Discovering a Community in the Projects
As I was driving through my hometown of Any Town, USA, I began thinking of the community and how it compares to other communities. Then an area of the town caught my eye. It is an area shunned by the citizens who do not live there. It is referred to as the "projects" or low income housing. This area has a bad reputation in the community. The children who live there are thought of as trouble makers, the adults, lazy. However, I noticed something different, something that the "outsiders" seem to neglect. It was neighbors that act like neighbors. The children were playing together and the parents were sharing events with each other. This conversing and playing is something I do not see much of in the other parts of Any Town.
In my opinion, this detached housing development was a closer community then all of Any Town. There is closeness between the people who live in those buildings that I have not seen in my own neighborhood. That bond between neighbors is what everyone says we have lost due to computers and other technology. As a result, low-income housing neighborhoods may benefit from not being able to afford things like computers. They benefit because the people of the neighborhood need each other for help, even with things as simple as homework. The richer the parents, the less interested they were in time at home. The poorer they were, the more interested (Snell 28). So these neighborhoods are built around people with low income, yet they prosper because of that. I believe that our society is dying due to computers and other things we now rely on. Things so materialistic as beepers, cell phones, and voice mail have become part of our survival. We do not even have to drop in at home to say hello to our family anymore, we just send a quick e-mail. People who do not rely on these technical things rely on each other for entertainment as the children do by playing together outside, to inform each other of current events, or even to chat face-to-face rather than computer screen-to-computer screen.
It is thought that it takes a community to raise a child, and a small community can accomplish that more so than a large one (Nelle 9). The small community within a larger one is able to prosper on its own because it has to, in a sense.
Lance Freeman tackles the issue of gentrification from the perspectives of residents in the gentrified neighborhood. He criticizes the literature for overlooking the experiences of the victims of gentrification. The author argues that people’s conceptions on the issue are somewhat misinformed in that most people consider it as completely deplorable, whereas in reality, it benefits the community by promoting businesses, different types of stores, and cleaner streets. These benefits are even acknowledged by many residents in the gentrified neighborhood. However, the author admits that gentrification indeed does harm. Although gentrification does not equate to displacement per se, it serves to benefit primarily homeowners and harm the poor. Additionally,
Tay-Sachs disease is a rare hereditary disease found mainly in infants but is also found in juveniles and adults. It is caused by the abnormal metabolism of fats and is characterized by mental deterioration, blindness, and paralysis. There is no available treatment for this disease.
The book In the Neighborhood, by Peter Lovenheim is a very interesting look into the lives of residents in modern suburban neighborhoods. His neighborhood in Rochester New York mirrors many communities across the country. He paints a familiar picture of a community that waves at each other as they drive by, yet do not know the person they are waving at. This disconnection of people that live their lives so close to one another was completely unnoticed by Lovenheim until tragedy struck his community. One night in 2000, a routine activity that Lovenheim practiced, walking his dogs, exposed his consciousness to the lack of association he shared with those who live in close proximity to him. As he approached his street he observed emergency vehicles
Tay-Sachs disease is a rare and fatal genetic disorder that destroys neurons in the brain and spinal cord. The disease appears in three forms, Juvenile Onset, Late Onset (known as LOTS), and the most common form, Infantile (also known as Classic). The differences between the three forms of the disease are related to the age at which the symptoms of the disease begin to form. Tay-Sachs results from a deficiency of the enzyme hexosaminidase A, which plays a vital role in removing a fatty substance, called GM2 gangliosides, from neurons.
...h as men and boys used to hang out around the store and crime was nonstop. It wasn’t safe for kids to play at the playground due to the crime (Dall 1). There was a lot of littering, loitering, and heavy alcohol drinking going on around the store (Dall 1). After the store was torn down neighbors were happy because there was less problems. (Dall1).They no longer had to worry about the litter, crime, and guys hanging around. The children could play at the playground again. Everyone thought that development was a success.
