Gangs + Cupcakes?

I get so geeked out about interesting maps.

I went to a lecture today about telling stories with maps. One of the maps that Vaughn Tan shared with us was this San Fransisco map of gang territories and cupcake shops. Can we infer anything from this map? Probably not. But, it's super cool. The violence described in the accompanying article is absolutely not super cool.

Listen up, gangs: cupcakes, not guns.

what I've been doing when I haven't been blogging

Yeah, yeah, yeah...  I haven't blogged in awhile. I've had a good excuse; it's called life.

Work -- It's been busier than ever, but there are silver linings in that dark cloud. I've been busy because our first-year students are seeking out the help they need. That's never a bad thing. And! We're hiring another person to do academic support, which is amazing (and means I'll not be so crazybusy in the future).

So, here's what's actually interesting -- I LOVE my urban planning class, which I'm taking at University of Illinois at Chicago.  Fascinating stuff, kids! Lemme tell you what I've been up to with that:

I did an observation paper on the changing patterns of riders on the CTA's Purple Line Express trains.

I'm currently working on an economic analysis paper about a commercial block in my neighborhood. That research involves reading about my neighborhood's history and looking into info on several businesses on that block. I recently finished reading a study of the local impact of local businesses versus chain retailers, looking specifically at my neighborhood and at least 1 of the businesses I'm studying.  Both this project and my observation project are classic urban planning projects.

As a class, we have an ongoing project, doing planning in a real-life community.  We're working in North Lawndale with the Lawndale Christian Development Corporation, who has an affordable housing project underway on 16th St. Our project is helping them to plan for use of vacant lots along 16th.


View Larger Map

Specifically, my group of 5 is looking at the neighborhood demographics and the project's stakeholders.  About a month-and-a-half ago, a handful of us went to a community meeting at the local police station and got a picture of who we're working with.  On Saturday, we're meeting with a bunch of our stakeholders to listen to what they want for 16th St.. We'll also tour the affordable housing that LCDC is constructing and take a look at the strip of 16th that we're working with.  We're working with real people in a real community in the city that I love.  This semester, we're only scratching the surface on this project, but even that is a real cool experience.

I'm so glad I'm taking this class.  It's hitting on so much of what interests me about urban studies and giving me an idea of what's out there -- academic and otherwise.  I'm also really enjoying my classmates.  There's the guy who interned with the Chicago Housing Authority, who I'm entertained by, even if I don't usually agree with him.  There's the guy who lives in my neighborhood, who's also doing his economic analysis on the neighborhood.  He and I have shared resources for the project. There's K, who, dare I say?, is my first UIC friend. She's working on the demographics project with me, and we met last weekend to talk census data, which I worked with when I took my Chicago geography class in the summer of 2009.  I got to teach her about how to get the data, and we talked about what we're looking for and what we're doing with the data.  When we digressed over coffee, she told me about the epidemiology of violence (see this project, for example) course she's taking, which was totally fascinating.

I was talking to a friend last night about her recent crush and the excitement and giddiness that comes along with that.  Honestly, I think I have some of that going on when it goes to what I'm working on. I really like it.  I'm challenged and stimulated.  I have things to say, and my opinion is relevant.  It's nice to be pushing my mind to work in these ways and to be academically engaged.  I have no idea what I'm going to take next semester, but I'm looking forward to the next challenge.

the world is lovely when you're sleeping (and I'm not)

I'm one of those people who prefers to work at night, when the world has gone quiet. Finally, then, I'm able to think, to speculate, to ponder, and to just write. My academic genius muse works third shift.

This in mind, it's no surprise that I'm not a morning person.  Not at all.  I hate mornings, in fact.  I'd love to stay up till 2am and wake up for the day at 10am.

And yet, here I am, in the office at 7am, after having not left campus last night until after 8pm.  For those playing along at home, that means I got home last night at 9:45pm, woke up at 4:30am, and boarded a train at 5:58am.

That train at nearly 6am is a beautiful thing.  Metra calls it the Sunrise Express, which is apt -- we watch the sunrise while zooming past a number of stops.  The train ride is about half an hour, which shaves at least 15 minutes off the normal commute. And, it's gets us to campus -- with a stop at Starbucks first -- just before 7am.

At 7am, all the little college kids are still sleeping. The town is quiet. The campus is very, very quiet. This is the time of day that people snap photos of deer who boldly venture with their young onto our lush, green campus.

