“Behind the Gates:" By Mousumi Haider

For the book assignment, I decided to read the “Behind the Gates: Life, Security, and the Pursuit of Happiness in Fortress America” by Setha Low. The Center theme of the book is that, searching for community. Another theme is of the good is, safety of children. Setha Low took long time to write this book. She was actually living in “Gate Community”, so she can be a member of gate community. To write this book, Setha Low was being ethnography. Ethnography is a qualitative research method often used in the social sciences, particularly in anthropology and in sociology. It is often employed gathering empirical data on human societies and cultures. For data collection of gate community, Setha Low participated in gate community for observation, interviews and questionnaires.
“Two electronically controlled gates block the entrance: one marked “residents” next to the guardhouse, and the other “visitors.” On the visitors side is a sign instructing drivers that the gates close automatically to allow the passage of only one car at a time.”(Page 27) This remained me a time, when I visited one of my father’s friend’s house. He lives in Long Island, NYC. When we arrived there, the security guard won’t let us go. We had to call my father’s friend and then the security guard let us go inside the gate. I thought what are these people scare off? What they have inside the gate to hide from other? It’s true that, most of the people want security in their daily lives. But does living in close gate make it secure?
My favorite part of the book is the chapter 5: “Protecting the Children and Safety for All.” Reading first couple of lines gave me a huge smile on my face. The little kid “Alexandra”, who also wanted to be interviewed. Anyhow, the main point of the chapter was that sometimes people are scare to let children out. Especially in Gate Community, the adults hardly let the children out even to play. People from Gate Community thinks outside of the gate are threats of crime, violence, kidnapping and strangers that scare the member of the community.
This book is related to our class because it talks about the community, people, environment and society. In our Urban class, we also try to figure out people and their society. At first, I didn’t want to read this book. I wanted to read “Sidewalk” but somehow I end up reading the “Behind the Gate”. Honestly, I enjoyed reading the book, it was really very interesting.

Activity 9, Matt Blank

In the search for Urban Blogs, a few stood out to me.

Before I even searched though, I thought about tProxy-Connection: keep-alive
Cache-Control: max-age=0

word itself, "blog". What a weird word. I suppose it comes from the word "log" but what is the "B" for? I looked for this information on the internet, and found that it's short for "Web log". Apparently "Wlog" and "Elog" don't have the same ring to it. Now that we put that behind us, my search for other urban blogs of interest.

The first one was http://economix.blogs.nytimes.com/, a blog by the NY Times about business and the Economics of Everyday life. This is a fascinating topic to me because it is always relevant. No matter who you are, and what you do, economics are relevant to you.

Then I saw this site, http://www.nycbloggers.com/
This site has the ambitious job of organizing blogs in the city. It currently has over 6000 blogs attached to it. I tried to submit our blog but the site broke. Whoops!

The next one I went to is a friend of mine's blog, http://newyorknightsonline.com/
This blog focuses on the Business and Culture of New York Nightlife. The author recently published a book about the same topic.

This next one was not a blog about Urban life but had a topic about it which I felt deserved honorable mention.
http://cr4.globalspec.com/blogentry/7790/Urban-Life-is-Bad-for-Brains
That is the specific link to the article.

Then I was drawn to this blog,
http://midwesternerinnyc.blogspot.com/
Because I felt it had an interesting outsiders perspective, but mostly because I saw the thing about Jimmy Fallon.

Activity 10 by Mousumi Haider

For activity 10, we were supposed to go for class field trip, but unfortunately I wasn’t able to join my class.  Therefore, I am inquiring about Environmental Justices. Environmental justice refers to an equitable spatial distribution of burdens and benefits to groups such as racial minorities, residents of economically disadvantaged area. To get more information about Environmental Justice, I called some Environmental Justice organization.
The first organization I contacted was “WEACT for Environmental Justice”. This organization has two offices. One office is located in Harlem, NY and another office is located in Bronx, NY. It was very hard for me to walk in the office, so I called them. I got the number form the website. http://www.weact.org/. Their contact numbers are also listed on their website. I talked to Evelyn Joseph, she is office manager. She said, right now the organization is working on West Harlem. They want to turn the abandoned 135th Street Marine Transfer in the Hudson River into a community. The next organization I called was CHEJ, Child Proofing Our Communities, Green Flag Schools. Their contact number is (703) 237-2249. http://www.chej.org/ I talked to “Kim” and she is membership Manager. She said, the main goal of the organization is to prevent harm in the community. The next organization I wanted to contact was “El Puente” http://www.nyceja.org. But I didn’t find a real person to talk to. Anyhow, El Puente is a community human rights institution that promotes leadership for peace and justice through the engagement of member in the arts, education, scientific research, wellness and environmental action.

Activity 10- Sharmaine Dais

For this activity I looked at an issue that is very pressing- Environmental Justice. According the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), Environmental Justice is "as fair treatment and meaningful involvement of all people--regardless of race, color, national origin or income-- with respect to development, implementation, and enforcement of environmental laws, regulations, and policies." This is no doubt a very important issue, so I decided to investigate three Environmental Justice Organizations. The first one is Sustainable South Bronx (SSBX). SSBx "is a community organization dedicated to Environmental Justice solutions through innovative, economically sustainable projects that are informed by community needs" (http://ssbx.org/index.php?link=2#history). They identify their most pressing issue is with the industrialization of the Hunts Point section of the Bronx. The residents there do not have the same level of health and living conditions as other neighborhoods do. They have one of the most impoverished areas with a lack of jobs which effects all residents. The next organization I looked into was WE ACT. "WE ACT for Environmental Justice (West Harlem Environmental Action, Inc.) is a non-profit, community-based, environmental justice organization dedicated to building community power to fight environmental racism and improve environmental health, protection and policy in communities of color. WE ACT accomplishes this mission through community organizing, education and training, advocacy and research, and public policy development" (http://www.weact.org/Home/tabid/162/Default.aspx). The most important issue in that area is currently the Gentrification of 125th Street. Another issue is the "GO Green project." The last organization is New York City Environmental Justice Alliance (NYCEJA). They identified their main issue to be about how to effectively advocate in behave of resides and community organization and support. This subject of environmental justice is very important, especially if you live in the aforementioned communities. Hopefully this blog will spread awareness on this topic.

