Week 10

How might Malchik and Laker respond to the following questions: How does where you live influence how you live? How is a neighborhood’s social ecology linked to other (eco)systems? What are the threats to walking? How do we reclaim streets, blocks, and cities for walking?

My neighborhood is very dangerous, when I walk around in the streets I have to be aware of my surroundings especially at night. There is a lot of gang violence around where I live. A neighborhood’s social ecology is linked to other ecosystems because of the people in the neighborhoods. People that live there make up the social ecology by walking around the neighborhood and building social capital. Also people sometimes control the streets for example gangs, they “control” certain streets because they claim them, making other people afraid to walk through those streets. Some threats to walking always apply to certain groups of people for example black people. Police brutality and racism is a big threat to black people while they are taking a walk. Other threats would go towards women, whether they are walking in the day or night, women get harassed by men either verbally or physically. Many women don’t feel like walking alone at night because of the same reason.

A sunrise captured at 7:06 AM in Lake Michigan

A sunset captured at 5:07 PM in Little Village Park.