Beginning My Map of the Windy City
With my map, I want to tell the story of my experience in Chicago. In just a short time, less than two months in fact, I’ve had many positive and negative experiences all over the city. I want to map these events out, the locations they took place in, and how I view them today as a result. Here is a preliminary sketch of my map, although it needs a lot of work, and I need to redraw it on a larger piece of paper:
I’ve included the red line on the map, as I ride the red line at least twice a day, if not more, and it’s been a very important part of my experience here in Chicago. Coming from Cincinnati, where public transportation seems to have been forgotten, having easy access to many different parts of the city via the train has been a welcome change. I’ve also marked my most negative experience with the city on this map, at the North/Clybourn (spelled wrong on the map) red line stop. I’ll explain this event in greater detail in the final version, but it definitely still impacts how I view the stop, the area surrounding it, and the train system as a whole.
Some pictures I plan to include, at the moment, are ones that I took when I first got to the city. I have many other pictures in mind that I need to go out and take to help illustrate my story, but here are the three preexisting ones for now:
On the left, there is a picture I took on a rainy day downtown, on the near north side (not yet marked on my map, as I said, need to draw on a larger page). The one in the center is a picture of the skyline from the southern portion of the lakeside trail, and the one of the right is a view of the skyline from the beach in Lincoln Park. They are good overview type pictures of the city, and how I experienced it in the beginning of my time here, and I need to gather more to show the progression of my mindset within the city, and the way I view it today.
In response to Malchik, is walking a luxury, a privilege, a necessity, or a right, and why? What are the threats to walking? How does where you live influence how you live?
I believe that walking is a right. Everyone should have the right to walk the streets, to explore, to commute, to enjoy their surroundings in the most concrete way possible. Viewing the city from the inside of a car is vastly different than by walking the streets, and everyone should have the right to get out on the streets and walk unencumbered by fear. There are various threats to walking, mostly in the way it exposes someone to the dangers of the world. Walking the streets exposes you to the elements, rain, snow, hail, cold, hot, whatever it may be. But, it also exposes you to the dangers of crime. It is much easier to be robbed or assaulted on the street than it is in your car. There are also threats to walking in the form of poor city planning; if a city is not designed for walking, you may not be able to or may not be compelled to walk it. Additionally, where you live changes the way you might travel around, or the situations you might be willing to put yourself in. For example, if you live in a rural area, you likely have no other option but to own a car and use it to get places. But, if you live in a city, you might be able to walk or take public transport. Where you live in the city might influence how you decide to live as well; if you live in a bad neighborhood, you might be more careful, guarded, walk less, etc, but in a good neighborhood, you might walk around often, more care-free and exploratory.
