Activity # 9- Nicole McGuire

Nicole McGuire

Activity 9

As I began my search looking for other blogs that discussed urban life, the first blog I found was http://urbanplacesandspaces.blogspot.com/ . This blog basically discusses urban mobility within the Washington, DC area. Richard Layman (the creator of this blog) discusses the zoning updates, having a very own bicycle station, project with public spaces, streetcar technology, and anything dealing with getting the people around the city. This relates to our blog because we did a lot of these activities when we went on our scavenger hunt for activity # 4. We had to search for zoning laws, how the bicycle lanes and traffic lanes connect, and look for old streetcar trolley tracks. Also in Activity # 3 we had to search for public v. private spaces. It seems that in any urban place there are going to be a lot of the same problems and issues. No matter if you are from New York City or Washington D.C.

The second blog I found was http://urbanvista-boston.blogspot.com/ . As I was reading this blog it showed that this person was trying to show the different parts of the city of Boston. This person had great pictures of what Boston looks like in the spring and winter. This person than gets into the discussion about the Industrial part of the city which I found really interesting because it made me think of Kunstler’s term “frontier neighborhood”. It seems as if the neighborhood is in the middle of a developing area and the neighborhoods become separate. In the person’s last post, I found it very interesting that he/she was discussing New York City and described it as the “ultimate urban vista”. The pictures this person took of the buildings in New York shows the urban landscape and what makes New York one of the most urban places to be.

The third blog http://urbanblink.blogspot.com/ , showed different images of New York City. I thought it was very interesting because it captures all the different elements of New York that makes it so urban. The different holiday decorations placed on buildings, the Chestnuts being made on nut carts on the corners of streets, the old newsstands, the scaffoldings, the graffiti on buildings, and also the capture of the skylines. This person also shows pictures of some of the most important spots in NYC such as 125^th St. in Harlem. It captures the constant movement of the city and how the city never sleeps. In this blog http://nyportraits.blogspot.com/, there were pictures of NYC also and these pictures show the different lives people live. There was actually a picture of a community garden in alphabet city which relates to the field trip our group took with our guide Johanna. She took us through the East Village and Alphabet city and showed us around the different parts. In this blog there was a photo of the Polish President and his wife who passed away from the horrific plane crash in front of the church, and Johanna informed us of that being the only Polish Catholic Church still around. This relates to our blog because we have actually gone through the East Village and were informed about these facts before I even found this blog.

In the 5^th blog I found, http://vanishingnewyork.blogspot.com/, discusses how New York is slowly vanishing. The old buildings are being torn down and being replaced by huge apartment buildings, movie theaters, parking lots, etc. There was also a discussion about the President arriving in Cooper Union which our group also visited this historic place during our field trip. Astor Place is even where we all met up for our trip and that was one of the places the media was located. This blog shows how New York City is changing either for better or for worse. This relates to our blog because we have actually visited the East Village before, and I have not realized how historic the East Village really is. It’s sad to know that New York City is being replaced by all these new images that people are slowly forgetting how NYC came to be known as one of the most urban cities in the world.

On all of these blogs, I have left a comment on some of the entries and I have discussed how there entries are related to our class and to the different activities we have done throughout the semester. Some of the entries in these blogs were also somewhat similar to what we had to discuss in our blogs. On these 5 blogs I have found I have left our link to our blog and wrote comments such as this one “I found this entry to be very interesting. I did not realize that the President visited Cooper Union. I actually visited Cooper Union for the first time about two weeks ago and I did not realize how historic the East Village really is. I've lived in New York my whole life, and it's sad to say that NYC really is vanishing slowly. I'm in an Urban Studies class, and we are discussing all the different elements that makes a city urban. We also go on all these different activities that deal with going to different places around New York and experiencing new things. If you could please check out my blog http://sohoflaneurs.blogspot.com/ , and read some of our entries you will see all the different activities we do and all the interesting things we never knew about our own city! Thanks!” on http://vanishingnewyork.blogspot.com/. Hopefully other bloggers will read some of our interesting entries and be able to relate to our experiences.