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Image of Central Park sign, the neighborhood park across from where I live

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In the What Matters documentary, there is a discussion about the many aspects of what makes a city great to live in and what destroys it. The documentary illustrates that when there are ordinary people, homes, recreation facilities, parks, and possibilities, the people who live in them thrive. The film explains that developers come and destroy cities because they have no connection to the area; therefore, they do not care what is being destroyed in their process of development as long as money is coming in; that is the most important. For example, the film explains that "developers will knock down any good from the past and small businesses and justify it by saying that it will make money," but the developers are destroying all of the good that comes with a city.  The movie goes on to illustrate that good cities have historic structures, businesses, and residents, but developers force them out by building new structures that they can no longer afford. This means the new buildings have no symbolic value because all of their history has been destroyed. The documentary also touches on the value of parks and the importance of them. This is why I chose this image of my neighborhood park. The documentary discusses that parks can either bring good or bad qualities to neighborhoods. It illustrates that parks are either good or bad based on where they are, how big they are, what's in them, and how people use them, which will be the factors that either make or break a good community park. In connection to this portion of the documentary, my local park, Central Park, is a good park that brings my community together and has all of the good aspects of what makes a park good. The documentary explains that keeping parks keeps communities together. Furthermore, the film explains that the problem with our cities is that there is too much progress, which, strongly considering that I live near many tech businesses, means that the development of new homes and the destruction of old neighborhoods and businesses are detrimental to communities and unfortunately mine falls into place in this aspect. The What Matters Documentary hits many aspects of what is happening to my neighborhood from developers. From connections to developing unaffordable areas, which simultaneously pushes out residents who have live in communities for many years, brings the relevance of my family and many people that I know relocating their families because they can no longer live in Santa Clara or any part of the bay area, the discussion of too much progress which relays to living close to tech companies and the many developments of new homes and businesses which have pushed out my local small businesses to make room for all of the new developments, and most importantly the idea of importance of parks being the last thing that I can hold onto to keep my neighborhood as a whole, this is why my neighborhood park named Central Park is so important to me because it is the one thing that keeps my childhood connection to my neighborhood because it is the one thing that has not been destroyed by developers.

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Ferdinand Tönnies Gemeinschaft and Gesselshaft

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Ferdinand Tönnies Gemeinschaft and Gesselshaft

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This is an image of the welcome sign to Santa Clara. Although I tell people that I am from San Jose because it is a more commonly known area, I am from a smaller town called Santa Clara, which I believe to be the heart of Silicon Valley. Santa Clara is my childhood and current community. The reason I chose to take an image of this welcome to Santa Clara sign is because I believe it sets a perfect explanation of Ferdinand Tönnies explanation of Gemeinschaft, this is because Tönnies idea of Gemeinschaft is described as community meaning, for example, "personal interactions, knowing one-another well, families long-history in communities, people are dependent on one another and life is governed by traditional social rules" which explains how Santa Clara is as a community and describes how I grew up. This idea of Gemeinschaft is an illustration of Santa Clara because although I live in a "city" Santa Clara is very small, I constantly see all the people I grew up around and have relationships with many residents who still live in Santa Clara. Santa Clara is home and always will be home, it carries the history of my family as well as myself. Furthermore, I also relate to the establishment of Tönnies definition of Gesselshaft, this is because it is described as a more stranger basis of society and the economic and political structure, this is because although I reside in Santa Clara which is a smaller community I commute to large cities in the Bay area for work and school like San Jose and in this aspect I relate to the Gesselshaft definition. Furthermore because I live near a larger city Like San Jose and near silicon valley I relate to a Gesselshaft society because it is heavily economic and politically based. Therefor I reside in both a Gemeinschaft and Gesselshaft community and connect to both Tönnies description of these communities.

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This is an image of the houses in my cousin's neighborhood. My cousin lives in East San Jose, which is known to be a run-down neighborhood in the Bay Area. I chose this image to demonstrate the concept of uneven development. Uneven development occurs when funding is unevenly distributed and there are unequal investments in communities, in which areas that bring the most profit will get more of the wealth into their neighborhoods. The east side of San Jose has less than minimal investment, which could result in many consequences. For example, in the Uneven Development lecture video, the effects are "low quality public services available, like fire, police, trash, and so on. But we can also think about the maintenance of the infrastructure of neighborhoods, like investment in roads and sidewalks, public parks, and other green spaces," this idea shows the necessity of having investments more equally distributed throughout all neighborhoods (DeHaan). The image above shows evidence of the consequences that were explained. My cousins environment in east San Jose has high crime rates, low-quality school districts, run-down stores and restaurants, and substandard parks. I am very close to my cousin, so it is disheartening to see that in less than 15 minutes, I go from a decent neighborhood to one that is poorly structured for the wrongful reason that the revenue is low.

