race, culture, and thanksgiving

Well im having issues with this thanksgiving because of race and culture. Because i live to far, i decided to stay at school. Therefore, im having thanksgiving dinner with my cousin and his wife that reside in atlanta. The issue rises when the decision of what to cook comes about. My cousins wife, who is Vietnamese, wants to cook a whole bunch of rice, and other traditional asian food, while my cousin, who is black, want to have the traditional soul african american food. I obviously, want to eat the soul food, i wish she would seriously consider the fact that me and my best(who is staying with me for the break but attends school in illinois), are african american and don't eat asian food. I feel the only way to resolve this issue is for my cousins wife to make what she wants, but make a small portion of it, since she the only one eating it, while by cousin cook the amazing soul food that is suppose to be eaten on thanksgiving. I think everyone would be satisfied.

An Explanation Perhaps?

Alright, here's what I'm going to do, first I'm going to go over what Jack said and then move on to Jasmine's post.

So Jack's little incident, while I know I can't justify what was done, I can at least try to explain it. Whether it be well known or not, racism differs regionally. Sometimes in ways you wouldn't expect. The best way I know to describe it is an incident that happened in my US history class.

One day we were talking about the history of the south and one of the northern kids in my class asked "why people in the south were so racist." My teacher was one of those outspoken types, so he gave a blunt, but relatively true answer (in my experience). He said this "It's not that southerners are more racist than the north, there's just more instances where you can see it down here. If anything the north is MORE racist than the south, because they just don't let minorities in up there." I say true in my experience, because I have family who lives in Cincinnati. One of my cousins came down to South Carolina for college at USC and was shocked. He commented that at his high school there were a total of three black people in the entire school and he was not prepared for how integrated the south is now.

This doesn't really explain the incident, but what you have to keep in mind is that trends for racism even tend to differ between countries as well as regions in the United States. People from different countries have just as much trouble accepting people who are different as we do, if not more.

To Jasmine, the fact is that some people are in fact that ignorant. Well perhaps more oblivious than ignorant. I am willing to bet that this girl was not merely pestering you, or even trying to establish stereotypes. While it is pretty terrible, some people have never actually talked to someone of another race, she might have just been curious.

Once again, I'm not trying to justify these people's actions, just to explain where their actions may be coming from.

-Taylor N.

Racism existing in innuendos

Jack, while reading your blog that brought me back to the talk that we had in class today about the "designated black person". Luckily that hasn't happened to me (i.e. what happened in your blog) because it'd get a tad ugly, but when it comes to living in suburbia and being the "designated black family" it makes everything awkward. After living as a military brat for 13 years of my life, when my parents retired both as Lt. Colonels', we were able to move to a good neighborhood with unnecessarily humongous houses on an acre of basically forest land. I wasn't looking forward to moving out there because its not diverse at all, there was no one there my age! Everyone was old and Caucasian, but my parents wanted to move there because our house will be worth much more when we sell it in the future if need be. Also, my dad is a real show off, part which comes from how he grew up in the projects, so being able to do this well for himself and his family makes him very proud; at times even pompous. So once we were there, the neighbors only knew me because of how good I was in track and their children sort of idolized me. Then after that they would start to talk to me, typical. One family did have a girl that was my age who went to Canyon High School, a predominantly white high school, and she would ask me questions about if its possible for black people to have freckles, why my hair is the way it is, and why do have my music so loud when I come home from school. Honestly. I don't think people can be that ignorant, but I figured by walking away in mid-question I would at least escape another one of her stereotypes of black people; that we are all violent. I feel like being a "designated black person" can be humorous when exploited through comedy, but in real life it's just annoying and shows the stereotypes that some white people have but are too afraid to say, so when they find someone remotely close to them (e.g. a neighbor), then they ask all their questions.

But that was just my neighborhood, and many more are like that in my county in San Antonio. Maybe if things weren't so economically and ethnically separated through suburban neighborhoods in this urban nation, there wouldn't be this nuisance.

Jasmine Kent

Collegiate Controversy

Taylor, I completely understand your issues with our budgets. The Aerospace program isn't exactly swimming in funds as it once was. HOWEVER, I feel that come of Georgia Tech's fine students are, from my experience, getting more out of their funds, no matter the size, than others.

The other day I was waiting in line to speak with one of my professors after class, as several other students were, to talk about the recent test, grades and the like. In line in front of me stood one of the mixed race students in our section who asked the same question as the rest of us, "What can I do about my grade to raise it before the end of the semester?" Many of the other students were told about the last few extra credit options, asked if they had tried to do anything about it in the past, and some the professor talked to for several minutes holding up the line. This was agitating enough because, lets face it, this is Tech we have things to do and work that needs to get done. Anyways, this kid in front of me asks his question the professor, who, without missing a beat, simply redirected the student to the TA who is also of mixed race. I turned the student in line behind me to see if she witnessed the same situation that I just did, no such luck.

This got my blood boiling a little bit. I am a huge advocate of equal treatment and all around fairness no matter what the circumstances. This professor seriously upset me by simply throwing this student aside for no reason at all. There was nothing different about what this student had done towards the professor in contrast to the "white kids" before him. So WHY THEN was he dismissed and not given the chance to speak directly with the professor as the other kids had?

