Urban Sociology

Urban Sociology.  I did not know what to expect when i signed up for this class.  However, looking back over all the lessons and theories we discussed in class i have learned a lot.  I learned everything that separates the cities and the suburbs.  I also really liked this blogging idea.  It was very easy for me to learn while blogging about what we talked about in class and applying it to what i see in society.  This is what i did with all my blogging.  I learned everything there is to know about cities and why we have them.  I never knew the importance of cities and that they have always been the center around Urbanization.  It was interesting to see how Urban and Suburbs changed through out the time periods.  Starting with the first settlement found in the stone age through agricultural revolution, urban revolution, and industrial revolution which really change society.  This was the Rise of cooperation and how CEO companies began as i blogged previously before.  The development of technology helped society with new adaptations. The Highway systems were built which allowed easier transportation in and out of cities.  I learned that this is what created a suburb and allowed people to commute to the cities instead of living in them.  Highways were also built to keep the "poor" in the city.  We learned about what slums are and how they have a poor standards of living.  And we also learned that the world is in global proverty and how our society is based of a fake money system.  This class was a great class and i would recommend it to anyone.  And where are we today?  Today we are in transition and we do not know what will happen.  

The World going Corporate.

Companies get bought and turned over each year.  They can start out as a tiny little company and book into one of the largest distributers in the United States.  This is what happened in my fathers line of work.  He started working for a small electronic distributing company back in the late 1990's.  He build the Company up over the years to one of the largest distrubuters of electronics in the United States.  He helped build the company so large that the main boss sold it out to the pirates of a CEO company for millions of dollars making DBL now Income Micro. The truth is that big companies and little companies fundamentally do not get along. Big companies are worried about covering their back sides, while little companies are aggressive taking risks at every opportunity because they have relatively little to lose. Big companies are riddled with compliance paperwork and quality assurance matters that bog them down. Little companies fly by the seat of their pants " making executive decisions at every turn. 

The Urban Outlook on the Drug Policy

With Obama as our new President, the drug laws are beginning to change in the United States.  There new approach to the drug war epidemic is to not punish the abusers but tax them for their money.  But what would happen if they made some drugs legal, like marijuana.  The United States would be a lot similar to Europe and the rest of the worlds drug policies.  Society would then be fined if they where caught with the marijuana instead of being arrested.  This is an example of Global Finance.  With the Government taxing everybody it would become decriminalized.  Also it would regulate trade with-in society.  Trade regulation are laws made by congress to ensure a free and competitive economy.  With marijuana being regulated it would then be taxed which would make society not want it as much.  

Mr. Money Bags.

It seems that for many people in today's society, money has become the thing they most cherish. It is apparent in the endless hours many people devote to their job. For some, their identity is wrapped into how much money they have.  Money may be the only thing they even want to talk about, or the measure by which they judge themselves and others. With the constant talk of how to make money, or save money,Money is the driving force behind everything in modern society today.  A paper bill can have a value of up to five hundred dollars or even a thousand (if there are such things if thousand dollar bills).  But to be completely honest, money does make the world go round.  With-out money, the world could not function as a whole.  

How does this work if we are sending money to another country?  We all know "snail mail" is very slow, so how can we "wire" somebody money? Often we send money around the globe, but there is no 'real' money.  This Global Financial Service allows society to spend with out actually having the money.  Examples are even credit cards, debit cards, and systems like Pay Pal.  Pay Pal is a way individuals can send and receive money online.  Systems like these can be good and bad.  

They are bad in such that the banks allow over drafting.  This allows banks to make more money off of interest and fees making society pay when they run out of so called real money.  It is good because it will not take days and weeks to send money from place to place.  Money can just magically appear on a card but just saying a few words (to the bank).  The world is really like monopoly when you think about it.  Its all the buying and selling with paper, fake money that society just functions off of.  

In the Ghetto

Slums and Ghetto's are very similar.  However, there big difference is that Ghettos are enforced.  But what exactly is a Ghetto? A Ghetto is a negative, enforced living place in a expanded area.  They started in the middle ages when all ethnic groups were segregated due to their jobs, religion and status.  The United States got their Ghetto idea from Poland who had the first known Ghetto area.  While in the United States, Jews were the first considered "Ghetto.  The Jew Ghetto started not because of Hitler, it was to control the Jews.  This was because "authority was opposing single segregation" during WWII.  Now besides cities like Camden and newark, the only old school ghetto's still existing are China Town in NYC and little Italy.  

