...Essay - My Little Bit of Country The upbringing of children is parents’ most important obligation during the course of their life. Preparing your children for adulthood is essential, because we live in a modern and globalized world with ever changing requirements. This fosters the requirement to be able to adapt and face new challenges on a daily basis. However, there is an ongoing trend, in which parents are being overprotective of their children. This consequently leads to their children being unable to explore the outer world and attain valuable skills which can be used later in life. Susan Cheever, an American writer and mother of two children, depicts in her essay, “My Little Bit of Country”, her childhood experiencing both city and country life. The essay was originally published in 2012 in the anthology Central Park. As the title of the anthology indicates, the story mainly takes place in Central Park, New York. The essay is told from Susan Cheever’s perspective, thus it’s not an omniscient narrator, but a 1st person narrator with access to her own mind. The story begins with Susan Cheever recalling the mornings of the summer, going to Central Park with her father, whom had just returned from the war. The essay progresses on chronically, with her growing up and moving into the suburbs, until she finally as an adult returns to the city, when she herself have children. Therefore it’s somewhat safe to assume, that the essay starts after the war in the 1940’s and ends somewhere...
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...Aug 19th 1999 | WASHINGTON, DC | From the print edition Timekeeper THE phrase “a tax on jobs” is usually an insult to some revenue-raising scheme that increases the cost of labour by mistake. In Portland, Oregon, it is an exact description of city policy. Intel, the world's largest chip maker, has recently agreed to pay the county $1,000 a year for each new person it hires once its regional workforce has increased by 1,000. And this is not for some paperclip-making factory. Intel is Portland's largest employer and the area contains the company's biggest chip-making facility, the home of the Pentium III. It seems almost un-American. Why has a hyper-competitive company (whose boss once wrote a book called “Only the Paranoid Survive”) agreed to pay for the privilege of creating jobs? Because it is based in Portland, headquarters of the reaction against “anything-goes” development. And because all over America, for the past year, people have begun to worry about the unfettered expansion of jobs, factories, houses, offices, roads and shops that goes by the name of “sprawl”. Suddenly, sprawl has started to spread itself all over America's public agenda. The Republican governor of New Jersey, Christine Todd Whitman, calls the preservation of open space her most important task. The Democratic governor of Maryland, Parris Glendening, says that, education apart, “controlling sprawl is the most important issue facing us in terms of what our quality of life is going to be.” In...
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...Hayes II Geog 413 Midterm November 10, 2013 Megacities or Suburbs? Urbanization and growth rely on each other like cause and effect. However; when one asks does urbanization trigger economic growth and development, or is economic growth and development the result of urbanization is like asking which came first the chicken or the egg? Urbanization and growth rely on each other, however; does there come a point in which the diseconomies start to outweigh the benefits of agglomeration? Annez and Buckley state in Urbanization and Growth: Setting the Context that “Urbanization is necessary to sustain growth in developing countries.” Annez and Buckley point out that urbanization affects the growth process through the enhanced flow of ideas and knowledge attributable to agglomeration in cities. They drew in evidence from Landes (1969 cited in Willamson 1987, p. 6) whom believes “Urbanization is an essential ingredient in modernization”. (Anez & Buckley p. 1 & 2) Industrialization is triggered by urbanization which leads to modernization. Modernization leads to economic development which allows people to use current technology. Part of the modernization process is education and creation of a centralized bureaucracy. These creations enable their people to advance and compete in the modern world. All these concepts are related and rely on each other. Annez and Buckley show in several graphs as countries become urbanized their GDP rises. In almost every graph as...
