INTRODUCTION
“Probably no other city in the world has a street or square as sufficient unto itself and so largely a separate civic entity as is Times Square.”
– The New York Times, Sunday December 16, 1906.
Times Square is located at the junction of Broadway (now a pedestrian plaza) and 7th avenue and stretching from West 42nd to West 47th streets. Preceding to the American Revolution and afterwards, it belonged to John Morin Scott, a general that served under George Washington who had a manor house on today’s 43rd street. The house was surrounded by fields used for farming and horse breeding. It was called Longacre Square in 1872 after it became the center of New York’s carriage industry. Adolph Ochs, a New York Times publisher moved the newspaper’s operations to a new skyscraper in 1904 and then persuaded Mayor McClellan Jr. to construct a subway station there, and then the area was renamed Times Square.
The above quote from the New York Times can only be said to have increased in validity today. Times Square, regardless of its size, has economic, social, and psychological relevance of great magnitude. And in the following sections Times Square would be analyzed from these disciplines while examining relevant concepts that come into play.
PSYCHOLOGY
Times Square finds itself in a city whose complexity in culture and spontaneity in character, often leaving its visitors as mere spectators, contrasts sharply with the perspective of an organized tourist industry. However, the creation of some destinations from scratch, completely repurposed districts, and the organization of the chaotic life in New York into something safe and consumable have no doubt made Times Square a place to visit as well as ridding it of many neg...
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...tarbucks too got protested against when it attempted to replace Little Rickie. On Grand Street, Dunkin Donuts and 7-11 are being fought against. Below is a table from Center for an Urban Future showing mass proliferation of New York City by chains. Another thing worthy of note is that the proliferation by chains leads to a situation where decisions that affect the community are taken by people who are not so committed to the locality in their boardrooms.
Personally, I believe the way to solve is that local efforts made to stand against the chains should be complemented by government intervention. Government should create policies that favor local communities and their businesses as they are naturally better custodians of their culture and place. It should not be forgotten that in a lot of cases it is this culture that attracted tourists in the first place.
When people think of Bedford Stuyvesant, Brooklyn, they think of crime and violence within the neighborhood. I myself have thought this about Bedford Stuyvesant before I did research and actually visited the neighborhood for myself. Bedford Stuyvesant in my opinion, has two different sides. The side the media portrays to us, the people, and the side people who actually visit/live in the neighborhood see for themselves. My visual representation above shows the two different sides of Bedford Stuyvesant. The first image shows the typical view of what people think of when they think of Bedford Stuyvesant, the projects. When people think of this neighborhood, they think of project buildings housing low income black families. The media portrays Bedford Stuyvesant as a
essence of New York and all its nuances in the form of terse observations. Whether
In 2013, just shy of my 17th birthday, I planned a day trip with two of my friends to see The Phantom of the Opera in New York. At this point in my life, I was entirely unaccustomed to large cities, such as New York City, and felt excited to experience the bustle I expected. While in the city, a woman informed me about methods to avoid the crime so intertwined with life in the city and introduced me to the concept that, just as New York City held many attractions for tourists, it also held some dangers as well. This idea takes pride of place in Edward Jones’ short story, “Young Lions” and its discussion of Caesar Matthews. As I learned a few years ago, the city truly contains amazement for those experiencing it, but, like all things in life,
perception of New York City given by these two passages is a contradictory one. In both
Mitchell Duneier, a sociologist with a rather impressive curriculum vitae to his credit, spent five years of his otherwise privileged life keeping company with drunks, derelicts, drug addicts and the homeless on the sidewalks of New York's Greenwich Village. His purpose was not to exploit the individuals whose reason for being on these streets is to drum up whatever income they can by selling books and magazines; rather, it was to learn and understand why they were there. In the process of doing so, Duneier drew his arguments and methods mostly upon symbolic interactionism perspective's theories; his focus on "shared meanings", "deviant", `laws", "individual (and social) interactions" flourish throughout "Sidewalk."
Washington Square Park is home to thousands of New York University Students, families leisurely strolling through the park on afternoons, people cooling off at the fountain during the summer, couples lounging on the green grass, and even home to the New York City Pillow Fight held during the summer. At the center of Greenwich Village, it provides an escape from the busy traffic and city surrounding it. Most importantly, it is home to the Washington Square Arch.
