Chicago neighborhoods that are flush with green spaces and wildlife are often those with deeper pockets, a recent study from Lincoln Park Zoo has highlighted. This disparity cuts across the city, with lower-income areas witnessing significantly less mammal biodiversity. "You can spot turtles, you can spot herons, you can sometimes get lucky and there’s mink, and river otter," Mark Weitekamper, a resident of the leafier West Ridge neighborhood, told the Chicago Tribune. However, this experience contrasts sharply with neighborhoods like McKinley Park and Brighton Park—areas with a history of pollution stemming from long-standing industrial development.
According to the Lincoln Park Zoo study, wealthier Chicago neighborhoods are home to around five more mammal species compared to their low-income counterparts. Senior quantitative ecologist Mason Fidino emphasized the link between changing neighborhood demographics and urban wildlife. "We do see an increase in species richness in gentrified neighborhoods across the board," Fidino revealed, as per the findings obtained by the Chicago Tribune. To assess this, researchers used camera traps to monitor mammal presence over three years and noted a particularly stark difference in Chicago compared to other major cities.
The city's ecological divide is mirrored by another grim metric: the life expectancy gap. An NYU School of Medicine analysis pinpointed that Streeterville residents have an average life expectancy of 90, a stark contrast to Englewood folks, who live only to be about 60. Dr. David Ansell of Rush University shed light on WTTW News on the socio-economic factors at play. "Social conditions themselves … create these terrible gaps in disease and premature mortality," said Ansell. Efforts like those by West Side United, which Ansell is involved with, have been launched to try to patch these gaps by investing in community betterment initiatives.
Chicago residents like Anthony Moser, who lived in pollution-ridden McKinley Park, have firsthand experience of the environmental burden. "I could hear it every morning when I woke up, without even opening a window," Moser told the Chicago Tribune. He articulated how the presence of industrial plants like the asphalt plant built near his home in 2018 has only exacerbated conditions. Meanwhile, DePaul University's professor Winifred Curran, an expert on environmental gentrification, pointed out that when low-income communities start to spruce up their environs, it often invites real estate developers who push out the long-term residents.
As Chicago grapples with these intertwined challenges of ecological and health inequities, local initiatives and ongoing research highlight a pressing need. Fidino believes there's a necessity for urban green space development and tackling environmental pollution without triggering gentrification, hoping the study he co-authored could impact future environmental policies. "Urban green space should be considered a very key part of just city maintenance, rather than an economic development strategy," Fidino asserted in the study mentioned by the Chicago Tribune. Such efforts might pave a way for creating a city where natural richness and health prospects don't correlate with the wealth of a zip code.
