Interview

This morning, I went down and ask my 10 questions. Mrs zhao, who live here with her husband, daughter and son-in-law about 17 tears. She said the big problem about live here is the communication, because the language, she can't speak english, so she can't have more communication with neighbors. The first time here she felt quite. she want to complain us that we mass around the garbage and we never neaten it. The owner of this building pay her to neaten the garbages. She also replies that our neighborhood is not safety in the beginning, she heard many people around here got robbed, stolen and some people fight. Furthermore, she had seen a car accident on one block away from my apartment before. The big change of our neighborhood she mentioned is the security is getting better, since those years, more Asians move from other community to here. Last, I ask her, what was her opnion about people had lack of connection in our neighborhood? She said most of New Yorker are lazy and they don't want to talk to other neighbors, so, she don't surprise about this.

GAC 13

The Chapter 13 is the first chapter of the part three forces of decline and regeneration. In this chapter Jacobs mentioned the self-destruction of diversity can happen in streets, at small nodes of vitality, in groupings of streets, or in whole districts. She states that diversity is inherently required for city life to work in a constructive manner, and provides the basis for the perpetuation of the city. Although the responsibility for public use entities such as schools,parks, community centers and more is to be undertaken by public and "quasi-public" sources. Most outstandingly successful city residential districts have never possessed the four fundamental conditions for generating exuberant diversity int he first place.

Jacobs state the self-destruction of diversity is caused by success,not by failure.The process is a continuation of same economic processes that led to the successitself, and were indispensable to it. It is the problem of getting the supply of vital,diversified city streets and districts into a saner relationship with demand.

10 Interview Questions

1.How long have you been here?
2.Who were you lived with?
3.Do you have any problem about lived here?
4.What did you feel when you are first time here?
5.Do you have any complain about neighborhood?
6.Did any one call you to tidy those garbage up?you do it buy yourself?
7.What do you think about our neighborhood, is it safety or not?
8.Have you ever seen any accidents here?
9.Did you see any change in our neighborhood?
10.What do you think about people had a lack of connection in our neighborhood?

Summary for chapter11-12

The chapter 11-12 is describe the need for concentration generally. In Jane's opinion, she had writen that in condition 4 in chapter 7. Some myths about diversity which is chapter 12 also include the information about concentration. She thinks Lack of wide ranges of concentrated diversity can put people into automobiles for almost all their needs. The spaces required for roads and for parking spread everything out still has the problem, and causes still greater uses of vehicles. Otherwise, diversified city areas, people still walk, an activity that is impractical in suburbs and in most dull areas. The more intensely various and close-grained the diversity in an area, the more walking. Even people who come into a lively, diverse area from outside, whether any transpotation.

Church found pre-1950

There is a Saint Agatha Roman Catholic Church in my neighborhood. Its location is 49th-street 7th Av. As the red board in the picture on the right side shows that it found 1912. There are baluster around the church and also set on the each step. In the picture you also can see the Agatha 's statuary on the left side of the picture. When i took the pictures i saw some small angell and droves right beside the Agatha's statuary. There is a bundle of flowers in front of the statuary. i think that was from a follower of Catholic. Everything beside the statuary are gawsy. Did it mean those things were take care by the Saint Agatha?

The picture on the left side is the whole field of vision of the Church. The stlye of the building looks like a castle.There are three exits: two small exits on both side of Church, and as the nomal building, the frontispiece is in the middle which is the biggest one. You can see the road in front of the church which is 49th-street was repairing and there are Four obstructs on the block. A tree perpendicularity but dried up. I could see many people assemble in the Church and the ding of the bell when i walk on the sidewalk every sunday. I never get into the Church.

