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The trip has come to an end. We learned so much about Chicago and met a lot of amazing planners and organizers for Chicago. From this trip we have learned about the struggles in Chinatown and the amazing organizations that helps the community with all their needs. We learned about the big Chicago fire and how all the sky raises were built by many different architects.
It has been a long trip and we had to wake up at 4AM to catch our flight back to San Francisco! Can’t wait to go on another trip soon. - Kelly Ma and Phoebe Fong
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-Living in Chicago Chinatown-
The experience of living in Chicago Chinatown is quite different from living in SF Chinatown. Chicago Chinatown has more tall buildings while the ones in SF is under the restriction of zoning laws. Moreover, Chicago Chinatown is more like a place that people go there for restaurants instead of living, which there are less grocery stores and parks. The Chicago Chinatown has a variety of food and most of the restaurants open until midnight. Therefore, we could hang out and get snacks together at late night. I also noticed the population in Chicago Chinatown are mainly young adults from northern China, whilst SF Chinatown has many seniors from southern China. Such difference explains why the Chicago Chinatown is the only growing Chinatown in the U.S. Our group met Chinese American Service League(CASL), which is a non profit that provide various services to the Chinese community, such as childcare, job training, retirement center and etc. Their services benefit a broad age group from infants to elderly, which was very impressive to see how an organization expand their audience to the whole community. It was amazing to see how organized CASL is, and their services are assisting Chinese in different circumstances to gain a better living. -Transit- Traveling in Chicago, we used the train system for most of the time because it was the most efficient way for us to reach to the places we visited. Also, we learned that public transportation system is the most sufficient and dense in Chicago Downtown area. We had a meeting with Chicago Department of Transportation and it was inspiring to see how they engaged with different communities and educated people about pedestrian safety through hosting events in their neighborhoods. During the meeting, we also participated in an activity for designing our ideal streets. It was an interactive exercise to visualize the elements of a safe street such as expanded sidewalks, traffic lights for bikes and bus-only lanes. I think it is a really engaging activity that we can gather feedbacks and ideas from people about their vision of a complete street. - Kelly Ma During our Chicago Trip, I learned and noticed many things that differ from our city
and their city. I noticed that one of the main streets in Chicago Chinatown was very chaotic, all the lanes were not very visible and very hard to drive in. We met a group named Chicago Department of Transportation and created our ideal street, we then talked about how we can improve current streets. Chicago Chinatown is very different compared to San Francisco because they have allowed large food chains to open up like Starbucks and Meet Fresh. Their Chinatown is more of an area for people to go eat and leave compared to San Francisco where people actually live in Chinatown. Chicago has 50 wards and 50 aldermans while San Francisco has 11 districts and 11 supervisors, that shows how small San Francisco is compared to Chicago. We took a tour of Argyle St and I noticed how the curb is merged into the street when crossing and I haven’t seen many in San Francisco. Overall experience of Chicago was great, I got to experience what transportation was like there and had a lot of fun. I felt a lot more comfortable walking around Downtown because of how much space there is compared to San Francisco’s Downtown. - Ivan Chen As we reflect back to our trip, Chicago has a safer and more advanced transportation system compared to San Francisco. Chicago does a better job on pedestrian education, advocating for pedestrian safety, and prioritizing pedestrian safety. One of the organizations we met, Chicago Version Zero, talked about their advocation of pedestrian safety. They visited different communities, age groups, and ethnic groups, to educate the important tips for pedestrian. Even though San Francisco Vision Zero did have posters on the buses and streets to educate people, they seemed less proactive compared to Chicago.
Even though SF isn’t as proactive as Chicago in traffic safety, they have implemented new and innovative programs in their transportation system. San Francisco provides a discounted fare for youth, seniors and people with disabilities. This promotes using public transportation over cars. Many people prefer riding public transportation rather than taking a car because it’s more sustainable and eco friendly. San Francisco has one of the densest populations. If more people use public transportation it could help improve the ecosystem. - Diana Li The trip of Chicago is one that I will never forget, I had such a great learning experience. From waking up early for meetings to observing the city, every moment of it was exciting and unforgettable. Through this one week trip in Chicago, I learned so much about Vision Zero and the history of Chinatown in Chicago. I learned about one of the ways that Vision Zero Chicago plan on being successful in this plan in which they would encourage Chicagoans to take buses instead of driving to decrease fatalities. One of the many things I noticed about Chicago is that the transportation is very efficient. The center of the city had many buses and trains, so the wait wasn’t long. I payed very close attention to my surroundings and noticed that the voice recordings on the CTA buses didn’t have different languages. I became more aware of my surroundings in SF because there are things I took for granted such as how the variety of languages the voice recordings play really make it way easier for people who don’t speak English to get around. Behind the great impression of the city and the transportation, I learned about the improvements the city plan on making and how they are working to fix some of their underlying transportation problems. If it weren’t for the informational meetings with people working for Chicago’s vision zero, I wouldn’t have known that one of Chicago’s problems is that the number of transportation lines isn’t actually enough since they don’t reach the outer parts of the city and they are working on adding more bus lines. Thanks to this trip, I was able to have this amazing hands on experience where I saw for myself by making it to these meetings in the city itself. I hope to be able to go back someday to see how Chicago improved or changed!