My turn to ask a question. I proceeded to stare the professor directly in the face, ask my question, and wait for the response that I was sure was coming. As I predicted, the professor began to answer my question and engage in conversation. This infuriated me to say the least. I walked away after saying, "I prefer talking with the TA," cutting the professor off mid-sentence. I went and stood with the student who was previously dismissed to the TA and had my question satisfyingly and accurately answered.

Now, why in this modern, supposedly equal society did this even happen? Why can't everyone be treated the same way? keeping things constant keeps things moving smoothly and without question. If you've witnessed anything like this or disagree with my reaction, please voice your opinion.

Jack

Torture through Tuition

I in fact, read the same Technique that Jasmine did. Another major article in that particular edition also had to do with the budget cuts, but hit home a little closer for me. The article I read was about the Academic Common Market, which I am a student involved in.

The academic common market is a program Georgia Tech is involved in that allows students from other states that don't have particular majors that Georgia Tech has (Polymer and Fiber Engineering and Nuclear Engineering), to pay in state tuition. This of course for me, is a fantastic deal. The catch however, is that I have to keep above a 3.0 or I suddenly pay about 10-20 thousand more a year.

What this article was about, is that they are removing this luxury due to budget cuts! The title simply said they are getting rid of it, so I was very scared for a minute until I read into the article and discovered I would still be allowed to participate in the plan for the four years I had originally planned to. However, I'm not sure if I am allowed to keep this program if I drop below a 3.0 at any point.

Yet another repercussion of these budget cuts is that the PTFE major, which is already suffering in terms of student base, will see a decline in students when the ACM is removed. We'll see how this affects the major in the future I suppose.

So the thing I would like to say is that everyone is feeling the pain here, especially through the form of increased tuition.

-Taylor N.

Oh Georgia Tech

One topic I would like to bring up about Georgia itself is the 8% budget cuts, up from the previously settled 6%. I hate how this has affected me personally. I was promised a 75% track scholarship up until I came here last March for my official visit when I was told about the tragic budget cuts. Now, the only privileges I receive as an athlete are the athletic gear, the AA dining hall, and priority registration. That sounds good to the average student, but compared to the one on one tutoring, group tutoring, and free school (out of state tuition) is a big hole in what I was counting on getting.

On a bigger scale, this budget cut has caused the reduction of Tech's workforce. In the Technique, they cut many jobs in the administration and financial department using the process of seniority to make the cuts. Even though they try not to lay off the students on work-study, try is all that they can do. Layoffs even occurred in the presidential and provost departments. When it comes to budget cuts, I always wonder what their priorities come down to when they decide to cut in the appropriate sections. I know in athletics they keep the money in the most popular and predominately money making sports; football and basketball. Yet they have so many home events while as track, where they are cutting the most, have two home meets out of our indoor and outdoor meets spanning more than 6 months. I wonder what they decide to do when cutting budgets on campus. They seemed to have prioritized the new addition to the student center that taylor was blogging about, but I think they must have made some decisions on the fly about that. As taylor was saying, they had the fence blocking off all of the green space, making me think that they were going to take maximize their building space, then they uncover it and its just grass with two benches, yet still blocked. Are they thinking about using it or are they making extra green space or are they still splitting the fence? What have they decided to not build or to tear down with the implementation of this new building? All questions that are beyond my knowledge.

On an even larger scale, when budget cuts happen its partially because of the unemployment in the state. The unemployed can't contribute to the state's budget and when it comes to the area around Georgia Tech, like downtown, Little Five, and the Underground, its unsafe because of the drug dealers, thefts, and beggars who make up our unemployed body. With Atlanta as sprawled out as it is, the people making money are paying for their area on the outskirts of the city while the inner city rots.


The recession we're, steadily heading towards a deep depression, takes me back to our novel Suburban Nation. Maybe they would appreciate my statement when I say that the addictive sprawling situation, causing the deterioration of the inner city, the sub-prime loans so that anyone can "afford" to live in the suburbs, causing the national housing failure, leading to the recession with multiple budget cuts sprinkling down even to a nominal being like me, is unsustainable for humans.

And if you think that it doesn't affect you, think twice.


Jasmine Kent

Construction is Taunting Us

So recently I got very excited in relation to the construction going on around campus. The first chain link fences were taken down! Since I’ve come here, the area around Skiles walkway has been known for nothing other than a construction area, but now finally signs of progress are showing. However, my excitement was short lived, mainly because the removing of the fences around part of the construction area was only for a day.
What I mean by this is, sadly, they put up another fence. Luckily, this one is short enough so you can see the beautiful green area perfectly, which you can’t actually set foot on. I suppose I’m just anxious to get this construction done, because if I had been able to cut through that small area, my walk time from Chemistry to English would drop by a good thirty to fifty seconds! This might not seem like a lot, but I am an engineer; not being able to take that hypotenuse just kills me.

-Taylor N.

