[Joel]

The development of a city requires the use of “change”. This could symbolize many things, perhaps, the change in society, culture, and housing. “My Brooklyn” represented the early stages of how change would affect a society, where developers would invest money in Brooklyn and start to design and create different spaces to eventually kick out the current people placed there. They would increase the rent or simply notifying them and leave them with no alternative to leave. Change is managed very quietly, completely ignoring the current society, and satisfying the needs of the people that will leave in the future there. The city dominates change, they create and outbreak laws so developers will have an easy access to invest and build. However, developers manage change, they are the ones with money, and the ones who push the city to create the “change” with no hesitation. Do we have a right in the city? Indeed, we do. We live here, we are the ones that occupies the space and the ones that bring the space to life. ” Citizen Jane: Battle for the City ” is a great example of unity and strength. The principal character Jane, use the power of observation to protest on the cruel change that the city proposed. An extraordinary woman, with no architecture background, was able to analyze and critique the developers and architects on how idiotic their plans were. She took every advantage as a citizen to influence the rest of the community so they can protest against the city. We are the heart of a city, and we have the right to give our opinions if “change” is affecting us. Nobody said “change” won’t be hard, however it should help the current community and provide solutions for the future.

[saqif chowdhury]

Change is not a very easy pill to swallow, especially when its somewhere you grow up and call your home. Most of the time, the community does not have a say in a changes made to a area, such as a new building, project, institution, or renovation. The power of change is held by the government, or the property owners, in that case, making it difficult for a community of people to have a say in these projects. The goal of these owners or developers is to make progress and push for a modern and urbanized society, while the community might disagree and say that original buildings or areas kept in original condition are what keep the culture of the community. It is impossible to satisfy everyone, however thinking about the the future generations and creating a society that is built on modernistic thinking and lifestyles of the future is important, while keeping parts that are original. Having this balance is the best way to satisfy the minds of developers and the members of the community.

[ChuXin Zhang]

The environment and society are changes managed in a city. For example, people manage changes in a city if they are willing or desperate for change. Also, change is managed by how people react to something and if they don’t favor how the government is changing the city. However, the people have the rights to change it and are the ones who decide what needed to be changed for the goods of the city and the residents. As for the rights, there’s always ”new rights” to fight for. Therefore, people do have the rights to manage change in the city for good cause.

[Ralph]

I am neutral in the belief that people do have a right to the city because on one hand as we saw in “My Brooklyn” the people of Fulton Mall area and other zones of Brooklyn, although being there for many years and having an attachment to that particular zone could not prevent the change that happened in that area. Despite that they protested, met with the committee in charge of deciding whether the change would happen or not, and even wrote letters, their claim to the city/zone was not enough to stop the power play of change. Meanwhile in Citizen Jane, her claim to the city played a major role in the reversal of the change that was going to happen. Her observation skills and protesting skills helped her gather people together to stop the city from going in the direction that would negatively impact the lives of so many people.
So now my Question is “Do only a certain group of people have a right to the city? And Are they the only ones who can stop change from presenting itself within?” I think watching both films showed me that power and influence plays a huge role in the outcome of a city and that not every group of people within that city can attain both or one in order to invoke or deny any sort of change.

[Terry_L]

There’s always change along with the developments of the society. It is not comfortable for anyone who face the change with damaging the surrounded environment of their sweet home, however, sometimes we have no rights on disagreeing the decision of changes since most of the power was held by the government or some other industries. Even though the old streets or environment helped protecting the public life and tradition, once it is against with the future developments of the city under modernization, personal properties or privatization will no longer be respected. No one would blame on the heavy traffic of New York today since that was what it supposed to be like under modernization recent years. Some people seemed to be satisfied with the current status of New York, but some might be not. Thoughts of people are always changing, things will not last forever, those old buildings will be teared down and replaced by some new buildings eventually. When facing these changes, people, as an individual would hardly get a chance to say something unless we all gather together and fight for it.

[Mirna Ayoub]

City changes according to the change of society and culture. In my opinion, I believe that people are the major source of that change because people are expressing their culture and their traditional that they learned form their parents in the city that they are living in now. They change the atmosphere of the place that they are living in according to their culture. You can see that very clearly in the cities that have many different people from different countries. Brooklyn is a great example of that, it shows how city changes according to the people culture because it has the most emigrants from every where around the world. As you can see in the film “My Brooklyn”, it shows how society change very fast in past few years in Brooklyn because the traditional that people express from all around the world on one city. They are not controlling that change because they are doing that without feeling that they are impacting on the other people around them. Of course, people have the right to manage change in the city and I see this in a good way because you can learn a lot of new things and information from the people around you. In Brooklyn, you can meet hundreds of different cultures which is a great experience for anyone. I totally believe that PEOPLE are the CITY.