http://onlytheblogknowsbrooklyn.com/category/civics-and-urban-life/
This blog was amazing. The post up “Bensonhurst Explorations in Pizza” was awesomeee! Besides having amazing pictures of pizza that made me ridiculously hungry, it reminded me so much of the time we went on the “group field trip” and how we ate in Astor Place and at the Brooklyn Ice Cream Factory right under the Brooklyn Bridge. We, well I, didn’t take amazing pictures of our food or ice cream, for that matter, but the point is that this blog reminded me of that day and how much fun we had. I also love “New Billboards Say: Drink WAT-AAH” because I am absolutely how New Yorkers, mainly the bloggers of course, find so many things fascinating. I remember that that same day when our group went out, we were taking pictures of posters or art work all over the street, talking about it, sometimes laughing, sometimes thinking, and sometimes noticing how messed up it all was.
http://savannahurbanstudies.blogspot.com/search?updated-max=2008-03-22T19%3A27%3A00-05%3A00&max-results=1
Digital Tourism in Savannah “...such things [beauty and charm of the Savannah's historic district] do not guarantee that tourism in Savannah will prevail in the 21st century. The characters of tourists in the 21st century differ from those in previous centuries. The rapid technology changes transform the characters of tourists and subsequently change the demand of tourism.”
I wanted to comment in how much NYC and Savannah, GA are different. I don’t think ANYTHING could ever stop tourism in NYC. NO technology, no changes in people. New York City will always be the amazing, bright, full of life city and nothing beats that. Although I love quiet, suburban areas with lots of green areas, I always grew up in the city- in the capital, center of all attraction, in Uruguay (my country of birth) and I’ve lived in Queens and travelled back and forth to Manhattan for ten years now. What’s more, while tourism in Savannah may be dropping as people become less interested, no tourist seizes to be amazed at the beauty and greatness of New York City, babyyyy!!!!
http://johnson.blogs.nytimes.com/ ****
The City as Fortress: “There are good reasons, as I’ve discussed over the past few weeks, to preserve urban density. But that density creates an opportunity for terrorism; it’s not an accident that the most high-profile European and American attacks of the past few years have all targeted emblems of metropolitan living: subways, commuter trains and office buildings.”
Terrorism will exist wherever, whenever. It’s obvious that attacks will occur where there are the most people. The purpose, I assume, of a terrorist attacking is to kill as many people as possible and cause as much suffering they possibly can. Why attack the empty state of Wyoming when NYC is packed with people? I agree with the blog as a whole and I found it very interesting since it is not much I pay attention to. Steven Johnson here, after a long explanation of terrorism in NY, London and Madrid claims that whatever the situation, “it’s not worth building fortress cities, or giving up on the idea of density altogether” and I completely back this up. I never been to Madrid or London, but I can speak from experience about NYC. It is this diverse urban density that makes the city so great.
http://www.newcolonist.com/
The New York Flaneurs: “I sadly believe, however, that the New York "flaneur" is a dying breed. You can tell by the rapidity of movement, the glazed looks, even the quickness and carelessness with which we tear down old beautiful buildings to replace them with bland facades of dull white brick.”
Oh the lovely Flaneurs! The very first work in learned in Urban Studies Class. I loved reading this blog. Sadly I couldn’t comment on it (strangely, there was no “comment” button anywhere.) It’s great how the people that have not been in NYC for as much as I have and caught up with the hype of this city notice how fast everything moves here. I remember when we did the first activity “on being a Flaneur” how different it was from being part of the action of what seems speed walking to every person not in as much hurry as the rest of the city is. I agree with David Willems (author of this blog) how “the New York "flaneur" is a dying breed.” It’s totally true. The movement of NYC doesn’t allow for just walking around and observing. If you are born and raised a New Yorker, you miss out all of the amazing things this city has to offer. I was not born or raised here, but I caught up fast to the lifestyle. My mom constantly reprimands me for losing my sense of awe that I had when I first arrived. I know that my teammate Zack is utterly fascinated with everything he sees everywhere he goes because he hasn’t been here long. This sense of awe is lost by all New Yorkers that’s why the flaneurs there are “a dying breed.”
http://newyorkdailyphoto.blogspot.com/
White Sauce: “One of the extraordinarily fascinating facets of New York City life is the ethnic concentration that you often find in various businesses and enterprises. And one of those enjoyed by all is the cuisine. This is what makes New York a literal smorgasbord of delectable food from all corners of the globe and one of the biggest allures of the city to visitors.’
I just love how New Yorkers have that intense need to have one comment or the other about its food. Being the diverse city that it is, you find any kind of food at mostly any corner. This blog is all about the Halal Food Indian Carts that are located in almost every corner. I laughed while reading it because there is two right by Hunter- one right in front of Hunter West and another one around the corner. And more so in Manhattan than any other borough, you find not only these carts but so many other foods, for all likes, from all origins. I was amazed by this, too, when I first arrived to New York. The diversity of people and life shocked me since I was so used to the same old every day for my ten young years in Uruguay.
Thursday, May 6, 2010
Zachary - Book Report
In Behind the Gates: Life, Security, and the Pursuit of Happiness in Fortress America, Setha Low combines techniques of personal narrative, ethnography, and social theory to problematize the growth of gated communities in American suburbs. Her analysis does not focus so much on the often times tense relationship between suburban and inner-city residential development, but on the precise characteristics of a gated community that set it apart from suburban development generally. "Even though the gated community evolved from suburban designs and development practices and responds to middle-class values and desires, this housing solution is distinctive in its political significance and potentially disruptive consequences, and must be understood in terms of how it changes the social organization of the neighborhood and a sense of community and security for individuals." (Pg. 52)
Gated communities have existed since European settlers began migrating to North America and began as a defense against the indigenous populations. With the subsequent extermination of these populations, however, defensive walls surrounding European colonists ceased to be necessary. (Pg. 14) Gated communities that function as an exclusionary status symbol of the American ruling class date back to the mid-nineteenth century, but did not take on their present form and enter the current period of explosive growth until the 1980s. (Pg. 14) In 2001, "7,058,427, or 5.9 percent of households reporting that they live in communities, live in those surrounded by walls or fences, and 4,013,665 households or 3.4 percent, live in communities where the access is controlled by some means such as entry codes, key cards, or security gate approval." (Pg. 15) This represents a massive increase, as even in 1995 only four million people lived in gated communities. (Pg. 15)
This growth points towards the question that motivates Low's book: given that gated communities are, in fact, no safer than comparable, non-gated suburban developments, what motivates people to move to them? This question is further complicated by the substantial sacrifice of personal freedoms that residents frequently make in conforming the often-extensive rules and regulations established by homeowner associations in these developments and by the substantial cost associated with maintaining gates and guards. Low argues that the driving force behind the growth of gated communities is primarily symbolic and psychological and that it is not actual well-being but a sense of well-being rooted in complex, multi-faceted social factors. (Pg. 11)
An important psychological factor that motivates many of the subjects Low interviews to move to gated communities is a search for community. "The important elements of community-shared territory, shared values, shared public realm, shared support structures, and shared destiny-are all part of the gated community package." (Pg. 57) The material basis that secures these commonalities is two-fold. First, gated communities tend towards homogeneity in housing prices because of the high cost of security and amenities fees in most gated communities. (Pg. 46) Second, most gated communities are privately owned and enforce rules through "covenants, contracts, and deed restrictions (CC&Rs)" (Pg. 19) that dictate the terms under which residents may move into a development. Both of these factors have a homogenizing effect that tends to select residents that share values and lifestyles and that binds those residents together by creating a common set of norms and regulations.
