Activity #3

Jennifer Rios

Activity #3

For this activity I decided to walk a ten block radius from Hunter College on a Friday morning in order to analyze the different areas that can be classified as either public or private. I found this activity to be very challenging because labeling areas as public or private was not as easy as it seemed. For an area to be categorized as public, it must be an area where anyone is able to spend time in without any restrictions, such as a public park or the sidewalk. On the other hand, a private area is one in which there are regulations, such as a mall. As I walked from 68th Street and Lexington Avenue towards 58th Street, I saw many areas in which people could gather, such as small shops or chain businesses. Despite being a city girl, by walking these ten blocks and actually taking the time to analyze my surroundings, I realized that every big and little city are victims of, “clusters of discount merchandise marts, the whole destructive, wasteful, toxic, agoraphobia-including spectacle that politicians proudly call “growth”” (10).

I noticed that I was surrounded by buildings, business, and people who were in a rush to get to their destinations. Throughout the many times that I have been in Manhattan, I have never seen a moment in which the city was not, “Ever-busy, ever-building, ever-in-motion, ever-throwing-out the old for the new, we have hardly paused to think about what we are so busy building, and what we have thrown away” (10). I believe that this constant activity takes away from the ability to analyze our surroundings and the affects that it has on our lives. This activity, along with the large amounts of people that were present during this time, made it much easier to analyze my surroundings and find public and private places. Some public places where I saw many people go to were the subway stations. The reason why this area is public is because of the fact that anyone is able to use these services. Other places that can be considered a public place are the many stores where people can shop. Anyone is able to shop in these stores without any restrictions as to who can enter. In terms of private areas, churches, such as one located right on Lexington Avenue, can fall into this category. The reason why a church can be considered private is because of the fact that the doors are closed to the public all day, unless mass is being held.

At first, I felt that it was easy to decide whether an area was public or private but as I spent more time trying to categorize my surroundings; it became a concept that was difficult to understand. For example, while analyzing the subway a little longer, I realized that not everyone is able to use the services provided by the subway. A form of restriction posed onto the public is the price of the MTA fare, which keeps increasing little by little. Therefore, this gave me the idea that the subway may also be considered private due to this barrier between the public and the trains. On the other hand, churches can also be considered public due to the fact that when mass is in session, anyone can go in. Therefore, I believe that it is much harder than it seems to categorize areas into strictly public or private sectors. I feel that a majority of places are better labeled as being a little bit of both.