Highlights and Insights from Our Annual Walk the Redline Event
- adelangel3
- Oct 15
- 3 min read
On Saturday, September 13th, 2025, Open Communities gathered with community partners and neighbors near the Evanston Ecology Center for our second annual Walk the Redline event. This event is held each year to raise awareness, funds, and activation for housing justice in Northern Cook County.
Redlining was a historical, nationwide practice of using race as a factor to deem certain areas “hazardous” for banks to lend in, which helped to codify segregation and inequality. While redlining is now illegal, its legacy persists.
The morning started a little differently than expected. Staff sat in cars waiting for a thunderstorm to pass instead of setting up bright and early as we’d planned. As they say, the best laid plans... We ended up delayed but not defeated! After the storm passed, it was a perfect sunny day with the only remnants of the morning chaos being a few puddles in the parking lot.
Once people arrived at the event, they found OC’s check-in surrounded by our amazing community partners, including other nonprofit organizations and local vendors. The main attraction of the event was the 1-mile loop along the North Shore Channel Trail where attendees, or neighbors who happened to be on the path, could find our educational signs. The signs covered a variety of topics connected to Fair Housing including: the history of redlining and other discriminatory policies that shaped our communities; present-day struggles for housing access and affordability along with ways to address them; and what a future with abundant housing options and strong fair housing protections could look like.
Along the route, interactive stations allowed attendees to stop and reflect on what they had just read and learned. The first two stops asked participants questions: “What does a welcoming community mean to you?” and “How do you/will you take action to create welcoming communities?” These thoughtful breaks created time for reflection – and conversation. Our goal was to build on the educational signs by encouraging engagement and concrete ways for participants to take their learning and turn it into action. The final interactive station on the walk was the Imagination Zone, managed by our friends at the Open Studio Project. This space allowed attendees, and especially kids, to physically build a little cardboard neighborhood and visualize what creative, abundant housing options for everyone could look like.
After a stormy morning, we were even more grateful to those who made the effort to come out and experience the event as the skies cleared. Walk the Redline was made even more special by sharing the day with community partners who work to make the neighborhoods we serve more open and accessible for all. The event wouldn’t have been possible without our amazing sponsors. Thank you all for continuously supporting us and our mission and allowing us to keep working through any storm that comes our way. A final thank you to everyone who attended. We hope through your participation you were able to learn, engage with others, and be inspired by the possibilities to continue building a more welcoming community, together.
During the event, several participants asked if the educational signs would be left along the route for future viewing. Unfortunately, we weren’t able to leave the signs along the walkway, but we do want to make them available for more people to learn and revisit. Below are a few of the signs that participants saw along the path. Additionally, registrants carried a booklet that accompanied the content on the signs. You can access the complete collection of signs and link to the booklet here.
An immense thank you from the Open Communities team, we couldn’t have done it without you ¡Adelante!
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