After learning about the original Ghetto i became rather confused.  I always though that a Ghetto was where, not to be politically incorrect, where blacks and Hispanics lived.  I always knew a Ghetto was a hard life, but it seemed to be a place for gangsters and violence.  Many music rappers today rap about coming from the ghetto.  Is this what Ghettos have turned into?  It seems to me that Ghetto's are unsafe and have drugs and violence happening all around.  Also a lot of the new Ghetto population refer to themselves as living in the "hood."  

Its funny, did you know Oprah Winfrey grew up in the Ghetto?  However, she quoted that “I don't think of myself as a poor deprived ghetto girl who made good. I think of myself as somebody who from an early age knew I was responsible for myself, and I had to make good.”  Also Ghetto is now a way to describe a person.  Somebody could be "so Ghetto" or "thats Ghetto."  Also you are not considered a "thug" unless your from the Ghetto.  Sorry kids.

Slums

When people here the words slum they think of the cities in India that have poor standards of living.  A slum is defined when a city has massive amounts of pollution, insecure tenure, inadequate infrastructures, over crowding, and poor housings.  Many of theses areas are so poor that they become shanti towns.  Over 78 percent of the worlds urban population is living in the slums.  That is eight of every ten people!  


In many slums, especially in poor countries, many live in very narrow alleys that do not allow vehicles (like ambulances and fire trucks) to pass. The lack of services such as routine garbage collection allows rubbish to accumulate in huge quantities. The lack of infrastructure is caused by the informal nature of settlement and no planning for the poor by government officials. Additionally, informal settlements often face the brunt of natural and man-made disasters, such as landslides, as well as earthquakes and tropical storms. Fires are often a serious problem.[16]
Many slum dwellers employ themselves in the informal economy. This can include street vending, drug dealing, domestic work, and prostitution. In some slums people even recycle trash of different kinds (from household garbage to electronics) for a living - selling either the odd usable goods or stripping broken goods for parts or raw materials.
Slums are often associated with Victorian Britain, particularly in industrial, northern towns. These were generally still inhabited until the 1940s, when the government started slum clearance and built new council houses. There are still many examples left of former slum housing in the UK, however they have generally been restored into more modern housing.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Slum

The true side of life in the slums where showed by an indie movie "Slumdog Millionaire." It was about a young boy who goes on the famous show 'Who wants to be a millionaire.'  He ends up answer all the questions on the show right.  Most of the India society is suprised by this notion because this is a young man who grew up in the slums.  The show thinks he is cheating and he becomes questioned.  The movie shows how he received all the answers through growing up in the slums of India.  The movie was originate from the same as the book.  The movie portrayed the poor lifstyle that is partaking in India and other countries today.  

City Crime Reduction

Cities are considered dangerous places to live for one main reason, their crime rate.  The crime rate in cities are predicted to be twice the rate of suburbia life.  In the 1990's New York City wanted to do something to change this.  So they went to work to device a plan to clean up the streets of New York.

In 1994, the New York City Police Department introduced its “Comstat” system—a crime analysis, strategy development, and management accountability process that relies heavily on crime mapping data. Departments across the country have attempted to replicate its purported successes.  (http://www.macrimeanalysts.com/articles/historyofcrimeanalysis.pdf).

This is what started the huge change in the city.  Crime rate has dropped tremendously in the last few years by cleaning up the streets and lowering the crime rate.  Today i actually happened to see the Newark Police Commissioner, Gary McCarthy, speak at Fairleigh Dickinson University.  He originally started as an officer in New York City and was head of three different precincts,20th on the Upper East Side, 33 rd in Washington Heights, and 70th in Flatbush.  He even was a part in the huge Washington Heights drug bust and closed one of the biggest drug trafficking houses in this half of the country.  He then became the principal crime strategist for the department.  The Police Department saw a progressive decline in murders in this time. Starting in 2005, the 540 recorded murders were the lowest in New York City's history has seen since 1963. In September of 2006, Garry F. McCarthy was sent to lead the Newark Police Department and clean up the Newark Streets.  Newark has seen a significant reduction in crime also in the past few years. Murders are now down 14%, shootings are down 29% and overall crime is down 24%.  He has put away ten out of eleven people on Newark's most wanted list and has help convey plans to start making the streets safe.

http://www.nyc.gov/html/nypd/downloads/pdf/crime_statistics/cscity.pdf

At that website we can how the crime in New York City has decreased over the past decade.  It shows crime from murder, to rape, even to shootings and compares them from date to date.  

Wall Street's affect on the Economy.

