Portfolio

1. Nature Poem

The most glorious thing of all is to run with a pack,
Imprinting worn pawprints to fresh snow,
Crawling through brush, stalking for our next attack.

Yellow eyes are watching and waiting,
With a graceful head tilt, one would see,
The concealing hiding spot is slowly fading,

Sniffing air tainted with the scent on our fur,
And suddenly they know of our plans,
And soon it's all a brownish blur,

They gallop fast, covering white blankets with black,
Time to run for our next meal,
But the smaller ones fall to the back,

Soon, our hunger will be satisfied,
The cubs will starve no more,
It's time to eat right when you get glossy-eyed,

You hear howls at the moon,
Get chills down your spine,
You know we'll be out soon,

Never can we stop moving,
We are nomads,
Otherwise, we'll be the ones losing,

The pack is the most important thing,
Eat a little at a time,
We'll have to save food until spring,

Winter has no mercy on us,
Hunting to survive,
We can't eat plants, so we must,

Glinting yellow out of tall grasses,
Watching, waiting,
Stalking as a deer passes passes.

2. The Most Beautiful ____

When I was about nine years old, my family took a trip to Door County, in Wisconsin. We didn’t travel a lot, so we decided to take some time to spend a weekend at a place called Europe Bay. There, we reserved a small home right on the edge of the water.

I had never been to a place like Europe Bay. Being a city girl, it was such a new experience for me to do things like catching a fish in the bay, spotting a deer crunching leaves nearby, walking the dirt paths through the forest, or even just stepping out of my back door right into the water. It was all so intriguing, but the thing that stuck out the most was the water of the bay itself.

One morning I woke up before any of my family members, which is a rarity, because I usually sleep until the early to mid afternoon. I stepped outside and quietly closed the door. Before me was the most beautiful thing I’ve ever experienced. The rising sun was glimmering off of the water, making it sparkle against the dock and pine trees around me. I walked down to the rocks and stood in the shallow part of the water. Minnows swam around me, tickling my ankles. There was complete silence, except for a few birds chirping nearby. I don’t know how long I stood there for, just watching the water sparkle. The sight was meaningful to me because I knew that I could never see something like that in a city like Chicago. It was pretty intense for me to handle, as a nine year-old.

What depressed me about this great spectacle, though, was that after about 9:30 AM, the sun had risen enough that it didn’t reflect off of the water in the same way, so it wouldn’t create that golden sparkle that it had before. I did get to see it one more time before we left, though. The second my family and I got home, we started talking about how much we missed it already. We were all planning on going back, but we never got a chance to. I’m hoping that one day I will be able to visit again.

Word Count: 377

3. Native American Creation Story

There once was a Native American named Motego. Motego has an interesting hobby. At night, he liked to go into the forest and walk around, looking for any interesting thing he could find. He found lots of strange things that he would keep in a collection-- anything from animals skulls to beads of past tribes. Motego lived in a small family that didn’t have a lot of wealth or power, but he did have something that every warrior longed for-- pure silver arrowheads. These arrowheads were passed down to him by his great-great-grandfather.

One night, Motego was walking in the forest until he came to a clearing that he didn’t know was there. Suddenly, he heard a loud bird call above him. He looked up to see a sparkling white bird, the size of a man. Motego slowly pulled out his bow and arrows, tipped with silver. He started to shoot at the bird, but it was much to fast for him to hit. Every time he missed the bird, his silver arrowheads would stick in the sky.

Motego shot all of his silver-tipped arrows into the sky, missing the bird completely. He only had one arrow left, and he knew that if he didn’t kill the huge, white bird this time, he would have wasted his family relic and put himself to shame. Slowly, he pulled the arrow back into the bow, and shot. The arrow finally hit the bird, however, the force of the arrow was too large for the bird to fall. Instead, it dragged him all the way up to the heavens, along with all of Motego’s arrowheads.

The silver sparkled beautifully in the sky, but not nearly as beautiful as the white bird. The bird was hanging by the arrow in the sky, but only a large, white circle could be seen from so far away. To this day, Motego’s arrows can still be seen from Earth.

Word Count: 325

4. Weather Experience

When I was very little, my dad showed me the movie The Wizard of Oz for the first time. There’s a scene in the very beginning in which a tornado is sweeping Dorothy and her house up out of the ground. It’s supposed to be scary, but it’s not that bad. However, my mom seemed to think that this scene would make me paranoid about tornados for the rest of my life.

In some ways, my mom was right. I was afraid of tornados, but I don’t think it was because of that movie. I had lots of anxiety issues when I was younger anyway, which is especially strange for a little kid to have. Tornados were probably one of my biggest fears.

