I was thinking about doing Boro Park, from (about) 39th to 59th street and 10th to 18th Avenue. My mom grew up there and my aunt still lives there.

A community that has piqued my interest is the community that surrounds the Fresh Kills landfill located in Staten Island. Not only does this place have a killer name, but also it definitely seems like a topic that could likely be controversial and complex in nature. Something about the name and the concept associated with it just grabs my attention. I am also a bit curious what kind of people live in the area and why they have chosen to live in such a residential area that does not seem very appealing.

For my project, I have two neighborhoods in mind.

1) Sheepshead Bay: I have grown up in this neighborhood my whole life and never lived anywhere else.  My parents have lived all over this neighborhood before finally settling in the house we live in now.  Unfortunately, I’ve never gotten the chance to really learn about the history of the neighborhood except in elementary school because afterward, I have always gone to school in another neighborhood.  I have been told Sheepshead Bay used to have a race track and some of the stable boys’ families still reside in the area.  I would really like to look into that because there is no evidence of a race track ever being in Sheepshead Bay.  Plus, the Bay is significant to the neighborhood and certainly has had an impact (ie: Hurricane Sandy).

2) Gravesend: I technically reside in Gravesend, but am much closer to the heart of Sheepshead Bay.  I’d love to explore the other parts of the neighborhood I technically “live” in.  Plus, there also appears to be a lot of diversity in the neighborhood.

Roosevelt Island- I’ve always wanted to explore this part of New York City, as it seems like an often forgotten part because of it’s location and size. I would want to learn more about it’s history and what the architects/business men had in mind when deciding to populate this very small island. With this, I plan to find out more about the first race(s) to live on the island and how that’s changed to present day. I also would like to show how this is connected, if at all, to the changes in Manhattan, especially since Roosevelt Island began to populate after the main city. Though small, I believe it holds interesting and significant history, especially through the opening and closing of the insane asylum many years ago.

Greenwich Village- This neighborhood is one of my favorites to explore, and after reading more about it from our reading of Sidewalks, I want to discover more about the role race has played in growing this neighborhood into one of the most popular and unique ones in Manhattan. It’s changed greatly over the years, especially with the presence of New York University bringing in many international students. I also want to learn if the architecture has to do with the presence of certain races, as there are much less larger apartments in this neighborhood than others, and more brownstones and small houses.

For my project I am thinking of doing Chinatown. I mainly want to focus on the migration of the Chinese into the neighborhood. It was started in 1840, when a man named Ah Ken, the first credited Chinese resident, moved in. I might want to look into the effects of immigration laws like the Chinese Exclusion Act on the population.  I also might want to look into the gentrification. Asian Americans as a whole are associated with higher income, so I might want to examine the history of the income in Chinatown.

So for my project I want to explore to Sephardic Jewish Community of Brooklyn New York. Specifically those that have migrated from Syria, and that live in the same general area (between ave I and ave w going from E 23rd to W 5th). This community is considered to be one of the most cohesive Jewish communities in the world. The community has sought to bring all of its culture and maintain its tradition since arriving in America. I’m not sure what I want to focus on more specifically, I am thinking about two things: exploring what defines a “member” of this community, or the acculturation that the community has gone through since coming to America and how it has reacted and evolved to protect the communal cohesion.