- Lina Mai We got out of the subway and ran into the shamrock marathon. Chicago’s subway system reminds me a lot about Japan’s train system. How we get into the train, the little voice that says what stop it is and how it can transition from underground to above ground. We played real life crossy road 5 times after leaving the trains station.
The architectural tour was educational. I learned how they used to make old buildings and the different kinds of architects that helped create the city after the Chicago fire. The tour guide pointed out many buildings along the tour that had many different architectural designs. Some were perfectly symmetrical even with the sidewalk while some others were decorated from the bottom up with scary faces pointing back at you. After lunch we went to the iconic bean. We snapped a group photo and headed to the Chicago Cultural Center. The center had the biggest tiffany glass dome in the world as well as impressive artwork and a beautiful view of millennium park. After a refreshing power nap we headed to navy pier on the 29 bus. In front of their children’s museum they had interactive exhibits where you could pull on a metal bar and it would be like a hamster wheel photo and make it into a comic strip. The trains can transition from underground and above ground. There are multiple stations that serve as main stations where multiple lines converge and it's easier to transfer trains and the trains don’t all go the same way, they spread out to try and cover all the city. Architectural ideas and art decoration were important to shape buildings of Chicago. Architectures started to move in to Chicago because of the world fair event held in Chicago. Architectures would come in from all over the world to see what architectures has done. Over two thousand propel would come each day to look at Chicago. Ideas were compared with others based on buildings they created. Inside the buildings the lobby is full of history of Chicago to talk about to how the building was made. During the day, I was able to learn that Chicago is known for its hotdog. The hotdog rule was to eat hotdog without ketchup. Even without ketchup it tastes great with its own flavor. - Nikki Wong and Lucas Chin Our journey started at 4 AM in SFO as we arrived at our destination, Chicago Midway Airport at 12 PM after flying with Southwest Airlines.
We found that we had a lot of trouble trying to get ticket passes to take the CTA (Chicago Transportation Authority). It was very inconvenient as we couldn’t buy fourteen passes at once and we had to buy one pass at a time from the machine. The ticket pass was also different from the paper day pass that tourists get in SF, the ones in Chicago are plastic and reusable. While we were taking the Orange Line under CTA, we realized that the look of the seats and arrangement of the seats were similar to those of Metro in SF. There were two maps on the CTA train, one was the complete map of all the trains that connected through a loop and the other one was a specific map only for the Orange Line. This makes it a lot easier for people to figure out where they are at instead of being confused from looking at a map that consisted of multiple lines. When we were transferring from the Orange Line to the Red Line, we found out that there are a lot of stairs, making it difficult for people who carry suitcases and people with disabilities to get to the stations. On our way to the AirBnB, we noticed that the sidewalks and the roads were a bit wider than the ones in San Francisco. The white lines on the road meant to be indications of where to walk to cross the street and were much narrower as those in SF. There were some problematic crosswalks in which the crossing lights were blocked by electricity poles. Both of these observations are what we noticed that could affect how pedestrians cross the streets safely. We think the reason for these differences between Chicago and San Francisco is because of the major earthquake that occurred. SF had to rebuild the entire city due to the destruction, thus, the structure of our city is more modernized and more well-planned with details. - Lina Mai, Roy Yu, Irene Tan This is our final day in New York. What a remarkable trip we had! Everyone was all
hyped up and ready to head home to share with others what we had experienced in New York. Over the 6 days of our stay, we met with the Department of Transportation and understood how New York was able to lower pedestrian deaths by a remarkable 33% through Vision Zero. New York’s Vision Zero had also started the same time as we did but was able to make much more of a difference then we are able to in San Francisco. We are hoping to bring the same effect back to San Francisco and implement these preventive measures to lower all these preventable deaths in crashes. In addition, we went to Flushing to meet with a local Asian American Empowerment group called AAFE. We saw how they ran their youth programs and what makes them so successful. If possible, we may implement their methods in our Youth Program too. On a happier note, we are happy to share with our family and friends the food we tasted throughout New York along with numerous pictures of tourist attractions like the top of the Empire State and of the Charging Bull! -David Liu It’s our last full day in New York. We went over to Flushing, Queens for the first time
