October 17, 2022
As I leave my dorm I start to brainstorm ideas for the final project. I take in the cold brisk air and start to walk around Lincoln Park. I walked down W. Belden Ave until I saw St. Josaphat Parish. I sit down on one of their green wooden benches that’s in their courtyard and take in the scenery. I observe the people walking around and the kids. I write down some of the possible ideas I have onto my notebook, then start walking around because I got too cold. I walk onto N. Southport Ave and turn onto W. Webster St. As I’m strolling through the neighborhoods of Lincoln Park I notice that most of the houses are decorated for Halloween and a couple of kids I walked past were in costumes. I saw a little kid that had butterfly wings hugging his mom. As I walked further down on Webster I saw a mural painted on a garage. The mural was black and white and had many different faces. While admiring the mural I flashback to all the murals I saw while walking in Chicago. The different murals that are specific to those areas like Pilsen and Humboldt Park. Those murals captivate the communities and culture from those areas. It shows the history of those neighborhoods that no one will know about unless they leave a mark. I don’t have a winter coat with me at school so I go back to my dorm before I become more sick. Walking around Lincoln Park, still relatively close to campus, gave me a bunch of ideas I could write about in my project.
Reading Response
Observing the interactive map, how does the segregation of races and economic status in different parts of Chicago affect our views with the city?
Observing the maps based on racial and ethnic classification, it is evident that the neighborhoods are segregated. North of Chicago are predominantly white neighborhoods, while the west and south are black and hispanic. Once you change the setting of the map to view the median housing value, north of Chicago has a higher value than the south. Everyone is told not to visit the south or west side of Chicago and that it’s dangerous. I believe that although those parts might be dangerous, those neighborhoods aren’t getting the resources available to them. Those neighborhoods aren’t manicured like the rest of Chicago affecting our views. There are so many different stories in those underprivileged neighborhoods like they are in privileged neighborhoods. Many people acknowledge the fact that those neighborhoods don’t receive much care and do nothing about it. Continuing to have those views on different parts of Chicago not only harms the city, but makes those neighborhoods suffer and the stereotypes become their reality.
