Abha on Jacobs and Wirth
My paper topic is about Jacobs and Wirth looking at Dinkytown and Downtown Minneapolis. The main point I will be unfolding is whether Dinkytown is indeed, as its name suggests a miniature version of downtown. I will look at each site and compare them to each other and how they relate to Jacobs and Wirth, and if according to them, they are an urban way of life. Wirth has three points to consider when looking at an urban place: large population, social heterogeneity, and population density. I will also be looking at these points at both sites.
I went to Dinkytown to observe the people and how the area functions. It does have many of the qualities that downtown has, such as small shops, entertainment, heavy foot traffic and vehicle traffic. As far as layout of the area, it is similar to downtown. I also looked at the demographics. I found that most of the people are of the younger age/college students who seem to lead independent lives. Each person seems to flow well with everyone else and fit in easily. There is a minimal number of wanderers with the exception of the homeless; everyone is in the area for a purpose.
Next I will look at downtown and see how Dinkytown compares in all these aspects. Then, according to Jacobs and Wirth, I will conclude whether these sites are of the urban lifestyle.
Comments
nice. perhaps you can go to businesses like jimmy johns which are located both in dinkytown and downtown, or the post office, and observe how the two sites are different...I would also interview students in dinkytown and business people in downtown, and ask them what they are doing and where they are going..you might get the same kind of results with the speed of coffee drinkin laptop carryin cigarette smokin pencarryin crazies.
Posted by: Anonymous | March 30, 2007 08:40 PM
Personally, I have always wondered why Uptown is called "up" town if it is south of the cities...maybe you could add this to your discussion
Posted by: Anonymous | April 1, 2007 05:03 PM
Looks good. since you are using Wirth, would it be helpful to look at dinkytown as a lower density model and downtown as a higher density model. This would allow you to make predictions about what Wirth would say about the differences between these two areas, and then you could see if those predictions are true via your observations. For instance is their more social interaction between a variety of personality types in downtown vs. dinkytown.
Greg
Posted by: Anonymous | April 1, 2007 05:10 PM