Seeing (Spots on the) Red
An Incredibly Incomplete Map about Where to Go in Chicago
One cannot feel comfortable living somewhere until he or she starts to explore and claim the area around them. Roots have to grow and habits must form. At least, that is how I feel I am learning to live in and experience Chicago. Chepng’etich Biomndo agrees with me: “Seeing what is around me gives me a sense of connection and makes me less afraid of being in a new place.” Because of this idea, I wanted to map everywhere where I thought, “I want to show someone this.” I wanted my map to be usable for someone to find these places, so I based it around the red line of the “L.” It offers a starting point, which is all a map can really give anyway, and offers a path. It shows what I’ve done in the past, very little of which has been in Chicago.
While the map covers most of north-eastern Chicago, it most certainly does not represent even a fraction of the area it looks at. My spots are spread-out and sparse for a couple of reasons. “Young women get harassed in ways that tell them that this is not their world, their city, their street; that their freedom of movement and association is liable to be undermined at any time” (Solnit, “City of Women”). In relation to this quote, I have only gone to places I feel comfortable walking in. That is why the map only covers from the Howard station to the Harrison station on the red line of the “L.” Right now, I am not comfortable with getting off at many stops, especially by myself, so anything south of Harrison is off-limits for me. While I know it’s important to claim the streets and that I have a right to walk anywhere, I also have a responsibility to myself to make what I feel are smart decisions and keep myself safe. Continuing off that, Chicago has just recently become my city. It’s still new and dazzling, and I definitely have a lot to discover before I feel I could make any sort of expansive map. I can’t record what I haven’t experienced. While I have found spots, I know not many of them are unknown and unique, but they are places I can escape to. This is a map of my areas, not anyone else’s. Living in Chicago so far, I frequent certain areas (Fullerton and Belmont, for instance) and then that frequency fades down the further I move from those stations. This leads to me to know a lot more places in downtown and off Belmont than I do up north in Rogers Park. It’s just not a neighborhood I visit often. In addition, I don’t take very many chances with restaurants and cafés because I don’t spend much cash. College takes a heavy hit, so I don’t go out to eat unless I’m in a group situation or there are low-cost consequences to me. (Basically, it’s cheap, or I’m already familiar with it.) This predicament leads to a lack of cool and interesting eateries on my map. Everything else isn’t much better. I’m in a stage in my career in Chicago where I’m more than a tourist but not quite a local yet either. I’m not comfortable to go looking for noncommercial and nonpopular areas, at least by myself. This map is something that will get better with time and experience, and my knowledge of the city already has gotten better with the couple of months I’ve been here. Basically, this map is a recording of my time in Chicago so far.
While this assignment is meant to tell a story and provide an argument about the city of Chicago, I wanted mine to also be usable to someone as well. A city is made up of hundreds to thousands of spots to see and visit, and each of those points have a purpose. As stated by Solnit, “The urbanite is on the lookout for particulars, for opportunities, individuals, and supplies” (Wanderlust 185). This is true. When I first arrived in Chicago, I knew nothing about it except that there was a train I could take between my two campuses of school. The names of places and a few streets swam around in my head, but they had no relationship with one another. Only through exploring did I learn to make my way around. Along the way, I began to discover “particulars” that stood out to me. Whether one categorizes them into places that provide “opportunities, individuals, and supplies” or as spots to eat, play, and shop, it can’t be denied that these places are needed in order to feel at-home in a new city. My marked spots are, admittedly, not very unique to most native Chicagoans. (Some might even say they’re all tourist areas.) I would not correct them. For example, I will look at the Targets I marked. Targets are everywhere in the United States! As an outsider or a tourist, putting these on a map would be useless. Nobody wants to check out a department store for a vacation. In addition, long-time locals know how and where to shop locally in order to find better deals and support nearby businesses. They already know where Target is, and they don’t care. I didn’t make the map with those groups in mind. There are notes around each spot marked that give some of my personal thoughts for each one, including the Targets. Thinking up the map, I wanted to create something that I, and other people in a situation similar to mine, could use to as a starting point to living in Chicago. Target, Portillo’s, Grant Park, and all the other spots I’ve found do not take a lot of courage to try out. I’m positive this map will (figuratively) grow and expand the more I walk and explore while I’m here, and that’s okay. These points are still special and worth checking out. Maybe along the way, someone will find something else to mark on their own map.
One may notice that the red line and my paths are extremely colorful while everything else is black and white. This was a poetic choice. I was really struck by an idea we learned in class that cities are made up of the paths people take around them. Everyone leaves a piece of themselves in a place they’ve been, similarly to unspooling a piece of yarn as one walks. These remains are what make a city thrive and pulse with life. My paths contribute to that as well. Everywhere I’ve visited and walked in has been diverse and colorful. It had life because I was there. I don’t completely mean this in an arrogant kind of way where I made the places I visited something to be experienced because I was there. More so, I am trying to say that the places became special to me because I was there to explore them. That’s why I decided to make them colorful. Those areas are fleshed out in my mind, while everything I haven’t seen yet is just blank space yet to be filled in. That isn’t to say it isn’t important, but it isn’t part of my story or my map. I wanted to make a point that I haven’t seen a lot Chicago, but that the pieces I have seen are worth being noticed. There’s stark contrast between the stations with spots marked around them and the rest of the map, and I hope people who view it notice it and question it. While it might not be obvious, my project is supposed to look like it needs to be filled in more, and it should, figuratively. Chicago has much more to offer than what’s on my map. Whoever the viewer is, whether it be me or a stranger, this map should seem like just a starting point.
The red line of the “L” is the spine of central Chicago. While I only focused on the stations from Harrison up, it extends down in to the Southside, connecting both halves of the city. My experience has been mostly confined to north-eastern Chicago, so that’s where I kept my map. The places it maps are not as diverse and indie as I’d like them to be, but there’s reasoning for that. I’m still new to Chicago, and the map is meant for people who are new to the city as well. Because of its blankness, there’s an idea that it needs to be filled in by whoever is looking at it. Areas I have visited are attractive and colorful because I’m arguing that those are places that should be visited. I’m pushing for readers of this map to repeat my experiences and then go beyond. Maybe, they can follow the red line like I did. They can make their own way too. Chicago holds a million and one places to discover, and I just hope that my map can help someone begin that adventure. Or for people such as myself, it can help them realize it’s already started. )
Works Cited
Biomndo, Chepng’etich. “‘A Good Wander Unveils the Wonder of a City’: Readers on Urban Walking,” The Guardian, Guardian News, 6 Aug. 2016, www.theguardian.com/cities/2016/aug/06/a-good-wander-unveils-the-wonder-of-a-city-readers-on-urban-walking. Accessed October 2017.
Solnit, Rebecca. “City of Women,” The New Yorker, Condé Nast, 11 Oct. 2016, www.newyorker.com/books/page-turner/city-of-women?utm_source=pocket&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=pockethits. Accessed October 2017.
Solnit, Rebecca. Wanderlust: A History of Walking. Penguin, 2001, p. 185.
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