Assignment#3 Community Map


I live in Downingtown Pennsylvania. It is a small town just outside of West Chester. My neighborhood is composed of two culdisacs. One is Broadview East, the other is Broadview West. My house is the third from last on the left side of Broadview East. My neighborhood was built in the seventies. It is composed of about 40 or so houses of various colors. Most of the houses are two stories with some being on story ranch homes. There are no real landmarks around because I live in a somewhat secluded suburban neighborhood.

Assignment #2 Urban Juxtaposition

For assignment #2 I chose a location across the country that I have visited before. During the spring of 2005 I traveled to Los Angeles to visit my brother who works out there. During my visit we went to a site called the La Brea Tar Pits. It is a site located in the middle of Los Angeles. I chose this site because it stands out so much from the surrounding community. In fact it stands out so much that a museum was built on the spot. The La Brea Tar Pits are one of the worlds most famous fossil sites. Located in Hancock park near Santa monica Blvd., it is a huge collection of extinct animal and plant species from the 10,000 to 40,000 years ago. This is in great contrast to the surrounding urban environment of a huge city like Los Angeles.

Extinct animals like the sabertooth cat, mammoths and birds can be found at the site. http://http://www.tarpits.org/info/faq/faqfossil.html
Some 159 plant species and 234 kinds of invertibrates have been identified.
Many of these animals would have been intrapped when they were passing by the pits made mostly of asphaltic sand. They would have sank into the pits and eventually died of exhaustion of fell prey to other predators. I think that this is a great example of an urban juxtaposition because it combines prehistory with modern urban life.

Assignment #1
Horse and Carriage

On january 2, 2006 a horse in New York City that was pulling passengers got nervous and ran down 9th avenue for a few blocks. It ended up smashing into a station wagon on 50th street.
The horse was horribly injured and had to be euthanized. The driver of the car was injured and had to be taken to the hospital along with two passengers. http://new.petitiononline.com/ch4ny123/petition.html
The incident created a huge debate in New York about whether or not to ban horse and carriage driving in the city. One animal rights activist group called PETA has taken a strong stance on banning the carriages. Many of these groups give good reasons for a ban including poor working conditions for the horses. They get scared easily by the noises in the city and are much more unhealthy because of inhaling exhaust fumes all day long.

I was in group #1. Our position was for the banning of horse carriages. We stated that many of the health reasons were a big concern along with the economic factor. The industry does not provide a lot of income. There are only a few hundred horese carriages in New York, which is a city of many millions of people. The danger to the horses and the people is not worth the risk of keeping the industry acitve. I think that having a complete ban is the only reasonable route. Allowing horses in Central park sends a mixed message that is confusing. Horse carriages are a thing of the past and do not belong in modern cities. There are just too many people and motor vehicles period.