New York City has gained the reputation as one of the most intriguing cities in the world. The city is the largest multicultural city in the globe and is admired by both its elegant and unique architecture styles. Unlike many other cosmopolitan cities, New York is home to not just one but multiple national landmarks. One of these various landmarks is, the Grand Central Terminal. The terminal also known to many people as Grand Central Station. Many are able to recognize the station since it can be seen in many movies and television shows; however, for many years the terminal was known to New York as a mass transportation hub. Unfortunately, thirty years later, developers planned to demolish
A large part of the change within a community is restaurants and grocery stores. With the influx of wealth coming into gentrified communities, the dining options within the area must match with the new demographic. Affordable grocery stores and restaurants are being bought out and displaced with new and expensive eating options. While this may be seen as a positive for people looking to buy or rent apartment in these areas, it is certainly a negative for someone who relies on these stores on a daily basis. Displacement isn’t confined to a physical location; culture can be displaced as well. The replacement of stores that citizens rely on for convenience is a part of gentrification as well. A notable example of gentrification outside of housing is Whole Foods. Whole Foods caters to the everyday lifestyle of the new demographic while upholding ludicrous prices for anyone on a budget. An article in The Real Deal New York States it best, “Kale could be a rent killer for long-term residents of Central Harlem.” This location in Central Harlem not only has ridiculous prices within the store, but the value of the apartments surrounding it have increased as well. This causes even more of a n increase in rent prices and pushes even more long-term citizens out of housing. Housing within a one-mile radius of the new Whole Foods in Harlem have a difference of four point seven percent in rent
Over the last 200 years, the Strip District has gone through many different changes throughout its long history. Stretching from 11th Street to 33rd Street, The Strip as it is known from Pittsburgh was at one in the 1920’s the economic center of Pittsburgh and was home to such companies as U.S. Steel, The H.J. Heinz Company and Westinghouse. As the 21st century rolled into, the ghosts of past industry giants still remained, but the Strip District had changed into a Saturday destination to Pittsburghers and a tourist spot for those people visiting Pittsburgh. This paper will describe the ways the Strip District has changed in the areas of shopping, restaurants, and residential since the new millennium as well as the future plans focused on the Strip District. The paper will also show the ways the Strip District has reinvented itself like the city of Pittsburgh has by mixing the old with the new and continuing to grow as one of Pittsburgh’s most iconic neighborhoods.
As of today there are several buildings in Central Park, two of which predate the park itself—a blockhouse at the north end dating from the War of 1812 and the Arsenal Building which was built between 1847 and 1851 by the State to store munitions. The Arsenal is now home to the City of New York/Parks & Recreation, the Central Park Administrator, the City Parks Foundation, the Historic House Trust, the New York Wildlife Conservation Society, the Parks Library, and the Arsenal
No place in New York City quite captures the essence of the upside/downside process of the construction/destruction of environmentally important institutions as well as Manhattan Square, a seventeen-acre parkland bounded by Central Park West and Columbus Avenue, and by West 77th street and West 81st street. Known since 1958 as Roosevelt Park, Manhattan Square has become home to American Museum of Natural History since the land was ceded to that fledging institution by the Commissioner of Central Park in 1872. The museum’s first building opened to the public in December 1877. Manhattan Square was a result of an 1877 law mandating the laying out most of the island in streets and avenues – the familiar rectangular grid of roads north of Canal
In the article “Is the “New” Brooklyn Economy For Real? By Adam Bonislawski, Ashely Zelinskie states in “The Active Space” we are considered comparable to Lichens that flourish in harsh bare environments. We come into this new open space known as Brooklyn and we settled and changed everything about the setting, making it our own taste. We rent out the cheapest places we can find and with that we start finding our passion. We built coffee shops, bars, vintage stores etc. the neighbor becomes “hip”, and this culture draws people with more money to this community. The more the people spend money the more the community grows and we forget the local resident and how the place use to be. We took over Brooklyn and this is known as gentrification.
Whyte have to evaluate the High Line then as he has dedicated to documenting the progress of newly planned urban spaces, he received a grant to study the street life of New York City. Whyte believed in the resolution of public spaces. He also believed that the social life in public spaces contributes a vital role to the quality of life of individuals and society as a whole. We should have ethical bonds to create physical places that helps public engagement and community interaction. For him, small urban places are “priceless,” and the city street is “the river of life…where we come together.” So the High Line would be a great urban place which is also connected with the Manhattan city so there are chances for the community to be
When you associate anything with New York City it is usually the extraordinary buildings that pierce the sky or the congested sidewalks with people desperate to shop in the famous stores in which celebrities dwell. Even with my short visit there I found myself lost within the Big Apple. The voices of the never-ending attractions call out and envelop you in their awe. The streets are filled with an atmosphere that is like a young child on a shopping spree in a candy store. Although your feet swelter from the continuous walking, you find yourself pressing on with the yearning to discover the 'New York Experience'.
Without a doubt, Times Square in New York City is a unique experience, but the image created by TV and movies does not show the gloominess that accompanies the euphoria of being in the Big Apple. The atmosphere is so exhilarating and exciting, you don’t even know what to do for a few minutes, but it is tinged with the bitter reality that sadness and melancholy also trail closely behind the positive. With most, if not all, of your senses being stimulated – sometimes all at once – Times Square creates a memory that will surely be cherished, and haunt you for the rest of your life.