These material elements, however, may not actually create a sense of community for residents. Despite frequently citing the desire for community as an important reason for moving to a gated community, the majority of residents of gated communities do not feel that their gated community provides a sense of community. (Pg. 70) Low suggests that gated communities may actually exacerbate feelings of isolation by intensifying the division between insiders and outsiders.
This division between insiders and outsiders touches on another crucial aspect of Low's investigation. The fear of others strongly motivates many people to move to gated communities. A host of factors that range from status anxiety to fear of crime to concerns about terrorism to outright bigotry give rise to the figures of otherness that permeate the culture of gated communities. For instance, in an extraordinary number of interviews that Low conducted, subjects casually made reference to a fear of construction workers who entered the community to do maintenance and repairs and to build new homes. (Pg. 59, 98, 102, 147,150) These fears tend to be deeply radicalized and motivate the construction of spaces of whiteness that in turn reinforce the fear of others. "Racist fears about the "threat" of a visible minority...are remarkably similar. This is because many neighborhoods in the United States are racially homogenous. Thus, the physical space of the neighborhood and its racial composition become synonymous. This "racialized" spatial ordering and the identification of a space with a group of people is a fundamental aspect of how suburban landscapes reinforce racial prejudice and discrimination." (Pg. 146)
This insistence that the organization of space is not just consequence but cause of social and political tensions is for me the crux of Low's analysis and the main intersection between her book and our class. She at no point attempts to fully diagnose the complex reasons why people move to gated communities nor does she try to attribute them to some fundamental cause. Instead, she provides a multitude of analytic tools for understanding this phenomenon and, above all else, lets her interviewees speak for themselves. In this way she raises more questions than she answers, but this is as it should be.
What does become clear is that exclusion is spatialized and self-perpetuating, For instance, fear of crime is a strong motivating factor for people who move to gated communities. However, spatial separation and isolation from surrounding communities tends to perpetuate and reinforce the fear of crime and victimization. Thus, gated communities form, in a sense, a self-reinforcing system of exclusion and fear that has disastrous political and social consequences. If ever there was an argument for analyzing cities and neighborhoods as a confluence of social, psychological, and political factors then this is it. That cities are not only built from out political and social imagination, but help to create and recreate it means that only a sustained and critical intervention into the techniques and process that construct cities can provide alternatives to what are, in many cases, flawed and dangerous ways of thinking about and planning cities and neighborhood. By laying bare the assumptions, motives, and desires of people who move to gated communities, then, Low allows us to rethink this phenomenon.
Gated communities have existed since European settlers began migrating to North America and began as a defense against the indigenous populations. With the subsequent extermination of these populations, however, defensive walls surrounding European colonists ceased to be necessary. (Pg. 14) Gated communities that function as an exclusionary status symbol of the American ruling class date back to the mid-nineteenth century, but did not take on their present form and enter the current period of explosive growth until the 1980s. (Pg. 14) In 2001, "7,058,427, or 5.9 percent of households reporting that they live in communities, live in those surrounded by walls or fences, and 4,013,665 households or 3.4 percent, live in communities where the access is controlled by some means such as entry codes, key cards, or security gate approval." (Pg. 15) This represents a massive increase, as even in 1995 only four million people lived in gated communities. (Pg. 15)
This growth points towards the question that motivates Low's book: given that gated communities are, in fact, no safer than comparable, non-gated suburban developments, what motivates people to move to them? This question is further complicated by the substantial sacrifice of personal freedoms that residents frequently make in conforming the often-extensive rules and regulations established by homeowner associations in these developments and by the substantial cost associated with maintaining gates and guards. Low argues that the driving force behind the growth of gated communities is primarily symbolic and psychological and that it is not actual well-being but a sense of well-being rooted in complex, multi-faceted social factors. (Pg. 11)
An important psychological factor that motivates many of the subjects Low interviews to move to gated communities is a search for community. "The important elements of community-shared territory, shared values, shared public realm, shared support structures, and shared destiny-are all part of the gated community package." (Pg. 57) The material basis that secures these commonalities is two-fold. First, gated communities tend towards homogeneity in housing prices because of the high cost of security and amenities fees in most gated communities. (Pg. 46) Second, most gated communities are privately owned and enforce rules through "covenants, contracts, and deed restrictions (CC&Rs)" (Pg. 19) that dictate the terms under which residents may move into a development. Both of these factors have a homogenizing effect that tends to select residents that share values and lifestyles and that binds those residents together by creating a common set of norms and regulations.
These material elements, however, may not actually create a sense of community for residents. Despite frequently citing the desire for community as an important reason for moving to a gated community, the majority of residents of gated communities do not feel that their gated community provides a sense of community. (Pg. 70) Low suggests that gated communities may actually exacerbate feelings of isolation by intensifying the division between insiders and outsiders.
