Following the Colors of Yukon Gold and Romantic Isle
Monday, October 3rd, 2022
I left Munroe Hall at around 3:45pm with my wallet, sunglasses, phone, and headphones ready to see where my colors would take me. The colors I had were, Yukon gold and romantic isle. I was nervous at first as Izzy handed me my colors after class last week. I didn’t think many things were a gold-yellow or a forest green with more of a blue tone color, but as I walked today I became more at ease. I take in the perfect fall weather, slight breeze, little to no clouds in the sky, and perfect temperature at 66 degrees. I walked down to N Clifton Ave until I reached Fullerton and took a right from there.I look up and see trees with different color leaves. One happened to have the perfect yellow leaves that matched Yukon gold. Although all of the leaves weren’t yellow there was a patch of it surrounded by the green leaves.
I walked all the way down to Fullerton until I turned to N Lincoln Ave. I kept my eyes out to see if there would be any cars passing by in the colors I was assigned. The roads were busy as well as the sidewalks. Walking through Fullerton I saw many students and a couple of families. N Lincoln Ave was quieter than Fullerton. I walked past all the restaurants on Lincoln Ave. A couple of them caught my eyes as some of them had a sign with a DePaul blue demon student discount. I kept walking down the street and saw a couple other restaurants with similar colors to romantic isle.
The Greenhouse Theater Center and a Potbelly sign had almost identical colors to romantic isle. Both places were empty and seemed closed. Once I walked by those places I continued down the street until I saw Oz Park and the Tin Man statue. From there I turned onto Webster Ave. There weren’t any colors similar to the ones I had in my hand. I was enjoying the scenery and homes down Webster. The houses looked a lot newer or renovated compared to the houses near the campus. The stairs looked sturdier and still vibrant. Walking down I turned onto N Sedgwick St and saw an art work with the colors of the rainbow. The shape of the structure was half a circle folded in half. The structure had a mosaic of different color tiles on the outside and on the inside it was a ring of different colors of the rainbow. The artwork had a color almost exactly the same as both colors. I’ve never been down east of campus and it was my first time seeing the artwork. I walked straight down Sedgwick and saw a group of little kids walking with teachers. It was so adorable and wholesome.
I kept walking until I saw W Belden Ave and walked down that street straight into the park. At this point, I was getting a little bit nervous because it had been a while since I stumbled upon an object similar to the colors. I walked around the park enjoying the scenery and taking in the views of the plants before they soon started to wither away from the change in seasons. Then I stumble upon the Lincoln Park Zoo and see that there are the colors I am looking for. I walk in and see a board shaped as a lion in a color near Yukon gold with informational facts about them. I walk around the park some more and see that most of all the informational facts about each animal is close to the color romantic isle.
So I took a picture of the sign about European White Storks. Some of the signs showed the scale of how endangered they are. The Plains Zebra are near threatened and the color of it was Yukon Gold. Most of the animals weren’t out so there was nothing to see besides the scenery and landscape. I walked along the trails until they were dead ends and tried out the other ones. I kept walking south until I was walking along the south pond trail. It was my first time walking along the bridge and it was beautiful. You’re able to see the John Hancock building and part of Chicago’s skyline. I wanted to walk until I was downtown so I just followed the path. I saw some flowers in the gold color and while I was taking the picture, there was a bee getting the last pits of pollen I’m assuming. After walking some more, I saw the Peoples Gas Education Pavilion. Walking through that felt like walking into a different dimension. Walking through that felt like the vertigo effect. The honeycomb of the arch matched with the gold color so I took some pictures and left. I walked all the way down until I hit N La Salle Dr and N Clark St. I decided to walk all the way down to N Clark St where I took the red line back to Fullerton.
According to Malchik in “March,” why is a community’s walkability “one of the single greatest factors in building social capital” (p. 45)? What is social capital? How do your community’s public infrastructure and public spaces support walkability or not (you might compare your hometown to Chicago)? How has your community’s walkability factored in your social capital?
Social capital is the relationships between people within a society and the efficiency. In my hometown everything was much more spaced out compared to Chicago. Everyone’s form of transportation would be to drive even if the grocery store would be less than a mile away. We had sidewalks all throughout our city, and yet no one ever walked when doing errands. People would walk for enjoyment and personal pleasure, but never to restock the fridge or pickup prescriptions, including me. It just felt more efficient since everything seemed farther, since it’s not crowded in my hometown. I feel like since no one is ever walking holding a bag of groceries no one in our community does it. People walk around our town’s downtown, but never outside of it. I feel like it also creates a division within my community from enjoying our surroundings. People think it’s incapable to walk down the street to the grocery store because no one does it.
