Author: Sarah Dunford (page 1 of 1)

It’s one thing to learn about homelessness and affordable housing in class. It’s another thing to go out in the real world, to meet people who live in a low income residence and talk about their experiences. It humanizes them, and gets you to think not only about policy, but about the impact that policy has on the individuals affected by it.

That’s why I appreciated our visit to Capitol Hill. Instead of learning about homelessness as some abstract concept or statistic, we were able to speak face to face with the people who saved this residence and shaped it into what it is today. We also got to meet people who lived there, and hear their stories. It was truly a humbling experience, and it opened my eyes to a reality that I had never considered too deeply before.

I thought it was especially valuable to hear from the people who live in and benefit from Capitol Hill. One of the residents talked to us about his experience living in homeless shelters in the past; he told us how dehumanizing it was to live in a room where another person’s bed was at arm’s length, and how these shelters never really felt like home. He told us about his girlfriend and his daughter, and the experiences that led him to where he is now. Hearing him speak confirmed that we need a better solution to New York City’s housing crisis. Everyone deserves stability, and more residences like Capitol Hill can provide that.

Sarah

In hypothetical situations, broken windows theory makes sense. It’s logical that residents of a neighborhood will feel safer if small crimes are kept in check; it’s also logical that a neighborhood will feel unsafe if small crimes are rampant. However, when it comes to actually implementing this theory, there is a lot of room for error, which can have serious and dire consequences.

In class, Bob Gangi talked about the shortcomings of broken windows theory, with a focus on abuse of police power. We discussed the various cases of racially biased police brutality that have occurred in recent years – black men have been killed for committing petty crimes or “looking suspicious.” We also discussed stop and frisk quotas, and how policies like this make a neighborhood’s residents distrustful of the police charged with keeping them safe.

In my view, broken windows theory is valid, but must be used with caution. In an ideal world, where police are respectful of the residents of a neighborhood and react appropriately to crimes depending on their severity, I could see broken windows theory working. Until then, reforms need to be made dealing with how the police interact with the people they work for.

Sarah Dunford

In our Writing for Engineers class last spring, one of the first subjects we discussed was ethics. We learned about the philosophies of Immanuel Kant and John Stuart Mill, and applied them to real-world engineering projects. The class consensus was that if a project had the potential to harm a significant number of people, even if it was profitable in some other way, it should not be built or implemented.

By choosing to divert a small piece of the Cross Bronx Expressway north, Robert Moses destroyed the vibrant community of East Tremont. Thousands of families were displaced from their homes, and were forced to scatter and find new places to live in more expensive areas of the city. This was clearly unethical. On the flip side, many people, including myself, still benefit from the Cross Bronx Expressway to this day. It’s the route I usually take when I drive into the city from Westchester. How does a person reconcile using something so convenient when lives were ruined to make it possible?

I think that if the Cross Bronx Expressway had gone along the alternate route, instead of through apartment buildings, its effect would have been much less harmful, and it would have been entirely justified. As it stands, I think that building the entire stretch of highway was worth it, and the one mile is a dark and tragic stain on its history.

Sarah Dunford

“It is impossible to say that New York would have been a better city if Robert Moses had never lived. It is possible to say only that it would have been a different city.” -Robert Caro

There is no doubt that Robert Moses had a devastating impact on a large portion of the city. He displaced hundreds of thousands of people from their homes and segregated the city by wealth; his work led to extreme transportation congestion and cost the city billions of dollars. The negative impact that took root in his projects can still be traced today.

However, there is also no doubt that his work made New York a metropolitan central of the world. He created the very physical landscape that shapes the city; he placed its parks, highways and cultural centers. He was responsible for Lincoln Center and Shea Stadium. His roads and bridges interconnected the city, and connected it to a much broader section of New York State. All of his projects helped make the city the economic and cultural powerhouse that it is, and these projects will long outlast the man who created them. Though Moses was a very flawed person, his work, for better or worse, has made the city a better place.

Sarah Dunford