This division between insiders and outsiders touches on another crucial aspect of Low's investigation. The fear of others strongly motivates many people to move to gated communities. A host of factors that range from status anxiety to fear of crime to concerns about terrorism to outright bigotry give rise to the figures of otherness that permeate the culture of gated communities. For instance, in an extraordinary number of interviews that Low conducted, subjects casually made reference to a fear of construction workers who entered the community to do maintenance and repairs and to build new homes. (Pg. 59, 98, 102, 147,150) These fears tend to be deeply radicalized and motivate the construction of spaces of whiteness that in turn reinforce the fear of others. "Racist fears about the "threat" of a visible minority...are remarkably similar. This is because many neighborhoods in the United States are racially homogenous. Thus, the physical space of the neighborhood and its racial composition become synonymous. This "racialized" spatial ordering and the identification of a space with a group of people is a fundamental aspect of how suburban landscapes reinforce racial prejudice and discrimination." (Pg. 146)
This insistence that the organization of space is not just consequence but cause of social and political tensions is for me the crux of Low's analysis and the main intersection between her book and our class. She at no point attempts to fully diagnose the complex reasons why people move to gated communities nor does she try to attribute them to some fundamental cause. Instead, she provides a multitude of analytic tools for understanding this phenomenon and, above all else, lets her interviewees speak for themselves. In this way she raises more questions than she answers, but this is as it should be.
What does become clear is that exclusion is spatialized and self-perpetuating, For instance, fear of crime is a strong motivating factor for people who move to gated communities. However, spatial separation and isolation from surrounding communities tends to perpetuate and reinforce the fear of crime and victimization. Thus, gated communities form, in a sense, a self-reinforcing system of exclusion and fear that has disastrous political and social consequences. If ever there was an argument for analyzing cities and neighborhoods as a confluence of social, psychological, and political factors then this is it. That cities are not only built from out political and social imagination, but help to create and recreate it means that only a sustained and critical intervention into the techniques and process that construct cities can provide alternatives to what are, in many cases, flawed and dangerous ways of thinking about and planning cities and neighborhood. By laying bare the assumptions, motives, and desires of people who move to gated communities, then, Low allows us to rethink this phenomenon.
ACTIVITY 10- Freshkills Park by CAITLIN BUTLER
On Wed. May 5th, 2010 I went on a fieldtrip to Freshkills Park with other people from my Urban Studies class. At first I was confused at what time exactly I had to catch the ferry, but I ended up taking the ferry in time, which was good. The ferry to Staten Island was free! That was the best part. When I first got on the ferry, I could not believe how big it was. It reminded me of the Titanic ship. I am used to taking ferries when I go out to Long Island for the summer, but this boat was ten times bigger than the one I take. When we got off the ferry, we met up with Dough, our tour guide at Au Bon Pain. Then we all went on the bus and drove for half an hour until we reached Freshkills Park in Staten Island. Dough told us about the park itself and how it used to be one of the biggest landfills in New York. The New York City Department of Parks and Recreation team are working to rebuild the landfill into a Freshkills park, so that the public could enjoy activities such as biking, hiking, skiing, baseball park, kayaking, etc. In the New York Article it said how there are lots of birders that come to Freshkills Park to watch all the different types of birds there. Even Dough told us how there are lots of birds here. And while on the bus he pointed out to us this big nest that this bird was in. The bird was huge! I forget what kind it was but it was a grayish colored bird, watching over its babies. It was very cool thing to see. I love nature and animals so for me it was pretty cool. I wish I could have spotted a red-tailed hawk on this trip though. O well, I can always come back once the park opens up to the public, which Dough said would open up sometime next year. I was really shocked when Dough told us that FreshKills Park will be the second largest Park next to Pelham Bay Park. I did not know that. See what you can learn just by listening to your tour guide! In the NY Times article titled, “Turning Trash Piles Into a Bird-Watcher’s Paradise”, the birders were complaining how now there aren’t enough birds that they can see, compared to when it was a dump. They said they couldn’t see the birds now because they had closed down their food sources. There are now only hundreds are low thousands bird remaining in the park compared to more in the past before the rebuilding of the landfill. The thing that also shocked me was when we were asked in the bus to sign this sheet of paper that promised not to hold the Sanitation Department responsible for injuries or death at the landfill. I was like well why are they taking us where it is dangerous. But it ended up being okay anyways. There was no danger there that I could sense. So, I was also very happy about that! Dough took us to see North and South mound, but it will soon be called North and South Park once the park opens up to the public. North mound was much taller than South mound. It went up to 150 feet as the NY times article stated. When I saw it, it looked very big. It also says how it will be a viewing platform there for the birders, which should make all the birders out there very happy. As long as no one hurts the wildlife there, I am all for the platform building. When Dough took us out onto the stones to step on, I asked him a question. I asked him if anyone can just come up here on their own and he said no. The only way you can come up here is through the tour. I wanted to know this question because I am interested in shooting up there with my camera. I really liked the scenery of the place. It was overall very open, green and calm looking. Another thing that I learned from Dough was how Freshkill park get its name. Dough said that the name means fresh water in Dutch, which makes total sense if one thinks about it. He also said that some people in Staten Island were confused on the new park being built. Some wanted this and some did not. I really liked this trip overall. Besides the hassle of actually getting there, it was really all worth it in the end. I got to learn about things I did not know before and I got to see just how beautiful this park is and is going to be. It’s incredible how something so disgusting like a waste fill place can get built into something really nice. Now, I will just have to wait and see the new park when it actually opens up and do some of the activities there!
Wednesday, May 5, 2010
COMMUNITY BOARD MEETING BY CAITLIN BUTLER
On April 15,2010 I went to the Community Board 5 meeting. It was located on 27street between 6th and 7th avenue. The meeting started at 6pm. I am guess that the meeting was held here because it is safe, clean, protected, monitored, and easy to get to. Midtown is surrounded by major transportation areas, such as Grand Central, Penn Station and Port Authority. Without these places, people would have a very hard time getting around. It is a business area as well as a tourist area, great for sightseeing such as the empire state building, the observation, and radio city music hall.
The Community Board 5 main goal is to address issues such as: homelessness, security, new developments, noise, traffic, zoning, school and library funding. This community board exists because it’s a way for regular folks to get involved in their own local communities and address what issues that they may have. The Community Board’s boundaries are from 3rd to 8th avenues from 14th street to 59th street. At the meeting, it was mostly white men, but there were also women there. The men were dressed all in business suites, which I guess would make sense since they probably all, came from work. There were men of all ages there, but it was mostly older men in their 40’s and higher. The meeting began with the public having two minutes each to address their concerns about their neighborhood. At first this wasn’t going so well, because not everyone followed the two-minute rule. It was getting a little out of hand. Then the woman who was in charge had to warn the people to really take only two minutes because of so many speakers that still had to speak out. The layout of the place was there was a big round table that wrapped around and that was for the committee group only. Then you had behind them all other chairs for the public to sit at. It was very crowded. Some people even had to stand and wait there turn to speak. If you had to speak, you had to sign up your name before you came inside. There was this one particular police officer to spoke out at the meeting about the Times Square shooting which occurred on Easter Sunday. He said that 250 cops were working that day. There was 50 adults and 10 juvenile arrested. 2 of them were affiliated with a gang. It is terrible how anyone can do street fighting to the point of death. It is quite shocking to me.
