Research of the City of Chicago

CITY OF CHICAGO | DATA ANALYSIS INDEPENDENT STUDY | FALL 2019 XINRAN ZHENG

DESCRIPTION This is an independent study based on and extended from the Nolli map research of the city of Chicago.

The Nolli map research was a group research project under the ARCH576 Urban Morphology Seminar. In the Nolli map research, participants seek to document the existing state of an area of the city of Chicago, to create a unique map which gives insights into the complexities of the city. The research result used in this independent research is a portion of the Nolli map of the city of Chicago. The downtown site Nolli map was done by the 2018 Fall Chicago Studio (area bounded by W Wacker Dr., South Lakeshore Dr., W Harrison St., and the Chicago River). The West Loop site Nolli map was done by the 2019 Fall Chicago Studio (area bounded by W Kinzie St., N Morgan St., W Harrison St. and Chicago River) The purpose of this independent study is to further understand the city space, not only the publicity of city space but also how would the city space shape the city in terms of security and attractivity. Furthermore, the research also tries to show how different characteristics of city spaces shape the behavior of people.

The methodology of this independent research is to visualize data collected from the internet, (mainly from the City of Chicago | Data Portal: https://data.cityofchicago.org/) and compare the result with the Nolli map to see the interconnection between the city space and data.

CRIME 2018 This diagram shows the record of the crimes by the city of Chicago in 2018. The Density of circles shows the density of crimes in a certain space. People usually consider the streets with an elevated railway to be the most dangerous streets in the city. In downtown Chicago, those streets are Lake St., Wabash Ave., Van Buren St., and Wells St. However, the data shows that there is no direct connection between the crime density and the existence of the elevated railways. Moreover, on Wabash Ave., Van Buren St. and Wells St., the crime density is relatively low, compared to other streets nearby.

Based on the data, the most dangerous streets in the downtown area are State St. and Michigan Ave. The diagram also shows that the crime density is higher on the south-north streets than the east-west streets.

Data source: https://data.cityofchicago.org/Public-Safety/Crimes-2018/3i3m-jwuy

RESTAURANTS This diagram shows the restaurants located in the city of Chicago. Generally speaking, the Downtown area has the most restaurants, and the distribution is on every street. The northern part of Chicago has the second-density of restaurants. The restaurants in this area tend to distribute on the east-west main streets and the diagonal streets. The density of the restaurants in the southern part of the city is relatively low compared to the rest area of the city, and tend to distribute on only the main streets (every 1 mile)

Data source: https://data.cityofchicago.org/Health-Human-Services/Food-Inspections/4ijn-s7e5

SIDEWALK CAFE This diagram shows the restaurants with sidewalk café permits, which means that the restaurant could offer an outdoor seating area on the public way from March 1st through December 1st.

The site walk café diagram shows a significant difference between the northern part of the city and the southern part of the city. Almost all the sidewalk cafés are distributed in the downtown and the northern part.

Data source: https://data.cityofchicago.org/Community-Economic-Development/Sidewalk-Cafe-Permits/nxj5-ix6z

RESTAURANT DOWNTOWN Zoom into the down area. The diagram shows the high density of restaurants in the city center. Especially the well-known Greektown, the Randolph Street in the West Loop area, and the River North Area.

River North

Randolph St.

Randolph St.

Greek Town

SIDE WALK CAFE DOWNTOWN This diagram shows the restaurants in the downtown area that have sidewalk café. The density of sidewalk café in Greek Town is relatively low compared to Randolph Street in West Loop. The reason for that is Randolph Street has a green belt between the main road and the auxiliary road, and the sidewalk width is wider than other streets.

River North

Randolph St.

Randolph St.

Greek Town

PARKS PABOULEVARDS

PUBLIC PARK SYSTEM The public park system is shown in this diagram. There is a continuity of public green space on the lakeside. Small size parks are evenly distributed in the other areas. There are several big size parks on the western and southern parts of the city, which are intentionally linked with boulevards.

Data source: https://data.cityofchicago.org/Environment-Sustainable-Development/Open-Spaces-Boulevards/sd36-arzm https://data.cityofchicago.org/Parks-Recreation/Parks-Shapefiles-deprecated-November-2016-/5msb-wbxn

PEDESTRIAN STREETS

PEDESTRIANS The distribution of pedestrian streets is shown in this diagram, the northern part of the city has a better pedestrian system than the southern part of the city, which helps concentrate retail shops, restaurants, and other related services. Most of the pedestrian streets start from an intersection with three streets (as shown in the diagram) and extend further on the diagonal streets compared to the streets in the normal direction.

Data source:https://data.cityofchicago.org/Transportation/Pedestrian-Streets/w3m8-5y6d

CTA ‘L’ LINE WEEKDAY The ‘L’ system is the most important public transportation system in the city of Chicago.

This diagram shows the average weekday entry of each CTA ‘L’ station. The size of the circle and the darkness of the color reflect the number of people entering the station on weekdays. On weekdays, the downtown area is the busiest area. CTA Line in the northern part of the city is busier than the southern part. The busiest lines are the northern part of the Red Line and the Blue Line. A lot of people living in the Lincoln Park and Lake View area take Red Line to work. The diagram also shows that more people are living at the terminal station compared to the other station on the southern part.

Data source: https://data.cityofchicago.org/Transportation/CTA-Ridership-L-Station-Entries-Monthly-Day-Type-A/t2rn-p8d7

CTA ‘L’ LINE WEEKENDS On weekends the entry of the ‘L’ is significantly reduced, with the busiest station Lake/State at 11,000 entries. People start to move to the River North area on weekends for entertainment and leisure.

Data source: https://data.cityofchicago.org/Transportation/CTA-Ridership-L-Station-Entries-Monthly-Day-Type-A/t2rn-p8d7

CTA ‘L’ LINE WEEKDAY DOWNTOWN On weekdays, the busiest stations in the downtown area are Lake/State, Clark/Lake with daily entry around 20,600. Followed by Washington/Dearborn, Chicago/State, and Fullerton at 13,500.

Data source: https://data.cityofchicago.org/Transportation/CTA-Ridership-L-Station-Entries-Monthly-Day-Type-A/t2rn-p8d7

CTA ‘L’ LINE WEEKENDS DOWNTOWN The River North area starts to be the living center on weekends.

Data source: https://data.cityofchicago.org/Transportation/CTA-Ridership-L-Station-Entries-Monthly-Day-Type-A/t2rn-p8d7

BUS RIDE WEEKDAY This diagram shows the average rides of each bus route on weekdays

Data source: https://data.cityofchicago.org/Transportation/CTA-Ridership-Bus-Routes-Monthly-Day-Type-a/bynn-gwxy

BUS RIDE WEEKENDS This diagram shows the average rides of each bus route on weekends.

Data source: https://data.cityofchicago.org/Transportation/CTA-Ridership-Bus-Routes-Monthly-Day-Type-a/bynn-gwxy

DIVVY BIKE STATION This diagram shows the distribution and the active level of the Divvy Bike Station. Stations in the downtown area are the most active.

Stations in the northern parts of the city are more active than the southern part of the city.

Data source: https://data.cityofchicago.org/Transportation/Divvy-Trips-Dashboard/u94x-unre

DIVVY BIKE ROUTES SIMULATION This diagram shows the simulation of Divvy bike rides based on the data provided by Divvy.

Data source: https://data.cityofchicago.org/Transportation/Divvy-Trips-Dashboard/u94x-unre