Latino Urbanism

Urban planning is an important aspect of city life, especially in light of today’s dynamic economy and environment. With increasing levels of crime, pollution, and environmental degradation, many cities are looking for new solutions to solve these. Large influences on the ideas that are shaping urban planning today come from urban theorist, Jane Jacobs. Jacobs challenged the way urban planners, architects, urban designer and sociologist thought about cities. In order to solve “the kind of problem which cities pose”, Jacobs promotes the idea of the use of sidewalks includes three majors. It is about city sidewalk safety and sidewalk contacts. Jacobs wrote that “there must be eyes upon the street, eyes belonging to those we might call the natural proprietors of the street.” Through analyzing and observing such things as city streets and sidewalks, neighborhood parks within a city and what Jacobs refers to as “the four generators of diversity”, Jacobs has developed theories that can guide city planners, architects, urban designer and most

The business looks at the community and evaluates the needs of the individuals who live in the community. Many individuals have children in the community, and the economy is not in a terrific place. Children’s Stop Resale Shop has gathered different items from friends and family members to have products in the store on the opening day. Future items will be purchased or donated by local individuals in the community. The owners will sell the items to the public at a price low enough to be affordable to the community yet high enough to support the business. Purchasing quality items only will allow the community to know they are purchasing product that will last and look amazing on their children. The community can contact the owners and set up an appointment to bring in merchandise they are looking to sell to the shop. The shop owners will purchase items they believe will sell and will donate any leftover items to local foster families and shelters. This is another amazing way

The author Jeff Speck is city planner and an urban designer. He is trying to save Americans lives by trying to make the city more walkable since automobiles have now become a great danger to the Americans. This book is more concerned with cars and buildings in order to achieve the goal of a walkable city. People are the lifeblood of the city and not cars therefore, in order to pull off the feat of ushering America to the urban century, there is need to prove to people that walkability is important and also that their actions and decisions will help will to improve this aspect.

The colorful murals and the smell of the greens and flowers brings back the fond memories of my childhood at the Alemany farmer’s market as I walk down the wet concrete as a high school senior with a different mission in mind. Even though it is a little later in the morning and the market seems to be bustling with more people than I remembered, the familiar San Francisco fog and encouragement of my mother makes me feel like I had never stopped my Saturday tradition. Little green tents are set up at the entrance and beyond them are the separate booths and some more white tents. They have canvas tarp signs hanging at the top of the tents with the

Cities have been traditionally seen as the breeding grounds for citizenship, the latter usually framed in terms of dwellers having specific rights, duties, some sort of political participation and frequent interactions with each other. Yet, urbanization can also present many challenges that further disenfranchise and marginalize residents. As the most urbanized region in the world, Latin American cities highlight both of these sceneries. Industrialization and neoliberal economic policies led to the continent’s rapid urbanization, introducing large developments but also deeply segregated urban centers, characterised by strong tensions between their formal and informal dimensions. Latin American leaders’ efforts to tackle this issue have presented both setbacks and opportunities to transform the city into a more integrated space, and set the path to recognize every dwellers’ right to the city: to be in it, to enjoy it, and to build it.

My neighborhood exploration is on the island of Manhattan’s Chinatown. Before I begin noting my description of Chinatown, I must inform the reader of my existing attachments, sentiments, and personal connection with the neighborhood. I have been visiting this particular neighborhood for a rather large portion of my life. With my grandparents having lived in the Lower East Side for the formative years of my childhood, visiting Chinatown is something my brothers and I grew up doing for family outings and restaurant visits. For the past year, I have worked at the Museum of Chinese in America located on 215 Centre Street and therefore have regular interaction with the people who live and work in the neighborhood, as I am one of them. Although I live in the Bronx, like in most New York City neighborhoods, there exist many dimensions and areas that have their own unique and interesting histories that may be hidden to New York City residents and tourists alike. As for my description and commentary on the materiality of the neighborhood I will focus on the main street that runs through the heart of Chinatown, known as Canal Street, and specifically the streets of Bayard, Centre, and Mott. Canal Street is one of the arteries of the heart of the City of New York. With the Manhattan Bridge’s entrance from Brooklyn directly leading onto Canal Street, the amount of traffic that bustles by on a daily basis is crazy and there are always traffic cops on duty whistling away. The stores

