Question on the Reading:
On the article “New Retail Capital and Neighborhood Change: Boutiques and Gentrification in New York CIty”
How do you think residents of Harlem feel about the commercial gentrification of their neighborhood? Do you think they welcome the change or see it as a disturbance to their community? Is it possible that people of different ethnic or socioeconomic backgrounds feel differently about the commercial gentrification occurring?
Hi everyone,
Since we have been discussion immigration in NYC in class recently, I thought I would share some relevant news that concerns immigration. On Monday, the Supreme Court declined to hear appeals from the cities of Farmer’s Branch, Texas and Hazleton, Pennsylvania that wanted to enforce stricter laws regarding illegal immigration. The Supreme Court decided not to hear the cases, in which the towns wanted to revive ordinances aiming to keep illegal immigrants from being able to rent housing. The last time the Supreme Court dealt with an immigration case was in 2012 when it partially upheld Arizona’s immigration law, letting police check people’s papers if there was “reasonable suspicion.” These two cases address a bigger issue about the power of local governments versus the federal government to monitor and make laws regarding immigration. What do you think about the Supreme Court’s decision? Who should be responsible for policing immigration- local or federal government? And to what extent should it even be regulated?
Here is a link to an article further discussing the news:
http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/03/03/us-usa-court-immigration-idUSBREA221C220140303
The author goes into a lot of detail about the specific food that the detained people ate on Ellis Island. In Chapter 4 about the The Rogarshevsky Family, Ziegelman specifies what the immigrants ate for each meal and how they adapted to the new foods they were served there, like cranberry and orange-fleshed potato. My question is, how did the immigrants feel about the new foods they were being served? Did they enjoy these and consider them delicacies or try to avoid them as much as possible?
Question on Gastropolis chapter 2: The Food and Drink of New York from 1624 to 1898
This chapter discusses the Dutch settling New Amsterdam which later became New York when the English took over and outlines the different immigrants that came to the New World during this time period. The Irish, Germans, and French all came here during these few centuries and each immigrant group had an impact on the food of New York during this time. My question is, what is the relationship between where the immigrants came from and the type of dining establishments they opened? Why did certain immigrants from a country all open similar dining establishments, such as German immigrants opening “beer gardens” on the Lower East Side?
Question on Eat The City chapter 4: Sugar
How and in what ways did the sugar trade transform New York into a center of trade and commerce? Also, What was the appeal of this sugar or “white gold” that led it to become one of the most valuable commodities in the world in the eighteenth century?
