Maria Popa - Activity 6

1. At first glance my neighborhood doesn’t seem to offer anything other than a variety of bars, restaurants, shops and an abundance of apartment buildings, which are “removed from any shared community space – no commercial or communal day care facilities, or laundry facilities” (Hayden, 174). I did not expect to find any social services for the working parent near my house, but I was surprised to do so. Steinway, which is a block from my house, is full of stores and cafés and the street is always crowded, but the quieter streets do offer other services. I found a couple of daycares, one a Montessori school (Little Angels) that is in a small private house, which looks misplaces among the apartment buildings surrounding it. The other daycare I found was 9 blocks away and had the exact working hours as the Little Angels (8am – 6pm), which doesn’t give parents many options if they are working late hours. However, there always are some women (like the Equadorian lady who lives on the first floor in my building) who have small, private, day cares in their homes and offer flexible hours. Yet these substitutes to adequate social services “obscure the failure of American housing policies…and generate bad working conditions for other working women” (Hayden, 176).

I also found several doctor’s offices in quiet, residential areas and most of them closed at 5 or 6 (they had stickers on the door with their hours of operation). The only office I found that stayed open later was a dentist’s office (Dr. S. Shahab) who worked until 9pm on Wednesdays. Other than this there are no other medical facilities, not even 24 - hour pharmacies (Duane Reade closes at 10pm), that stay open after business hours when working parents can go. I also noticed that there are no 24 - hour Laundromats in my neighborhood (although there is a sign that one is coming soon), limiting working parents’ options and forcing them to do laundry on the weekends.

2. There are a couple of places in my neighborhood that seem to be gender specific. Around the corner from my apartment there is a hardware store and I’ve never seen a woman in it. Every morning when I walk to school there are around 20 Hispanic men waiting outside the store hoping to be picked up for work, I suppose. The video store across the street from the hardware store, and the cigar shop across the subway station also seem to have a predominantly male shopper base. In class we talked about how Victoria’s Secret is a women space, but the one on Steinway near my house, has a male security guard who likes to give shoppers suggestions such as “Oh that panty is nice” or “You should get that, mhmm” that makes it really uncomfortable shopping there. Another typical women space – the hair salon in my neighborhood is not fully a women’s space. Although the Aveda Hair Salon and Spa’s patrons and most of the staff are women, all of the hair stylists are male, which proves that in modern society there are no places that are strictly gendered and that the idea that “a woman’s place is in the home” that Hayden was fighting against is disappearing.

3. I consider the corner around the hardware store in my neighborhood to be a place claimed by individuals for themselves. Now that it is getting warmer outside, it seems that more men are waiting there every morning. Not only do they block the side walk and force the pedestrians to walk around (sometimes having to go into the street), for a girl to walk through their group is really intimidating especially when they are laughing and speaking to themselves in Spanish, so sometimes I go out of my way and cross the street just to avoid them. As for such places in the city in general, I think some people like to take over entire benches in the park or subway seats and poles in order to avoid being too close to strangers in public spaces. Sometimes I happen to be on the subway when school lets out and my train car seems to be attacked by incredibly loud teenagers who like to sing and dance, and perform for their friends on public transportation, thus claiming the car for themselves.
4. When I searched “gay up of New York” on the internet I got a list of numerous gay bars, clubs, hotels, cruizes and saunas. Nighttours.com has a list of events such as group ballroom dances, NY AIDS walk, and NYC gay pride parade. These are all regular places that any person can go to, but they are specifically sexualized to make patrons comfortable to be among people who share their views and ideologies, thus proving Chaunsey's of why gay men like to create their "gay city" in the middle of the larger community.

5. I always see teenagers smoking or making out around the subway stop late at night, I don’t know why they choose such a public and random place to perform such private activities, but they always seem to be there on the weekends. Personally, I am not a fan of public display of affection but many don’t mind caressing each other in public, and the subway seems to be a hot spot for such activities late at night. Here is a more extreme example of individuals performing private activities in public. Monday night coming home from work (around 11pm) I got off the train at the end of the platform and walking towards the exit I saw a girl sitting on a guy’s lap, passionately kissing. After I saw them, I put my head down, avoiding to make eye contact or letting one of them see me roll my eyes, and walking away I noticed two used condoms a couple of feet away from them on the platform, making it pretty obvious that they were having sex. I found it pretty disgusting and unsanitary, but at least they were being safe.