I haven’t really explored the area around City College too well, so the tour took me to both familiar places and ones I hadn’t been to. One of the more interesting landmarks to me was the replacement Tree of Hope. I like that people create their own kind of mythology: that rubbing a certain tree before a performance would help them get a job.There was neither evidence nor basis for this belief, but people were so invested in it that after the removal of the tree, they tried to preserve it by replacing it and relocating an original branch to the Apollo theatre. This sort of behavior seems unique because other areas shaped by a large influx of (im)migrants lack this kind of innovation. I haven’t seen evidence of other ‘popup’ migrant culture.

It struck me as odd that there were expensive townhouses and ruined buildings in such proximity to each other. The townhouses were well-maintained and still inhabited. Like Max pointed out, a lot of the historical sites were in various states of decay. This suggests a kind of disconnect between the people and their community, or at least their surroundings.