Branching out in Chicago
The story of my map is about the trees that are next to the street and on the sidewalks. I made sure that I labeled the difference between the Quad, trees, and shrubs/plants. Most of the sidewalks surrounding DePaul are covered with various trees and plant life.
The story these trees tell around the Lincoln Park area is that it is a very friendly and welcoming neighborhood full of life. The claim I am making with my map is that there are a surprising amount of trees that border the streets around the DePaul campus. Also I’ve noticed that areas with more trees on the sidewalk is where more people choose to walk. You can see that just across the street from the DePaul Quad there are no trees on the sidewalk but there are tons of trees on the side where the DePaul campus is located. There are also a lot more people walking on the side where there are more trees than the side without them.
Basically the map is showing the heavy presence of trees and sharing the claim that DePaul’s Lincoln Park area is a very walkable section of Chicago. I would say that the overall mood of my map is investigative and a bit serious. The map is really investigating the number of trees around the Lincoln Park neighborhood and especially around DePaul. The timeframe of my map is fairly irrelevant because trees stay in the same place throughout the season but I created this in the fall. I am representing the trees and bushes with different markings on the map that are indicated in the key I have provided in the lower left corner of the map. My map indicates where there is a higher density of trees along the streets, from that and the short videos you can argue the streets are more walkable. Below is a short video of Fullerton Avenue but across the street from the DePaul Quad. You can see that with the lack of trees and greenery in the area there is almost nobody to be seen walking on this sidewalk. Besides the fact that there are no trees on this sidewalk the sidewalk is also very narrow and doesn’t have that much to offer for pedestrians. There aren’t trees to look at, instead you are almost forced to look straight ahead. Another fun fact, when I see pedestrians walking to stores or the Mobil gas station on the north side of Fullerton, I see most of them cross the street from the south side where the DePaul Quad is located. I know that some of these people are DePaul students coming out of the Quad where the dorms are located but I still see non college students crossing the street last minute all the time almost as if they are being forced against their will to walk on the opposite side of Fullerton.
Meanwhile on the other side of the street it’s a much happier looking Fullerton Avenue. With people walking on the streets from both directions it is a completely different atmosphere than what is going on across the street. Also as shown in the video below with more people comes more trees and plants. People may say this is just a coincidence but I recorded both sides of the street at the same time of the day and there is such a drastic difference between the foot traffic between the two locations. Even though the bigger trees take up a big portion of the sidewalk people still enjoy walking on this side of Fullerton much more.
When it comes to thinking outside of the box and making your own personalized map you start to realize that, “…a cartographer could set out on a mission that’s so emotional, and so personal…”(Wood 6). That is what I began to think when I saw a street where nobody was walking and a street where a lot of people were walking. I noticed that the main difference between the two sides of the street were different due to the number of trees and plants they had. After noticing that I began to understand that people enjoyed walking on sidewalks with trees and plants. You can also argue this is why DePaul has placed so many trees around the campus so that it makes it easier and more enjoyable to walk for the students.
For myself, walking through the DePaul Lincoln Park campus is quite amazing. I think we often take for granted the trees that are right in front of us. Especially in seasons like fall when the leaves on the trees turn colors it makes the walk even better. If you think about it, would you rather walk where nobody is walking and there is literally nothing to look at? Or would you want to walk where other people are walking and you can see trees of different color all around you. After creating this map I think the trees around the DePaul campus is truly an underrated aspect of the area.
Throughout this class the point has been brought up about certain items or aspects catching your attention while walking. I think when you walk without an intention and start to pay attention to what is around you when you walk, it is going to draw your attention towards your surroundings.
When looking at the map and also just while walking through this part of Lincoln park as well, you can really feel a sense of togetherness. I think that is from all the trees being lined up and connected with the roads. All of the small streets that are lined up and intersect each other are peppered with these trees and plant life that gives the neighborhood an identity. These trees give Lincoln Park an identity that you probably wouldn’t have found out if you just looked up the neighborhood in google maps. Instead after living in an area for a long enough time I began to realize that the trees really do make a difference. I thought about how different it would be strolling around the DePaul Lincoln Park Campus without all the trees over your head or next to you. It would be a completely different walk if there were no trees. That is the main reason why I decided to map this area and this way.
When walking, “Sometimes, you are unprepared for what the walks have to offer.”(Adusumilli). When I did this walk I was extremely unprepared for how many trees there actually were around this area. I was also surprised that on one side of Fullerton there were a lot more trees than on the other side. After doing this map I found out that most of the trees were by DePaul owned buildings and by the neighborhoods down Clifton and Sheffield on the southern part of my map. On the other hand I found out that at the northern part of the map there wasn't many trees at all. When digging deeper into what the northern part of the map looks like it was pretty depressing honestly compared to other parts where there are more trees present.
This is a picture I took that was across the street from the John T. Richardson Library. You can see that there are no people walking, and that there are no trees in picture. On top of that the building is just a dreary sight. This is basically the north side of Fullerton Ave. Not many pedestrians and not really anything to look at. The more eastern part of Fullerton Ave has some plants and trees on the north side of the street but that area is close to Seton Hall which is another DePaul owned building. If you look at the map there seems to be trees by every place students have to go whether that be class or back to their dorm. I thought this common theme is very interesting.
“Now more than ever, we need to be able to see the world from different perspectives.”(Donald Houston). When creating this map and taking my journey through the different streets of Lincoln Park my perspective of the neighborhood itself and mapping has changed. I realized that while on my mission creating this map I saw a number of people walking around where there were a large amount of trees. Even at night there was a lot of people walking their dogs and talking with one another when trees were in the area. On the northern side of Fullerton however, you can’t say the same. There are definitely less people that walk on the northern side of Fullerton and at night there is almost nobody. I think that my maps perspective is where there are more trees located there are more people and visa versa. Although trees are something we see everyday, it’s incredible that there are this many around the DePaul Campus. (1552)
