Activity #9

Jennifer Rios

Activity #9

For the first blog that I found (http://onlytheblogknowsbrooklyn.com/page/2/), it was solely focused on issues concerning people in Brooklyn, New York, as you could probably tell from the blog’s web address. The aim of this blog seems to be to make residents of Brooklyn become aware of the different events and issues that are going on in this borough. Such as issue that was written about in this blog was the heavy flow of traffic on Prospect Park West, 8th Avenue and Union Street. This was done by having people sign petitions which led to the New York City Department of Transportation to start planning on effective ways to calm traffic. This blog also had an entry discussing safety for bike riders and raising awareness of this issue by handing out bicycle bells and other safety gadgets on the Brooklyn Bridge. This reminded me of Bree and her courageousness when attempting to share the street with cars while she rides her bike. This event also shows how people are attempting to make the street a shared public space by making it easier to bike ride in.

What caught my attention on the second blog that I found (http://urbanplacesandspaces.blogspot.com/), was that the issue about safe bike riding was also written about but this time it was based on the Washington D.C. area. This blog entry spoke about how planners would like to not only see walking and bicycling become a “way of life” but they would also like for it to be safely done along cars. A photo was also provided that showed how much space would be needed in a street to transport 60 people according to cars, busses, and bicycle. A clear difference is seen between the three, showing that bicycles would be more beneficial in terms of leaving additional space for others to enjoy, unlike cars.

The third blog (http://www.korwelphotography.com/category/urban/) was a little different compared to the typical blogs that people come across. Instead of posting entries in which the blogger writes about a certain issue or idea on his or her mind, this blog caught my attention because of the different method of blogging. This blog focused on posting pictures that the blogger took from areas such as Iowa, Utah, and New York City. This helped me see the different architecture that can be found in these areas without actually having to go there. These pictures also helped raise a question that was also raised several times in class which is, why are certain things built in certain places and why are they built that way? It also helped emphasize the fact that “new developments spreading beyond the cities are reducing cities and countryside alike” (Jacobs, 6)

An entry that caught my attention in the next blog (http://www.denmark.dk/en/menu/Lifestyle/Urban-Life/) was an entry about graffiti. As we all should know, it is illegal to put graffiti on any buildings unless you own it. This entry discussed how a graffiti competition was held in the streets, as people passed. I believe that this entry can be touching on the topic of public versus private. For a long time, and even today, putting graffiti on the walls is an act that is very private, due to the fact that it is illegal and if caught, one can get in trouble for it. Therefore, to have this competition in a public space, without having anyone receive any negative consequences shows how a private act was held in a public space. This blog also has an entry about block parities held in Europe, which can also be an example of public versus private. Usually, parties are held in enclosed areas, such as houses or clubs, and usually require some sort of an entrance fee, making it private events. The parities spoken of in this blog were held out in the street, making an event that is usually private, a public one.

The last blog that I found (http://problematizinggenderedspaces.blogspot.com/) had plenty of topics that related to what was spoken of in class. Such topics were public versus private, gendered areas such as bathrooms, gyms, and even prom, which I had not thought about! After thinking about it, prom is in fact a gendered space because prom is known as an event that has a norm of only boys and girls pairing up as “dates”. I hope that in the near future there is some kind of movement to “push away from the ordinary” (Shor, 99), and gendered spaces would be non-existent.

I hope that the blogs I visited will take a chance to visit my group’s blog, since we all seem to touch similar topic of Urban Life. I told these blogs about my group’s page by posting the link on their page after my comments and letting them know that similar themes as the ones they discussed can be found there. I also told them to feel free to check the page out and to comment.