The city, too, was quiet, both walking home last night and walking to the train this morning. At night, I usually stick to the main roads on the walk home, but train construction has lead to the opening of a new train platform, north of Lawrence Ave.. In the interest of time, which is indeed precious at 10pm, it's faster to exit at the north end of the platform and continue along Ravenswood Ave. and through the residential western part of my neighborhood.  Walking the quiet streets in the dark (though with ample street light) always makes me hear my worried mother, fretting about me waking home alone.  Sure, something bad could happen, but that could happen at any point at any time. I choose to walk home, head high and unafraid.

At day's end, I'll again travel home in the dark, having gone with members of the awesome class* I'm taking to do some fieldwork, and I'll rise even earlier than I did today to head out to do some field observations alone.  Like all the nights in grad school that I stayed up late to write, I'll enjoy the quiet that settles in as I walk to the train, the lovely silence quieting the noises in my brain, letting me enjoy simply being in the city I love.

_________

* I'm taking an introductory course in urban planning at the University of Illinois at Chicago (UIC).  it's a mixed undergraduate/graduate class at the 400 level, so while we're discussing material that's new to many, it's still rigorous, engaging, and one of the best parts of my Mondays and Wednesdays. Everyone asks, "So, are you doing another degree?" to which I reply, "Right now, I'm just taking a class." My future is on this path...somewhere. I'm just enjoying the journey and discovery this semester.

what the new blog name means, at least today

This has been one of those weeks were the world pauses for moments during which I'm nearly moved to tears when I think about the fact that I live in a city that I love.

I waited for my friend D on Tuesday morning, staring out the front door of our three-flat to the gentle rain on our city street. He lives in the city. The two friends of ours who would also ride to work with us live in the city. None of us live within what I think of as walking-distance of one another (I'd bike it easily, though). We all live in spots where a lot of what we do and need happens within less than a mile of where our homes. We all live in this city of nearly three million people, and on that Tuesday morning, the distance between us seemed small, thinking about the four of us drawn together by our jobs initially and now by our friendship. In such a big place, where I don't even know my neighbors' names, I know a handful of people I could call in the middle of the night who would be there if I asked them to be.

On days when the weather is bad, I know my mother thinks of me, worries about me walking in the rain or the snow, when she walks to her garage and drives her car to work. I walk 3/4 of a mile to the commuter rail, and I'm carless by circumstance -- it was never a choice. I have friends, though, for whom it is a choice, and they, too, make the trip to the commuter train, which we ride thirty miles to work.

City life is different. When you live your life without a car, it's just how you live your life. I think people who are used to driving can't understand why we would make this choice or why we don't feel our lives would be fundamentally improved by driving. I think of it as weighing out your options. Is it a bigger hassle for me to walk to the train than it is for someone to drive to work? Sure, when the weather's bad, I'm sure that it is a bigger hassle, if we were to put them on a scale. But, I'm free of other hassles drivers have, like the maintenance of a car, the cost of auto insurance, the price of gas, the headache of traffic. Maybe that balances out what hassles I face. Maybe the freedom to bike places is a pleasure I have that you don't. Maybe the environment is a little better because some of us take the train or the bus or move under our own motion.

These are all such big life issues, and yet, it's all so simple to me in ways. I love where I live and with whom I live. I love the city that separates us and brings us together. I may groan at the time spent on the train, until I think of all the laughs and tears my friends and I have shared in those moments.

I'm just really happy in Chicago. This is one of those weeks when I know that with absolute certainty.

randoms from my trip to NC this week

I wanted to compile a list of things that cracked us up and/or made us happy during what was an extremely stressful trip this wee. I'm hoping that by making this list, I'll be inclined to come back and write about them.

Filter Plant Rd., also know as Fill-Her-Pants Rd.
Weiner Works
Guns Plus
Sha-Fay-Fay
Nam, or The Middle Finger followed by "the town formerly known as Nam"
the Macy's incident
blowing out a flip flop
Sean John clothes
rocking the Caddy
the leaky toilet
the Coug
Debbie Downer and the XM radio
Chick-fil-A
"Arriving at Scott"
throwing Rudy's bone out the window
leaving your house unlocked in the middle of a city
drugs, particularly klonopin, xanax, and pepto capsules
The Carolina Inn in Chapel Hill
the flight attendant on the diet who smiled kindly while we ate Cinnabon
Pre-Board Authorization
landing back in Chicago

It's the most wonderful time of the year!

(Don't take that subject line as a cue to start singing holiday songs. I'll have NONE OF THAT until after my birthday, thankyouverymuch.)

I love this time of year. The leaves are so many different shades of beautiful, and with the college town's tree-lined streets, walking around campus is, for the most part, a joyful experience. I love these cool temperatures and the smell of leaves. Plus, Halloween is just plain fun. Candy and costumes? Can you really go wrong there?

