The Basis for an Urban Oasis
I am drawn to water, and I am drawn to green space. For that reason, my favorite street in Chicago is Cannon Street, which runs between the water and the park. To my left, I see the Peggy Notebaert Nature Museum, surrounded by gardens, flowers and statues. On my right is a marina, filled with stark white boats and shining still water.
This area doesn’t feel quite like the rest of Chicago. Here I smell grass, water and soil rather than exhaust and smog. People ride their bicycles and walk along the broad trail that runs beside the road. This is a place for walkers, so walking is what I did.
A man carries a bucket and a fishing pole, and I ask myself what kind of fish one might catch off the Chicago shore. It’s hard to imagine catching something natural on such an industrial body of water. I would not eat that fish. He gathers his gear and rides away on his bicycle.
The trail is periodically dotted with benches for the weary pedestrians, yet their length is always punctuated with an arm rest in order to curb those who wish to lay down on them. This is unfortunate if you’re a fan of napping outside, or if you lack another place to go.
I catch a photographer capturing the image of a beautiful statue of a group of birds. It is interesting that he creates a new work of art by photographing the art of another individual. To add to the irony, I took a picture of him taking a picture of the statue. Thus my photo captures the effect the original statue has on the viewer.
As I walk further I feel a sharp pain in my ankle as I hit something. Upon investigation I see a jagged piece of metal sticking up from the ground. I attempt to remove it, but it is firmly stuck in the side of the path. So there it remains, reaping the soles of innocent walkers.
I walk a short distance before I find myself in the presence of a dangerous beast. I stand perfectly still, hoping that the creature doesn’t notice me. If I make a wrong move here I might end up flattened by this behemoth. Clearly the beast is intelligent, as it has discovered how to put on a human raincoat to protect it from the elements. It isn’t even raining, so clearly it is so in tune with nature that it is predicting future weather events.
After escaping the encounter, I decide to head back home, out of the rugged wilderness of the area.
Question Response:
In Jacob’s article, he discusses the challenges associated with reviving the downtown areas of cities. As many downtown areas are in dire need of revival, many cities are failing to take the correct approach in doing so. As Jacob writes, urban planners of the past focused on the city block as the basic unit of area within the city, while they should be focusing on the street and the pedestrians as the basis of urban renewal. They see the city from up above, from a designer’s perspective. However, this is not how the city is viewed in reality. A city is observed at the street level, by those who walk its roads. He points to the Lincoln Center in New York as an example because while it is well designed within the block, it is surrounded by relatively unfriendly streets. Many of the proposed revivals attempt to create broad open space because it looks good in a design, but it offers little enjoyment to the citizens of the city. These same mistakes are evident in Chicago, with broad plazas such as the Aon center plaza, that has virtually no one on it, because it is not easily accessible from the street.
