Author: Safaa

Throughout the course, there has been a lot of discussion as to what ruins certain aspects of the city, such as community or infrastructure. I am also very interested in what makes a city great. Usually, a city’s outward aspects such as architecture, transit system, and food are the first to be evaluated. A city’s economy, housing, and opportunities are also very important. However, I’ve found in this course that protecting the people in the city and its culture are also very important in making the city great. These factors are much harder to see from the outside; some digging into the city’s policies and laws would reveal the truth. While the outward appearance of a city is always important, it is important not to overlook the residents that make up that city.

The public services and the protections that residents receive are examples of ways a city can take care of its residents. Connectedness is also significant factor in the quality of a resident’s experience of the city. It helps foster a sense of community, where residents develop bonds with one another. This class taught me a lot about what really matters in a city in a humanitarian aspect.

We frequently discuss gentrification from the perspective of those being kicked out of their neighborhoods. Of course, this is because they are the ones being harmed in the process, and the gentrifiers are usually there to do the same thing they do in all the gentrified areas. However, looking at the process from the other perspective is useful as well. The people moving in usually are looking for a nice place to live and aren’t necessarily harboring evil thoughts of kicking people in the neighborhood out of their homes. While these thoughts might be selfish, they’re not evil.

Continue reading “Gentrification for the Gentrifiers”

After reading about Brooklyn in the book “Naked City”, by Sharon Zukin, I thought Twitter would be the best place for this week’s assignment. A quick search of the words “authentic Brooklyn” were exactly what I needed.  I happened to stumble upon a slew of tweets (some angry and others funny) in the past two weeks about how  “Brooklyn BBQ” is not authentic at all.

Continue reading “Authentic Brooklyn BBQ?”

New York City (NYC) and Los Angeles (LA) are both well-known cities, yet different in culture and lifestyle. In the article “Los Angeles and Its Booming Creative Class Lures New Yorkers,” Alex Williams discusses migration from NYC to LA. New Yorkers who can no longer afford rent or who seek different opportunities than those offered in NYC move to Los Angeles, where they can solve both or either of those problems. Los Angeles has a scene much more suited for the creative class. There are more bloggers, artists, and content creators on the west coast. People tend to meet up based on creative interests, and people are friendlier. New York, on the other hand, is full of people who have 9 to 5 jobs and don’t care much about their neighbors. While both these cities are successful and growing, people of a certain mindset leave NYC and head west for different opportunities.

Continue reading “New York City or Los Angeles?”