My census tract (sort of)

Our assignment for Week 3 is to discuss the information available from the US Census website regarding my census tract. However, the house where my family currently lives lies on a subdivision that did not exist prior to 2005 and thus there is no census information for the surrounding area. From 1998 to 2005 I lived in Streamwood, IL in a house that my parents now rent. Moreover, I worked for the Village of Streamwood this past summer so I feel that discussing the census tract where I resided in the year 2000, in which I attended high school and did a whole lot of growing up will be acceptable for this assignment.

In the year 2000, Census Tract 8045.03 had a population of 8,372, with an almost even male to female ratio (49.5% to 50.5%). Most of the population (83.1%) lived in family households, reflecting the fact that Streamwood is made up mostly of single-family homes. There was a significant amount of households headed by single mothers (13.6%), which reflects national trends but was roughly equal to people living alone (13.3%). The median age was 29.6, reflecting a rather young population, children under 14 made up almost a third of the population, which is exactly as I recall the town. 76.1% of the houses were occupied by its owners with the rest (23.9%) being rentals. This is a reflection of the fact that Streamwood was at that point mostly a blue-collar community. Since then, there has been extensive construction of bigger houses to the West Side of the village that have attracted persons with higher incomes and created two distinct sections: one made up mostly of blue collar workers (many being immigrants) and one made up mostly of white collar professionals, but I digress.
The census tract was majority white (74.6%) with Asians accounting for 13.9% of the population, African Americans accounting for 8,9% and Hispanics (who are not counted as a separate race but rather as an ethnic group) accounting for roughly 29.9%. If one is to add up these numbers they will come out to more than 100%. Many of those Hispanics also chose White as their race in much the same way my family did. These ethnicity discrepancies surely create headaches for those whose job it is to figure out which groups to target/which groups to serve within a census tract.

Observation Paper post + wishful thinking for the CTA

This past Thursday (January 24th) I set out to ride the L for an hour for the purposes of the observation paper. Given a choice between going to bond court (I have been to court before, pass), spending an hour in a public space in Chicago (the public spaces that excite me the most are outdoors and with last week's weather, pass) and riding the L I naturally chose what was most convenient for myself. I rode the Brown Line from the Loop to Kimball as I had never ridden it past Irving Park. There were less people on the train than I would have hoped for (in order to observe interactions between riders) but still I tried to keenly observe the goings-on inside the car. The Brown Line is undergoing double-tracking along with the Purple and Red Lines up to Belmont, which in addition to construction at several stops (Diversey, Southport, Irving Park, Damen) to accomodate 8-car trains slows down the train considerably and makes a commute last 40 minutes. The remodeled stations that I saw are quite a step up from the almost dilapidated state of some of the older stations. Now, I had read on http://www.chicago-l.org/ that there were grade level crossings for part of the Brown Line but I had stored that information in some unaccessible corner of my mind until the train was suddenly at the same level as the bungalows on either side. To my slight dismay, I was unable to see the damage from the recent water main break at Montrose. Of course, I will go into more detail in my observation paper.

The future of the CTA is quite interesting to me and a good place to start dreaming of what it COULD become is by reading Craig Berman's 2005 article "A CTA Map for 2055". Within it, he outlines how to strengthen the current rail network and make it truly world-class. Some ideas are no-brainers (the Circle Line, extending the Green and Red lines to the criminally underserved far South Side) and others are a bit more of a stretch (a subway line under Belmont connecting the Red, Brown and Purple lines to the Blue line, merging the Brown and Orange Lines into a single line). I will touch upon other ideas in future posts such such as the Midcity Transitway - a line running near Cicero Avenue from Jefferson Park to Ford City, the "Gray Line" - appropriating the Metra Electric Line into the CTA system and my own optimistic (perhaps harebrained?) idea for a Western Avenue subway.

I think the next thing the CTA should do is build a station on the (now reused) Paulina Connector at Madison serving the United Center. I was at a Blackhawks game recently (incidentally my first hockey game and the first time since high school I'd been at the United Center) and seeing Pink Line trains rolling past a mere two blocks from the stadium bespeaks poor planning. The financial situation for the CTA is grim, even after Springfield bailed out public transit in the Chicagoland area. The system will, for the time being, continue running as it had before but this is a system that is woefully inadequate at some points. Where the money will come from to finance the ideas that brim within my head (as they undoubtedly do in the heads of many other riders) is a complicated question that will be quite interesting to watch in the years ahead.

I started a "mini city" and I'm curious on how it will grow. Every click makes the city gain one inhabitant.

http://icebergz.myminicity.com

Cool...

Click here to increase industry:
http://icebergz.myminicity.com/ind
Click here to improve the transportation infrastructure.:
http://icebergz.myminicity.com/tra

You can click on every link once per day. Thanks!

This blog is specifically for my Planning Great Cities class (UPP 202), spring semester two thousand and hate eight.

The title is "Where all my nightmares came true" in reference to "Welcome To Chicago" a song by The Killer. The lyrics don't resonate with me very strongly (I don't think hope is gone and so far none of my nightmares have come true) but within my circle of friends and others in the hardcore/punk community it is easily recognizable and an inside joke of sorts.
The lyrics are as follows:
Dance with me, sing along
Empty words to an empty song
Written by some kids who live in a town where hope is gone
All i have is underneath this roof
It breaks my heart but it's the truth
Welcome to Chicago
Where all my nightmares came true

My name is Diego Muñoz, I'm 21.