The second thing mentioned at this meeting was the building of a tall building about 1,200 feet wide by Vornado. They want to build this at 15 Penn Plaza. A lot of people was in favor for this happening, because they said it would increase for jobs, it would make a easier for people to travel in Penn Station, and it would bring business around the areas, during these tough economic times. The main purpose for this is transit improvement for the commuters going to and from work. This one Chinese man names Jim spoke and said that this would be a great thing to do because he is frustrated at the fact that there is not enough space on the sidewalk for him to go to Penn Station. Building this tall building would make an easy access to Penn Station for him and others he said. It would also clean up the streets if this building were built, according to some. The Land Use and Zoning Committee apposed to having this building built. They said that it was insufficient to clearing out the big crowds at Penn Station. Also they had a problem with this because they said the building is just too tall to be built. It would be considered the second largest building after the Empire State Building, which honestly in my opinion, do we need another tall building like that? I personally do not need another tall building blocking the sunlight from my day. I spoke to this one woman asking her why she attended the meeting today? She said she attended the meeting because she doesn’t want the official to shut down Hotel Penn, because of its beautifulness. She wants to see what will happen to this building. I then asked her, how did she find out about this particular board meeting and she said they had pamphlets in the hotel. This was her first community board meeting that she has gone to. Her name is Mekala and she lives in Queens. She was very funny I must say. Throughout the meeting she was making face gestures, and noises at some of the people who were speaking. She couldn’t believe at what some of the people there were saying. She was overall very friendly though. I thought parts of this meeting were confusing, and some people repeated things over and over. I am not going to lie; the meeting was kind of long and boring. But still interesting to actually experience a community board meeting and see what was bothering some people. Now I can say that I have been to a Community Board meeting before!
On April 15,2010 I went to the Community Board 5 meeting. It was located on 27street between 6th and 7th avenue. The meeting started at 6pm. I am guess that the meeting was held here because it is safe, clean, protected, monitored, and easy to get to. Midtown is surrounded by major transportation areas, such as Grand Central, Penn Station and Port Authority. Without these places, people would have a very hard time getting around. It is a business area as well as a tourist area, great for sightseeing such as the empire state building, the observation, and radio city music hall.
The Community Board 5 main goal is to address issues such as: homelessness, security, new developments, noise, traffic, zoning, school and library funding. This community board exists because it’s a way for regular folks to get involved in their own local communities and address what issues that they may have. The Community Board’s boundaries are from 3rd to 8th avenues from 14th street to 59th street. At the meeting, it was mostly white men, but there were also women there. The men were dressed all in business suites, which I guess would make sense since they probably all, came from work. There were men of all ages there, but it was mostly older men in their 40’s and higher. The meeting began with the public having two minutes each to address their concerns about their neighborhood. At first this wasn’t going so well, because not everyone followed the two-minute rule. It was getting a little out of hand. Then the woman who was in charge had to warn the people to really take only two minutes because of so many speakers that still had to speak out. The layout of the place was there was a big round table that wrapped around and that was for the committee group only. Then you had behind them all other chairs for the public to sit at. It was very crowded. Some people even had to stand and wait there turn to speak. If you had to speak, you had to sign up your name before you came inside. There was this one particular police officer to spoke out at the meeting about the Times Square shooting which occurred on Easter Sunday. He said that 250 cops were working that day. There was 50 adults and 10 juvenile arrested. 2 of them were affiliated with a gang. It is terrible how anyone can do street fighting to the point of death. It is quite shocking to me.
The second thing mentioned at this meeting was the building of a tall building about 1,200 feet wide by Vornado. They want to build this at 15 Penn Plaza. A lot of people was in favor for this happening, because they said it would increase for jobs, it would make a easier for people to travel in Penn Station, and it would bring business around the areas, during these tough economic times. The main purpose for this is transit improvement for the commuters going to and from work. This one Chinese man names Jim spoke and said that this would be a great thing to do because he is frustrated at the fact that there is not enough space on the sidewalk for him to go to Penn Station. Building this tall building would make an easy access to Penn Station for him and others he said. It would also clean up the streets if this building were built, according to some. The Land Use and Zoning Committee apposed to having this building built. They said that it was insufficient to clearing out the big crowds at Penn Station. Also they had a problem with this because they said the building is just too tall to be built. It would be considered the second largest building after the Empire State Building, which honestly in my opinion, do we need another tall building like that? I personally do not need another tall building blocking the sunlight from my day. I spoke to this one woman asking her why she attended the meeting today? She said she attended the meeting because she doesn’t want the official to shut down Hotel Penn, because of its beautifulness. She wants to see what will happen to this building. I then asked her, how did she find out about this particular board meeting and she said they had pamphlets in the hotel. This was her first community board meeting that she has gone to. Her name is Mekala and she lives in Queens. She was very funny I must say. Throughout the meeting she was making face gestures, and noises at some of the people who were speaking. She couldn’t believe at what some of the people there were saying. She was overall very friendly though. I thought parts of this meeting were confusing, and some people repeated things over and over. I am not going to lie; the meeting was kind of long and boring. But still interesting to actually experience a community board meeting and see what was bothering some people. Now I can say that I have been to a Community Board meeting before!
"There Goes the Hood" - Book Review Lorraine
Lorraine O’Connell
Urban Studies Book Review
In the book “There Goes the Hood” by Lance Freeman, Lance Freeman is out on a quest to truly figure out what impact gentrification has on neighborhoods that are directly linked to it. To fully understand the meaning of the book we first need to understand what gentrification is, “to transform a run-down or aging neighborhood into a more prosperous one, e.g. through investment in remodeling buildings or houses” (Webster Dictionary). But the difference in this definition and the Urban Studies dictionary is that the Urban Studies definition includes the actual living aspects of the neighborhood. Meaning in remodeling a neighborhood for the sake of it being more prosperous we are losing all other aspects of the neighborhood that makes it what it is in the first place. Examples of that are the culture, the language, the religion, the cultural integration in the building structures and so forth. In removing a neighborhood for the purpose of making it prosperous is unrealistic. Questions that could and should be raised is what makes a neighborhood un- prosperous, unvalued, and run down that the government claims the right to take it down and run the people who live there out. These questions along with other concerns are addressed in the book with full satisfaction.
