readings for the weekend

so, I just finished reading the articles in the textbook, and I figured since we have this blog and it's part of our weekend assignment to share our thoughts, I'd share my thoughts with all of you on these two readings.

First I'll address "The Use of Sidewalks" by Jacobs. It was a very long but interesting read on her philosophy of street safety, and I agree 100%. She goes on to basically state that public safety is exactly that - safety left up to the public. She uses a lot of experiences and examples to demonstrate her point. Having grown up in Philadelphia and spent a good amount of time within the city limits, I feel like I have a background knowledge to what she says and completely understand everything she says. Like this one time, when I was in 4th grade or something, I was walking home with a friend of mine from some kind of extra-cirricular thing, and these guys started following us [like high school aged guys, I guess about 17 or 18, and that seemed OLD to us then], we got scared because there was no one around until we got to the corner store around the corner from my house, and then the guys inside the store went outside and made sure everything was safe for us. Ok, long story made short, we didn't feel safe because nobody was around. It was 4 in the afternoon and most of the families were still split up, with kids inside doing homework with the doors locked and parents at work or on their way home, and nobody was outside. Similarly, I spent a good amount of nights this past summer walking around South Street and Market Street down in Philadelphia. I don't think I've felt safer in any other part of the city [except I refuse to walk on South Street past 7th going up, it's too dirty] than there, because of how full of life it was. I had gone down with my boyfriend and my friend for cheesesteaks at Jims, because we were bored [I know, lame right?] and even though my boyfriend was being stupid and saying 'hi' to everyone he saw on our way down, I knew nothing too bad could really happen because that part of the city is well lit, well used, and is just safe in all other aspects. I guess my experiences helped me completely understand her article. So, that's my piece on that.

I didn't particularly enjoy reading the other article about the park in Atlanta, and how by trying to make the park unwelcoming to one group [specifically homeless people], it made it unwelcome to all, but it made me think about Kutztown. We talked about in class on Wednesday how the pictures make it look like everyone works together, and the open spaces around campus promote group meetings, but then I also realised that Kutztown is TOO spread apart. It's too far to walk from Lehigh, where I'm typing this wonderful response, to the Student Union Building for a cup of hot chocolate and a meeting for a club. It's too far to walk to the Fairgrounds to get your car and GO somewhere. Even though KU has such open space, I kind of feel like it's too spread out, and it promotes hermitness to a degree. I mean, when I was looking at schools, I liked KU because of it's spreadout-ness, and I didn't like the cramped style of PSU Abington's campus, and I was pretty much going on purely asthetics. However, now that I'm at college, this open space is a pain to cover by foot. Think about it. It is way too far to walk to Taylor and Byrnes to get a coffee or something and study for finals during the bitter December cold weather. It's ten times easier to sit on my computer, make hot chocolate the way I like it in my cocoa machine [auto-shut off... take that, Housing!], and talk on instant messenger with my classmates and discuss finals THAT way. But that doesn't promote true groupwork. Do you catch my drift?

Anyway, so those are just my thoughts, as drawn out and crazy as they may seem. Look forward to reading your thoughts/opinions later tonight/tomorrow before class. !!! Bye!
[ps: does anyone think they might actually do a real word under 'Word Verification' ?]