I was listening to a Stevie wonder song called "Living just enough for the city". It reminded me of the article that mentioned the psychosis of living in the city. This song talks about living in the city in terms of crime, psychosis, lack of education and survival. It was written in the 60's in a hateful time of racial tension and mistrust. A racial tension and mistrust still exists very much in certain cities today.
Thursday, October 28, 2010
The phenomena of public art
These are pictures I took while wandering in downtown Grand Juction. I also have pictures from downtown New York and Denver. What it is about downtown that screams public art? In class, We discussed how certain areas used to contain the jobs and the Central Business District. Then with de-industrialization jobs moved out further along the fringes. Then we talked about the revival of downtown. I feel like public art is part of this movement to make the city more appealing to people.
Monday, October 18, 2010
Levittown
This is an aerial view of the creation in one of the "Levittowns". The reading fascinated me about how it was influenced by all these factors: how it influenced how houses were built technologically and specialization as well as its effect on racial tensions. It is an example of the suburbanization of America. Therefore is an urban artifact just built in contrast to the main city as well as being part of the creation of suburbs on outskirts of cities.
Ur
This is a map of Ur, one of the early cities that developed along the rivers. I came upon it last year in History class. This city seems to go with Kotkin's theory of sacred-safe-busy. Sacred because it was so important that Kings were named after divinities. Safe because the most powerful kings had standing armies. Busy because of the population increases.
Every ghetto, every city
These are the lyrics to a Lauren Hill song. I was listening to one of my Cd's and I thought this is her definition of a city. Her description of a city is socio-economic. She names specific streets, what people wear, the food she ate, and the culture of the neighborhood. She also seems to be comparing the suburbs to a biblical place known as the "new Jerusalem".
Entry Level
In Brooklyn, Her Farmer’s Heart Is Happy
By JENNIFER 8. LEE
Published: November 16, 2009
Kristen Schafenacker, 26, has the rare title of New York City farmer. Born in Fort Wayne, Ind., she attended Mount Holyoke College, where her devotion to food took root, and is now the senior farm assistant at Added Value, an urban farm located opposite the Ikea in Red Hook, Brooklyn.
Kristen Schafenacker, 26, is the senior farm assistant at Added Value, an urban farm located opposite the Ikea in Red Hook, Brooklyn.
Foodie to farmer: I got really into food and community in college. I decided to try, on the side, to study farming while in college. I ended up doing an independent study with another student where we tried to get a community garden in the college. We got really passionate about food justice, and I decided when I graduated, I was going to get my hands dirty and try to farm. I ended up finding myself working for Overlook Farm, which is Heifer International’s educational center, and I loved it.
On her quarter-life crisis in Boston: I was an assistant manager of a bakery. I knew it wasn’t what I wanted to be doing, and I missed farming. I wanted to find a city with jobs, and I wanted the job to be with food. I had been in New York City quite often when I was a teenager. I decided to move to Brooklyn.
How did you find out about the Added Value position? My own boss at Heifer International forwarded it to me from some mailing list she found. It seemed like a dream job. They actually paid you somewhat of a living wage. I was like: “Yes! Of course! This exists?” I applied for the job, and I got it. I was really surprised.
How big is the farm? The farm is one full growing acre. It is a large urban farm, which makes it a very small, small farm. It’s grown on top of an old football and baseball field.
On cocktail parties: I love telling people I farm when I’m with people who don’t know about urban farming. I will usually say: “I’m a farmer. In Brooklyn." It’s usually two responses: “That’s awesome.” “Do you get paid?”
The commute: I live in Windsor Terrace. I bike here downhill. I bike home uphill. Coming here, 10 minutes. Going back home, 20.
Division of labor: I tend to be the go-to person for what is happening on the farm. I manage the back end of it: the planning, the record keeping, the farm plan. On a regular basis there are five people. Pretty much two full-time staff, and the rest are the part time.