The first and only time I went to summer camp at about ten years old, I thought I was going to die. It was located in the middle of nowhere, surrounded by fields, and only held up with wooden beams. I literally did not believe I would make it home alive because I was just so afraid of a tornado coming and killing us all. The first night, we had a drill, just in case one did come along. I overheard some girls talking about how they wish there would be one so that they could see what it looked like.

The second day of camp was an absolute nightmare. Right after we got inside the cafeteria one night, there was, all of a sudden, some crazy wind blowing against the windows. It quickly became extremely dark outside, and the sky turned green. Rain was pounding on the roof harder than I’d ever heard before. Right when I thought it couldn’t get any worse, sirens went off. I don’t know why, but I think the sirens scared me more than the actual storm itself. They still freak me out. I think it’s just the fact that it signifies something very bad about to happen, from a hazardous material spill to severe weather conditions.

The power had gone out, and for some reason, an old phone wouldn’t stop ringing nearby. It was pitch-black and no one could see anything except through the windows into the storm. My friends didn’t seem too worried, which I thought was totally strange. We just talked until the storm was over. The power never turned back on, though, and we were left to sleep in an extremely hot room.

Having this experience of nature definitely changed me. I’m not afraid of storms anymore, and I’m not scared to go out in rural areas, where they are most common. The fear that I felt that day was intense, but I didn’t react as I would at home, alone, primarily for the fact that I didn’t want my friends to see me freak out about something they saw as normal. I’m glad I got over my fear. I really just needed to experience it firsthand, to make me snap out of such a silly phase.

5. Response to Pieces

The Devil and Tom Walker:
With the strange affairs that Tom Walker deals with, seems to be an overall bad person, if not something of a sociopath. In fact, people who commit violent, harmful crimes have a good chance of being a sociopath. This shows that if someone doesn't feel for anything but yourself, have no morals, and don't regret hurting other people, then they probably won't be getting any good karma, or in Tom Walker's case, going to heaven. On that note, this story could also indirectly be about karma. He spent his whole life cheating, stealing, and lying, and in return, he got his soul taken from, a lost wife, and the ultimate price of being sent to hell. Tom doesn't regret anything, and only thinks of himself. This story could be a message to those who don't necessarily think before doing, or do anything out of pure generosity. Tom constantly would fight with his wife over materialistic things, traded his soul for money, and then got a job cheating people out of their money. If all of these things are added up, it's shown that he doesn't ever think about the future. Instead, he only focuses on what he can have right this second, even if it could hurt him in the long run. This lack of thought and doing good is what ends up sending him to hell.

Word Count: 227

The Earth on Turtle's Back:

Overall, I really enjoyed this story. I liked the fact that included characters being underestimated, and then rising to prove others wrong. This is mostly shown when the muskrat dives down out of pure determination to get the piece of earth. Even though she was the smallest and, "not as strong or as swift as the others," she made it down to the depths of the ocean. I thought it was very brave of the muskrat to do this, considering she risked her life to save the Woman From The Sky. In relation to another story, this Native American myth is similar to the moral of the The Devil and Tom Walker. Both include acts of selflessness and helping other people before yourself. Also, after totally comprehending this story after reading only one time through, I started to wonder if this was meant mainly for children to learn from the adults of their tribe. In the first few paragraphs, it is clear that the Native Americans thought that their dreams were symbolic of their futures and that they needed to act upon them. This is shown when the wife dreams of the Great Tree being uprooted from the Skyland, and when she tells her husband, the chief, he has to make sure it happens.

Word Count: 212

When Grizzlies Walked Upright:

In the story When Grizzlies Walked Upright, I didn’t understand a lot of the reasonings of the Chief of the Sky Spirits. He seems to have something of a temper, considering he overreacts multiple times in the story. First of all, when he got angry with his home in the Above World, he seems to be making a big fuss out of nothing and is very whiney. He leaves just because it’s a little chilly, which, in my opinion, is a really pointless reason to leave. The second time he does something stupid, he sends a storm throughout the mountain that ends up hurting his own eyes, so he puts his daughter at risk by sending her up the mountain. This is also a very obnoxious thing to do, because if she were to get hurt, which she does, it’s all his fault. The third time the Spirit Chief does something stupid is when he expects his daughter to look the same as when he left her. Instead of being thankful that the bears took care of her all this time, he acts put off by the whole situation. He gets furious with the grizzlies and makes them only able to walk on four legs, and not able to talk anymore. Again, there is a hidden theme of doing things selflessly in order to maintain happiness.

