Making an Attractive City
Living in a place that is more open to walking impacts how you live because you can learn the city in a more intimate way. When it makes more sense to take a 20-minute walk down the street to the store as opposed to taking a car, it is almost as if your front yard becomes your whole surrounding neighborhood. The city’s infrastructure is linked to its social capital because if the residents begin to feel as comfortable on the streets as they would in their yard, the social capital improves because it creates an atmosphere of citizenship in the city. Some threats to walking in the city would be cars, dangers like assault or injuries, and the rise of the convince of not leaving your house, working from home and popular food delivery services like Post Mates for example. I believe that this problem could be solved if city planners mapped out what the surrounding areas of the new development would need. The block towards the west end of Fullerton exemplifies this in my opinion. The area is located in between a college campus and neighborhoods, and home to bus stops and the train station. The area is filled with amenities that the residents would need such as coffee and food stores, pharmacies, and dry cleaners. Because of the integral location, the residents become comfortable with walking to and from their errands (234).
Last week, I talked about how I wanted to do some sort of guide to being a local in Chicago, or how to at least pretend that you are one. I think that I will draw a map of some of the locations that I have found during my time here so far. Some of the locations will include stores and shops, but also some other places like parks which go a long with the idea of Chicago’s social capital. On the map I will include some of the little things around the city to help the new locals like myself “practice the art of noticing.” As Rob Walker said in his article “there is much to notice in the city- perhaps too much.” I think that it is important to not loose sight of the little things in the city once you get to local-level comfort in the city. I am taking inspiration from Leo Hollis when he said “By using an urban place against the grain of common practice, one owned it.” A lot of people, including myself, come to larger cities from a smaller town. Walking is integral to living in a city and is very much against the grain of common practice in small towns. Also keeping in mind, the idea of “who can walk” I will talk about how Leslie Cortez and how she said “I had grown up learning that Downtown is dangerous, the North side is dangerous.” This shows that everything when walking is a perception, even when dealing with what is considered “dangerous”.
