Week of May 9

American Studies 334

Urban America

Roger Williams University

GHH 108

M, Th 3:30 - 4:50

Spring, 2011

Michael R. H. Swanson, Ph. D

Office: GHH 215

Hours: T, Th 9:00-10:30

M, W 1:00-2:00

Phone: (401) 254-3230

E-mail: mswanson@rwu.edu

Today’s class will be spent in discussing Urbs and anything else on your minds. The final Assignment is below

In Your Private Journal, Identify the Urb which best matches your interests and aspirations, as you discovered them through your investigations in Ezell. You may identify this in your city if you prefer, though the information will be a little more complete in Ezell

Identify the Urb, briefly describe it, and locate it relative to the downtown area of the city of which it is a part.

Explain what it’s personal attractions are, and anything which you see as problematic to personal happiness living there.

Using Google Maps and the links I provided last week, identify some of the amenities of what would be your new neighborhood. What is its history, if you consider that an amenity?

a.Public Transport. How would you be able toet around without using a car?

b.Daily needs: where would you be able to buy groceries, get a hair cut, etc.?

c.Culture, Religion, and the Arts. Where would you go for these, if you felt a need for them. How accessible are they?

d.If you just didn’t feel like cooking and wanted a night out, what kind of restaurants are within reach? What about coffee shops?

Note that the scale of the map above would make it perhaps 800-1000 feet across. Walkable in 10-15 minutes. Note, too, that all enterprises aren't listed on google maps. To see what's really there, you'll need to use Streetfinder and prowl around.

Using City Data Zip Code Pages, identify some of the demographic information about your Urb. What, for example, is the ethnic mix, the income mix, and the age mix? Would any of these increase your interest in the Urb? Would any require an attitude adjustment on your part? The sip code data is a couple of inches below the top of the page.

5.`(Optional, but perhaps the most fun). Go house, condo, or apartment hunting. You’ll find real estate information on City Data. You might also take a peek at Craig’s list. See if you can locate your dream whatever, using streetfinder, and put a link to it in your journal. Other possible sources of visuals might be Panoramio or 360 Cities, or Flickr.

All of this needs to be posted the last day of Final Exams, Wednesday, May 18, by midnight.