Welcome to PR.JOB's blog. We're a group of classmates in an Urban Studies class at Hunter College. Over the course of the semester we were given assignments to explore NYC and write about it in a group blog. These assignments have helped us see the Flipside of New York City. Hope you enjoy our observations. Feel free to leave comments. Thanks for dropping by!
This nation is built on the backs of working class families. It is the working class that stimulates our economy and drives this nation. However, the resources that working parents need in order to raise a family and establish a healthy home life, sometimes is lacking in neighborhoods. Parents who work a nine to five or even late shifts have hard times finding places and things that will accommodate their schedules. In my neighborhood, which is mostly middle class, there are about three doctor’s offices, one of which closes at 12pm, which is not helpful for most people. One of the other two closes at 6 and the other closes at 7. I think the last two can be considered evening clinics because they do stay open unusually late for a doctor’s office. There were no daycares in within a 10 block radius of my house, well any that I could find, however I know that going down towards the end of rockaway, in Far Rockaway, there are daycares centers that do open till late. These daycares are a great resource for working parents that have to work late. There are a lot of housing projects and private residential buildings in my neighborhood, and I know that there are daycares with those complexes to accommodate parents with in the buildings. I'm sure some are open to people who don't live in the buildings.
There are definitely gendered spaces in my neighborhood; most obvious are the female and male clothing stores. Rainbow is a female clothing store in my neighborhood that is definitely a "female" space. 99.9 percent of the customers are female because they sale female things. Mellow Magic is a male clothing store with a very male feel. They sell the newest sneakers in men sizes, they have pictures of half dressed women, and play hardcore rap music. It is a more welcome place for women who like hardcore music and who really like sneakers. The less obvious places would be the radio shack, some of the corner stores, and the many Irish bars. I have never been to the bars since I’m under age, but as I walk pass them, the majority of the people in there are men and they are always playing sports on the T.V. The nail and hair salons are what I consider to be “female” spaces. Though they are both open to both sexes, their preferred cliental are women. Even at a unisex salon, all the ads and pictures posted were of women and women’s hair styles. At a regular guys’ barbershop, there would be more things to attract men, like men hair styles.
In these changing times, I think that gay people are being more open about their sexuality and there relationships. In Manhattan, a lot of gay people are open and can claim almost anywhere for themselves. This includes trains, buses, parks and etc. The west village and Soho are definitely gay places, meaning that gay people are open and live the way they want. Those are places in the city where if you see gay people kissing or holding hands, it’s normal and you aren’t shocked. I think they choose these places because of the diversity and because big cites are usually more tolerant places than small towns or neighborhood. Chauncey writes on page 225 that “the gay presence in the streets was thus masked, in part, by the bustle of street life in working-class neighborhoods.” Being that Manhattan is one of the busiest cites in there world, people are more occupied with there own life than other people’s. When I googled “gay map of New York” what came up shocked me. There were lists upon lists of gay bars, saunas, hotels and all types of places that are gay people. I didn’t realize that were so many places for gay people to go. This is not so in my neighborhood. You may see gay people and transgender people but is no where in Rockaway, as far as I could find, that they have claimed for themselves. I think one of the main reasons for this is that Rockaway is a very religious place, which churches on every block. However, night time at the board walk is where many couples go to engage in private acts in public, gay or straight. People go there to make out, drink alcohol, smoke, and even go skinny dipping in the beach. Old and young people go to take walks or exercise, and to spend private time with the people they love. I must admit that on warm summer night, the boardwalk is very romantic and a great place to be.
In order to complete this activity I decided to walk around my neighborhood of Elmhurst, Queens in order to be able to analyze the area more efficiently. As a neighborhood that consists of a lot of working class people, I knew for a fact that I was going to find many day care centers and evening clinics around my area. According to Dolores Hayden, she believes that, “A ‘good neighborhood is usually defined in terms of conventional shopping, schools, and perhaps public transit, rather than additional services for the working parent, such as the day care or evening clinics” (145). Despite the fact that Hayden makes this classification of what a good neighborhood is, I not only found several day car centers and evening clinics in my neighborhood, but my neighborhood also contains a good amount of shopping areas, schools, and public transportation. Therefore, I was a bit confused as to classifying my own neighborhood into a good or a bad one.
