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Lifestyle

University of Chicago’s Data Science Institute comes forward with years of research on internet equity; the reality isn’t good for those living on South, West sides

From COVID-19 vaccines to the agriculture industry, from mental health wellness to the city of Chicago’s Year of Healing, equity is a term at the forefront on many societal fronts. And for the past two years, the University of Chicago Data Science Institute (DSI) has been focusing on internet equity in a hope to better understand how to fix the digital divide laid bare in state communities during this pandemic.Researchers from the university’s Crown Family School of Social Work, Policy and Practice and the Department of Computer Science have been collaborating for the past two years gathering newer, focused internet data on Chicago’s 77 neighborhoods under the Internet Equity Initiative. At Monday’s Data Science Institute summit on UChicago’s campus, Nick Feamster, faculty director of research at the Data Science Institute, and Nicole Marwell, associate professor in the Crown Family School of Social Work, Policy and Practice — both principal investigators of the initiative — revealed a 32-point difference between the most connected neighborhoods in the Loop and Near North Side (where more than 94% of households are connected to the internet) compared with Far South Side neighborhoods of Burnside and West Englewood, where fewer than 62% of households are connected.Advertisement“We’ve known for a while that federal data on this basically collects paper forms from internet service providers at a pretty coarse granularity, like a census tract level and if one home gets covered, they’re like, ‘OK, it’s fine,’ Feamster said. “I knew that was suspect, but it hit home for me when I moved to Hyde Park almost three years ago. If you look at that map, Hyde Park purportedly gets gigabit internet access and has multiple ISPs serving it. But I had a heck of a time signing up for service on my block. That lit a fire for me. I was like, ‘Wow, if it’s this bad in Hyde Park, in the city of Chicago, it’s got to be even worse elsewhere where we’re not even looking.”Nicole Marwell, left, and Nick Feamster speak at the inaugural Data Science Institute Summit at the University of Chicago on May 9, 2022. (Terrence Antonio James / Chicago Tribune)The disparities in connectivity between neighborhoods can be seen in DSI’s data portal, which combines public and private data from 20 cities in the nation, including Chicago. UChicago undergraduate students analyzed pre-pandemic information from the U.S. Census, the American Community Survey, the Federal Communications Commission and the portal for a more localized look of internet connectivity in Chicago. From July through August 2021, researchers measured internet performance in a house in Hyde Park and one in South Shore — both households were paying for gigabit internet service from Xfinity (Comcast). The Hyde Park household experienced higher-quality internet than the South Shore household. Portal data also revealed connectivity strongly correlates with income, unemployment and race/ethnicity.AdvertisementPer the portal data, in portions of Roseland, broadband access is as low as 49%; in an area of Chicago Heights, it’s less than that, and in an area in East Garfield Park, connectivity is lower than 46%. The Loop, Lincoln Park and Beverly neighborhoods show over 90% connectivity. The results emphasize the need for continued, targeted intervention to improve connectivity in sections of the city, and the reason for DSI’s ongoing study. With the $65 billion in federal funding that was authorized in 2021 under the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act to help expand broadband, Feamster and Marwell hope the initiative’s work helps Illinois secure its fair share of moneys under the act and aids stakeholders interested in working on solutions to decrease the digital divide.The initiative is working with local community organizations and residents to help in this effort by collecting different measurements of internet performance in households across Chicago. Volunteers from across Chicago have installed small devices on their routers, which allows researchers to measure internet performance as data travels to and from the household. Researchers are continuing to recruit volunteers to conduct comparisons between neighborhoods. Feamster said the institute’s team welcomes many manners of involvement from community residents — from “slicing and dicing the data,” but also to think about solutions.“The point of collecting the data is to understand the nature of the problem, which can then inform the folks who are working to actually develop solutions to the problem,” Marwell said. “And those can be a lot of different folks: ISPs, utility companies, it could be community groups that are putting together public Wi-Fi, it could be landlords who are trying to add Wi-Fi into their building services, rather than having people connect to an internet service provider on their own.Marwell said connectivity is more than just an affordability issue. The initiative study is really driving at the quality and reality of people’s lived internet experience on the ground — something more than the one-time captured data of internet speed tests. By measuring more of the lived experience in continuous real time , researchers can measure over time whether something big is going on in a certain neighborhood or whether an area is just having a bad day or hour.“It may seem like internet is one solution fits all, but the more we learn about the nature of the problem, we see that what the building is made out of makes a difference, what the trees and other topography are like makes a difference,” Marwell said. “What’s possible within the sort of managerial orientation of a multiunit building makes a difference, what community institutions might be available to site an antenna for community Wi-Fi — all those things are part of this process. We can’t really be thinking about solving the internet problem just as give everybody a subsidy to buy their own service.”“I think to the extent that these efforts are successful at achieving the goal of greater connectivity, that’s going to be really important proof of concept for continuing to roll money in subsequent years through subsequent infrastructure investments at both the federal and the state level, to continue the work and try and reach everybody,” Marwell said.drockett@chicagotribune.com