Activity 10

Activity 10
Carmen Lam

It has been a very long time since I went on a class field trip. Honestly, going on this class trip definitely bring back memories when I was in middle school. Taking the Staten Island ferry for the second time was a fun and relaxing experience, because it was a beautiful morning and I get to sit outside and feel the breeze. Once I got to Staten Island I met with the rest of the group members and we took a private bus tour with Doug to see the recreation of Freshkills park. I was very surprised to see that NYC is actually willing to support a recreation of Freshkills park in STATEN ISLAND, because I would never expect the city to invest in Staten Island landfill.
It was interesting to learn that New York City garbage is being transported/ dumped into other landfill locations.Staten Island waste is sent to DSNY's Staten Island Transfer station. That is where garbage is compacted and sealed into shipping containers and railed by a private contractor to a landfill in South Carolina. Also Bronx and Brooklyn garbage is railed to a landfill in Virginia. Last but not least, Manhattan garbage is trucked to a waste to energy plant in New Jersey. It was interesting to see that garbage is going through a cycle from place to place.I am very excited to see the recreation of Freshkills park in 30 years because, there is going to have many activities such as cross-country skiing, environmental education, Promenade and Barge Gardens, Bridle Trails, Multi-use paths, canoe and kayak launches. It is amazing to see a landfill that once was a dump and soon it will become largest park in New York City.

Activity 9

Activity 9
Carmen Lam

Today I was browsing around google and typed in the search box “urban life blogs”. A various of blogs popped up and I choose these five blogs First, http://www.urbanlifeblog.com/ provide a mix of real estate, housing, market analysis, and provide information and restaurants reviews. Second, http://onlytheblogknowsbrooklyncom/category/civics-and-urban-life/, blogs about Brooklyn that brings hyper local news to brownstone Brooklyn.
Third,http://gailatlarge.com/blog/category/urban-life, takes us around the world and takes wonderful pictures and descriptions of her journey. Fourth, http://onlytheblogknowsbrooklyn.addresszero.com/index.php?cat=1. writes about Brooklyn. The reason I choose these five blogs is because I feel like it relates to the topics of our class. By reading their blogs it makes me want to travel and explore other parts of the world. Its interesting to read about their trip and what they have learned and by sharing the pictures they have taken during the trip makes look more creative and unique.

Activity 10, Matt Blank

For activity 10, we got to go to Freshkills Park in Staten Island.

Admittedly, at first I was not very happy about having to make time to go to a park in Staten Island. It'd been years since I was on Staten Island, let alone the ferry. Still, I signed up for the second tour, got to the Ferry Terminal and met up with another student. We braved the Ferry together. I remain very impressed with the gentleman who had so much gel in his hair that his hair did not move when he was on the bow of the boat.

When we arrived on Staten Island, we met our tour guide, who was awesome. We all gathered and met up and drove to the Park. On the way, we learned more about the park. In case you don't know, I'll give you the quick update:
For years NYC shipped all it's garbage to a landfill in Staten Island. Everyone except Robert Moses hated it, especially the people who lived near it. The garbage is literally piled 200 feet high in some places. Then they decided to capping the landfills and plant a park on top of it.
So now that you know what it is, let me first tell you that it is incredible. It was inspiring to think about how effectively and creatively all that trash was dealt with. The park itself is gorgeous and I highly recommend going. They even put a system in place to siphon out the methane from the landfill gasses to heat houses in Staten Island.

While the site won't ever be what it was, it is a very green way of dealing with the garbage we spent years accumulating there.

Sidewalk

Carmen Lam
Sidewalk

The book “Sidewalk” by Mitchell Duneier a white Jewish man that earned his Ph.D and also a sociology professor goes into the streets of New York City and try to interact with the African American street vendors personally, instead of just relying on interviews. Entering the streets of Sixth avenue, Greenwich avenue, west eighth street, and waverly place where you can find some of the street vendors. Most of the interactions between the pedestrians and the street vendor’s show signs of social solidarity, because not many pedestrians would try to engage a conversation or get to know the street vendors compared to interacting with an employee in a franchise store.
The main theme of this book is discussing about the topics on race and social status. There are many common stereotypes that I have heard about people living on the sidewalks. Most people will automatically form stereotypes like a person living on the streets is a rapist, drug users, mentally crazy, etc. This book reveals why street vendors are on the streets and what brought them onto the streets.
Most of the street vendors were from jail, drug addicts, alcoholics, homeless, etc. By starting their business as a street vendor they are earning a decent living and importantly staying away from drugs and jail time. It is interesting to see that street vendors are willing to help each other out, because the purpose of being on the streets is trying to make a living and staying out of trouble. Most of the street vendors live on the sidewalks, subways, or any nearby blocks. According to Duneier, the blocks are a place and which various survival elements can be networked together making a particularly good subsistence habitat for the street entrepreneur (162).
There are two basic reasons that street vendor choose to sleep on the sidewalks. First, anyone will sleep on the streets as a function of the complementarity of the habitat elements such as food, shelter, and an opportunity to make a living by coming together in one place. Second, anyone person may sleep on the streets because his friends are there watching tables, makes the habitat a place where he feels safe and comfortable. Street vendors uses the sidewalks as a shelter, making a living , etc. Pedestrian should not automatically assume that people living on the streets are drug dealers or drug users.
The connections that I can draw from this book to the topics we have discussed in class is about Jane Jacobs on how to be a “public character” and the idea that more people on the streets makes the street more safer, because more eyes are on the streets.“ Jacobs argument, that public characters who in her analysis are respectable figures generate a sense of predictability by acting as eyes and this generate social order by creating a set of cultural meanings and expectations that “someone cares” (158)”.
This book was very interesting in my opinion, because instead stating the obvious that the street vendors are on the streets to make a living. But to think and look at street vendors having the ability to start a drug free life and trying to survive by purchasing old products to resell instead of taking the illegal path as either taking drugs or selling drugs. From reading this book I learned that most street vendor experienced a difficult lifetime and importantly to see that they did not lose their dignity and still try to either pursue their dreams or just live day by day happily.

