Occupy Wall Street/2008 Financial Crisis
Assignment for Thursday: write a blog post that examines Occupy Wall Street or the roots of the financial crises (as explained in “Giant Pool of Money”) from any angle. You can write about the architecture/urban planning aspect of the occupation, the economic forces involved — whatever you want. I encourage you to visit Occupy Wall Street and do some reporting — take some pictures, talk to people.
In my opinion, protesting is a great way to express disagreement towards an injustice on part of a larger group. These protests which are always followed by specific demands almost always lead to the improvement of conditions and agreement between the opposing groups. However these mass gatherings are always composed of unhappy and unorganized crowds that are easily able to lose control. The Wall Street area, from an architectural point of view, is composed of narrow streets that can be seen as potential hazard when filled with a large amount of people. In such scenario getting through this cluster of people on this narrow layout of buildings would be impossible. Especially in case that an emergency took place. In such event the safety of hundreds of locals would be endangered, emphasizing the risks involved when the occupancy limits are reached and exceeded.