I have been living here in Brooklyn for 10 years now. In this 10 years I have seen most of the New York. However I had not seen the Down Town area of Brooklyn until I came to see my college “The New York City College Of Technology”. I really liked this area, all the shopping places, the courts, the food courts and colleges around. However I never really explored this area. Than one day me and my friend decided to go walk around and go sit in some park or a good place to sit and do our work. We came across the park”Walt Whitman Park”.

The park is located on  Cadman Plaza East. It was easy for me to get there since it was close to my college. I took walked out of  the main building on jay street and walked north to Tillary street. I took a left on the Tillary street and walked two blocks. I was amazed to see that how my college buildings cover the whole block. Than I got to Cadman Plaza and took a left and walked like a half a block and I was there. The park is on the right side of the cadman plaza East street.

The park is just an amazing place to go to. This park is made to Honor a famous poet named Walt Whitman. He was a famous poet, journalist and a native New Yorker. He was really a role model for free thinkers and his poetry was really known all over. As I was sitting in the park I noticed a really nice looking building across from the area I was walking. The building is Called the New York Office Of Emergency Management also known as the NYS OEM. It was really interesting for me to see the Juxtaposition between the park and the building of NYS OEM.

The two places show a lot of Juxtaposition. The park is a quiet place where people come to jog, walk, family time or to do their school work. It has benched made of stones, tracks to run on and a nice grassed place for people to spend quality time. On the other NYS OEM buliding is really different from the park. It is built with a lot of the modern technology as it IS the first “Green” building. It has efficient mechanical systems, recycled materials and locally manufactured materials and it is also certificated by the U.S. Green Building Council’s LEED Green Building Rating System. The NYS OEM building is responsible for coordinating the activities of all State agencies to protect New York’s communities and the environment from natural and man-made disasters and emergencies.   The building also has nice looking mirror windows, marble made walls, and fire exits. The NYS OEM building is very crowded with its employees, computers, and all technical things. Compared to the park the building is much more crowded, noisy, different structure and there is more activity in the NYS OEM building compared to the park. This shows the juxtaposition and also shows how tow complete different environments are so close by.

The Walt Whitman Park is very significant since it pays tribute to a true native New Yorker. It honors Walt Whitman and all the work of his. His really influenced the free thinks and was really good journalist as well.  This park also provides a great place for families to come and have a good time. It shows the respect the city has for its important people of New York in the history.

I also took a picture to show the juxtaposition between the two locations. The picture captures the structure difference. It shows how one location is natural and how a man made location is different from each other. However it does not show the juxtaposition such as the peace of the park and the noisiness of the building, the computers inside and the benches outside.

I think this park is very important for this location in many different ways. However some people might not agree with me but I feel every person has their own way of looking at things. “There are eight million naked cities in this naked city”. This was said by Colson Whitehead in his work called the “City Limits”. This means that everybody living in New York view New York in a different way. They all have their own version of New York. I feel that in my version n this park means a lot. It is a great place for the student s to come here study, families to have fun, people to exercise and for kids to play. This park brings more people to this area and people like coming here.

Colson White head in his “City Limits” also says “you start building your private New York the first time you lay your eyes on it”. This means that the first time you come to New York and see this great place you start to remember in a certain way, your version of New York. When I saw the park I thought it was really nice, peaceful, and it is great that this park is here. I feel in my version of New York this park means a lot to the people that live around here and also adds a lot to this area.

We know that this park is made to honor Walt Whitman but I still have few Questions. Why was this park made here like why this location? When was this park made? Does the government plan on adding any new things to the park? How this park can be made better? These are the things that I really want to know about this park. Down Town Brooklyn is really an amazing place. It has many places to visit and to explore and Walt Whitman Park is one of them.

Citations

1-http://www.nyc.gov/html/oem/html/about/about_oem_headquarters.shtml

2- http://www.nycgovparks.org/parks/waltwhitmanpark/history

3- Whitehead, Colson. “City Limits.” The Colossus of New York: A City in Thirteen Parts. New York: Random House, 2004. 1-12.

4- Whitehead, Colson. “City Limits.” The Colossus of New York: A City in Thirteen Parts. New York: Random House, 2004. 1-12.