Activity 9: Look For Urban by Mousumi Haider

For Activity number 9, we were told to look up other blogs about Urban Life. As I was typing “Urban Life Blogs” in google search, I wonder how many blogs I will find. To my surprise, there were many blogs about urban life. I guess, people in city are interested about urban life. The first blog I read was at http://urbangiraffe.com/. The blog is about Life, The Universe, and Wordpress development. I like the blog as it was divided by categories. Mostly, I like it because the blog talk about Wordpress. This blog actually teach you technical stuff about wordpress. The second blog that I read was at http://thisurbanlife.blogspot.com/. This blog was mostly picture and drawing. When I saw the photograph on the blog, I was amazed by it. I always wanted to take photography classes. This blog was one that was written by people in Philadelphia, PA. The next blog I looked at was http://blog.urbangrace.com/. I am not sure if this part of the urban life or not. This blog is by Erika and her blogs about her design business, Urban Grace Interiors. I really like this blog. In this blog, it gives idea about how to decorate the home. There is one entry about mother’s day, if you want help to pick a gift for your mother. The blog is her daily rambling. Looking at her blog, I felt like to start my own blog. My forth blog was at http://www.mynonurbanlife.com/. Reading the name of the blog caught my attention. We are looking for our urban life blog but this blog is about nonurban life. I thought, it will be interesting to compare. The blog is written by CJ. On April 20th, he posted a blog name “Sidewall Blowout Spectacular!”. While reading the entry, I was like, hey! That what I was doing when I had to go places for our urban class. He was looking at the people, what they are doing and observing flowers by the garden. Didn’t we do that also? Although, the name of the blog is “Mynonurbanlife”, I felt this is so urban life. The next and last blog I looked at http://undressingher.com./. This blog is about urban sexuality. Blogging about sexual experience, I thought it is very interesting. Everyone can blog about their daily life, but blogging about sexual experiences need courage.
Before reading these blogs, I never thought about writing a blog. While reading these, I felt like starting my blog. This blogs are very interesting and at time very helpful to other in some way. These blogs are just thoughts about the people who want to share their experiences.

Activity 8.2 by Mousumi Haider

If you want to talk about urban life in New York City, we have to talk about Central Park. Central park is an urban park of Manhattan in New York City. Millions of people visits Central park each day. This park is the most visited city park in United State. Group number 1 took group number to Central park for our group tour.
The central park is a public place. Anyone can walk in the park, people run in Central Park, play games, and other activities. Whyte mention about the relationship between people and street. People get happy just by seeing the park from the street. Musicians and other acts tend to set up outside of these smaller urban parks. Group number 1 took us around the Southern part of the Central park. We walked around The Mall. The Mall part of the park is located end of the southern. It is also known as Literary Walk that is populated with a series of sculptures. While walking around the Mall area, we passed sculpture of Victor Herbert, Christopher Columbus. It was amazing walk around the Central Park. After that we walked around the area where people ice state in winter. It calls the Rink. When we went there, the ice was melting because it’s almost summer time.
We also walked by the children zoo. While we didn’t go inside but just walked pass by it. As we were walking about in Central Park, we saw a movie shooting. We were trying to have a look if we knew anyone or not. Our bad luck, we just had to walk pass by. The Central Park has been appearance in many movies and television shows in past. I really enjoyed the walk in Central Park. I have been there before, but walking around for class is different.

Activity 8.1 by Mousumi Haider

Group number 2, which is us, took group number 1 to Roosevelt Island. From our group, Matt was our tour guy. He knew lot of things and background history about Roosevelt Island. The Roosevelt Island lies between the island of Manhattan to west and the borough of Queens to east. In 1818m the New York City purchases the island. The island is part of the Borough of Manhattan and New York County.

While walking around the Roosevelt Island, we passed by the Chapel of the good Shepherd. The Chapel of the Good Shepherd is an historic church located at 543 main St. on Roosevelt Island. In the beginning it was an Episcopal chapel, but right now it is the Good Shepherd Community Ecumenical Center. It is very beautiful building. Later, I look it up in google and found out that, it was designed by architect Frederick Clarke Withers.

The transportation in Roosevelt Island is awesome. There is no regular bus is Roosevelt Island but the residences use the Red bus in Roosevelt Island, which call shuttle bus service. It only cost 25 cents (10 cents for senior. I thought that was very cool. The red buses picks you up from front of the F train station and take the passenger to their destination (apartments). Talking about transportation in Roosevelt Island, I should say about the Tramway Car. From F train station of Roosevelt Island, people can take Tramway Car to 59th Street & Second Avenue Station using the regular metro card.

Roosevelt Island is short of both public place and private place. It is a public place because; anyone can go there and sit around the river as long as you want. You can play music, eat, run, play, etc. Roosevelt Island is also a private place because of the apartments. When we walked around the apartment building, there was a sign “Private property”. So, I am guessing around the residential areas are private. Those places are only for the people who live there.

I loved Roosevelt Island. I go there, every chance I get but ever knew the history behind it. It was awesome tour by Matt.

Hidden Dimensions-Sharmaine Dais

For this assignment I decided to read and review the book The Hidden Dimension by Edward Hall. "The central theme of the book is social and personal space and man's perception of it" (Hall 1). The book discusses how humans use space according to time and place.
In the second chapter of the book, Hall talks about the distance regulation in animals. He says "by restricting our observations to the way animals handle space, it is possible to learn an amazing amount that is translatable to human terms (Hall 7). When it comes to freedom, Humans feel that animals are free versus humans who are imprisoned by society.
Hall also talks about the differences between eastern and western cultures. In Japanese culture, centralized spaces are positive versus in western culture it is negative (Hall 140). In Japanese culture, the fireplace (hibachi) is in the center of the room and all the family members herd together there. In western culture being in the middle or in the spot light have negative connotations. Another example of this difference is with housing. In Japanese culture walls are semi fixed. To westerners they are confinements and fixed. Japanese people often center their furniture while westerners do not. This relates to other things we have read about space and what is concerned crowding.
When it comes to the theme of public versus private spheres and behaviors, the Arab world is used to depict this. Hall talks about his experience sitting in a hotel lobby on pages 144 and 145. He says that "I seated myself in a solitary chair outside the normal stream of traffic. In such a setting most Americans follow a rule...as soon as a person stops or is seated in a public space, there balloons around him a small sphere of privacy which is considered inviolate (Hall 145). Hall explains that after he sat down, a man of Arab descent sat right next to him, although it was not crowded, which made him feel extremely uncomfortable. This shows the difference that people have when in comes to privacy. How can you expect privacy in a public setting. This was a really interesting point that Hall made.
I think the way that Hall presented his arguments, were very effective. It was a very easy read (don't be fooled by the boring look) and actually the book turned out to be very interesting.