In reading this book I have learned to hate the political system and government more now than I already did before. Yes I am aware of a lot of the cruel and absurd things the government and people with money can do but in reading this they have taken it to a whole other level. The fact that people with money have the opportunity to say that a neighborhood is unworthy of existing just because it may be on the poorer side is just insane. Questions I ask myself then are what makes the neighborhood poor and who exactly goes out looking for these neighborhoods? But in realizing that the majority of the people who are using gentrification to their advantage are for the most part rich white men and they being ignorant and very judgmental usually go for the neighborhoods that are classified as the hood or slum. In the book the two areas in which Lance Freeman study are Harlem and Clinton Hill, neighborhoods that for the most part get a bad rap. To be honest I had only heard of Harlem before reading this book and I didn’t think it was a terrible place. Yes it once had an extremely bad rap which encouraged people not to go there but recently it has picked up and gotten better but because of its past it still gets a bad image. I had never heard of Clinton Hill before reading the book and now that I’ve read the book I would love to go and visit it for the sake of extra research. Lance Freeman does something that is unlike many other writers he focuses not on the statistics but the actual findings he himself does while visiting the neighborhoods and through the interviewing of the people who are directly affected by the issue. “Despite all the changes, however, one could also point to conditions that symbolized anything but gentrification. Public housing are still major features of the landscape, and abandoned buildings and vacant lots have not yet completely disappeared. …Despite all the talk of gentrification, one would not confuse Harlem with Park Slope or the Upper West Side, two other New York neighborhoods with a history of gentrification. As a visitor from Australia remarked to me, ‘Harlem seems to be resisting gentrification pretty well’” (Freeman, 29). In reading the book we become more and more aware of how Harlem is somehow resisting gentrification and that it is not something that should be of concern for the people. But even after reading the book I am still unclear has to who decides if gentrification occurs, and how does it even begin in the first place. What justifies a person’s ability to overtake an entire neighborhood for the sake of making a new one that is supposed to be bigger and better but to be honest it never is bigger and better it just causes more displacement of people and a new creation of a new hood somewhere else. What is the sense in that? Another shocker from the book is the two sided argument, in picking up the book I expected everything within the book would be bashing the topic and implementation of gentrification but to my surprise there were some positive aspects to the whole issue of gentrification.
A specific example from the text that surprised me where the comments about gentrification being a positive aspect in a neighborhood, one being their neighborhood is brought into the limelight of the mainstream American culture, their neighborhood becomes something people other than themselves talk about. As well as the bringing of businesses into the area that other neighborhoods may take for granted because those qualities are so prominent in other neighborhoods. And the greatest aspect was the concept of upward mobility without having to leave the comfort of home, where they’ve grown up for years now. But then the negative aspects of gentrification of course shut down a lot of these thoughts. “In Clinton Hill and Harlem, gentrification thus poses dilemma. It was acknowledged to bring good, but it also created a foreboding of things to come. A fear of displacement hung in the air. This fear of displacement played a significant role in the negative sentiment that was sometimes expressed toward gentrification”(Freeman,94).The main one being why is necessary to have the whites be the sole reason for a neighborhood to improve, that only brings more issues of discrimination, redlining, and overall a push to keep the white rich men up on top so the rest can be pushed down and kept underneath them. It is an incredible concept and one that has been used for years now. In thinking of gentrification I think of colonialism, we have just adapted the concept to modern day life, changing the name so it sounds fancier and more socially accepting.
The book is directly connected to our studies in class because it incorporates a lot of what we have talked about from spacing(its privatization, gendered), the breakup of cities in general to specific areas, community involvement/ advocacy, private versus public spacing and most importantly Gentrification and the Image of a city. It is obvious how Freeman address gentrification because it is one of his main ides in writing the book but the image of a city isn’t as clear. The way I take it and understand this topic is that the reasoning behind gentrification is how a city is viewed in the public eye. Depending on how you view a city depends on how successful or tragic it is. When told a name of the city you automatically have a picture or image in your mind stating all its flaws and perfections which is what I mean by the topic of city imaging. It is an interesting concept and something I think more Urban Studies writers, professors and people in general need to elaborate more one.
Urban Studies Book Review
In the book “There Goes the Hood” by Lance Freeman, Lance Freeman is out on a quest to truly figure out what impact gentrification has on neighborhoods that are directly linked to it. To fully understand the meaning of the book we first need to understand what gentrification is, “to transform a run-down or aging neighborhood into a more prosperous one, e.g. through investment in remodeling buildings or houses” (Webster Dictionary). But the difference in this definition and the Urban Studies dictionary is that the Urban Studies definition includes the actual living aspects of the neighborhood. Meaning in remodeling a neighborhood for the sake of it being more prosperous we are losing all other aspects of the neighborhood that makes it what it is in the first place. Examples of that are the culture, the language, the religion, the cultural integration in the building structures and so forth. In removing a neighborhood for the purpose of making it prosperous is unrealistic. Questions that could and should be raised is what makes a neighborhood un- prosperous, unvalued, and run down that the government claims the right to take it down and run the people who live there out. These questions along with other concerns are addressed in the book with full satisfaction.
In reading this book I have learned to hate the political system and government more now than I already did before. Yes I am aware of a lot of the cruel and absurd things the government and people with money can do but in reading this they have taken it to a whole other level. The fact that people with money have the opportunity to say that a neighborhood is unworthy of existing just because it may be on the poorer side is just insane. Questions I ask myself then are what makes the neighborhood poor and who exactly goes out looking for these neighborhoods? But in realizing that the majority of the people who are using gentrification to their advantage are for the most part rich white men and they being ignorant and very judgmental usually go for the neighborhoods that are classified as the hood or slum. In the book the two areas in which Lance Freeman study are Harlem and Clinton Hill, neighborhoods that for the most part get a bad rap. To be honest I had only heard of Harlem before reading this book and I didn’t think it was a terrible place. Yes it once had an extremely bad rap which encouraged people not to go there but recently it has picked up and gotten better but because of its past it still gets a bad image. I had never heard of Clinton Hill before reading the book and now that I’ve read the book I would love to go and visit it for the sake of extra research. Lance Freeman does something that is unlike many other writers he focuses not on the statistics but the actual findings he himself does while visiting the neighborhoods and through the interviewing of the people who are directly affected by the issue. “Despite all the changes, however, one could also point to conditions that symbolized anything but gentrification. Public housing are still major features of the landscape, and abandoned buildings and vacant lots have not yet completely disappeared. …Despite all the talk of gentrification, one would not confuse Harlem with Park Slope or the Upper West Side, two other New York neighborhoods with a history of gentrification. As a visitor from Australia remarked to me, ‘Harlem seems to be resisting gentrification pretty well’” (Freeman, 29). In reading the book we become more and more aware of how Harlem is somehow resisting gentrification and that it is not something that should be of concern for the people. But even after reading the book I am still unclear has to who decides if gentrification occurs, and how does it even begin in the first place. What justifies a person’s ability to overtake an entire neighborhood for the sake of making a new one that is supposed to be bigger and better but to be honest it never is bigger and better it just causes more displacement of people and a new creation of a new hood somewhere else. What is the sense in that? Another shocker from the book is the two sided argument, in picking up the book I expected everything within the book would be bashing the topic and implementation of gentrification but to my surprise there were some positive aspects to the whole issue of gentrification.
