The MTA is a vital part of any New Yorker’s life. Whether we want to admit it or not, many of us depend on the trains to get us from point A to point B. While sometimes that journey from point A to point B might not be pleasant and might be time-consuming, the MTA nevertheless is our go to mode of transportation when traveling around our bustling city. Because the trains are such a vital part in New York City culture, I propose that we explore the impact that the trains have on the various ethnic groups and neighborhoods in the five boroughs.

Without a doubt, certain ethnic groups live along certain subway lines and near certain stations. If I remember correctly, Joseph Salvo mentioned that the subway lines explained why certain ethnicity groups live in certain areas. For example, the 7 line is important to Asian Americans who travel from Flushing, a mainly Asian American community. The 7 line is one of the major reasons why Koreans and Chinese reside in the Flushing area. Hence, the MTA does have an impact on where various ethnic groups reside.

We could use this topic to explore various questions. Which subway lines do a majority of Chinese New Yorkers live near and use? What about Eastern Europeans? West Indians? Do the types of people change as you travel from one end of the subway line to the other? For example, the A train does experience this phenomenon. A majority of West Indian people gets on at the Lefferts Blvd. A train stop but at 207 St., the other last stop on the A train, Dominicans in the Washington Heights area board the train. We could also explore how the demographics of certain lines change over time as well as exploring how subway lines help various groups integrate and intermingle.

In terms of dividing the work, there, coincidentally, happen to be 22 lines so we could either give each person a line to focus on. If that does not work out, we can have some people make groups of two and explore one line. We could have people focus on their neighborhoods and the lines that they use. However, if we have some students that live outside of the five boroughs, they can focus on the neighborhoods they explored for their neighborhood project.

Upon looking at websites from previous Peopling of New York classes, we could incorporate the same tools that those websites used. We could include maps of the subway lines and stations and label the various types of people that live around said line/station. We could use the timeline feature to explore the people who lived and moved out of the neighborhoods we choose to focus on. We can use videos and pictures by documenting the different types of people that enter and exit subway stations/enter and exit subway trains (without making those people angry!)

Thank you for taking the time to read my proposal. If done effectively and efficiently, this could turn into a very fun, interactive, and informative project!