My neighborhood also consists of many people that hold very strong traditional values, which is why I knew for a fact that I was going to find male and women spaces but I was not too sure about finding queer spaces. As I walked from Elmhurst Avenue to Northern Blvd, which consists of at least twenty blocks, I saw male spaces that consisted of barber shops and bars that consisted of entertainment for men by female dancers. Although I have never been inside any of these bars, I can tell that it is a male space because of all the men that constantly go in and out of the bar and who spend time with their other male friends outside the bar. As for females, I saw many hair salons, nail salons, and clothing stores that consisted of a lot of clothes for women.
As I had predicted, I did not find too many queer spaces. The only queer space that I did find were clothing stores for the younger generation of people, which consisted of clothes that could be considered unisex, since they are now being worn by young people who are either male or female, such as nike sneakers. One thing that I did noticed which caught my attention was that many of the hair salons for women had signs outside of the doors saying that the read “Unisex” but it was still pretty clear who the salon was made for when you walked into it. I do wish that my neighborhood consisted of queer spaces more, such as in Greenwich Village, since the gendered spaces seem to be very neutral. I believe that these areas are chosen for queer spaces because of the large presence of the LGBTQ population, which helps break the traditional barriers of gender.
After doing a search for “a gay map of new york”, I saw that there are many places one can go to if one is interested in going to areas that are gay-friendly, such as gay bars and gay friendly hotels. I had no idea that such a map existed and I believe that being able to find such a map so easily on the internet is a great way to start breaking down the barriers that come along with the titles of male and female. I believe that this map is a step closer to have much more queer spaces than those that exist now.
While walking around my neighborhood, I saw something that for some reason has been happening quite often around my neighborhood. I was walking down 90th street heading towards Northern Boulevard when I saw a homeless man trying to stand behind a tree while he attempted to bathe himself. I have seen this same act on the platform of the 7 train, in parks while children watch in confusion, and in the public bathrooms of Elmhurst Hospital, since they are easy to access. Despite the awkwardness I feel when I see these kinds of private behaviors displayed in public places I cannot help but think that nothing I do can change this since it has been happening more then it should which makes me agree with the statement that, “You can’t change her environment but you can change her mood (145), which supports my belief that nothing can be done to change the fact that this occurs except to deal with it.
It was such a beautiful day to visit the Green Flea Market on 77th Street and Columbus Avenue. The market has sections indoor and outdoor; to be honest the outdoor part is nicer especially on such a nice day. The market was crowded but not to the point people were running into one another so it was nice to sort of wonder around and look at what was being displayed. The indoor part of the market was less crowded and personally less interesting to me. You could find antique objects fancy looking clothes and old ties. People were sort of just wondering around in pairs or parents with their kids. I went with a friend and we had fun trying on the glasses and laughing at one another. People were pretty laid back and just enjoying a good day, which gave the market a very smooth atmosphere and tranquility.
It was strange how the inside part of the market was held in the cafeteria of a high school and you had to walk through the corridor full of students lockers to get to it. It felt like I was back to high for a moment, which was funny. Even though the market was interesting inside the air was a little stuffy and therefore my friend and I spent more time outside. There were homemade soap and candles and of course there was a food and sweets stand, which we had to go to.
My favorite stand out of the entire market was the one with all the spices. It was placed right by the entrance so that as soon as you entered the market you would drawn by the colors and scents. This rainbow of colors was amazing and the way the people held there stand was fantastic. I probably could have just stood there the entire time watch and listen to them explain how to use the spices and what to use them for. The smells were hypnotizing, it was fantastic I loved this stand so much I would have wanted to go home with a sample of each spice so they could perfume my apartment but unfortunately I left empty handed from the market as I had no money on me. This was the down part of my day so one advice I’d give to someone would be to not go to the market with out cash because there will always be something you want to buy and the people are so friendly that you literally cannot resist.
Part of the group scavenger hunt was to ride a train from beginning to end, which I did by riding the 6 local train from the Brooklyn Bridge-City Hall to Pelham Bay Park. The ride took approximately 2 hours or so but it was interesting to see the different kinds of people coming on and off the train. I got on the train at around 10am on a Thursday so a lot of people where already at work but I was surprised to still see the train relatively busy.
