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.