WBEZ | Hispanic

Chicago's Hispanic neighborhoods farther from nature, study shows

Fri, 11 Jan 2013 07:30:00 -0600

Moving to the city shouldn’t mean giving up nature. Studies have shown that people who spend more time in natural settings bounce back from stress faster and might even be healthier than those without access to parks and open spaces. In Chicago, however, some communities are closer to nature than others.

According to recent research out of the University of Illinois at Chicago, residents of Chicago’s Hispanic neighborhoods live farther from nature than residents of other neighborhoods.

What is unique about the study, titled “Green infrastructure and bird diversity across an urban socioeconomic gradient,” is that it looked at multiple variables instead of just, say, average distance to greenspace. They measured proximity to open space and Lake Michigan, but also the presence of trees (canopy cover), and bird biodiversity in census tracts across the city.

“When you look at the patterns across all four variables,” said Amélie Davis, a postdoctoral research associate at UIC and lead author of the study, “you can see the low- to mid-income Hispanic tracts are further from Lake Michigan, further from open space, they have lower bird biodiversity, and they have the lowest percent canopy cover.”

That means they are also farther from the benefits those natural elements either indicate or provide directly — ecosystem services, to use the jargon. Canopy cover, for example, is more than aesthetic. Trees help regulate the local air quality, stormwater runoff and even noise pollution.

That socioeconomic disparities influence Chicagoans’ access to nature is not entirely surprising, given the city’s legacy of segregation. What was unexpected, Davis said, was that the statistical analysis found low-income, Hispanic neighborhoods fared significantly worse than low-income, African-American areas.

“We thought if there was an environmental injustice,” she said, “it would be for all of the groups or none. Not the same group consistently underserved.”

As the Tribune’s Blair Kamin pointed out, Chicago’s massive lakeside parks give the impression that the whole city enjoys easy access to open space along the shoreline (which is, after all, “forever open, clear and free”). Inland it is a different story. Little Village, for example, has the least green space per capita of any neighborhood in the city.

But Davis cautioned against assuming any ill-intent on the part of City Hall.

“It might be a concurrence of circumstance, and not pernicious,” she said. Industry squeezed out most of the natural spaces in Pilsen and Little Village before those neighborhoods became an important Hispanic enclave. When their notorious coal-fired power plants shut down last year, however, residents of the southwest side left no doubt about their aspirations for more green space.

And the study does not tell the whole story. Proximity to open space is not a perfect stand-in for access, to say nothing of the quality of that open space.

Davis’ research is funded by an Urban Long Term Research Area Exploratory grant from the National Science Foundation. The study was published in Ecosphere, a journal of the Ecological Society of America.

Follow Chris on Twitter @cementley.

Minority youths consume more media than their counterparts

Wed, 08 Jun 2011 15:51:00 -0500

A new Northwestern University study says minority youth ages eight to 18 spend more than half their day consuming media content – a rate that's 4.5 hours greater than their white counterparts.

The Children, Media and Race: Media Use Among White, Black, Hispanic and Asian American Children report released Wednesday says that minority youths are more likely to spend up to 2 hours more per day watching TV, one hour more per day listening to music, 90 minutes more per day using a computer, and up to 40 minutes more per day playing video games than do their white counterparts.

Reading for pleasure in pre-teens and teens was equal across races, averaging at 30 to 40 minutes a day. But for children six and under, it was more likely that children of white parents were reading or read to every day.

Multitasking among youth has been adopted as equal rates; around four in ten white, black and Hispanic 7th to 12th graders said that they use another medium “most of the time” they’re watching television.

Surprisingly, parental structures did not predict total media exposure. The study found that most parents do not set limits on the amount of time children can spend interacting with media for pleasure.

Within the use of these media, however, white parents were more likely to set rules for what their children could consume, including television programs watched, internet sites used, and their visibility on social networking sites like Facebook.

Co-author Ellen Wartella, head of Northwestern University’s Center on Media and Human Development, says the study is not meant to blame parents but should serve as a wake-up call. She says increased parental involvement could mitigate potential problems, including child obesity.

The study authors argued that considering the role of media in the lives of children is incredibly important, noting that “the purpose of this report is to briefly hit a national ‘pause’ button: to stop and take note of these differences, to consider the possible positive and negative implications for young people’s health and well-being, and to reflect on how each of us can respond in our own realm.”

