In this chapter of the book the author John McPhee talks about how people tried to control debris flows. Los Angeles is one of the places with less precipitation per year on the North Hemisphere and this pass to the people a certain comfort because they do not have to deal with hazards caused by precipitation. However, in the case of Los Angeles this fact hides something more dangerous than the hazards caused by precipitation the debris flows. Los Angeles is located in the San Gabriel Mountains, mountains with the fastest rate of raising in the world. Because of this rate of rising and the fire in this region the slope of these mountains are very unstable which makes ease for rocks, mud and water to run down the mountain into the houses near
There was a massive earthquake in San Francisco during the year of 1906. The country of United States went through great loss because of this massacre. Nearly 250,000 people had become homeless as the result of this great earthquake. Winchester pointed out the question: How unprepared was America when this disaster hit? He compared the San Francisco earthquake to the Katrina hurricane in 2005.
In Barbara Berlund’s Making San Francisco American: Cultural Frontiers in the Urban West, Berlund explains how San Francisco grew from a young settlement which grew rapidly thanks to in part of the California Gold Rush which took place in 1949. Of course with the growing of this small settlement came it’s conflicts and how it rised to where it stands present day. A primary factor which helped San Francisco flourish a ton was the influence from those who had power and chose what would happen throughout the city, for example the Big 4. Those who were wealthy did not make this city what it is today without the help of people who made up the middle class as well. Every establishment within this city set the social order as to how the inhabitants of San Francisco would go about their life in society.
There are many examples of cities reforming itself over time, one significant example is Vancouver's Downtown Eastside. More than a hundred years after the discovery of gold that drew thousands of migrants to Vancouver, the city has changed a lot, and so does one of its oldest community: Downtown Eastside. Began as a small town for workers that migrants frequently, after these workers moved away with all the money they have made, Downtown Eastside faced many hardships and changes. As a city, Vancouver gave much support to improve the area’s living quality and economics, known as a process called gentrification. But is this process really benefiting everyone living in Downtown Eastside? The answer is no. Gentrification towards DTES(Downtown Eastside) did not benefit the all the inhabitants of the area. Reasons are the new rent price of the area is much higher than before the gentrification, new businesses are not community-minded, and the old culture and lifestyle of the DTES is getting erased by the new residents.
Echo Park, one of Los Angeles’s most well-known neighborhoods, was once associated with gang violence in the 80’s and 90’s. The crime rate in the area was to the point that many people would not dare being caught walking out after dark. Nowadays, people do not fear walking in the streets of Echo Park after dark. This new sense of safety in Echo park can be contributed to its nightlife scene characterized by Indie music venues and trendy bars. You may ask yourself how this change came about?
Didion paints uneasy and somber images when describing the Santa Ana winds. “There is something uneasy in the Los Angeles air… some unnatural stillness, some tension,” starts the essay off with the image of Los Angeles people in a sense of stillness or tense. She further adds, “Blowing up sandstorms out along Route 66… we will see smoke back in the canyons, and hear sirens in the night,” propagating the uneasy and stark image of Los Angeles. “The baby frets. The maid sulks,” she adds, giving a depressing view into the effects of the Santa Ana winds on people. Didion, in an attempt to show the craziness associated with the Santa Ana winds, points out the Indians who throw themselves into the sea when bad winds came. At any rate, Didion attempts to show the negative effects of the Santa Ana winds through images of stillness, uneasiness, and sobriety.