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...school policy as my midterm paper. As I read about rising poverty, it made me think of the students in these suburbs and how they are affected by the economic shifts taking place. I found that suburban school policy has undergone changes as the demographic of the communities schools change. I was also found that other policy was indirectly responsible for some of the problems America’s suburbs are currently facing. Two top news stories in August – the tragedy in suburban Ferguson, Missouri, and the end of the white-student majority in U.S. public school enrollments nationwide – speak to the changing identity of our nation, our suburbs and our public schools. Most of us had never heard of Ferguson, Missouri until it experienced recent civil unrest this past August. As I became curious about the town, I found it was one of many that are experiencing a change from an all-white enclave to home for many Blacks and Hispanics. Indeed, American suburbs are in the midst of an identity crisis. In many metro areas, the affluent and the poor, people of color and whites, the well-educated and poorly educated are “trading places” across urban-suburban boundaries. In fact, the number of Americans living below the federal poverty line is now greater in the suburbs than the cities, and fewer than 20 percent of people in the largest metropolitan areas still live in predominantly white suburbs. Part of this issue was caused by the gentrification of many city neighborhoods, which displaced low-income...
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...little bit of country’, is an essay which is part of the anthology ‘Central Park’. The essay tells the story of the essayist Susan Cheevers herself, and informs us of her opinion of the city, versus the country. The essay takes us from Susans childhood, all the way through to herself having kids. Susan illustrates in several ways the difference between living in the suburbs, and living in the big city. It is safe to say that Susan has become accustomed to the lifestyle of the big city, which in return has made her discontent when it comes to the more primitive life of the suburbs. The way that Susan Cheever chooses to tell her story, is done through a series of metaphors and adjectives. The result of this is that the reader is drawn into Cheevers' dynamic writing, which helps to make the essay more interesting to read. An example of this can be seen on page 10, at line 278-283, where she says: “One night the surface of the water heaved and buckled, and a turtle as big as a small car, a mossy prehistoric apparition in the middle of the city, inhaled the biggest chunk…” Every aspect of the story is described in detail, so that every object and person in the story, seems almost real enough to smell and taste. As we’re told in the essay, Susan has both lived in the big city of New York, where she lived at Central Park, as well as lived in the suburbs. Because Susan may be a person who is scared of changes, this makes it difficult for her to accept a life in the suburbs, when she had...
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...leads to more jobs, opportunities and a wealthier economy and country in general. The answer would similar if you were to ask a property and/or infrastructure company like Lend Lease the might say that urbanisation leads to a higher income for individuals but might also support increased greenery in urbanised areas due to potential profit to be made. However groups such as Greenpeace or United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), their reactions would be different, with those organisations responding that increased population and urbanisation would mean that there would be more land degradation, energy usage, pollution and destruction of flora and fauna habitats. The location of this issue would be in the City of Sydney, CBD, and surrounding suburbs although the impacts of this issue will be felt around the world as Sydney and Australia as whole is one the world’s largest economies and energy suppliers. Nevertheless the increasing population will impact the Asia-Pacific region the most mainly due to the close connections between Asia, Australia and the rest of...
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...place we feel more at home. Some feel they belong to the country while others feel they belong to the city. Others might go to the extreme and move to a different country to feel at home. But what do you do if you are still a child and your parents are taking you away from the place where you belong? This is the problem Susan Cheever dealt with when she was a child and her parents moved from Central Park to the countryside. Susan Cheever is an American writer. She was born in 1943. Her father is a famous novelist and short story writer, John Cheever. Susan Cheever writes her memories in the anthology Central Park which is published in 2012. The first three to four years of her life (p. 7, l. 28) she was raised in the area around Central Park. She loved it. She loved everything about the place and was completely uncomprehending when her parents decided to move to Westchester on the Hudson River (p. 8, l. 23-24). Her parents wanted to get away from their two-bedroom apartment, the noisy traffic and they wanted to get a bigger family and a family car (s. 8, l. 71-76). She did not like it in the suburbs. She wanted to move back to Central Park. When Susan got old enough to be allowed to take the train alone, she travelled to New York as often as she could. “Later in my life I heard Any Warhol say that it was better to live in the city than the country because in the city he could find a little bit of country, but in the country the was no little bit of city” (p. 9, l. 140-144). This...
