Bringing Down My Personal Bridges Through Walking Chicago
When I first committed to DePaul a constant question I was being asked was, “why are you staying in Chicago?.” I had always talked about moving across the country right after high school and rediscovering who I am as an individual in a new place. But I owed it to myself to create my own narrative about the city. A narrative where I learn how to be a citizen past my zip code, how to encourage social capital but discourage gentrification, and how to overcome my fear beyond my comfortability. For the past few weeks, I have been able to rewrite the narrative I had connected to this city. By walking through different neighborhoods in Chicago I became capable of not only evaluating the city but also self-evaluating myself. Each week I learned something new about Chicago and something new about myself.
I affiliate my need to discover Chicago on footsteps with the similar feeling Garnette Cadogan expressed in his article “Walking While Black” published by Literary Hub. Garnette states “A city was waiting to be discovered, and I wouldn’t let inconvenient facts get in the way” (Garnette 1). As walks became more personal, I began to bring down the bridges that divided me from sanctuary to exposing myself to the real Chicago. I thought walking would be the oddest subject to discuss. How would walking conform into such a complicated topic that could become a course that is recommended for students to take? Little did I know walking is a privilege that has introduced me to my self-discovery era.
When I came to class on the first day, I was extremely nervous; being a commuter I had yet to meet anyone new so the thought of walking for an entire week with strangers felt kind of sketchy. The first day was an icebreaker day between me and Lincoln Park. It is a neighborhood that I only went to for fancy restaurants or to babysit for my mom’s rich friends. Now I affiliate it as a second home; where I have created friendships that have become my pure happiness. Some being found through this class. I walk around Lincoln Park every day now, it is a neighborhood where I have begun finding myself. Through walking I have found Lincoln Park to be lively and filled with residents who are joyful, intelligent, and respectful of the community they have built. These qualities have been found in each neighborhood I have walked in the past few weeks.
I remember walking from Gold Coast all the way through Humboldt Park on the second day of class. The discussion of starting out with a bird’s eye view physically made me realize that my mental view of Chicago was extremely similar. Although I have lived here my entire life, I have been restricted from extending out to certain parts of the city on my own. So being in these neighborhoods physically and experiencing them on foot felt culture shocking in a way. As the walk continued, I quite literally thought I was going to pass out many times through this walk.
But when I started to ignore my suffering during the walk, I became aware of the art of noticing. Although I was physically exhausted, I was emotionally and mentally enlightened to learn more about my surroundings. I could see the gentrification and abandonment of certain neighborhoods within these so called “trendy” neighborhoods like Old Town or Wicker Park. Completely ignoring the binding community neighborhoods like Humboldt Park or Cabrini Green right next to these gentrified places. There was once a time where I thought neighborhoods like Wicker Park or Gold Coast are what made Chicago great, being exposed to two different sides of Chicago altered my idea of what and who built this city. The rest of the week consisted of moments of overwhelming guilt. Places that I once feared to even drive past places that are filled with family, friends, small businesses, and so much more. I was determined to walk in other places alone.
Walking alone in neighborhoods like Pilsen, Lakeview, Logan Square and Wrigleyville were experiences that shaped my idea of how segregated of a city Chicago is. I have walked through multiple neighborhoods and have seen how a neighborhood like Logan Square is easily gentrified the more east you go. But if you walk west of the neighborhood, you can see the abandonment and resentment that is built because of low government funding. It is a continuous pattern of what is taken care of the most and what is being taken care of the least. It is not the citizens’ fault that their neighborhoods are not respected enough by society because it is a system that is set up by higher power. In the Encyclopedia of Chicago there is a section dedicated to the neighborhood of Logan Square, within the section it discusses how in the past the community strived to keep this neighborhood alive. In the lower part of the passage it states, “In 1963, area residents formed the Logan Square Neighborhood Association, a group that has worked ever since to improve housing and community spirit”. This evidence proves how it is often the citizens who rebuild a community rather than the government funding.
When walking in a neighborhood I try my best to act like a citizen within the neighborhood. By doing this I can observe but also cherish what it stands for. Small acts of kindness while walking is important to resonate with in public spaces. Whether it is a smile, a simple hello, or even giving a dollar bill to those in need. By doing these gestures in public spaces it makes me feel as if I am giving and not only receiving within the community. In the book “A walking life” written by Antonia Malchik it is stated that “These tiny, everyday acts are crucial to both building and repairing a life quality that many-perhaps even most-people feel they’ve lost over the last century: a strong sense of community, defined by a quality that in research circles has been termed “social capital” (Malchik 43).
Walking through public spaces encourages social capital in any neighborhood. Which results in thriving economics for neighborhoods whether it is gentrified or not. However, what we should focus on when walking through these neighborhoods is the history and relevant meaning the neighborhood might stand for. When walking through a neighborhood I try to stop and read any historical or memorial plaques. It reflects that in society people choose to live and create lives within haunted places. Mainly because living in a place that has history tied to it creates a higher respectability for the neighborhood. People tend to lead themselves towards these respectable neighborhoods, however, they tend to gentrify them in the process of it all. Thus, creating segregation within the spans of blocks. I can see the segregation while walking from Wicker Park towards the West Loop neighborhoods. At first, I hold the feeling of comfortability when in Wicker Park but as I get closer to the West Loop, I am almost overwhelmed. The overall abandonment and malnourishment of a neighborhood changes the way I walk. I tend to focus more on my surroundings not only because of my race but because of my gender as well. But as I have gotten to be a more comfortable solo walker I have shied away from the conformity of neighborhoods and have come to an understanding that I am not safe anywhere. It is just my decision whether to let fear restrict me from extending my capabilities.
During the pandemic, the city of Chicago was the most segregated I had ever seen it. Not only emotionally and morally, but Mayor Lori Lightfoot committed it to a physical segregation. The article “In Lori Lightfoot’s Chicago, Bridges Have Become Barricades” published by Pro Publica it is stated “In a time of crisis, in one of the most racially and economically segregated places in the country, the bridges connecting north and south and linking east and west — sides of town that serve as proxies for wealth versus disinvestment — were made uncrossable, like drawbridges over a castle moat” (Dumke 1). Adding physical segregation to emotional segregation caused me to see Chicago in a different light. In some ways I feel like I carried segregation in both aspects when coming to DePaul. I sheltered myself from the unknown but walking and sensing the feeling of interpersonal change encouraged me to bring down my personal bridges.
Overall, I feel confident in saying that I have become a person who loves to walk. I have rediscovered Chicago while rewriting my narrative on the city. For the past two months I have been able to walk through neighborhoods that I thought I was restricted from. Bringing down my physical, emotional, and idealistic bridges connected me to the city past a Birds Eye view. I have learned how to be a citizen past my zip code, how to encourage social capital but discourage gentrification, and how to overcome my fear beyond my comfortability.
Work Cited
Cadogan, G. J. (2019, March 26). Walking while black. Literary Hub. Retrieved October 25, 2022, from https://lithub.com/walking-while-black/
Dumke, M. (2020, August 14). In Lori Lightfoot’s Chicago, Bridges have become barricades. ProPublica. Retrieved October 25, 2022, from https://www.propublica.org/article/draft-bridges?token=tg74b8VQrqWdM-PFRUNWBD84ZpaGuM3h
Encyclopedia of Chicago. (n.d.). Retrieved October 25, 2022, from http://www.encyclopedia.chicagohistory.org/
Malchik, A. (2020). A walking life: Reclaiming our health and our freedom one step at a time. INGRAM PUBLISHER SERVICES US.