this trip and ate some of the best Xiao Long Baos, but of course that was not the purpose of the commute. There, we met with a community group called Asian Americans For Equality (AAFE), who does similar things as our organization, such as serving those in the Chinatown neighborhood, help find/provide housing for immigrants and families that are low income, and maintained a youth program that also assist with the community through volunteering events. They gave us a tour of Flushing. They talk about medical, business, and street design in Flushing. I have learn that New York was first colonized by the Dutch. However New York was named after the Duke of York known as King James II. King Charles II of England, James’s older brother, who had entitled James II to be a proprietor, ownership of New Netherlands and New Amsterdam property. From the land that England had took from the Dutch. The town hall in Flushing was designed in Romanesque revival style. The town hall had been used in different ways such as an opera, prison and now an art museum. The structure of their youth program is a bit different from ours, which could just be their own preference, but other than that it’s similar in the way that we both serve our communities. Some differences between AAFE and CCDC are AAFE split up their youth program depends on their grade (Freshman and sophomore) (Junior and senior), CCDC (AAA, YSRO, Campaign, CATS). CCDC youth program is youth run youth lead. Asian American For Equality provided after school program for the youth in school. AAFE’s youth program has connections with the school. Through their presentation and tour about Flushing, a neighborhood in Queens, I learned that their Chinatown has a different story in comparison to Manhattan and San Francisco’s which their stories are very similar. First off, just by taking a step into that area, I immediately notice their Chinatown looks very modernized, with newly constructed buildings while Manhattan and San Francisco’s look old with their hundred year old buildings. However, the most interesting part, which is really the part that defined their differences, is Flushing Chinatown is being gentrified by their own people, while in Manhattan and San Francisco; gentrification is done by outsiders who are more affluent. It might seem weird how Manhattan and Flushing Chinatown are both part of NYC but yet are polar opposites. The reason for this could be the fact that Manhattan is a busy and developing city, just like San Francisco is which is why I think land and space in those cities are in high demand. As a result, it makes it extremely easy for tech workers and others with high paying jobs to come into poor/lower income neighborhoods like Chinatown and out compete small businesses and residences in rent prices and other expenses. -Chao Zhang, Diana Li, Nikki Wong Today is a day of learning more about Vision Zero with listening to presentations and
going on tours. The first presentation was given by Transportation Alternatives, which is an organization that focuses on reinforcing the progress of Vision Zero in New York. We learned that building connections with different departments and organizations is crucial for the productivity and effectiveness for implementing projects. I think this is something that SF Vision Zero should learn more about because our progress may need to rely on these relationships in some ways. Furthermore, the most impressive part of their presentation was about all the events that they created for people’s engagement and support for their campaigns. I believe if San Francisco can be innovative about their ways of reaching out to people, it would be easier to gather strength to make changes. After that, we met with DOT and they showed us statistical data in different perspectives for showing the progress that Vision Zero made in the past three years. We discussed about the effects of creating lanes for cyclists, that it can encourage riding bicycles and ensure the safety of cyclist, which is both environmental friendly and benefit of the traffic. It was great to see that the city made a new bike lane near my high school(Galileo), this is helpful to cyclists to have a better experience of riding bikes to school. Then, we also learned about various projects that DOT implemented in Manhattan Chinatown, including the new pedestrian areas they expanded, speed humps and etc. For example, one of the presenter talked about how they implement infrastructure with the idea of what the users would normally do in mind, so when the infrastructure is implemented, the users would not ignore or misuse such infrastructure. Another thing I learned about Vision Zero is that a goal of this plan is to make the street more forgiving for all of the road users, so when someone actually make a mistake, it won’t result in death. Moreover, I think collecting data and having explicit observations can help make a better decision on changing the roads for pedestrian safety, and I am looking forward to see some new changes that Vision Zero make in San Francisco. -Hugo Chen, Kelly Ma |
AuthorYouth experience from their experiential learning trips. Archives
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