Sports

Tom Brady to join Fox Sports as lead NFL analyst – if and when he retires again

The recently unretired Tom Brady already has his next job lined up.The seven-time Super Bowl champion who retired at the end of last season and then took it back almost immediately has been hired by Fox Sports as its lead analyst whenever his playing career is done for real, Fox Corporation executive chairman and CEO Lachlan Murdoch announced during an earnings call Tuesday.Advertisement“It is entirely up to him when he chooses to retire and move into what will be an exciting television career,” Murdoch told investors, according to the Hollywood Reporter. “That is up to him to make that choice when he sees fit.”[ Tom Brady to star in road trip movie with Lily Tomlin, Jane Fonda ]Tom Brady of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers against the Indianapolis Colts at Lucas Oil Stadium on November 28, 2021 in Indianapolis, Indiana. (Andy Lyons/Getty Images)Brady is also expected to serve as an ambassador for Fox Sports, “particularly with respect to client and promotional initiatives,” Murdoch said.AdvertisementThe 44-year-old quarterback is “excited,” he tweeted, but still has “a lot of unfinished business on the field.”Brady is set to return to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, with whom he won a trophy in 2021, for his 23rd NFL season in the fall.The Fox Sports booth has seen recent shakeups, with Troy Aikman and Joe Buck jumping ship to ESPN. Kevin Burkhardt, the former SNY Mets sideline reporter, was promoted to lead play-by-play announcer.

Sports

Liam Hendriks wants to pitch every day — but the Chicago White Sox closer ‘didn’t do my job’ in the 9th inning of a ‘brutal loss’

