Arch-3522 Blog2

~$ch-3522 Blog1

I’ve lived in New York my entire life, its a place of which people travel to all around the world in pursuit of something great. In my eyes this city is full of life, opportunity and limitless potential. Yes there are several obstacles in New York City, however when people say that if you can make it here, you can truly make it anywhere, it is a statement of experience.

The entire city embraces a sense of culture and history that it does not deny, cultural diffusion and history are evident in the streets. Although at times people on the streets may seem rude and unconcerned with their surroundings, the nonstop mentality of the people and its city shows the amount of zeal and passion people have to succeed and move on to the next task or opportunity in their lives.

My view on New York may be somewhat bias due to the fact that I’ve lived here my entire life, however because I can relate to the other people that live here I can say that New York truly isn’t that bad of a place. I often hear of people that come to the Big Apple and end up thinking that my city is the most atrocious place imaginable, however to a certain extent I think those people have not yet grown to see the place that New York can make you. Strong willed, independent, and a person that can appreciate the different cultures and life around you, as long as you take out a little bit of your time to see the beauty around you.

New York is a place where the food, culture and architecture, exemplify the people that live in this city. In New York people will continue to surround themselves with the beauty that only comes from the people that thrive here.

New York was developing quickly. Constitutional rights were finally being recognized. Constitutional change had expanded the number of potential electors. New York was destined to become the future London of America. Large  number of immigrants immediately fled to New York, who’s voting potential was tapped. America was rapidly growing, businesses bloomed rapidly. All of this later prepped the wait for the Erie Canal.

Early New York developments have influenced our surroundings today. Major advancements as, the Erie Canal (1825) have left impacts. In 1825 the opening of the Erie Canal had given New York a new technological way and allowed access to the west. The completion of the Erie Canal guaranteed New York City’s future prosperity. Steam locomotive engines then invented shipping and railroads. Railways and transportation helped to move people, goods, and raw materials.

Property qualifications were dropped, and immigrants poured in by the tens of thousands. It was the greatest transfer of population the world had ever experienced. The first tenements were built, housing immigrants for low rate. Diseases were spread amongst non born natives, killing most of them quickly. Trying to improve the conditions New York lated constructed the adequate and clean water supply, for both disease control and fire protection.

New York had become the greatest city in the nations. Phenomenal growth, economic strength, cultural maturity, technological changes, crime, disease, poverty and development were factors.  New York was coexist and was still changing. All these problems faced, later led to New York today.

“TALES OF TWO CITIES”

Native- Born VS. Immigrants

Now that the Erie Canal opened up in New York has rapidly grew.  The population grew and grew and grew! Everyone wanted to come to New York from all over the world.  The Irish and Germans came to the USA through New York.  New York became so overpopulated that they stopped the new comers from coming through the gates.

These people that came to our “New World” were now called immigrants.  New York was now a huge diverse city.  Although New York was considered one big city, it was more like two cities.  The Immigrants VS. The Native- Born Citizens. These two groups of people lived very different from one another.  After doing the reading in Lankevich, I was horrified by the conditions the Immigrants were living in.

The Immigrants were living the worst out of the two cities.  They were living in unsanitary and unhealthy conditions.  They created the “ghetto.”  They were also the first to live in tenements.  Tenements were the first apartments but were very highly unsanitary.  They smelled really bad and were very filthy.  They didn’t have bathrooms inside the tenements.  They had to go outside and shower and use the bathroom. Families and single bachelors lived in these tenements.  It’s the only thing they could afford at the time; they didn’t have much of a choice, and if they did complain, the landlord wouldn’t care.  He could find someone else to replace it immediately.

Back then, no one knew about being sanitary.  They had poor hygiene, even the rich; however the poor were the ones who mostly lacked hygiene.  Because of these conditions, diseases and epidemics spread throughout the city, killing many.  There were more Immigrants dying than the Native-Borns. 

Meanwhile these Immigrants are living in these horrible conditions, the Native-Borns were living in houses.  They didn’t have to use the bathroom outside like the Immigrants.  Their homes weren’t as filthy as the tenements.  Of course they also had better jobs than the Immigrants.

