Last Sunday was the last presentation I will ever do for an IDC class. Honestly, it makes me kind of sad to know that I probably won’t see other Macaulay students from other campuses unless I join one of the clubs at Macaulay. However, everything must come to an end eventually. I felt my group could have done a bit better on the presentation. Our group got our points across for our presentation but due to time constraint we weren’t able to go into detail everything we were going to say. A member of the audience asked a question and we provided an answer that seemed satisfactory to him.

Something I felt kind of disappointed about was the lack of an audience. My group went in the first hour on Sunday between 10 am to 11 am and almost no one was there. Half of the room was empty and there were no teachers there to watch our presentation. It was less pressure for us to do well that way but I feel like the work we put into the project was not very rewarding.

Among the presentations I watched, a few were pretty interesting to me for different reasons. One thing that surprised me was the variety of topics the topics were about. Some projects were about neighborhoods, some were about education, and there was one comparing the managerial techniques of different clothing stores. I honestly did not understand why the project about the managerial techniques of different clothing stores was even there. I think it vaguely fits the topic of this IDC class, “Shaping the Future of New York City.”

One of the most interesting presentations to me was the education presentation. I came from one the specialized high schools and I can attest the racial disparity in my school. I was among the many Asians in the school and the number of black people in the entire school, not just my school year, is less than 15 people total. The freedom they have in other countries where there is no set curriculums has made me question about our education system. Our school system can be too restricted and luckily there are teachers I have met who were able to step outside of the rules but they are rare.

One of the projects I saw was the use of social media in Sandy and the students who presented were from the College of Staten Island. The teacher who assigned this definitely took into consideration their school’s location when thinking what the students should present about and I think it was very fitting. Even though the electricity may be out in certain areas, I learned the advantage of having a smartphone can help people alert others whether they need help and if they are safe. I don’t have a smartphone and as time goes on, the usefulness of a smartphone becomes more and more apparent including during disasters.

Honestly I was confused on why cities would like to avoid public investments. It made more sense to me when the author stated the reasons. Public investments in huge projects will reveal people who play a big part in these projects that don’t want to be known. Projects just may need public assistance as much anymore. I can understand this but I am pretty sure there are other projects that would like the money.

The author states that certain forms of large-scale public investment are very expensive, time consuming, and politically difficult after 1970. I understand for the public government why the cost would deter them from investing and how a time consuming project can negatively affect both the residents and the government. Although it is money being handed out by the government, there can be underlying reasons on why the project is being funded. Also, as a citizen who lives around the area I probably wouldn’t want to live around a mega project.

It is interesting they are mentioning mega project since the area I am doing for my project deals with two mega projects, the Javits Center and the construction of the 7 train station stop. As mentioned in the last paragraph, citizens who live around the area probably do not want to live around a mega project. I know from previous experience how citizens feel about megaprojects. The citizens in the area were complaining on how their standard of living is decreasing.

When the TSA was mentioned, I was reminded of the controversy they had a couple of with the full body scanners as a new mode of airport security. I actually did not know it was created as a reaction to 9/11 though it does make sense when I think about it now. It is funny to me how in the book, the author states that the TSA would need 6.8 billion dollars to by the end of 2002 and it has become one of the government associations people complained about the most. I am not too sure how people still feel about air travel though. I feel like people are definitely less afraid about terrorist attacks since Osama bin Laden is dead now. Last time I went to an airport, there seemed to a lot of traffic. One question I would have is what are the revenues of air transportation in relation to the years after 9/11. Have they decrease, increase, or remain the same level after 9/11?

Although projects like the Javits Center, the Cultural Shed, and the MTA railroad construction are less disruptive on the national level, how citizens feel should still be a major part to be considered. Our era of mega projects is definitely small scale compared to the past where highways would be put in place of old building and slums. In the city, I don’t think more buildings are necessary anymore. Like in Hudson Yards, redevelopment on old neighborhoods would be better than putting a new convention center next to another one.

As I was reading the Katz piece, the idea of how the poor became poor changed. When the Philadelphia Guardians said that those dependent on charity and public assistance were synonymous to the “undeserving poor,” I really thought these people had no minds. To me, it is so clear that some people simply couldn’t go up the social ladder because of their background. It is not necessarily their fault that they became dependent on it. Because of how they are dressed and the areas they live in, they were not given the opportunities to improve their lives as much as others. I don’t know who the Philadelphia Guardians are but I can’t help but think if they are educated people or not.

I was very surprised to read that racism was not the reason association with poverty was with black people. I did not know that it was actually the massive immigration of Africans after World War II were the cause. Since I live in the modern times, the ghettos are where most people associate poor black to be but at one point the country was still rural. Black people at that time still lived in rural areas and the ghettos in the cities were very small. While racism is a strong, driving force against black people, it is not always racism that makes us associate black people for certain qualities.

It sort of amazes how a term can transform so much over the course of time. Poverty was thought properly to be something caused by a poor person’s actions. People then were able to talk about the “deserving” and “underserving.” Then people started to divide the two categories into two, creating four total distinctions of certain levels of poverty. It is fascinating how much a word can change.

As I read the term “culture of poverty,” it seems very similar to “rape culture.” Both seem to blame the victims for what happened to them. Honestly, I never understood how some people could blame others for something like that. It isn’t like a poor person can suddenly become rich if he tries. There are certain obstacles in the way preventing him from doing so.