Sprawling Atlanta

I feel a change of topic may be necessary... Recently, I ventured deep into the city of Atlanta to Underground and the surrounding area. Being a young white male and visiting an area of town that is not friendly to whites, you're never short of a few cursing homeless people, or a few (dozen) beggars, or even a few salesmen trying to barter off their belongings for spare change. Quite frankly, going to this awesome part of town at night, alone, with a camera to take pictures scares the crap out of me. I, as i am sure most of you would, found myself constantly checking my pockets whenever one of downtown Atlanta's fine homeless individuals would get too close. I wish I could feel more comfortable in the city; all it has to offer in entertainment, job opportunities, sights to see, seem to go uncovered because the beaten trail to all of these amenities has become covered in dangerous, unsafe activity.
Over the last thirty years the concentration of drugs, alcohol, and abuse in general has drastically increased which I have a feeling DIRECTLY correlates to the unsafe nature of the entire are around Underground. Any shady corner or dark alley, at night at least, has drug dealers and people selling everything from sunglasses to license plates. The area of Five Points and Underground is becoming the inner city nothingness with regards to the effects of suburban sprawl and expansion. The once thriving concentration of population has become a mere attraction to the public, if that. Sure, the shopping may sustain the local economy, but the hole-in-the-wall restaurants and otherwise run-down buildings detract from the area as a whole. I feel that Five Points and Underground alike, are turning for the worse...

Jack

Buses and Safety seem to be a hot topic

When it comes to the bus system here at Georgia Tech, I cannot help but agree more with Taylor. I have nothing to do but complain when it comes to the random "luck" based system of the Stingers. Even though they have this NextBus system that approximates where and when the stinger will be coming to the stop, it is amazingly inconsistent. Some days it is exactly on, but others, I find myself outside of the studio at the Klaus bus stop, expecting for a bus to come in 3 minutes and it arrives in no less than 15!! I could've walked or called the stingerette within the time elapsed from the expected arrival to the real arrival. I don't see why we can't just have the buses on a time schedule! It seems they are supposed to be running some type of system seeing how the bus drivers don't care to sit at a stop for 5 to 7 minutes writing on their thick silver clipboards that contain the secret to their terribly run system. Either way, I can never come out of my dorm expecting a bus; i always expect it to be driving down the street as I arrive because that's just my luck and it never ceases to prove me wrong. I never have the certainty of catching a 9:30 bus to make it early to my english class. In fact, one time I was out waiting on the bus for 25 minutes in the morning while four buses of each route are supposed to be running. And to complement the inconsistent busing system, the drivers aren't all that hot either. I know they see people running up to the bus and banging on the window, but they will act like they are in a rush or on a so-called "time schedule" and won't open the door for them! Even if they are just pulling up to a red light at Ferst Dr. and Atlantic. (as you can see I have had some bad experiences).

I must abruptly stop my rant about the bus system and continue on to the topic about safety. I couldn't help but remember the tragic Bluffton University crash. Often when talking about safety, one thinks about the safety of the pedestrians from the flying tons of metal called cars. Yet, drivers should not be ignored. On March 2, 2007, a bus carrying 33 members of the baseball team from Bluffton University to their tournament in Sarasota, Florida accidentally entered the left HOV lane exit at highway speed. Not realizing that the highway was ending, because it was poorly marked, the bus crashed over the edge of this exit onto Interstate-75. Cars might be the source of danger for pedestrians, but poor signals are the source of danger for automobiles on the road. This video assesses the disconcerting signs that may have factored into the crash.



Buses and safety...geez big issue.

Jasmine Kent

Safety Issues

The prospect of safety for pedestrians is a very important part of life on campus. I definitely agree with Jack, in the fact that east campus feels very unsafe. Maybe it is the stigma that I associate with east campus, because it is closer to downtown Atlanta. Living on west campus however, I actually feel much safer. I don’t really know why this is, I think it is just because west campus distances me enough from the MARTA stop, I feel like (this may sound bad) I probably would not be the first target. Thinking about this, there was a big crime streak last year on west campus, yet I don’t really feel unsafe.

Funny thing about safety, when I read the beginning of the blog post, I thought immediately of traffic safety for some reason, so I think that’s what I’m going to focus on today. So I’m sure everyone has seen the traffic signs “STOP for all pedestrians.” I am not really addressing the cars here; for the most part I find that drivers are pretty considerate to pedestrians, the busses could do a better, but they have to do a bit more to break so we can let it slide. What I find interesting is the fact that cyclists apply as pedestrians also. I say this because they really aren’t supposed to apply as pedestrians. Cyclists are actually supposed to follow the rules of the road, as if they were a motorist. Yet constantly I see kids on bikes riding across the sidewalks, in many cases speeding across them at 20+ miles per hour, once someone actually sped in front of a car that had to slam on their breaks. I honestly don’t think I should have to dodge bicycles on the sidewalk on the way to class. Also, the slivers I read saying “I’m on a bike you should yield to me” just add to the disdain I have for bikers who ride on the sidewalk.

-Taylor N.