Activity 9-Sharmaine Dais

For this Activity, I decided to look up some other blogs about Urban Life and put out the word about our blog. I "googled" "Urban Life Blogs" and what I found where a wide variety of blogs, which really surprised me. The first blog I read was at http://thisurbanlife.blogspot.com. This blog was one that was written by people in Philadelphia, PA. The blog had mostly pictures about art and drawings. The last blog posted, the author said that he would be on a trip to Guatemala so that there would not be any posts for awhile. The blog was very different. The second blog I looked at was at http://www.urbanlifeblog.com. This blog takes is written by Gene Urban and Ron Urban in Phoenix, Arizona. This blog was very different from the one I write. The blog was about real estate, housing, market analysis, news& events, and restaurant reviews. The third blog I read was http://urbanlife-firstchurch. blogspot.com. The blog was written by Kathryn Ransdell from Dallas, Texas. This is a religious blog. The last post was September 3,2008 because they moved to http://urbanlifeonline.com. The fourth blog I saw was at http://undressingher.com. The blog is about urban sexually. They have articles about unwanted pregnancy, "baby mama drama," Good sex, and "sextexting." The last blog I saw was at www.flawlesshustle.com. This blog was about hip-hop culture, videos, arts, fashion, technology, news, interviews, and new music. These blogs were very different from the one I write. Their themes are very different also. They are more of a "social networking" type of blog, meaning that the stories on the blog do not use citation. They are just thoughts that people want to talk about. Nevertheless, it was very interesting to read these blogs.

Activity 8.2

Activity 8.2
Carmen Lam

Group 1 have decided to take us Group 2 to explore central park. I lived in New York City all my life and this is only my 4th time visiting central park. During this tour I found out that Central park is a private, not for profit organization in a public private partnership with the city of New York. As we continue to explore the park I saw the “Trump” ice skating rink and couple of minutes away there is a zoo. Most people that do no want not pay admission to go inside the zoo can enjoy watching the sea lion by the benches. Walking around the park I notice that most of the visitors are either walking their dogs or exercising. This was a fun experience because I get to observe and know some history of this well known Central Park.

Activity 8.1, Matt Blank

So I had the interesting pleasure of taking a bunch of people who hadn't been to Roosevelt Island there.

People always seem to be struck by how different it is. It's a very disorienting experience to come out of a subway onto a small strip of an island parallel to Manhattan. Roosevelt Island is of course, right by the water, and it has some really lovely views. We discussed how as we went farther north and away from the tram and train station, the island became less nice. You could practically see the sliding scale of wealth descending the farther away from the transportation we were.

Activity 8.1

In this activity we, being Group 2, decided to take Group 1 on the first field trip to Roosevelt Island. Matt led the tour starting from E. 68th St and we walked to the E train at 63rd. It only took a few minutes to get there because it was only one stop away.


Upon arrival there what we saw was instantly beautiful. As soon as you step out the train station the first thing you see is the water and what I believe to be Cherry blossoms. Looking out from the water you can see the Queensboro bridge, the FDR drive, and the Tram. To begin our tour, Matt told us the basics of the Island. Once upon a time there was an insane assylum there. He told us that the way the island worked- there was a lighthouse near the end of the island, the further north we went the more we came across middle class and lower class residents,etc. We started walking through Roosevelt Island and we saw the stores they had. It seemed like they weren't even apart of Manhattan. It was more like a little town in itself. Next we went to a residential area but it was private property. This made me think back to Private vs. Public spheres. Although the island seemed to be like a tourist attraction it did indeed have its private spaces. Next we saw the theater. It was reminded me of the outdoor theater in Central Park. It was just a small space with an elavated area(the stage) and concrete bleachers. As we began to leave we passed a Japanese restaurant that I definitely plan on going back to. Lastly we saw the Tram. Unfortunately it was out of service but when it would be working again, if I decided to go back the Tram runs from Midtown to Roosevelt Island. It even works with a normal metrocard.

I really liked going on this activity. Our tour guide knew how to keep the tour running smoothly and interesting. Even if going alone, Roosevelt Island is a great place to explore because they even have a tourist center. I would definitely go back.

Activity 8.1

Activity 8.1
Carmen Lam

Group 2 have decided to take Group 1 on a tour to Roosevelt Island. I was very excited to go to Roosevelt Island with my entire group and the other group, because I have never been to Roosevelt Island. Matt took the responsibility as a wonderful tour guy. It was a very relaxing experience in Roosevelt Island because once when we exit the train station we can see the beautiful water. Sitting by the water I can see the Queensboro Bridge and the Tramway. The Tramway is Roosevelt Islands tourist attraction and I wanted to check out the Tramway for the first time but unfortunately it was closed. The Tramway goes through the east river and follows the route on the north side of the Queensboro Bridge and whiling enjoying the Tramway across people can enjoy the view of east side of midtown Manhattan.
It was very interesting to see that when we continue walking around the neighborhood we came upon this neighborhood frontier that have video stores, public safety department, outdoor theater, coffee shops, restaurants, and a playground. There was this particular local bus that cost only 25 cents and it takes you around Roosevelt Island. As we continue to walk toward North the buildings appear to look a lot more expensive and more luxury compared to the buildings in the South side.
It was a great first time experience in Roosevelt Island and I will be expecting myself to visit Roosevelt Island more frequently, because I get to experience the suburban side of border line Manhattan and Queens.