BUT! I don't want to neglect the most wonderful thing about this wonderful time of year...

It's new phone book day!

...

*crickets*

...

Yes, folks, the campus phone book arrived in my mailbox today, and I'm rejoicing! Because I'm that kind of geek.

You see, I'm all about spaces and maps. I love them. And, looking through the information about my colleagues fascinates me. I look to see where they live. For the people who live in Chicago, I place their addresses on the map in my mind, pondering their train stops, walking distances to the trains, and neighborhoods. I'm a very visual-spatial person, and this is right up my alley. So, I sit and read the phone book. I've done it for years. The white pages are fine, but it's more interesting when I know the people, like a campus phone book (did this as a student, too). I'm disappointed when I find a colleague's home address isn't listed.

The other thing I find interesting about a phone book like this one is the relationships. "Learn to pretend there's more than love that matters" isn't my favorite quote for nothing. I like to see when people list their partners, and for couples who work here, who does and who doesn't list their partners.

I'm not interested in memorizing addresses or spouses names or trick-or-treating and the homes of the college faculty. I just like to think about places and people.

I've already spent 45 minutes with my nose in the new phone book. I'm far from done. :)

My brother wears sweatbands.

Check out the cameo from my neicepuppy Miso.

I'm leaching internet from a hotel I'm not staying at. Charlotte, Day 1

Tuesday, July 17, 2007
5pm EST

It's Tuesday afternoon. Here I am in Charlotte. Le sigh. The two hours I've been here have been dragging on, and I can only imagine how long it's going to take to get to Saturday. OMG. I arrived in North Carolina on Saturday afternoon, and I spent through Tuesday lunch with my friend Lisa, her husband, and their two kids (ages 1 1/2 and 3 weeks). It was fantastic. It was slow-paced and full of baby time. We ate ice cream, drank coffee, and cuddled their kids. Plus, I even found a Cubs game on tv.

Now, I'm in Charlotte, were I'll be for a national work conference. Ho hum. I'm staying at a posh hotel for a good rate, which work is paying (trust me...when a guy inquired about a room while I was checking in, I heard the average room rate is something like $300+. Yikes!). And, for all the money they pull into this hotel, nothing's free. I don't have a fridge in my room, and there's no microwave available in the hotel for guest use. I asked. An ethernet cable has been provided for my laptop, but it costs $10 per day (24 hour period) for internet access in the hotel). I'll be spending a lot of time at the chain coffee shop down the block, where I'll drink too much coffee while I check my email. And breakfast? At that coffee shop, too, or the Pop Tarts I bought at the tiny drug store up the road. There's no continental breakfast at Posh Hotel. Again with the endless cups of coffee, where I can get a bagel for less than $5. Oh, sorry, I was mistaken; bagels are $3.25 from Room Service.

After doing a little unpacking and hanging up my business casual wear for the conference, I headed the two blocks down to the convention center hosting the conference, where they're also having a trade show. I walked through the damn lobby three times before I figured out that the "registration foyer" where my registration took place was on the SECOND floor. (Counter-intuitive much?) No signs. And did I mention I requested conference material in large print...my conference packet is in regular-size font.

Plus, it's like a million humid degrees here. Where Lisa and her babies aren't. Where my lovely girlfriend is not.

And I've been told by my lovely girlfriend there's no point getting on the damn internet; all the Harry Potter spoilers are out there. Goddamn. Getting on the internet was one of the few things I had to look forward to tonight.

There is a little reception happening at the convention center this evening, but I think I'm going to pass. I don't know anyone here (yet), and I hate mingling with strangers. I'm not sure the free food is even much of a trade off.

After all, I have my Pop Tarts.

why I'm not a suburbanite

Living in the city--and liking it--is a whole different mentality than living in and liking the suburbs. We see it daily at work, where a bunch of us (not just one or two) who choose to live in Chicago take the train out to our suburban campus to work. The campus is beautiful. Making use of space in the way our campus does isn't always possible in a city, where space is at a premium. (I should note, also, that our college has been here for 150 years--four years before the town that shares its name.) For me, living in the city makes sense. For true independence, I need to be able to get myself around because I can't see well enough to drive a car. The CTA makes that possible in ways other public transit systems don't. I lived in the Bloomington/Normal community in Central Illinois for four years, and while their bus system was adequate, it made it very difficult to get anywhere in the evenings or on Sundays. In the Chicagoland area, Pace runs suburban bus systems, and they do a fine job of it, as far as I can tell. The fact of the matter is, more people depend on public transportation in cities than in suburban areas. And, it's not just people like me or other people with disabilities. People happily live carless in Chicago or other major cities and do so by choice. Hell, even my girlfriend hates to drive. Her train ride might take longer than it would to drive, but she also doesn't have the stress of driving and parking.

