Introduction As the world’s population continues to migrate and live in urban areas, planners, engineers, and politicians have an important role to ensure that they are livable and sustainable. But what defines an urban area and what makes it so attractive? In my opinion, urban areas are places that consist of a variety of land uses and buildings, where services and amenities are easily accessible to the general public, and includes an established multimodal transportation network. Also, it should be a place where people can play, learn, work, and grow in a safe and collaborative manner. Based on that definition, the novel, “Parable of the Sower” by Octavia Butler mostly portray cities as a problem due to their lack of safety and the oppression …show more content…
One of the main goals of humanity is to ensure that future generations will be able to survive, and that is a major factor, especially, when government bodies make decisions. This concept is also presented in the novel when Lauren said, “a community’s first responsibility is to protect its children-- the ones we have now and the ones we will have." (Butler 365). This idea drives the concept of change and adaptation, which is evident in Lauren and her Earthseed verses. Lauren demonstrated that besides living in the present, we have to look forward and plan ahead in order to survive. This rationality allowed Lauren to survive when Robledo fell since she had prepared an emergency kit, gained shooting experience, and read books about survival beforehand. This concept is also present in today’s society when planning new public infrastructures, passing new legislation, offering new incentives and social support. Many of these decisions are made based on whether it will benefit the community now and in the future. Therefore, whether we plan ahead like Lauren or wait for fate like Robledo, the novel proves that if we plan ahead, cities will be able to survive and thrive. Conclusion In conclusion, the “Parable of the Sower” portrays cities as places to avoid rather than being sanctuaries due to the lack of safety and the adverse influences of corporations. However, the novel does provide some hope by proving that if we start realizing problems and planning ahead, then, cities could change and become more livable in the future. As more people move to urban areas, the way we plan, manage and develop our cities will be fundamental in creating a fair, safe, healthy and sustainable
The rise of cities in America’s cities grew in all direction after the Civil War. With the increase of cities and population it cause the cities to face several problem. For example, people who worked in huge cities had no choice but to live in overcrowded apartment. They also faced problem of sanitation, health and moralse. They had little
There is a certain level of reverence that Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf exhibits for plays. Although, the motion picture is more than just a recording of a theatrical play you can’t help but feel that you are in fact watching a play that was translated onto the big screen. The camera “…function[s] as a recorder, with the signature (the distinguishing stylistic qualities) of the filmmaker kept unobtrusive”.p146. Without a doubt Who’s afraid of Virginia Woolf resembles a film more heavily influenced by David Belasco. The characters’ attire, along with the car, and decoration of the home and dinner were all accurate to the time period that they were depicted as being in.
The Flowers is the most descriptive short story of the three stories that have been read. The author of The Flowers easily could have stated that Myop carried a stick around and poked chickens with it, however she really said, “Myop carried a short, knobby stick.” This extra demonstration of description shows that Alice Walker was putting extra meaning into the story to spice it up a little bit. In addition, another way The Flowers is the most descriptive story is because in The Sniper, the author introduces the armored car and doesn’t do a very good job of putting a picture of the vehicle in the reader's head. Liam O’Flaherty said, “Just then an armored car came across the bridge.”
Would you like if you knew your friend was talking behind your back? That is what happens in the Science fiction, short story “Flowers for Algernon” by Daniel Keyes. With an IQ of 68, Charlie wasn’t the smartest man, and doesn’t know why his coworkers make fun of him. He did not realize what the rude comments meant, but soon after his operation he started to recognize that the “fun” comments were actually rude. If Charlie knew what the rude comments his coworkers told him meant, he would have never went to the bar and gotten hurt.
Butler informs the reader about the beginning of Dana and Kevin’s relationship in the chapter “The Fall.” The information that the reader gets from this chapter is the formation of their relationship - where they met and under what circumstances - and why they were instantly attracted to one another. The reader finds out that Dana and Kevin meet through a temp agency that they were both working at at the time. Little did they know that this menial temp job would have them finding their one true love that would eventually culminate into a beautiful, flourishing
New York’s grid was born from the Commissioner’s plan of 1811 for it’s simplicity and commercial gains. The intention of the grid, therefore, is not to bring about an intricate system of constant renovation or an uncompromising space where ideas can be stacked on top of another. Though the New York grid never fulfilled it’s intention, never did it or can it for it Koolhaas’. The actual effect of the grid creates a congestion of traffic that hamstrings its inhabitants and instead of facilitating vivacity, nourishes a suffocating miasma of mindless, fast-past life style and polluted air. The grid can also never create a “city within a city” as it spreads itself in the same pattern wherever the lines crosses and creates a city where every block is connected and homogenous in a convenient but nevertheless dull manner.
