Author Archives: Tiffany

Algorithms

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Algorithm(noun): a precise rule (or set of rules) specifying how to solve some problem.

“We quantify how people psychologically perceive the urban environment, and using existing algorithm, we identify pleasurable detours.”

As I was reading the article, I came across this word algorithm. I was searching through my memories and noticed that I’ve never heard of the word. I tried using context clue while reading it over and over again and I couldn’t came up with a guess. After searching up the word, the sentence makes more sense for me. We quantify how people psychologically perceive the urban environment, and using existing set of rule, we identify pleasurable detours.

The overlapping piers

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As our country’s economic rises, changes started to happened whether it’s new construction happening or new project getting planned to replace an old department or a house. Ever since our country is discovered, changes and development start to take place to create a community for us to live in. For new developments to happen today, our community will often strike down an old building for a new one to rise one, we replace the old one for a better and improved one. Though some old buildings are being replace, there are also mass amounts of old building being kept for ages. With the changes, it bought some major effects to the community and the area. Whether what kind of effect it is, positive and negative outcomes will alway comes with it.

While you taking your sweet slow walk through your neighborhood, you’ll probably will notice there’s some changes in the community you live in. Whether it’s the deli across your house use to be another house or the apartment next door turn into a laundromat. These changes take times, it can be a year or less or maybe more. Not only just a community that changes, New York City is often evolving. One area contains the biggest change in my opinion is DUMBO. When you first enter DUMBO, you’ll notice the peaceful and quietness in that area but also it’s the most popular place for tourist to visit. DUMBO is a really huge park, when you’re standing in front of the entrance, the first view you’ll see is Manhattan, which the where tourists gather together and take a picture with the view. The park is divided into two different part in my opinion and each part has it’t unique environment. When you make a right turn in front of the entrance, you will enter the peace and quiet part of the park. This part is where most tourist gathers around and take pictures. There’s a indoor merry-go-round. Beside that, there’s a giant yellow sign of the word “ON”. This part of the park is best for people who want to relax, there’s a lot of grass field around, whenever you’re tired, you can lay on the grass and enjoy the breeze.

My first time visiting DUMBO was three years ago when my friend decided to give me a tour. When I first step out the station, I notice the peacefulness around the neighborhood. There are variety of restaurant around the area but most of it are closed during daytime. It’s a peaceful community and very high classed until all the bars open up at nighttime. Even though it’s winter, the park is still fill with locals and tourists. The breeze coming from the river gives me a chill in the vein. There’s a restaurant at the entrance, they have their own little garden seats which attractive tourists to have a brunch there and which bought some light to the area during nighttime. While I was walking down towards the pier, I saw some wooden docks are standing still in the water, some of it are covered in green seaweed. The wooden docks has a strong existences at DUMBO, it’s like a ugly duckling in the swans groups. There are larger amount of piers, each pier is a different sport. I was surprise at the size of the pier. Aside from the size, when you’re tired from playing, there’s benches at the end of the pier for you to sit and enjoy the view of Manhattan.

The DUMBO we see today are totally different centuries ago. The piers we see today used to be shipping docks. Long ago, ships traveled through the ocean, enter the East River and stopped at the piers to drop the gigantic packages and that’s the reason why the size of the piers are big. The wooden docks we also use to be part of the docks. It’s hard to imagine the pier we stood on today used to be a place for trading and labor work. Every new developments brings either positive or negative outcomes to the area.

In my opinion, replacing the docks into piers does not completely affect the community. DUMBO is a quiet community, with ships coming in can chase the peacefulness away. It might be the easiest way for the ships to drop packages because the East River is right next to it. However, the noise can affect not just DUMBO but also Manhattan. East River is between these two boroughs, if DUMBO is affected by the noise, Manhattan have a high chance of getting affect also. No one will like to live around the shipping docks. With that thoughts, the area will turn into a no man’s land anytime soon. The price of the community will decrease which will brings negative affect to the economic. The DUMBO today is choose as one of the best view for wedding photoshoots.

