Activity #8-Johanna Kelly

Johanna Kelly
Activity 8.1 & 8.2

On the group field trip, I organized my group’s part of the trip to the East Village in Manhattan. Since I live in the East Village, I knew great places to show to my group and the other group, Urban Fever, accompanying us. We all met on Astor Place by the giant cube that has been there for many years. I then led the group towards St. Marks Place since it is such a famous street to visit in the East Village. Since it was a gorgeous day, there were a lot of people hanging out on the street. St. Marks Place was very crowded because a lot of people were shopping around. There are foreign men who stand there with tables out selling hats, sunglasses, and other accessories. Later on we walked over to alphabet city, which is consisted of the letter avenues. I decided to take the group to Tompkins Square Park. The park was crowded with adults and children. Not only is it a park for humans, there is also a little space designated for the dogs. According to Jane Jacobs, Tompkins Square Park would be considered a neighborhood park. I remember while growing up, I associated Tompkins Square Park as the one located near my home. Thus, it is considered a neighborhood park to me. “Even the same person comes for different reasons at different times; sometimes to sit tiredly, sometimes to play or to watch a game, sometimes to read or work, sometimes to show off, sometimes to fall in love, sometimes to keep an appointment, sometimes to savor the hustle of the city from a retreat, sometimes in the hope of finding acquaintances…” (Jacobs, 103). Tompkins Square Park is considered to be mostly where the people from the neighborhood go. It is not perceived as a park for tourists to visit, such as Central Park.

After we walked through the park, we encountered some beautiful community gardens located on Sixth Street and avenue B. This was very nice to see in an urban space. Usually when we think of a city, we imagine busy and noisy streets with cars and lots of people. However, we did encounter a serene spot in the East Village where there were gardens and people could actually sit there and relax. However, we noticed that the gardens were considered a private space. The garden most likely belonged to the community who lived near it. Later on we passed by a Roman Catholic Church belonging to a Polish Parish. This Polish Parish is the only one that remains in Manhattan and thus Polish people all over the borough travel to that only one Polish church. Outside the church, there were candles lit for the Polish President and other victims who died in the tragic plane crash. After passing by the church, we walked through a street of all Indian restaurants. The shift was incredible how we were first surrounded by the Polish culture and then moved on to an Asian culture.

The second part of the field trip consisted of crossing over the Brooklyn Bridge. It was such a pleasant day to spend outdoors and enjoy the beautiful views. After we crossed the bridge, we took a walk through various neighborhoods in Brooklyn. It was a completely different setting than it was in the East Village. The neighborhoods were quiet and empty. Then we came across an area that seemed like a frontier neighborhood. This was because the neighborhood was made up of the projects, which is apartment buildings owned by the city. Thus, this is a frontier neighborhood because it was built in order to help out lower class people. Surrounding the projects, there were a lot of factories. There were also playgrounds; however they were empty. Even though we were in a different borough of New York City, it felt as if we were not in the city anymore. The atmosphere seemed very quiet and calmer. There were not a lot of people on the streets. While when we were in Manhattan, different people, restaurants, and stores surrounded my group and me. Overall, the trip turned out to be very fun and engaging. Thanks to this trip, I was able to visit Brooklyn, a place that I rarely go to. It was also my first time crossing the Brooklyn Bridge by foot. I learned to appreciate this trip because I was able to experience new parts of the city that I never saw before.


Giant Cube on Astor Place


Brooklyn Bridge


Polish Restaurant "Polonia" in the East Village


St. Mark's Place




Soho Flaneurs+Urban Fever


Brooklyn

Nicole McGuire-Book Review

Nicole McGuire
Book Review

The book The Hidden Dimension, by Edward T. Hall is a very thoughtful and insightful book towards urban space. He came up with the idea of proxemics (“the interrelated observations and theories of man’s use of space as a specialized elaboration of culture”(Hall,1) and applied it to humans and how it’s used within different cultures. The theme of this book is how humans recognize space but depending on the culture you come from may view space in a different type of way. Depending on how you grow up is how you view space and how humans keep distance from on another. “Thus it must be impressed upon architects, city planners, and builders that is this country is to avoid catastrophe, we must begin seeing man as an interlocutor with his environment, an environment which these same planners, architects, and builders are now creating with little reference to man’s proxemic needs” (Hall, 6).