Chapter 9 of Great American Cities

In Chapter 9, Jane Jacobs tells us her point is the most blocks must be short; The streets and opportunities to turn coners must be frequent. In the beginning of the chapter Jane talk abot that the advantages of short blocks are simple, and the she gave example about a men who live in Eighty-eight Street in Manhattan had grave trouble to reach stores on Columbus Avenue. Also, she talk about the relationship between the rconomic and those small block, because she think that economic effect of these self-isolating streets is equally constricting. so teh main point of this chapter is that she want to tell reader there are many way to change our city streets and how to make people be more convenient, to make the city better.

Recource #2

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All text is available under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License. (See Copyrights for details.) Wikipedia® is a registered trademark of the Wikimedia Foundation, Inc., a U.S. registered 501(c)(3) tax-deductible nonprofit charity.
Sunset Park is a neighborhood in the southern section of the New York City borough of Brooklyn, USA. The neighborhood is locate between 41st and 44th Streets and 5th and 7th Avenues. This is my first park i visited in New York. Last time i play volleyball with my friends there. When i get there many people play whatever sports they like: skate, football, and badminton. Many people lie on the lawn and enjoy the Sunset~ You can found more information about the park. If you are interesting in the Sunset park pllease click:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sunset_Park,_Brooklyn

Resource #1

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The Brooklyn-Queens Connecting Highway which called I-278. I often pass though it when I take the bus or take my father's car. Regional Plan Association recommended the construction of a link between the Gowanus Parkway and the Triborough Bridgeat 1936, but it start at 1950. This highway brings more convinient for New Yorkers.There are more information i found on the website below:
http://www.nycroads.com/roads/brooklyn-queens/

My Neighborhood

Since Nov.2003 I was moved from China to the U.S.A. That night I saw many chinese signboard spread all over the Av. And I just heard that is 8 Av in Brooklyn(Small Chinatown). Since the 1980's, the neighborhood has attracted many immigrants from China centered on an area now known as 8th Avenue from 42nd to 62nd Street, where the city's third-largest Chinese community (after Manhattan's Chinatown and Flushing, Queens) can be found. Some of the reason the Chinese settled on 8th Avenue is because in Chinese folklore, the number eight is lucky for financial matters, and "8th Avenue" can be loosely interpreted as "road to wealth".

8th Av is road with Chinese businesses, including grocery stores, restaurants, Buddhist temples, video stores, bakeries, and community organizations, and even Hong Kong Supermarket. As the picture above shows the traffic was busy, people shopping on the streets. Another explanation is the direct subway ride to Manhattan's Chinatown on the N/R and D lines. If you don't want take subway you may take the small buses in the 8av the buses is express to the East Broadway which is the central of the chinatown in Manhattan. Finally, when you walk on the 8th Av, you can taste any chinese food and you can gather whatever information or the stuff you need. Some Chinese businesses are also appearing on parts of 7th Avenue, and east on 9th Avenue. Also, you can feel that you were in China, people's behavior and languages reveal that is a really chinese community. I felt that I never leave China.

The Great American cities7&8

Jacobs' argument in Chapter 7&8 are the generators of diversity and the need for mixed primary uses. In her opinions, she thought there are four conditions indispensable. The first thing is district, internal parts as possible, must serve more than one primary function, and then most blocks must be short; that is, streets and opportunities to turn corners must be frequent; Next, the district must mingle buildings that vary in age and condition. Finally, There must be sufficiently dense concentration of people, for whatever purposes they may be there. In these two chapters she collects and explains all of ideas by those four conditions. In combination, these conditions create effective economic pools of use.

My Apartment

I lived here about 4 years, as the picture shouws 7th Av 49th street,

I take this picture in the dusk, but you can see it clearly, every block has a traffic sign: light, stop sign, one-way sign and so on. The frame of the streets on Brooklyn are similar. My apartment's direction as the arrow shows on the right side that is between 6th and 7th Av, but if you start at 7th Av, you just need few second and you can see my apartment.

