T2016F

If you're in the classroom, you'll be there by yourself, though I may be on campus. It is ironic that "Labor Day" now is celebrated at the beach or on the couch or in the hammock. It is a very "urban" holiday, as the documentary above will show. Our "Labor Day" is the equivalent of the European "May Day" except they really do honor labor. The two videos show celebrations in England. The second one is long--be warned.

Chapter I: Why aren’t our Cities Like That?

pp. 15-34

Until we settle on the cities for our primary investigation we’re going to go slow. Over the weekend I’m going to do a count on the cities mentioned in the city survey I sprung you, and I’ll be communicating with you to send you a copy of the master list.

As you read this chapter, I want you to make note of the cities he mentions–whether in the United States or Abroad, and using the Internet (Maps.Google.com, for example) see what they look like. Some will have streetview, others will have pictures from panoramio. I’d like to have you save links for illustrations in your resource folder so we can look around and see the ways in which our cities are different.

2. “The Measure of a Town”

pp. 35 - 50

We’ll pick up our reading speed a little the week after this, but I want to makes sure we get some basic definitions straight in our minds, and I also want to give us time to practice with some of the tools we have available. I think of these early sections as “driver’s training” (which is odd because I don’t drive) and I hope you see how my thinking works here.

1.Rybczynski uses two different frameworks to help us conceptualize how cities are organized or laid out. The first of these is borrowed from Kevin Lynch, with an addition to accommodate the “automobile city”. Know the four types of cities used in this scheme. The second was created by Fernand Braudel. It sees three types of cities. The two are not mutually exclusive, and perhaps some cities are best described as incorporating parts of both.

2.Note that we begin to transfer more of our attention to New World/North American Cities. We’ll do even more of this in the next chapter. Rybczynski, doesn’t provide us with illustrations. That’s no big deal. We’ll find scores if not hundreds of useful illustrations on the Internet. I want to get you started with this now, using the Internet Exercise(s) described below.

Internet Exercises

Using your blog tool on Bridges, I’d like to have you illustrate ONE of Rybczynski’s points featuring a city he mentions, using both a picture and a streetview. Pictures can be located either at http://www.panoramio.com or http://flikr.com. Streetview is part of http://maps.google.com. Put them in your resource file as well. Someone may need them later.