The central argument of Hall’s book was that one man’s observation of space comes from different senses that are derived from culture. “Selective screening of sensory data admits some things while filtering out others, so that experience as it is perceived through one set of culturally patterned sensory screens is quiet different from experience perceived through another culture” (Hall, 2). Every culture has different traits and through these different traits people experience different events. But experience does not necessarily make how man views space. Hall then argues that one man’s view of space can cause problems in “cross-cultural relationships”. All cultures have a specific way of how they organize space within their minds and communities. This then leads to problems in communication with one another. “What Gibson has done is to analyze and describe the system and the component “stimulus variables” which combine to provide the information man needs in order to do all that movement implies on the surface of our globe” (Hall, 191). With the senses, man can come up with different types of spaces through his culture and environment.

Some interesting points in Hall’s book was how human’s deal with personal and informal space. People have there personal space were only certain people (close relations such as family and friends) are allowed to invade. Once someone invades someone else’s personal space people back away or even feel offended. Then there is public space which people may interact with other people depending on the situation put do need their space. An example Hall makes of this is when people will normally have a few inches between each other if they are sitting down and no one knows each other. This is very true because even in New York City people will sit in every other seat when waiting for the train just not to invade other people’s space. There are social spaces were people can communicate with strangers and other people without feeling uncomfortable. Throughout the book, the most important point I found was the different perspectives of visual impressions. It wasn’t necessarily his idea, it was Gibson’s ideas, but it was interesting how he connected it to space. “They constitute the basic structural categories of experience into which the more specific varieties of vision fit” (Hall, 191). This relates to space because culture molds how individuals see space through there eyes. “Bioncular perspective operates very much out of awareness” (Hall, 192).

The arguments of this book relate to the themes we have discussed in class through urban planning and public and private spaces. In class we have discussed how cities and neighborhoods have come together, and this relates because all different cultures have different ways of organizing their communities. All humans have different ideas of how they want to organize there spaces which creates the streets and environments people live in. Different uses of spaces can create communication problems through different groups of people and this could also relate to the unfairness of how certain neighborhoods are set up and separated. The use of space is different through all cultures which makes the world an unique urban space.

Tamon Charles-Book Review

Urban Life
Spring 2010
Book Review

I found the book entitled “Behind the Gates: Life, Security, and the Pursuit of Happiness in Fortress America” by Setha Low was very interesting and necessary for the society that we currently live in. The book is presented as an autobiography where the author seeks to take a childhood experience at the tender age of six and growing up in West Los Angeles and explore on a type of lifestyle that she was not aware of. The experience pertained to why she [the author] was not allowed to enter the gated community to play with her friend Dolly who is also her classmate in second grade. Although her friend Dolly later explained her mother’s disapproval of her playing within the walls of the gated community as she [the author] was “low class”, this labeling though dismissed because of her inability to understand what that meant, was the building block that lead to her compiling a collection of research work on what it meant to reside in such a community.

One of strong points of Low’s methodology used to understand the way of living in a gated community was include her personal observation of her sister whom she visited in San Antonio Texas with her husband Joel and daughter. The author was very aware of how the security system was very much like a confined representation of residing. For instance, one morning as she opened the door to get some fresh air, the alarm quickly went off and this immediately got the attention of her sister and her family. To her surprise, their response to alarm going off was unbecoming—they acted as if an uninvited person invaded their property. For the rest of the visitation, she describes her stay there as being “trapped, claustrophobic and uneasy, as if something dangerous is just outside the door” (6). Her mission from then on was to conduct interviews with residents of gated communities to fully cover and unfold the benefits (if any) of inhabiting in such places as opposed to those communities without gates.

