Category Archives: Walking Tours

Announcements, Project Ideas, Walking Tours

Editing your group’s home page

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Hello class,

A follow-up from Monday’s workshop:
First, send your featured image to Ariel and add it to the media library on the neighborhood project site ASAP. Don’t forget to supply a citation and link.
Once you have done that, Ariel will add the image to the home page of the site. This links to a post with that image under the name of your neighborhood. To make this the landing page of your group site, I suggest adding some introductory text and links to your sub-menus. I have done a quick example for you using the Brooklyn Beaches group:
http://eportfolios.macaulay.cuny.edu/beemanneighborhoods/2014/04/29/brooklyn-beaches/
(Note: this group will need to edit this and replace it with their research and menu items)

Please email me if you have any questions!

Walking Tours

Sephardic Jews of Brooklyn

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Congregation Shaare Zion, originally started in 1941 as a small prayer group in individual house’s is the largest “Keniss” or synagogue in the Sephardic Jewish Community. It has been the home to thousands of occasions, including bar mitzvahs, engagements, and weddings. It was the home of many of the greatest Sephardic Rabbis and Scholars the Community has ever had, and is considered to be the nest of the Community’s religious life in America.

Sephardic Bikur Holim, SBH, was started in 1974 by a small group of community members who would visit fellow community members in local hospitals. Since then it has grown into the largest communal charity organization. The services the Organization provides include marraige and counseling services, career service, senior services, food pantry, clothing drives, and many more. It is hard to find a member of the community who has neither participated nor benefitted from the Sephardic Bikur Holim.

The Sephardic Community Center, was built in 1979, and since then has serve as the most central location for community members of all ages to interact and socialize in an environment that promotes the Sephardic heritage and culture. “The Center” as it is referred to by community members is located on Ave S and Ocean Parkway which places it at the heart of Sephardic Brooklyn life.

 

Walking Tours

From Brighton to Coney Island

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By: Ariella T., Nicholas A., Janice F.

LINK TO WALKING TOUR VIDEO:

Walking through Coney Island is like going through history. The train pulled over into the massive train station: the heart of Coney Island’s success story. Walking out, we could see the Parchute Jump in the horizon of this clear sunny afternoon in March. We walked to the Boardwalk to see the Coney Island of old and new trying to coexist together. As the first sign we saw said: “Thor Equities and Brooklyn Welcome You to Coney Island!” The sights of Coney Island’s amusements, whether it be the famous Cyclone or the colorful roller-coasters in Luna Park, always catch your eye. Given that it is the off-season, we were delighted to see the Boardwalk clear of crowds and annoying tourists. Some of us recalled the memories we had from summers long ago. Growing up in Southern Brooklyn means that Coney Island has had some impact on your life no matter how small. We were not just here to admire the Boardwalk and the amusement parks; we were here to explore the part of Coney Island that is not talked about. Much of Coney Island is low-income and housing projects tower over streets such as Mermaid Avenue. We explored the area and observed a couple key traits: abandoned lots and homes are plentiful; a lack of supermarkets puts a need of having multiple delis; and there is litter and garbage by the street. We even recall oldies eerily booming out of an apartment in one of the projects by Mermaid Avenue. We concluded our tour by walking down Neptune Avenue, which is mostly auto-shops.

So, just a bit of history about Coney Island:

Coney Island was a developed resort with safe bathing, grand vistas, and waves in the 1820s.   It was mostly meant for businessmen and merchants who had the money and time to spend at the resorts.  In the 1860s, Coney Island became an extension of New York Bowery, an amusement for a less rich crowd.  In 1876, Coney Island became infested with diseases.  In 1897, George C. Tilyou begins to take over Coney Island by building amusement parks and a boardwalk.  Robert Moses supersedes Tilyou and is known for practically destroying Coney Island.  He tried to rid Coney Island of all the amusement parks, as well as urban renewal (Title I) in 1949.  Most recently, Thor Equities has been trying to take over Coney Island.

And as for Brighton Beach, Brighton Beach was a place with refreshing waters that most people came to in the summers.  It was developed in the 1870s by William Engleman, who built the beach with hotels, fairgrounds, and a bathing pavilion for a broad cross section of social groups.  The area also had three racing tracks, one in Brighton beach, making it the racing capital of America.  West Brighton eventually became and amusement park.

 

Brighton Beach in terms of the neighborhood feels like the Lower East Side.  In the 1940s, it was a place for Jews from the Holocaust to escape because there were no available housing in the LES.  During the 1960s-1970s, there were new arrivals but crime rates and empty apartments still were prevalent because of NYC budget cuts.  It finally transformed to Little Odessa in the 1970s when Russian and Ukrainian immigrants came, mostly due to NYANA caseworkers hoped that since the neighborhood was already mostly Eastern European, the immigrants would fare well.