Word Count: 226

To Build a Fire:

In the story To Build A Fire, the main character has some sort of problem following basic safety instructions. It can be assumed that he feels that he is above some of the precautions that other campers he’s met have given him, by the amount of disregard he shows to the important advice they’ve passed on to him. The fact that he takes the dog could seem endearing in the beginning, as if the purpose of bringing it would be to have a bonding experience for both of them. Instead, the main character brings the animal to make it do things that the man doesn’t want to do, such as test the ice ahead of him. Even though the dog clearly knows that it’s not a good idea, the man pays no attention to the animal’s instincts, and pushes him into the freezing water. All of this disrespect towards the gut feeling that could have helped them survive ends up biting them in the butt. If the man had done the smart thing by not going out in such cold weather, then he wouldn’t have had to build multiple fires that wasted his time. He was then acting even more selfish by thinking of killing the dog for warmth, which is even stupider than his other plans. The dog would only stay warm for a few minutes out in that extreme cold, and he’d have no one to help guide him through the wilderness anymore. The man overall just seemed like a complete moron.

Word Count: 254

The Tide Rises, The Tide Falls:

With the poem, The Tide Rises, The Tide Falls, I felt that it could almost be paradoxical. Henry Longfellow is writing about life and people living their days out, and for many people, life is a very chaotic thing. They may want to fast-forward through the hard parts, and pause on a special moment forever. However, this poem illustrates the idea that no matter what’s going on in everyone’s minds, time goes on. I don’t necessarily know why, but I also associated the tide in the poem with the earth in general. The fact that the author mentions a few different general happenings in the world makes it seem like he could be saying that all people have hundreds of thousands of stories of their own, whether the people are alive or passed away, but they all intertwine into one big story of the earth (the tide). I started thinking about this when I associated the poem with a book I recently read, called The Five People You Meet in Heaven. They share the same idea about time going on, and the fact that no person is really significant at all, and that they live and pass quietly, with tears and laughs only shared by a small amount of people compared to all of the people of the world.

Word Count: 220

6. Reaction to Essays: River Driftwood, The Divine Soil, and The Sound of Trees


In John Burroughs', "The Divine Soil" he talks a lot about reactions to Darwin's theories and ideas about nature. It is clear that Burroughs doesn't agree with the reasons that Darwin thinks of nature the way he does. The biologist thinks that nature is amazing, incredible, awe-inspiring... Everything that the author thinks. However, as shown in the quote, "[I]t has prepared the way for a conception of man, his origin, his development, and in a measure his destiny, that at last makes him at home in the universe," Burroughs has an idea that nature is much more than evolution and science. Through physics and biology and chemistry and all types of studies we can concur many things about the way nature is and why it works the way it does. However, we never look at what nature does to and for us, in more than just a physical state. This is similar to ideas given in an essay by Sarah Orne Jewett. In her writing, "River Driftwood," there are many times when she's talking to or about the animals around her. She recalls the different animals watching and listening to her, and she notices that even though she's passing by on the river, the animals still go about their business. They're just more cautious when she's around. She says, describing gulls she sees nearby, "He watches me with his sharp eyes." This is also relevant to "The Sound of Trees," by Robert Frost. In his poem, he describes people talking all the time, rather than being silent and listening, like the trees. He says, "I wonder about the trees:/ Why do we wish to bear / Forever the noise of these / More than another noise / So close to our dwelling place?" This relates to Jewett's writing in the sense that the different parts of nature know to watch and listen to the earth and follow instincts rather than do as humans do. 

Classmate I am Thankful For

Thanksgiving is a great time of year. Everyone eats a ton, we become humbled to think of how much has been given to us, and we're grateful for how lucky we are to have such luxuries. In addition to being thankful for how much I can stuff my face, I'm thankful for Melanie "Melon" Balanon. Melon is a great friend to me. As much as we talk, we constantly tease each other. I ask her what was due for homework, and she asks me what outfit she should wear. I'm very appreciative that she's such a delightful friend.
Word count: 98

This Land Verse

I walked the sidewalks, down Michigan Avenue,
Under the street lights, past rushing people,
The sky-rise buildings, and glimmering waters,
This land was made for you and me.
The honking horns and, excited gabbing,
Over-used cell phones, and broken headphones,
The crowded "L" trains, and wandering tourists,
This land was made for you and me.

