For my project, I would like to present the sidewalks in Chicago neighborhoods that are walkable and inviting. To me, a walkable and inviting sidewalk is one that is meant to force you to stop gaze at your surroundings. Pavements that aren’t simply cement but are handmade mosaic designs; which entice you want to walk on it. Restaurants that have vines that wrap around it’s structure, cool bright signs that brighten up the area when it gets dark, outside seating with hand crafted wooden chairs and tables; anything that catches the eye of a pedestrian. A sidewalk that is primarily meant to be walked on with attention, rather than for the intent of getting to a specific destination. Sidewalks that become one with nature, not your average “nature band-aid”, but those with clear emphasis on maintaining it. Street art, that adds character to a specific neighborhood. These things all determine how we judge a neighborhood, the surroundings stimulate our judgement about a particular place.

With this idea, I’d like to take pictures of things that appeal to me and help me understand a place a bit better than before.

This map is unfinished, clearly just an first idea, I was thinking of extending the lines of the letters to form streets, and with every line I was going to include what I thought was a walkable street.

Paintings on walls are extremely appealing to an individual’s eye

Hand-designed mosaic pavements, and signs that connect to a particular population.

· 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?

Walking is a fundamental right, it is a way for humans to travel wherever they’d with their own body. A human’s capability of walking with both feet from one place to another is an aspect of humanity; it’s a function that we were made to fulfill.

Sidewalks lead us into the path of cars, we are given no choice but to walk down a crosswalk when getting from one place to another. We are told by society to trust those who are behind the wheel, we are forced to risk our lives in order to go about our business. Women who walk alone, are seen as either homeless or entailed in prostitution. Society of course relaying this idea of women being weak, and unable to protect themselves. They believe that when we access public, when we exercise our fundamental right to walk, that we’re vulnerable and have no other place to go.

Infrastructure that supports the act of walking, such as: wider pavement space, appealing signs, trees and greenery, generally things that stimulate the brain. Those things entice people to walk more, they create a feel good environment.