Pope, Martinez battle for 10th Ward

Fri, 18 Feb 2011 22:10:00 -0600

On Chicago's southeast side, you'll find the 10th ward - a gritty neighborhood with working class homes and tracts of empty industrial space.

It hasn't made big political news for a while, but there's an interesting development this election season.

The ward's aldermen have always been Caucasian, despite the fact that the diverse neighborhood was home to Chicago's first Mexican immigrants.

For a long time, if you saw the face of an alderman from the 10th ward, you'd see the face of a white man. One of the highest profile was Eddie Vrdolyak.

In the eighties, he had public spats with alderman from minority neighborhoods … and he sparred with the city's first black mayor, Harold Washington.

WASHINGTON: Anyone who has a grain of sense in his head would say there is something amiss here.

VRDOLYAK:: Well, the mayor says a lot of things and unfortunately right now what he sounds like right now is a loser.

WASHINGTON: Ed Vrdolyak systematically has discriminated against Hispanics in this city. He is responsible for Hispanics being denied the opportunity to vote for people of their own choice over the past three years.

The city, and the 10th ward, have changed a lot since the eighties, but there's a sense that ethnicity is still on the radar.

At least it is at Richard Martinez Jr's campaign. Martinez has numbers pinned on his wall.

They read:120.170.55. And so on.

These are the number of Hispanic voters he's counted in each 10th ward precinct.

Martinez sees each one as a potential asset for his attempt to become the ward's first Latino alderman.

MARTINEZ: We've been a part of the culture. We've been a part of this community. The one part that we have been a part but we haven't really had any leadership in is in the political side.

The racial mix in the 10th ward is complex. African Americans and Hispanics make up the majority but there's still a sizeable Anglo population.

Martinez happens to be half Polish, but he feels his Latino heritage will resonate.

MARTINEZ: There is a historical component to this race. I think there are a lot of people that have a lot of pride in that and obviously I think that creates a lot of excitement.

POPE: This is the year 2011. I think people generally are smarter than that. They want someone who is going to lead them, someone who is going to work closely with them.

That's John Pope, the incumbent in this aldermanic race. He doesn't think ethnicity will be much of a factor.

POPE: I'm not female but hopefully I represent females just as well as I represent males. I've been around a long time. I've been working closely with people. I reach out to every end of the community.

Pope's represented the ward since 1999, and he's usually hit economic issues pretty hard: things like jobs, new housing and, just spiffing up acres of old industrial sites.

He thinks ethnicity should be a sideshow; the economy will take center stage.

POPE: We've had new success with everything from a new Aldi's, to Walgreens to Bubbleland. Green buildings in terms of retail shopping stores. And I guess we're really focusing on the industrial jobs because that's what this area is really known for.

On the other side, Martinez's campaign is not solely based on race. He talks about the economy, too, but he has a different vision.

Pope hopes to lure heavy industrial factories back. Martinez isn't so sure that will work.

MARTINEZ: If you take a ride through the ward you'll see coal piles and smoke stacks. All kinds of dirty industry that's still very prominent in this community. It's my job to bring in investment that will contribute to the health, the welfare, the safety and the environment of our ward.

I catch up with potential voters at C&G restaurant on Torrance Avenue during the breakfast rush.

I'm there for breakfast … and to ask some open questions about the aldermanic race.

A lot of people were like Lucy Alvarez. They just didn't bring up ethnicity.

ALVAREZ: The neighborhood has come down ever since the mills have left. We need to sort of pick this up in order for anything more to happen to the people on this side of town.

Of course, no one can really say how much ethnicity will count in the 10th Ward's aldermanic contest, at least not until the returns come in Tuesday.

Two other candidates are also on the ballot: Jose Leon and Joseph Nasella.

However, neither of those men could be reached for comment.

(Audio clip of Washington-Vrdolyak from WBBM Channel 2 Chicago.)

John Pope (extended interview).mp3

Extended interview with 10th Ward Alderman John Pope. Our conversation includes talk about economic development, improving schools and working with Chicago's new mayor.

Richard Martinez (extended interview).mp3

Extended interview with Richard Martinez Jr., who is running for alderman of the 10th Ward. Our conversation includes talk about improving schools, economic development and fighting crime.