This article came across the Chicago Tribune today, and it really irritates me. First, read the article:

Sidewalks crack suburb tranquillity [sic]
Residents throughout the area are concerned that their lifestyles will change if walks are added to their neighborhoods

By Courtney Flynn
Tribune staff reporter

May 9, 2007

In more than 30 years, Hubert Frank has never regretted that his Northbrook neighborhood doesn't have sidewalks.

If residents in one of the dozen homes on his block want to walk their dogs, they head for the street. To get to school, children board a bus in front of their houses. And if postal carriers need to drop off packages, they just might cut across the quarter-acre lawns lined with tulip beds and flowering trees.

Although sidewalks are fine with many communities, adding them to existing neighborhoods can create a firestorm.

In Western Springs, people have complained about the cost. In Mokena, residents in an older part of town opposed sidewalks because they would ruin the rural feel. And in Northbrook, more than 170 homeowners have signed petitions against having sidewalks poured on their blocks after the town budgeted $6 million to add them in targeted areas across the village.

Some say sidewalks could disturb trees and landscaping, and others fearwho might come sauntering through their neighborhoods.

Sidewalks, it seems, represent some of the things people move to more rural-feeling subdivisions to escape: Foot traffic. Noise. Concrete. Taxes.

"We came here for the green grass, we came here for the suburban environment and for the schools," Frank said. "I think we have a beautiful street, and sidewalks would take away that beauty."

The Northbrook Safety Commission is scheduled to hear residents' concerns at a meeting Wednesday. The commission will make recommendations to the Village Board, which on June 18 could consider their petitions against sidewalks on their blocks.

In many communities, sidewalks are enmeshed in everyday life, and people like them.

In Glenview, residents are so eager to see improvements to the community's system of sidewalks that they packed village-sponsored tours to look at existing sidewalks and help develop ways to become more pedestrian-friendly.

But when officials in Mokena considered adding sidewalks in an older part of town several years ago, residents living along streets with ditches and no curbs objected, said Village Administrator John Downs.

"Most people said, look, we like the rural feel, we've been here for many years, and they weren't in favor of changing the nature of their neighborhood," Downs said.

In Western Springs earlier this year, money was an issue. A group of residents who originally wanted sidewalks installed for safety reasons along part of Grand Avenue ended up petitioning against them after they found out the cost, said Erik Beck, the village's municipal services coordinator. The project died, he said.

The village would have required residents to pay for 70 percent of the installation, roughly $60 a month for five years, Beck said.

"It was like they were hungry and then saw the prices on the menu and backed out," Beck said.

In Northbrook, the residents protesting sidewalks said they could see the benefit of them in some parts of the village -- just not in their front yards.

"The thing that seems to bother most people in my area is that it's unnecessary and unwanted," said Stuart Schwartz, 58, who has lived in his Jeffrey Court home for more than 10 years. "To go digging up all this landscaping for no reason is just kind of silly."

But village officials said the sidewalks are needed for safety and so Northbrook can become more connected.

"You should have sidewalks everywhere in the village," said Village President Eugene Marks. "Sidewalks are a major issue. ... Now that we're finally doing it, people are saying no."

Generally, sidewalks are common in new subdivisions, said John Norquist, president of the Congress for the New Urbanism, a Chicago-based non-profit group that promotes walkable development. But they still are often left out of golf-course communities or developments with expansive lawns that strive for an "estate" feel, he said. And in some locations, they just might not be necessary at all.

"You obviously need a sidewalk on Michigan Avenue, you need one in Oak Park and in downtown Naperville," Norquist said. "But when you get out to places like McHenry County, it's remote and people are probably going to be driving just about everywhere."

Since the early 1990s, Northbrook has been building sidewalks in areas where there were none, first along major roads and later along residential streets within a half-mile of a school, said Chris Tomich, assistant village engineer. But the program has been dependent on the village's budget, he said.

In August, Northbrook officials earmarked about $6 million to help build sidewalks over three years, enabling the village to work more quickly through its to-do list, Tomich said.

As part of the village's code, people building homes are required to pay the full cost of a sidewalk in front of their house if they're on a main road or within a half-mile of a school, Tomich said. In neighborhoods that never had sidewalks, like many on the to-do list, residents would be asked to pay half the cost, roughly $2,000 for a 130-foot stretch, he said.

Many who signed the petitions said it was not the cost that concerned them, but rather that sidewalks are unnecessary and could harm trees and landscaping. Some of them live on cul-de-sacs or short streets without much traffic. In addition, they said, children take buses to school.