It is interesting how social programs at first were actually fueling the culture of poverty. The social programs themselves weren’t providing new opportunities for the underclass. It was simply helping them maintain the same way of life that generations of their families have lived. It kind of surprises me that writings about this did not draw to this conclusion faster. It isn’t straightforward but with more effort, I feel like the connection would have been seen sooner.

I have never heard the Bronx described as beautiful before. I mean no offense to anyone from the Bronx but people generally don’t hear very good things about the Bronx. It isn’t exactly how Manhattan is considered beautiful at all. When I read of the description of how the Bronx was before, I guess it has become a lot more beautiful. There was usually a lot of garbage out on the sidewalk and unusable buildings but the area has become much better.

It is nice to hear of the new buildings that are up now given the garbage that was there before. Honestly the buildings aren’t as grand as the ones say in Manhattan. There are skyscrapers but instead retail stores and supermarkets. However, the activities the residents get to enjoy are vastly more important. There is a community garden and a place where old men can play dominos. It isn’t a lot compared to construction in Manhattan but it is a vast improvement from before.

People do give Bloomberg a lot of hate for taking a third semester but according to this article, Bloomberg’s administration has helped out the city very much. I had no idea that such an enormous amount, 8 billion dollars, into public housing. I guess the project that we heard about in the museum trip will bear fruit depending on whose plan is chosen. People can be unsatisfied with their living conditions but when if they think about those who are homeless, their situations are a lot better.

I thought the jab at Obama at his plan was kind of unprofessional though. Honestly, it was a joke I laughed at but the article isn’t about Obama but about the Bronx. It felt unnecessary to me and the author shouldn’t have written it unless this was a critique of his presidency.

The old lady with the 21-year-old son was definitely a touching part of the article. She was living in a homeless shelter with her son for eight years. Now, she is able to live in a home. So other kids wouldn’t need to live without a family, she even took in two children from foster care. It is very sweet to hear because she was saved by the city, she wanted to save children.

To me, New York City is a place many people want to live and work in. Financial prosperity lurks within the streets of Manhattan and the traffic in this borough is unbelievably congested. In comparison, New York was known as one of the worst places to live 30 to 40 years ago. For someone born after that era, it is very hard for me to believe New York City was a place no one wanted to go to because of the crime and death. I still hear of those incidents nowadays but not nearly to the extent the author portrayed New York in the article. It is just very hard for me to believe.

When I read corporations moved to the suburbs to operate, I was pretty shocked. I can understand why they would move to New Jersey since it is only one state away from New York but not the suburbs of Westchester County, Connecticut. Are the suburbs very populated? I have a perception of suburbs being a place to live and not necessarily a place for corporations to reside. I don’t know if the suburbs are like this today but I am curious to know if any big name corporations are located in the suburbs.

The power breakfasts were a clever idea employed by the ABNY. The ABNY would pay very big name people to come to NYC to give speeches. The speakers brought people who wanted to hear what they would say and connect to those people. Having big name people here brought a better image of the city. ABC News and the “New York Times” covered the speeches bringing more positive publicity to the city.

I thought it was very interesting of how the “Big Apple” became such a defining term for New York City. To market New York City as the place to be at, the advertisers designated everything was big in the city. Everything was bigger and better in New York ranging from the medical facilities, transportation system to financial center. Of course, New York didn’t have the best transportation system as we all know but they marketed it as the best. Although our education system is the best, it is the biggest as Marshall said and they marketed as that at least.

Reading what New York has been through, it is hard to believe the events occurred in New York when we see how it is now. New York still has some its bad areas and remnants from that era but it is less obvious compared to what has been accomplished. I am grateful for the ABNY for doing a good job saving the city. Now New York is known as one of the global cities of the world.

The Pruitt-Igoe documentary was a very interesting and insightful film to watch. It was a housing project that came to those who needed it the most. The project brought so many positive effects to the people who used to live in the slums in very unfavorable conditions. If it was done right and the government and the workers cared for it more, I wouldn’t be surprised if it became something bigger. Unfortunately, it was not the case and with it many heart wrenching stories came about.

I did not understand why the maintenance workers stop caring. It was a new complex and the government was getting a good reputation for it. They wanted people out of the slums and this complex was a gift no one in the neighborhood thought they would receive. Why did the government stop caring and did the workers start slacking off? I understand the government would want to save as much money as possible but to not have a television and have people checking on you all of the time must have been so annoying.

The woman whose mother had to sleep in the kitchen was a really heart wrenching story. i can’t imagine the sacrifices her mother made for her family. Her mother let the others have rooms while she herself had to sleep in the kitchen. I was very happy to hear that her mother got her own room when they moved in. The woman also had the greatest times of her life in that complex. She and her siblings would blast music from their place and all the kids from the neighborhood would come and start to have fun. Even when the building went to ruins, her childhood memories came from Pruitt-Igoe til the day it crumbles.

Although this was a very serious movie, I could not help but laugh at the man’s story of how he helped people with the elevators. When the maintenance workers stopped caring about the complex, people who were stuck in the elevators can’t get out. Who better to help people than two young boys? The man and his brother actually opened the doors and pulled the cables to get to the next floor. It showed me even in the midst of troubles, life has its funny moments.

I think if the government did things differently, Pruitt-Igoe would be remembered as a success rather than a failure. It started off well but then soon deteriorated. If the workers at the building cared more, the building wouldn’t have gone to such disrepair. The way the welfare money was handled was definitely too overbearing. I think giving them a set amount of cash based on a budget sheet and letting them use the money the way they wanted would’ve been a better way to monitor the money rather than having someone check if they have a tv or not.