Mostly young mothers and their baby got on the train at the Brooklyn bridge where I got on with also a large amount of young adults in their mid late twenties. This is probably due to the fact that the lower east side is mostly known for its youth population. After all that’s where all the good parties are held! Baby strollers took up a lot of the space so when this one old lady got on the train at Bleecker Street she was mad because she could not go through to the one free seat available at the end of the bench. I usually don’t pay attention as I put my ipod and start reading but everyone looks around. This one Asian guy probably in his early thirties kept on looking around to see if someone was looking at him. There was also this one girl who got on at 14th Street, she was talk, blond, thin, with imposing breasts and botoxed lips kept checking herself out on the train windows making sure her hair was nice and that she had enough lipstick.
From 23rd Street to 86th it was mostly people dressed up in business suits or students. They were all pretty laid back just wanting to go where they had to be not paying attention to who was around. Everything was pretty smooth through the entire ride, people minded their own business and there was a large flow of varied passengers. However when the train hit the 125th Street stop the environment change a little or maybe it was my anxiety. I had never been in the Bronx before but because every one I know keeps saying that it is not the safest place to go too I began to be a little scared.After a couple stops I realized that not much had changed. There was still this wide range of people from the student going home after school to the old lady who probably had to go to her favorite butcher. The only thing that I noticed to be different is that the mothers where not as young as the ones I had seen at the beginning of the ride they were older and of different ethnicity.
The ride was pretty smooth from beginning to end. I was actually lucky that the train didn’t have to be stopped due to traffic even though it would have been interesting to observe peoples reactions. I know I get frustrated when it happens because I get claustrophobic. It’s funny to see how no matter where you are in the city, who you are and how you look people will always be looking at you, they want to reassure themselves by finding the little things they dislike in your physical appearance to make themselves feel better. Through out the entire ride I actually felt I was safe besides for the homeless person that always walks by asking for money or food but that’s in every train so you sort of get used to it.
Trains go through all kinds of neighborhoods but it was interesting to see that even though the 6 train goes from the lower east side all the way up to the Bronx the atmosphere is relaxed and laid back. People observe what is going on but no one is bothered or stressed. I’m not sure if this is because it was the 6 train and brand new but that ride was definitely enjoyable, now I might be completely different on an old broken down 2 train.
What is the difference between public vs. private? A private space refers to a space which is designed for the exclusive use of buildings occupiers. A public space refers to an area or place that is open and accessible to all citizens, regardless of gender, race, ethnicity, or age; A place where there is no fee or paid ticket required for entry. If this is true, then why is the subway referred to as “public transportation” when there is a $2.25 surcharge? In such a crowded city like New York, even public spaces have “private” rules.
For this particular assignment I chose to walk around Soho, which I learned stands for South of Houston. I took the 6 Train from Hunter College down to Spring street. I know that the assignment said to choose a 10 block radius, but Soho which happens to be one of the largest villages in the world, is only about 8 blocks wide and 5 blocks long. The neighborhood is bordered between Broadway and Avenue of the Americas. I walked in and around the cobblestone streets of Canal, Grand, Broome, Spring, Prince, and Houston trying to distinguish the difference between private and public spaces. I chose to walk around Soho because the area is known always being artistic and for its unique boutiques. Technically a boutique should be a public space because it welcomes all customers, but at the same time it is privately owned by an individual. While walking amongst the streets, even the “chain stores” such as H&M, Zara, and Chanel looked as if they were private spaces because of the unique architecture they settled in. Because Soho is so antique, as is the architecture and cobblestone streets, it makes it all the more private because it cannot easily be fixed, therefore being looked out for by the city more carefully.
In the book “The Death and Life of Great American Cities” written by Jane Jacobs, she says "Cities have the capability of providing something for everybody, only because, and only when, they are created by everybody." I thought this was an appropriate quote to use for this blog entry because each part of New York City offers something different for everybody. There is the preppy area of the Upper East side, Times Square known for its amazing lights and tourist attractions, and then you have the trendy young area of Soho for the young and artistic.
As part of a class activity where we had to get to know a classmate and with that assign a place to visit where they have never been before. I live in New Jersey, but come to the city very often, yet I have never been to so many exciting places. After talking about where we have and have not been or seen and have not seen, my partner decided to suggest that I go visit The Museum of Sex located on 27th and 5th avenue. The museum itself is very small but has so much to offer with all of its exhibits clustered into 2 rooms. With some of the exhibits constantly rotating into new and exciting themes and others staying stationary, you will never get bored at this particular museum. When I visited The Museum of Sex there were a few exhibits that caught my attention.
