Mapping the University of Chicago's 135-year expansion into Hyde Park and beyond
chicagomaroon.github.io
chicagomaroon.github.io
The underlying map is modern across all timelines. What would be super awesome is if the underlying map would also change, based on historical propery deeds, maps and ariel photos. For example, the 1893 world's fair is when much housing was constructed. The entire coastline also changed during this timeline. This would be an order of magnitude more work...
I'm curious -- each section (after the transitional animation) seems like it translates quite well to being a fixed page, and I'm wondering if you've looked at there being an easy way to generate a version that could be printed?
The reason I ask is that I'm working on a family history project which involves various locations, maps, newspaper stories and old photographs, and whilst something interactive feels like it would be an engaging way to do it, for the long term it's always good to have a printed copy of anything :)
I could imagine if there was an easy way to generate a print version of your articles, some people would pay for a copy (that was printed professionally in a suitable photobook-style format).
Apologies if there is a simple way to generate this and I've missed it in my cursory glance around the code :)
Great job using MapLibre too, glad it is getting more and more popular.
For others in the thread wondering about other examples of this kind of journalism/mapping/data work, to my knowledge the best term for it would be 'scrollytelling' or 'storymapping' (which is an ESRI term but is used generally as well).
There are a ton of examples out there, but I'm sad there isn't a central repository of really great ones. The NYT and The Pudding are two places that do pretty cool stuff like this.
Are there other examples of this?
Amazing!
https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2024/12/20/us/2024-year-...
https://www.usatoday.com/in-depth/news/nation/2023/02/05/chi...
Maybe some history will help.
This is a bit of my own biases showing but I've found being very into deep dish or calling the loop "downtown" were ways to know who is new to Chicago
Lincoln Park north is not what I would call "good hiking", but I think it's nice for those who like the outdoors. Good for daytime walks, large beaches, dog beach, bird sanctuary, some small natural areas, lakefront trail (paved).
For good hiking, yes you'll have to drive out of the city.
I know that the wooded section between the IC tracks and LSD from 47th street up to Oakwood/Pershing is a hiking trail very popular with birdwatchers. You can keep walking up to the 31st street beach parking lot, but I think it might technically be trespassing ;)
Naturally, if you want really good hiking, there is a daily train from Union Station that stops at the front gate to Glacier National Park. You can also take the South Shore train eastwards - there are 3 stops adjacent to the Indiana Dunes (both the state and national parks).
I remember going to a talk at the cultural center ~10 years ago where some lady, who was apparently very famous in her line of work, talked about moving to Chicago because of her husband’s new job and spending many years hating the natural surroundings. Until one day she was in a prairie west of the city and decided to really look at the wildflowers. And that was the spark that got her to start drawing the flowers, and eventually made her famous for it.
Anyway, it’s no Coastal California or Colorado mountain meadow. But if you go out and explore with a desire to find beauty in it, you will :)
Edit - and by the way, on the South Shore train, Dune Park and Beverly Shores have trails you see from the train platform. Ogden Dunes is a bit trickier, the open space west of the train station is all national park service land, east is private property except closer to the lake. The town itself tries very hard to make it look like a private gated community but the roads are all public and you are free to walk right in. Miller Beach I’d say the train is too far from the parkland, but if you have a car, the area due north starting about a mile from that train station will blow apart every stereotype you’ve ever had about Gary, IN.
Hah, there's my only lament about Chicago: no pet-friendly public transit if you have a large dog. I don't really have the stomach for the loopholes either: service dog lies or carrying her in a duffel bag NYC subway-style.
I’m also convinced that if someone hasn’t connected to the city yet, they just haven’t been to the right neighborhood. They are many, and cater to many tastes.
Looks like the clicks are handled here:
https://github.com/chicagomaroon/data-visualizations/blob/52...
The rest of the repo seems to contain all the data and JavaScript, including GeoJSON files, which GitHub even renders on a map.
What a non-issue. You have this massive development that's going to benefit your community and you're concerned because the people who actually contributed to it are going to benefit as well? The entitlement is just unreal.
I've lived on one of the streets mentioned in the article and its hard to overstate how shockingly dangerous the area is. Hearing gunshots was a regular occurrence. I knew someone who intervened in a robbery and was shot and nearly killed. I wouldn't allow friends to come visit after dark because I feared for their safety. If anything, the University and its police force should do more to rid the neighborhood of its anti-social element.
AKA "the blacks".
Ironically, you are positing the same concerns as the people you claim are "entitled" but instead of questioning the university's policies you want to give them more power to enforce racial segregation.
I'm pointing out that's what the op is doing through their faith in the historical methods of the universities 'community stabilization' efforts. What the op is proposing is exactly what the university did after the Supreme Court shut down the discriminatory laws on residential neighborhoods.