Activity 7, Matt Blank

I went to a Plaza a couple times, on 53rd and Lexington.

The first time I went, I saw that a lot of people used it as a gathering space, there were people who met there regularly to play chess, or to do homework, and some to play a large group game. There were also people who were sleeping in the space, but they were regularly woken by the security guards. The security guards were very odd. They kept doing things that didn't make any sense to me. There were outlets on the floor but people weren't allowed to use them. Sometimes, they would ask people to move chairs back to tables, but other times they would not. Finally, they kicked people out of the space 30 minutes before the signs said it was closed. The whole thing felt very policed.

I came back another day, and it happened to be raining. This was very interesting, a lot of people who I'd seen before were huddled in the far back corner of the space, playing and talking like nothing was going on, while a lot of people stayed near the door out of the rain. It was like a subway car, where everyone was crowded by the doors and there was plenty of space inside.

Activity 6, Matt Blank

I found no areas labeled as Gendered Spaces, in my neighborhood, but I did find a few unofficially gendered spaces.

Some spaces were accidentally gendered, specifically some businesses that cater to certain genders.

I actually found a very gendered space completely accidentally, although not in my neighborhood. I'm going to include it here because I found it very interesting.
A friend of mine's birthday was at a karaoke club in Brooklyn. We did not know that a gay football league was having a karaoke contest at the bar at the same time. We ended up having about 12 people and there were about 40 gay football players. It was a fantastic time, everyone was very nice and encouraging to us at least. They had a panel of judges and they rated the people in their contest on a scale of 1 - 5 while they rated other people 1 - 10. We all had a great time, and in fact one person with us got a standing ovation and an invitation to play some football!

Activity 6, Mousumi Haider

In Activity 6, we were asked to find the difference between a gendered space and a queer space in our neighborhood. Gendered space is where genders are separated into different place and a queer space consider a space where populated by gay, lesbian, bisexual people.
I live in Briarwood. Briarwood is very residential area, where lot of houses and apartments are there. Briarwood is convenient to highways, the subway, LIRR, and buses for the families who residence there. The LIRR stations in downtown Jamaica and Kew Gardens are also fairly convenient because it is 20 minutes walk from Briarwood. The subways and transportation options is one of the main point in Briarwood. The express F-subway stops at Hillside and Parsons, again at Hillside and Sutphin, and at the Van Wyck/Briarwood station at Queens Boulevard and Main Street. The E train stops at the Van Wyck station late at night and on weekends.
There aren’t any major stores in Briarwood. To go to mall, you have to take Q60 buses or train to Queens’s central mall. Briarwood neighborhood doesn’t have much of stores that divide into gendered spaces and queer spaces. There are some 24 hours “Delis” and some grocery stores which can be indentify for both gendered spaces and queer spaces. Right on corner on 84th drive, there is a Dunkin Donuts which also for both gendered spaces and queer spaces. The Dunkin Donuts is open 24 hours, which is very convenient for everyone. On the other side of 84th drive, there is a 99-cent store. Beside Dunkin Donuts, there is another store call “Pani Dolce”. Personally, I love this store. Pani Dolce is located on Queens Boulevard at Main Street. It is the best bakery for Italian-style cookies, pastries and loaves. There is a Key Food on Queens Boulevard, which has a small parking lot in the back. The Key Food is open until 8pm on weekdays but weekends they close it very early.
There is one beauty parlor name “Ayina Beauty Salon”. It is an Indian beauty salon where all type races women go there. This salon is space for women. On Manton Street, there is another women gender space. There is a “Neil” salon where, women go and get their neils done. There is a barber shop for male gender.
Briarwood neighborhood has a small library that perches over the Van Wyck at Queens Boulevard and Main Street. Across the library, there is a small park for kids. The park is initially for the kids but older people also use the space. The park calls “Briarwood Park”. Archbishop Molloy High School, a private Catholic high school, is on Main Street near Queens Boulevard which is right next to the park. These all the spaces can be identify as gendered.
I am living there past 9 years but never knew there is a bar until I have this walk. The bar is located at the corner of 84th road and 164th street. It is very place that most of the people prefer to go to next neighbor which is Forest Hill, in the Austin Street area, for a drink. These places are open pretty late and also get packed on weekends.
I am not sure how to identify a space as queer. I have not seen any place in Briarwood which is for queer people. Briarwood is very quiet residency area, where private activities don’t take place in public spaces. Although most of the stores aren’t open for 24 hours but it is open until 10 pm at night. Briarwood is very safe for family, children or single people to live. Everything is very close by making convenient for a person who works.

Activity 7, Mousumi Haider

The Greenacre Park
Have you ever heard about Greenacre Park? I never did. When this activity was given to us, I choose the Greenacre Park because I liked the name. Although I wasn’t sure the Greenacre Park was located but I was excited to check out a new place. As not knowing where is Greenacre Park, I google search the location. Surprisingly, The Greenacre Park is located in Midtown Manhattan, on East 51st Street between Second and Third Avenues. It is very close by Hunter College. If you like walking, the park is around the corner. Greenacre Park might be new to some of us, but the park opened 1971 and has been maintaining it since.
I went inside the park amazed by the quite atmosphere. First, I sat upper label because I wanted to look at people. I went there around 6pm which is after office hour. That day, 2 or 3 tables were fill number of people but most people where alone. There were mostly elderly people with coffee and others were having their snacks. There is also a café, where you can buy coffee, sandwiches. I had coffee which was good and the price for food is reasonable. In Greenacre Park, there are movable chairs and tables so people can be comfortable and can have some control over where they sit. “The possibility of choice is as important as the exercise of it. If you know you can move if you want to, you feel more comfortable staying put. This is why, perhaps, people so often move a chair a few inches this way and that before sitting in it, with the chair ending up about where it was in the first place. The moves are functional, however. They are a declaration of autonomy, to oneself, and rather satisfying” (Whyte, William. The Social Life of Small Urban Spaces, Pg 35).
The Greenacre Park consider as good public space. So, here my question comes. If Greenacre Park is a public space, why we are not allowed to take pictures? I was taking pictures of the fall in the Greenacre Park. I got one or two photos when a guy (I think, he works in the café) comes up to me and told me not to take pictures. I informed him, I was taking picture for my class project. He said, “It doesn’t matter”. If it is a public space, why there isn’t any permission to take pictures?