The main idea or concept of Didion’s “The Los Angeles Notebook” is to portray how human behavior and thought is a result of mechanics. Didion describes the Santa Ana winds as the omnipotent force that pulls humans to their mechanical nature. Los Angeles residents feel the arrival of the “bad wind” and succumb to the paranoia. Didion pairs a story of indians committing suicide to escape the wind with descriptions of the ominous changes that occur in the atmosphere during a Santa Ana to establish a mood of foreboding. After painting a Santa Ana as a paranormal force, Didion concludes to explain the science behind its “supernatural influence” on LA residents. She states that in the case of a Santa Ana, science can prove folk wisdom. The Santa Ana appears as a hot dry wind and whenever one occurs, doctors report patients with frequent “headaches, nausea and allergies, about nervousness and depression” (Didion 3). The excessive amount of
The Great Chicago Fire of 1871 was one of the largest disasters in American history. Practically overnight the great city of Chicago was destroyed. Before the fire there was a large drought causing everything to be dry and flammable, then a fire broke out in the O’Leary’s barn and spread throughout the city. Many attempts were made to put out the fire but there were too many errors and problems in the beginning. After the fire many people were left homeless and had to help build their city again (Murphy, 39)
The South Bronx, New York City: another northern portrait of racial divide that naturally occurred in the span of less than a century, or a gradual, but systematic reformation based on the mistaken ideology of white supremacy? A quick glance through contemporary articles on The Bronx borough convey a continuation of less-than-ideal conditions, though recently politicians and city planners have begun to take a renewed interest in revitalizing the Bronx. (HU, NYT) Some common conceptions of the Bronx remain less than satisfactory—indeed, some will still express fear or disgust, while some others have expressed the fundamentally incorrect racial ideas studied here—but others recall the Bronx with fondness, calling it a once “boring” and “secure” neighborhood.(BRONX HIST JOURNAL, p. 1) What are we to do with such radically different accounts between The Bronx of yesterday, and the impoverished borough of today? If we speak in known, contemporary cultural stereotypes, then segregation is strictly a Southern design, but natural otherwise—but to record this as a natural occurrence, no different than a seasonal change or day turning to night, would be to ignore the underlying problem. The changing role of white Americans from majority to population minority in the Bronx, coupled with the borough’s title of “poorest urban county in America” (as of 2012), is the result of careful orchestration and a repeating story of economic and political gain superseding civil rights. (GONZALES, BRONX) (BRONX HIST JOURN, HARD KNOCKS IN BRONX @ poorest note ) It is not coincidence.
As America tumbled skyward into the 1930s, the country also stumbled earthward into a cataclysmic depression. Farmers all across the country mewled out in agony as huge swarms of flinging dust particles flew amok and disfigured cropland. The dust squirmed itself into houses, barns, and the lungs of innocent people, infecting them with what came to be known as a dust pneumonia. Farmers suffered harshly from the annihilation of their farms due to the soil flying about. It impaired animals, crops, houses, and their families’ health. Horrifically timed, this explosion of catastrophic grime helped the Great Depression terminate America economically; proving the storm to be the wickedest environmental crisis to strike North America. This was the squall that gave the American 1930s the nickname the “Dirty Thirties”, the dust bowl had emerged was not to evaporate until about ten years later. The dust bowl is simplest described as an agricultural nightmare, wreaking havoc from 1930 to 1941on plantations of Midwest America. Ironically, the very people who suffered from the gale caused this calamity onto themselves. The cause of the bowl is blamed to be large scale famers overproducing too many crops, stripping the topsoil of farmland. Not all the weight of the blame rested on overproduction of course, but also a combination of drought, torrid temperatures, and trivial, yet vitally significant prairie fires also played roles in causing the bowl. These events caused the soil to become frail, loose, and subject to passing winds above the land, creating one colossal horde of dust. Clearly, the cause of the dust bowl was overproduction and various factors, resulting in demolished farmland all across North America, proved the dust bo...