... motivation for wealthy individuals to return to the inner-city core but it also provides impetus for commercial and retail mixed-use to follow, increasing local revenue for cities (Duany, 2001). Proponents of gentrification profess that this increase in municipal revenue from sales and property taxes allows for the funding of city improvements, in the form of job opportunities, improved schools and parks, retail markets and increased sense of security and safety ((Davidson (2009), Ellen & O’Reagan (2007), Formoso et. al (2010)). Due to the increase in housing and private rental prices and the general decrease of the affordable housing stock in gentrifying areas, financially-precarious communities such as the elderly, female-headed households, and blue-collar workers can no longer afford to live in newly developed spaces ((Schill & Nathan (1983), Atkinson, (2000)).
In conducting this assignment we visited the neighborhood of Washington Heights. During our visits we interviewed several of the residences; so that we could get a first hand prospective of what it is like living in the community, why they settled in the community and the many changes that they have witness durning their time in the neighborhood.
Tay-Sachs is a recessive disorder, it is transmitted through the genes in the same way as eye color is passed from parent to child. Even though it is an inherited condition, most families are not aware that they carry genes for a disease until the birth of an affected child. Children with Tay-Sachs are most often born to parents with no family history of the disease. A recessive condition like Tay-Sachs results ...
Herbert Gans piece on the mass production of suburban styled homes like Levittown with its homes on the outskirts of the city and mixed land uses closer within the core “ analyzes the suburbs and makes it evident that they are not a utopia” no matter the societal segregation they represent (Herbert Gans). These areas have their burdens resulting in physical and social isolation, no access to transportation, the start of gender roles, and inadequate decision making. In comparison, Pleasantville was a society of segregation due to the land constraints and urban planning of the society. Its visible that there is an increase in segregation between the suburban population and inner city. The higher class living in the suburbs would remain in that area unless it was for work.
Furthermore, both articles “Gentrification: A Positive Good For Communities” and. “The Deeper Problems We Miss When We Attack ‘Gentrification’” exhibit their opinion on the positives of gentrification and the potential of “revitalization” in low-income urban communities. Badger argues that gentrification brings nothing more than further opportunities for urban communities while integrating citizens of different social classes. Furthermore, she continues to question if gentrification is in fact the monster that brings the prior expressions against gentrification where she says “If poor neighborhoods have historically suffered from dire disinvestment, how can the remedy to that evil — outside money finally flowing in — be the problem, too?”(Badger) Stating that the funds generated from sources external that are brought into these communities can’t be problematic.
Should the most selfish elite individual take heed and meditate on the ideology behind community, he/she may awaken to the fact that many persons looking after one person has more advantages and a better survival rate than one trying to preserve one. The needs of the one will never outweigh the needs of the collective group. In the end individuality inevitably leads to self-destruction; therefore, commitment to community is a requirement for contemporary Americans and vital to its survival.
This essay’s aim is to analyze both the constructs and implication constituting social cohesion as well as which area-based programs are best suited to regenerate disadvantaged neighborhoods. After introducing the various components of social cohesion, this essay will delve into existing area-based programs targeted at improving social cohesion,
On the other hand the neighborhood I live in now isn’t much of a neighborhood at all, it’s just a street that has multiple apartment buildings. I feel more as though my apartment complex is an entire neighborhood in itself than my street or my town actually is. There’s also upsides to a living so close to your neighbors such as you’re able to ask them for anything you might need and you’re able to get to know them on a more personal level. In my other neighborhood we also knew each other, but people didn’t seem to see each other as often or interact as much because everybody was so distant from each
While trying to examine how my community has changed economically since the 80's, I found myself pondering what my community really was. I have had the unfortunate experience to understand how a person can feel as if they don't really belong. Since I had moved about nine times within my life, and I am only eighteen years old, I became stuck, without any ideas of what to write about. While facing this assignment, I realized that I did not know if I had a place I would consider my "community," or even my true "home."
...ith rather than weakening it by doing for. Community development creates independence and an ability for a community to stand up and control, to an extent the factors that affect the lives, exactly what the intentions were in the first place.