“Urban Parks, History and Social Context”

In this article a short history of parks is given to us, as well as different types of parks.  A few of the first parks were places used for grazing cattle and training militias. parks are designed and build according to there location there are different kinds of parks: landscape parks, recreation parks, beach parks and historical parks.Central Park in New York and Prospect Park in Brooklyn are considered landscape parks they where build to help people interact with nature these parks emulated the parks of the classic royal parks around Europe. Ive been to central park and i realized that they have and Egyptian  monument in the park. Ive ever been to Prospect Park; however after reading about it i would love to visit. 

“The Cultural Life of Urban Spaces”

William H. whyte is on a mission to discover why some of New York City public spaces were successful and other a failure. Willaim feels that with the disuse of public space social interactions and cultural diversity are being performed less. He believes that the main reason for the disuse of public space has to do with the fear of terrorism. He states that after 9/11 people stopped being active in public spaces and have formed some sort of fear toward terrorism. In p3 the last paragraph was very unclear to me. after i read it i felt as if Williams was blaming immigrants for the disuse of public space.In this paragraph he write that after immigrants took over some public spaces, less public money for operations and maintenance where given. 

Miles+Shandy+Zenner

“From Cuenca, Ecuador, to New York, U.S.A.: Families and Transnational Lives” 

 This chapter concentrates mainly on the transformation of immigrants and how it affects their families.

miles uses Vicente as an example, Vicente is an Ecuadorian from Cuenca whose family is in need of money so he takes a decision to migrate to the United States. He migrates and starts a new life and keeps in contact with his family until he Americanized and little by little starts to forget about his family. this biggest concern was paying his debit and getting laid. this family fears that he would forget about his own culture.

 i am from cuenca too and i have americanized and also i have forgot about my culture i feel horrible for doing so, but at the same time i dont because iam part of a new culture.

“Global Transactions Sudanese Refugees Sending Money Home” by Dianna J. Shandy

Shandy focuses on the Nuer refugees from Sudan that are now living in the US. she tells us that many Refugees send money back home no matter what the issues are in their home land they find ways to send money. Many of their family members back home are moving from rural areas into urban areas in order to receive the money easier. Western union is a business that has profit largely, with it locations around the world of course it would

Back in my country western union is very famous for their well stabled service; however, other companies are emerging, yet i still will use western union. it would be nice it they had a western union on the countryside of Ecuador , if they did i wont have to travel two hours.

“Beyond Urban and Rural Communities in the 21^st Century” by Zenner          

in this article zenner speaks about urban and rural communities in 21st century . Zenner  explains that the term rural is beginning converted into urbanism. The lives of people who lived in rural areas has changed because of technology.During the 21^st century the population changed from being predominately rural to being predominately urban. 

when i read chapter one by George M. Foster he sort of blamed anthropologist for the cost of rural communities migrating and changing. he stated that they exposed many of these people to technology and open a window for them to see outside their village. i agree with Foster

“Transnationalism, Old and New: New York Immigrants” by Nancy Foner

 As we all know Transnational means extending or going beyond national boundaries; however, the definition in this article is narrowed down to explain the difference of communicating back home between the old generation of people who migrated to a new environment V.S the new generation. the old generation had to cross back home every once a wild to keep in contacted with their families , but as technology has improved many people who migrate, nowadays have no need to go back home to keep in contact with their families. their are many kinds of resource that one can use to communicate back home, i personally use my webcam and talk to my mother.

sokolovsky+witsoe+kemper

                                    In the article "civic ecology ,urban elders, and New York citys community garden movement"  by sokolovsky is based on the formation and  impacted of community gardens on society. During WWII many community gardens where used to grow food that was import for the troops who where fighting the war. These gardens brought communities together and there are alot of elderly people involved in these gardens. However, these gardens once upon a time had drug dealers and many more criminal activities crawling around, but the communities changed it all.
                                                i enjoy the gardens in the park and when ever i am free i keep myself distracted by help around, it makes me feel as part of a union. i am happy to know that these gardens somehow have kept crime out and as an older child i comes me down to know my little bro is safe.
  

                                   Caste, Politices, and Criminality in Urban India by Jeffery Witsoe describes the crime in a city called Patna in India not only does he concentrate on the crime between the poor, but crime that is run by the politicians and people in power. majority of the politices in power followed the caste system; the caste where politices who where criminals and tried to get more criminals into the field. these Politices harassed the people of india and brought crime levels up; however, when they were kicked out of office the people feet more safe and were no longer  afraid.

 i can really relate to this article because i was born in ecuador and as a child i experience alot of what these india people experienced

“The Extended Community: Migration and transformation in Tzintzuntzan, Mexico” by Robert Kemper finds herself doing 40 years of research on the people from  Tzintzuntzan, Mexico. she discovers that many people from the area migrate to other countries because they are in need of money and they don't like their job in Tzintzuntzan, Mexico. Their biggest fears about migrating is How will they handle being away from their old community and family and where would they stay and work in the unknown environment.

 when i migrated i had the same fears; however, with the help of communities people learn to cover come them.

“Gangs, Poverty, and the Future” by James Diego Vigil

In the article, “Gangs, Poverty, and the Future”  Vigil talks about  gangs that develop  mainly in poor  neighborhood. majority of people turned to gangs because of economic inequality; gang members have are mostly males who grew up together. In this article vigil uses L.A as an example of this research and he demonstrates that a large issue with the gangs of today is that members of these gangs are very young and  older gangs raise their members like parents. These neighborhoods had a lack of guidance from parents and officials like policemen and teachers. The earliest explanation to why the poor and immigrant population turned to gangs was because of economic inequality. when they realize how small they are in economic view they feel small. 


Are gangs bad i really ''NO'' because sometimes gangs are made to protect each member in it from the strong, and i believe that  vigil really doesn't look at all the points of views of gangs. He only studies negative side. to me gangs are not bad at all, some gangs are created to help their communities and  don't break any laws on doing so.

Office Work and the Crack Alternative among Puerto Rican Drug Dealers in East Harlem

In Spanish Harlem or "el barrio" Bourgois studies the environment and the way  Puerto Rican get involved in drug dealing. According to Bourgois all residents living in "el barrio"  don't have a proficient education; therefore, they get low paying jobs where they are discriminated for being illiterate. For example "primo" a resident for Harlem had a legal job; however, his boss kept on calling him illiterate and he had no clue what the word meant, so when he finally learned the definition of the word he left the job and started dealing with drugs. Primo tells Bourgois that  the person he sells drugs for cant make fun of him because he is illiterate too, so he feels comfortable around his kind.
 I am happy the state of NYC is coming up with better laws to protect employers, imagine how many people would stop getting general harassed and his law could even prevent people to sell drugs   

"How urnan ethnography counters myths about the poor" by Judith Goode

In this article Goode blames and holds responsible the poor for their own economic situation. she tells us that the poor class is realist about their own circumstances; however, they ignore it because they are lazy and horrible people. she also proves a very important fact that goes against lewis, majority of people who are not in need of any governmental help still apply for it and get the extra help.(173) In another example woman have children that they can’t afford to raise and rely on the governmental  help.


i believe that it is wrong for someone who is born in a low class family to not try to move up and live of tax. i enjoyed this article mostly because for once some one speaks of the truth behind people who depend on welfare.