Despite the bitter wind, Kim Wasserman showed me around La Villita Park. Occupying 21 acres in the middle of this city’s largest Mexican-American neighborhood, the park used to be a brownfield and illegal dump.

The 606 was a magnet for anti-gentrification demonstrations last year—and that was even before a report detailed just how sharply housing costs have spiked near the popular rail-to-trail pathway.

Since at least the 1950s, the Chicago neighborhoods of Wicker Park and Bucktown have been shaped by transportation networks.

New research suggests urban green space like parks and greenways may play a role in diminishing crime.