Yesterday day we drove through University Park, Ill (originally named Park Forest South) a suburb 30 miles South of downtown Chicago. We wanted to visit because this community is one of 15 communities around the country that was funded by The New Communities Act of 1968 with integration in mind. This new model aimed to engage the private sector in creating large-scale, self-contained, balanced communities that provided housing, jobs, and open spaces. New communities were required to have a broad range of housing- providing opportunities for everyone from janitors to presidents of corporations.

According to the municipal website, University Park features a championship golf course, walking and biking paths, hiking trails, and a 30-acre lake. Home values and monthly rents are significantly lower than the national average, making it accessible for first-time buyers. (livability.com) According to recent census data, 61% of homes are owner-occupied, slightly less than the Illinois state average of 67%.

What we witnessed is somewhat different than what I had hoped and expected.. University Park now is an odd cross between a typical suburb and a ghost town. The municipal offices are in a mostly abandoned mall and University Park is now considered a food dessert. There are some nice, well kept homes on some blocks, while others have fallen into disrepair and appear unmaintained. There were few renovations or updates to the properties- many houses seem to be stuck in the 1970s. Originally planned for 100,000 people, the population now hovers around 7,000.

The New Communities legislation was passed in the last days of the Johnson Administration. The act came on the heels of major riots across cities throughout the U.S. in 1967, the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.in April 1968, and the publication of the report of the Kerner Commission that recommended major expansions in public funding and support of urban areas.

Unfortunately, a 1973 federal subsidy moratorium by the Nixon administration largely halted the program’s momentum after a limited number of new communities received federal backing.The initial funding of $500 million was reduced to $250 million.Jonathan, Minnesota and University Parkdevelopments were the first to utilize this funding. The recession coupled with inflation contributed to the problem. The program was dismantled in the fall of 1978, three years after even its modest objectives had been jettisoned in an effort to bolster the precarious financial positions of individual projects. According to its former administrator, the program was “reduced to a salvage operation in exactly four years.”(Cities and City Planning, 1981)

While University Park , originally started with a more balanced racial mix, decades of demographic shifts transformed the suburb into a majority-Black community. According to a recent data from U.S. Census Quickfacts, University Park is 85% Black, 10% White, 5% mixed race and 6% Hispanic (any race). The Mayor, Town Board and Sheriff are all Black.

Clearly, University Park did not live up to the lofty vision of the New Communities Act, largely due to loss of funding. But is University Park a failed community? I don’t think so. The median home value sits around $126,600 to $180,000, making it relatively affordable compared to many Chicago metro suburbs. Residents have access to Metra and Pace public transit lines connecting to the broader Chicago area. It is home to Governors State University and includes access to local schooling options such as Southland College Prep Charter High School (rated A- on Niche) For someone looking for an affordable Black suburb, I think University Park may have possibilities.

Today was music immersion at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. I will say that it would not be a place for someone who is easily overstimulated as it is an explosion of music. They start with the roots of rock and roll – country blues, gospel and jazz, which was really interesting to us. We learned that the term “rock and roll” was coined in Memphis. The museum is organized chronologically , taking you from Memphis to Detroit’s mo-town sound to London/Liverpool, San Francisco psychedelic scene, LA folk rock, and finally Seattle grunge and punk.

There was a Soul Train room where we got to rewatch great acts (and dancing) on this tv show from our youth.

After we got our fill of music and memorabilia, we went to the garage band floor and make our own music.

A good way to spend the day in Cleveland!

Join us on our annual trek to Wisconsin to visit Sebby and Jayne. We will take our time on the road and share what we find along the way. Foliage seems peak in places- beautiful, especially when the sun peaks out lighting up the trees. Heading to Cleveland tonight. Will be reporting from the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame tomorrow.

We are again staying in Harwich, a charming town on Cape Cod Nantucket Sound. While tourism is the main economic driver now, the cranberry played a vital role in its early economy.

The Monomoyick  and Nauset Native American communities used wild cranberries for food, medicine, and as a dye long before European settlers arrived. The Native Americans taught the Pilgrims how to make Pemmican using crushed wild cranberries mixed with dried meat and melted animal fat to create a high-protein winter survival ration (the original power bar), medicinal poultices to draw poison from arrow wounds, and vibrant red dyes for textiles and rugs.

Cranberries do best in bogs, low shallow bowls of acidic peat soil, where plenty of sand and water are available. The composition of a cranberry bog is unique and consists of four layers, clay, gravel, peat and sand in ascending order. Each performs an important function to the overall ability of the bog to thrive. By the turn of the 19th century, residents had staked out their bogs, or “Cranberry Yards,” and families would typically harvest their supplies of the berries from them.

Eventually, Harwich led the way to introducing the cranberry to the world by producing the first crop for commercial sale. n 1846, Captain Alvin Cahoon is credited with producing the first such crop from a bog near Pleasant Lake. The venture spread quickly, with others in other towns, counties and states planting their own bogs and producing their own crops for the growing markets.

At the turn of the 20th century, North Harwich became home to many Cape Verde people who first worked in the cranberry industry, and then became bog owners and prominent members of the Harwich community. Many Cape Verdeans were fishermen and farmers. As the whaling industry declined in the late 1800’s, the cranberry industry meant economic survival on Cape Cod provided a needed source of income to many families during the economically depressed decades following the Civil War.

We were lounging at Nauset Beach, one of my favorite Cape Cod beaches, when I began to wonder whether seagulls had a keen sense of smell. Is this how they just know I have tasty morsels of food in my swimming bag?

It turns out the answer is yes, they do have a nose of sorts. The two slits on their upper beak, called nares, let them breathe and pick up the scents coming from my swimming bag.

I am told you can look into one nare and see right through to the other side of the beak. I tried to witness this but the gulls did not cooperate with my experiment, in spite of how close they like to get to my swimming bag.

Another interesting fact I learned is that gulls drink salt water and it is excreted through their nares. Salt glands located above a gull’s eyes remove excess salt from their bloodstream.. These salty nasal secretions often are channeled down the beak via grooves where they drip off the tip of the beak

That is about all I learned about sea gull noses today. Thanks for reading! Stay tuned for some more interesting Cape Cod discoveries tomorrow!

In New York and Massachusetts we talk about being bitten by sand fleas when sunbathing on beaches. They leave very itchy little bumps around the ankles. It turns out these are insects sand flies or mites, not sand fleas.

Today I learned that sand fleas are not fleas. They are small shrimp-like crustaceans, but without claws- and they don’t bite. They are called fleas because they hop and jump. Fishermen use a basket to dig in the tidal sand and catch them for bate.

They are used for surf fishing to catch pompano, redfish, sheepshead, and striped bass. You can also cook them up and eat them. Cook them in butter with seasoning until they turn orange. They are considered a crunchy, shrimp-like delicacy, best cooked live and seasoned with options like Old Bay, Dano’s, or Cajun spices.