Activity 5

Carmen Lam
Activity 5

Attending the Community Board meeting 10 was something I never knew existed for everyone. The CB 10 main concerns was about Bay Ridge, Dyker Heights and Fort Hamilton which is located in Brooklyn. The main focus of the Community Board meeting 10 which I attended was about finding ways to solve some serious complaints and problems about the neighborhood due to lack of education, properties, teen pregnancy, healthcare, disturbing noises by the residential areas, and restaurants. Most of people at the meeting talked about problems with students dropping out of middle and high school. There was this white man that stood up during an open discussion and began to complain about a Chinese supermarket that is located in Fort Hamilton and he was shouting about how he thinks that “the supermarket should be shut down, because he believes that it is making Fort Hamilton’s community dirty with garbage and non local shoppers are damaging their properties“. But most of the people in the meeting disagree with the white man because attracting more non local customers meaning that more business for Fort Hamilton stores. Later the meeting discussed about some restaurants trying to request for permission to use the sidewalks for serving more customers by setting up tables outside of the restaurant. Before I attended this meeting I thought that if you bought a store you can open a outdoor café without any problems because it is your property. But I learned that opening a outdoor café you need permissions and the community meeting vote and decides if the stores location is appropriate for a outdoor café and setting limited seats and tables for outdoor availability. I assume that Fort Hamilton, Dyker Heights, and Bay Ridge are sort of a safe area because there was not many topic mention about need of having more cops or more surveillances. Everyone in the meeting seem friendly and are very involved with trying to maintain a safe and high education with the local children. It was interesting to learn that the community board meeting is about getting involved and trying to make our neighborhood a safe and better living place to live.

Activity 7

Finally there was a beautiful sunny day, on April 1st so I decided to take a quick gym run and head to Paley Park. Finding this park was actually really hard. It's located on E.53rd street. While I was looking for this "park" I asked an old man for directions. He began to walk with me to the park while telling me a story. He said that man who made the park wanted to give people a place to just sit and think. He said that the man also imported a part of the Berlin Wall to the park. Well that was all very interesting.
When we finally got there, I was really shocked on what I saw. It was so beautiful. It was about One O'clock when I got there. There were about 13 trees, a few plants, one water fountain, about four garbage cans, and tables and chairs. The walls were covered with vines and the wall in the center was a waterfall.
There were alot of people there in pairs of two and three. There was about 10 pairs at that time. People where eating and talking. Some listened to music while others read. Most of the men were located in the back of the park looking in. The women were more toward the front looking outwardly just as the movie said. The only women that were in the back were the ones that were paired with a male and a child. Most of the people looked about 24 years or up. Whenever someone wanted to smoke, they went to the front of the park in the left corner near the "Refreshments" sign. I only saw one pair of men talk on the stair at the front of the park.
As time passed it got a little shadier and chilly. People began to leave and there were less and less pairs of people in the park. The movie that we watched in class proved very true. In order to have a successful plaza you need: trees, light, food, water, and sitting space. I think I may come back to Paley Park for a date. :)

Activity 7 Carmen Lam

Activity 7

On a sunny Wednesday afternoon I decided to observe the location of Fulton Mall. It was a warm day where many families, couples, adults, and children are sitting and standing in front of Fulton mall. Before you enter Fulton mall the outside area is crowded with people that are standing in groups that takes up a lot of space. When I entered Fulton mall it appeared to have a male and female shoppers. But I think I saw more female shoppers then men. Majority of the female shoppers that enter Fulton just went directly to the mini shopping cart vendors or a clothing store forever 21. The mini shopping carts sold accessories, clothes, bags, and wigs. For male shoppers they only go into stores that sold sneakers and caps. There is a foot court inside the mall that served delicious beef stew and roasted chicken with yellow rice. There was around 12 tables that was full of families and teenagers eating and socializing. I believe that the mall should make the food court smaller and put more shopping stores. Half of the food court is empty and that space can be useful for the mini shopping cart vendors. Customers can have more options of stores. There are many mini shopping carts and they are located in front of a opening store. Its funny to have observed that the mini shopping carts appeared to have more business compared to the stores. There was no seating area by the stores. The only seating area in the mall is in the food court.When I looked into most of the stores in the mall it appeared to be very slow. But outside of the Mall it is full of people hanging around relaxing and socializing. I felt very comforting when I was outside of the Fulton mall, because everyone was smiling and just sitting around enjoying the beautiful sun. Once I walked into Fulton mall I felt sort of uncomfortable, because there was a security guard by the entrance that was flirting with a young female and he was checking out literally every girl that walked by. When I walked into some of the stores I also felt very uncomfortable because the workers just kept of following me around the store and asking if “I needed any help “ which I have already told her that “I am looking around if I needed any will help I call you”. The worker just made feel very uncomfortable and I did not see any obvious surveillance camera that are in the store. I observed that Fulton mall do not really have much customers is because once you walk outside of the mall and walk 10 steps away there are much more cheaper and trendy clothing compared to Fulton mall. Visitors are using the outside space by sitting and socializing in groups, compared to inside of the shopping mall there are not many people.