What’s the harvest like? Red Hook is a mix of young artists, a healthy amount of people from the South and a lot of people from Puerto Rico. I think of the food they want to grow, and hopefully they come and buy it. That’s why we have collard greens. What don’t we grow? I can say we don’t grow anything that is sprawling because we don’t have the space, squashes. We don’t grow corn. We do grow tomatoes, peppers, greens, root crops, beans. We do have a little bit of winter squash. We grow herbs and we grow eggplant and we grow bitter melon. I’d love to grow more okra. Next year I’d love to focus even more on Caribbean-familiar foods.
On farming in the city: Sometimes I almost feel like I’m in another planet when I’m in this space. You can stick your head in between a bed of collards that are tall and not realize that you are next to a bus parking lot and Ikea.
This is a New York Times article. In class, we talked about a push to "green" or to local farming. I thought about all the community gardens we have in NY. I found this article about urban farming on the internet. It also talks about the demographics of Red Hook, where the farm is and commuting which are also things we talked about in class. I just find it interesting that you can find a farm across from Ikea.
In Brooklyn, Her Farmer’s Heart Is Happy
By JENNIFER 8. LEE
Published: November 16, 2009
Kristen Schafenacker, 26, has the rare title of New York City farmer. Born in Fort Wayne, Ind., she attended Mount Holyoke College, where her devotion to food took root, and is now the senior farm assistant at Added Value, an urban farm located opposite the Ikea in Red Hook, Brooklyn.
Kristen Schafenacker, 26, is the senior farm assistant at Added Value, an urban farm located opposite the Ikea in Red Hook, Brooklyn.
Foodie to farmer: I got really into food and community in college. I decided to try, on the side, to study farming while in college. I ended up doing an independent study with another student where we tried to get a community garden in the college. We got really passionate about food justice, and I decided when I graduated, I was going to get my hands dirty and try to farm. I ended up finding myself working for Overlook Farm, which is Heifer International’s educational center, and I loved it.
On her quarter-life crisis in Boston: I was an assistant manager of a bakery. I knew it wasn’t what I wanted to be doing, and I missed farming. I wanted to find a city with jobs, and I wanted the job to be with food. I had been in New York City quite often when I was a teenager. I decided to move to Brooklyn.
How did you find out about the Added Value position? My own boss at Heifer International forwarded it to me from some mailing list she found. It seemed like a dream job. They actually paid you somewhat of a living wage. I was like: “Yes! Of course! This exists?” I applied for the job, and I got it. I was really surprised.
How big is the farm? The farm is one full growing acre. It is a large urban farm, which makes it a very small, small farm. It’s grown on top of an old football and baseball field.
On cocktail parties: I love telling people I farm when I’m with people who don’t know about urban farming. I will usually say: “I’m a farmer. In Brooklyn." It’s usually two responses: “That’s awesome.” “Do you get paid?”
The commute: I live in Windsor Terrace. I bike here downhill. I bike home uphill. Coming here, 10 minutes. Going back home, 20.
Division of labor: I tend to be the go-to person for what is happening on the farm. I manage the back end of it: the planning, the record keeping, the farm plan. On a regular basis there are five people. Pretty much two full-time staff, and the rest are the part time.
What’s the harvest like? Red Hook is a mix of young artists, a healthy amount of people from the South and a lot of people from Puerto Rico. I think of the food they want to grow, and hopefully they come and buy it. That’s why we have collard greens. What don’t we grow? I can say we don’t grow anything that is sprawling because we don’t have the space, squashes. We don’t grow corn. We do grow tomatoes, peppers, greens, root crops, beans. We do have a little bit of winter squash. We grow herbs and we grow eggplant and we grow bitter melon. I’d love to grow more okra. Next year I’d love to focus even more on Caribbean-familiar foods.
On farming in the city: Sometimes I almost feel like I’m in another planet when I’m in this space. You can stick your head in between a bed of collards that are tall and not realize that you are next to a bus parking lot and Ikea.