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Walking Tours

Roosevelt Island

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We went on a short walking tour of Roosevelt Island (Emphasis on “short”), the small piece of land wedged in between Manhattan’s Upper East Side and Queens. After getting off the subway, we proceeded to walk down the Main Street, and we noticed we had many questions. As New Yorkers born and raised, we had thought you couldn’t get to the Island by car, but then why were there many vehicles on the Island? And why were there two hospitals located on each end of the Island?

As we continued our walk, we noticed that only two small historical landmarks, an uninhabited colonial style house, and a late 19th century Church. The Island was otherwise populated by relatively modern buildings, such as different styled apartments and small little shops. The Main St itself did not have many shops, only places such as a Starbucks, Gristedes, Public Library, and few others. The Island did, though, have a few schools, including an International Nursery Center for infants and toddlers. All the playgrounds, which there were many, were clean and seemed relatively new. We finally saw an answer to our first question, which was a large parking lot that bridged a connection by car to the Island and Queens.  New buildings and public areas, such as a large park, are in the process of being constructed, showing how there is an expected growth in the Island’s small population.

On our way back, we stopped on the famous Tramway, which cost us the same as a one way subway ride. Only few minutes, it felt completely new and different than riding on the crowded, dirty subways. We made a video of us riding the Tramway, but it needs editing so we will not include it in this post.

We plan on visiting the Island again to inquire more about the hospitals, including the past Insane Asylum. We also plan on interviewing residents to hear their different perspectives on the racial diversity on the Island. Roosevelt Island is New York City’s most racially and economically diverse neighborhood, which was it’s original goal when being planned. We are proud to have chosen such a unique neighborhood and look forward to unearthing the lives between residents.

Old & New Trams

 

Transportation

(The bottom right puts emphasis on the bridge used by cars connected the Island to Queens)

Colonial Style House

 

 

 

These are a sampling of the many photos we took.

Nicole-Amanda Merchan and Nicolette Belitsis

Walking Tours

Chinatown, Manhattan

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Our group visited Chinatown on March 24, 2014. The main focus of our research is on gentrification so we wanted to make note of any luxury developments in the neighborhood. We noticed that many modern developments were located side-by-side with dilapidated tenements houses and family-owned shops.
We visited Pell Street first and saw many old tenement buildings but there were also a number of modern businesses, such as T-Mobile and Boba Life NYC. There were also a number of fine-dining restaurants, one of which was located right across from an old loan organization.
We then walked further down south towards Madison Street and encountered many large apartment complexes that seemed to have been built recently. A few blocks down, we noticed an entire row of apartments that we later found out were government-funded housing (NYCHA). As we left Pearl Street and walked towards Oliver Street, we noticed that the streets were getting dirtier and there were more people milling around. At Pearl Street, the sidewalks and roads were devoid of people and cars. It was also around Oliver Street that we began to see a lot of tenement buildings.
Other streets that we visited included East Broadway, Market, and Henry Street. Gentrification definitely hit these areas but it wasn’t uniform. There were modern, glass apartments right across from run-down tenement buildings and Parisian wedding dress stores next to a supermarket that sold fish and dried herbs.
Here is a brief interview that we conducted:
By: Emily Yeung, Christine Zhou, Shixu Zheng, Nick Djamalidinov, and Stella Kong
Walking Tours

Fresh Kills Walking Tour

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Group Members: Donald Fung, Connie Li, Kevin Cheng

This Sunday, we went on a bus/walking tour in Fresh Kills to see the ecology and habitats there. From the tour guide and other experts on Fresh Kills that were with us on the tour, we were able to learn about both the history and future of the community.

Fresh Kills started off as wetlands inhabited by the Lenape Tribe who hunted and fished in the region. In the 1600s, the Dutch were the first European to settle in Staten Island which was part of New Netherlands. Therefore, the Dutch were the ones who named Fresh Kills as well as many other regions in Staten Island and Fresh Kills literally means Fresh Waterway.

In 1947, the Fresh Kills Landfill opened in what used to be an agricultural area.  Although it was intended as a temporary landfill, Fresh Kills ended up turning into the largest landfill and the largest manmade structure in the world, surpassing the Great Wall of China.

In 2001, when the landfill was soon to be the highest point on the East Coast, the EPA pressured the site to close down. However, the site was still used as a sorting ground for around a third of the rubble after the 9/11 terrorist attack.

Now, Fresh Kills will be turned into a large park that will be three times the size of Central Park and bigger than Pelham Bay Park. The park will be opening in stages in the near future and will feature many recreational sites such as the New Springville Greenway Biking Trail, cross-country skiing, horseback riding, and soccer fields. The first part of the park to open will be a section in the north part that will go into the wetlands. The park will be focusing on being environmental friendly and will be using solar energy.

We also spoke to the tour guide about the communities near Fresh Kills which are Travis, Arden Heights, and New Springville. We plan to do more research on the demographics of those communities past and present.

Here are some of the pictures we took during the tour:

Playground based on Fresh Kills Landscape

This is a playground designed based on the landscape of Fresh Kills.

Sanitation 1Sanitation 2

These pictures show the remnants of the sanitation and landfill trucks that are still placed there today.

