Seeing more of Chicago

If you've been keeping track of my goal of visiting every part of Chicago by the end of my time here, you'll have noticed that I've fallen behind schedule. And since it's now October and getting colder, I headed out on Sunday for a trip around the south side by bicycle.

Here's an approximate map of the route I took.

I started by heading south, through my local area. I realised how pretty - quaint, even, many of the buildings in east Hyde Park are. The feeling changed a little south of the midway, to more utilitarian buildings. I got onto Cottage Grove Avenue to head south. It felt very "western": plenty of space, very wide streets, low buildings, some with wide awnings reaching over the footpath. It's a completely different feel from New England suburbia.

My first destination was the point of intersection of CHATHAM, BURNSIDE, CALUMET HEIGHTS and AVALON PARK. Wikipedia describes Chatham as "a central area for Chicago's middle-class African Americans", and this is very much the impression I got. It did feel like a prosperous, though not wealthy, set of suburbs. And I didn't see many people out and about (a few on their way home from church, I think), but I have no reason to dispute Wikipedia's figure of 98% Black (you have probably noticed I tend to comment on income and racial demographics when I visit new neighbourhoods: they're certainly the big influences in determining who lives where.

I continued south through ROSELAND and PULLMAN. The feeling was on the whole pretty similar, though becoming even less densely populated: plenty of room for cars (no other bikes in sight at this part of the day). I don't know that I technically set wheel in SOUTH DEERING: I was aiming for there, but the only real road through is a big freeway. So I kept going, to WEST PULLMAN and RIVERDALE. This is obviously a much poorer area, but in a "spartan" rather than a "rundown" way. My southernmost point was in Altgeld Gardens. On reading about this housing project, I find that it's claimed to be "one of Chicago's most violent neighborhoods", but I saw no evidence to support this. There was almost no-one out and about (no obvious reason to be out and about), other than a couple of people chatting on their lawn. I didn't quite get into HEGEWISCH: the freeway really makes it inconvenient if you're on a bike, but I got far enough southeast to satisfy me.

It was then time to head northwest to MORGAN PARK. I came across the Major Taylor trail (according to a mural on a building, Major Taylor was the first famous African American athlete), and took it to the corner of WASHINGTON HEIGHTS and BEVERLY. Continuing west through Beverly, I came across... a hill! Looking back at that hill on Google street view, it looks pitiful, but it is much larger than anything else natural I came across, and enough to notice and cause me to shift down a few gears. I had some lunch in Beverly Park (there were some young boys playing football, though I arrived right at halftime, which was of course the cheerleaders' chance to perform), ticked off MOUNT GREENWOOD, and turned north. I spent a few minutes in Evergreen Park, a suburb just outside the official borders of Chicago, before returning into Chicago at ASHBURN. This seems to be a more densely populated area than many I had seen: there's a noticeable difference between going west and going south. I think the railway stopped me from quite getting to WEST ENGLEWOOD and AUBURN GRESHAM, but I at least looked out over them.

I had some more lunch in Marquette Park, which you might remember from my trip to Shakespeare in the Park with Tom. While eating, I saw a couple of people behaving rather oddly. They were in a white van, and were driving around. Where by "around", I mean around, and around, and around. There is a short loop of road in the park, and they drove around it as if this were a normal thing to do. I saw them once and didn't pay much attention; twice and thought "oh, that van looks just the same as one that came past a minute ago"; three times and thought "it is the same", then four, and five, and six times. I really don't know what they were doing.

I went on to WEST LAWN and finished my lunch in West Lawn Park. My westmost point was the entrance to the Midway airport bus and train terminal, in CLEARING. My trip was starting to wind down: just one more waypoint left on my list. It took me north past houses decorated for Halloween, and through WEST ELSDON and ARCHER HEIGHTS. This feels like a neighbourhood there to support the city: it's several kilometres west, but close enough proximity to have depots, storage facilities and the like. And big roads: for a brief period on Pulaski I was a little concerned at the intensity of the traffic and considering trying to find a quieter street, but the wind was behind me and I was moving at almost the speed of the cars. I crossed over the freeway and river into SOUTH LAWNDALE. I was pretty exhausted by now, so I wasn't such a keen observer of the world around me, but more of a counter of blocks from home (I was 40 blocks west and needed to get to 16 blocks east). I turned east, and just nipped the southwest corner of LOWER WEST SIDE before seeking to get back across the river. The road turned absolutely terrible, and I just couldn't ride on it. I had noticed many roadworks on my trip, but these were the worst. Cars seemed to be avoiding it as well! I walked my bike for a bit before spying a parallel street I could use. I crossed into MCKINLEY PARK, close enough to BRIGHTON PARK and NEW CITY that I'll count them (yes, I know I'm cheating pretty heavily today, but the feeling of the neighborhoods changes slowly enough that I'll give myself a block or two leeway. If I really feel I have nothing better to do between now and leaving Chicago, I can go back and pick up some of the areas I didn't quite touch. But until then, I'll take advantage of the opportunity for a pun and give myself a neighborhood play).

I was on the straight and wide now, and back in somewhat familiar territory, and I made good progress back to the well-loved Cottage Grove Avenue, where I turned south. At 47th St I checked my watch to see if I'd make 5 pm Mass: it turned out to be 13 minutes to 5 (I had left home around noon), and the church was 13 blocks away. That wasn't too difficult to cover (I walk a block in two minutes, and cycle at three times my walking pace), so I kept going steadily and walked into Mass one minute early and rather sweaty!

I covered about 80 km all up, my second biggest day of cycling ever. The flatness helped enormously: I could just go steadily eating up the miles on my way back home from the furthest points west. Overall, I think the south side is a much more comfortable place to be than its reputation would have you believe (I'm not saying there aren't dangers, but isolated events and places tarnish a huge region). And my fitness level is still ok!

I did a little more travelling in Chicago on Wednesday. It was my week to look after the speaker for the Computations in Science seminar, Kate Stebe from Penn. I wasn't able to meet her during the day, but I joined her and a couple of local professors for dinner at Plzen (in Pilsen, thus visiting the Lower West Side for not just the second time in four days but the second time ever). It's always nice to meet new people and talk about their experiences with science and life, and I was very encouraged by how much she valued her colleagues' contributions to the development of young scientists.

We didn't want to call it a night after dinner, so three of us went north to Green Mill Lounge, where we heard fantastic gypsy jazz music from a guitar/fiddle/cimbalom ensemble. Anna had recommend this venue but I had never visited it myself, so I appreciated the occasion to venture there. I'm definitely getting through my lists of Chicago must-sees!