There is the idea of a city, and the city itself, too great to be held in the mind. And it is in this gap (between the conceptual and the real) that aggression begins” is central to Saunders’ essay, due to the fact that this quote illustrates Saunders’ message that people tend to have misconceptions generated from their own limited experience and misconceptions can easily lead to conflicts and aggression if handled
For the purposes on this research essay there will be 3 different concentric zone city models that will be used for discussion. The basic outline of the concentric zone model is the idea that a city is split up into specific zones where specific people live depending on their race, social status or economic status. How factors like industrial areas and residential areas are arranged are basically what a concentric zone model is (City-Building, 2014). Other models such as the Abercrombie plan for greater London (Massey, Allen, Pile, 1999) and a plan of Ebenezer Howard’s social city (Massey, Allen, Pile, 1999), more emphasis is put on residential dwellings being placed far from places of work. This was in the hopes of creating cities that were sustainable and could be areas where inhabitants could live and thrive for years (Massey, Allen, Pile, 1999).
The problem of big cities and towns is not only regarding pollution and other related problem but also of nuclear families, shortage of food and jobs, problem of transportation, lack of good social interaction which makes a person alone, insecure and worried about his life and future in this convection. It can be said that people have become more and more stressful today. The seventeenth century has been called the age of Enlightenment, the eighteenth the age of reason; the nineteenth the age of progress and the twentieth- the age of anxiety or stress. Wars have disturbed both personal and national life, economic fluctuation and inflation have taken their role in unemployment,
Before the charter or new urbanism itself was established, the paper will give an instance of the vital contribution several architects gave to this movement, by protesting the status-quo of urban planning of the time. An important planner is Jan Gehl, who endorsed a view of how urbanism should be which would inspire and later contribute to the founding of the movement. In his book, Cities for People, Gehl emphasizes the four human matters that he deems crucial for a successful city planning. Gehl describes the development of cities that exhibit the listed qualities: Lively, Safe, Sustainable, and Healthy.
In each of these case studies she investigates several urban projects. For example, in the New York chapter, she analyzes three development projects of Battery Park and Yankee Stadium mostly by considering the contribution of these projects to affordable housing and provision of inclusive public space. She then concludes that New York is diverse, but its policy and planning has led to inequity and a lack of democracy. This problem city is contrasted in her book by framing Amsterdam,as a Utopia where where her criteria of a just city are all met. When reading these chapters it can be inferred that Fainstein believes if a city has a egalitarian political culture, adequate welfare for all, and inhabitants can live in harmony and tolerance that the city will be just and successful.
Letter of motivation Urban Studies: Understanding Diversity and Inequality “The right to the city is far more than the individual liberty to access urban resources: it is a right to change ourselves by changing the city. It is, moreover, a common rather than an individual right since this transformation inevitably depends upon the exercise of a collective power to reshape the processes of urbanization. The freedom to make and remake our cities and ourselves is, I want to argue, one of the most precious yet most neglected of our human rights”. David Harvey Building healthy cities is the challenge of the current era. It is a human right to live in cities that are creating human happiness and equal access to resources.
However, I will focus on the notion of both private and public space. Public space is a realm of social life away from the family home and a realm of acquaintances and friends (Sennett, 1992). It is a space which holds strong characteristics of diversity, proximity and accessibility (Zukin, 1995). Urban city landscapes have changed as the modern city has developed. European cities grew in size and capacity and residents of the city from every social background had access to the new public spaces evident in the city.
Although Webber and Haar share their support for a holistic approach to city’s problems and opportunities, this vision positions planners as a societal leader. As the author expresses, “The city planner’s realistic idealism, his orientation to the whole city, and his focus upon future conditions have placed him in a position of intellectual leadership” . Moreover, his technical competence would prepare them to hold responsibility not only on the physical environment, but also as an agent of human welfare. Nevertheless, criticisms quickly appeared questioning the reliability of an independent and egalitarian leadership considering it could be limited by its context’s power structures or influenced by his own system of values. Regardless of this refutation, I consider Webber’s approach is equally valuable as it provides a vision that answers to the discipline’s evolution.
Morris argues that along with denying us the fulfillment of a healthy community life, sprawl is also a heavy economic burden since the economic aspects played as well an important role in the spread out of cities. By continuously developing land further and further