Archive for November, 2014


The route I walked was from High Street to CityTech. It includes the natural beauty of nature along with the man made beauty. It also has the many food places that a person could go if they should feel hungry. As you get off the A train at High Street you turn towards Middagh street. You then cross the street and go into the park. At the park you would see a memorial dedicated William Jay Gayner. The memorial is made out of stone with words engraved in it. From the memorial you would walk toward Cadman Plaza. Toward  your right and left you will see trees and many leaves on the ground. You will walk down the path with all the benches. As you continue you will see rows of trees to your right and left going off toward the horizon. If you stand in the middle look you will start to feel like your walking down a magical path. As you keep walking you will make a right toward the fields. Here you can enjoy the natural  green color of the grass as the sun shines upon it. You can see the the kids play and relax on the benches. From here you’ll continues straight. As you walking you should see the United States Court house. If you look at you should see the many windows and how the front in rounded off. As your nearing the exit of the park, you should turn around and you’ll see two statues of two ladies off in the distance. When you exit the park you will be on Tillary Street. You make a left and walk toward the post office. The post office is a good example of man made beauty. You’ll notice all the intricate details. The post office will remind of a old roman building, with its pillars and arches. As you walk on the post office steps you’ll meet Johnson Street. You’ll cross the street and then you would enter Columbus park. You’ll see a statue of a man with two children playing around him. You’ll continue straight until you see the bright red building. When the sun shines on them you’ll see a nice hue of red. As you pass the red buildings you’ll see the a big fountain. Past the fountain you’ll see borough hall. This is another great example of man made beauty. You’ll then make a right onto court street and walk down, until you reach Joralemon street. You’ll eventually start to see lots of fast food places. Places like Shake shack and Panera Bread are a good place to quell your hunger. From there you can continue toward CityTech. With your eyes appeased and your hunger sated, you can start your day at school.

 

The goddess on top the Athens building (Borough Hall)

The goddess on top the Athens building
(Borough Hall)

That glass building (Supreme Court)

That glass building
(Supreme Court)

The view from the middle of the road

The view from the middle of the road

All the kids playing in that big open field

All the kids playing in that big open field

The vibrant red house (shacks)

The vibrant red house (shacks)

The ladies watching as you leave the park

The ladies watching as you leave the park

The magical looking place.

The magical looking place.

The beautiful stone work with arches and pillars

The beautiful stone work with arches and pillars

This was my broad collage remade in photoshop

This was my broad collage remade in photoshop

This was my broad collage

This was my broad collage

This was my narrow collage

This was my narrow collage

There are many places in New York that make me happy. The park that is next to my High school makes me happy. Parks gives you a place to play, make friends, and run through sprinklers when its hot. It also gives nice scenery to look at. Another place I like was my High school. It holds four years worth of memories of me and my friends. The theater also has a lot of memories of me and my friends going to watch movies, eating and stuff. My most happiest place is my room. It has everything I need. It houses all my game systems, a nice big bed and my computer. If it had a mini fridge and a bathroom I probably would never leave. My room has almost all my life’s worth of memories. From when I celebrate birthday parties, from when my friends or cousins come over for a movie night, etc. I’m starting to think all my happy places involves me being with my friends or cousins.

This article really piqued my interest because it discusses whether people prefer to take the fastest route or the most beautiful route to your destination. It also explained people points on what they though were beautiful. It talks about how they want to make an app that would help people choose between the fastest or beautiful route. I would definitely buy an app like this because the ones we use now only tell us the fastest routes. These routes usually tend to be boring. They conducted a survey through flickr to find out answers to their questions. The people chose from the quietest routes to the prettiest routes. Through flickr the survey got sent to Boston.

I believe the answer to their question depends on the situation. If I’m running late then I would definitely choose the fastest route, but if I have time to waste then I wouldn’t mind enjoying the scenery. My definition of a beautiful route would be a nice place with trees or nice buildings and it would have to be clean. I wouldn’t mind the loud noises, but if its a place with no noise then that place would be heaven.

For Project#2, I wrote about a location that is close to CityTech.  My location started from Court Street and ended on State Street. I walked along the court houses and through the park. Then I made my way down toward the construction and onto State Street. The juxtaposition I found was the busy ”New York” compared to the laid back ”New York”.