This is a New York Times article. In class, we talked about a push to "green" or to local farming. I thought about all the community gardens we have in NY. I found this article about urban farming on the internet. It also talks about the demographics of Red Hook, where the farm is and commuting which are also things we talked about in class. I just find it interesting that you can find a farm across from Ikea.
Postcard
This is a post card of the view of the front range between Iliff School of Theology and DU's University Hall in 1890's. I came upon it in the DU Bookstore. In class, we discussed changes that occur in the city. I would consider this postcard evidence of social change due to the creation of a university campus. Demographic change: incurring influx of college aged students. Environmental change: buildings where there was just nature. Even economic change: surrounding area and businesses cater to DU students.
Sunday, October 10, 2010
Effects of Deindustrialization
This is a video that shows the Urban prairie and decaying parts of Detroit. Places that were once thriving that are reduced to just lots. Also, there are crows gathering who are advocating to tear these buildings down "for the environment". I came upon this video after watching a case study of detroit from infowars on youtube it popped up as a link. This is all direct result of changing from industry/food processing to information processing. And now we are moving towards something else where we are just outsourcing most of our jobs and businesses even information processing to other countries. I think that this will also change the urban landscape.
Cornerstores
I have above a picture of a corner store in Brooklyn. What fascinated me the most when I went to visit other areas in the United States was that there weren't many corner stores. We have one on every single corner of a block where I'm from. I believe corner stores are directly linked to the decentralization of retail. We don't find supermarkets in certain areas. Corner Stores are trying to fill the need of not having a supermarket. You can buy things like deodorant and fried chicken. The one critique is that there isn't much variety in food and produce.
Race vs Space
I would like to highlight a paper called Italian American Urban Landscapes
Images of Social and Cultural Capital by Jerome Krase. I was thinking about the argument of space versus race in Kasarda's article so I googled it.Kasarda talks about race.He asks questions like why it takes some races longer to leave blighted areas than others. He delves specifically in why black people seem stuck in these neighborhoods. This article interests me because it specifically references my neighborhood of Canarsie, Brooklyn. He also is more interested in space than race. He talks of this new concept known as "spatial semiotics" which I find fascinating. His definition: "spatial semeiotics studies the metropolis as a meaningful environment".
Monday, October 4, 2010
Bye, Bye Boettcher!
As I was walking through the Driscoll Student Center I saw an issue of the University of Denver Community News with the cover article being titled Bye, bye Boettcher!. I think its significant because in class we talked about land use and the concept of a city as a built up area. We are moving towards the city not being as built up and being more green-quite literally actually. We also talked about old architecture versus modern architecture- from uniform buildings to more random structures. Its also fascinating because a group of preservationist from Historic Denver are vexed about the demolition because they consider Boettcher : a landmark structure, citing its midcentury Formalist architecture...
Introduction
Hi
My name is Sarah. I am a student at the University of Denver. This blog is under the inspiration of a class I have called Urban Landscapes. This is the part of syllabus called "Urban Artifact Journal" which is supposed to be my observations about the world around me. They may include: articles, maps, pictures, pop culture and things observed in daily life. " describe the item, how you came up with it and relate the significance or meaning of the artifact back to urban concepts". I tried to do this in the form of a physical notebook but after 6 artifacts I found it more conducive to online format than physical notebook. This means that the posts will be somewhat out of the order I intended.
My name is Sarah. I am a student at the University of Denver. This blog is under the inspiration of a class I have called Urban Landscapes. This is the part of syllabus called "Urban Artifact Journal" which is supposed to be my observations about the world around me. They may include: articles, maps, pictures, pop culture and things observed in daily life. " describe the item, how you came up with it and relate the significance or meaning of the artifact back to urban concepts". I tried to do this in the form of a physical notebook but after 6 artifacts I found it more conducive to online format than physical notebook. This means that the posts will be somewhat out of the order I intended.
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