Caution on Campus

Georgia Tech, centered in the bustling city of Atlanta, sees the movement of thousands of people, cars, buses, police, animals, and bikers every day. As a frequent pedestrian on campus I can honestly say I no longer feel safe on campus, especially at night. The endless activity extends, more often than not, late into the night. The recent criminal activity we are all aware of on 10th street, and likewise south of campus on north avenue, has instilled a sense of uncomfortable hostility in those that live anywhere close to the area. From stabbing to breaking into residences the crime surrounding our campus continually worsens. Personally, I'm worried that the problems will soon penetrate the safety net that encompasses the Tech campus. What happens to us when the fights are brought to our doorstep? Can we trust the police who, try as they might, cant watch everywhere all the time?

This is a map of the crime in and around Atlanta. Please notice the dark red area is almost directly on top of Tech Campus...

I feel as though proper efforts to prevent this activity have to be instated and initiated. Just last night I happened to be off campus with some friends of mine celebrating a birthday and on our return trip to campus we passed our fair share of homeless, begging, dirty people. That much I can handle and understand, after all, this is Atlanta. What I can't really handle is the sight of these same people on our campus; ON the campus! I saw these people in the quad in front of my residence hall. There exists a point at which the environs of the city become too close to our secluded patch of safety. I think the activity during the day, public bus service, car services and the like, some how promotes this trespassing activity in the night.

Safety is essential in such an open, public setting. I need to feel safe while I continue to attend Georgia Tech.

Jack

Walk... Or Else!

So for this week I think I'll bring up another frustration of mine. This particular frustration happens to be the bussing system here on campus. Don't get me wrong, I have no problem with the bus drivers, or the buses for that matter. What really gets me about this, is I feel tricked, duped, decieved! At FASET, the bus system was portrayed as a good alternative for walking, however after some first hand experience, I have discovered this is not true.
I will describe the incident that propelled me to this realization to all of you.
Early this past week, I was running a bit late in relation to my normal schedule. I packed up my things quickly, and hurried out of the door. As I'm walking along the street, a blue route pulls up and I think to myself "oh I'm going to be terribly clever and hop onto this bus and get to where I need to go quickly, and save some energy." Eight minutes later said bus had not left, and I was on track to be late for one of my attendance based classes. While I understand that the world does not center around me, and the busses can't cater to everyone's needs, I think it is ridiculous that I am able to walk across campus faster than it takes a bus to go across campus.

At a certain point, the busses here cease to be an efficient means of transportation, but an equally efficient alternative that caters to people who (no offense to any who ride the busses) are lazy. Honestly, if you leave at the same time and get to the destination at the same time, why ride the bus? You get the exercise that everyone raves about, and sometimes you even get to your destination FASTER!
Granted, many of these points don't apply to destinations such as Atlantic Station. However I feel that the bus system forces me to walk (which admittedly might not be a bad thing). I have no problem leaving a few minutes early, but if I'm running late, just the option to get there quicker would be nice.

-Taylor N.

More on Induced Traffic

Taylor, I understand your viewpoint on how widening lanes will help traffic, but I don't think that Suburban Nation is totally wrong. I think their standpoint is more on the fact that widening lanes is still only temporary. As suburbia keeps growing and more and more people keep moving out into the suburbs, that 18% will be absorbed by the new citizens. Then what about the extra traffic they create and the solution for the traffic relief the new suburbs will need as a whole. Widening the lanes isn't a long term resolution for traffic, which is correct in my opinion. Yet, Suburban Nation lacks a quick solution for traffic which is why I believe widening lanes has been used so often because it is the only quick and plausible solution at the time being. Their desire to retro-fit suburbia is obviously their solution, but until politicians and American citizens can be persuaded to become active in this movement, it cannot be used to relieve traffic.

Since we've been talking about traffic though, I found an article on it that could show us what some specific places are doing for traffic relief in their cities. This article called The Charter for New York City Traffic Relief, written by the Citywide Coalition for Traffic Relief, analyzes possible solutions for traffic relief in the Bronx, Manhattan, New York, and Brooklyn. Two of the five solutions they presented interested me. One was the widening of sidewalks, bus lanes, and bicycle lanes to limit and even discourage driving. They desire to increase pedestrian crosswalk time and, "Specifically, the city should reclaim street space for a new generation of arterial street greenways and exclusive bus-ways, and adopt a citywide blueprint to reshape key streets and squares into pedestrian paradises." This way they create a specific focal point for traffic relief uniquely facilitates traffic in each area. One general rule is made and then adapted to the conditions in each area. The second was a controversial rule that I had not seen brought up in Suburban Nation or any blog yet. They introduced a thing called "Congestion Pricing" that charges motorists for the privilege of driving on New York's most congested streets. A precedent for this solution was London's use of the rule and the 30% traffic reduction following its implementation. It would reduce traffic and provide needed funding for transit improvements.

Google wouldn't let me embed the live traffic map, but here is a map of the Bronx that you can change to a live traffic map and even choose the time of day that you want to predict the traffic for.

View Larger Map

As for me, I think that an overall remodeling of our communities is needed if we want long term traffic calming. We can't have a car-run environment, but changing that is the big challenge. For now, widening roads seems to work temporarily, but in the end we will have these big airport looking runways as our highways drowning out space for the human habitat. Architects, land developers, politicians, and citizens themselves must all work together realizing we need to change the way we live for the greater good of us all (that statement reminds me a tad of the novel 1984 :0 ).

