15-minute Chicago: libraries & parks
Every Chicago public library and Park District field house on one map, each with a ~15-minute (≈1.2 km) straight-line walk-shed. Search your address to find the nearest — or scroll down to see how much of each community area sits within a short walk of one.
Who lives within a short walk?
The share of each community area’s parcels within a ~1.2 km straight-line walk of a library or field house. Greener is better-served. This is the same straight-line measure as the circles above, so it overstates real walking access.
How to read this map
The dots are public libraries (blue) and Park District field houses (orange). Toggle the ~15-minute walk-sheds to see the straight-line coverage, and search your address for the nearest of each. The choropleth below rolls that coverage up to the 77 community areas as the share of parcels within a walk-shed.
Straight-line, not routed. A 1.2 km circle crosses the Chicago River, the rail embankments, and the expressways as if they were walkable — they are not — so both the circles and the choropleth overstate real walking access. Network walk-time isochrones are the planned upgrade.
Park acreage per resident would be a richer measure, but the Park District field-house feed carries no acreage and there is no community-area population source wired yet, so it isn’t shown rather than estimated. Source: Chicago Public Library + Chicago Park District (open data). See methodology for the walk-shed definition and coverage details.