Author Archives: Jinchang Huang

Guest Speaker Abby Subak

Second guest speaker Abby Subak, an art promoter and preserver visited our class to give us an insight of what she thinks of art and how it affects society. Her thoughts on art were enlightening, from discussing different spectrums of how art affects different aspects of society to giving us a better understanding of the Gowanus area. The effects of gentrification and the elevation of rent prices, she explains the struggles of artists trying to make a living while trying to sustain their artworks and ideas. With art, the guest speaker believes that it contains characteristics which holds value in its place for its ability in creating communities and much more. With much said, guest speaker Subak helped me realize that physical art alone has the capacity to bring people together to create special forms of energy for its surroundings. As a person that loves art but does not know much about physical artworks, I believe that artists are rare and as a city we should promote artists and their visions instead of depriving them from blossom.

Robert Moses vs. Janes Jacobs Video

Robert Moses, some may consider him as the legendary city planner while others such as Janes Jacobs the activist saw him differently. Robert Moses had many plans to make the city “better” by accommodating cars with more highways to alleviate highway congestion and to promote businesses for faster travels. Moses was known for holding great bureaucratic power which gave him the competence to make changes to the city’s geographical appearance. When building his ideas, Robert Moses took action without acknowledging the fact that masses of people will be needed to relocate which will devastate families that were originally living in the path of his construction. To prevent further changes from Robert Moses, activist and housewife Jane Jacobs stood up to take actions. By revolting against Robert Moses, Lower Manhattan was saved from destruction and shes probably the reason why we still have soho and other great places which people crowd to shop and commute.

Video of Brooklyn Gentrification

As a class, we spent some fun time by watching a documentary of the Brooklyn gentrification that was produced a few years ago. The narrator and producer of the documentary was a local of the place herself when she was younger and had lived in Brooklyn for quite some time. After the announcements of the gentrification, the producer couldn’t help but to grab the opinions of others of this sudden change. It is sad to know that the people who grew up and had businesses around the area where the gentrification took place had to migrate to different areas due to the massive rent increase and other financial complexities. The construction of high luxurious condominiums caused all the surrounding buildings to also raise in price dramatically. While not all locals were affected by the sudden changes physically, many dislike the abolishment of history and lifetime memories left by their younger selves. Although some are fortunate to find new places to settle their businesses, many small businesses were left with defeat and were no longer financially fit to reopen. Every inch of New York City land is considered the valuable as NYC continues to expand in the favor of the rich. There’s a saying “As the poor have the possibly of becoming rich, the rich will always remain rich.”

First Guest Speaker Experience

Guest speaker Joseph and the author is the book well known for its information of the Gowanus was very informative. He gave us critical points and views of the current Gowanus canal and how it was few hundred years back. I was intrigued by the vast knowledge that he possesses of the canal and was entertained by every second of his presentation. What caught my attention the most was how the Gowanus canal came to be and what it was used in the past. From the very beginning, the speaker gave us a brief historical lecture about the natives and what the land was like before it was used by the Europeans. I learned that the land which we know now as New York was once a smooth land with many marshes that many mistaken for swamps. Later as more Europeans arrived at the land which we now call the United States, the Europeans were at first negotiating and exchanging products with the indigenous. Europeans brought over slaves from the triangular trades and had the slaves dig up large mill banks which were used as a nature’s way of grinding flour and other sources of carbohydrates. People started producing all sorts of products such as oysters and used the canal waterway which they carved using their slaves as their source of transportation. The canal played an important role to have ships maneuver to different sections of the land in which was called New Amsterdam, which is now called New York City. The canal as we know it now is heavily polluted with all sorts of debris such as carbon deposits, feces, industrial by-products, bacteria, and much more. What I learned from the speaker of the pollution is that it was caused mainly by how the canals sewer systems were constructed back during the days of the industrial revolution. We concluded that people of the past were a lot more careless about the environment and lacked the technology to prevent such hastily flow of pollutants. One thing the speaker brought up was the restoration of the Gowanus canal, we went through many of the political obstacles which stagnated the restoration process of the canal. Since New York City is all about real estate and money, huge real estate owners around the Gowanus feared that the government might interfere with their assets. Overall, Joseph knew his information about the Gowanus extremely well and had us all entertained for the whole 2 an a half hour class.

Elmhurst, Queens.

I live in an urban area in Queens, New York City, in an area called Elmhurst. There are many interesting things in my neighborhood which is both good and bad in my perspective. The happy side of where I live is that there are many places where food is available for purchase and it’s extremely convenient. When I mean that stores are convenient, I mean that there is a store literally every corner I turn. The most prominent stores are obviously delicatessens and the rest are either Chinese food restaurants and supermarkets. When it comes to obtaining specific foods, Dunkin Donuts, Mc. Donald’s, and Popeyes fried chicken is also close to my house. Queens Center Mall is 15-minutes away from my house when walking. I can practically purchase anything I have in mind just by walking, other than that, the second paragraph will be the drawbacks of the area I’m living at.

First things first, there are dogs and cats everywhere around the neighborhood. The neighborhood is constantly bombarded with dog feces and leftover cat food. The dog feces left on the sidewalks is becoming a trend, I feel like it all started when a person decided not to pick up after their dog and another person gained their influence. The unsanitary factors of the sidewalks in my neighborhood is getting worse than ever. I personally always look where I walk and yet I stepped on dog poop twice after strolling around the neighborhood. Another issue is the lack of personal home maintenance, people disregard others and have their cars literally parked onto the sidewalks. People love plants where I live, I wouldn’t mind plants if they weren’t 12foot tall sunflowers tilting down to the path where I must walk past every morning. You can literally go blind if you don’t look where you’re going for 5 seconds since there are broken bamboos waiting to snipe your eyes. One last thing which I find obstructing is the lack of sky view. There are powerlines on top of many more electrical lines which block the view of the beautiful sky. On nice sunny days, I take photos of the sky and have trouble getting the picture right without having thick black lines in the picture.

Now moving away from the unsatisfactory, I live close to two bus stations, one heading towards flushing and one to the 7 train which is also 15-minutes away from my house. My main route to school is walking to the station which is also 15-minutes away where I can take the m and r train. The area around the station holds a Queen’s Library, Chinese supermarket, Subways restaurant, pizzeria, and other small restaurants. Sometimes I’ll grab some groceries before heading home after leaving the station. Other than the things in which I dislike, the most important attribute of a good neighborhood is how convenience the area is. At the end of the day, everywhere we live will have its up and downs. I hope my boring passage will help you gain a better understanding of where I live.