First the northern plains were hit by the dry spell, but by July the southern plains were in the drought. Because of the late planting and early frost, much of the wheat was damaged when the spring winds of 1932 began to blow. The region was blasted by a horrible dirt storm, which killed almost all the wheat. Although the dirt storms were fewer in 1934, it was the year, which brought the Dust Bowl national attention. A severe storm blew dirt from Texas, Oklahoma and Kansas. In spite of the terrific storm in the year 1934 there was a satisfying break from the blowing dirt and tornadoes of the previous year. But nature had another trick up her sleeve, the year was extremely hot with new records being made. Before the year had run its course, hundreds of people in Colorado, Texas, Oklahoma and Kansas had died from the heat. The weather in the Dust Bowl again made the national headlines. A description of this storm of coming was made by a farmer:" The storm causes a tremendous amount of damage and suffering mentally and physically some of the conditions were animals dying from dust in the lungs and people developing dust pneumonia.” A giant dust storm engulfs Oklahoma. These storms destroyed vast areas of the Great Plains farmland. The methods of fighting the dust were as many and varied as were the means of finding a way to get something to eat. Canned foods had became the only way anybody could eat. Every possible crack was plugged, sheets were placed over windows and blankets were hung behind doors. Often the places were so tightly plugged against the dust that the houses became extremely hot and stuffy. Men, women and children stayed in their houses and tied handkerchiefs over their noses and mouths. When they dared to leave, they added goggles to protect their eyes. Houses were shut tight, cloth was wedged in the cracks of the doors and windows but still the fine silt forced its way into houses, schools
Craig E.Colten’s book centers on a familiar problem that New Orleans city constantly faces, the flooding. In particular, the book focuses on the genesis of the flooding danger. In reference to Colten’s book, this essay will attack the statement “The environmental elements, as opposed to human actions, fully account for New Orleans’ problem with water”. The rationale of opening up unusable land by draining waters and construction of levees to contain Mississippi River water led to serious flooding during heavy downpour. After raising the levee systems to the desired levels in 1920s, the issues of drainage become apparent and the heavy rainfalls became the main cause of the wave of flooding in New Orleans. The thunderstorms –spawned rain replaced Mississippi River as the greatest threat. The water problem in New Orleans emanated from the human behavior of destroying natural conditions in New Orleans through natural environment modification to accommodate residential and commercial housing. From the foundation, New Orleans faced flooding threat, first from the Mississippi River and then downpour floods. Colten (2005) maintain that human wrested New Orleans site from nature resulting in continual struggle with water and floods.
Las Vegas also it is familiar as “Sin City,” is one of the most famous tourist place in the world. It is an incredible place in the middle of dessert, it is a city established from nothing to something great. Vegas has developed in tourism and population as well to become beyond universal. Las Vegas has ranked the fastest-growing state, according to the Las Vegas review journal, “Nevada ranked as the nation’s two fastest-growing states over the past year, according to U.S. Census Bureau population estimates for 2016 released Tuesday.” Las Vegas is known as a gambling city, nightclubs and casinos. Gambling plays a big role in many Nevadans Lifestyles. This is such a problem that should be considered. In this essay I will discuss about how gambling has a big effect on Nevadans lifestyle, plus how to avoid being addictive to gambling. In Las Vegas there are stereotypes of gambling, such as Lottery, slot machines, cards, and many others. But in this essay I will only discuss on slot machines.
Gentrification is the keystone for the progression of the basic standards of living in urban environments. A prerequisite for the advancement of urban areas is an improvement of housing, dining, and general social services. One of the most revered and illustrious examples of gentrification in an urban setting is New York City. New York City’s gentrification projects are seen as a model for gentrification for not only America, but also the rest of the world. Gentrification in an urban setting is much more complex and has deeper ramifications than seen at face value. With changes in housing, modifications to the quality of life in the surrounding area must be considered as well. Constant lifestyle changes in a community can push out life-time
Through vivid imagery London is able to make the reader feel like they are standing in the midst of the rubble in San Francisco. Literary devices are used several times throughout the story. One of the metaphors would be when he mentions the flames of the fire leaping around. This gives primal qualities to the fire which makes it seem like a horrific animal that resides in the deep depths of Hades somehow got loose and is now crawling from street to street eating everything in its path. This plays on people's fears of rapid, ferocious animals, it assigns blame to nature, the destruction was caused by a natural disaster so by giving it relatable qualities it draws out more emotion from the reader.
... mitigation strategies. Analysis of several landslides within the New Madrid Seismic Zone indicated that the landslides were stable, but failure is possible during an earthquake of the magnitude experienced in 1812.