Community Stories

An Account of Experience with Discrimination:

The "old slaveholding spirit" that Sojourner Truth mentions in her letter basically means that if you grow up around people that believe a certain thing, there's not much you can do to make your own ideas about what is wrong or right. For example, most people grow up believing in the same political party as their family. It's then hard to figure out why these beliefs are wrong or right. For some people, they just are. They don't need a real reason.
Primary documents are much different from a secondary document. Primary documents give a much greater feeling than secondary ones do. This is because lots of secondary ones can be very vague and unbiased. Primary documents really illustrate how the author sees a situation. It gives the reader a better understanding of how people actually felt in that time period.

Here is New York:

White begins by defining New York by what it's not to prove to the readers that it's unlike most other cities they might think of.  Its beauty is in how industrial it is- from the high rises to the bridges. A traveler might, however, see dirty buildings, smog, and dirty water when passing through New York. Some problems in the city are claustrophobia-endusing subways, over-crowdedness, insane traffic, and bad weather conditions. The city-folk deal with these issues by being patient, and the city makes sure that they're always remembering that they are a part of this huge, amazing area. The author mentions each neighborhood being its own "city." They are independent, have different characteristics, and have a wide variety of places to go. This is similar to Chicago's neighborhoods, because each one is very different and can have such different people.

The Jilting of Granny Weatherall:

Being jilted sixty years ago made Granny very independent. She did things on her own, with no one's help. In the final paragraph, Granny is once again, left alone by her family and others in the household. In the end, she always turns out having to do things for herself, whether it be raising children and keeping up all of the work a man, at that time, would be expected to do, or even just blowing out a candle. She thinks that the community dissolved in the sense that no one appreciates anything anymore. In her lifetime, she had to do everything by hand, and the hard way. However, now people could do things in less time and less energy wasted, but with more efficiency. It's making people lazy.
The difference between a dissolving or disappearing community and a changing one is very large. In a disappearing community, most hope for it staying abroad is lost. A changing community could be being altered for the better. Growth and progress are forms of change in addition to dissolving.

Song:
Future Breeds - Hot Hot Heat

Lyrics-

I won't say anymore

I won't say anything

I won't say anymore

I won't say anything

I won't say anymore

I won't say anything

I won't say anymore

Across a bridge, the Ablett strip

There lives a man with Atlas grip

Windows covered, single mattress

On Friday nights it feeds his address

Well, across a bridge on Ablett.st

There lives this girl, she used to be

Still half-naked, she falls in traffic

You dumb *** kid, here's your dumb *** life back

I won't come back crawling again

I won't come back crawling again

No, I won't come back crawling again

I won't come back crawling again

I won't say anymore

I won't say anything

I won't say anymore

I won't say anything

I won't say anymore

I won't say anything

I won't say anymore

Some, they fear, just your name

For me, I wish it was the same

I'm still waiting for somebody to fix

This damage to my body

Some may fear the future breeds

These drunken sailors planting seeds

I'll just need this cheque to clear

So I can check right out of here, believe me

I won't come back crawling again

I won't come back crawling again

No, I won't come back crawling again

I won't come back crawling again

This merry-go-round

Has spun itself into the ground

And an eighth of me knows

That an eighth of this life is still fun as ****

But they bred you better

They bred you better

They bred you better than me

They bred you better

They bred you better

They bred you better than me

I won't say anymore

I won't say anything

I won't say anymore

I won't say anything

I won't say anymore

I won't say anything

I won't say anymore

They bred you better

They bred you better

They bred you better than me

They bred you better

They bred you better

They bred you better than me

Response:

This song describes about the singers community as a very competitive place with people that aren't too bright. The tone of the song gives the lyrics a rougher, rebellious feel. He clearly doesn't enjoy thinking about his community, considering the fact that for the entire song he's comparing himself to other people in the neighborhood, and how he doesn't want to even think about going back there again. His life didn't turn out as he'd expect it, and although some parts of it were great, he's still trying to refrain from going back because the other people in the community don't understand who he is.

Outline

1. Without new buildings being made and rent being raised with the help of the government and upset residents, Albany Park would still be the haven of empty buildings for gang bangers, prostitutes, and drug dealers that it was 30 years ago.

2. The neighborhood of Albany Park originally started out as a racetrack bought by a wealthy entrepreneur in 1868. This land spanned over 10 acres. 
     a) The businessman was born and grew up in Albany, New York. He decided to name the new area after Albany.
     b) Going to the track soon became quite popular which made the area become part of Jefferson Park. This eventually lead transportation systems leading to and from it.
     c) The making of the new transportation lines created a new "building boom," which stimulated tons of growth in population and economy. However, after the Great Depression in the 1930s, the making of businesses slowed down.