Based on her research, Low introduces that living in gated communities was a new version of middle-class American dream as a method of protection from danger, crime and consequently this version is an opportunity to have safe environmental conditions as well as friendly neighbors. As she continues this venture, she incorporates how seldom residents are truly aware of their very neighbors—one of the cons of this type of living arrangement and that to some people, this was preferred.

The author goes on to draw the connection between the design of gated communities were due to crime and the fear of crime as she quotes Jane Jacobs who spoke of “keeping “eyes on the street” is an important solution for creating streets and neighborhood” (22). Low recalled conducting interviews with the residents of Sun Meadow, Texas and found it interesting in the variations of ideas that the homeowners considered prior to purchasing their property. Their common interest was about finding community where family ties are kept and that residents come together to organize events such as Christmas shows as a way of bringing the neighbors together. Whether it was Tara who was seeking an old fashioned community or Georgette, the grandmother married for forty six years who was retired and attempted replicating a military lifestyle or Eileen who seeking community but could not find it although she attended community board meetings as her husband sits on the board—the author concurs that gating does not necessarily create community, however it selects for a certain type of individual as well as level of income.

In all, the author’s argument remains cohesive throughout her findings in the book. She states that “gated communities are an attempt to recapture an ideal world in the face of contemporary realities” (224). She finally affirms the trends of gated communities in California to sum up most communities that “the illusion is important for homeowners because it enables them to feel better about their social status and place in the world in a period of social and economic transition. This evolution of fake gating from the “real” thing substantiates how profoundly gating permeates American culture, replacing and reconstructing notions of “community” “security” and the “American dream” (229).

Johanna Kelly-Book Review

Johanna Kelly
Book Review

The book Sidewalk by Mitchell Duneier is a book about the life that takes place on the streets of mostly Greenwich and Sixth Avenue. In this book, Duneier discusses the role of street vendors and how they play a significant role in urban life. He speaks about the different street vendors who make a living in New York City by selling things such as books, magazines, and secondhand goods. In this novel, readers will encounter street vendors and the interactions that Mitchell Duneier makes with them on the sidewalks. In this book are recorded the real conversations and discussions and that he had with these people.
Duneier introduces the reader to an important character, Hakim Hasan, who is a book vendor and a street intellectual. Hakim’s role on the street is very unique because he is a public character. This indicates that he doesn’t only sell books to the public; however, he is a watch guard to the street. This evidently links to Jane Jacob’s The Death and Life of Great American Cities. Hakim’s intellectual insight on Jane Jacob’s writing truly does justify that he is a public character to the street. “A public character is anyone who is in frequent contact with a wide circle of people and who is sufficiently interested to make himself a public character. A public character need have no special talents or wisdom to fulfill his function-although he often does” (Duneier, 6). As Duneier describes Hakim’s role on the street, he is clearly perceived as a public character. He is very aware of what goes around on the street and is always able to assist someone in need of help. This connects back to the concept of Jane Jacobs that the sidewalk doesn’t necessarily need an authoritative figure in order to make the people feel safe. People like Hakim are the public characters whom the public can turn to. The regular people on the street guard each other; we are able to maintain safety within each other.
This book successfully shows the connection between Jane Jacobs and one of the elements of urban life. Hakim is an important role model in the story who brings the public on the sidewalk together. His table of books brings an amalgam of people from all over the public. This book therefore brings attention the readers in not to underestimate the street vendors and what they offer to the public. A character such as Hakim is someone who could be also misunderstood. He is an intellectual and educated man who has the ability to communicate with a variety of people, educated or not. He sells books and has a immense amount of knowledge on different books and authors.
Mitchell Duneier does a very successful job with bringing the street vendors to life. I as a reader attained an appreciation for these street vendors and that they are a contribution to our city. Readers will gain respect for these kinds of people who are part of our community. People like Hakim are the ones who create diversity to our New York City sidewalks. It breaks away from stereotypes that we may have about people like Hakim and thus, Duneier allows us to see the real thing.