A specific example from the text that surprised me where the comments about gentrification being a positive aspect in a neighborhood, one being their neighborhood is brought into the limelight of the mainstream American culture, their neighborhood becomes something people other than themselves talk about. As well as the bringing of businesses into the area that other neighborhoods may take for granted because those qualities are so prominent in other neighborhoods. And the greatest aspect was the concept of upward mobility without having to leave the comfort of home, where they’ve grown up for years now. But then the negative aspects of gentrification of course shut down a lot of these thoughts. “In Clinton Hill and Harlem, gentrification thus poses dilemma. It was acknowledged to bring good, but it also created a foreboding of things to come. A fear of displacement hung in the air. This fear of displacement played a significant role in the negative sentiment that was sometimes expressed toward gentrification”(Freeman,94).The main one being why is necessary to have the whites be the sole reason for a neighborhood to improve, that only brings more issues of discrimination, redlining, and overall a push to keep the white rich men up on top so the rest can be pushed down and kept underneath them. It is an incredible concept and one that has been used for years now. In thinking of gentrification I think of colonialism, we have just adapted the concept to modern day life, changing the name so it sounds fancier and more socially accepting.
The book is directly connected to our studies in class because it incorporates a lot of what we have talked about from spacing(its privatization, gendered), the breakup of cities in general to specific areas, community involvement/ advocacy, private versus public spacing and most importantly Gentrification and the Image of a city. It is obvious how Freeman address gentrification because it is one of his main ides in writing the book but the image of a city isn’t as clear. The way I take it and understand this topic is that the reasoning behind gentrification is how a city is viewed in the public eye. Depending on how you view a city depends on how successful or tragic it is. When told a name of the city you automatically have a picture or image in your mind stating all its flaws and perfections which is what I mean by the topic of city imaging. It is an interesting concept and something I think more Urban Studies writers, professors and people in general need to elaborate more one.
Tuesday, May 4, 2010
BLOGGING ASSIGNMENT BY CAITLIN BUTLER
www.onephotographaday.com is a blog about a man named Luis Gomez who goes around taking photos all over Washington DC. Every Day he goes out and photographs one photo a day. I thought that this relates to our own urban life blog because like him, we too go out to take pictures of the city, just not Washington. We take pictures of life in New York City. Both we and this man photograph what we see in the urban area, which I think is really important because you get to see how people live their lives in the city. It is important to show different aspects and perspectives of the city and the people that live in it because everyone is different in different cities. Plus, photographs are a great way to capture life in a city and it lasts forever. In our blogs, I like how we have to photograph the place we go to and the people in it. It is great way to make something worth while, so that other people and not just ourselves can learn about different places and cultures.
www.urbanblink.blogspot.com is a blog about a New York based photographer named DeAngela Napier and she photographs the streets of New York. She says that Beauty is in the eye of the beholder and boy do I believe in that saying. She photographs everything in the city that she thinks is beautiful to her and that is exactly what I do in my blog as well. I also try to capture things in the city that are appealing to me as well. Her theme is similar to that of our blog for Urban Studies because we both photograph the streets of the city in New York. Like I said before photography is vital because it captures a certain image for a lifetime. It will always be there to reflect and look back on. Photography is a great way to express yourselves and that is why our teacher makes us put pictures on out blogs, and I just love that!!!!!
www.urbanzenfoundation.org is about an organization that creates, collobrates and connects awareness in order to bring change to the children and in areas. This is similar in the same theme as our blogs because both blogs creates awareness in what each person writes in their blogs. In this blog, they are trying to bring unity in people all around. And in our blog we are bringing awareness to the city life to anyone who may not know about urban life and what it has to offer. Awareness is very vital in trying to convey and get across a certain theme or message overall to the public. The message we want to get across is to better the city in some ways and to educate others about the city that we college students live in. Everything we write in our blogs in vital . You get to learn about something that you may not known about before. And in the urbanzen website, people too get to learn about bringing awareness to the children of Africa, etc. and to help the people who are less fortunate. Both blogs tie in to the theme of helping, caring, and educating others in what stands as important.
www.flaneurphotoblog.blogspot.com is about a man’s journey of taking photograph’s of different places he has been to. For example on his blog you will see photographs of London’s building, L.A.’s buildings and Turkey and Netherlands buildings. He takes pictures of what fascinates him about each place that he visits. This is like our blogs in Urban Studies because we too photograph what fascinates us about the city in which we are in that moment. That is the what both of these blogs have in common. This guy is very similar in how he describes the things that he sees to our blogs. Each time he photographs a photo he tells us a little about each photo. I think this is vital because lets say something photographs a picture without any description. This really doesn’t serve a purpose because your reader will be lost and confused. The title of this person’s blog is flaneur photo blog. Flaneur is an acitivty we did in our own urban studies class. This is the same theme that both of his and my blog have in common. We are both flaneurs of the city in which we are in.
www.urbanindy.com is about also about a man who takes pictures where he is. Except this blog is more personal. He photographs things in his hometown in Indianapolis. He too photographs and writes about what he sees and what is important to him. The theme here is he writes about the history and the present stuff about Indianapolis. That to me is very important because why just photograph the present without knowing the history behind it. This is similar to our blogs because we always write and talk about the history of a place. I also like this blog a lot because Indy happens to be my middle name, so I thought that was pretty cool and more personal to choose. This blog is also similar in the set up as our own blog. It has the written stuff in the middle and the photos there as well. It is a clean layout like ours and I think that is important. If you want people to be able to read about your blogs in an unconfused and simple way, then the set up of this blog and ours is the way to go!