In New York City, so many people have been laid off.  Manhattan used to be one of the most job offering places in our nation, but now even they are having to get rid of employees.  The hardest business hit was Wall Street.  I know of many people who have lost their jobs because of the downfall of this Economy.  My Aunt has been working at Smith and Barney for over thirty years.  She is very high up in her department and is well like by everyone in that company.  She has two little boys, and now has to worry about loosing her job.  The last time i talked to her, she was very close to a mental break down because of the fear of loosing her job.  She was on the next "Cut List" if the economy did not improve.  Although she would get benefits for being laid off, she did not quit understand what was happening especially since she had been working their for so long.  This type of thing is happening to a lot of New Yorkers.  They are receiving small benefits for "getting fired."

In The New York Times article "After Reversal of Fortunes, City Takes a New Look at Wall Street" it describes what is going on in largest financial capital of the world.  The last huge stock market crash was in 1929 which then triggered the Great Depression.  Now, because of such a low economy, the stock market is the worst its been in years.  When Wall Street first began to suffer, they predicted that it would "bounce back" faster than expected, renaming New York City as the financial capital.  However, this state of mind has changed.  The loss of most of the financial jobs during this crises will not be regained for the next several years, if ever.  Because our financial capital is suffering so much, so is the rest of the country.  Many are even saying that the economy is worse than the Great Depression, but no one is really talking about it.  Maybe not talking about it will make it go away?  

Many believed that with a new President, the economy would take a brighter turn.  Unfortunately its not changing this mess anytime soon.  In fact, it's going to get much worse before it gets better.  This is because former stock holders do not want to put their money in for new stock.  So, on Wall Street stock is not being bought, traded, or sold creating no financial change.  

Clearly, the impact of the recent stock market crash and ongoing economic crisis is bearing down on both consumer sentiment and, more fundamentally, credit availability resulting in a significant pullback in spending on homes and other costly purchases.
http://paper-money.blogspot.com/

Because of the financial crises in New York City it affects the whole country.  With this Economy crash no one is spending anymore creating society to downfall even more.  Obama is doing everything in his power to  help the economy rise again.  He is having wonderful ideas, but none are turning our economy around thus far.  

The fabulous modernist.

It was during World War I and World War II when everything resembled an architectural order.  This was during the modernism era.  Everything was a history of science and it seemed to measure and control all of society. It was the architecture of builders that had the most influence.  Le Corbusier was an architectural urbanist whom pioneered an international style.  He built the skyscrapers all through out the world including Europe, India, and North and South America.  Then there was Frank Lloyd Write who created building and spaces that enriched the quality dignity of society.  

Frank Lloyd's architecture was very interesting.  He was interested in community planning and urban design.  He designed what we now call neighborhoods for suburbia.  he wanted to have his design strayed from traditional suburban lot layouts and set houses on small square blocks of four equal-sized lots surrounded on all sides by roads. The houses were set toward the center of the block so that each maximized the yard space and included private space in the center. This also allowed for far more interesting views from each house. This design would have eliminated the straight rows of houses on parallel streets with boring views of the front of each house.   

This is because in the modernism era it became more of a high art society.  With-in the high art society is the working class.  It was post modernism in the 1970's when everything became more of an inversion and constructional.  Everything then became politically, socially achitectual.  

Arizona's Urban Planning

It is so interesting to see the layouts across the United States of different towns and cities.  Growing up in Arizona, and now living on the East Coast, Arizona's layout is quite different.  Everything from housing complex, towns, cities, and the transportation system from place to place is not the same as the East Coast.  I mean, at least in Arizona you can make left turns than compared to New Jersey ( a little out of state humor their, jersey people please do not take offense!).  

Phoenix is considered the "city" in Arizona.  However, with-in Phoenix there are so many suburbs that connect with one an other that have other suburbs with-in them.  For example, Scottsdale is a huge wealthy suburb of Phoenix, but with-in Scottsdale there are suburbs of Paradise Valley, Desert Ridge, and Pinnacle Peak.  All these towns are woven into each other.  This is interesting when the do school districts because one family could be going to one school in a neighborhood, while the line dividing could be as close as their next-door neighbor's.  

Arizona's urbanization planning is quite unique.  Urban planning, as we discussed in class, is the planning to explore a wide range of aspects to the communities.  This has existed since ancient Roman times.  Arizona has planned to keep its towns right next to each other.  It is pretty much all built up too, there is not much desert left from North Arizona all the way to right past Mesa.  This Region takes up most of Central Arizona. 