There are a lot of overlapping in our city but we never bother to stop and clearly look at it. Our community change frequently, what might be across your house might be gone the next day for new constructions. Some overlapping can bring negative or positive effects for the community but it all base on one’s opinion. In my opinion, turning the docks into a sport place has a positive outcome. The noise that’s occurred by the ship can ruined the peacefulness in the community and tourist will no longer stop by DUMBO and enjoy the view.

Commonalities, Nebulous, Amenities

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Commonality (noun): sharing of common contributions 

“And yet, the commonalities – from the chains to the sprawl….” — Walk with me

I encounter the word commonalities when I was reading “Walk with me”. The first word I see in it is common. I thought it might be something related to having common things or could be common interest. After I search up the definition, it matches the definition that I came up with.

 

Nebulous (adjective): lacking definite form or limits

” – from the chains to the sprawl, the nebulous lack of center, the insistence each city offers that we must make up as we go alone.”

When I was looking at this word, I couldn’t connect it with anything, context club wasn’t helping me. Without any guessing I took the word to dictionary.com. After reading the definition, the sentence is more understandable. “Something thats nebulous is clouded or hazy like the forest you walk through in a foggy morning.”

 

Amenities (noun):  things that make you comfortable and at ease.

“I have always live within walking distance of the basic amenities: bank, mini-mart, coffe shop, bar.”

While reading the sentence, the context club short of helped me defining the word. Bank, mini-mart, coffee shop and bar are all stores and buildings. I was thinking amenities is building or things related. The real definition of it is things that makes you comfortable, which kind of mean feelings in my opinion.

Brooklyn Bridge Park

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The reason why I choose this place is because its at the edge of Brooklyn. Another word for Brooklyn bridge park is DUMBO. DUMBO is known for the view and the hot spots around it. There are many constructions going on around DUMBO. What attracts me to pick this place is because of the different variety store in the area. There are different types of restaurants located there. There are also different types of sport courts there; Soccer filed, handball court, volleyball court and basketball court. Since the parks are located right next to the river, we can easily spot Manhattan right across. DUMBO is a place where all types of culture combine together to form a small community.

Bewilderments

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Bewilderments (noun): a confusing maze or tangle, as of objects or conditions

“It saw the bewilderment on your face as you stepped out of the stolen matinee, incredulous that there was still daylight after such a long movie.” City Limits -Colson Whitehead.

I encounter the word bewilderments while I was reading City Limits by Colson Whitehead. I’ve never heard or ever seen the word before so it’s pretty brand new to me. I saw the word “wild” in it and thought it might be related to being crazy since we use wild to describe someone or something that’s gone insane. However, the meaning I thought is it different than what it actually mean. The sentence is clearer after replacing bewilderments with confusion in the definition; “it saw the confusion on your face as you stepped out of the stolen matinee.”

Example: There was bewilderments on her face during the meeting.

Summary for “City Limits”

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In the article “City Limits”, Whitehead said that everyone became a New Yorkers when they first land their steps on this states. He wasn’t born here, in fact, his first home was on the uptown No.1 train. Whitehead said no matter how much the environments or the buildings changed, it will still be the same as he first saw it. One part I really like is “never listen to what people tell you about old New York, because if you don’t witness it, it is not a part of your New York and might as well be Jersey.” I totally agree to it. You can never experiences the place just by listening to the descriptions of the others, you have to witness it yourself to truly know what New York looks like. Everyone has different views and opinion about something, what they said about New York could be different from what you thought. What I learn from Whitehead is that, as time flies, our neighborhood changes. The views you see today can changed by tomorrow, the deli or the restaurant you eat in today can be vanished the next time you visit. Enjoy and appreciate everything around because you never know when is the last time you’re going to see them.

We should review the removal of monuments critically

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     Monuments have been around ever since 1890, which was a hundred year after the United States are founded. Some monuments are statues that were builded by our society and some are naturally formed. Monuments held a specific meaning behind each one of them which makes the monument more unique. In the past hundred years, the amount of monuments raised rapidly which occurred controversy between the communities. Every monuments has a purpose of being where it is regardless if it’s just for show or not. With that thought, there is no reason for the monument to be removed due to someone’s opinions about the monument meaning. When we review a petition of a monument being removed, we should review it critically and if it’s reasonable enough.