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This is an image of the Lawrence Expressway sign, which is the expressway I use almost every day to commute to work. The reason I have to take this expressway to wake up is because if I didn't, it would take me over an hour to walk there; therefore, that is not an option. The image and idea of Lawrence Expressway demonstrate the concept of the sociospatial perspective, in which driving to work and using my car is not a choice but part of our social structure in the idea of creating highways to commute to work. The sociospatial perspective explains that even though cars could have been created as a non-essential necessity, when high ways were being created, roads or just far spaces, cars began to become an essential thing for everyday life. For example, in the lecture video, it is explained that "automobiles as an example. Even though everyone knows that cars are harmful to people, our communities, and our larger environment, they are the dominant form of transportation in the United States, and rates of car ownership and use have continued to increase over time," which further demonstrates that cars were manufactured as a form of profit, in which structuring out society by creating far spaces and highways, expressways, freeways, and streets created the need to have a car to be a functioning person in society who works, goes to school, hangs out with friends, goes to the store, and eats (DeHaan). Learning the concept of sociospatial perspective made me view cars in a different perspective, because although I disagree with the transportation of cars and polluting the air I still drive my car every day, not because I necessarily want to but but because the way our spatial structures are designed, I have to.

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This is a newly built apartment up the street from where I live. This is one of the many new apartments being built around my neighborhood, as well as many others. I would know because I work at a construction company who builds all of these new apartments, in which my company helped built this one. I am using this as a demonstration of modernism as it connects to the idea that modernists believe that our environment is constantly changing, wanting constant improvements, which reflects the reason that all of these new buildings are being built, such as apartments, restaurants, shopping centers, and other things that are constantly being destroyed and rebuilt, because modernists believe that constant change is beneficial to building an ideal society. Although in the readings it is explained that modernist thinking has a fault, by constantly changing and modernizing our society, we are destroying our neighborhood history as well as making it overpriced for original residents to continue to live in these areas. For example, in the lecture video Modernism, Postmodernism, and the City, "modernists tend to believe that cities are constantly evolving into more advanced versions. They are always changing, developing, and moving closer to an ideal form. It's one thing for social theorists to draw on those ideas when they develop explanations for the ways that cities develop and function," which reflects that although modernists believe that society should constantly be evolving, it is not ideal. This is because constant change can bring instability. In society, we want our structure to be stable, as well as allow original residents of neighborhoods to stay.

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California mural in San Francisco at Pier39

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I took this image on Saturday when I went to Pier 39 in San Francisco. I took this picture because, like many areas in the Bay, there are murals that represent all of the cities across California. I used this image to represent Harvey's idea of the right to a city. This is because, like Harvey mentions, the right to the city should belong to the people that are born and raised in these cities, like myself. Growing up in the Bay, I never grasped the idea of why it was so important to understand all our society's structures, but now that I have gotten older and seen many of the cities that I have grown up in and around change and see people I know move and leave, I now understand why it is important to keep the city in the people's hands. I have seen the consequences of what happens when our cities are treated like profits. In the video, The Right to the City, Harvey explains, "People must have a say in how cities develop. They shouldn't just be playgrounds for capitalists. The people that actually live in them should have control over how they develop," which illustrates the idea that when the government is in charge of cities, things get destroyed, so the people of the city should vocalize their wants and needs for a better city and not what the capatilists think should happen to the city (DeHaan, 5:29).

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This is an image of the Starbucks that I go to on Tuesdays and Thursdays to get my homework. This Starbucks as windows all around where people can see outside but others can not see in, allows me to take breaks from homework and people-watch. Looking at all of the walks of life that pass through Starbucks, I wonder how, in some way, we can manage to be at this Starbucks at the same moment while living very different lives. Although I think of people-watching as a weird thing that I do, I also know that by people-watching, I am also being exposed to different people, backgrounds, and races. I chose this image to demonstrate Selections of Life Between Buildings, is because it is explained that "Good design can bring people in contact with one another regard-less of gender, age, income, sexual orientation, occupation, nationality, immigration status, and ethnic group. Good urban design may not solve, but it can contribute to easing the anti-immigrant tensions," which develops the idea that social design of spaces such as places like Starbucks allows people to be exposed to different walks of life, therefore expanding our social abilities to interact with one another (Gehl, p. 2). This is important because social interaction is essential to human existence; therefore, social spatial structures are extremely beneficial in exposing us to people and social interaction. It is also important because, as explained, the more exposure to different aspects of people, such as race, gender, and sexuality, the more people feel less fearful of the differences of other people than in societies typical of "white American".

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This is an image of my boyfriend and me taking a dog we were taking on a walk. This is also an image that demonstrates the importance of having a safe place to walk that separates you from the busy streets and other people's house, which also make them functional for people to use to get some fresh air. In the video, Safe Streets - Exploring Jane Jacobs The Death and Life of Great American Cities, it is explained that "sidewalks are city's most vital organs what makes some streets safer than others. Cities are interesting because they're full of strangers and they all come

together on sidewalks to get from their home to their destination," which demonstrates the importance of sidewalks and how they're essential to social life. Sidewalks are used for many reasons, such as walking a dog, jogging, family walks, and peaceful strolls; therefore, it is important to make sure there is a safe place to do so, and that is the purpose of sidewalks (Jacobs, :27). The concept above also demonstrates that sidewalks are useful for human interaction. This is because neighbors and strangers walk by one another and have the opportunity to interact, so the safety of that environment and the safety of sidewalks is important.