After staring at the subway map until my eyes started to cross, I put together a list of your transfer points and then organized them by possible themes or topics. My original thought is that people should probably choose a particular theme and work on it, but many transfer points really epitomize several themes. Perhaps we should start by winnowing down the following into maybe five or six themes. Anyway, please comment on these, especially which ones you’d like to see included in the project and which ones we should exclude. Also, what I have missed here, either in terms of themes or transfer points that represent them?
Protest Then: Union Square (Q/6/5)
Protest Now: Fulton Nassau (A/Z/J/2/5) near Zuccotti Park
Immigration Then: Essex/Delancey on LES (F/Z/J), Canal Street (Q/Z/J/6)
Immigration Now: Canal Street (Q/Z/J/6); Jackson Heights (7/F); Queensboro Plaza (7/Q); Atlantic/Flatbush (Q/2/5); 125th Street (5/6)
Transit then: GCT (5/6/7)
Transit now: GCT (5/6/7); 42nd Street Port Authority Bus Terminal (A/Q/7/2); Atlantic Ave/Flatbush (Q/2/5)
Entertainment then and now: Times Square (2/7/Q); 125th Street (5/6)
Food then: GCT (5/6/7) and Bryant Park (7/F) [this took a little research, but there seem to have been many fine dining establishments around GCT and the offices near midtown]
Food now: Gramercy; West 4th (A/F); Lorimer (J/Z) [?];Canal Street (Q/Z/J/6); Jackson Heights (7/F); Union Square (Q/6/5); Soho-Broadway/Lafayette (6/F)
Recreation then: Coney Island (Q/F)
Recreation now: Coney Island (Q/F); Atlantic/Flatbush (Q/2/5)
Culture then: West 4th (A/F); 125th Street (5/6)
Culture now: Soho-Broadway/Lafayette (6/F); West 4th (A/F); Lorimer (J/Z) [?]
Government then and now: Centre/Chambers (J/Z/5/6); Jay St./Boro Hall (F/A)
Finance then and now: Fulton Nassau (A/Z/J/2/5)
Shopping then: Essex/Delancey on LES (F/Z/J) for the huge pushcart markets there and the Essex Street Market; 34th Street and Herald Square (F/Q) and 59th and Lexington (5/6/Q) for middle class buyers
Shopping now: 34th Street and Herald Square (F/Q) and 59th and Lexington (5/6/Q); Soho-Broadway/Lafayette (6/F); 59th Street/Columbus Circle (2/A)
Migration then: West 4th (A/F); 125th Street (5/6)
Migration now: Essex/Delancey on LES (F/Z/J); ?—not sure about this one—maybe Lorimer (J/Z), but since the J/Z are basically the same, maybe not?
The Immigration, Food, Protest, and Shopping Then and Now’s really stand out to me.
These really tie into one another how the immigrants affect the local cuisine and storefronts.
I also like your entertainment (Times Square) and transit ideas as possible themes. These topics, in addition to the ones Derek mentioned, reveal a great deal about the lives of the immigrants.
Adding on to Derek and Johanna, I also really like protest, immigration, entertainment, food and shopping themes. I’m not too sure about finance then and now.
Immigration, food, culture, recreation, transit, and protests would be an interesting mix!
Honestly I like them all. Maybe not so much for the shopping, but besides that the rest are really good areas!
I honestly like everything as well. If I had to exclude one, it would be recreation simply because Coney Island is the furthest from all of the specified locations. Perhaps if we limit recreation to Manhattan and tie it into “entertainment” it would be more effective.
I’m leaning towards including the following only:
Immigration
Food
Protest
Entertainment
Culture
Transit is interesting, but it’s already the overall theme of the site and thus will get its due. Anastasia’s right about recreation, especially since there’s some overlap with entertainment anyway. Migration overlaps in some ways with culture, which has long been one of New York’s real attractions to migrants (and a number of you expressed interest in music, which comes under the culture umbrella).
I think that will be the final grouping, unless someone has a compelling reason for changing it.
I really can see Finance, Government, and Protest be tied together in one central idea. Finance, besides from Fulton Nassau (the old Wall St headquarters) should also includes all the banks located across Park Ave, so I think Finance should also include 47-50 Sts Rockerfeller Ctr (F) with Barclay’s, Morgan Stanley, UBS, HSBC, JP Morgan Chase all locate around the area. Shopping should also be included around the 5th avenue area around 47-50 Sts Rockerfeller Ctr (F) for high-class buyers from the surrounded banks.
Considering I’m doing partaking in the Business/Finance topic, it’s clear to see why the Fulton-Nassau subway terminus was chosen. Located in the heart of the Financial District, the area was ground zero for the two great economic disasters in the past century. Though, I thought some aspect of this topic, in the context of the Great Depression and Great Recession, was to explore areas of New York were financing was less accessible and widespread. The A train makes many stops further uptown in lower income communities which could serve as a model for racial and socioeconomic discrimination in bank’s unwillingness to provide loans and financing to specific ethnic types. One subway stop which specifically comes to mind is the 125th St. subway station; the epicenter of Harlem and its largely African-American populace. Yet, it doesn’t appear this location can serve as cross-section to any other topic or subway stop. If anyone has any idea how to incorporate these two stops, please elaborate.
We can definitely include finance–or perhaps a Finance and Real Estate group? We have twenty people, so even breaking up into six groups would still mean each had three or four people–plenty, I think. In order to be able to include the 125th Street transfer point on the west side, which is much closer to the heart of Harlem, here’s my sort-of-cheating stretch: I’m assigning Anastasia to ride the B rather than the Q train, since both serve the same stations (including the one near Mill Basin) during weekdays, and the B not only links up to the F at Rockefeller Center but also connects to the A at 125th Street.