Thesis Statement

To promote diversity of public schools in Forest Hills, the public school system increased funding to these schools so they will attract intelligent students of families of all ethnic and racial backgrounds. This affectively increases the diversity of the surrounding neighborhood.

Chapter XV

I cannot decide either to agree or disagree with Jacob’s views in chapter fifteen because I have not witnessed the progress of slumming and unslumming. I can on the other hand validate some of what she has written. I use to live within walking distance from Coney Island and during that time the neighborhood I lived in I considered a slum. My family and I lived on the second floor of a two floor apartment building, sharing a two bedroom, one living room, one kitchen and one bathroom apartment with another Asian family. The place was a disintegrating, insect and rodent infested hell hole. We knew this was only a temporary arrangement until my parents had saved up enough money to move and so we made no attachments or improvements to the place. The day we finally moved out, we left the place as is the day we moved it, decaying.

Chapter XIII

The title of chapter thirteen is “The self-destruction of diversity”. I agree with the author, Jane Jacobs’s, argument of self-destructing streets. I am observing today what Jacobs is describing in her book. In my own neighborhood at the cross section of Austin St. and 71^st Continental Ave in Forest Hills, there use to be all sorts of small privately owned stores, two or three banks and maybe one or two corporate chains. I remember there use to be this one convince store on 71^st Continental Ave. that I would frequent back in junior high. Now it is a Duane Reade. Most of the block has turned into large corporately owned chains. In the two blocks from Queens Blvd. to Forest Hills Station there are now six or seven banks, a Duane Reade, a Ride Aid, a Boston Market, a McDonald, a Radio Shack and six or seven small stores. So far these two blocks are almost completely taken over by big money and I hope it doesn’t grow any further and completely squeeze out all small businesses.

Research Articles

GEIST, W. E. “About New York: Melting Pot Bubbles in Rego Park.” New York Times (1857-Current file) Apr 24 1986: B1.

This article presents the emerging diversity issues in Queens’s public schools at the time. The main focus of this article is on Halsey Junior High School in Rego Park, Queens. The principal at the time when the article was written was Domenick Uzzi who remarked “The diversity can be annoying.” The student body represented countless countries and spoke 34 different languages and dialects. Roll calls for the teachers were the most difficult part of the day because of the unfamiliar pronunciations and difference in the way first and last names are arraigned. Most of the foreign students adopted English nicknames but they changed them at their own liking which added to the confusion. The only hope of sorting and categorizing these students were by their pocket translation dictionaries. Beside the confusion most teachers enjoyed teaching at the junior high school. “Teachers said they found the mix stimulating and energizing, if sometimes confusing.” They were amazed to discover how fast the students where learning English and assimilating American culture. They also believed because of the diversity the students learned tolerance and acceptance. Even the teachers themselves learned a thing or two about the cultures of their students and how strict schools operated in their student’s native countries.

SENGUPTA, S. “In Queens, Integration Tool Skips Racially Isolated Schools.” New York Times (1857-Current file) Feb 23 1999: B1.

This article describes the efforts made by the public school system to create magnet schools in an attempt to draw private school white students back into public schools and create more racially mixed public schools. Magnet school are public schools, “which offers special programs intended to attract students who will take a school closer to what the Government considers the ideal mix of 50 percent white and 50 percent minority group students.” The article is mainly focused on Community School District 28 which is Queens. Most of the $5 million allocated to District 2, out of the total $95 million in grant money, from a Federal program intended to promote racial integration was divided in favor of the northern district, consisting of Forest Hills and Rego Park, where the schools are already racially integrated instead of the southern district, mainly Jamaica, where the schools are predominately black. District officials decided to favor the northern district because of two main reasons. One, by giving most of the money to already racially integrated schools will attract more white students if not then at least prevent them from leaving. And two, because most previous attempts to attract white students to southern district schools have failed. The officials also mentioned the southern school received a portion of the $8 million from another Federal program for poorer schools.

Interview

Interview Questions

1. What is your name?
2. How long have you lived in this neighborhood?
3. How has real estate prices changed since you moved in?
4. How has the neighborhood physically changed since you moved in?
5. How has transportation accessibility changed since you moved in?
6. How has public safety changed since you moved in?
7. How has health care changed since you moved in?
8. How has the ethic diversity changed since you moved it?
9. How has the average age of your neighbors changed since you moved in?
10. How has public recreation changed since you moved in?
11. How has the neighborhoods economic distribution changed since you moved in?

Chapter IX

In Chapter nine the author explains her views on the size of city streets, how they affect the flow of pedestrian traffic and how the flow of traffic affects businesses on city streets traffic. Jane Jacobs has observed that New York City streets are too long. These long streets isolate and funnel pedestrian foot traffic away from the long side of streets towards the short side of streets. The flow of foot traffic is the livelihood of smaller businesses in the city. Businesses that are in the middle of these long streets are effectively isolated from the flow of foot traffic. Shorter streets allow foot traffic to flow more freely between both sides of the street. Jacobs explains blocks should be long enough to hold a diversity of businesses but short enough to give these businesses plenty of chances to turn corners and be exposed to foot traffic as much as possible.