Reflection:

This project helped me explore the different areas around Citytech. I don’t live around the area or in Brooklyn and I’ve barely ever been in Brooklyn. This project gave me the opportunity to better acquaint myself with the Brooklyn atmosphere. It was fun and interesting to discover all the stores and future hang out spots. The area I chose as an example, to find the overlapping in this area was sort of difficult but I think I found one. As I kept looking I found some similarities to where I live in Queens. Also by reading Whitehead’s excerpt I started to think more. I started to look beyond what I’d normally see. His ideas really helped me broaden the way I think. I think I got a juxtaposition because I had discovered that the people look like they were all in a different world. I think I did a good job on explaining how their ”New Yorks” differ.

New York is a forever changing place. The buildings, the parks, the roads, etc almost everything in New York changes. With the passage of time things start to get old and corrode. This forces people to change things. When things start to change people often forget or they struggle to remember what was there. The new buildings that are made would be considered a ”new” New York. The things we forget and are left in the past would be considered the ”old” New York. That New York most people wouldn’t know about because it isn’t part of there New York. They didn’t see it, so it isn’t part of there New York. The new building that are erected now would be considered there New York because they were there to witness it.  The ”old” New York may be in the past, but it isn’t completely lost. The people who were there, would be living proof that the ”old” New York existed. Some places can be juxtaposed with each other to show the ”old”  New York with the ” new” New York.

I usually don’t pay attention to what was there before. You usually go to the same place over and over again, that you get accustomed to that place. You don’t notice when a store is gone until your ready to actually go there. Things change in your neighborhood and when they do, a little of your New York is chipped away. That deli across the street could change into a 99 cent store at any moment. When it actually does you will gain a new edition to your New York, to replace the New York that was taken from you. All the new places you go to will become part of your New York.

For example I walked down Court Street, and saw all the big court houses. They gave off and an old feeling. Right next to the court houses was Columbus Park. What I noticed was that the people who were walking near the court houses had suits on. The looked really busy and they were rushing to places. They had a completely different ”New York” that I was used to. There ”New York” probably involved a lot of hustling and bustling. Then their was the people walking through Columbus Park, they had a more relaxed feeling to them. They were either walking there dogs or just taking a stroll. Their ”New York” must of been completely different than the court house people because they felt more relaxed.

As I continued walking down Court Street I eventually made my why to State Street. Here I realized, that compared to how the courts felt on Court Street, it gave off a more busy feeling. There were a lot of stores and many people shopping. I felt like I was on Liberty Ave, Queens. The place had a more dirty view but a lot of people were still there. The many store, like Starbucks, Barnes & Nobles, the theater, etc, attracted the people. These places had a lot more people than the court houses and their ”New Yorks” were completely different. The people that travel here would probably be here to eat and do shopping. I realized that a lot of the people there were students. There were also a lot of construction sites. This caused the place to be much more noisy then the court houses. The construction workers were either fixing old buildings or replacing them . This means that a little of everyone’s ”New York” that frequent there was going away. This also mean that the new buildings that would be constructed would help replace the ”New Yorks” they lost. People might never want to acknowledge the new building, like how Coleson Whitehead said ” he’d never call the Met life building, the Met life building, he would always remember it as the Pan Am building”.

No two places in New York are the same, but they do carry some similarities. For example, the two place I listed above are completely different, but if you paid attention to some details, you could fine a lot of similarities. For example both places were in Brooklyn and they had people inhabiting them . Though each person would have their own ”New Yorks” because everyone’s different. For example the people on Court Street, next the the court houses would be accustomed walking through the quietness of the buildings. Where as the people by State Street would be more accustomed to noise because more construction is there. Although the buildings on State Street are fairly newer than the ones on Court Street, they do resemble each other in height. There wasn’t a lot of similarities because no two New Yorks are the same.

Everyone lives in a different part of New York. We all hold different memories according to where we went. This makes us all have our own unique ”New York”. Each time we go to someplace new we add more to our ”New York”. New York is constantly changing from its buildings to its inhabitant. This all helps build our own ” New York”. By going on this walk from Court Street to State street I was able to add more to my ”New York”. I was able to experience the ” New York” the lawyers and office workers have while walking down Court Street. I started feeling like I was back into my own ”New York” as I got to State Street. Everyone has their own memories that make these places special to them. Whether these places were to disappear later on or they completely change, our memories, would serve as living proof that these places truly existed.