My group presented our presentation on the Highline on Sunday at 10:00 am. We were the first group to present and we explained our topic fairly well. The other presentations were diverse and covered a variety of topics such as drug and sexual education and the theme of liberty versus security. The presentation I most enjoyed was about the Upper West Side.
Our group presentation went well. We began by asking the audience member if they had been to the Highline and whether they were familiar with it. Mostly everyone had been there or knew of it. We explained some background on the Highline along with how the Highline is funded and how a BID works. We then compared the Highline to some other NYC parks and then discussed how the Highline might benefit from a BID.
The students viewing the presentation didn’t seem very enthusiastic about our topic since we talked a lot about funding, which they might have found a bit dull, and they didn’t ask many questions. The two professors in the room asked us about why the residents were opposed to a BID and how to make it appeal to them. We discussed the benefits of a BID to the area and how the Highline could hold members-only events and build a sense of community for the members and residents in the BID. We were also asked if there were any other controversies surrounding the Highline though we were unable to provide any other major debates about the Highline since there didn’t seem to be any significant ones. Overall I think we presented well but perhaps we could have made the presentation a bit livelier for those who weren’t particularly interested in the topic.
I mostly enjoyed the presentation about the Upper West Side. The group discussed the problems that some areas of the neighborhood faced and they gave specific responses of how to tackle those problems. They talked about a portion of public housing units that are secluded from the rest of the neighborhood. These areas have large open spaces but there is nothing surrounding them but the housing so few people walk through. This causes high levels of crime. Their presentation reminded me of Jane Jacobs’ theories on the safety of sidewalks. Since the area was so secluded and there were few people who needed to walk by, the area became prone to crime, as Jacobs explains. The group suggested that a road is built between the public housing, and they displayed a map showing a large amount of space that could hold a road to cut through the secluded public housing area. This would increase car and foot traffic and theoretically decrease crime. The group also mentioned how they public housing was built as a “tower in the park” and seemed most reminiscent of our classroom readings.
I enjoyed the Upper West Side presentation the most because they clearly discussed the future of NYC by identifying a problem and putting together a solution to solve the problem. Some of the other presentations merely restated some facts and didn’t put in much analysis nor offer solutions to ease the issues. Overall though, all the presentations were well done and thoroughly researched.