When he signed on as the Chicago White Sox closer in 2021, Liam Hendriks said he wanted to pitch every day.But he didn’t get the ball Sunday against the Boston Red Sox as manager Tony La Russa chose to rest him after a heavy workload over the past week, letting Bennett Sousa get the final out for his first career save.AdvertisementNo big deal. Hendriks obviously was embellishing when he said he wanted to pitch “every day,” right?“No,” he said before Monday’s game against the Cleveland Guardians. It was not an embellishment.AdvertisementThen how did Hendriks react to the forced day off?“I was upset because I wanted to play,” he said. “I’m extremely excited and happy for (Souza) getting his first career save. That’s something he’ll always cherish. I think the cameras showed me — I was pouting a little bit in the bullpen. They had told me (about the planned day off).”Hendriks got the ball against the Guardians on Monday night with a four-run lead in the ninth. He gave up a single and a game-tying grand slam to Josh Naylor to cap a six-run inning as the Guardians staged a stunning rally to tie the game.After the teams traded runs in the 10th, Naylor’s two-out, three-run home run off Ryan Burr in the 11th gave them the lead, and Trevor Stephan closed out a 12-9 win.“That’s just a brutal loss, to give up six runs like that and a couple chances to win offensively,” La Russa said. “It’s a tough loss. It’s as tough as you’re going to have.”Burr replaced Reynaldo López, who exited with lower back tightness at the start of the inning.“Right now it stings,” Hendriks said. “Burr should’ve never been in that situation. López should’ve never been in that situation. It should’ve been something I took care of. I was one strike away and I wasn’t able to get it done, and that stings the most.”According to ESPN Stats & Info, the Guardians were 1-626 when trailing by six or more runs in the ninth over the last 40 seasons.AdvertisementHendriks saved each of the first five games in the six-game winning streak that ended Monday, and the Sox had only one day off in that span. But La Russa told reporters Sunday: “We told Hendriks don’t even put your spikes on.”Hendriks did wear his spikes Sunday, hoping La Russa would change his mind.“I never go out there unprepared,” he said before Monday’s game. “And if anybody ever goes into our bullpen without their spikes, I’m going to send them running across the field to put them back on because that’s disrespectful.“No, I will always have my spikes on, but I was really hoping I could convince them to let me play. It didn’t come to fruition. I understand it. It’s still disappointing, but in saying that, we got it done and that’s all that really matters.”Fast forward to Monday night. Hendriks warmed up in the bullpen in the eighth with the Sox holding a 5-2 lead. AJ Pollock’s three-run home run in the bottom of the eighth seemingly put the game out of reach, so La Russa turned to left-hander Tanner Banks in the ninth.But errors by Yoán Moncada and Tim Anderson and some shaky pitching by Banks forced La Russa to turn to Hendriks with two outs, two on and the lead down to four. Hendricks gave up a single to Owen Miller to load the bases before Naylor grabbed hold of a 99 mph fastball on the first pitch and sent it into the right-field bleachers.AdvertisementWas getting up and down a factor?“Yeah, I got up in the eighth,” Hendriks said. “Yes, I got up in the ninth. Yes, I sat down and then got back up again. But that’s not an excuse to not get it done. At the end of the day you’re coming in there with a job to do, and I didn’t do my job tonight.”La Russa concurred that Hendriks was ready.“He got ready but he didn’t have to pitch,” he said. “You bring him in with the tying run on deck, there’s not much room for an error there. Give the hitters credit.”The Sox left the bases loaded in the ninth before Indians shortstop Andres Gimenez doubled home the go-ahead run in the 10th. The Sox tied it in the bottom of the inning when Adam Engel beat a throw to the plate on a dribbler to pitcher Emmanuel Chase, but they couldn’t push across another run with the bases loaded and one out.With the game tied in the 11th, La Russa considered walking Naylor with two out and two on.Advertisement“It doesn’t look very good right now,” he said. “We were going to pitch him tough and made a mistake.”Burr was glad La Russa let him challenge Naylor, even as he compared himself to a bug on a windshield that “got squashed.”“I don’t care who it is,” Burr said. “I made a pitch and he hit the ball. That’s the game of baseball for you. It went over the fence. We lost the game.”It wasn’t just that they lost but how they lost. Hendriks said the toughest part was that Michael Kopech’s “phenomenal” six-inning start was lost in the collapse.“He’s still decisionless this year,” Hendriks said. “And that’s another thing, we had an opportunity to give him his first win of the year, and that didn’t come to fruition because I didn’t do my job.”Before the game Hendriks discussed “old-school” relievers who pitched every day.Advertisement“Look, I’ll never ask for a day off,” he said. “I told the training staff, you have to tell me. I’m going to disagree with them most days, but I’ll never ask for a day because I don’t want to get in the mindset, like, ‘OK, I’m not feeling great today, so let me take a day.’“That’s the snowball effect that will make me complacent, and I just never want to let that in. I’ve got a little bit of an old-school mentality some days.”Hendriks’ wish was granted Monday, and he’ll no doubt want the ball again Tuesday.