Activity 6

Carmen Lam
Activity 6

Today is the first day of spring and i decided to enjoy the beautiful weather by walking around my neighborhood. I was walking around 60th street and 5th avenue in Brooklyn. Walking around 5th avenue i did not see any children day care. But I found a day care that is between 4th and 5th avenue on 58th street. The day care is located in a basement of a private house. There is a public elementary on 4th ave and 60th street I assume that there is a after school program taken place inside the elementary school because around 5:30 pm i see parents entering the school to pick up their children. When i continue walking toward 2nd avenue and 55th street I saw a Lutheran hospital and across the street from the hospital is a small public park. I observed that the basketball and handball courts are "male" spaces and by the swings and the water fountain is "female" space. The basketball and handball courts is "male" space because it is a spot where men are competitive and aggressive in that particular sport. By the fountain and the swings i saw only a couple of young girls that appeared to be watching over their children, it is interesting to see that when a female goes to a park she has a responsibility to watch over her child and for guys a park is a place for them to relax and hang out with their group of male friends. I continued walking toward 5th ave and there are many stores that only target female shoppers. Stores like pretty girl, rainbow, baby blue, etc and stores that are for male and female shoppers are the sneakers stores. The nail and hair salon are unisex and resturants had an equal amount of male and female customers.
I don't see any particular places in my neighborhood that appeared to be queer/gay spaces. I see queer/gay individual claiming space in Chelsea piers.I believe that the queer/gay people pick Chelsea piers is because there are many trendy bars/clubs and upscale restaurants that queer/gay people can act freely without any discrimination on sexuality. I always heard that Chelsea piers is full of queer/ gay people but i never met one personally. I believe that queer/gay people feel more comfortable and able to act more freely about their homosexuality, because the queer/gay people assume that visitors that come to Chelsea piers already expect queer/gay people. When i researched for "gay map of new york" a lot of restaurants, bars, clubs, hotels, and saunas for "gays" and "lesbians". In my neighborhood, about one block away from my house there is a nursing program. Everytime when i pass by the nursing program i always see a group of female in their scrub uniform smoking marijuana literally next to the nursing program entrance. Its funny to see that everytime when i pass by the nursing program entrance i only see females smoking but I never saw any male nurse smoking by the entrance.

Scavenger Hunt (Activity 4, Mousumi Haider)

10. Phtotograph of two different street configurations in Manhattan.

4. A "reverse commuting" is a trip to work in the suburbs from home in the city. This differ from the person who lives in suburbs and come to city for work. Most of the people who are reverse commuting, leave city in the morning and returning in the evening. Grand Central is full with people who are "reverse commuting". Stealing one minute from them is very difficult. Anyhow, I stopped a person. His name was "William". He was coming from "Tarrytown". He is a reverse commuting because William works in Tarrytown and lives in city.

Activity 6 Sexualized, Queer and Gendered Spaces

In this activity it was crucial for me to consider what was the difference between a gendered space and a queer space. According to Hayden, The essential difference was that a Gendered space would be one tailored to one sex-one that would be unideal, or odd for the opposite sex. A queer space is a space where the focus would be more of on orientation versus gender.
Well in the Morrisana section of the Bronx, where I am from, there are a few of these spaces. Now to far from my house there is a shopping district called 3rd avenue or "The Hub." The stores run from 156th street to 149th street and 3rd avenue. Here there are both gendered spaces and queer spaces. On 149th street and 3rd avenue there is a queer space. Its the Pride Center. A place where LGBT youth can feel safe and hang out. Further down there are gendered spaces tailored to women. Stores called "Pretty Girl," "Young Girl," "Beverly Boutique," and "Victoria's" are a few of them. They are gendered spaces because they are tailored to womens clothing. They sell womens clothes, underwear, bathing suits, shoes, and makeup. There also is a gendered space geared only to men. Its a store called "Dr. Jays." They sell mens clothing and sneakers. Dr. Jay's is also a space for women though. They have a Dr.Jay's for Ladies. They sell items necessary for both genders. "Modell's" and "Foot Locker" are stores that appeal to both genders. On my block two specific cosmetic gendered spaces. There is a beauty salon called "Diva's" and a Barbershop. The salon is geared toward women. They have pictures of women and no pictures of men. On the sign with the prices, in small writing it has prices for men who want their hair done. At the barbershop it is the same way. Mostly all the pictures hanging up is of men. There are usually only men in there also. All of the barbers are male like the beauticians in the salon are female. It is clearly gendered.
Hayden also says that "A 'good' neighborhood is usually defined in terms of conventional shopping, schools, and perhaps public transit, rather than additional social services for the working parent, such as day care or evening clinics." In my neighborhood there are a number of resources for working parents. There are at least nine afterschool programs I know of in my area. They are in Mitchells Community Center, Patterson Community Center, Mott Haven Community Center, P.S. 49, Five Star Day Care Center, Renissance Arts Center, Woodstock Community Center, Trinity Houses Community Center, and Mckenly's Community Center. There are two laundry mats open 24/7 in my community. There is even a laundry mat in my building open until 10 pm. One is on 156th Street and 3rd Avenue and the other is one 161st Street and Trinity Avenue. There are two evening clinics open until 8 pm. These resources are very important to the working parents in my neighborhood. The afterschool programs provide HW help and dinner to the children in my neighborhood whose parents cannot help them. The Laundry Mats allow parents to do laundry on weekdays instead of always having to do it on weekends. The evening clincis allow the working parents to go to the doctor or take their children to the doctor without having to take off work. These are very effective.
Searching the "gay map of new york" several links come up to a variety of websites. They are: www.funmaps.com/index.../where:geographicalLocation=4, www.nighttours.com/newyork,newyork.gaycities.com/,www.gaymap.info/main/sub/impressions.htm, www.gaybarmaps.com/bars/new-york, and www.nyctourist.com/gay-hotels.php. These websites show locations of a variety of gay clubs, gay hotels, gay bars, bed and breakfasts, restaurants, saunas, gyms, shops, and associations.
There are also places in my neighborhood where people engage in private behavior in public areas. These places are staircases, basements, laundry mats, parks, and bathrooms. In the staircases, basements, parks, and bathrooms people smoke weed, do crack, and have sex. Surprisingly you would expect teenagers to be the ones engaging in these activites because of strict parents or lack of privacy, but I have seen grown men, a security guard in particular getting head in the staircase of my building. In the laundry mats I have also seen people make out and other things. They probably do it because they may not have a private area in their homes to engage in such behavior. Some people do it because its a "rush" to have sex in public places. Unless your someone who engages in it, it's hard to know exactly.
Doing this activity really helped me to evaluate my environment more and pay attention to what goes on and why.

