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Immigrant Enclaves

Response 1 of 5

“Take the A train to Little Guyana: Immigrant Enclaves in NYC” – Kirk Semple

Scattered among all five boroughs of New York City, immigrant enclaves, or ethnic neighborhoods can be found. These neighborhoods allow for immigrants to ease into the New York lifestyle with the comfort of having their native cultures still around them. They also allow the people living there to feel at home, and give them a place where they can “fit in.” Overall, they seem to have a mostly positive effect on the people living there. However, immigrant enclaves also have clear downsides.

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Subway Stories

Response 4 of 5: Underground Movements: Modern Culture on the New City Subway by Sunny Stalter-Pace

By: Mariam Esa

      Sunny Stalter-Pace’s Underground Movements: Modern Culture on the New City Subway considers various views of the subway as voiced by numerous people. The book in a sense represents the city by providing a wide array of subway stories that reminds us of the countless perspectives to be found in New York City. Throughout the course of this book, we are introduced to ideas of the dangers of the subway, the artistic expression of it, the way it portrays diversity, and much more. It allows us to see just how integrated the subway is in making New York City what it is. Continue reading “Subway Stories”

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Underground Movements: Modern Culture on the New York City Subway

Underground Movements: Modern Culture on the New York City Subway

This book talked about how the subway has helped to shape New York City today. It was said that the subway would define New York City in a new way and indeed it has. Before the development of the subway, many newspaper companies were conflicted between it being a life-changer for citizens of NYC or if it would cause more harm and damage than good.

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Inequality in New York

Rachel Swed

Reflection 4 of 5

Inequality and New York’s Subway

A huge problem in New York is inequality and huge income gaps between citizens. In the article, Inequality and New York’s Subway, Larry Buchanan brings up very valid points about the injustice in New York by simply looking at the subway system. He provides an interactive infographic that shifts for different subway lines. The infographic shows the income of people who live around those stops. Through this interactive, you can see that there is a great inequality between these boroughs. Majority of this information shows that Manhattan has the highest median income out of the five boroughs in New York. There are huge gaps in income between not only boroughs but also between stops on the subway lines! Continue reading “Inequality in New York”

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the Subway System: Shaping NYC

(Reflection 4 of 5)

by Anna Tsomo

Sunny Stalter-Pace’s Underground Movements: Modern Culture on the New York City Subway is an apt representation of the subject on which it is written. Meandering, multifaceted yet somehow cohesive, the book is much like the New York City subway system. Through its well-developed perspectives, it allows readers to understand how fully the subway has influenced modern culture—not only literature, but the wider meaning of subway stories, and how they become truths. While that is the focus of the text, it also sheds light on how the subway divides and connects people.

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The Subway and Diversity

Rebecca Kreiser

Reflection 3 of 5

Inequality and New York’s Subways. New
Yorker. http://www.newyorker.com/sandbox/business/subway.html

“Take the A train to Little Guyana: Immigrant Enclaves in NYC” – Kirk Semple

Graphing the relationship between income brackets and subway stops is an interesting idea that demonstrates how people with great income disparities interact on a daily basis. This phenomenon shapes our city because it means that unlike in other places, the rich and poor of NYC interact with each other all the time. And exposure to people from various backgrounds and tax brackets can broaden an individual’s world view.

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Blending of Cultures?

Response 3 of 5

“Take the A train to Little Guyana: Immigrant Enclaves in NYC” – Kirk Semple

The article discusses the diversity and large presence of different cultures that are now present in New York City. It examines how certain areas of the city have a popular ethnic group. The presence of these ethnic micro neighborhoods is good in the sense that immigrants are able to come to America and fit in. They don’t need to face as much discrimination or as much of the struggle that immigrants have experienced in the prior years. By living in neighborhoods populated by your own people, you can come to America and live with some sort of comfort.  This is beneficial because immigrants from all over the world, and not just Europe, are more eager to settle somewhere in New York City. But it also makes me question if these ethnic neighborhoods are adding to or taking away from the diversity of the city. Yes, more immigrant populations will come to the city. But are these people interacting with people from countries outside of their own. Mr. Lovlu from Kensington, Brooklyn said, “You don’t have to learn English to live here. That’s a great thing!” In his Bengali neighborhood, he doesn’t need to learn the language of the country to make a living. However, if Mr. Lovlu only speaks in his native tongue how many interactions does he have with non- Bengali people in a day? The definition of diversity is a blending of different cultures. How can we diversify if the populations don’t even interact with each other? By strengthening the wall of separation between each neighborhood we only add to the xenophobia and racist thoughts.

 

Questions:

  • What is the point of having a diverse population if we only talk to people from our own country?
  • Why is Little India not represented in this article?
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Narratives Unnoticed

Abhayvir Singh

Reflection 3 of 5

“’Lost’ In The City, Spaces and Stories of South Asian New York, 1917-1965”

By Vivek Bald

Vivek Bald presents a unique narrative of the South Asian immigrant. In order to do this, he chooses an era, 1917-1965, that is not acknowledged in the larger picture of the South Asian immigrant experience. He starts with 1917 because that’s the earliest he discovered any legal, written record in regards to South Asians. This is the year of the Supreme court case the United States vs. Bhagat Singh Thind, which denied Bhagat Singh Thind citizenship because, although he classified as of Indo-Aryan origin, he was not white enough for US citizenship. Continue reading “Narratives Unnoticed”

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Immigrant enclaves

Absara Hassan

Response 3: Kirk Semple, New York Times, “Take the A Train to Little Guyana” and Vivek Bald, “’Lost’ in the City, Spaces and stories of South Asian New York, 1917-1965”

The waves of immigration that have passed over the decades have led to the formation of immigrant enclaves across all five boroughs of New York City. In the article, “Take the A Train to Little Guyana”, Kirk Semple organizes the formation of enclaves into different sections, giving details of anecdotes, historical facts, specific locations, and the changes that these locations have undergone with respect to population for each immigrant group. Initially starting out as Kleindeutschland, also known as Little Germany, the area of lower Manhattan has been transformed throughout the years, drastically changing in ethnic composition with the addition of several immigrant populations such as those from Asia, the Caribbean, Latin America, and Africa after 1965’s immigration reform legislation. The New York Times article expands on this change in ethnic composition by giving examples of ten relatively new immigrant enclaves that have settled throughout New York City.

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