Frank, 68, who organized a petition for Whitehall Drive, said sidewalks could also pose a safety risk by welcoming strangers into the neighborhood.

"There's strange things happening in the world today, so why would we want to open up that possibility?" he said. "We are connected, we all know each other. The concern is, who knows what you'd be encouraging to come through."

Trustee A.C. Buehler said the village would try to avoid large trees if sidewalks were installed and cautioned that plantings close to the curb are likely in the village-owned right of way.

Tomich said the village would relocate shrubs, bushes or flower beds if they were in the way of a new sidewalk. Retaining walls would be restored, and sprinkler systems fixed.

"We're generally very, very accommodating to residents," he said.

---------

cflynn@tribune.com

Copyright © 2007, Chicago Tribune

Let's start here:

If residents in one of the dozen homes on his block want to walk their dogs, they head for the street. To get to school, children board a bus in front of their houses. And if postal carriers need to drop off packages, they just might cut across the quarter-acre lawns lined with tulip beds and flowering trees.

My first question is: is it always safe to walk in the street? Who's going to win between me and a car? My money's on the car. As obsessed as these people are with their acreage, I'm amazed at how little they care about people, like the postal carriers, walking across their lawns. I'm also wondering: isn't it a tad wasteful of time, energy, and fuel to pick each and every child up in front of his or her house? C'mon. No bus stops? None at all? With sidewalks, children could safely walk to bus stops. People could walk their dogs without worrying about traffic. And, what about all of the emissions produced in such an area, where the lack of sidewalks persuades people not to walk places? (I liked that they made reference in the article to the Congress for the New Urbanism, whose neighborhood initiative raises a good point about the greenhouse gases caused by so much driving, when people could walk or bike or share rides instead.)

As somebody interested in accessibility issues (personally), I see a sort of circular thing happening with regards to people with disabilities living in suburban areas. I know from experience it's harder to get around in the suburbs, and that makes me want to live in the city. But, why should I have to live in the city if I decided I want to live in the suburbs? It's easier to get around in the city. Shouldn't I be able to get around in the suburbs, too, though? Do they honestly expect people with wheelchairs to travel through the street? How else are they supposed to get around? Ooh...I know...they should move to the city! :P

Working in a suburb that does have sidewalks (for the most part), I can tell you that it sure isn't easy to get around the suburbs, even with sidewalks. No one shovels in winter. They don't think about anyone who might be walking; they all drive.

This also happens to be a suburb that is not well lit at night. Frankly, it's dark, and even if I could see better, I imagine it would still be too dark to read the numbers on the houses.

This town also has an unusual layout. Most of the streets curve, and it's difficult to find your way through here. You have to know the community well to be able to adequately navigate it. The town's website notes:

Present-day [town] is physically distinctive not only because of its picturesque street plan, but because of the early date when it was platted. Of the suburban communities in America that were planned in the nineteenth century, according to the picturesque principles worked out for English gardens and American rural cemeteries and parks, [town] is one of the very earliest, coming only five years after the first such town in America, Llewellyn Park, New Jersey, was founded in 1852. The [town] plan, platted in 1857, is notable because its architect, the landscape gardener Almerin Hotchkiss, went on to create such other important picturesque places in the Midwest such as Bellefontaine Cemetery in St. Louis. The general concept reflected in the Hotchkiss plan is of the city in a park, with its streets laid out in an organic manner that takes into account such natural features as the ravines and lake bluffs, instead of forcing the street plan into a formal gridiron plan.

If you picture the winding paths through a cemetery, you'll have a good idea of what it's like to navigate this town.

The trouble with being familiar with and having clear paths and the level of darkness at night says something to those of us who walk back and forth from the train and campus: this community doesn't want outsiders. That really could not have been made any clearer in the article, either:

Frank, 68, who organized a petition for Whitehall Drive, said sidewalks could also pose a safety risk by welcoming strangers into the neighborhood.

"There's strange things happening in the world today, so why would we want to open up that possibility?" he said. "We are connected, we all know each other. The concern is, who knows what you'd be encouraging to come through."

Because, obviously, asking "what you'd be encouraging to come through" (read: poor people of color who want to rob the well-to-do suburbanites) to walk in the street instead of on a sidewalk is a good crime deterrent. I'm willing to cut this guy a little slack for the generational racism, but c'mon, man, this is just an ignorant thing to say.

*sigh*

I'll be proud to raise my children in a diverse city, where they are encouraged to walk, bike, and use public transportation and to still have this regard for community that isn't exclusively suburban.