3. Due to its small population in the 70s, Albany Park became a haven for immigrants.
     a) Originally, it was mostly Jews and Europeans that lived in the area. Later on, Koreans, Guatemalans, and Filipino immigrants started to move to the neighborhood.
     b) The immigrants came to Albany Park due to its non-expensive homes and large levels of opportunity. They were mostly middle-class families. They even had their own small businesses underneath their homes.
     c) Schools that were opened helped to Americanize new immigrants. Doing this helped them become accustomed to life in the United States. Understanding how things were in America helped the immigrants become more capable of becoming successful.


4. Many people living in Albany Park eventually left the suburbs, leaving the neighborhood to socially and economically decline.
     a) New buildings and organizations can only open during certain times, when the economy is in the right conditions. These times can only be determined by specific demographics of the area. This affects how successful a neighborhood will be depending on the people that live there.
     b) People started realizing that the neighborhood was being poorly cared for. They started renovating buildings and making new structures that would attract wealthier people and help raise the income of their community.
     c) There were many organizations that helped the area get back on its feet, which made new, wealthy people want to reside in it. Even though these new people came in, there were still all of the different ethnicities living there.

5. Many organizations such as the Chicago Sanitary District and Albany Park Community Center helped get the people of Albany Park back on their feet, and this is why it isn't still such a bad neighborhood.

Introduction

In 1868, Richard Rusk bought a few acres of land, which would eventually turn into the most culturally diverse neighborhood in Chicago—Albany Park. More and more settlers came to inhabit the region, resulting in the area becoming a neighborhood. After the first generation of people living there was gone, all businesses started to go down the drain. Albany Park was basically just a ghost town until some angry townspeople decided they’d had enough, and started to do something about it. Without new buildings being made and rent being raised with the help of the government and upset residents, Albany Park would still be the haven of empty buildings for gang bangers, prostitutes, and drug dealers that it was 30 years ago.

Crucible Response

Act I:

So far in The Crucible, I'm not having much trouble following along, except for the characters. It's hard to remember which one is which, since there are so many. The ones I have the most trouble with are the adults. Other than that confusion, I'm actually enjoying the story; it's interesting to see how the law system worked back then. The town sounds like it's a huge soap opera because of all the gossip. There's really nothing that can be kept secret; everyone knows something or at least accuses someone about something. Being able to accuse someone of associating with the devil makes it almost impossible to keep the town united, as there would be a ton of ratting out. I've never read anything like this kind of story before, so I'm pretty surprised at how much I like it. The idea of people believing in witchcraft and things of that nature are very strange, considering not many people talk about it now.

Act II:

Now that we're farther into the story, it's becoming a bit clearer to understand who is who and what they're doing. I feel like some of the encounters can be a bit dragged out and chatty. This can make it a bit difficult to understand, because I get lost in all the conversation and forget about what it all means in the real story. Other than that, I find the characters very interesting. They all seem to have very strange reasoning. They're all okay with lying and accusing people close to them, and they never actually see things for themselves, they only hear things. It reminds me of a group of gossipy pre-pubescent teenage girls. As for the storyline, I'm not having that bad of a time understanding what's going on.

Act III:

When I was reading the part in Act III about John Proctor confessing his adultery and Elizabeth lying to protect him, I was very surprised. It's easy to assume that Proctor would be the one lying and Elizabeth being upset and ratting him out, but this switched things up. This gave me a huge amount of respect for her. Even though she lied, she did it so he wouldn't get in trouble, whereas I felt Proctor wasn't that excited to protect her from court. I also got extremely angry when I read the part about Mary Warren being accused in court, such as when Abigail was pretending she was a bird and so on. I put myself in Mary's shoes and I realized that I would be so furious with the girls that I would probably rip up the courtroom in a fit of maniacal rage.

The Crucible:

Overall, this book wasn't at all like I imagined it to be. I learned many new things that I didn't know where considered offensive to the religion at that time, such as dancing. Would that mean they'd think I'd be associated with the devil? It's strange to think about. Even though I'm usually not crazy about cliff-hanger endings, I felt that this one was fitting. There's not really a better place to end the play but there. It would be very difficult to continue on with the story- one of the main characters is about to die. The story itself was very interesting. I personally love stories about criminal justice in court because I like to argue... But the way it was written really helped keep readers hooked. Seeing it being acted as a play or movie would be even more intense than the story, I think.

Bibliography

1. Cicero, Joseph. "Reviving Business in Albany Park." Chicago Tribune 09 Feb 1981. n. pag. Web. 22 Sep. 2011. <http://infoweb.newsbank.com/iw-search/we/HistArchive?p_action=doc&p_docid=0FAC08D8810244D8&f_image=19810209C014990003000004&f_pty=CL&p_docnum=2&p_queryname=5600&p_theme=ctha&p_nbid=A6CN5FFVMTMxNjY2OTA5NC4xNzk3ODg6MTo0OjE4MTA&p_product=CTHA>.
(This article should help with statistics and the money aspect of the neighborhood.)