I wrote on all the blogs except one. It would not allow me to. But I basically said how I liked their pictures of their own city and how it looks so much like mine. I told them to go ahead and check my blog at to see my city pictures. And I really hope that they go to this blog to check out all the photos this group took.
www.onephotographaday.com is a blog about a man named Luis Gomez who goes around taking photos all over Washington DC. Every Day he goes out and photographs one photo a day. I thought that this relates to our own urban life blog because like him, we too go out to take pictures of the city, just not Washington. We take pictures of life in New York City. Both we and this man photograph what we see in the urban area, which I think is really important because you get to see how people live their lives in the city. It is important to show different aspects and perspectives of the city and the people that live in it because everyone is different in different cities. Plus, photographs are a great way to capture life in a city and it lasts forever. In our blogs, I like how we have to photograph the place we go to and the people in it. It is great way to make something worth while, so that other people and not just ourselves can learn about different places and cultures.
www.urbanblink.blogspot.com is a blog about a New York based photographer named DeAngela Napier and she photographs the streets of New York. She says that Beauty is in the eye of the beholder and boy do I believe in that saying. She photographs everything in the city that she thinks is beautiful to her and that is exactly what I do in my blog as well. I also try to capture things in the city that are appealing to me as well. Her theme is similar to that of our blog for Urban Studies because we both photograph the streets of the city in New York. Like I said before photography is vital because it captures a certain image for a lifetime. It will always be there to reflect and look back on. Photography is a great way to express yourselves and that is why our teacher makes us put pictures on out blogs, and I just love that!!!!!
www.urbanzenfoundation.org is about an organization that creates, collobrates and connects awareness in order to bring change to the children and in areas. This is similar in the same theme as our blogs because both blogs creates awareness in what each person writes in their blogs. In this blog, they are trying to bring unity in people all around. And in our blog we are bringing awareness to the city life to anyone who may not know about urban life and what it has to offer. Awareness is very vital in trying to convey and get across a certain theme or message overall to the public. The message we want to get across is to better the city in some ways and to educate others about the city that we college students live in. Everything we write in our blogs in vital . You get to learn about something that you may not known about before. And in the urbanzen website, people too get to learn about bringing awareness to the children of Africa, etc. and to help the people who are less fortunate. Both blogs tie in to the theme of helping, caring, and educating others in what stands as important.
www.flaneurphotoblog.blogspot.com is about a man’s journey of taking photograph’s of different places he has been to. For example on his blog you will see photographs of London’s building, L.A.’s buildings and Turkey and Netherlands buildings. He takes pictures of what fascinates him about each place that he visits. This is like our blogs in Urban Studies because we too photograph what fascinates us about the city in which we are in that moment. That is the what both of these blogs have in common. This guy is very similar in how he describes the things that he sees to our blogs. Each time he photographs a photo he tells us a little about each photo. I think this is vital because lets say something photographs a picture without any description. This really doesn’t serve a purpose because your reader will be lost and confused. The title of this person’s blog is flaneur photo blog. Flaneur is an acitivty we did in our own urban studies class. This is the same theme that both of his and my blog have in common. We are both flaneurs of the city in which we are in.
www.urbanindy.com is about also about a man who takes pictures where he is. Except this blog is more personal. He photographs things in his hometown in Indianapolis. He too photographs and writes about what he sees and what is important to him. The theme here is he writes about the history and the present stuff about Indianapolis. That to me is very important because why just photograph the present without knowing the history behind it. This is similar to our blogs because we always write and talk about the history of a place. I also like this blog a lot because Indy happens to be my middle name, so I thought that was pretty cool and more personal to choose. This blog is also similar in the set up as our own blog. It has the written stuff in the middle and the photos there as well. It is a clean layout like ours and I think that is important. If you want people to be able to read about your blogs in an unconfused and simple way, then the set up of this blog and ours is the way to go!
I wrote on all the blogs except one. It would not allow me to. But I basically said how I liked their pictures of their own city and how it looks so much like mine. I told them to go ahead and check my blog at to see my city pictures. And I really hope that they go to this blog to check out all the photos this group took.
Saturday, May 1, 2010
Why Blog if no one reads it?- Lorraine
http://urbandirection.blogspot.com/
"Some big-box stores still do not have an urban design and won’t go beyond their familiar suburban-style look. But these days, many have wised up and now have urban design templates. Savvier cities have found ways to woo these stores downtown (I was recently in an urban-style Best Buy in Manhattan; Manhattan's Home Depot is shown above)"(The Future of Urban Retail, Greg). This is very similar to what we talked about in class and also connected to what William Whyte spoke about. He talked a lot about the importance of design and how design truly makes or breaks a place. But what Greg spoke about on his site that I found truly intriguing was the aspect of the Internet having an impact of Urban life and urban design. He speaks about how the growing opportunity to buy stuff on the internet is changing the way urbanization happens. In class we didn't spend much time talking about retail and its impact on the way the cities are designed but it connected to the aspects of the plaza's as well as other basic details Jane Jacobs spoke about.
http://urbanplacesandspaces.blogspot.com/
I loved this site. It wasn't a site entirely dedicated to talking about the basics about Urban Studies. Instead a took a political view on the matter, it incorporated global issues they felt to be connected to Urban Studies. They spoke about the impact of our government interference in the urban planning of other nations which I found to be extremely interesting and something we never addressed in class. But like the other blogs they spoke about public versus private spacing. That was one of the reoccurring themes of this blog, but there was no mention of Jane Jacobs or William Whyte which i found to be very weird. Those were our two main inspirations of the class and they seem to be a major part of Urban Studies as a whole and yet there was no mention of them. None the less I made sure to let the blogger know about them. Overall I loved this blog and will probably continue to follow it since it incorporates my major of political science and a hint of international affairs.
http://citystates.typepad.com/
This site was interesting to say the least. It was a site that was concentrated on the Urban environment of Canada. A lot of the blogs were geared and concentrated on Canada. And although it was difficult to understand how it connected to Urban Studies I still found little connections here and there that were related to Urban Studies in one way or another. The blog I found to be most interesting was "Towards a New 'Master Plan'" It talked about the car capacity of cities and how they are attempting to bring down the amount of cars that cities are using. They have found out though that the cities that do have low density neighborhoods are still getting punished while the high density neighborhoods are being rewarded... how this happens i do not know and nor do I want to know because there is probably some sick reasoning as to way such a thing would occur. Yes the amount of cars on the road have decreased but only slightly. Cars effect the dynamics of a neighborhood and diminishes the well being of a neighborhood.
