ACTIVITY 8 - FIELD TRIP by Caitlin Butler

Activity 8 by Caitlin Butler

The first fieldtrip that we went to was St. Marks place. We met up at 1pm at Astor Place. We walked around St. Marks. It was amazing. The first thing that was so amazing about it was that it really felt like a small community, but yet so diverse. We walked past many shops, such as: tattoo parlors, piercing places, vintage clothing stores, and plenty of food places. We even stopped at a Tahini place. It was all Middle Eastern food. I had the chicken platter with rice and a salad. It was so good!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! At first I thought I would not like how it tasted, but once I did I was hooked right away! Our first real stop was at Tompkins Square Park, which was beautiful. I had never been there, but now I think it is my second favorite park now, beside Central Park. We stopped to look at the dog park there. There were little dogs, big dogs, and medium sized dogs. There must have been about 50 dogs there! It was amazing to watch them play with other dogs their own size of course. After that we went around 7th street and on. There we saw a couple of nice and colorful gardens. I thought to myself, how come my neighborhood isn’t as cool as this one is, with all its bright and colorful gardens and art all around. The look and feel to St. Marks was just so lively. As we walked for a long time, we also saw a Polish church. Johanna, who was our tour guide, told us that this church was very old. We then kept on walking, just observing the whole time. It was truly amazing. Another thing that was so nice about St. Marks was that everyone seemed friendly, standing the streets communicating with one another. It was just like Jane Jacobs pointed out in her book about how people in Boston were talking to one another in the streets and sidewalks. I am so going back there. Jacobs on page 30 also points out that the city streets are supposed to feel safe and to keep the city safe is a important task of a city’s streets and it’s sidewalks. I agree with Jane Jacobs. When we walked around St. Marks place and Dumbo, the streets to me felt completely safe. It made me want to just step out in the street and just stand there talking. You could actually do that where we were because the streets were very narrow at some parts and not many cars passed through it. It was overall just a really nice feeling. The use of sidewalks are a great way for having contact among people in general. Sidewalks I feel can almost be the new hangout spot sometimes. Jacobs says something very vital on page 140 that is important to point out. She says that cities, like anything else, succeed only by making the most of their assets. And that is exactly what our group did. We made the most out of the sidewalks and the streets. We used them the right way. That is the only true way that can give true strength to the cities, sidewalks and streets. Use them efficiently and well, and then it is guaranteed that the city will become stronger that way!
The next trip we went to was ours, to the Brooklyn Bridge. Maya was our tour guide for this. She told us that the building was built a long time ago and took about 4 or 5 years to finish it. It was built in the 1800’s. I have been to the bridge before. But the second time around, I really got to appreciate it more, because I actually took my time looking around, taking in the beautiful scenery in itself. We also took a nice group picture of all of us on the bridge. I love photos. They are just such nice memories. The bridge to me almost looks like an old castle. That is what I pictured the whole time. It looks old, because it is and just the way it was high up and stuff really made me think that way. The walk was very long, but at least it was a beautiful day out, where we could enjoy our walk. Then from there we walked to Dumbo, which was really nice, and had lots of cool art on the wall. The streets were very narrow and had stone pathways. I noticed that there were many photographers and video people doing work there. We must have seen about 4 people doing it. I was like wow; this place must be popular to shoot. Makes sense, it is really pretty and very urban looking. We ended up as our last and final stop at the Brooklyn waterfront Ice Cream place. The line was so long, I couldn’t believe it. The ice cream there is home made. I had the vanilla chocolate chip ice cream. It was so good!!! No wonder there was this long line that seemed to never end. We must have waited about 30 minutes before we got our ice cream. The building where the ice cream was, looked and reminded me of a lighthouse and a church at the same time. It was all white, red on the sides and some on top and green on the very top with green windows. It was really cute looking. Another thing I noticed was so many people from weddings came to this place to get their pictures taken. Even the newly engaged came too. The ice cream place is right near the water on the long flat wooden dock. So the scenery once again was amazing. We then ate our ice cream and just sat down by the dock talking and observing others. It was a really fun trip overall. I loved looking at everything, going to places I haven’t been before such as St. Marks and just hanging out with the two groups.