Each row aggregates the tracts within the chosen distance of a site into a single figure (counts summed, rates recomputed from the summed numerators and denominators). The same distance and the same resident-weighting are applied to both yards, so the two sets of neighbors can be compared like for like. Margins of error are shown where the Census publishes them.
Named schools mapped in OpenStreetMap, measured from the building or grounds to Amtrak's proposed maintenance facility, with enrollment from each school's district or published figure. This is not inclusive of licensed day-care centers.
Distance is the shortest gap between the tract boundary and the proposed yard's boundary. Weight is the share of the tract's 2020 residents who live inside the distance band, which is how much of the tract counts toward the profile.
The footprint is the Union Pacific Canal Street Yard as mapped in OpenStreetMap (way 56246278), roughly acres running along the South Branch of the Chicago River from about 16th Street to Pershing Road. Amtrak has not published a parcel-level plan; when it does, the buffer can be re-drawn from that footprint instead.
The existing-site columns use Amtrak's current maintenance yard south of Union Station (the Chicago Car Yard, OpenStreetMap way 880427556, about acres between Roosevelt Road and 18th Street along the river). The same distance and weighting are applied to it; it is not drawn on the map.
Distances are straight-line feet in a local planar projection centered on the yard. Buffers are measured from the yard boundary, not its center.
Each census tract counts in proportion to the share of its 2020 Census population living in blocks whose center is inside the distance band. A tract with all of its residents inside the band counts in full; a tract with a tenth of its residents inside counts a tenth.
This resident-weighting was chosen over the simpler "any part of the tract touches the band" rule because it ignores rail land, river and industrial parcels where nobody lives, so it does not credit a site with residents who actually live half a mile further away. It is the standard approach in exposure studies when block-level population is available.
American Community Survey 5-year estimates, , at the tract level, identical tables for both sites. Sentinel values for suppressed estimates are treated as missing. Medians cannot be summed, so median household income and median year built are shown as household-weighted averages of tract medians and labeled as such.
CDC PLACES, 2025 release (BRFSS ), model-based crude prevalence among adults 18+. These are small-area estimates, not surveys of these specific residents, and are aggregated here by adult population for each site.
Schools are named school features from OpenStreetMap within about a mile of the proposed yard, measured from the feature's center to the yard boundary; the list is a floor, not a complete inventory of sensitive uses. Enrollment for district and charter schools is student_count_total from Chicago Public Schools' School Profile Information for 2024–25, matched to each mapped school by location; private and parochial figures are the most recent published counts for each school, so the two sets are not from the same school year. Enrollment counts students registered, not people present at a given hour, and excludes staff. St. Barbara Elementary (closed 2025) and one day-care center are not included.
Geography from Census TIGERweb (2020 tracts and blocks with 2020 counts). Basemap from OpenStreetMap contributors.
EPA's EJScreen, the usual source for existing pollution burden and traffic proximity, was taken offline in 2025 and is not included. Health prevalence here describes the population's baseline vulnerability, not an effect of the yard.
ACS tract estimates carry wide margins of error, and the existing-site cohort is small, so its margins are especially wide; small differences between the two sites may not be meaningful. Where a figure's margin is large relative to the estimate, treat it as indicative.
Reporting on the proposal: Block Club Chicago, ABC7, Chicago City Wire.