neigborhood

Brooklyn is the second city I lived in New York. At first it gives me a poor and worn mood. Maybe because there are no modern buildings in the district and the style of houses are not new. All are very simple. It is an enormous difference with Manhattan. However, people can adapt here quickly. I think it is because people lived here are very similar. I mean the education level, the background or the income are similar. A lot of people lived here is immigrant. The feeling is like we are standing in the same line and share the same area.

Although Brooklyn are different from Manhattan or other city, here still inherit the feature of New York. There are different cultures combined here. There are Indian, Chinese, Spanish and more. They have different language but they can communicate with other and they can understand each other. The immigration is increasing in these years. I think it is the feature of Brooklyn. Brooklyn always is the good choice for the immigrant.

before 1950

New York is a colorful city and full of surprise. Subway station is an obvious example. When you pass through the alley in subway station, it is easy to find that there are many different decorative mosaics on the wall. Also, you can find varied palette, raised, glazed ceramic tiles on the sign. These arts can stimulate our eyes and wake us up. The appearance of the subway station is also creative. Many subway entrances are not easy to find and they don’t seem like a subway entrance.

The subway near my house is a good example for it. That subway looks like a simple building and the age of that subway is old. I asked the stuff of the subway station how old this station. He said at least before 1950s. This “building” located here for so many years. It is older than me. This gives me a strange feeling. I am walking on the same floor and using the same entrance like the people did. It is incredible. This entrance stands at the end of the street. In the picture, you can see the subway entrance’s appearance. It is not high and only one floor and the platform. There are ceramic tiles told you it is a subway entrance. The green painting door and the brick made wall show that it experiences a lot in a long time.

When we walk inside, you can see the worn ceiling and a simple construction. A ticket selling center, two-ticket machine and the entrance compose this simple station. In the center of the station, there is a heater that provides warm to customers. Customers wait on the first floor and keep body warm by standing around the heater before the train comes. This heater is very old style. It is also green painting and I see a little bit worn on the surface of the heater. There are doors both on two sides because there are different directions of the train. They are green-painted swing door. The whole mood of the subway station is old, maybe because there are no decoration and other extra useless things.

Sometimes entrances can be found in department, store, basements and liquor store lobbies. When you pay attention on it, you can feel how interesting your life is and you can find many funs around your living even in a bored subway.

summary of Ch. 9

The topic of chapter 9 is the need for small blocks. How small blocks apply to the good primary mixtures and the successful of city diversity? Author tells us that long blocks isolates neighborhoods and it is not convenience for residents. There are pictures showing that residents use only one way to go somewhere every day because there are no other easy ways to choose. Long blocks baffle the development of the advantages in the city and it opposes the principle of the city mixtures use. Now the mixtures use happened only in the same street on the long blocks case. Jane suggests constructing the short blocks and there is an extra street between the blocks. This can get the good result of the mixture use and help the economic effect of the diversity use. She applies an example in Rockefeller plaza and shows that how it works well. “Like mixtures of primary use, frequent are effective in helping to generate diversity only because of the way they perform.” It means that when people use the street, they can attract more mixtures users and they did that can help accomplish the growth of diversity.

after 1950

House is a basic facility of a city. It is necessarily of living. The purposes of earning money for most people are for food and for house. House is important for human being. Therefore, many graphic designer and architect design many different house styles in both interior and exterior.

In exterior, we can know about what people live in the house. I took this picture in a residential district in Brooklyn. I suppose this house made after 1950. Why do I have this assumption? At first, I have to describe this house. This house is reddish brown. The shape is long rectangle that likes a shoe box. It is a 2 floor house with a flat roof. There are 8 windows and 2 doors. One is front door and one is back door. The backyard is next to the garage. And a drive way lies in front of garage. There are a arch and a stair in front of the front door. Fence build on the windows of the first floor and it also build around the little front yard.

Based on the description above, I can know about the house built after 1950 and what kin of people live in that house. The brightness of the wall color shows that it is new and has been paint this few years. The style of the construction is simple. It is not gorgeous as the old time. A lot of house in the past time were build with embossment and the embossment would be a little damage when we observe it. If a house builds over ten years or longer, the wall would change color and we can see the worn thing even it has been painted. We can see that very clearly that it is very new in every corner whatever the windows or the wall. Therefore, I believe that this house is very new and it must build after 1950s.

I know the master of this house is Chinese. I saw them came out on that day. Otherwise, I prove that the resident like tidy and clean. I concluded all the evidence. The garbage bin is not mass and there is no rubbish around the house. They may like simple style. I can see it because the house style and they don’t decorate it. They have dogs because I heard the dog’s noise and there are a notice “Beware dog inside”. They are busy and they don’t have time to grow any plant in their yards.

After observation of a house, I discover that there are lots of styles of houses. And I can see the struggle of the architect in building a house. If you observe a thing such as house, you find a lot of trivial thing that you ever know.

MLA format

Welcome to Brooklyn. 5th Feb. 2008. 11th Feb 2008 <http://www.brooklyn.com/>

This web site covers the neighborhood of Brooklyn. The site includes the history and population in Brooklyn. The jobs and house finding are also applied in the site. The map, street name and famous site are found in this web site.

Kristen Goode. Brooklyn, NY. Brooklyn NY home value.6th Feb 2008.11th Feb 2008
< http://brooklyn.about.com/>

This web site covers the newest events in Brooklyn. It provides a lot of information about Brooklyn, such as the culture, history, neighborhood, guide, flight, map etc. It includes the places and career findings.

Ch.7 and Ch.8

In“Death and life of great American cities”, was divided into 4 parts. The title of part two is the conditions for city diversity. In character 7, Jane Jacob introduces her point of view in city diversity and she explains the function of it. In chapter 8, she points out the economic effect of the mixture uses. It is the first necessary conditions for the diversity city, which she mentioned.
The mixture of uses is essential for city. It is because greater diversity makes greater self-sufficiency. Then, more products are going to be produced. That means places should be used in many way. It can distribute people in different places at all time. This attracts visitor to come and city income increases. When a place is diversely used, people can save money and there are no useless places. Useless places waste money. Therefore, the mixture of primary use is important and it is the one of required condition for a diversity city.