In episode three of the nineteenth season of the TV show South Park, the mayor of South Park introduces a plan for SoDoSoPa (SOuth of DOwntown of SOuth PArk), an arts and entertainment district to be built in the town’s ghetto in order to make the town more “progressive”. One of town’s poorer children, Kenny McCormick, angrily tells his father what the town plans to do to their area. The city puts up advertisements to attract people to the district. It “accidentally” shows scenes of the McCormicks, who cannot afford any of the new delights of SoDoSoPa, expressing disgust. One ad for SoDoSoPa’s living areas hilariously mocks them: “These finely appointed residences all feature state of the art finishes and balconies with views of historic Kenny’s
Hines’ article, though not possessing a clear purpose, provides a thorough history of the entire Elysian Park Heights project. He summarizes Chavez Ravine, the architects and their vision, and the downfall of the project due to fears of socialism and a desire for baseball. Hines’ writing effectively triggers a number of emotions, mainly anger and shock that the situation took place. While he provides no introduction to the reader, by the conclusion, Hines definitely provides reason for response.
Roder, David, and Spielman, Fran. “Condo, town houses planned near Cabrini-Green.” Chicago Sun Times. 30 May 2002.
In “Part One: The Negro and the City,” Osofsky describes the early Black neighborhoods of New York City, in the lower parts of Manhattan: from Five Points, San Juan Hill, and the Tenderloin. He describes the state of Black community of New York in the antebellum and postbellum, and uses the greater United States, including the Deep South, as his backdrop for his microanalysis of the Blacks in New York. He paints a grim picture of little hope for Black Americans living in New York City, and reminds the reader that despite emancipation in the north long before the Civil War, racism and prejudices were still widespread in a city where blacks made up a small portion of the population.
The small river that divides the Washington Heights and Harlem from the South Bronx area, makes up "one of the largest racially segregated concentrations of poor people in our nation" (Kozol 3). This segregation increases the inequality problems by overpopulating the inner-cities that do not offer as many employment opportunities. As a result of the inequalities in this district, the children are not allowed as many opportunities as other fortunate individuals may receive growing up in a separate society. Kozol seems to think that the odds of these South Bronx children obtaining wealth and moving out of the area are ...
Chavez Ravine was a self-sufficient and tight-knit community, a rare example of small town life within a large urban metropolis, but no matter how much the inhabitants loved thei...
The participants of “Sidewalk” are Howard, Conrad, Jerome, Shorty, Joe Garbage, Butterroll, Alice, Ron, Jamaane, Marvin, Keith, Grady, Ishmael, and Mudrick and other vendors on Sixth Avenue in Greenwich Village who struggle to with their economic status, on how they struggled in the wake of new economic era and political realities.
Amusing the Million: Coney Island at the Turn of the Century. By Kasson, John F. (New York: Hill & Wang, 2002. Acknowledgements, contents, tables and figures, introduction, notes, bibliography, index. $17.00 paperback)
The picture of Brooklyn presented by McCourt is almost cruelly miserable. In the first few chapters of the text there are moments of gentle humor and irony. For example, franks full immersion baptism when his mother dropped him into the font seemed to be a protestant symbol to the family. McCourt's humor has two main sources: childish innocence, including school boy humor, and the funny situations to which poverty can reduce people.
Peering in from the eastern border of St. James Park, in the city of San José, you begin to get an essence of American life. From the upper echelons, to the lowly scum of society, St. James Park is known for its diversity. With the church at your back, you can observe the people pacing the station, glancing at their cell phones every other second as they wait for the train to arrive. An elderly man takes a leisurely stroll with the support of his cane. Kids playing soccer score between goal post marked by homeless bunker tree forts. Police reprimand a vagrant man for being naked while changing at his park bench. A used dirty tissue and old worn-in hooker boots lay carelessly on a picnic table inside the deserted playground area. The thugs make a quick score of some coke from their local street pharmacist. In the distance, bordering the western end of the park, are the steps leading to the Superior Court House: an everlasting symbol of justice and security presiding over American life. The frequenters of St. James Park are a part of a unique and complex subculture, in and of itself.
The Westcotts, who “[have] satisfactory average of income, endeavor, and respectability that is reached by the statistical reports”, “have two young children” and “go to the theatre on an average of 10.3 times a year” (Cheever, 246) are an allusion to the postwar nuclear family ideal that has a decent and wealthy life. Moreover, “Irene is proud of her living room, she chooses its furnishings and colors as carefully as she chooses her clothes” and describes the radio as an ugly “gumwood cabinet” (Cheever, 247) insinuating that the radio does not fit with the living room. This illustrates that the Westcotts’ living room looks gorgeous and they look like they are living a decent, respectable, and wealthy life that others
New Urbanism is “family values architecture” of middle-class conservatism (Rees; 103). The simulated island portrayed in this film is certainly that. There are no distinctions of citizen wealth; everyone has a job except for the father who is initially portrayed as a wildly uncharacteristic homeless person. There are even an inordinate number of street sweepers and window washers. The costumes are decidedly 1950’s conservative values in style. These symbols are as stereotypical as the architecture, invoking a sense of pretense rather than the social transformation New Urbanists advance as “new” and therefore “good”. The New Urbanist outlook is one calling for an attractive, usable and democratic public commun...
In contrast, the other houses in the neighborhood show signs of economic downturn and poverty. The houses show signs of wear and tear and are beginning to deteriorate. The lawns are filled with weeds and the sod is patchy. The gutters to the house in front of Walt’s are falling down. Quality
Sociology student Sudhir Venkatesh sets out on a journey within the Chicago housing projects with a quest of finding out how it feels to be black and poor. Sudhir was an Indian native from a middle class Californian family and he was unfamiliar with the black culture within Chicago. In his book Gang Leader for a Day, he tells of his sociology research within one of the roughest housing projects in Chicago. Sudhir starts his research by talking to a few elderly gentlemen he played chess with at the park. His conversation with them led him to the Robert Taylor Housing Projects which was described as one of the worst Ghettos in America. His research began the first day he arrived with his clipboard of questionnaires ready to ask the question, “How does it feel to be black and poor?” His intent was to interview a few families within the projects and then go home but something unexpected happened. He ended up spending much longer gaining an insight of the lives of poor blacks, gangs, and drug dealers.
My childhood was a playground for imagination. Joyous nights were spent surrounded by family at my home in Brooklyn, NY. The constantly shaded red bricks of my family’s unattached town house located on West Street in Gravesend, a mere hop away from the beach and a short walk to the commotion of Brooklyn’s various commercial areas. In the winter, all the houses looked alike, rigid and militant, like red-faced old generals with icicles hanging from their moustaches. One townhouse after the other lined the streets in strict parallel formation, block after block, interrupted only by my home, whose fortunate zoning provided for a uniquely situa...
Sanderson told Miller, "I 'd like every New Yorker to know that they live in a place that had this fabulous ecology. That New York isn 't just a place of fabulous art, music, culture, and communications, but also a place of amazing natural potential--even if you have to look a little harder here" (6). The audience does not have to focus on New York’s natural potential, it could be anywhere. This allows the audience to relate by using their own imaginations. Miller uses phenomenal imagery to compliment his writing. A photo of a beaver and elk naturally spending their time beside a creek, long before the same spot transformed into Times Square, shocks the audience into realizing that this chaotic metropolitan was once a peaceful home to