Sunday, March 9, 2008

Chapter 15

In chapter 15 Jane Jacobs talk about sluming and unsluming of the neighborhoods. According to Jacobs it is not so easy to unslum the area, because it needs greater amount of public money, but since the area is already undesirable and unattractive, no investments are flowing in. She gives an example of the present urban renewal laws, how government tried to wipe out slums by building new projects intended to get bigger tax yields, but the plan was a complete failure. They just moved the slum and its community from one place to another. Another crucial factor for a slum to unslum is security feeling. If people living there will not be able to walk safely on the streets of their neighborhood and will be scared to get out of their house, the slum will never unslum.

Chapter 13

In this chapter Jane Jacobs talk about how the diversity can destroy the city in not maintained well. Author gives an example how it is done. Everything starts with “outstanding success” and afterwards usually goes downward, because if the area becomes very popular and everybody wants to live there, work there, hang out there… Over some period of time it becomes overcrowded. If one type of business becomes very successful, since people most of the time look at other peoples actions and successes, more such type businesses will be established up to the level, then nobody is going to make profits. The same example can be used for increasing population of that area. If the area became very popular, more people tend to move in, which eventually will lead to overcrowding.

Thursday, March 6, 2008

Introduction

Briarwood was long a part of the Jamaica, where English settlers arrived in 1656. In 1905, Herbert A. O’Brien launched a development in the area now known as Briarwood. His wife, Adeline, coined the name because of the briars stuck to her husband’s clothing when he returned from forays to wooden site. The neighborhood was well established in 1936. Since I live in this area I decided to take a better look into the surroundings of this lovely neighborhood. It took me a long time to decide what my interests were about this place, because it is housing area and there is nothing much going on around here and not too many interesting places to write about. But one night, when I was coming home from Manhattan, at a big intersection of Queens Boulevard and 82nd. Street I saw a huge white building. It was the NYC Courthouse. I thought to my self how the it affects the neighborhood? After a bit of thinking and putting the facts together I new that the existence of the courthouse in Briarwood affects the real estate prices and the crime rate in the area.

Tuesday, March 4, 2008

Thesis statement

The crime in Briarwood has dropped because the of the appearance of the courthouse in the neighborhood.

Supporting arguments:

The rise in real estate prices.

Statistics.

More police reinforcement.