The exhibit called “Action” was about sex and the moving image, which opened in March of 2007. It revealed the way sexual imagery had impacted film, television, advertising, and the Internet while creating the multi- billion dollar porn industry and influencing popular art. Everybody is familiar with the term “sex sells” which is exactly what this exhibit portrayed.
Another exhibit that caught my eye was called “Rubbers” which is fairly new and just opened in February of 2010. It’s sponsored by Trojan and features all different kinds of condoms such as ribbed, flavored, and studded. It also shows the transformation they have undergone from their early linen substance to being able to customize with distinctive sizes, shapes, and textures to enhance pleasure while most importantly promoting safety. My whole experience in The Museum of Sex was very interesting and I definitely recommend a trip there.
Community Board 5 takes care of the midtown part of Manhattan. Attending a full board meeting was interesting because I got to see that people were actually concerned about the environment we live in. What was shocking though was that the first part of the meeting was public speakers coming to say what they where working on and the second half was the board discussing issues amongst one another. There was no communication with the two parties or even the audience. The public speakers also only had 2 minutes to say what they had t, which was odd. A man was asked to wrap up his speech because he was over time. He was discussing the fact that St Vincent’s hospital needed financial aid rapidly in order to pay the doctors and allow to continue operating patients.
Though out the meeting, the audience got various information about what was going on and how the board was working to making things batter. Like Sherry Arnstein’s article “Ladder of Citizen Participation”, the board meeting I attended was a “one way flow of information- from officials to citizens- with no channel provided for feedback and no power for negotiation.” I was perfectly aware that The Yard on 55th West 21st Street was applying for a liquor license renewal but at no time did I know if the application had been processed or was asked if it would affect me.
In the middle of the meeting 3 public speakers stood next to me and started having a conversation. At first it was annoying because I was trying to pay attention and understand what the board was discussing. When I realized that they weren’t going to stop I turned around and started listening to their conversation instead. They arguing over the fact that one of the public speakers talked about a fuel tank, which was being installed next to a building on 6th Avenue. The 2 oldest men were telling the younger one now what he said was not relevant to the meeting. Tey were basically manipulating him into a therapy of how it did not affect the majority of the people but only the ones living in this particular area. It was interesting to see how their conversation contained 3 different levels of Sherry Arnstein’s Ladder of Citizen Participation. They manipulated the man by saying that the tank was probably needed in the area, that it wouldn’t be harmful to the surround or else the company would not have been able to install it in this area. The conversation ranked all the way to citizen control, which consists of citizens taking power and fighting for what they consider important to their community. Like Sherry Arnstein’s article states: “…and be able to negotiate the conditions under which ‘outsiders’ may change them.” Their conversation ended by the 2 oldest men telling the youngest one he should get together with his neighbors and do a petition if they thought the tank was really harmful for them.
Attending this board meeting allowed me to realize that yes, meetings are opened to the public but the people don’t have a saying about what is being discussed. In the end what’s the point of attending the meeting if I’m not going to be able to say something? Might as well not go, wouldn’t make a difference after all weather I go and sit listening to people who don’t know my concerns and not go at all.
A “frontier neighborhood” according to James Kunstler, in his book “The Geography of Nowhere” is a place or home that advertises one success. Typically it's a neighborhood that falls along the lines the classic American Dream of homes with white picket fences away from the hustle and bustle of the city. A frontier neighborhood is an area that allows you to get escape from the reality of your work life so you can enjoy the spoils of your labor. For the last couple of years, there has been a massive renovation where I live in Rockaway Beach. The city and construction companies and buildings have turned many of the empty lots into private housings. Rockaway Beach was mainly an area with lots of housing projects and apartment buildings. Now, I feel like they are trying to making it into a mini suburbia. Because we aren’t to close to the city and are near a beach, I think it would be the perfect place for developers to try to turn it into Long Island part 2. I’m not opposed to them building nice houses or a new supermarket, I’m opposed to the ridiculous prices that they are charging for these “beach front properties”. They are trying to turn Rockaway into this luxury area, which is great for business but bad for the residents because no can afford anything anymore. I think that all these new developments will make Rockaway a target area for increase taxes and increase MTA tolls on the two of three exits out of Rockaway. I also believe that there are trying to build unrealistic dreams of this beach side suburbia especially since there are like 3 nursing areas for crazy or senile people right next to the boardwalk. Instead of building more parks or community centers or fixing the buildings that already there, they are building condos and unaffordable homes are not benefiting the people of Rockaway. Like with Coney Island, developers aren’t trying to make update Rockaway, they are trying to change it and run “undesirables” out.