Los Angeles growing into one of the busiest cities with a mixture of affluent and poverty neighborhood. However, there are invisible signs like physical security (private cops or guards), set metal fence around buildings and other objects that meant to push underprivileged people away while allow privileged people in. The city itself witnessed a lot of redevelopment process in public spaces based on architectural design over the years as many immigrants moved in various areas that impacted middle class/upper class, which they often relocated to new area where they felt “safe” while others stayed in area where there is high risk of violence. But at the same time, life situation between poor class and wealthy class during between industrial

to deliver waste to facilities that turn the waste into compost that is then sold in stores or delivered

In Robert Neuwrith’s TED Talk, The Power of the Informal Economy, he explores the concept of the informal market and how important and relevant it really is. It is so relevant that if it were a country the vale of the informal economy or System D as it is mentioned would be worth 10 trillion dollars a year (Neuwrith, 2012). This would mean that it would be the second largest economy in the world behind the U.S. and at the rate it is growing if it were a country it would probably beat out the U.S. in a couple of years (Neuwrith, 2012).

Since individuals required in expressions and society are unquestionably considering arranging, savvy development, neighborhood renewal, and transportation — trains well outside of the customary limits of the workmanship world — with incredible achievement, frequently in circumstances where more conventional methodologies have fizzled. Community minded craftsmen from Rick Lowe and Mierle Laderman Ukeles to Theaster Gates and Gaia have innovatively interceded in urban procedures; organizers have much to gain from these and other comparative specialists.

Looking at the expansive gray sky, feeling the crisp cold air blowing in my face, and watching the snow forming on the ground, reminds me why I left here in my teens. The summers are great, usually light wind, warm temperatures, and the fresh smell of a pending storm. Coming back for a visit, has shown me I made the right decision, when I went to California to study architecture, and stayed after college. Looking over at the vintage houses, probably built during the early 1900’s, I cannot imagine a strip mall or high-rise settling nearby. Studying Mr. Jones’s repair shop, it’s almost like god placed it here when he created the earth. Some things do not seem to change.

This language has given the world some of it’s greatest urban spaces around the world, be they Paris or Copenhagen, Marrakesh or Mumbai. The new world certainly hosts a few as well, however, America’s cities were still relatively new when the automobile took hold of the American imagination and market unlike any other product and the growth of cities evolved to incorporate as well as to cater to this new invention. Rings of suburban development began to surround urban centers of America’s cities, collector roads feeding from one development to another, past the first strip malls further and further away from the walkable core that once defined communities large and small. Urban centers fell into neglect as businesses and those with the means moved to the shiny suburbs where two car garages, shiny new kitchen appliances and a yard to mow awaited. In a reversal of this trend, urban centers have once again become desirable as generations of young Americans seek an alternative to the suburban lives they were raised in, preferring instead the vibrancy and culture of a city. The problem, there simply isn't enough of this sort of real estate to go around and many have been priced out of the market. So for many, the satellite suburbs and seas of asphalt in between remain the only

Street markets have always been a significant aspect of the cultural landscape of Asian and Latin American countries such as China, Thailand, India, Brazil and Mexico. These markets become creators of vital public space and with time, through their actions, appropriate loose space and make a permanent place for themselves in the collective memory of people, eventually contributing to the cultural identity of these neighborhoods. Yet, this potential of markets to become successful and vibrant social spaces and a solution to the class divided hierarchical cities of today, is often not acknowledged or accepted by civic authorities. The State’s policy towards these street markets in developing countries has largely been to eliminate

“In the context of urban history, infrastructure can make or break a community. In the United States, the historical development of urban infrastructure has both formed and followed the inscriptions of race, class, and gender on the urban landscape. Ample in more affluent communities, usually absent or minimal in historic concentrations of urban poverty, infrastructure does not serve its public equally. Some cities have a more equitable distribution of infrastructure than others, but many urban neighborhoods remain woefully underserved,” (Avila 4-5). My hometown of Tolleson, Arizona is a small city of six thousand, five hundred residents with a predominantly Mexican population, with nearly 78% of the residents declaring themselves as Mexican in the 2010 census. The focus of my research will be on the power of Latinx representation Latinx-majority cities’ governments, using Tolleson as a special case study, whose city council is majority Mexican.

It is often easy to forget the alluring nature of the city when you need to get anywhere by car. Going to work is an absolute nightmare. I sit back watching the unavoidable scene unravel, like it does everyday. I see the enraged faces of commuters on their way to the office, some are angry at each other, others at the lifeless thing at the end of the road. There it is, an enormous building towering over every person who walks under it. How is it that a giant piece of metal has the capability of creating a whole lot of chaos? Construction causing delays, roads becoming more narrow than the day