I have been living in New York for over 10 years but I can’t say I actually knew much about New York before this class. One of the topics that had the biggest impact on me was the topic about affordable housing. I am actually in the midst of applying for affordable housing myself so the articles we read and the research we did gave me a deeper understanding about affordable housing and the many obstacles from how affording housing projects should be funded to the federal government deciding what the Median Family Income would be. The 3 main topics we discussed; how we live, how we work, and how we shop will follow me closely as I move on to the next stage of my life in trying to buy a house, applying for jobs, and shopping for food, clothes, etc. It is class in which the information I learned won’t be forgotten easily because they will be applied to my daily lives.
During the Macaulay common event, the presentation that left me with the biggest impression is the presentation about the veterans homelessness in New York. I was shocked to know that so many veterans doesn’t even have a place to call home after coming back from the war. However, the presentation was uplifting too in that the members showed the current efforts in placing these veterans into homes and helping them develop skills to apply for jobs.
I think an improvement that can be made is the time focused on each topic. I feel like we spend a majority of our time on how we live and not enough time on how we work and how we shop. It might just be because the information for how we live are heavier thus more time is needed for that section. Overall, I really enjoyed the class and the trips we took that solidified what we spoke about in class. It is a class that I will definitely remember!