Since 2001 terror attacks the US economy has been on a downslide. Even with two wars in our pockets and unemployment increasing, the 2008 financial crisis still came as a bog shock to most Americans. Banks were going broke, businesses were failing and the worse part of it all, houses were being lost. Because the economy was so bad, business had to lay off thousands of workers and people were defaulting on loans and mortgages. Banks that were barely staying a float were desperate to collect collateral from people that weren’t paying their bills. That massive collateral collect created the foreclosure boom in the US. People were losing their houses to banks left and right, and banks were putting those houses for public auctions as fast as they repossessed them.
One of the places hardest hit in New York was Brooklyn. With unemployment, especially for African Americans and women, skyrocketing, people couldn’t keep up with their mortgages lost their homes to the financial crisis. Among the hardest hit Brooklyn neighborhoods were East Flatbush, Flatlands, East New York, and Bedford- Stuyvesant. I decided to visit Bedford because my siblings and I were born and raised there for some time. Walking through the neighborhood was really depressing, seeing the houses boarded up or with the for sale or foreclosure sign, realizing that these houses was someone’s home who was forced out of it. One can argue that the banks were just doing what they had to do to survive and the homeowners should have paid their loans, which is true but everyone is suffering from this financial crisis and people are not in control when they lost there jobs. The worst part of the financial crisis was that while people were getting fired barely any companies were hiring, so either way people were out of luck.The house in the picture above looked as those the owners had to abandon that house in hast. Its a one family 2 story house with back yard. I wasn't sure if the house was under foreclosure so I asked a neighbor, who told me that it was in deed foreclosed and that both the parents, long time friends of his, had lost their jobs.
Bed-Sty, as we called it back in the day, seemed so empty and hollow. There were people there but there was a sadness and desperation in the air. I couldn’t help but to wonder what happen to the people that were living in these foreclosed houses. Did they find another house, are they in homeless shelters, did these families have kids, where elderly people that had lost their retirement funds? All these questions went through my head as I looked at each house. I wonder if the people that will eventually by these houses thing the same. I also wondered if the method of “red lining” that James Kunstler mentioned in his book “The Geography of Nowhere” still exists today. Does the FHA still refuse to back up mortgages in areas they deem unworthy. I think it can be partly confirmed by the fact that many of the increasing foreclosure rates are in minority neighborhoods. Kunstlerstated that FHA was created to back up the mortgages that banks gave to owners so interest rates could decrease and if, incase, nonpayment occurred the banks would still get their money. However, there was a catch. The FHA would only back up mortgages in places it deemed desirable, which excluded many areas in which blacks and immigrants were living. With out help from the FHA, lenders are being charged high interest rates to compensate for the banks lending them the money. However, foreclosure rates are still increasing in the suburban places, were the majority may be white. At the end of the day, no matter what race, people are still losing their homes and the economy and the spirit of Americans are still sinking into depression.
Manhattan is probably the most well known borough in New York and the rest of the country. It is always bustling with people, cars, buses and, its one of the main reasons why New York City is called the city that never sleeps. However, in such a big borough with massive amounts of people, there really aren’t many truly public places, in my opinion. To me a public place is somewhere that anyone can go into no matter who they are or the time. I decided to walk down the 68th and 3rdave to about 58th and 3rdave on a Tuesday and Saturday afternoon to see if there any public gathering places or was it all private areas. The weather on both of these days was pretty nice, and the amount of people on the streets was much more on Saturday then on Tuesday. 3rdave is one of the many major retail areas in New York city so I wasn’t so optimistic about my chances of finding public gathering places or many city own public places, besides the streets and sidewalks. As I walked down the streets, there were many stores, which were all privately owned. Through stores, like starbucks and shopping centers are supposed to be open to the public, they are privately owned and I would assume if the store owner or manager didn’t want a certain person in the store than they could refuse their business. Of course I’m not saying they can discriminate based on race or sex, but if the manager or owners knows that you have stolen from the store then they can surly refuse your business.