2. Solomon, Alan. "Albany Park, North Park."Explore Chicago. N.p., n.d. Web. 20 Sep 2011. <http://www.explorechicago.org/city/en/neighborhoods/albany_park__north.html>.
(The website gives good background on the different ethnicities and cultures.)


3. DeBat, Don. "Albany Park Enjoys a Housing Rebound." Chicago Sun-Times 27 Nov 1992. n. pag. Web. 22 Sep. 2011. <http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1P2-4142660.html>.
(I can't view the complete article, but it looks so far as if it will be very helpful at locating a point for the cause of the revival of Albany Park.)


4.Garb, Maggie. "Albany Park makes steady comeback." Chicago Sun-Times 27 Aug 1989. n. pag. Web. 22 Sep. 2011. <http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1P2-3958623.html>.
(I can't view the complete article, but it starts off by saying a lot of things about how the area used to be in relation to how it is now.)


5. Spielman, Fran. "$3 million earmarked to boost Albany Park." Chicago Sun-Times 20 Jun 1996. n. pag. Web. 22 Sep. 2011. <http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1P2-4332091.html>.
(This will give lots of information as to how the change came around.)


6. "Albany Park Neighborhood Part of Colorful Chicago History Read more: http://www.city-data.com/articles/Albany-Park-Neighborhood-Part-of.html
(This website tells a lot about the founders of the neighborhood.)


7. Goerge, Robert, John Dilts, Duck-Hye Yang, Miriam Wasserman, and Anne Clary. "Chicago Children and Youth 1990-2010: Changing Population Trends and Their Implications for Services." Chapin Hall Center for Children at the University of Chicago, n.d. Web. 2 Oct 2011. <http://www.chapinhall.org/sites/default/files/old_reports/332.pdf>.
(This PDF file has a lot of statistics of Albany Park and its surrounding neighborhoods.)


8. "History of Albany Park, Chicago."Albany Park Chamber of Commerce. n. d. Web. 3 Oct. 2011. <http://www.albanyparkchamber.org/community-history.html>.
(This website gives information starting from a very long time ago, and tells a lot about the different immigrants that came and how their culture affected the community.)


9. Sharma-Gordon, Radhika . "Working Together for a Healthier Chicago."Healthy Albany Park. n. d. Web. 3 Oct. 2011. <http://www.cchsd.org/chicagohealthpartners.org/html/albanypark/albanypark_index.html>.
(This is an action website that tells a lot about where the problem areas are in Albany Park.)


10. "Albany Park." Encyclopedia of Chicago. Chicago, IL: Chicago Historical Society, 2005. Web. <http://encyclopedia.chicagohistory.org/pages/36.html>.
(This article has a lot of statistics on immigrants and income in the area.)


11. "Albany Park Neighborhood Council." n. page. Web. 10 Oct. 2011. <http://www.apncorganizing.org/>.
(This website has a lot of information on the present issues and demographics of Albany Park.)


12. Steele, Jeffrey. "Albany Park: A patchwork of cultures ." Chicago Tribune 17 Dec 2010. n. pag. Web. 10 Oct. 2011. <http://www.chicagotribune.com/classified/realestate/Chicago_IL/ct-home-1217-albany-park-profile-20101217,0,2677223.story>.
(This article gives a lot of information of the ethnic groups of Albany Park.)


13. "Albany Park & Irving Park East ."Chicago.com. N.p., n.d. Web. 10 Oct 2011. <http://www.chicago.com/neighborhoods/Albany_Park/>.
(This website has a lot of names of businesses in the neighborhood.)


14. "Albany Park Post." Windy Citizen. N.p., n.d. Web. 10 Oct 2011. <http://www.windycitizen.com/blogs/albany-park-post>.
(This website lists a bunch of articles about recent Albany Park happenings.)


15. "History of Albany Park." Albany Park Theatre Project. N.p., n.d. Web. 10 Oct 2011. <http://www.aptpchicago.org/about/community/history/>.
(This website has a detailed history of the area, and includes information on the demographics.)


16. "Albany Park." Northwest Chicago Historical Society. N.p., n.d. Web. 10 Oct 2011. <http://nwchicagohistory.org/nwch_albany_park.html>.
(This site has lots of historical documents to reference.)


