FOR WEDNESDAYIn the eBook, read 4. Words and Images and 14. Analyzing Arguments (a-f).
FOR FRIDAY
Read Chapters 2 and 3 in Suburban Nation, and review and be prepared to discuss one of the blogs to which MY BLOG links.
Also, each of you should post your first entry to your blogs. For this first entry, I'm going to be more specific than I will in the future. The reason: I want you to have some additional guidance and to have a sense of the depth with which these ought to be written.
Please introduce yourself by way of introducing the neighborhood in which you grew up. Think about its geography--both natural and built--and connect your sense of that place to assessments of communities offered by either Suburban Nation or Blueprint America (you may refer to either text, or to both).
Your posting should answer these questions:
- Under the terms offered by Duany, Plater-Zyberk, and Speck, does the community fit the characteristics of suburban sprawl or those of a traditional neighborhood?
- OR: of the places used as evidence in Blueprint America, which place seems most like your neighborhood?
- Does your experience of the place support their contention that the traditional neighborhood is "good" and suburban sprawl "bad"? Why or why not? Or, in other words, what makes the neighborhood livable, and what could be done to make it more livable?
- Or: Of the places used as evidence in Blueprint America, which place seems most appealing to you, and why? Do you believe that your community provides evidence that contradicts the broader claims of the documentary?
As you work through these whys, you may want to consider some of these questions:
- How would you describe the the physical terrain?
- What sort of buildings are there--single family homes, apartments, etc?
- Are the buildings diverse in appearance or fairly homogeneous? For instance, are most of the homes all one style?
- Does the neighborhood qualify as single-use or mixed-use--that is, does it contain just residential properties or both residential and commercial spaces?
- How old is the neighborhood?
- Could you easily access public transportation, could you walk to shops and businesses, or was a car required to get around? How would you describe the traffic?
- How diverse is the neighborhood in terms of AGE, ETHNICITY, and INCOME level?
- How would you describe the relationship of individuals/individual families to the larger community? Is it a tightly-knit community, or one where people largely keep to themselves?
DON'T SIMPLY ANSWER THESE AS BULLETS POINTS. Instead, think about these questions and any other details that you feel are necessary to provide a description of your community. Try to connect your description to what you've read in Suburban Nation AND what you've seen in Blueprint America.
If you can, employ the multimedia, multimodal capabilities of the blog: use pictures, video, and hyperlinks. AND: if you are not the first in your group to post, your post MUST in some way respond to, connect with, or address what your blogmates have written.
