the fifth exploration

For my final project, I was thinking of possibly making a map of all my favorite things off of each stop of one of the CTA lines. I love riding the CTA and sometimes take it for fun, with no particular destination in mind. This past week I’ve taken a few CTA lines I haven’t in a while, like the blue and brown line. I was also inspired by something I saw at Loyola when I was visiting a friend at her campus the other day, which had a few fun restaurants off of some red line stops, since Loyola has a red line stop of its own.

I think I’ve been to enough stops where I’ve had experiences at almost every one, and if not then I have more excuses to go out this weekend. I’m more familiar with the red line out of all of them, but also the green and brown line. I think it will be really cool to recall my experiences and places I’ve been to off of stops I’ve gone on lots of times, and some I’ve only gotten off at once or twice.

In response to the two maps, I chose the ChicagoDots map, and “The deadliest city” graphic with three interactive maps. The ChicagoDots map was the first one I looked at, and I found it really fascinating. Throughout this class we keep bringing up the stark contrast between Chicago and New York, and the segregation between neighborhoods. Oftentimes we cover its benefits, but also its downfalls.

For example, in Chicago, for some people it may be easier to “find yourself” based off of your race and/or ethnicity because of the segregation. An example would be is if you identify as Asian American, you can find yourself in areas like Chinatown or Oak Park or Skokie. In New York, everybody is mixed together, which is a stark contrast to what the ChicagoDots map shows us. However, with the other graphics, the message is very different.

With the three interactive maps, where you can mouse over any area to find out its stats about gun deaths, wealth, and racial population, I found myself spending a very long time mousing over numerous counties and areas, shocked by some of the numbers. I was most surprised when I saw that some areas’ average income was no greater than $14k. I actually sat there with my mouth open.

These graphics are a lot more eye opening, and, in my opinion, show the segregation of Chicago in a more detrimental way. It shows that it is true that in Southern and Western areas of Chicago, there are more gun deaths, generally speaking, as well as a greater population of African Americans, and a lower yearly income. This map can be interpreted in many ways, but I think the post explains it well, about how the lack of equal opportunity forces some areas to become more violent, and therefore forwarding the misconception that people turn out the way they are because of their race.