FINAL PROJECT

Please note that a hard copy of this assignment is due in class on May 12.

If you wish to receive comments on your assignment, submit your mailing address here (it won’t be shared with anyone), and Professor Rosenblum will send your marked-up paper by mail.

Assignment #4, a portrait of a neighborhood. This is the major writing assignment of the seminar. Working individually or in small groups, you are to choose a neighborhood that is interesting in terms of its ethnic history or political or social aspects, and to tell its story through factual and statistical information (history, demographics, physical appearance, etc.), your own observations, and the stories and observations of residents, based on in-person interviews.

A few points to keep in mind when choosing a neighborhood. Don’t forget the convenience of getting there and doing research.

Overall description. Your paper should include specific information regarding the history, demographics, physical appearance, and culture of a neighborhood. But the goal will be to tell the story if the neighborhood as much as possible through the voices of the people who live there so we can picture them, hear them speak, learn their histories, and through their eyes understand what it’s like to live in the neighborhood and grasp the issues facing the community.

Specific elements. The paper should paint a visual portrait of the area so we can picture the types of buildings (residential and commercial), the parks and other open space, important institutions, street life, etc.

It should paint a portrait of the population in terms of age, income, and ethnic, religious, and racial characteristics, types of occupations, and family structure. In other words, what kind of people live there?

It should tell us something about the cultural and social characteristics of the groups living in the neighborhood. What are their values and behavior patterns? What is their lifestyle like? How do people spend their free time? What goals have they set for themselves and their children? How do they interact with each other and how do they view outsiders? What, in a social and cultural sense, makes their community distinctive?

Some specific elements you will need to include:

• Census figures on the population of the neighborhood, its ethnic makeup, and how that makeup has changed over the years.
• A brief history of the neighborhood, with a discussion of various immigrant groups that have lived there.
• Details about immigrant life in the neighborhood as expressed through stores, religious institutions, restaurants, and street life.
• Cultural characteristics of different groups living there—where they worship, how they handle matters like marriage and family, their attitudes toward education.
• Description of housing, quality of schools, transportation and health care and other social services.
• Discussion of major issues confronting the neighborhood – ie. Housing, crime, ethnic tensions, etc.

Some sources for basic research:

“The Newest New Yorkers: Characteristics of the City’s Foreign-Born Population,” 2013 edition, by Joseph Salvo and Peter Lobo of the City Planning Department’s Population Division. This is a terrific source for basic demographic information. Here’s the website: http://www.nyc.gov/html/dcp/pdf/census/nny2013/nny__2013.pdf

AIA Guide to New York City. Fifth edition, 2010. This is invaluable for a portrait of a neighborhood’s history, appearance, and important buildings.

Profiles of individual community districts compiled by the City Planning District and posted on the nyc,gov website: www.nyc.gov/html/dcp/html/lucds/cdstart.shtml