I believe the “Tale of the Two Cities” still exists until this day, except it isn’t between the Immigrants and the Native-Borns.  It’s between the rich and the poor.  Ghettos still exist.  Although it was all one big city, it still was like it was two cities in one.  The diversity of New York all started from 1825, when the “Tale of the Two Cities” began.

Living in New York for twenty-one years, I have seen a large amount of craziness in my days. Growing up in Jamaica, Queens my whole life I noticed the changes in the neighborhood throughout the years. As a child i noticed that the streets were not clean and there was a lot of gang activity going on. i was never allowed to go outside without an adult. It was crazy how i wanted to go outside but couldnt because of who was outside. It wasnt until i was 14 years old when i was allowed to walk outside by myself to go to school. Believe me I was completely terrified of the idea but i did it, and I finally realized what the outside world was like, people walking around, different ethnic groups. It completely amazed me about everything in my neighborhood as i walked on my own. As i grew older i traveled to different boroughs. Boy was i amazed by what i saw, i saw the tall buildings in Manhattan, the trains running outdoors in Brooklyn and the diversity of the streets in the Bronx. i have never been to Staten Island but i assume that it is not as boring as people say it is. the way i see New York is just a large jungle with no hierarchy within the boroughs. as time passed neighborhood have both improved or gotten worse. i dont want to leave New York, but i just wish it werent such a jungle out there!

My New York is composed of different moment and places. My immediate New York I would say is Fort Green, Downtown Brooklyn, and Dumbo. I mainly go to school because it takes most of my time and energy. In fact is not all I do, nor these are the only places I go to, I like my New York because I get to interact with people from different places. Once I take the train on Brownsville you can see that the majority of people are black, but going a little further like 5 stops from mine everything changes. I remember five years ago when taking the A or C train you would only see African Americans in the train car with a few Hispanic exceptions, which in this case I was one of the exceptions. The demographics changed drastically in the past couple of years and I have witness the evolution of the neighborhoods. Following the evolution of neighborhoods I grow up in let’s say three areas, Brownsville Brooklyn, Cypress Hills, and East New York. I recall the places to be a bit more segregated and people, not in the sense that it would be racially segregated but segregated by race. Looking at my new version of New York you see there is bigger manifestation of interaction. I can see people from many races and ethnic group socializing and the thin veil of prejudice vanished. Another factor of my New York is there is more people I see, more people I want to meet, the more I would like to learn and you indeed learn from every person something new every day. The most important part of MY New York is that I see people as different as they are to me, and I know for sure I am different from them as well. I love going to the park and sitting there drinking a coffee and thinking how we take for granted this city. When I see tourist and they get amazed for things we have in our everyday life but we don’t care because they don’t directly interfere with our life. This would be MY New York where I sit wherever I go to I can enjoy a coffee and read a book and know there are people different from me how enjoy the city in many different other ways.

New York has been a place I always wanted to visit. A few years ago, I was given the opportunity to live in New York. The first time I visited the city it was an exciting feeling, I was amazed by the under ground infrastructure, it seem as though there’s a whole world happening below the street level. There were trains, businesses, people lives were happening below the earth’s surface.

Then I got out of the trains and the world above ground, was really above ground! The buildings were taller than the tallest building I knew. To see where the buildings ended I had to rotate my head at least 90 degrees to see the top. I was fascinated by the design, construction and aesthetics that these buildings presented to an individual. I started to take pictures and walk around the city exploring the different areas in NYC. I toured from lower to upper Manhattan, just to take in this authoritative or bold feel New York city’s high rise provided. The majestic feel that the infrastructure, provides still remains the same with me today, But something changed.

My View of the people and living conditions. My first few visits, I saw the city for it’s beauty and was blinded by that, it was what I wanted to see. As I visited the city more often I began to see slums, litter on the streets and on the train tracks. I saw people cramped in small places the call home. I saw rundown buildings and sadness. People going places in a rush, people faces are stressed with bags under their eyes, the reality of NYC is stressful. The people I saw the happiest in the city are the ones who came to take in the brilliance and beauty of the city and then the leave after a week.

New York City even with it’s internal problems that can be fixed, remains one of the places that show forth the brilliance of the people and the greatness of the nation. It is a place where people from every walks of life can come and survive as long as you have a dream and passion to fulfill that dream.