For a public area, I was looking for an open non gated place, anywhere that looked free and owned by the city. Granted even city owned places aren’t really public because, even though tax payers are footing the bill, the city can set up rules and require permits for a certain number of people to occupy that space for a certain time or reason. When I reached 62nd and 3rdave, a pigeon flew passed me, a little too close for comfort, right into this little sitting area. It looked like park or green area. I didn’t see any signs of ownership, but I didn’t see any people there. However, there were a lot of pigeons that landed there. I assumed that it was a public area because there were no guards or gates blocking the entrance, or any signs permitting entrance, it was just there and open. I think that there weren’t any people there because of the massive amount of dirty pigeons that was there. I asked people walking pass if they knew what the named of this place was or who it belonged to but no one knew. Still, I was happy I found a seemingly public place, and it was a cute little area. In the process of trying to get a picture, I walked into the street because I am deathly terrified of pigeons and there was no way I was going to get close to them. However, I almost got hit by a truck, so that wasn’t my best idea.
The only other places that were public were in areas in front of stores, where people were standing or smoking. It wasn’t directly in front of the door of the stores, but it was either to the side of or to a few feet in front on the sidewalk. On this journey, I came across 2 homeless men sitting across the street from Bloomingdales, near the train station and trucking area on 59th and 3rd. Since they weren’t sitting in front of any stores and no one was telling them that they had to leave, I assumed that they were sitting on public property. I know that if that area was owned by Bloomingdales or another store, they wouldn’t let these homeless men loiter in front of a privately owned area. The line between public and private really is blurred in the city. Even if an area is being paid for by tax dollars, we don’t really own it, city officials do and they make loitering and permit rules to assert control. Then there are places in which the public can enter but at the end of the day someone privately owns it. So nothing is truly public and free from control anymore.
For the scavenger hunt activity I chose to do numbers 1, 9, 10, and 11. When researching the Phillip Johnson AT&T Building, I immediately recognized it as the Sony Building in midtown Manhattan. This building is home to the Sony Wonder Technology Lab, a place I have visited dozens of times. Taking the pictures for the assignment was fun as well because I love skyscrapers. They are such a unique feature of big cities and I get lost in time observing the architectural features, height and scope of these buildings.
Gated communities do exist in NYC. In researching this topic, I came across some examples of gated communities in the traditional sense and some with traditional features with an urban backdrop. Gramercy is a neighborhood that was originally designed in the 1870's for the upper classes and rich of New York, an area facing a park for exclusive use of the residents. The area remains that way today. In order to access Gramercy Park, you must be a resident of one of the buildings facing the park and have a key that is provided by a residents group. The exclusivity of the buildings, the parks and the surrounding area help define it as gated. Taino Towers in Harlem and River Park Towers in the Bronx were built to accommodate people with lower to middle incomes in NYC. These communities are a series of tall buildings, surrounded by gates that are manned 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. In order to gain admittance you have to live there, or know someone that does. You also have to state where the person lives and in the case of River Park Towers, there are separate designated parking places for residents and non residents. Within the grounds are seating areas, play areas, stores and facilities for the exclusive use of residents and their guests.
For number 11, I chose to photograph two street configurations in Harlem. First the intersection of 110th Street and 5th Avenue, next to Central Park North, and 116th Street that crosses with 7th Avenue and Convent Avenue. In the middle of the street on 5th avenue and 110th Street is a huge circular seating area topped off with a life size statue of a famous musician, standing next to a piano. Going west by car/bus on 11oth Street you have to make a slight right turn, then immediate soft left turn to continue on 110th Street. Fifth Avenue flows south in an even pattern. Traffic heading east on 110th Street must bear left unto 5th Avenue, then turn left at the next available street in order to continue eastward. On the southeast and northeast corners of this intersection are tall residential buildings that also create an awkward traffic flow.
At the second location, it seems alot more complicated. Standing on the corner of 116th Street and Convent Avenue, facing north, you see traffic flowing in many different directions. Seventh Avenue flows north and south on the easternmost side of the street. Convent Avenue flows south on a diagonal, meeting 7th Avenue at 116th Street and continuing south. At the same time, 116th Street flows east and west. That section is a dizzying array of traffic lights, buses, cars, bikes and no accidents!