Jasmine

Induced Blogging

Taylor, I completely agree with you about the induced traffic logic. The numbers prove your point to a great extent. However, for the sake of argument, I think the point that Suburban Nation is trying to convey relates to the fact that as a road increases in size so will its numbers; we can all agree on this. I think what the authors were trying to get across is that that increase, regardless of size, quantity, numbers, whatever you want to call it, is the failure. The fact that there is an increase at all fuels their argument saying that increases in general have a negative effect on the area. This concept relates to their other topic dealing with the actual addition of new roads; same end result. As more roads are made people end up driving on them even MORE than the pre-road period. In this video I found people are literally just driving around for the fun of it. Watch and notice all the construction, road widening, over passes, cross roads and through streets. We just love taking up space in this country... Dan Ryan Expressway

So... I don't let go of arguments very often.

So for this week, I would like to revisit a topic that was brought up in Suburban Nation, and discussed in class. This is the topic of induced traffic. Typically when something is discussed in class, most people will forget the discussion, or leave it as is. I am not most people in this case. Suburban Nation claims that widening roads is actually an inefficient way of dealing with traffic. The “shocking” statistic that they give is that traffic increases by 9% for every 10% in widening. The usage of this statistic is peculiar to me, because with basic math you can prove the efficiency of widening roads. As Kunstler stated, our favorite version of information is through numbers! So let’s do some number crunching. Lets assume you have a five lane road. Using this statistic, let’s say that on a normal day during rush hour, this five lane road processes 100 cars per minute. Then, say we increase the width of the road by 20% (increase in one lane).This would allow the road to process 120 cars per minute. This being said, the traffic would increase by 18%, increasing the cars per minute to 118 cars per minute. Two things can be said about this: For each individual the speed through which you go through this particular road would increase by 1.7% when the road is widened, also the overall efficiency of the road increases because it processes 18 more cars per minute. So depending on how you interpret Suburban Nation’s claim that widening roads decreases efficiency, whether it be the view of a total standpoint or the standpoint of a singular person, I believe both points are non-valid. This is because for a singular person the traffic speed actually increases, if only by a little. This still contrasts the inefficient standpoint that Suburban Nation describes. Then with the overall picture, which is mainly the engineering standpoint, an 18% increase in efficiency is actually gained. I feel that Suburban Nation does not have a valid argument with their induced traffic theory.
-Taylor Niehaus

Making Suburbia More Livable

I chose to follow up on the post Dr. Hoefer had on his blog simply because the topic interested me. Refurbishing an old community in hope of recreating a sense of pride and life in the area attracts more than the attention of the locals. A plan, so in depth and thought out, such as this one appeals to anyone remotely associated with city planning, development, modeling, or anything of the sort.

The main objective with the Mableton "makeover" seems to be solely based on spacial goals. The author(s) continually focus on the placement of the new buildings. The residential housing cannot conflict with the apartments or town-homes but needs to be near the retail so the sidewalks aren't wasted and the public transport has somewhere to go. So many different aspects were, to me, unheard of before reading this article. The content does its work by attracting and holding the attention of those interested in the plans. However the main drawing point to the article itself is that the author(s) include numerous maps:

and plans:

to help describe and show their plans to the readers. This use of multimedia intermingled with the text furthers the spatial plans the author(s) are trying to relay. I feel that this multimodal use of images and text to convey a message to the readers prompted a more than acceptable result; I was hooked and remained interested for the whole read-through.

This reading, much like Jasmine's about Houston sprawl, talked about expansion and greenery as well as internal reconstruction and redesign. As Houston continues to sprawl out of control in expansion the town of Mableton in Cobb County plans to focus more on a revitalization of pre-existing establishments and roadways. The idea of community that I can gather from this article centers around the availability and convenience of common amenities: healthcare, social activity, grocery stores, restaurants, green space, etc. The heads of design for this project seem to base the entirety of the plans on confinement. The closer aspects of a growing community are, the closer the community will be. It only makes sense, right? I agree with the statements made by these plans. I think that community, to a certain degree, is based upon the distance each aspect happens to be from any other given aspect. How close and tight-knit an area or town becomes should depend mostly on the physical distances more so than the emotional ties or the logical connections. After all, the physicality of any aspect of life consistently tops the charts for connectivity between people, and in this case, the community.

Sprawl In Houston

I read the NPR blog on Houston Sprawl. It seems that their idea of a good neighborhood is sort of ambiguous. It is leaning towards the traditional side, mainly because of the common disadvantages of sprawl, but in the interview, they continue to point out the perks of living in Houston. "Why would the average Joe come to Houston?" they ask. The answer is that it provides the average middle income citizen with a high quality of life that is, of course, auto-centric. The average commute is twenty-seven minutes, no state income taxes are required, and inexpensive restaurants can be found at every corner. The only thing that doesn't appeal to the interviewer and the interviewee's liking is the physical and environmental aspect of Houston. The ridiculous sprawl, that has nowhere to go but outward, has put Houston in the top 5 worst cities for carbon emissions. Not to far from the norm of a sprawling city. Houston encompasses 620 square miles between its two beltways and third under construction.

