Cities 07

I agree with the argument that looking at how society is reflected through popculture can explain a lot about the people. I think what Zukin is saying is that popular culture is a product of the people's in that make up the culture.

More good stuff to come i promise...I just have to relate it to other theorists

I think that while Zukin has some great points about culture, economy, and society, there are some parts where she is really reading too far into things. It's way too over-analyzed. Can anyone take anything for face value anymore?

If I seem bitter and pessimistic, it's because I am, but only temporarily. I promise that I'm not usually like this.

Allison

Why can't we all just get along?

In the “Public Space” section of the Zukin article she argues, “Reacting to previous failures of public space due to crime, a perceived lower class and a minority group presence, and despair- the new parks use design as an implicit code of inclusion and exclusion.” I will use Zukin to argue, discreetly segregating parks through regulating park hours, creates hostility between ethnic minorities, people of lower income, and white middle class suburbanites along with perpetuating the problem of spatial segregation between people.

Zukin claims that, “the more normal users there are the less space there will be for vagrants and criminals to maneuver.” I am critical of this statement. There is a vague definition of “normal”. The connotation of the word normal that I get as a White female who grew up in a rural community is a White Anglo Saxon Protestant (WASP—by no means do I agree with this definition, but when it is not defined I think that the everyday human being would connect “normal” with a WASP in this example whether it be consciously or unconsciously.) This leads to the assumption that the people not falling under this “WASP” category are abnormal deviants of society. This ideology that white skin color distinguishes, normal from abnormal, good citizen from bad citizen perpetuates this mentality.

Park hours of 9-7 coincides with the business day ensures that the majority of whites have the privilege of taking advantage of the park during their business day. The article states, “The dominant complexion of park users is white, with minority group members clustered outside the central green.” Keep in mind in the parks Zukin was describing, they had amenities such as movable chairs and benches in the inside circle of the park. Zukin says, “Like segregation, a traditional etiquette of public order of the urban poor involves dividing up territory by ethnic groups.” The image that the majority gets to use the amenities provided by the park, but the minority is pushed out to the outer areas where there are only grass seats causes hostility between park users.

For my OBE I focused on the public space issue of Zukin’s article and the effects it has on the people using the space. I claim that the reason regulating park hours creates hostility between different ethnic groups and people of lower socioeconomic status is due to the fact that the park is only open for access during the social elites business day. Therefore, the majority of people using the park are going to be people who are not working, or people who are working out on their lunch break. Wirth would blame the spatial segregation on the fact that people with common interests cluster themselves together. Therefore, the park is segregated into groups of different socioeconomic statuses, occupations and ethnicities. Consequently, in the evidence Zukin uses, the majority of park users are the white elites so they take up the central region, and the other people are pushed to the edges where there are no chairs or food. As a result, tension and hostility build between the different groups of people.

Karah Barr