17. Keating, Ann. Chicago Neighborhoods and Suburbs. The Newberry Library, 2008. 89-91. Web. <http://books.google.com/books?id=zGdeqmlow_kC&pg=PA89&lpg=PA89&dq=richard rusk albany park&source=bl&ots=zeAOKV83zN&sig=Ua8n_i1CE5M41_OLb26jpQgvun4&hl=en&ei=qJaTTrnkNOnksQKo5tG3Bg&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=4&ved=0CDMQ6AEwAw
(This book has lots of population shift explanations.)


18. "Near West Side." Encyclopedia of Chicago. The Newberry Library, 2004. Web. <http://encyclopedia.chicagohistory.org/pages/878.html>.
(This entry shows a lot about the area as a whole instead of focusing just on Albany Park.)


19. "Jefferson Township." Encyclopedia of Chicago. The Newberry Library, 2004. Web. <http://encyclopedia.chicagohistory.org/pages/668.html>.
(This article explains what Jefferson Township, the area before Albany Park, was.)


20. "Annexation." Encyclopedia of Chicago. The Newberry Library, 2004. Web. <http://encyclopedia.chicagohistory.org/pages/53.html>.
(This article shows where, when, and why the Albany Park area was annexed.)

Notes

1. (1) In the '60s, many of the families that had originally lived and cared for Albany Park were gone. It wasn't until the '70s that people started realizing that the neighborhood was being poorly cared for. They started renovating buildings and making new structures that would attract wealthier people and help raise the income of their community.

2. (2) There are people many ethnicities that preside in the Albany Park. This brings all sorts of cultures to the neighborhood. This effects the businesses by giving a wide variety of different businesses, from Korean markets to Muslim outfitting.

3. (6) The neighborhood originally started out as a racetrack bought by a wealthy entrepreneur in 1868. This land spanned over 10 acres. Going to the track soon became quite popular which made the area become part of Jefferson Park. This eventually lead transportation systems leading to and from it.

4. (8) After transportation in the area was created in the late 1800s to early 1900s, businesses started rapidly opening along the streets. Lots of residents also settled nearby. This continued until the land was almost completely filled up which created a whole new neighborhood.

5. (10) After the "building boom" in Albany Park, the population started to decline, leading many of the businesses to close down leaving just empty buildings. This attracted many illegal drug trades, gang meetings, and things of that nature. This decline continued until 1978.

6. (7) New buildings and organizations can only open during certain times. These times can only be determined by specific demographics of the area. This affects how successful a neighborhood will be depending on the people that live there.

7. (8) Many people living in Albany Park eventually left for the suburbs. This left the neighborhood to socially and economically decline. On Lawrence Avenue, 70% of buildings where totally empty.

8. (8) Due to its small population in the 70s, Albany Park became a haven for immigrants for Asian and Latin Americans. Tons of homes were sold, practically creating a whole new neighborhood. These new cultures had a strong role in creating the new society.

9. (9) The economy of the neighborhood was great in the late 70s. Even still, it can be difficult to maintain that high esteem. There are still many organizations to keep schools running and businesses open.

10. (10) There are many statistics that show the amount of ethnic groups growing since the early 1900s to the 2000s. Originally, it was mostly Europeans that lived in the area. Later on, Koreans, Guatemalans, and Filipino immigrants started to move to the neighborhood.

11. (10) Schools that were opened helped to Americanize new immigrants. Doing this helped them become accustomed to life in the United States. Understanding how things were in America helped the immigrants become more capable of becoming successful.

12. (12) Jewish people populated Albany Park for a long time before other immigrants came in. The Jews helped build the foundation of the neighborhood and help it get going. Even today, old remnants of previous Jewish families can still be found if they're looked for hard enough.

13. (12) Affordable housing can be found in Albany Park's entirety. Having these homes can help immigrants get on their feet. The amount of ethnic businesses that can be found in the area also help with this.

14. (12) The Albany Park Community Center helps new immigrants fit into the neighborhood by allowing them to open their own businesses. Over 90% of the shops in Albany Park are resident-owned. Discovering all of these new cultures helps to spread diversity even more among the community.

15. (15) Albany Park proves many people wrong when they say that Chicago is a segregated city. You can find all sorts of nationalities. Even the "white" people are actually foreign-born. Having so many of these different cultures in one neighborhood is definitely not the norm for a city like Chicago.

16. (15) Primarily considered a white neighborhood, Albany Park has changed completely. Now, the majority is of non-whites. There are even two times more Asians in the neighborhood than in Chinatown.

17. (15) The making of transportation lines created a new "building boom." This stimulated tons of growth in population and economy. However, after the Great Depression in the 1930s, the making of businesses slowed down.

