Our hypothetical Mr. would be located about where the street view above starts. Take a walk for him to see what he might have been missing.
The diagrams in the chapter remind me of Pacman and Super Mario Brothers. Did any of you ever play them?
Don't play them in class.
For Monday, February 21–(which actually happens on Wednesday the 23rd)
Happy President’s day. Of course nobody remembers the real birthdays of either Abraham Lincoln or George Washington. Plus you folks are getting cheated. When I was in school we got both birthdays off. I’ve never thought the transfer to a Monday worth that.
I want to spend this day familiarizing you with a number of tools which you’ll use both to help visualize and interpret our readings and to prepare your group and urb reports. Some of them I linked on the first page of the syllabus for the week of January 31. I’ve also provided a link to my online bookmark collection. MURL stands for My Universal Resource Locator– URLs are web addresses. MURL provides a bookmarking service free. Donations accepted, and recommended.
The idea right now is not so much to locate information about your cities as it is to locate sources of information about your cities. We have treasure troves of sources–academic, commercial, governmental–museums, historical societies, and private individuals sharing their views and ideas online. As I won’t be seeing you for almost a week, and then I’ll be seeing two days back to back, this seems like a good time to send you treasure hunting. Right now, the assignment is to find “something interesting” from as many different kinds of sources as you can, posting the information to your personal journal. If you can find things which relate to Jacobs that’s even better. But I want a big enough sample of materials to keep us well occupied on Wednesday next. I ought to provide a prize for the most interesting journal. Who knows, maybe I will. When you’re not browing the ‘net, read ahead in Jacobs. The chapters for Thursday aren’t hard or long, but I’d like to cover them well.
My bookmarks on MURL. You''ll want to browse around the folder for Urban America. You'll also want to brows the folder for Research and Reference. Note that there are sub-folders, as well--in this case the one for newspapers is particularly relevant. What online newspapers can you find for your city?
is an inner city park just south of of downtown minneapolis fairly recently, its border was impinged upon by an interstate highway system, separating it from severl cultural institutions, among them the Walker Art Center.
The Map Above came from Google Maps. The garden house to the right I located at Panoramio, which is linked to Google Maps. Below is the Minnealpolis Skline, seen from Loring Park, I found the photo onFlickr.
Finally, one can use the little orange man at Google Maps to exploor the vicinity of the park and notice what there may be to notice about the environment.
This is only a small sampling of the goodies you can access. How about Blogs?
For Thursday, February 24
Read, in Jacobs.
Chapter 8. The Need for Mixed Primary UsesML 198 - 232
Chapter 9. The Need for Small BlocksML 233 - 243
Chapters 8 - 11 are going to be easy to read and digest. The important thing is to make sure you understand the four conditions, one per chapter, which are presented in italics. Now that we’ve got our cities sorted out, I’d like to have you prowl around various areas in your city, using “Streetview” on Google Maps. Find areas which qualify as meeting those conditions and find areas which fail them. Post links to these in your journals so we can explore them together. Remember we’re working in districts or neighborhoods. Regardless of city, some work well, some don’t: your job is to help us spot those that do and those that don’t in our gallery of cities–Boston, Chicago, Cleveland, Honolulu, Las Vegas, New Orleans, Philadelphia, and Savannah.
Chapter eight provides more detail related to ideas which Jacobs presented in the chapters on sidewalks and parks. The idea is to have people out and about in significant numbers all through the day. If you have a grasp of what constitutes a primary use this will not be difficult. She gives an example of a single use district which has severe, almost insoluble problems (as she defines them). Some of you have visited the area. If you’ve visited it on a Sunday morning you’ll know what she’s talking about. You’ll see it up above.
Chapter nine is a short chapter dealing with a short subject. It should occupy your attention for a short time. All this shortness is making me feel gigantic.
Consider, for instance, the situation of a man living on a long street block, such as West Eighty-eighth Street in Manhattan, between Central Park West and Columbus Avenue. He goes westward along his 800-foot block to reach the stores on Columbus Avenue or take the bus, and he goes eastward to reach the park, take the subway or another bus. He may very well never enter the adjacent blocks on Eighty-seventh Street and Eighty-ninth Street for years.
(which actually happens on Wednesday the 23rd)