The underlying question is can Houston maintain its character and appeal to the average citizen as it attempts to go green? Going green would mean it needs to downsize, but its auto-centric lifestyle that provides the middle class with such a high quality of life would be sacrificed. NPR's maintained a neutral stance on this issue by cleverly providing two sides of the argument and by simply reporting what is going on. Yet, I can infer that their overall position is one of downsizing the sprawl because of its degenerative affect on the environment. The developers might think that their development has no bounds because of the unregulated housing market, but land has its limit, and once it is reached, it will be too late; we will all suffer for it. Edward Glaeser referred to Houston as, "the great growing region of the Sunbelt on steroids," which is not to far from the truth. The city's character and appeal is one to be kept, but not its habit of swallowing up land like its a buffet.

This blog was very interesting to me because it presented itself its information on Houston sprawl in many different effective modes. Some people use multi-modality to present various information about the same topic, but the NPR blog uniquely presented the same information in three different modes; one, a written article, two, a recorded and transcripted interview, and three, a labeled map of their trip through Houston. The dots in the map contain separate interviews and pictures of each place they stopped. Also, their observation and primary sources enhanced their logos that wove itself in the fabric of the article. After I was done listening to and reading the article, I had complete trust in all they were saying. I would recommend you listen, its short sweet and to the point.

Also an image I enjoyed was the Houston imitation of Mount Rushmore, more commonly known as Mount Rush-hour.

Library Resources: Never get what you expect

Unlike Jasmine, I do not have a very extensive knowledge of the databases, nor a concrete idea of what I would want to search. So I went to the databases, and decided to choose some keywords to find an interesting article.

I searched the words "Suburban Homes" and "bizarre," expecting to find an article detailing some interesting architecture in suburban areas. What i found instead is this article. This of course is not on bizarre suburban architecture. What it is on however, are a series of bizarre and brutal crimes tht occured over the years in Long Island, New York. I was somewhat dissapointed when I found this, because I was fully expecting to find some interesting looking homes. However, I remembered that the assignment said "make it fun and interesting." In my personal opinion, this is at least very interesting.
I guess what this taught me is that I probably should use more refined methods for searching, unless what I am looking for is a random article that has just a little bit to do with a topic. Typically for a research project, this would not be the best approach, but I figured it might be appropriate for this particlar assignment.

-Taylor Niehaus

Library: Course Reserves

Normally when I use the library, I use it electronically or I use the one in the Architecture building, since I am an architecture major. In our amazingly long studio class, we are often assigned readings accompanied with whatever other homework we were given that day. They are many excerpts from books by renowned artists and their insights on the various facets of drawing. These readings are often found in the Ereserves. First, you go to the Ereserves home page, which I just hyperlinked, then you click "Search Course Reserves", and from there, you can search your reserve either by page, department, or instructor. The easiest way that I have discovered to find the desired reserve is searching by instructor. From there, you find your instructor from the drop list given, click search, and it will have a table of the course names, course number, section number, department, instructor, term, and year. You choose your course and will be immediately lead to all the reserves that this instructor has so you can download the pdf and continue your learning! The first few problems I had with this was finding the instructor and entering the course page password to access the readings, but that was given by my TA. So if you are going to use this, get this information from your professor or TA first and then it will be totally easy.

Jasmine Kent

Reynolds Town

Reynolds Town is one of the oldest black neighborhoods in Atlanta. Efficacious in providing a welcoming feeling and sense of community, Reynolds town combines traditional neighborhood qualities with urban structure. Lofts, houses, apartments, and even abandoned houses all reside in this area. Houses range from $70,000 to $300,000, the lofts range from $100,000 to $290,000, and the apartments in a similar range, except according to months. The streets are very narrow with the common parking maneuver being the parallel park. There are many community centers, small "mom and pop" businesses, restaurants, and even hair salons within the neighborhood. They seem to be camouflage, as if houses themselves. There are big parks, Lang Carson Park and Cabbage Town Park, where annual resident friendly events are held. For example, the Chomp and Stomp and the annual Wheel Barrel Festival. They are open to all ages and entertain all. It takes approximately thirty minutes to walk the whole neighborhood, but its easy to find yourself if you get lost because there are no winding roads. The people are very friendly and sociable. I found myself talking to a complete stranger as I walked by his driveway where he paused in the act of washing his car. Two intriguing things I saw was a well in someone's front yard and a tire swing hanging off of a tree. I didn't even know the well was allowed and the tire swing brought me back to the good old days as I reminisced being a carefree child again. Here take a look at Reynolds Town for yourself.