Scavenger Hunt

1)AT&T Building.
2)Old trolley tracks at 4th Avenue and Bay Ridge Avenue. It served as a trolley from Bay Ridge and 3rd Avenue.
3)There is a market in downtown manhattan The Essex street market. It has been around for 65 years.
5)I rode the 5 train from uptown in the bronx. At first the people who got on the train at first where of African American descent and West Indian descent. As the train neared 3rd Ave and 149th Street, there where more hispanics on the train. And two white people. This shows that the farther uptown you live, the neighborhoods are most likely poorer. As you go downtown there is more white people getting on the train. The areas btw 86th and 14th have housing that is for higher incomes.

Scavenger Hunt

Carmen Lam
Activity 4 (6)

6) According to Kunstler, neighborhood frontier is a community that has residential houses, work place, grocery store, coffee shops, and parks. It is a small community that replaces the "city" industry, because running a local business or working in their own neighborhood can save money in transportation. Decreasing the amount of automobiles on the road to have less pollution.People living in that particular neighborhood can have the option to not commute to go to work, because some job opportunities are available in these neighborhood frontiers. I believe, that springville, Staten Island is one of the neighborhood frontier in NYC. Staten Island have many open spaces and throughout the years people began to build houses and stores to make good use of the open spaces. Springville, Staten Island is a neighborhood frontiers, because there is a shopping mall in springville and it is convenient for the local people to get their shopping done and even get a job in the shopping mall. People that work in their neighborhood can save money from transportation. Opening stores in Springville, give the local people the option to no longer drive or take the MTA to the city because everything can be purchased in springville.Therefore, people living in springville have a choice to either work in the city or work in their neighborhood, because neighborhood frontiers is about staying in their neighborhood.

Activity 4 (9)

9)There is a gated community in Ozone park, queens called the Magnolia Court Condominiums. Magnolia Court Condominiums was built in 1994 by Ronald Ervolina. Ervolino was the company's managing Director and now is the president of RE Contracting .Ervolina is a licensed architect with extensive experience in city planning, land development and construction management. Magnolia Court Condominiums consisting of 48 luxury condominiums. This gated community was designed with family living mind, and offers it resident spacious accommodation and stylish living in a safety neighborhood.

Paper 2

Sharmaine Dais
Prof. Bree Kessler
URBS 101
Februry 16, 2010

Rockaway Beach

I decided to go to Rockaway Beach in Queens. The trip alone took me two hours from the Bronx. I enjoy the beach but in 30 degree weather, that is difficult.
From the train station decided to take the bus to the beach so I could observe the neighborhood before I actually got to the beach area. The city seemed very diverse. There were people of Middle Eastern decent, African American, and Caucasian. The bus trip took me about 30 minutes. As I got closer to the beach, I passed a bridge and I could see the water. There wasn't any houses, just trees, road, and water. Once we passed over the bridge I saw what appeared to be condominiums. They were called Rockaway Houses.
Looking around I noticed a number of differences. The streets looked nothing like the ones in the Bronx. They sort of resembled Manhattan Village. I also noticed that instead saying "Avenue B or E.161st" the street signs said "B 116th." I never saw street signs written like that. I wondered if the "B" stood for Beach.
I got off at the last bus stop and I had to walk about a block to get to the beach. Upon getting there I saw a small park. I decided to look at the beach there. The park was directly across from a small store, sort of like a 711 if I remember correctly. The beach was covered in snow. I decided to sit on a bench and watch the water. You could smell the beach just as strongly as you would if it were Summer. That really surprised me. Inside the park area where I was sitting, there was also a statue of a person but because of the snow I couldn't tell what was it's significance. It was pretty quiet over there, besides the cars driving by.
Rockaway Beach area was so different than the borough I live in. It reminded me more of Florida than New York. Nevertheless, I think I will be back.

Mousumi Haider, Activity 2

I have been living in Queens from the very first day I have landed on America. I went to Hillcrest High School which was in Queens as well. Since I was new to this country and all I had to do back then was to go to High School, I didn't really get to go outside of Queens. But when I started college, I finally got a reason to go to other borough. When I got this assignment, I thought of walking around in the City and take pictures. After all, what can be more interesting to see people interacting with each other in an urban environment than New York City. But honestly, I had done that uncountable times as I am in love with New York City. But, one of my classmates mentioned to go to Max Brenner. Initially I thought it's not a well-known place. Otherwise I would have at least heard it once. But thought its worth of going there once. After all it's chocolate! It would be great having a cut of hot chocolate with my friends and sister.

First time, my friends and I went to Max Brenner was on feb, 14th at around 9 pm, thinking it would be nice hang out for Valentine's Day. When we got inside, there was not an inch of space to move. When I asked the host for a table, she said that there was a waiting time for 3 hours for a table for a party of 6. I assumed, it's packed for Valentine's Day, and it is a quite romantice place to take someone who you would want to impress. Since 3 hours waiting time was way too long, we went to Veniero's Bakery instead. On thursday of Feb 18th, my friends and I were thinking of hanging out and immediately Max Brenner came in my mind. This time, we went there at around 6 pm. We were told that the waiting time was only 15 minutes. But we got the table after 40 minutes. It surprised me, thinking how popular this place is because even on a weekday evening, this place was as crowded. But even after waiting for 40 minutes, it was worth it. Not only that I enjoyed that delicious food, also I had a really great time. Not just that I was around my friends, also I was surrounded by many groups. Every table was full with groups having a great time with their friends, families, or it can be two complete strangers on their first blind date. Who knows? All I am trying to say is that Max Brenner was a perfect example for people to interact with each other.

Since Max Brenner is always busy and packed, I thought of whether customers know each other or not. Do they introduce each other or not. Or always comes in a group and stays with each other. In The Death and Life of Great American Cities, Jane mention about the customers not being introduce to each other. “I asked Bernie, “Do you ever introduce your customers to each other?” … He looked startled at the idea, even dismayed. “No,” he said thoughtfully. “That would just not be advisable. Sometimes, if I know two customers who are in the same time have an interest in common, I bring up the subject in conversation and let them carry it on from there if they want to. But of no, I wouldn’t introduce them.” (Pg, 61: The uses of Sidewalks: Contact) Yes in New York City, its viewed strange if you introduce yourself to a stranger. Sometimes we go to the same places over and over and we never acknowledge ourselves. We try to keep things to ourselves being private.