18. (17) Albany Park once was a mostly rural area. After the farmers came new, innovative people looking for an urban society. These new people helped create the community for a whole new generation.

19. (17) Louderback, a wealthy entrepreneur helped to buy the area that soon became Albany Park. He was born and grew up in Albany, New York. He decided to name the new area after Albany in hopes that he could find a new home there.

20. (17) Most of the population used to be Orthodox Jews. Due to the abundance of the in the area, many Jewish schools, synagogues, and public buildings opened. This gave a platform to jump from when other immigrants came to the area.

21. (17) Albany Park wasn't very sanitary in the early 1900s. After the Chicago Sanitary District heard about what was going on in the neighborhood, they made better sewage disposal. This made the city cleaner, which attracted more residents.

22. (17) People of different nationalities tended to come to Albany Park due to its non-expensive homes and large levels of opportunity. They were mostly middle-class families. They had their own small businesses underneath their homes.

23. (18) The Near West side was created so that people could get away from the bustle of city life. They created Union Park and Jefferson Park, which later held Albany Park. Mostly wealthy people lived there.

24. (18) Many immigrants came to Union and Jefferson Park. Some of them didn't work, considering they didn't know much English and had little money. This caused the Hull House to be made by Jane Addams and Ellen Gates Starr.

25. (18) After the Great Chicago Fire, many people moved to the Near West side. This part of the city wasn't as badly damaged as the rest of the neighborhoods. However, so many people tried to move there that it soon became too overcrowded for people to live.

26. (19) Jefferson Township was considered separate from the city for a long while in the 1800s. Later on, Albany Park was annexed into the Township. Eventually, in 1889 it became part of the city.

27. (20) Albany Park was annexed to the city so that the sewage could be cleaned up. The Chicago Sanitary District couldn't do anything about it at first, because it wasn't technically part of Chicago. However, it was best for the city to annex to become a healthier neighborhood to live in.

28. (2) North Park College was founded in 1891 in Albany Park. It was created for Swedish immigrants of the area. It was created by a church, making it a catholic school. This school helped many immigrants get an education to find a job outside of owning a small business.

29. (3) For a long time, Albany Park wasn't a very good neighborhood. It was crime-ridden and working class. It wasn't until new homes and businesses were made that the area started being more appealing for people to live in.

30. (3) There are mostly single family homes on the side streets in Albany Park. On the main streets, there is a variety of stores to choose from. This helps many residents get out and experience different cultures and meet new kinds of people.

31. (4) Albany Park was appealing for businesses at that time because it was in such bad shape that there was nowhere to go but up. It was easy finding space to put these new companies because of all the leftover abandoned buildings. This faith that entrepreneurs had in the neighborhood helped it rise out of the slump that it was in.

32. (6) Over time, property values have increased immensely in the Albany Park area. This wouldn't have been done without the help of many programs and organizations to help rebuild buildings and homes to make their visual appearance better. This new, beautiful neighborhood attracted more wealthy residents.

33. (6) Albany Park is technically considered Koreatown. Even still, there is a large variation of what ethnicities you can find there. There is an estimated 40 different languages spoken by kids in the schools of the area.

34. (6) Albany Park consists of many Democratic residents. In fact, about 98% of the residents will vote in the favor of the Democratic party. This could be a result of all of the immigrants wanting to keep their small businesses.

35. (6) In the early 1900s, transportation was just introduced to Albany Park. In addition to that, the streets were fixed up and widened. These new renevations attracted more businesses to open in hopes that more people would have access to them.

36. (7) Recently, there has been a population problem in the area. There are more people being born than dying, which is making it overcrowded and harder to live in Albany Park. This could mean that property values will increase even more, making it harder to live there, forcing some original residents out of their homes.

37. (7) In the last few years, schools have been closing at a very fast rate all over Chicago. However, new schools have just been opened in the Albany Park area. These schools are obviously essential for people living with children, and will make the area more attractive for families.

38. (7) Many new programs are being created to help kids stay out of trouble. There are lots of opportunities for teenagers to join these organizations. They help prmoote better values than the kids just doing nothing all day.

39. (7) In a ratio of out-of-school organizations to students, studies found that there are .06 to .12 programs to kids in Albany Park. This is almost the highest ratio in the whole city of Chicago. These programs provide a good jumping-off point for students who are interested in things that aren't necessarily covered in school. It helps to make them more motivated to do well and make something of themselves.

40. (7) Since the 1900s, there have been a declining rate of children in the area. This makes it even more important to help these kids. They're exposed to only a small amount of other students, which makes making bad decisions from negative influences even easier.