Book Review - Maria Popa

Lance Freeman’s There Goes the Hood: Views of Gentrification from the Ground Up discusses the effects of gentrification on the original residents of a neighborhood undergoing gentrification. Freeman conducted his research in the gentrifying neighborhoods of Harlem and Clinton Hill where he interviewed and befriended the original residents. His book provides an “overview of the evolution of Clinton Hill and Harlem from homes for the upper middle class, to depressed inner city neighborhoods, and finally through the beginnings of gentrification” (17). As he believes that minority groups are the ones to suffer from gentrification and the whites the ones to benefit, he focused his research on minority groups; eighty five percent of the people he interviewed were African American and the other fifteen percent were Latino.

Freeman argues that the “black inner city is unique and set apart from the rest of the metropolis;” (4) its residents create a strong bond within the community and establish a unique culture. He described Harlem as the “physical manifestation of the new negro – rather than relying on whites, the new negro would blaze his own trails and knock down barriers before him. He acted to improve his conditions, and those of his race.” (21) But both Harlem and Clinton Hill were transformed into slums because of the “color line” that limited their residents’ employment opportunities to low paid jobs in retail and personal service industries, and because there were better housing options in other parts of the city that appealed to the wealthier residents.

Freeman discusses how both areas were initially populated by artists and affluent members of the African American community but once “demographic, economic, and political changes created a new middle class that was attracted to the city” (57) both neighborhoods began going through gentrification. One of his main arguments is that there is not enough gentrification literature concentrating on the losses experienced by low income residents, such as losing their homes and the support networks they formed in the community. Therefore he tries to shed light on what these residents go through. Freeman argues that even though some residents welcome gentrification and see it as a way to “bring their neighborhoods into the mainstream of American commercial life with better services that others might take for granted and achieve upward mobility without having to escape to the suburbs or predominantly white neighborhoods.” And most residents appreciate the better produce in groceries stores, the neighborhood’s improved physical appearance, and the increased government responsiveness in providing social services such as trash pickup and public safety, they are skeptical about these improvements and see them as meant for the outsiders not for themselves.

Freeman’s analysis of gentrification reminded me most about our discussion regarding gentrification in Bushwick and the debate on the Atlantic Yards. We discussed in class how the government tries to push out the poor by demolishing public housing and creating mixed income housing. Freeman also focuses on efforts to “deconcentrate the poor” that makes some view gentrification as “state sponsored gentrification” (126). Another point that Freeman focuses on that we discussed in class is how the poor view themselves as powerless. Freeman notes that residents of minority communities wonder “how can neighborhoods under the same mayor be treated so differently” – with better schools, better police protection, cleaner streets, and the like, and they attribute such these differences to the relative power of certain groups…white are clearly viewed as the more powerful group” (108).

What I found most interesting in Freeman’s book is the fact that Harlem was originally intended for upscale whites but it became a mecca for African Americans because of the “consciousness of decisions of African Americans to develop a community in Harlem” (20). He also attributes Harlem’s poverty to the “various types of retail outlets that now sell alcohol in Harlem” (33) and I never made a connection between the two. Finally, the last fact that surprised me was that “blacks lived in Fort Greene since its initial development, [and] in 1860 half of Brooklyn’s population lived in Fort Greene”(38), a neighborhood of which Clinton Hill is a part of but was given a new name “as a marketing ploy to attract a more upscale clientele” (35).

Activity # 5-Tamon Charles

Community Board 3 Meeting

Community Board 3 has a population of 143,387, up from 138,696 in 1990 and 133,377 in 1980.
As of the year 2000-- 2,056 (1.4%) are White non-Hispanic, 110,431 (76.8%) are African-American, 1,457 (1.0%) Asian or Pacific Islander, 432(0.3%) American Indian or Native Alaskan, 473 (0.3%) of some other race, 2,998 (2.1%) of two or more race, 26,020 (18.1%) of Hispanic origins. 44.9% of the population benefit from public assistance as of 2004, up from 32.7% in 2000. The land area is 1,894.4 acres, or 3.0 square miles (7.7 km²) respectively.