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Little Five Points

So for my neighborhood I chose Little Five Points. Honestly, I do not know much about it because I happened to make a crucial error; I didnt go to LITTLE Five Points. I just stayed at Five Points, which is next to Underground. From what I saw there I can only hope that Little Five is nothing like it.
I did happen to go to google maps after I realized my mistake and I used the road man thing that takes you down to ground level so the user can look around, rotate, zoom, move. I'm not sure if that counts as an observation, but I can tell you that Little Five is actually very similar to my hometown, Norcross, GA. There are little shops along all the streets with restaurants and banks scattered throughout. Where there are people, mainly in the downtown area, nearly everyone travels on foot which allows for real-life interaction and relations. From looking around walking a little on my own I especially notice the layout and roads in the area. You may expect, as I did, that the layout would be in a grid pattern; not in Little five. The roads converge to a central point in the heart of the town allowing for more of a wedge pattern that provides a more open feel and interesting aesthetic appeal.
Taylor, I believe you are onto something in your noticing the trees down the sidewalks and created shade. More communities, around Atlanta to say the least, have started to adopt this; Little Five is no exception. I highly recommend a trip out there if you want a relaxing afternoon with some friends, sit at a local coffee shop, watch the world pass by, basically whatever catches your fancy. for your consideration:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=puAas4Ek-5U

Field Research Seems a Lot Like Going for a Stroll

So this past weekend we had to do our "field research" on the town we chose for our project. I chose Decatur for this task, as I had read a blog about the town, and many of my friends who actually live in Georgia say it is a pretty cool place to go.
So on Labor Day I walk on over to east campus, cross the bridge and walk down the street to the MARTA station, fully expecting to become hopelessly lost the second I entered the underground train system. My brother is partly to blame for this paranoia as I heard the horror story from my mom about how he went to get his phone fixed and ended up going in the wrong direction. Regardless, the paranoia was vastly unnecessary, because as it turns out… MARTA is very manageable even for a first timer like me.
Ironically, this whole time I was worried that I was going to become lost in MARTA, when it turns out the first time I actually found myself lost was when I was in Decatur! They do have a town map directly outside of MARTA, but I honestly had no idea what direction I was pointing, so it was more or less useless to me. So, I picked a direction, and walked. I can’t exactly say how far I walked, because I was captivated by the residential area of Decatur into which I had aimlessly wandered. Trees lined the street, and provided shade for any aimless wanderer such as myself (which is good because it was hot). The houses seemed to be, well… hard to describe really. The best word I can use to describe the arrangement of houses is “jumbled.” It was as if someone took a random collection of houses from a random collection of neighborhoods, and just assembled them completely randomly.
Soon after that, I found that I had been on the same street for a while, so I decided to see what “left” and “right” had to offer. I picked a road that had a sidewalk, and turned left, but not before I wrote down the street name I had followed from MARTA. I got to see the sights of residential Decatur, the high school, the middle school, two guys getting pulled over for speeding, you know, the regular.
All in all, I found the town of Decatur to be a very quaint and pleasing area to walk around. Birds were chirping, the sun was shining and the roads were close to abandoned. One thing I do regret about my trip is that I went on Labor Day, so none of the stores were open to be investigated.

-Taylor Niehaus

Drive A Faster Car

This blog is about a variety of things going on in the Atlanta Area that many people don't know much about if they are reading mainstream newspapers or sticking to the AJC. Drive a Faster Car focuses this particular blog on upcoming and exclusive events going on in Atlanta. Because of what is included in this blog, the tone is very upbeat because the reader is very anxious to write down whatever they find interesting in their calendar so they can get out and enjoy their community. The exception to this tone was when they gave word of Creative Loafing, a very popular newspaper, filing for Bankruptcy. Creative Loafing gave people the news without looking like a formal news report; many got jobs from it, entertainment information, cars, food, etc. There was a wide range of events posted in this blog like the annual soapbox derby at piedmont park, the Castleberry Hill Art Stroll and the Summer Shade Festival for people of all ages. At the Festival, there is music, food from local restaurants, artist shows, story tellers, jugglers, and sing-a-longs all held at Atlanta's oldest public park. A great social event overall. For the adults, there is Corks&Forks which is a food and wine tasting event, totally free, to exploit Atlanta's top restaurants! Music Mondays was also a very interesting part of this blog. On September 3rd at Greenbriar mall there is a meet and greet with rapper Fabulous. Also, an international band tour was introduced and they included a hit song called Living Well is the Best Revenge, Living Well Is The Best Revenge
. One thing I had never heard of was De Lama Lamina. It is a Matthew Barney movie that is not available on DVD, in theatre, OR on netflix! Yet there was a 50 seat showing at Whitespace Aug. 28 that is only $5 and you sign up for it online. Excuse my slang but that's freshh.

I would come back to this blog if I was bored or just wondering what's going on in Atlanta that I don't know about, or that many people don't know about. The fact that many of Atlanta's citizens don't know about the events going on within it slowly create cracks in the community just because there's no interaction. Horehled, writer of this blog, very much accomplished her goal of keeping Atlantians informed of entertainment for all ages to keep a tight thread in the community of the city. The embedding of videos, widgets, and related links just added to the plethora of information already posted in the blog.

