🚀 go-pugleaf

> > How about this URL: http://www.chgocitytours.com/NMap.htm.  It doesn't let
> > you search, but it is a decent map of the 'hoods of the city.

Interesting.  I drew that map, back in 1997, to be used in a little
brochure that the Dept. of Cultural Affairs was using to promote
neighborhood tours.  Now I see it popping up all sorts of places,
without any credit or further payment.  Last week I found it splashed
across a wall at O'Hare.

Anyway, there are two well-known attempts to define Chicago
neighborhoods.  The best known is the map dividing Chicago into 75
"community areas" that was created by sociologists known as the "Chicago
school" in the 1930s.  Those 75 areas were drawn somewhat artificially
in certain areas, with catchalls like "North Center," but they became
the basis for Chicago's census tract numbering.  They have the benefit
of having no uncertainty or overlap, and much data is collected that
way.  (O'Hare was added as CA76 in 1970, and Edgewater was separated
from Uptown in 1980 to become CA77.)

In 1978, summer interns in the Planning Dept were sent out to ask people
all over the city "what neighborhood is this?" and "what are its
boundaries?"  The result was a map that showed "neighborhood names"
ranging from very small subdivisions and housing projects up to huge
swaths like "South Chicago."  In addition to the methodological problems
of the small sample size (10 per neighborhood), this research predates a
number of new community identities such as "Wrigleyville" or "Printers
Row."  And, of course, hopeful realtors invent new neighborhood names
every month.  Nonetheless, someone redrew this map in colored pencil and
sold it as a glossy poster beginning in about 1990.  

After explaining the problems of creating a "neighborhood map" to the
folks at Cultural Affairs, I suggested a "patchwork quilt" approach that
deliberately obscured exact boundaries but that tried to populate the
map with familiar neighborhood names--after all, the only purpose of the
map was to show that Chicago has a lot of distinct neighborhoods! 
You'll notice that there's deliberate overlap and gaps to suggest that
the boundaries are quite inexact.  I just based the map on my own
knowledge, making some decisions based solely on whether additional
names would fit.  Because there's less consciousness of South and West
Side neighborhood names in the real estate press--and my own mind--I
fear that they are not as specifically drawn as the north lakefront is.


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Dennis McClendon, Chicago CartoGraphics
dmcclendon@21stcentury.net