Monthly Archives: September 2014
Choice of your Neighborhood
When you upload your post on your choice of a neighborhood, please make sure that you check off the Neighborhood category.
All students will make in-class presentations tomorrow at our editorial meeting.
Prof. B.
Williamsburg Pitch
The neighborhood that I would like to pursue, the area I’d like to explore, and the community I’d like to investigate is Williamsburg. More specifically the Northwest quadrant of Williamsburg, from about north 1st up to north 13th street and from Kent to Driggs avenue. I have many reasons why I’d like to better my knowledge of this area, a few being the following. One, I already spend a large portion of my time within the community. Two, I feel embedded into the culture that you find all around the Williamsburg area. Three, I know there is still so much to learn about the community in which I think I know so much about.
In 2011 the consensus for Brooklyn was at 127,398 people. Over the last three years I would expect that number to have gone up to over 140,000 residents. The community itself is based on 2.179 square miles, most of which consist of waterfront views overlooking the water and downtown Manhattan. The split between male to female occupancy is split right down the middle, 50/50. The median age for females is 25 while the median for males is 28. And along the lines of ethnicity, the break down looks a little something like this; 50% white, 11% black, 27% Hispanic, 3% Asian, and 7% other. The building mix within the confinements of Williamsburg is as follows; 28% new buildings, 13% walk up, 11% luxury high-rise, 8% loft building, and 7% pre war. Over the last five years, the community has seen a 10% increase in new as well as luxury high-rise buildings.
I’m a fan of art. Music, sculptures, paintings, food, performing arts. I like going out and seeing things that people have created. I grew up in the suburbs confined to a primarily white Jewish community. When I had the opportunity to shove off for college I started to explore. When I made my way into Manhattan the grinding gears of the subway drew me more and more towards Brooklyn. After I had visited a friend who lived on Kent Avenue and then went to my first performance at the Music Hall of Williamsburg I was sold on everything it had to offer. Later that year I attended my first art show, a little boutique right off of Driggs. A bunch of bearded hipsters, and short hair having women packed into a small gallery to compare and contrast works of art by a Miami based artist, Alex Yanes, who was doing a pop up in the area. I remember feeling so out of place, yet at the same time feeling right at home. I’ve now been roaming those very streets for close to four years, finding new dive bars to hang out at, new artists to see, and new spots to dine on some of the best cuisine New York has to offer. My time spent has been nothing short of propitious. It’s nice seeing the New York Skyline from another perspective…
Fardad
Protected: Bensonhurst – Neighborhood Proposal
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Protected: Neighborhood Pitch
Here is New York
“Walking to Work” by EB White
“Walking to Work,” although a short and seemingly simple piece, says a lot about the city. One can spend hours exploring just a few blocks of Manhattan, peeking in store-fronts, people-watching, or even just stopping by certain spots only out of curiosity, as White did with Radio City and Charles & Ernest’s. It’s so easy to get lost in all of the commotion and all of the places around the city and even lose track of time because a handful of blocks can offer more than expected, becoming a small city in itself.
Response to “Here is New York”
E.B. White’s “Here is New York”, although published over 50 years ago, highlights a variety of aspects of city living that still ring true today. Although technological advances have been made over time, and neighborhoods have changed, the very essence of New York City has remained the same. I don’t believe it’s the shops that make the difference. It is the nitty gritty pieces of New York life that help us recognize and differentiate our city.
It seems as though, in the time that has passed, the bustling city life, the ever reaching skyline, and the architecture have only grown bolder. The population has changed but the parks still flourish, businesses run, and every man and woman on the street know this is New York.
While reading the book, I don’t think It occurred to me more than once or twice that this book was written in the late 40’s. His description of the city is so relevant to modern day New York City life that, without the small distinctions, it would be hard to date. New York’s tiny self sustainable neighborhoods with varieties of shops and businesses, the raging traffic hours, and the habits of the natives are simply spot on in his book.
If I’d written this book today, I’d have tried to describe the beauty of New York as it’s always been. I’d incorporate the beauty of its busyness, and the hopeful atmosphere that hangs around the corners, and try not to define this city life by jamming the book with references to modern day advertising, technology, and other things that haven’t contributed as greatly to its prestige.
The Look of a Native – E.B. White
This piece by E.B. White struck me because it relates to the first piece we looked at by him. The part of the essay where he lists the 3 different people that live in New York: “There is, first, the New York of the man or woman who was born here, who takes the city for granted and accepts its size and its turbulence as natural and inevitable.” This person is referenced again in “The Look of a Native,” which was published in The New Yorker. He brings up a question to the reader, “can a stranger in New York make himself look like a stranger, so that other strangers won’t stop him on the street and ask a lot of questions about New York he can’t answer?” I thought the automatic response to this would be “yes”, but White makes a point and flips the question. Us New Yorkers can spot strangers quite easily. Our own problem is to make ourselves look like a New Yorker. We are the ones who are strangers. We are the ones who take the city for granted. We’ve lived here all our lives, yet we go along our days not phased by the this city that has the whole world talking. How ironic is that!
Here is New York by E.B. White is a story of an older New York that is very similar to the modern New York. Replace any of the names of the stores named to modern ones and the scene is practically still the same.
In the book White writes that the tallest plushiest offices lie the crummiest slims. This is still true today as the rich get richer and the poor get poorer. He wrote about it then saying that schools and hospitals are overcrowded and inadequate or underfunded as we know that they are today in 2014.
I think E.B. White captured New York’s exact lifestyle and although the times and names and faces are changed, the lifestyle is the same.
He captures the marvels as well as the faults of New York then and now. I would publish the book the same way he has except the names would be different and there would be a mention of the 1984-Orwellian police state that New York is in since September 11th, 2001.