<3 Jasmine Kent

Buford Highway Dining

This blog is actually very interesting the way it's set up. While the analysis and focus is supposedly on Buford Highway's fine dining establishments, the author of the blog includes places outside of Buford Highway and some of them aren't restaurants. The food inputs come from carts in the markets, to carts in the malls; from sit-down places out in the streets, to chain restaurants that stand alone. Along with his analysis of the establishments he has included numerous pictures of the delicious food, most of which are taken by a seven-year-old photographer. Even though they are taken by such a young kid they thoroughly back up the opinions that the author provides. However, I think my favorite aspect of the blog is the fact that the author, while analyzing all of these places in a professional way, interjects his own flavor and comments on his own analysis via parentheses. By commenting on his own analysis his credibility immediately rises in my opinion. He could simply write what he feels and be done but because he adds the side comments I believe what I am reading truly shows every opinion he has about the place; both the official and unofficial opinions.

Most people create blogs to grab the attention of other bloggers. While this particular blog caught my attention because, well, i like food, I noticed that on the right side of the blog that there are several links to other blogs also related to food in the Atlanta area. I found that, in a way, to be honorable. By relaying me as a blogger to other blogs I further trust this person's opinion.

Jack Eigel

In these pictures I feel the diversity of dining on Buford Highway is truly represented. Please notice the use of about twelve different languages and cultural representation.

Neighborhood Nuances

I find this blog to be very interesting because before I read the first 3 chapters of Suburban Nation and watched "Blueprint America", I thought that this way of living, commonly known as sprawl now, was just a Texas thing. I was born in Ohio, moved around a bit (military brat), and ended up in San Antonio, TX where I basically spent most of my life. When my parents retired and we moved off base is when I first experience "sprawl". While looking for houses we moved further and further away from my school. The first neighborhoods we saw, my parents complained of the close proximity of the houses; you could literally jump your fence and be in the next door neighbor's yard! Then they complained of the similarity, or more so the repetition, of the same house over and over again, only to be differentiated by the arrangement of rooms inside, if that much. So as we went in search of our houses, we ventured further and further out, very much like Suburban Nation describes the origin of suburbs. As we ventured further, the houses became bigger, more spaced out, and more expensive. The people became less diverse to being completely homogeneously caucasian, with the exception of maybe 3 families. Trust me, I counted. Not only was there a difference in ethnicity, but also age. I was so opposed to moving where they were considering because I couldn't find one person my age to converse with or hang out with. Eventually, the time was up for us to be moved out of our base housing, so we had to purchase a home quick. My parents chose the house because of its space from the houses around it and the promise of a rising property value since everyone, well, the more affluent caucasians, here and there a family of asian origin or african american, were constantly moving out further from the inner city. I stopped inviting friends over because they would complain of how far I am, I didn't get out much unless it was for school or a sport because I didn't have a car at the time, and I didn't make any friends my age because everyone was either 50+ years, or 3- years. I was ecstatic when I got my car, even though I had to fill it up approximately every 2 weeks or less. In the suburbs, there was no form of public transportation, actually, I didn't even know about it unless I ventured downtown, where I saw my first bus around the age of 10. The first time I rode a bus was when I went to Chicago, IL for a gymnastics meet; I loved it, contrary to my mother who complained the whole time, but that's besides the point. Since the area was just in the beginning stages of development, the 2-lane road, 3009, got me to the highway in 2 minutes time, all the time. Yet, as more people moved out, more homes came and with that more neighborhoods and with that more businesses also. Once Super Wal-mart established itself on 3009, it was a wrap--they began construction to widen 3009 for all the businesses that came to surround Wal-mart. My 2 minute drive became 10 minutes on a normal day and a whopping 20 with traffic. You see, 3009 connects to IH-35, which Suburban Nation would describe as the "collector road". I needed to get there or 1604 loop to at least take me to IH-35 to get where ever I was going. After this disastrous phenomenon, my family and I did nothing but complain of on-going development. I missed the beautiful, flat, grassy terrain that would extend out into the horizon, it was one of the reasons I fell in love with Texas. The big open spaces always got me. But now, where ever you saw open space, I can guarantee you there would be development there in, oh, about 2 weeks minimum. The most common development was housing and strip malls, but all that meant to the common citizen was more traffic. I thought this was just a Texas thing because we have so much space, it's almost like "why not?", but now that I see it as a system of living, I don't see how we can do that all over the nation. Not every state is Texas and not every city can just continue to expand itself without bound or consequences. I envy Jack a tad because I couldn't walk anywhere. I can relate to Taylor's post when he says he was unable, "to run/bike to anywhere but inside the neighborhood". Even to the one or two places that I could walk, there was no sidewalk. As a driver, I always complained about the bikers because we had to go around them solely because they didn't have a biking lane! If you weren't in a car in San Antonio, you were probably in the most dangerous position that you could be in. If cars and traffic weren't an issue to time or damage of the environment, I'd be perfectly happy with sprawl, but since they are, I can't help but be annoyed at how I have to live if I don't have a car. There is such sprawl in San Antonio, that I have forgotten the downtown that it moved away from, since sprawl is partially defined as growing out of and away from the inner city. Like Denver in "Blueprint America", we have an inner and outter loop for our city, except they are all finished. No one is against building anything new in San Antonio, as long as there's land, there's opportunity. I guess sprawl isn't just a compliment to the saying, "everything is bigger in Texas".

--Jasmine Kent

So It Is What It Is

We can change whatever we want to later on. But I figured Having something was better than nothing.