Garbage Factory 1Garbage Factory 2T

These pictures show the remnants of the garbage factories that were located in Fresh Kills.

View from Fresh KillsView from Fresh Kills 2

The first picture is a view of the community around Fresh Kills and the second picture is a view of the Greenbelt and the city skyline in the distance  (Sorry for the blurriness).

And there are many more pictures that we will be putting on the site!

 

 

Walking Tours

Morningside Heights, Manhattan

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We visited Morningside Heights on March 24, 2014. Our first stop was Columbia University. Columbia has a dominant presence in the neighborhood because a large portion of the area is owned by the school. Other schools such as Barnard and the Manhattan School of Music have established themselves in the area as well. Most of the neighborhood with the exception of the schools were empty when we visited at 3PM in the afternoon.  The businesses concentrated around Columbia, while the parks concentrated around the residential area. Afterword, we visited Riverside Park, where we talked to a local babysitter. She was kind enough to let us record her while we asked her questions concerning the area. She said Morningside Heights didn’t resemble a college town and there were plenty of places for adults to go that didn’t have any college kids. She also claimed the area is nice and clean.

Columbia
Columbia University
Riverside Park
Riverside Park

We visited the General Grant National Memorial, but it was eerily empty in the middle of the day. We noticed the area had many churches from various religions. The buildings in the area varied greatly. Each building had distinct architecture that separated it from the buildings next to it. The neighborhood residents seemed to be mostly middle class. We look forward to our next visit to Morningside Heights, especially their restaurants and other popular locations.

Aishwarya Bhatia

Ariel Yuan

Alan Chen

Xiaoji Zou

Announcements, Presentations, Project Ideas

Getting started on your final project

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As we hit the mid-way mark of the semester, it is time to start planning your final project. Your ITF is here to help!

As a class:

Start by identifying the elements you think are effective in previous course sites by browsing the Encyclopedia (shown to you at Tech Fair and examples posted by your professor). Consider especially:

  1. Theme – How many columns are there? Does it have a custom header? How many navigation menus are there?
  2. Menus – Where are they on the site (top, side, bottom, embedded in a map or slider)? Do they contain sub-menus?
  3. Pages – How are the pages designed? Do the pages contain linked indexes? What kind of multimedia is used? How and where is the media embedded (link, image, etc)?

You will want to choose the elements you think will work best for your site, and then come together as a class and assign roles to different people in order to achieve a cohesive site. In other words, everyone should have a task to work on and you should create a schedule that makes sense in terms of workflow in order to complete the project on time.

As a group:

  1. Organize your information – What topics do you wish to cover? Can you identify keywords for your project?
  2. Select your media – What medium will best feature your work: video, timeline, map, images, text, or a combination?
  3. Assign roles – Again, you want to think about this in terms of tasks that individuals can complete in order to realize your cohesive vision. You may want to assign a writer, editor, designer, and put someone in charge of finding and testing digital tools.

Tool Ideas:

Based on the preliminary ideas Professor Beeman described, here are a list of tools you may want to consider using to showcase your work-

  • Timelines
    Tiki-Toki: Example (made by ITF Amanda)
    Dipity
    TimelineJS and this tutorial (by ITF Emily)
  • Maps
    Custom Google Maps: Examples, another example, and tutorial
  • NEW Maps Engine Lite: Watch the tutorial video
    Maps Marker: Example and tutorial (by ITF Maggie)
  • Images
    Resizing or this tutorial ( from ITF Brian)
    Adding an image gallery tutorial ( from ITF Brian)
  • Videos
    iMovie: Tutorial  from ITFs at Brooklyn, a tutorial (from ITF Amanda Favia), and tutorials from Apple
  • Audio
    Finding, editing, and embedding audio tutorial (from ITF Amanda)
    GarageBand: Tutorials from ITFs and tutorials from Apple
  • A bit of everything
    Example
    Tutorials (from ITF Jenny)And please remember, every image, audio clip, video, or selection of text you take from the Internet must be given proper attribution (citation! link!) and it must be free to use. Please ask your professor or an ITF for more help with understanding copyright and fair use…In order to ensure you are within your rights to use the material you have selected, please assess any work of art you utilize (for any project you embark on at Macaulay and beyond) by considering these factors:
    FairUse

    1. the purpose and character of the use (commercial or educational, transformative or reproductive);
    2. the nature of the copyrighted work (fictional or factual, the degree of creativity);
    3. the amount and substantiality of the portion of the original work used; and
    4. the effect of the use upon the market (or potential market) for the original work.

    (source, Ugoretz “Free as Air” presentation, 2013)

    Please email your ITF to set up an appointment during office hours if you need help.

Project Ideas

Project Idea

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For my project, I would like to focus on an area of Brooklyn called Gravesend. Gravesend, where I’ve lived for my entire life, is located roughly between Bensonhurst and Coney Island.

More specifically, I want to study the Sephardic Jewish Community of Gravesend, which is home to the largest Syrian Jewish population in the country. I would love to see how this community, which has been around in the US for only about 100 years, has adapted to the the culture and diversity of New York City.