David Meretzky and Faryal Razzaq
99th and 100th Streets on 1st Avenue include a diverse population, with mostly blacks and Hispanics. These adjacent streets differ in some features, with 100th street seeming cleaner and newer.
On its east side, 99th Street has a Junior High School building, which includes three schools. Probably one former middle school was divided into three schools. On the west side, there is an old apartment building with the usual 6 stories, with one of them having been added on top later on. Its windows are divided. Next to it is a small parking lot for garbage trucks. There was also one relatively new Ford SUV parked there. There are not many people walking on this street. There existed one tree with adjacent tree pits being empty. Perhaps those trees were cut down. The west side is clean with little pet waste. On the opposite side with the school building, there are no trees on the sidewalk; however, there are small trees of about the same height in the schoolyard.


100th street has mainly retail stores. On its west side, there is a big retail store, Rite-Aid, as well as a dollar store. On top of these stores is a large apartment building.


The sidewalk has many trees that are not as tall, indicating that they might have been recently planted. The tree pits are clean and had tree guards, or fences around the perimeter of the tree. The guards serve a purpose of protecting the trunk from damage, preventing pet waste from entering the tree pit and providing space for gardening.This differs from 99th street, which has only one tree and two empty tree pits with no guards. There is also a bike path and we saw some people riding bikes. On the east side of the street, there are also relatively young trees, but with no guards. It also has a retail stores, such as metroPCS and Dave’s Gourmet. In addition, there is a barbershop and a beauty salon. The metroPCS store and the barbershop were closed during our visit in the afternoon. On top, there is also a new, big apartment building with windows that are not divided. There were people on the balconies. There were new cars parked on both sides. A number of people were walking on this street.

100th street differs from 99th street in that it seems to have undergone more development and included more people. 100th street has newer and bigger apartment buildings, while 99th street had one old, small apartment building next to a sanitation parking lot. Moreover, 100th street had more people walking on it probably because of the retail stores. There were more new trees on 100th street while the west side was almost barren of trees.
I really like this post because it presents very neutral observations, but also raises many of the important questions regarding cities and neighborhoods. For instance, new vs. old- what makes a street/neighborhood new? What is the balance between new and old that makes a street/neighborhood desirable to live in? What uses of space are we drawn to? And why is it that adjacent streets can be so different? I wonder if a district line is drawn running through that street.