 Also there is not much of a Highway system in Arizona.  It is a newly developed transportation roadway which is a result of the extreme growing population that Arizona is experiencing.  The major highways are the loop 101 and the Interstate 10.  The interstate 10 is the only highway that is not originated in Arizona because that runs across the country.  The 101 connects to the 60, 202, and 51. These were designed to go through out all of Arizona, North, East, South, and West.  They end at the outskirts of the state and connect to interstate Highways.  They did this so they could accommodate all the different towns and increase population.

That is interestingly different than the rest of the United States, especially the East Coast.  I have found that highways out here are to make state to state transportation a lot easier and faster.  This is because of commuting.  This allows society to live in the suburbs for cheaper and commute faster with these road ways. In an highway information sight they explain it like this: 

The procedure for naming the highways is systematic. Major routes are designated by single- or two-digit numbers. If a route runs north-south, it is given an odd number, and if a route runs east-west, an even number. For north-south routes, numbering conventions begin in the west. Thus I-5 runs north and south along the West Coast, while I-95 runs north and south along the East Coast. For east-west routes, numbers begin in the south.

Major routes usually traverse cities and are the shortest and most direct line of travel. Connecting interstate routes that travel around a city carry three-digit numbers.
http://www.infoplease.com/ipa/A0881994.html

a little interesting fact ill leave you with.

Goodbye for now (=.

diversity in cities

The really cool thing about cities is that they are so diverse.  New York City has so many different cultures. You can go to China town and see all the the different parts of Oriental culture, or go down to little italian and partake activities with the italians. There are all different kinds of ethnicity and cultural back-rounds, but thats what makes up a city.  With out all the different races and culture the city would be plain and boring, but with it its always alive and awake. I love walking around  cities when i get a chance.  The liveliness and different types of people fascinates me.  I always have a different adventure when i visit the city.  

It all started in 1870 when slavery had ended.  People where migrating to the city for factory jobs. Immigrants started to come over from Europe and the Cities were the places they were flocking too.  It had plenty of jobs and America was starting its Industrial Revolution.  

In an online article about Brilliant diverse thoughts on society a writer wrote "The spread of urbanization is, on net, an enormously beneficial process.  People in cities are much more economically productive; urban density has been a wellspring of innovation of many millenia.  Cities sometimes have a bad reputation because of their association with problems like poverty, pollution, and disease; but this association does not imply causation."  Glaeser wrote what most people think about cities.  So many people in society are fascinated with cities like myself.  I really think the city is a place for me to live one day. 

Multi-culture Metro Region

Suburbanization is what was the main asset for Multi-culture Metro Region.  In 1950, President Eisenhower created the NDSH act.  It layed out and provide funding for all major highways.  This was what allowed the MMR to exist, this along with the automobiles.  Then Robert Moses built the Long Island expressway and the Bronx express way.  He built it only high enough bridges for average sized cars to go underneath.  This would keep the poor people in the city and only allow the wealthy into suburbia.  

Cities today are not like what they used to be.  We no longer need one center, because in most cities today their is multi-center.  Although there is still a center, it is not the "great center."  For example Phoenix, Arizona.  Phoenix has formed modernization and modernity.  The city of Phoenix does have business buildings, but it is not necessary to always have to go into the city for things like shopping and other necessities. 

I was just in Hoboken the other week and i realized what a Radiate City  it was.  It had sky scrapers, but it was isolated from everything else.  It actually was a pretty cool little town for what it used to be like.  Hoboken used to be dirty and not a nice area to be around.  Now Hoboken is new and reinvented.  Living expenses is also less than living in large center cities like Manhattan.  According to a Blog Scene of Hoboken it only costs 30,000 a year and it is right outside Manhattan.  

Classical Foundations.

In the three readings for this week: What is a City, The metropolis and Mental Life, and The City all gave examples of city life and how it has established itself in the centuries.  "The Metropolis and Mental Life" article was quite hard to follow.  In some parts it talked about how money is the basis of all metropolitan life.  It also talked about how Athens became the first huge city in ancient times and that was a big deal because towns were afraid to combine because of politics and government. In "What is a City" it explained what is a city.  The city is the center of power and a product of earth today.  It is what society has built over time making permanent shelters for millions of people.  It is built by men over a period of time.  Also Cities in generate from the country life.  Everything from accents to the ways of people.  This is because cities are a mix of all different kinds of country life all over. They are also the thriving place for businesses and where men can make there money.  In the reading of "The City" it explained how cities can be defined.  There is so much culture to a city compared to the country that it is hard to be defined.  The city and consist of rural and metropolitan areas, crowded and then no very populated areas, and dirty and clean parts.  All the readings talk about the beginning of cities and what cities really are and how they became the cities we have today.