Sk8rats: Chicago’s Skateboarding Community
Skateboarding has created such an interesting and unique subculture around the world, but it is completely evident in cities like Chicago. What you come to find out about a subculture like skateboarding is that there are even subcultures created amongst that subculture, divides that have connection. My mapping of Chicago will be of all of the skateparks located in Chicago and the differences in culture due to the crowd that inhabits each of them and their location. The first two locations are areas I have become very familiar with: Grant Park in the loop which is pictured above, and Wilson Skatepark. Grant is located right off of the Roosevelt stop in the southside of the loop, whereas Wilson skatepark is in Uptown, near the Wilson stop. Both have very distinct crowds, and because of my hobby of skateboarding, these places have become the places where I make friends and those friends are the people I have surrounded myself with since moving here. My goal is to map these skateparks and more in order to tell the experience of a skateboarder living in Chicago.
Response:
If done right, walking should be a luxury, a privilege, a necessity, and a right all in one really. Walking is a treat to a human’s body, as Malchik argues that walking helps fight, in comparison to using a vehicle, muscle atrophy, lower-back pain, cardiovascular disease and diabetes. Walking even has the ability to affect attitude and personality, meaning it tackles a lot of issues with humans from obesity to depression. Walking is also a human privilege though because we, as a species, are unique in our way we walk from most other species. For the same reasons that walking is a luxury and privilege, walking is a necessity because we have the knowledge that walking keeps us healthy and happy, and while some would argue that it is not necessary to stay healthy or happy, I would answer that there is nothing that is absolutely a necessity because we don’t technically need anything in our lives, we just have to choose another option, and there is always another option. Walking should be enforced more as aright however, because with it being made impossible for some people, they are being disadvantaged in at least a health aspect.
