My Experience Walking Chicago
So far this quarter, I have been doing a lot of exploring of the city. I have always said that one of my favorite things is exploring new places, but until now I didn’t really think too much about what a person can learn from walking around a new city. I have lived in Illinois all my life, but Chicago has always felt so far away. I had only ever been a few times, and I stuck to the so called “safe” areas without venturing outside of my comfort zone at all. When I moved here for school, I was told to stay in Lincoln Park and trust no one. While this mindset has kept me safe for a long time, when I got here, I learned that it is so important to step outside of your comfort zone, while still traveling in a group and staying safe. If you never explore outside of the places you already know, you won’t learn all the wonderful things this city, and every other one, has to offer.
During immersion week, we began at the very top of the John Hancock Tower and got to see an overview of the city of Chicago. Up here, you can see everything, but can you really? While it is all there, it is too far away to experience it. As Rebecca Solnit writes, “a city always contains more than any inhabitant can know, and a great city always makes the unknown and the possible spurs to the imagination,” (182). On the ground level, you can immerse yourself in your surroundings and learn so much about the people around you. We walked through all different parts of the city, and while it was tiring, I learned a lot about the different communities and their histories. When experiencing a new place, there are different ways you can make sense of your surroundings. One example of this would be walking as an artistic or a political practice. Art is a big part of what makes public places interactive and what tells the stories of the past. During immersion week, we walked through Pilsen where we learned about the Mexican American community there.
This mosaic mural on the outside of a school tells the story of many important figures in history. This is an example of something you would only be able to see and experience by walking the streets of Pilsen. Murals and other artwork like them are a source of community pride. There are also influences of politics on walking and community dynamics, but we dove further into that in later weeks. Immersion week was full of artwork and history of four different communities, and it changed my mind set on walking. It was a good intro to the quarter because it forced me to slow down and observe my surroundings a lot more carefully going into the next few weeks.
In the “The Solitary Stroller and the City” by Rebecca Solnit she compares cities to “forever spawning lists” (p. 202). This is an analogy that shows how cities are never ending because people can always find new pieces to explore. After immersion week, I set out to discover new things about Lincoln Park and surrounding areas. Because I did my walks alone, I chose to explore different areas close to campus that I was not yet familiar with. The first week I ventured a little outside and went to New Chinatown in Argyle.
There were so many different Asian food places that I wanted to try, and I also found more culture and history-based artwork including murals. My newfound mindset allowed me to slow down and appreciate everything around me. In that moment, I had the realization that I could learn a lot just by venturing a little outside of where I have been before. I took the train a few stops and had a whole new world to walk through.
The next few weeks, I stayed completely in Lincoln Park and just went somewhere different each time. In fact, one week I “got lost” here and walked just around the perimeter of campus and a little outside of it. I did my best to take on the role of the “flaneur” as discussed in “Paris or Botanizing the Asphalt” by Solnit. A flaneur strolls around the city and is surrounded by people but is still somehow isolated. Solnit describes the perfect flaneur as someone who has “made the street some sort of residence” (269). I attempted to take on this role by observing all of my surroundings but keeping myself isolated. I imagined I was invisible, so that I could see, hear, feel, smell, and touch my surroundings but I had no effect on them at all. Because I did not venture far, I made an effort to head down streets I do not normally walk on, and I was able to put myself in the shoes of the people who do. I imagined the lives of all the people living and walking around in the residential areas and each object I saw that was seemingly random or out of place somehow had a story.
The following week, I walked all the way down Fullerton to the lakefront.
On the way there, I discovered a mural on the underpass that sparked my interest.
This is called “A Kaleidoscope Of Hidden Worlds” by Renee Robbins in collaboration with the Chicago Public Art Group. Robbins moves between the real and imagined with this work and brings together microscopic and telescopic views. She brought about a curiosity in me and many others in her “kaleidoscope of biodiversity” (CPAG). This is another example of the way art influences traveling through public spaces. It brings about curiosity and connection between people.
At that point in class, we were learning about the different social and political boundaries to walking. There are many challenges some people may face, even in something as simple as going for a walk. As a young woman myself, walking alone has always been a difficult task. My paranoid mindset and my family’s views have made it difficult for me to trust the intentions of anyone around me. I walked in broad daylight with a very aware mind, but reflected on how much I have overcome and the privilege that I have to be able to walk freely to the lake by myself. In “Walking While Black” Garnette Cadogan writes, “A lone woman walking in the middle of the night was as common a sight as Sasquatch; moonlight pedestrianism was too dangerous for her” (Cadogan). People of other races must question whether they are in danger all the time. I thought about how even though I have never had to think about that, our society is extremely flawed in its acceptance of differences.
Some parts of Chicago face what many call the “homeless problem” and we learned about a few ways government officials have tried to fix it. The article “In Lori Lightfoot’s Chicago, Bridges Have Become Barricades” told of the way Lightfoot raised the bridges downtown to prevent people from getting into certain neighborhoods. Dumke wrote that in “one of the most racially and economically segregated places in the country, the bridges were made uncrossable” (Dumke). She was essentially protecting some parts of the city from others, and while some call it a solution, I call it a roadblock. I believe that putting walls up between groups of people is never the way to solve problems. Instead, it separates society even more. This issue could be talked about for far longer than 1500 words, but considering the politics of a city and its groups of people was a valuable experience for me when getting accustomed to it. I learned that while preconceived notions and stereotypes will always be there, it is important not to stick too strongly to them until you’ve had that experience yourself.
In the final week of walks, I went to Oz Park and sat against a tree. I expected to only be there for a few minutes, but I ended up staying for most of the afternoon and engulfing myself fully in my surroundings.
I looked around at the park and thought about all that I have learned this quarter in Walking Chicago. I have put aside the beliefs I came in with and dedicated myself to opening up to new surroundings everywhere I go. I think this is a valuable life practice that I will continue to do in new places, because it completely changed my perspective on Lincoln Park and all the surrounding areas we visited.
Works Cited
Robbins, Renee “A Kaleidoscope of Hidden Worlds”, Chicago Public Art Group, 2017
Solnit, Rebecca “The solitary stroller and the city” Wanderlust: A History of Walking. New York: Penguin, 2001. 171–195.
Solnit, Rebecca “Paris or bontaizing the Asphalt” Wanderlust: A History of Walking. New York: Penguin, 2001. 171–195.
Cadogan, Garnette “Walking While Black” Literary Hub July 08, 2016.
Dumke, Mick “In Lori Lightfoot’s Chicago, Bridges Have Become Barricades” ProPublica 14 August 2020.