The university has so many buildings in Hyde Park that they often make the decisions about which businesses are there or not. I've been happy with most of their choices recently; bringing in a Trader Joe, for example. However, some residents have differing opinions.
There was a race riot there in 1919: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chicago_race_riot_of_1919
<https://np.reddit.com/r/todayilearned/comments/5t7ig0/til_th...>
A reply to the post:
>Drill rap, possibly the first genre of music that will end up disappearing because its practitioners have killed each other off.
Anyway where are you even going to put them, where is a place outside of society? If you're thinking of prisons, why do we have this problem in the first place if we already imprison more people than any other country. If this hasn't worked so far what will be different when you do even more of it? Why are other countries able solve this issue in other ways?
A sincere & informed commitment to reducing violence quickly takes you in very different directions from this one. It's other values that have you itching to eliminate people you find undesirable.
Just anecdata. I had a family member living there for the six years, several addresses including their condo on Drexel Ave, one block from Cottage Grove (more or less the western boundary of campus proper). Their first child was born there, mom often went on long walks with the stroller to parks, etc with no problems. I visited several times, never had a problem. I walked to The Cove at night for a few beers, Sister Sledge on the jukebox was a conversation starter. Reggie's at the Beach (63rd St.) was a nice place, easy parking.
Every large city has "dangerous" areas, Hyde Park probably has fewer per capita than most.
There’s a lot to say about the crime factor, and it’s complicated. I will say that it’s common to miss it if you don’t happen to witness it. Streets that look quiet, well-developed, and peaceful will suddenly become violent and then go back to normal as if nothing happened.
I also lived on Drexel for a few years. A graduate student was shot and killed nearby while walking home. Another night we witnessed a drive-by shooting while eating dinner. I’ve got a number of crime-related stories after living here that range in severity from “funny-in-retrospect” to “somebody died.”
Something that still strikes me is how crimes can happen right outside homes without anyone noticing. The University Police have a daily email list of “serious” incidents that I check - I’ll often notice a carjacking or home invasion within 500 feet of where I was taking a nap on my couch.
It’s a great neighborhood with a lot going for it, which is maybe part of what makes the crime issue so hidden. It doesn’t look sketchy or violent until it suddenly is.
This conversation is fascinating to me. When I lived there, not one person had any illusion about the fact that we lived in a very violent place. The regularly-heard gunshots on 53rd got rid of those notions very quickly.
Students are regularly held up at gunpoint, sometimes shot and killed.
How on earth can you live in Hyde Park and not know of the violence?
Both conservatives and leftist are pro-community. Their opponents are wealthy migrant laborers who plan to make their money, then leave to go back to the communities they came from. In your city, they're YIMBYs. When they're back in the suburbs and little towns they came from, they'll be HOA warriors.
The army used to train their trauma surgeons in Chicago because of the number of knife and gunshot wounds seen in the city's hospitals. From 2001 to 2021, there were about 1,000 more murders in the city than American soldiers killed in Afghanistan and Iraq.
Yes, because it is no longer "your" community. Most of those residents complaining know they will in short order be priced out. The relatively few residents who own property and can hold onto it aren't the ones complaining.
A community is made up of people, not real estate, and if you get priced out of your neighborhood, it is of no benefit to you. It's a "non-issue" like me kicking you out of your house and fixing it up, and then for some reason you're not happy about how much better the house looks now that you're on the street. A truly YIMBY view of the world.
Will the people who can only afford to live in a "shockingly dangerous" neighborhood, after being priced out, end up in a less dangerous place?
I seem to remember a homeless fellow who used a key to extract some change from a vending machine that was surprisingly on UoC property and got a 12-year sentence.
Also, not to be confused with the confusingly similar University of Illinois Chicago.
Well, there are two problems there:
- Being in a school is not an aggravating factor (in reality; I'm not making any claim about the law) for that crime;
- Stealing change from a vending machine shouldn't involve a 6-year sentence.
But neither of those really undermines the general concept of crimes on the property "usually" including an aggravating factor for the location.
The courts eventually up-ended the person's sentence somewhat and reduced it to the minimum available, 6 years. I don't know whether the person had already served over that time before his sentence was adjusted, but I would hazard a guess that he had.
This can't be a correct description; a statute can't influence whether something is or isn't constitutional. They're different levels.
I tend to suspect that you're intentionally omitting whatever the case was actually about.
This is found in the Illinois Constitution, Article I, Section 11, which states: "All penalties shall be proportioned to the offense."
If "no", which web browser are you having problems with?
*I'm seeing no actual ads. Nor js from sketchy domain.