     Ever since monuments existed, the debates between whether it should stay or being removed gave the society a big question mark. Since each monument have an individual meaning, the thought of it being removed should be carefully determined by the government. On the other hand, if a community can not thought of a good reason for it to be take down, then it should not be proceed. If the government wants to build a new monument statues, the project should be view critically base on the background meaning, area which mean the community and cost to prevent conflicts. One reason why monument should be kept is because it teaches us lessons of the past. In an article call Why we shouldn’t pull down all those confederate memorials by Alfred L. Brophy, it states “Primarily, there’s a danger that we’ll forget the connections of past racial crimes to correct racial inequality.” If we get rid of the statues, how can we learn about the mistakes or the achievements we have in the past? Think back to Grade school, we have field trip to many different types of statues for a better understanding of the lesson we have. One important thing  people forgot about is that removing a statues cost money, who’s going to pay for the expense?

     Many people acknowledge facts that some monument statues are inappropriate for the public to be seen. They claim that some statues reminds everyone America’s dark history. It’s such a big debate because some citizen agrees that its distributing however some state that  remembering our history reminds us not to make the same mistake again. One dark history I’m really interested in is the discrimination of African American. It was a dark age for all the African Americans, they were force to bought on ship and being sold in the market. Theres no education being provided for them and the only place they get to eat, live in is their master’s house, who they work for and who bought them in the market with money. The situation change when Martin Luther King interfere telling the world everyone should be treated equally, because of his action, protesting started to happen, slavery was slowly dying out. In honor of Martin Luther King, the African American community builded a statues to remind the next generation who gave new lives to the race, however, I’ve seen lots of comments and posts wanting the statues to be removed.

     The removal of Martin Luther King’s statues should not be proceed. Behind the monument, it contains meaning of the past our country went through. Other race claim that the monument is “racist” and “offensive” while the statues just placed there to resemble the past. I found a petition online about the reasons why we should removed the statues, the person said “we the people feel that is it honoring and supporting racial hatred towards white people.” Martin Luther King plays a major part in the history, honoring him should be allow. I understand some monument can be offensive toward a specific group of race but it should not be the main reason why a monument can be taken down because of that. There’s not a good reason that’s being given to the public for us to agree it should be removed.

     If the statues of Martin Luther King is taken down due to racism then I believe African American have the right to revolt and start a petition to take down George Washington and Thomas Jefferson’s monument. George Washington is United State’s first president but he’s also a slave owner and so is Thomas Jefferson. In the article call Don’t Take Down Confederate Monuments. Here’s why by Sophia A. Nelson, she states “the people who hated having black classmates at their school didn’t hate us because there were statues of Robert E. Lee or George Washington (our nation’s first president and a slave owner… If we start taking statues down, well, we better go for old Thomas Jefferson (master of a slave who was his mistress and mother of at least four of his children). And lets not forget President Trump’s favorite president, Old Hickory—Andrew Jackson. Another slave-holding Indian-killing president of our nation.” If Martin Luther King’s statues expresses racism towards a specific race then these president’s statues is doing the same thing. African American’s personal feelings of these statues should be the same as the others who wants to removed the Martin Luther King’s statues. If we review the petition, we should ask, if the reason is good enough to convince the community and the government. On the other hand, removing it because some people feel offended, then it should not be process because it’s affecting only a specific group or person, not the whole society.

     Monuments are for the next generation to remember the historical events that happened. If we choose to take some of it down because of some reasons then how should the next generation learn about our past? No matter how negative a historical event can be, we have to learn to face them, not to run away from them. We need to learn our lesson from our past to make our present wiser.

Work cited:

Article: De Blasio’s begging for trouble with his ‘monuments review’

Author: Post Editorial Board

Time posted: September 8, 2017

 

Article: Don’t take down the confederate monument. Here’s why

Author: Sophia. A. Nelson

Time posted: October 9, 2017

 

Eradicate

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Eradicate (verb): to eradicate something is to get rid of it, to destroy it, and to kiss it goodbye.

I encounter the word while i was reading the article about reason why we shouldn’t take down the confederate monument.