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...Gist of reading: Reading talks about how middle-class residents in suburbs mark social distinction and distance through physical boundaries, daily practices that regulated the behavior of service workers within community space Reading also talks about emerging global suburbs, and how immigrants in these places are being discriminated despite being in close physical proximity and contact Reading looks at the interdependencies between peoples and residential spaces of this divided economy, divisions that largely fall along the lines of class, racial-ethnic identity and to some extent migrant status bring questions to racial or class segregation/distinction * Content: Los Angeles: widely known as global city Orange County, particularly, has become a suburban counterpart to the global city, a “global suburb” economies of service and support developed alongside transnational commerce Orange country: still largely segregated by race and class In Irvine’s landscape: Segregate the lower class with the middle to upper class by using high-priced housing and zoning regulations Lower class were typically Latinos who would do all the menial labour such as window washers, carpet cleaners. Imagined the freeway as a connection to the world especially to the urban areas SOCIAL DISTINCTION PRACTISED IN 3 ASPECTS: A) Talk of Crime and Physical Defense Often see the influx of Latino immigrants or Blacks as the cause of the problems these areas have experienced,...
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... 40 million Americans moved to the suburbs, one of the largest mass migrations in history. Rural regions suffered the most dramatic decline in population. Because few houses were built during the war, the U.S. had a severe shortage of urban housing. Newly married veterans who needed housing looked to the suburbs. Rural regions and older industrial cities suffered dramatic declines in population. At this time of peak demand, developers began to quickly build affordable housing. William Levitt became a leader in mass producing suburban homes. Entire rows of houses in Levittown were built using the same plan. Workers could build houses in weeks rather than months built three Levittowns—in New York, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania—which became blueprints for other suburbs soon springing up across the country. Home buyers could use an installment plan, paying $58 a month towards the cost of the home. Levitt built three Levittowns—in New York, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania—which became blueprints for other suburbs soon springing up across the country. Other developers adopted Levitt's techniques, and suburbs were soon springing up across the country. New home buyers received low‐interest home loans courtesy of the GI Bill of Rights and the Federal Housing Administration (FHA). FHA‐backed loans allowed home buyers to pay as little as 5% to 10% of the purchase price and to pay off their mortgages over 30 years. As populations increased, suburbs became self‐contained communities with shops...
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...------------------------------------------------- My Little Bit of Country Do you remember you favorite place when you were a child? My favorite place was a playground near where I live, and I LOVED it! I could be there every day at all hours. I was on the verge of tears when I have to go home. In My Little Bit of Country is Susan Cheever writing about how she felt when she and her family moved from New York to Westchester. She have to move from her favorite place, Central Park. This essay is from 2012. Susan Cheever describes in her essay her relationship to Central Park in New York. She recollects many good experiences in the park as a kid. She describes the city as a magical place with many options, but her parents want a typical suburban life so they decided to move from their apartment in middle of New York to Westchester, which in outside the city. Susan Cheever’s relationship to Central Park does not end here, because she commutes to New York as soon as she gets an opportunity to come back to the life she and her family had in New York. Susan Cheever moved back to New York some years after, she had children and she raised them in New York, and they love Central Park as much as Susan Cheever does, and even though they are adults, they still love to celebrate functions in the park. Susan Cheever thinks the life in New York is safe, while the suburban life is a little bit scary. In the essay, there is a first person narrator and an omniscient narrator, because...
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...solution to minimizing heating costs and carbon footprints. The shift towards sustainable urban development is due to the idea that the high density of the population allows for the most effective way to tackle unsustainability. Multi-unit apartment buildings were already more sustainable than single-family homes so this approach only improves upon the already efficient and ignores the least efficient communities, the suburbs. As urban development improves cities, the surrounding suburbs are left as remnants of a period where the American Dream was to have a yard, a car, and four walls to heat. For the existing single-family homes, it may be too costly of an undertaking to upgrade the current facilities because the homes were not designed to be sustainable and their location alone is far from efficient. Yet, there will always be people who prefer to live in the suburbs so instead of focusing on fixing the inefficient homes, create a community of new homes that sets the standard for future developments. First, a location must be chosen. A problem with suburbs is that they are already well developed and the easiest way to find space is to move farther away from Downtown Cincinnati, but that only creates more inefficiencies with transportation and commuting costs. A result of all the development that predates the planned community is waste. The Cincinnati Metropolitan Area is home to just under 300,000 people, and their waste has to end up somewhere. For most, the waste...