This orientation is in front of my apartment, I took the picture when the bus passed through the street in front of my apartment. This bus which called B11, I can hear the sound from the bus when I am awake in the morning. It is going to stop at the subway station after 10 minutes from here, therefore, I often take it for work or school. As the picture shows you can see many cars park there. Furthermore, you can see three garbage can, in the early morning, the old couple who lived in basement clean up and neaten those garbages, let's see the blue one in the right side is for the water bottle, soda can, and other container; the other 2 is for the sundries and papers.

This is my apartment, every one can see the style of buildings are similar on the whole row. These apartments connect and without space. Each apartment lived at least 3 families: basement, first floor, and the second floor. My apartment lived 4 families, but people had lack of communication in my building as we discussed in class.

When you go to the second floor, you can see two doors. I lived on the right side. Tonight is the Chinese New Year's Eve, so, you can see the patterns pasted on the doors. In our culture, the red color is dexter. People paste those patterns for luck. As the custom, you can find out that people who lived in the left side are Chinese ,too. Sometimes, i can see the women takes her children to the school in the morning.

Those are the pictures I took today. After you view these pictures and my descriptions do you know more about my apartment?

Chapter 3 Great American Cities

As we finished the introduction of the book, everyone knows Jane Jacobs argued that the urban planning in our cities. In chapter 3, she write about the contact that uses of sidewalk. At first, she mentions that people loitering on the busy corners and those people have passed a judgment. She think if they had decent homes, they wouldn't be on the street. So the point is that she attempt to explain the safety issues on the sidewalk. Other, she tells reader that the public sidewalk life related to the local city's organization directly. Next, she wrote that efficiency of public sidewalk characters declines rapidly if too much burden is put upon them. In conclusion, the sidewalk is also an impotant component, to progress cities and change the ethos of a city should start at the streets-sidewalk of cities.

HW#1

The Forgotten New York
I lived New York about 4 years, when i was 15 i moved from China to the U.S. The first place i was visited is the JFK airport. I was surprised like a slum just came from the small town. Next, when my father drived me on the way home, i saw many luxury buildings and the bridges. The first bridge i saw is the one which contacts the Stanten Island and Manhattan.Now, i still feel that this bridge is the most beautiful one on New York, but there is a paradox that i didn't know the name of this bridge. After that, i live in Brooklyn, and everyday i just go to chinatown and back to Brooklyn repeatly expect school (College). When i go to the website: http://www.forgotten-ny.com/ i saw many pictures and i just know that there are many photo stories on old, odd, and forgotten aspects in New York, the infrastructure of a lost metropolis. Even you didn't live here, but you can find more interestings in this website.
I chose a picture called Day In Court after I read all those pictures. The reason that i chose this picture is i had been Brooklyn-Manhattan Transit Court street station before. I connected to the link of this picture. I view the organizations about the inside and outside of the station. Compared to what i really saw, the station is older than the picture looked. There are tow pictures about the specimen at Court and Montague, shot with a flash and without. The differentiation is telling us the true color of the specimen. Brooklyn-Manhattan Transit decorated its stations with mosaic pieces depicting churches that are found when you climb the steps to the street. The design of this mosaic is same as the stained glass window of the Holy Trinity Church, which is located at the entrance of Montague and Clinton Streets. The mosaic is very beautiful. Even though the mosaic was installed, but still too old for people to enjoy.

HW#2

The Death and Life of great American Cities by Jane Jacobs
Jane Jacobs, the writer who is write about urban planning in the 20th century. This book published in 1961. The introduction of this book tells readers that some problems around the American cities. She attempt to argue modernist urban planning rejects our city. There are many examples of urban problems in the beginnig of the introduction. She wrote that why some cities are marvelous,and why our cities had many dull traps, vice traps, slums and they regenerate themself. Her opinions can be considered opposite to that of the modernists, upholding redundancy and vibrancy, against order and efficiency.The book also played a major role in the urban development of Toronto, Ontario,Canada where she was involved in the campaign to stop the Spadina Expressway. Her writings were an important influence on New Urbanism, an architecture and planning movement which emerged in the 1980s.