The third activity for my Urban Studies class was to walk a ten-block radius and identify public from private places. In order to accomplish this activity I decided to walk around my friends place s I’m staying there for a little while. He lives on 85th and Lexington Avenue. I decided to walk up Lexington Avenue to 95th, which is near the EHS dorms were I first lived when I moved the city. I thought the activity was going to be fun and a piece of cake but actually came to be one of the hardest things I had to do.
A quote, which I found particularly appropriate for this exercise was from Jane Jacobs book The Death and Life of Great American Cities: "...frequent streets and short blocks are valuable because of the fabric of intricate cross-use that they permit among the users of a city neighborhood."I thought this quote was good for this exercise because it clearly states that the streets we live on today exist for what they are due to what the neighborhood makes them to be.
As I walked up the streets I realized it was really crowded from 85th to 89th-90th, everything started becoming quite after that. I would say that 85th and 86th street are public blocks. A Best Buy, Pet Co, Victoria Secret, H&M, Sephora and some other utility stores such as the small AT&T shop and the Duane Read can be found on this very small radius. These streets also shelter the 6-train subway line as well as the express trains 4 and 5. This area could be considered public. It is busy from morning to night with people coming out or going in the subways, busy workers going to get coffee at the Starbucks on the corer before work and the ones going shopping on a nice day off from work. "Traffic congestion is caused by vehicles, not by people in themselves.”This quote from Jane Jacobs book fits this public area perfectly. Even though the street is packed with people, what stands out the most are the yellow cabs going stopping in the middle of the sidewalk to take passengers when your crossing the street.
As you go further up the amount of big stores decrease and the noise level diminishes as well. I can’t really say that it gets quiet, as it never does in the streets of Manhattan. You’re always going to have a fire truck or a police car coming out of nowhere blasting their annoying and painful serene. As you walk up to 95th the streets become more private though. There aren’t any big stores like the Barnes & Nobles on 85th between Lexington and 3rd Avenue. It is mostly private apartment buildings. On the contrary to the rest of Manhattan there is a mixture of tall skyscrapers and small 4-5 stories buildings. Actually you can distinguish the difference from one avenue to the next. Between Lexington and Park Avenue are the shorter buildings; while on the other between Lexington and 3rd Avenue are the humongous skyscrapers. As you walk up you can find some small shops such as the nail place, which you never know whether it is open or not. A few restaurants all a block away from one another and the Crumbs Cupcake shop on 91st (where I was obliged to stop in order to get a tiramisu cupcake).
Walking up these 10 blocks on Lexington Avenue as fun and interesting because you get to discover the city and your neighborhood and a completely new way. You also realize how the surroundings can change from one block to the next. I’d say there is a wide variety of public and private places everywhere and that it is up to you to decide what you want this area to be for you.
Activity #2 Rosedelle A. Chery Visit a place someone told you to go For this activity one of my classmates, Selma, suggested that I visit Arthur Ave. in the Bronx. The only thing she told me about the area was that people called it “Little Italy”. When I asked a friend of mine, who lived in the Bronx, if she ever heard of that area, all she told me was that it always smelt like food. I didn't put all the information together until I actually reached Arthur Ave and I could see what they were talking about. I have never been to the Bronx before, mostly because I always heard about bad things happening over there. Over all, going to new places can be intimidating. I used to brag that I have been to ever part of New York except the Bronx and vowed that I would never go there. This assignment definitely put an end to that, but luckily, I was pleasantly surprised when I reached “Little Italy”. Though this activity eased my fears about going to the Bronx, it confirmed my thoughts that the train ride from Rockaway Beach, Queens, to the Bronx would be the longest ride I would ever take going from one borough to the next. The bus and train ride took about 2hrs and 35 minutes and I had to transfer between the Q53, the A and the D trains. Thankfully I had a test coming up so I had plenty of reading material for that long ride. When I got to the Bronx at Fordham Road, I realized that it looked a lot like Jamaica Ave. in Queens expect for the fact there was a highway passing along side. I thought this was Arthur Ave at first, but I was told by someone that I had to take another bus. Of course, this was after two people told me Arthur Ave was in the opposite direction. I found a map and realized that I, indeed, had to take another bus. While on the bus, we passed Fordham University and it looked like it was its own little town. Its old style buildings and the plush green yards looked way different from the Fordham Road, which was more urban and mixed with a shopping Center. This illustrated Jane Jacob’s belief in “mixed- development of cities”. Here in one area there were