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"Chicago (Ill.) Environmental conditions."
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City of Lake and Prairie
Known as the Windy City and the Hog Butcher to the World, Chicago has earned a more apt sobriquet-City of Lake and Prairie-with this compelling, innovative, and deeply researched environmental history. Sitting at the southwestern tip of Lake Michigan, one of the largest freshwater bodies in the world, and on the eastern edge of the tallgrass prairies that fill much of the North American interior, early residents in the land that Chicago now occupies enjoyed natural advantages, economic opportunities, and global connections over centuries, from the Native Americans who first inhabited the region to the urban dwellers who built a metropolis in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. As one millennium ended and a new one began, these same features sparked a distinctive Midwestern environmentalism aimed at preserving local ecosystems. Drawing on its contributors' interdisciplinary talents, this volume reveals a rich but often troubled landscape shaped by communities of color, workers, and activists as well as complex human relations with industry, waterways, animals, and disease.
eBook
Sinking Chicago
In Sinking Chicago, Harold Platt shows how people responded to climate change in one American city over a hundred-and-fifty-year period. During a long dry spell before 1945, city residents lost sight of the connections between land use, flood control, and water quality. Then, a combination of suburban sprawl and a wet period of extreme weather events created damaging runoff surges that sank Chicago and contaminated drinking supplies with raw sewage.
Chicagoans had to learn how to remake a city built on a prairie wetland. They organized a grassroots movement to protect the six river watersheds in the semi-sacred forest preserves from being turned into open sewers, like the Chicago River. The politics of outdoor recreation clashed with the politics of water management. Platt charts a growing constituency of citizens who fought a corrupt political machine to reclaim the region's waterways and Lake Michigan as a single eco-system. Environmentalists contested policymakers' heroic, big-technology approaches with small-scale solutions for a flood-prone environment. Sinking Chicago lays out a roadmap to future planning outcomes.
eBook
Nutritional needs, resources, and barriers among unhoused adults cared for by a street medicine organization in Chicago, Illinois: a cross-sectional study
Background
Those experiencing houselessness rely on obtaining food from community organizers and donations. Simultaneously, the houseless face disproportionally high rates of medical conditions that may be affected by diet including diabetes, hypertension, and hyperlipidemia. There is limited literature on the resources and barriers of the houseless community regarding optimal nutrition from an actionable perspective. Further, less data is available on how street medicine organizations may best impact the nutrition of the unhoused they serve. Elucidating this information will inform how organizational efforts may best support the nutrition of the houseless community.
Methods
In partnership with the medical student-run organization, Chicago Street Medicine, at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine, twenty adults experiencing houselessness in Chicago, Illinois participated in the cross-sectional study. A 10-item survey was verbally administered to characterize the participants’ daily food intake, food sources, barriers, resources, and nutritional preferences and needs. All data was directly transcribed into REDCap. Descriptive statistics were generated.
Results
Individuals consumed a median of 2 snacks and meals per day (IQR: 1–3). No participant consumed adequate servings of every food group, with only one participant meeting the dietary intake requirements for one food group. Participants most often received their food from donations (
n
= 15), purchasing themselves (
n
= 11), food pantries (
n
= 4), and shelters (
n
= 3). Eleven of nineteen participants endorsed dental concerns as a major barrier to consuming certain foods. Twelve participants had access to a can opener and twelve could heat their meals on a stove or microwave. Seven had access to kitchen facilities where they may prepare a meal. Approximately half of participants had been counseled by a physician to maintain a particular diet, with most related to reducing sugar intake.
Conclusion
Most houseless participants were unable to acquire a balanced diet and often relied on organizational efforts to eat. Organizations should consider the chronic health conditions, dentition needs, and physical resources and barriers to optimal nutrition when obtaining food to distribute to the unhoused.
Journal Article
Factors Associated With Incarceration History Among HIV-Positive Persons Experiencing Homelessness or Imminent Risk of Homelessness
Among persons living with HIV/AIDS (PLWHA) experiencing homelessness or imminent risk of homelessness, a history of incarceration may serve as a marker for ongoing risk behavior or health disparities. We examined factors associated with a history of incarceration among HIV-positive clients of housing agencies in Baltimore, Chicago, and Los Angeles (
N
= 581). We used logistic regression to conduct analyses. Of the 581 participants, 68% (
n
= 438) reported a history of incarceration: 32% (
n
= 182) had spent more than 1 year incarcerated. After adjustment for covariates, incarceration history was associated with having ever injected drugs, ever engaged in sex exchange, and ever experienced physical abuse. Incarceration history was also associated with having a detectable HIV viral load, better mental health, and being a biological parent. It was not associated with current risk behavior. Service providers may explore possible increased need for medical support among homeless PLWHA with a history of incarceration.
Journal Article
Neighborhood Economic Development and Local Working: The Effect of Nearby Jobs on Where Residents Work
Decreased earnings and employment rates are not the only effects of job loss in lower-income urban neighborhoods. A reduction in the proportion of residents of a neighborhood who work near the neighborhood, or the \"local working rate,\" is another important effect to consider. Local working is likely to have positive impacts on quality of life and social capital, benefits that are not captured by earnings and employment rates. These impacts include decreased commuting and the development of information-rich local employment networks. Analysis of 1990 journey-to-work census data for the Chicago area shows that physical job proximity is found to be the principal determinant of local working. Also, the proportion of neighborhood residents who are black negatively and strongly affects the local working rate. A principal implication is that job-creating neighborhood economic development may have local working benefits. Black neighborhoods may have lower local working rates because of residents' ability to obtain good jobs with large employers or in the public sector, and such jobs are not located near these neighborhoods. More research is needed to explain this phenomenon.
Journal Article
Employment Retention, Area of Origin and Type of Social Support among Refugees in the Chicago Area
This article examines the impact of various sociodemographic variables on refugees' employment propensities in the greater metropolitan Chicago area. It extends existing research and knowledge of forced migrants' labor force activities by exploring the impact of region of origin and refugees' access to support systems and organizations on employment retention and job maintenance. The analysis shows that refugees' labor force participation patterns and experiences are influenced differentially both by their background characteristics and by their exposure to U.S. assistance systems. Southeast Asian asylees are less successful in maintaining stable job placements when compared to their more socially advantaged and often more suitably placed Eastern European counterparts. Refugee self-help initiatives require greater empowerment and increased acceptance and status to assist other refugees in adjusting to the host society.
Journal Article