Week 2 Image of the City

What do you think a city looks like? Close your eyes and imagine yourself in the middle of any city. You probably saw street lights shinning, skyscrapers all around you, and cars honking left and right. Last week, Professor Sanchez mentions during lecture about the different aspects of cities in articles we read and responded to. Little things such as nodes, landmarks, and districts are only some of the major contributions to those things that make up the city. After analyzing clips from movies that include such cities from the past and future, back-drop cities, and those that revolve crime around cities. But when you closed your eyes, did you picture any of these? You probably didn't, but instead pictured skyscrapers and skylines, gardens and sunshine. Cities in cinemas truly change the majority of people's perception of that city.


Many movies use New York to portray movies because of the many famous landmarks and cultural background city. For example, Batman and Spider-Man, both blockbuster hero movies, take place in New York with different names for the cities. Both of these movies bring about the nature of criminals and drug dealers that roam the streets causing danger. But not only is New York a common setting for movies similar to Batman and Spider-Man, it is also widely used for apocalyptic movies. I Am Legend, a movie about how a cancer treatment turns humans into flesh eating zombies, uses New York to change the theme of the movie and shows the iconic buildings that surround Time Square, looking archaic and destroyed.



~This is a photo of the Flatiron building from the movie I Am Legend.

http://onthesetofnewyork.com/iamlegend.html

When planning out cities or urban areas, they are designed using key locations or areas using nodes and paths. A node is purposely built to bring attention using attractions or iconic symbols. A path is then used to most likely lead to the node. Real Madrid, the most famous soccer team in Spain, plays in the Santiago Bernabeu Stadium. The stadium is surrounded by shops and attraction. When planning out the city, builders used the stadium as a central idea of the area and uses the shops and attractions as a path to the node, which is the stadium.



~This is a photo of the stadium being built.

http://elcentrocampista.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/09/Real-Madrid010408b.jpg

Week 1: Homelessness & Walls

In this 2010 release by Gale, the issue of homelessness is discussed. Homelessness is one characteristic that a lot of us would associate with urban centers. This makes us wonder if early cities such as Ur, Carthage which we read of in dusty books had the same problem. Maybe not! I was surprised by the characteristics listed in class: record keeping, social hierarchy, populations ranging to over a few hundred thousand, etc… until, I saw the next sub topic; "The Wall".

The article states that homelessness has "been a problem throughout human history"; however, I do not agree it has become less common nowadays. It seems that with walls, ancient cities and their rulers were able to control their subjects, and therefore homelessness. Kings and nobles lived in castles (priests in some cases) , merchants in the immediate outer circle, followed by artisans, then farmers and lastly laborers who lived in communal houses (they shared, they weren't homeless!). With walls in place, peasants could not disrupt the equilibrium by becoming nobles; if at all their lot improved, they got filtered through one wall at a time. Social hierarchy itself is a psychological wall. According to the article, homelessness in the US "developed during the early stages of American colonial settlement". Colonialism can be seen as the rejection of walls by the people, and homelessness can be seen as the effect. Our ancestors became free and wild, they could roam the continent without borders, and regard one another as equals. What we have in cities of today however, seems to be homelessness without borders.

If you have ever wondered why homeless people sleep against hard walls rather than soft grass, then this answer is for you. Maybe it is an instinctive request for walls to become part of our lives once again.

-O.I

"Homelessness." Current Issues: Macmillan Social Science Library. Detroit: Gale, 2010. Gale Opposing Viewpoints In Context. Web. 23 Jan. 2012.

http://ic.galegroup.com/ic/ovic/ReferenceDetailsPage/ReferenceDetailsWindow?displayGroupName=Reference&disableHighlighting=true&action=e&windowstate=normal&catId=GALE%7C00000000LVX1&documentId=GALE%7CPC3021900081&mode=view&userGroupName=viva_vpi&jsid=00c436e6902918225b2ff11fb16e0d48