http://www.catlin.edu/place/urban-studies-blog
This site was tremendous. It had so much to offer and so much true academic content to the topic of Urban Studies. The blog I truly enjoyed was "Urban Design After Oil" which turned out to be about a summit there person went to for Urban Studies people to discuss certain issues at hand concerning Urban Studies and its advancement. They spoke about the impact nations have on one another concerning there urban planning. As well as talking about attempts to incorporate Urban planning into creating a greener city scape for cities specifically like Los Angeles. They also spoke about a global standard for planning. I found all these topics to be intriguing but also a tall order to abide to. They are coming up with all these amazing ideas and addressing a lot of the issues going on now in the world but they seem to be taking on to much in my opinion. But none the less I hope they prove me wrong and some of these issues and addressed and taken care of.
http://americancity.org/afteroil/
This site was recommended by the person who wrote the piece "Urban Design After Oil." And because i found that blog to be a stupendous site I decided to take their suggestion and read it. And as soon as I got on the site the first thing i see is the cover of Jane Jacobs book and I was excited to say the least. Because I truly felt like an Urban Studies scholar because i knew exactly what they were talking about and could follow or at least connect my knowledge of the book to what they were talking about. My only disappointment in this site is that they closed down the option to comment. I was so excited to comment on the Jane Jacobs article and share the new things i learned about her and the topic of Urban Studies but sadly i was unable to do so. But other then that the blog was cool. It connected Jane Jacobs to the issue of oil having a direct impact on urban planning and it's ability to diminish a city for the purpose of earning the oil or the money it would produce. It also pleaded that there would be students out there that would be like Jane Jacobs and see how the impact of what is going on now effects the future of this world. Sadly i would love to be that person but I know I am not. But I now have a better knowledge of the issues at hand and only hope to have a helping hand in changing what needs to be changed in the topic of Urban Studies and how it impacts the world we live in.
I was able to leave comments on all the blogs except for the last. I found it weird at first to leave comments but the more I got into the blog the easier I felt it to be to just talk about the topic of their blog. And somewhere in that comment I was able to throw in our blog name. Hopefully it will spark some interest and the other bloggers will find some interest in our blog.
"Some big-box stores still do not have an urban design and won’t go beyond their familiar suburban-style look. But these days, many have wised up and now have urban design templates. Savvier cities have found ways to woo these stores downtown (I was recently in an urban-style Best Buy in Manhattan; Manhattan's Home Depot is shown above)"(The Future of Urban Retail, Greg). This is very similar to what we talked about in class and also connected to what William Whyte spoke about. He talked a lot about the importance of design and how design truly makes or breaks a place. But what Greg spoke about on his site that I found truly intriguing was the aspect of the Internet having an impact of Urban life and urban design. He speaks about how the growing opportunity to buy stuff on the internet is changing the way urbanization happens. In class we didn't spend much time talking about retail and its impact on the way the cities are designed but it connected to the aspects of the plaza's as well as other basic details Jane Jacobs spoke about.
http://urbanplacesandspaces.blogspot.com/
I loved this site. It wasn't a site entirely dedicated to talking about the basics about Urban Studies. Instead a took a political view on the matter, it incorporated global issues they felt to be connected to Urban Studies. They spoke about the impact of our government interference in the urban planning of other nations which I found to be extremely interesting and something we never addressed in class. But like the other blogs they spoke about public versus private spacing. That was one of the reoccurring themes of this blog, but there was no mention of Jane Jacobs or William Whyte which i found to be very weird. Those were our two main inspirations of the class and they seem to be a major part of Urban Studies as a whole and yet there was no mention of them. None the less I made sure to let the blogger know about them. Overall I loved this blog and will probably continue to follow it since it incorporates my major of political science and a hint of international affairs.
http://citystates.typepad.com/
This site was interesting to say the least. It was a site that was concentrated on the Urban environment of Canada. A lot of the blogs were geared and concentrated on Canada. And although it was difficult to understand how it connected to Urban Studies I still found little connections here and there that were related to Urban Studies in one way or another. The blog I found to be most interesting was "Towards a New 'Master Plan'" It talked about the car capacity of cities and how they are attempting to bring down the amount of cars that cities are using. They have found out though that the cities that do have low density neighborhoods are still getting punished while the high density neighborhoods are being rewarded... how this happens i do not know and nor do I want to know because there is probably some sick reasoning as to way such a thing would occur. Yes the amount of cars on the road have decreased but only slightly. Cars effect the dynamics of a neighborhood and diminishes the well being of a neighborhood.
http://www.catlin.edu/place/urban-studies-blog
This site was tremendous. It had so much to offer and so much true academic content to the topic of Urban Studies. The blog I truly enjoyed was "Urban Design After Oil" which turned out to be about a summit there person went to for Urban Studies people to discuss certain issues at hand concerning Urban Studies and its advancement. They spoke about the impact nations have on one another concerning there urban planning. As well as talking about attempts to incorporate Urban planning into creating a greener city scape for cities specifically like Los Angeles. They also spoke about a global standard for planning. I found all these topics to be intriguing but also a tall order to abide to. They are coming up with all these amazing ideas and addressing a lot of the issues going on now in the world but they seem to be taking on to much in my opinion. But none the less I hope they prove me wrong and some of these issues and addressed and taken care of.
http://americancity.org/afteroil/
This site was recommended by the person who wrote the piece "Urban Design After Oil." And because i found that blog to be a stupendous site I decided to take their suggestion and read it. And as soon as I got on the site the first thing i see is the cover of Jane Jacobs book and I was excited to say the least. Because I truly felt like an Urban Studies scholar because i knew exactly what they were talking about and could follow or at least connect my knowledge of the book to what they were talking about. My only disappointment in this site is that they closed down the option to comment. I was so excited to comment on the Jane Jacobs article and share the new things i learned about her and the topic of Urban Studies but sadly i was unable to do so. But other then that the blog was cool. It connected Jane Jacobs to the issue of oil having a direct impact on urban planning and it's ability to diminish a city for the purpose of earning the oil or the money it would produce. It also pleaded that there would be students out there that would be like Jane Jacobs and see how the impact of what is going on now effects the future of this world. Sadly i would love to be that person but I know I am not. But I now have a better knowledge of the issues at hand and only hope to have a helping hand in changing what needs to be changed in the topic of Urban Studies and how it impacts the world we live in.
I was able to leave comments on all the blogs except for the last. I found it weird at first to leave comments but the more I got into the blog the easier I felt it to be to just talk about the topic of their blog. And somewhere in that comment I was able to throw in our blog name. Hopefully it will spark some interest and the other bloggers will find some interest in our blog.
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