stores, mostly small business and residential buildings, and down the block there was a big university that had a very old Victorian look to it. I think it really does add to the diversity in the Bronx that within this local urban area, there’s a big and different college campus in the center of it all. I think this differs from the schools in Manhattan or in other parts of the city in that there is not really any diversity in the buildings. The schools look the same as the other buildings that surround it and there’s nothing really special about them. When I finally reached Arthur Ave, I walked down the entire area not really seeing what was there. The only thing that I saw was that, unlike the busy streets of Fordham road, this neighborhood was quite and had more of a homey feeling. As I walked around a second time, I started to see why it was called “Little Italy”. On almost every block there was a pizza shop, an Italian restaurant, or some other kinds of Italian business, with residential buildings and houses, like Fordham Road. However, it lacked diversity. Arthur Ave is a beautiful area with some cobble sidewalks and beautiful stores, but to me, it was sort of bland. I think that Arthur Ave was developed to attract Italian people looking for a place that would make them feeling like they were still in Italy or people looking for an area in the city that had a suburban feel. The Bronx as a whole reflects Jacob’s point of “Cities as Ecosystems”, “Mixed- development of cities” because it is very diverse pertaining to the different communities that are there. However, Arthur Ave seemed like it was its own ecosystem and kind of secluded from the rest of the Bronx. It did seem like the economy of that area was dependent on the local shops and stores that were around there because there wasn't many main major chain stores around. However, Arthur Ave helped give lift my sour expectations of the Bronx and showed me that you really have to go to a place and examine it before you make judgments.
For someone who has always lived in Queens, New York, having to travel to the city- also known as Manhattan- has never been an issue for me. It has always been very easy for me to get into the city in forty-five minutes or less. I have a number of trains to choose from that can transport me from my neighborhood to the busy streets of Manhattan. In terms of the typical commuter, it is often more common to see people traveling from suburban areas out to metropolitan areas. This can be shown by simply using Manhattan and the subway lines as an example. While looking at a map, I realized that Manhattan has a majority of the subway lines, which come in from its neighboring boroughs. This may occur because of the fact that a majority of businesses and jobs are located in cities rather than the suburbs, causing there to be a need for more transportation into the city since a larger number of people would be going into this specific area. As a result of trains which, “shattered any previous constraints of time and travel to lure people away from the city in greater numbers and at greater distances” (Kunstler, 46), cities were made more convenient for the working world to be located in. For example, it is common to meet many people from Long Island, which can be considered a suburb, who work in the borough of Manhattan. Despite the fact that this specific flow of commuters is the most witnessed, reverse commuting also takes place.
The term reverse commuting is used to refer to those commuters who travel from the city into the suburban areas to work. Since I have been so used being aware of the fact that people commute from the suburbs into the city, it was difficult for me to grasp the fact that reverse commuting does exist. Therefore, to find some truth behind reverse commuting, I went to Grand Central on a Saturday morning to search for someone who was reverse commuting. Since there was no specific way to approach this task, I decided to just go up to people and ask them where they were coming from and where they planned on going, letting them know that this was for a school assignment. I came across twelve people who mentioned that they were coming into the city to work that Saturday, since they worked six days a week. Finally, as I approached the thirteenth person without any hope of hearing a different commuting flow, after asking this person several questions about where he was going and coming from, he mentioned how he was going from Manhattan to a suburban area in Connecticut. This man mentioned how he was a carpenter in the city but had been laid off for a couple of months. Due to the fact that he needed money to support himself, he began to apply for work wherever it was possible. After applying to a carpentry job in Connecticut, he got called for an interview and got the job.
This one commuter has to travel from Manhattan to Connecticut six days a week in order to get to work and make a living as a result of being laid off from his job in the city. Despite the fact that I believe, “Commuting might not be an economic obstacle for a citizen fortunate enough to be employed” (Kunstler, 103), I believe it can have a larger effect depending on the distance one has to travel. This stirred up the idea that the recession and loss of jobs might be powerful enough to cause the typical commuter flow to change from a regular commuter flow to reverse commuting because of job availability. It can also cause people to move into the suburbs because of the cost of travel in relation to the distance one has to commute.
