Author Archives: Guang Yang

Post 2. Guang Yang

What city walking experiences do you have in common with the writer? What in your experience is different from what he wrote about? What do you think of the power of serendipity to “expose our commonalities,” as he puts it?

Few days after I graduated from high school, I was in the free time to go anywhere I want. I decided to walk around the Manhattan island, on foot for once in life time. That little journey took me about two and half day. I started my walk from Manhattan side Queens middle tunnel then up the island. 

That was a long and lonely walk, but fairly interesting. Enter the richest zip code in the US. I was able to smell money in upper east area. Wealthy and attractive people were everywhere. 

Soon passed the upper east, Herlem was totally different area. Stinky, industrial street was all around Herlem. As a stranger for that neighborhood, I got yell at few times by various people. One African American mistakenly said I’m Japanese and get the F out the country, because we took all the jobs from them. One old lady who was white, walked pass me like a teens and said “ make a way, Ching”. 

For sure I didn’t take those attitudes seriously, but one things has been proved again. Manhattan is an mysterious island, all kind of people doesn’t matter with race, income, ideals were all able to get together and live kind of peaceful. Manhattan still like a melting pot, but with boundary in between each section. 

Blog Post 1-Guang Yang- Better city, better life.

Do people have a right to the city? Do longtime residents and businesses have a right to remain where they are?  If so, how should local governments, urban planners, and other decision-makers ensure these rights are maintained?*

In the film “My Brooklyn”. Most student sees the conflict about rasicism, culture difference. However, the most attractive topic for me is the way of life for different income class. Yes, the people who live in Brooklyn have the right to choose whether to relocate or stay. Although, the most useful tool to measure eligibility is by money. A city like New York needs to develop its own charm, and that often involves replanning and reconstruction. If the old resident no longer has the availability to follow the city development, it’s not a misstep to relocate them in terms of city evolution. On the other hand, The old resident who was forced to move due to the lower income. The city government has the obligation to take care of their loss in profit. For instance, the major developer should reimburse the one who force to move for a relocation fee or pay high taxes to the city government to improve the living stander for other undeveloped areas in New York City. 

The another conflict in “Citizen Jane: Battle For The City” is about people vs. industry. 

Jean Jacobs represents the people-oriented urbanization. Robert Moses represents the industry-oriented urbanization. Most people might agree with Jacobs’s idea that “A city is about people, not building” so do I. That what makes New York a unique city in the world. However, we can indicate that Moses’s idea was just purely awful for city development. One major thing he accomplished was the Cross-Bronx highway. To industrialized, the city indeed makes life more convenience. There are some place in the world needs to play the factory role so we can have our luxury life. To take care of both aspects is one of the greatest changellance that human has to solve and might continue to argue along with human history.

All in All, we are still in the pathway of finding the best living style in the city. We still have a long way to go.