“They didn’t like having black classmates because they had racist hearts. They honored racial prejudice. They harbored cultural bias. That, my friends, is what we must work toward eradicating.”

I’ve never hear of the word eradicate. I thought it’s related to time because the word ‘era’ is in it but after I search it up its no where close to it. I learn that the word is from the latin word ‘eraicare’ which have the similar meaning; to root out. It’s easier to understand the sentence; they honored racial prejudice. They harbored culture bias. Thats, my friends, is what we must work toward getting rid off.

Project#2: Essay

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     Monuments have been around ever since 1890, which was a hundred year after the United States are founded. Some monuments are statues that were builded by our society and some are naturally formed. Monuments held a specific meaning behind each one of them which makes the monument more unique. In the past hundred years, the amount of monuments raised rapidly which occurred controversy between the communities. Every monuments has a purpose of being where it is regardless if it’s just for show or not. With that thought, there is no reason for the monument to be removed due to someone’s opinions about the monument meaning.

     Ever since monuments existed, the debates between whether it should stay or being removed gave the society a big question mark. Since each monument have an individual meaning, the thought of it being removed should be carefully determined by the government. On the other hand, if a community can not thought of a good reason for it to be take down, then it should not be process. If the government wants to build a new monument statues, the project should be view critically base on the background, area and cost to prevent conflicts. One reason why monument should be kept is because it teaches us lessons of the past. In an article call “Why we shouldn’t pull down all those confederate memorials” by Alfred L. Brophy, it states “Primarily, there’s a danger that we’ll forget the connections of past racial crimes to correct racial inequality.” If we withdraw the statues, how can we learn about the mistakes or the achievements we have in the past? Think back to Grade school, we have field trip to many different types of statues for a better understanding of the lesson we have.

     Many people are opposed at the facts that some monument statues are inappropriate for the public to be seen. They claim that some statues reminds everyone America’s dark history. It’s such a big debate because some citizen agrees with the fact that its distributing however some state that  remembering our history reminds us not to make the same mistake again. One dark history I’m really interested in is the discrimination of African American. It was a dark age for all the African Americans, they were force to bought on ship and being sold in the market. They get no educations and work for the white people. The situation change when Martin Luther King interfere telling the world everyone should be treated equal, because of his action, slavery was slowly vanishing. In honor of Martin Luther King, we builded a statues to remind the next generation who gave new lives to the African Americans, however, I’ve seen lots of comments and posts wanting the statues to be removed.

     The removal of Martin Luther King’s statues should not be process. Behind the monument, it contains meaning of the past our country went through. Other race claim that the monument is “racist” and “offensive” while the statues just placed there. I found a petition online about the reasons why we should removed the statues, the person said “we the people feel that is it honoring and supporting racial hatred towards white people.” Martin Luther King plays a major part in the history, honoring him should be allow. I understand some monument can be offensive toward a specific group of race but it should not be the main reason why a monument can be taken down because of that. There’s not a good reason that’s being given to the public for us to agree it should be removed.

     If the statues of Martin Luther King is taken down due to racism then I believe African American have the right to revolt and start a petition to take down George Washington and Thomas Jefferson’s monument. George Washington is United State’s first president but he’s also a slave owner and Thomas Jefferson is also a slave owner. In the article call Don’t Take Down Confederate Monuments. Here’s why by Sophia A. Nelson, she states “the people who hated having black classmates at their school didn’t hate us because there were states of Robert E. Lee or George Washington (our nation’s first president and a slave owner… If we start taking statues down, well, we better go for old Thomas Jefferson (master of a slave who was his mistress and mother of at least four of his children). And lets not forget President Trump’s favorite president, Old Hickory—Andrew Jackson. Another slave-holding Indian-killing president of our nation.” If Martin Luther King’s statues expresses racism towards a specific race then these president’s statues is doing the same thing. African American’s personal feelings of these statues should be the same as the others who wants to removed the MLK statues. But there’s not a reason good enough for these monuments to be removed.

     Monuments are for the next generation to remember the historical events that happened. If we choose to take some of it down because of some reasons then how should the next generation learn about our past? No matter how negative a historical event can be, we have to learn to face them, not to run away from them. We need to learn our lesson from our past to make our present wiser.