The board’s current Chairperson is Henry L. Butler and its District Manager is Charlene Phillips.

Community Board No.3 comprises of the following neighborhoods of Bedford-Stuyvesant, Stuyvesant Heights, and Ocean Hill in the borough of Brooklyn. It is delimited by Classon Avenue on the West, Flushing Avenue and Broadway on the North and Atlantic Avenue on the South and Saratoga Avenue on the East.

The most recently held meeting I attended was held on May 3rd 2010 at the Von King Cultural Center at 670 Lafayette Avenue at approximately 7:20pm. The meeting began with a warm welcome from the Chairperson who introduced the first presenter Ms. Melissa Lee from the Coalition of Bedford-Stuyvesant. Ms. Lee’s primary concern involved advising members on the importance of completing and returning their Census 2010 forms as the borough of Brooklyn lags behind in funding at a percentage of 50% as of the April 30th deadline.
The next presenter Ms. Sandra Cowello spoke about a grant that the Community Board received concerning the Von King Cultural Center programming for seniors. She embarked that the membership fee was ten dollars per year and that all has to be over the age of fifty-five for approval of membership and be a resident of any of the five boroughs.

The remarks for the Elected Officials portion of the agenda began with representation from the 79th Precinct in Brooklyn by Officer Brown and Captain William Bizcotti who announced the precinct’s new commanding officer-Inspector Peter Bartocuette PSA 7. To the Board’s surprise, they were not informed or aware of that sooner.

Following this was Ms. Tadia Arduso from the District Attorney’s Office publicizing that on Saturday May 8th would be another “pick up cash of guns” event in conjunction with the police department at a neighborhood center. She carefully stated that no questions will be asked nor will anyone will be arrested and that two hundred dollars will be collected per gun as an ongoing process to remove them off the streets.

One of the major discussions on the agenda was a public hearing spearheaded by C. Doris Pinn who is the current 1st Vice Chairperson of Community Board 3. She presented two Attorneys at Law who gave detailed information on the construction of a new department store at 912 Broadway. The hearing described that the 20,000 square fronts on Broadway and Stockton Avenues which encompassed 20% on residential district, proposed that the entire lot be used for commercial use. The application informed that the business owner as a successful entrepreneur and is the current President of the Business Improvement District and who also already runs two other department stores in the Flatbush area of Brooklyn. The difficulty was that although the property was already owned for twenty years, the application was not received by the Zoning Board and that approval thus far was consent of 19 persons from the Broadway Merchants Association. Some of the concerns of the Community Board members include:- failure to utilize the lot for two decades and now—new plans for development, the demographics of the persons to be hired whether they were in-store employees or contractors, the affect on the environment for residents pertaining to the regulations as well as how the construction at the site will disturb residents as well as how the hiring process will be conducted. Towards the end of the meeting the board had actually voted in favor of this new development at Broadway with some stipulations such better employment benefits, state of the art lighting at the site, no rolled down gates and that the owner should be engaged in community give backs to organizations as well as schools and so on –just to name a few of the conditions.

