Humboldt Park

Humboldt Park ( Chicago Community Area 23) is located on Chicago 's Northwest Side. The neighborhood's borders generally fall between Western Avenue to the east, Pulaski Road to the west, Armitage Avenue to the North and Chicago Avenue to the south. The creation of Humboldt Park in 1869 provided much needed green space and also linked Chicago 's historic boulevard system.

One of the first substantial migrations of Latinos to Chicago was that of Puerto Ricans who moved to Humboldt Park between 1950 and 1965. 1 Humboldt Park still remains the symbolic center of Puerto Rican culture in Chicago . Humboldt Park 's Puerto Rican community is represented by the two 59-foot steel gateway-like Puerto Rican flags erected over Division Street between Western and California .

According to 2000 census data, Humboldt Park has a nearly equal population of Latinos/Hispanics (48%) and African Americans (47.4%). 2 Housing and gentrification are becoming a large and controversial issues for both of these groups. Much of the displacement started around 2001 and the property values in the area are still rising. 4 The average median income of Humboldt park is $28,728 with 31% of the population living below the poverty line. 2

Humboldt Park experiences a high rate of hospitalizations due to diabetes. 5 Diabetes is a major contributor to cardiovascular disease (CVD) and also the leading cause of non-traumatic amputations, blindness, and end-stage kidney disease. 6 In 2003, in Chicago, Humboldt Park was on of two communities with the highest age-adjusted rates of hospitalizations as a result of diabetes (58.7 per 10,000 compared to 28.8 per 10,000 for Chicago as a whole). 5 Additionally, hospitalizations as a result of CVD were higher in Humboldt Park (279.5 per 10,000) compared to the city as a whole (172.5 per 10,000) 7

  1. Humboldt Park . Encyclopedia of Chicago . Retrieved on March, 2009 at LINK.
  2. Chicago Department of Public Health. Community Area Health Inventory. Retrieved on February, 2009 at LINK.
  3. Chicago Park District. Humboldt Park Description. Retrieved on February, 2009 at LINK.
  4. City Noise.org. Humboldt Park & Gentrification. Retrieved on February,2009 at LINK.
  5. American Heart Association. Heart Disease and Stroke Statistics-2005 Update. Dallas , Texas : American Heart Association; 2005.
  6. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. National Diabetes Fact Sheet: General Information and National Estimates on Diabetes in the U.S. , 2005. Atlanta , GA : U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, CDC.; 2005.
  7. Chicago Department of Public Health. Chicago Community Health Profile. Retrieved on April, 2006 at LINK.