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...Transportation in Londinium Development of transport in London has over time developed substantially .Early in 1830s, omnibuses that were drawn by horses were the basic transport vectors. They were later replaced by motor driven omnibuses in 1902 that were regulated by a series of companies which later joined and formed a unified bus service company. It is in the same year that there emerged underground railway runaways which greatly changed the phase of transport for the time. (Inwood, 1998) The railway transport system was regulated by the London passenger transport board. Well-developed underground trails as well as over ground trails currently exist in London with a large and extensive stretch to London’s suburbs. The railway forms a radial network in the city and suburbs to the peripherals. Fig 1. Courtesy of London Railway Network (The radial network of the railway system) Cycling has been used since ancient times with about a million people owning bicycles. There is a Bicycle Hire Company which rents about 6,000 bicycles a day. There are taxis, black cabs as well as cars for hire, and passenger buses that serve the city as well as heavy...
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...Fall Jenna Trickett – 4214, Arundel Analysis Jenna Trickett – 4214, Arundel Analysis Scott Hollonds – 4216, Biggera Waters Analysis Scott Hollonds – 4216, Biggera Waters Analysis This report consists of three parts: two individual reports about two dwellings in two different postcodes and then a third part which compares the two dwellings and concludes with deciding which would be the best investment property with the most rental income. The first part of this report is focused on the postcode of 4214 which consists of suburbs such as Arundel, Parkwood, Molendinar and Ashmore. The price range that has been researched is between $500,000 to $600,000.The dwelling types that was given for this assignment was a house with 3 to 4 bedrooms, 2 bathroom and 2 garage car spaces. Refer to Appendix Five where you can see a picture of the property that matched this profile which I would purchase is located at 26 Petworth Court in the suburb of Arundel. It is a 4 bedroom, 2 bathrooms, with 2 garage spaces and 2 separate living areas. It has a pool, an outdoor entertaining area, has ducted air conditioning and is built on an 805m2 block of land (REA Group 2013). It has an advertised price of $595,000 with easy access to local shops and transport. The house comes is zoned as a detached dwelling which is just an average block of land for houses and is within walking distance of the local golf course....
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...London: Contrasting Suburbs This Factsheet looks at a cross section of London's suburbs. Suburbs were once seen as the homes of London's affluent commuters. But now many of these suburbs face problems of deprivation and neglect. “The suburbs of London have a special place in our imagination and affections. Whether or not we actually live there, we feel we know them. As the inspiration for novels and poetry, the butt of jokes or the setting of sitcoms, they have been part of the cultural landscape for decades. But in this case familiarity has not always bred contempt. Even as we think of cherry blossom billowing across the neat avenues of ‘Metroland’, or net curtains twitching behind Neighbourhood Watch stickers, we know that the suburbs are more complicated and less cosy than their popular image”. Definitions Suburb, suburbia:. Suburbia generally refers to the outer residential parts of a continuously built-up city. A suburb is a socially homogeneous district within that area. The term carries connotations of fairly low densities of occupance and of a particular life style suited to family and leisure needs. [The Penguin Dictionary of Human Geography]. Philip Davies [Director, London Region, English Heritage] Suburbanisation: The outward growth of urban development to engulf surrounding villages and rural areas. “Suburbs are at risk of becoming new inner cities in terms of deprivation” [The Guardian December 31st 2003] Suburbanisation and the...
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...We can start with the metaphor that the city is a magnet. Cities can be considered magnets with how they exert force and influence on things and places far away, and how all of a city’s components are compressed into a small space. This Medieval city could be considered a magnet of sorts. A big reason why the medieval city could be a magnet is how it pulled people to want to live in the city instead of the countryside. A base reason for people wanting to live in the country was for protection. During a war, the Medieval city was one of the hardest places to capture due to its labyrinth-like structure. Also, people flocked to the city due to the fact that in most cases, very important people resided in the city, such as bishops, high priests and other leaders of the time. If you lived in the city, it gained you a type of stature, through your proximity to the prominent figures and leaders in the...
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