I’m about to run off to my next class, but I want to write down what we decided before I forget all the details. I also invite you to comment further on what we discussed today and how we’ve chosen to organize the site.
First, everyone will write about the history and the present day status of where they’re coming from, unless they’re commuting from out of the city; those people will write about the destination neighborhood, Gramercy/Flatiron.
Second, each person or each group (we never decided which) will choose four stops (along his/her subway line or bus line) that are representative of one of four themes: culture, recreation, government, and work (everyone will write about all four).
I think we need to decide more specifically how we will choose these stops–this seems to be the least defined part of the project. I think this would be a more useful aspect of the site if we came up with a uniform way of choosing these four stops–their significance for students or their historical nature or the way they symbolize some aspect of the Depression/Recession eras…you get the point. Maybe one way to do this might be to group people by the lines they commute on and to have some focus on “historical” stops (where a person commuting in, say, 1936, would have stopped), and others focusing on contemporary stops (where the student him or herself would stop, and why).
ADDED TUESDAY MORNING: After thinking about this some more, another idea I had was that we could, as a class, choose some places along the lines that we think represent aspects of the four themes during the Depression. For example, in terms of government, we might choose a WPA structure, a building that used to be an office for the distribution of home relief, etc. Then we could choose some other places along the lines today that are parallel sorts of institutions. These “parallel” sites wouldn’t have to be on the same students’ line and thus could offer a different way of navigating the site. Another way would just be to follow a single student’s commute.
A second idea I had was to use the Federal Writers’ Project Guide to NYC to help describe the places from which you’re commuting. You could include direct quotes as well as a little extra research (from Social Explorer, for example) to depict each place in the 1930s. Then you guys could put together a similar blurb of your own–how you would describe your own neighborhoods today. Just an idea, though.
By the way, for the “Social Explorer” demographic site, go to the library databases page and enter through the Social Explorer gateway there: http://newman.baruch.cuny.edu/search/databases.php
Thoughts?
I think deciding on the framework of the project solves the greatest challenge facing us, which is the organizational element. As long as everyone analyzes their route along the same criteria, we will be able to more easily compile the information into some sort of accessible form. That being said, I think we should try to make the project as varied as possible. As Professor Brooks said before, we must determine how we will specifically choose the stops we want to examine along the route. Granted not everyone commutes through so many culturally dynamic and varied neighborhoods as I do, I feel we should at least attempt to capture as many culturally heterogynous areas as possible. Focus on the areas with a rich sense of heritage and identity, but try not to be repetitive. Even if an neighborhood on the outset doesn’t seem very defined in its identity, history will often reveal much more beneath the surface. My main question as of now is what time period should we focus the perspective on. Should we examine the past? The present? Or contrast the two.
Hi Josh! I think the website should focus on both the past and present. We are learning about the Great Depression (past) and also should explain how New York City has evolved since then (to the present).
Although I like the idea of learning about the history of where people are coming from (Ex. Queens, the Bronx..) and how those areas have evolved, I do not understand how that will all come together with the theme of our site. It feels like those would be entirely different projects on their own and fitting them all into one website that originally began as the study of infrastructure during the Great Depression would make a random person browsing our site very confused. Is our website about commuting? Historical sites? The Great Depression? The Great Recession? Harlem? Gramercy?
If someone could explain this idea more to me that would be appreciated.
In addition, I think using the Federal Writers’ Project Guide to NYC would be interesting and helpful for finding the four sites we’ll all talk about. I read over a lot of it while I was writing my proposal and it was very helpful and easy to understand.
Since we found that there are several overlapping commuting lines, I like Professor Brooks’ idea about having one person travel the commute from a present day perspective and have another student travel the commute from a Great-Depression perspective. This way we get a clearer focus and we can each do a thorough job focusing on one perspective. I think we could begin by giving a description of what the line was like from a Great Depression perspective as well as a present day description and then go into discussing the stops along the way. Maybe we don’t have to cover all the commuting lines?