Et Cetera

Going Beyond the Data

For more on opioids after reading "The Geography of Loss":

Watch Oscar-nominated documentary Heroin(e) on Netflix and visit Huntington, Virginia, where overdose rates are 10 times the U.S. average — and three women are working to change that statistic. See the trailer at bit.ly/heroinedoc.

 

Listen to "Could Prescription Heroin and Safe Injection Sites Slow the Opioid Crisis?" from National Public Radio's Fresh Air: n.pr/2GUq0Y8. Host Terry Gross hears from experts on how the crisis started and where it might begin to end.

Look through Lloyd DeGrane's photo essay, "Documenting the 'Opioid Migrants' of Chicago," a study of the largely ignored homeless encampments less than a mile from Millennium Park: bit.ly/degrane (images contain graphic material). He describes the three-year experience in an interview with WTTW, the city's public media organization, at bit.ly/wttwinterview.

Putting People in Public Spaces

The nonprofit Gehl Institute released public life tools, an extensive suite of free resources backed by decades of research on public spaces. The website features a user guide, a quiz that determines which resources will be most helpful, and downloadable surveys and tools, all accompanied by an assortment of eye-catching, colorful images and videos. The tools are divided into three categories: "tried and true," "beta," and "unfinished," which houses experimental resources, like a tool that compares the demographics of people frequenting a public space with those living in its surrounding area. Explore the relationship between public spaces and how people use them at bit.ly/gehlinstitute.

Film: Boystown

A new documentary from food news site Eater follows the impact of gentrification on America's oldest official gay village. In Boystown, reporter and former resident Zach Stafford gives viewers a tour of the film's namesake neighborhood on Chicago's North Side, tracking a shift in identity via the nightclubs and eateries lining its streets. As local institutions close, mainstream restaurants and bars open, increasing rents and pushing out existing residents. It's all part of a broader trend, Stafford says, that's dismantling LGBTQ-specific safe spaces across the country. Watch the film at bit.ly/boystowndoc.

HIV awareness advocate and bartender Hadeis Safi explains how Boystown's restaurants, bars, and bakeries create safe spaces for Chicago's LGBTQ population.

Images courtesy ©A.M.P.A.S.®; Gehl Institute; National Public Radio; Lloyd Degrane; Vox Media.

Et Cetera is a curated collection of planning odds and ends. Please send information to Lindsay R. Nieman, Planning's assistant editor, at lnieman@planning.org.