I hear the wind going north and feel it blow against my neck, face, and hair. I hear the flapping of an American Flag from the DePaul athletic field. The trees had their leaves whistling as the wind blew on them. I heard a plane’s engine as it flew by. I heard and felt the breeze from the arrival of the CTA. What followed was the robotic “Doors closing” voice. When I got to my destination, I walked out onto Chicago avenue and turned onto Rush street. I heard cars pass by with their tires friction with the street it drives on. I heard the sound of the people’s footsteps against the concrete. There were not a lot of people because it was 6:00 AM. However, there were many homeless people on the streets. They had thin sheets of blankets that they used to try and protect themselves from the cold. Many homeless people are trying to keep warm. By this time, I took notice of the air. It had a weird taste of car smoke and sometimes used cigarettes. That was the low point of my work realizing the air pollution problem in the city. The sunrise was beautiful when I got to the bridge over the Chicago river. I took a picture to remember the feeling of calmness and assurance I had for the day.

Why is Chicago south and west side so dangerous? To understand this, I listened to Episode 10 — The Folded Map Project where they interviewed thirty people asking this same question. Tonika Johnson realized that the racial division in America was in play during one of the responses from someone who lived there. They said, nobody told me that it was dangerous here. The significance of this response is that the majority of people who fear the south and west side of Chicago are not from there. They do not have any experience in that area. However, it makes sense that they would believe these stories. If someone told me a place I’ve never been to is dangerous, I would never go. Many people who have been to those areas have different stories. Maybe there are dangerous people, but the area as a whole is not threatening. The reason this has to do with race is because these Chicago neighborhoods are an African-American dominant community (164).