal sports banquet or something of that nature, I still am wondering where they were all heading. Soon I have walked past the edge of campus and I am surrounded by residential homes, and I could not help but notice the abundance of what I can only assume to be party debris. Everything from confetti to broken beer bottles is scattered across the sidewalk, and no one seemed bothered when they had to carefully step around the broken glass on the ground.
1:25
Turn west on Armitage.
This turn is where I encountered my first documented experience. I witness two elderly ladies fighting over who was strong enough to unlock the jammed door to their garden level apartment. They were both trying to take the key away from one another, acting as if they were five years old; I had to hold back some laughter as I continued to walk past them. Continuing down Armitage, I pass by a car bumper on the sidewalk and a car with a parking ticket before I reached an interesting fence post. It is 1:30, I am almost to Racine when I see the end of a fence post that has the word “Zen” written out on it in large, thick black letters. There is something about graffiti that draws me in closer, someone has a story to tell and I want to listen to it. Eventually, I reach Racine and head south, then turn and head south-east on Clybourn. I walk past a complex that has a cake shop called “Nothing Bundt Cakes”, I do not know if it is a pun or the fact that it is a cake shop, but I will be back there soon enough. Nothing else really sticks out to me, so turn and head east on Willow where I then see the cutest garden. It was a small cottage-feeling house, and their garden screamed it. In the tree, there were little elf figurines, one playing the violin and the other singing. At the other end of the garden, there was a beautiful array of potted plants next to a bright red fire hydrant and a soldier with a matching red shirt under his armor. Passing by construction, I get a hint of an intense orange citrus smell; this instantly reminds me of cleaning supplies, which for some reason made me think of my grandma.
1:50
Turn and head north on Halsted.
Before I turn on Halstead, dogs were an every-once-in-a-while occurrence, but it suddenly turned into dog mania. Mainly medium sized dogs were being walked alongside their owners, and if they were lucky enough they would have two or three dogs with them. As I walk, I begin to notice a tree I have never seen before, at least to my knowledge. The leaves were the most interesting, they looked more like fern leaves rather than a tree’s. I picked up a fallen, dried up leaf and twirled it between my fingers as I continued down Halstead. Not long after that, I had fallen in pace behind an older gentleman who was carrying a thin book in his right hand and had his mail folded and stuffed in his back, right pocket. His bright red hat caught my attention at first, but then I began to watch him closer; he would stretch out his left arm and touch every corner of every building or fence we walked by. It did not look like a forceful act out of curiosity, but rather out of pure habit. Eventually, he walked into a restaurant with a large patio for seating, it looked a little more upscale than his jean shorts and brown sandals could handle, but who am I to judge? As I continue my walk without any distraction, I begin to notice that on my left there is restaurant after restaurant, all giving off the same cute and welcoming vibe. All had an open, patio seating section where I could catch snippets of conversation as I walked past; the majority were people complaining about work or making company deals. By this time I am starting to get tired of walking down Halstead, but I decide to walk one more block and I am glad I did. I was stopped at the crosswalk at Halstead and Dickens, next to two off-duty security guards still in uniform. They were leaned up against the side of the building swapping stories from their days at work. At one point in the conversation, one of them said that they had to “hold back” and remember that they were on duty since all they wanted to do was yell at someone about how stupid they were. That story got a laugh from both her friend and me, so I quickly crossed the street.
2:05
Turn and head east on Webster.
Somehow, someway I ended up in Oz Park. I pass by a group of teenage boys playing an intense basketball game, fighting over who got to make the free throw. On my other side, there was a teacher walking down the sidewalk with three of her students as she answered their questions. Making my way into the park, I see a group of teenagers sitting around a red, octagon shaped table next to the playground eating lunch. I take this as a sign to occupy the table next to them and people watch/eavesdrop on their conversation. They did not disappoint, some really obscure things were said and then documented:
“I used to live by a Chuck E. Cheese’s that was known for gang violence.”
“I don’t care that my dad immigrated here from Africa with only $50, he needs to stop expecting so much of me!”
There are much more where that came from. I sat at that table for a good 20 minutes, until I felt my people watching time had run out. Before I had a chance to get up, a bottle cap was flicked onto my table by one of the boys from the other “Topo Chico”, I picked it up and put it in my pocket to keep as a way to remember the hilarious high schoolers.
2:25
Oz Park.
Walking along the path through Oz Park, I find the gate that leads into the Emerald Garden. A group of girls is laying down in the middle of the grassy garden, sharing lunch as they swap the latest gossip. I decide to sit on a black, metal bench in the corner that overlooked a section of the garden. For a moment it was silent, then the wind picked up and it was as if that was the catalyst for background noise to begin again. After collecting my thoughts, I was standing up to leave when I say a section of fallen plants. I went to pick it up, it was a tragically beautiful bouquet of dried-up yellow flowers; some petals were missing, but it was easy to see that before the tragic accident that had separated it from the soil, they were in their prime state of beauty. I could not leave them there on the ground, so I picked up the dry bouquet and put it in my backpack. It was then I began my journey back to the DePaul campus.
2:36
Turn and head Northwest on Lincoln.
I was not on Lincoln very long, but long enough to pass by a pizza shop and smell it baking. It was then when I realized how hungry I truly was, so I quickened my pace to make it back to the student center as quickly as possible. Looking for the shortest way back, I turn and head west on Belden. It is close to 2:40 when I run into some interesting brick sidewalk; it felt uneven under my feet and when I looked down I realized why. Strangely, some of the bricks were missing the middle of them, being replaced by weeds. I do not understand or know what happened here, except for that it looks almost purposeful. The next thing that catches my attention is the back of a stop sign. It reads: “Butter is a Milkshake chkl ngtz”. No, I do not know what this means. Yes, I am very curious as to what it means and why it was placed there. I may have gotten some weird stares as I stood in the road to take this picture, but there are no regrets for capturing art. Soon The L track is in view, and as I walk under it my walk comes to an end. It was 2:45 by the time I finished my exploration of my new home, this hour and a half long adventure has made me much more excited to live in Lincoln Park.
Peaceful Coexistence
Cities are not just erected for the purpose of a new project. Cities are made as a place for people to work and live. People need to get places, and in a place a big and complex as a city, it is most times easier to just walk. Like I said earlier, a city is made for people to work in. People do not like to just simply sit around all day, they have things to do. Finally, once someone has so much to do, in both professional and personal lives, they create a list. Cities, lists, and walking are all interconnected; you cannot have one without the other. Without lists, there is no reason to walk. If you are not walking, that means there is no place to go. With no places to go, a city becomes abandoned or never created in the first place. This is deep web like system, grasping the fundamentals of someone who is in a city. There is no such thing as a relaxed city, there is always some hustle and bustle. What creates this hustle and bustle? The walking people do around the city, to check off things on their lists.
