According to Oxford, a linguistic landscape studies is the investigation of displayed language in a particular space, generally through the analysis of advertisements, billboards, and other signs. For my linguistic landscape I will be focusing on the town in which I grew up. It is very small but I spent most of my life there and it has significant meaning to me. I was born nearby and I have lived here my entire life. I have a deep connection to this town because it is where my family lives and where I went to high school, met most of my friends, and had most of my life experiences. It consists of mostly neighborhoods and stores and is located about an hour north of Manhattan. It is called Monroe, New York. When I was younger I really enjoyed this town and the life it held, but as I got older the town felt as if it became smaller and started to deteriorate. It is now old and appears run down as it further continues to age. This past week I have been visiting many popular places within my town. Since it is not a city-like environment, we tend to see more chains than individual and unique spaces. Unfortunately, among my research and driving around my town, I discovered it is pretty plain and not as unique as I originally found it to be.

I would like to focus on the common theme of chains within my town. At first I was expecting to see all privately owned business and diversity until I began driving around and photographing. I noticed a lot of commonalities that you tend to see within a small town. My high school has a very uninviting sign and an almost prison-like atmosphere. It was actually designed and created by prison designers. I started out my analysis by photographing the entrance to my high school. My high school was extremely diverse and prided itself upon being a very accepting and welcoming district. It was in fact very diverse and we had an extremely high rate of transfers of students from abroad. Due to being in such a diverse environment for high school, I had assumed my whole area would be full of this same level of diversity, until I further analyzed my town paying much more attention to detail.

Ranging from chain restaurants to common stores, there was much commonality to many other upstate New York towns. Upon diving into my research I found that chain restaurants make a significant profit in small towns. This happens through co-branding within the towns they place their chains. First, the main draw to my town, I entered into the Woodbury Commons. This was a much more inviting sign followed by a lot of space. This is a Simon premium outlet which you tend to see many of in less populated areas of land with a lot of open space. The sign had the common Simon symbol which is helpful to travelers visiting the area. Though I did not photograph the many stores and restaurants inside, it was full of solely chain stores and restaurants. While walking around I did not see one store or restaurant that was unfamiliar to me. It was full of name brands and chain restaurants with no specialty to any nationality or background.

From there I proceeded to a nearby shopping center in which I came across many common stores. Here I saw a subway, a McDonalds, a dollar tree, a bagel world, and a target with a Starbucks inside. Growing up, I had always thought bagel world was a family owned and individual business but upon further googling it I realized it was also a chain of common bagel stores found up North. I was very disappointed in the lack of individuality within this specific shopping center. It was not until I went to another shopping center that I found the first speck of individuality within my town. Despite the common Annie’s sub 17, here I found what appeared to be a family owned dentist and hair salon. Upon doing further research, I discovered that both businesses were in fact also less common chains that had offices and salons in multiple locations.

I then traveled to another section of my town called Highland Mills, New York. Here I found yet another chain (dollar tree) and I entered my favorite deli for lunch. This deli, called jays deli, I found is a family owned business that has been locally operating for years before I moved here. Jay’s deli has a bright red sign you can’t miss. It feels warm and inviting without even stepping inside. I then drove a bit down the road to another restaurant called spill the beans (a coffee local coffee shop) which too is family owned. Both American style food, I was still not seeing much diversity in my town. On my way home I went to stop for my usual iced tea at Dunkin’ Donuts and decided to take a detour to see if I could come across any alternatives. After driving around for ten minutes I was not only unable to find an alternative, but the only places I came across were fast food restaurants such as Wendy’s.

I began to take note of so many chains I was worried that my town may be lacking the individuality of the city environments I was seeing my peers have. Being a town full of Manhattan commuters, I inferred that the beginning lack of individuality I found was due to the small population of residents that live here that own their own local businesses. I wanted to get the opinion of a family friend’s father who owns a family owned business. He told me that he opened up his store years ago and decided to invest the majority of his wealth into opening up the store in Manhattan while living here to commute. I asked him why he did not open up her store here and he said his earnings would be much grater for a store like his in a city style environment.

Overall, I was very disheartened by the lack of diversity I came across within my town. I tried to look at it in a more positive way that chains are just often present in small towns like mine. I had expected much more from my town and was saddened to not find more cultures represented within it. I expected much more coming from my high school which was full of students from international places who spoke a variety of languages. Though this is true, according to a study done by Brown University, small town America is slowly becoming more diverse like their neighboring cities. I think that city environments are definitely more unique and hold much more profit for small businesses so I can see why there is a lack in small towns such as mine. I think it is very important to take note of this lack in order to hopefully make a real change over time. I would love to see more stores and restaurants in place of the chains that are multicultural so I can take part in learning about new cultures.

 

Sources:

P. (n.d.). 581 Route 17M, Monroe, NY: Monroe Plaza: Retail Space For Lease by Pyramid Brokerage. https://www.pyramidbrokerage.com/properties/listings/details/L2385/581-route-17m-monroe-ny-monroe-plaza

T. (2020). DUNKIN’, Rochester – 1500 Mount Hope Ave – Menu, Prices & Restaurant Reviews – Order Online Food Delivery. \https://www.tripadvisor.com/Restaurant_Review-g48503-d4932257-Reviews-Dunkin-Rochester_Finger_Lakes_New_York.html

U. (2020, November 30). McDonald’s – Cafe: 501 NY-17M, Monroe, NY 10950, USA. https://usarestaurants.info/explore/united-states/new-york/orange-county/monroe/102598-mcdonalds.htm

O. (2020). Linguistic Landscapes. https://www.oxfordbibliographies.com/view/document/obo-9780199772810/obo-9780199772810-0251.xml

Nuwer, R. (2012, September 11). America’s Smaller Cities Are Becoming More Diverse. https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/americas-smaller-cities-are-becoming-more-diverse-30296626/

B. (1997). Let’s Talk Business. https://fyi.extension.wisc.edu/downtowneconomics/files/2015/05/DEC97LTB-2.pdf