I was very moved by two of the informational presentations. The first was Ian Jack, Forestry, Department of Parks who was excited about the planting season for the Fall 2009/Spring 2010 period. He raised the issues in such a charismatic manner bringing the attention of the focus by the City of New York. This was to plant a new palate of trees which would allow scattering of species in the event of a blight and that these trees are grown with the ambition to live for over 150 years. He discussed the specificity of the trees that were cloned in an attempt to produce low pollen production as well and also answered questions in relation to fixing broken trees in conjunction with the Department of Transportation. The second informational presenter was Yonette Fleming, Founder of the Hattie Carthan Community Farmers Market. Ms. Fleming was very passionate about being a farmer that led to her forming her organization since 1991 as she tries to put into words what it took for her to develop this project from the ground up. She notified the board on the health equity affecting the Bedford-Stuyvesant area and the importance of implementation of new technologies for success and continual growth of the Farmers Market. She explained that up to this date, her involvement in educating the community by instructing 200 elementary school children on a weekly basis on the production of food as well as her 7 employed high school kids who she taught how to harvest food and versatility and the fertility of a compose heap. She also invited everyone for their support and gave the dates of the proposed open market days.
Another item on the agenda that endeavored to positively influence the youths of the neighborhood by putting on a spring kickoff starting May 25th. Representation was be done by young actor Ephraim Benton who was featured in newest films such as “Inside A Chance” as well as “Precious”. There will be screening “Inside A Chance” for the benefit of Haiti’s victims.

In all, the meeting was very well attended and many issues were raised by residents who obviously love and respect their environment. There is a wide array of events that are ongoing as well as in the works for the betterment of this community—for instance; all of the items discussed will be inclusive in a newsletter for the June Community Board meeting. There were 34 present board members and 14 absent members apart from regular community members who were about fifty plus in attendance and the meeting was adjourned at 9:38pm.

Activity 9 - Maria Popa

After a long search, I finally found an urban life blog that caught my attention - http://ps-chicagodailyphoto.blogspot.com/. Although this blog shows the city of Chicago only through photographs, it does accurately depict the diversity of the city. These beautiful photographs vary from skyscrapers lighting up the Chicago skyline, buildings covered in graffiti, interesting sculptures and architecture, and people going about their regular lives. One picture that especially captivated me was “Snow Showers.” The picture is blurry and the colors fade into each other, which to me shows the fast paced life style of the city and the blending of the various cultures within the city.

One of my favorite blogs was - http://londonwriting.blogspot.com/. This blog details the experiences of an American woman living in London. Her entries are well written, funny, and brief, which only made me want to read more. Her entries vary from urban shopping experiences, museum expositions, fashion trends and the daily routine. She talks about adjusting to life in London, and every time she talks about a new aspect of London she compares it to life in the U.S and it seems like she would rather be here. Despite her critical attitude, she defends herself in almost every single entry saying that she enjoys living in London.

Another blog I enjoyed was - http://mylifeinhayes.blogspot.com/, which details a woman’s life in San Francisco. I liked the simplicity of it; the pictures and the short entries focus on a single subject and make the blog very enjoyable to read. The brief entries focus on subjects varying from local coffee shops, surviving rush hour traffic, and parking issues. One of her blog entries is about her visit to New York in which she talks about encounters rude as well as friendly strangers, as well as feeling star struck while sitting next to Lou Reed and Antony Hegarty , even though I have no idea who they are.

I finally narrowed my search to read what other bloggers thing about New York. One of my favorite was http://sowonderfulandglamorous.blogspot.com/. The author talks about places in the city such as bars, stores, and local events varying from sample sales, happy hour specials, and new store openings. I think tourists would find this blog useful because it provides them with ideas of what to do around the city. Locals will also be interested because the blog focuses on daily things we all go through, like choosing fruit at the fruit stands, the MTA fair hike, and other urban issues. Another New York based blog was - http://anglo-brooklyn.blogspot.com. This blog follows an English man’s life in Brooklyn. His entries discuss everything from the local public school’s art project, to the magnificence of the sunset. Although many of his blogs focus on household tasks and walking his dogs, it offers a different side of living in NYC than what our blog does.

After my extensive research of urban life blogs, I now look differently at blogs. I’m surprised to see how passionate people are about blogging about their lives and their cities, simply for their pleasure and not just because they are required to do so for a college class. I left a comment on each of these blogs including my reaction to their entries and a link to our blog, encouraging them to read about experiences of New York.