Wrap- up

            I am so glad to have picked this course I was able to experience New York in a very unique way. I could not imagine ever taking another CORE course as awesome as this one. I am very happy that I chose this course. We got to experience different pieces of New York every day. I feel that there is only so much you can learn by walking around the city with your friends or family, sometimes you need some guidance and I was happy to find this guidance in my instructors Mike and Damian. Before I took this class I believed I knew enough about the city to be considered a New Yorker, boy was I wrong. I was able to experience like a true New Yorker, very fast and along the way learned many interesting things about some very important places.

            I also feel that my knowledge of the trains and subway system has greatly improved. Usually when I go to the city I try and avoid the subway or just let someone else lead the way. I am proud to say that i can now navigate my way through the subway without missing a beat! I realized that on my last day of class I was able to navigate the streets to a subway to take me straight to Penn.

            As this course came to an end I hope now with this new knowledge that I have of the city, I can visit these places again and explore them in even greater detail and maybe even take others and tell them about the places we go to.

Class #7: Immigrant New York

Class #7: Immigrant New York (Lower Eastside, The Bowery, Little Italy, and Chinatown)

           We started off today by going to the Essex Street Market, which had a variety of different ethnic food. It was here for the first time I ever had Coconut Water, it wasn’t really what I was expecting but it was okay. “This market houses a multitude of stalls whose proprietors speak Chinese, Yiddish, and Spanish and sell foods to match” (BG 186). Major Fiorello LaGuardia started the market in 1940 to find a new place for vendors to sell their goods, to diminish the overcrowding in the streets.

After the street market we walked a few blocks to the Tenement Museum. The tenement apartment building housed almost 7,000 working class immigrants from many different nations.  The museum's existence is primarily to let the public recognize how immigrant families struggled just to make ends meet. They did this all while trying to give the best possible opportunities for their children’s futures. This was one of the worst parts of the class for me. It was hot, the rooms were tight and there was no air getting to the rooms so I passed out. I wasn’t feeling good and I hit the floor. Thank god I was surrounded by nurses that quickly helped me get back to normal.

            Through our walking tour of the museum, we were able to get a better idea of the living conditions for the Irish people during the times they immigrated to New York. We were brought to one of the oldest tenements and got a first hand view of the daily life of a family at the time. The Moore family is one that the tour was focused around. Bridget and Joseph Moore moved to New York City from Ireland and looking for a better life and came to this area of New York. Their family had three children, one of which was an infant who passed away at the age of 6 months. 

          

             At the time, the tenements that they lived in where overcrowded, dirty, and unsafe. The apartments did not have electricity, heat or running water. The also did not have toilets. Moore family faced were job opportunities. Jobs were scarce then and especially for Irish folk. Most jobs that were hiring stated, “No Irish Need Apply.” 

            We soon went to Congee Village where we all enjoyed our last lunch on the instructors.  We all enjoyed authentic Chinese food. It felt even better especially after I passed out at the Tenement Museum. I enjoyed the different types of Chinese food that were placed on the table in front of me.

            After that we got a guided tour of Immigrant New York that took us through the Lower Eastside, the Bowery, and parts of Little Italy and Chinatown. We walked through the Bowery, “a name that is associated with loneliness, poverty, alcoholism, and is considered one of Manhattan's oldest streets” (BG 182).  The Bowery was known for cheap food and alcohol. Since then the area has been turned into a little bit of a better area with the business from Chinatown the colonized streets of Little Italy and the East Village, and the area's lighting and abundance of restaurant supply houses" (BG p.183).

Chinatown is a very unique part of the Far East, it has narrow streets that are constantly over-crowded. It was decorated with signs that had unreadable messages in Chinese letters, and its' busy streets were congested with small unique food stands selling all sorts of different foods. “Chinatown can be described as a ghetto, which is defined by impoverished buildings that are deteriorating and very overcrowded.” (BG 160).

Class #6: Lower Manhattan and Captivating Chelsea

            Today we started off class by going to the World Trade Center Memorial. This is a spot that I always enjoy going to so that i could pay homage to the lives lost in 2001. Because my father works for the government he was down at the Trades Center working 14 hour days along with all of the people in his squad. He along with all other government workers along the east coast came rushing to the towers to help remove rubble, search for victims, basically anything they could do to assist in any way. I remember him coming home with free boots, hard hats and flashlights all of which were generously donated by different companies in a most charitable manner. I have visited here before but enjoyed going back and saying a prayer for all of those who lost their lives on this awful day in American history. Mike let us walk around and see the new Freedom towers being built from every direction.

            We also got to go to St Paul's Church which was built in 1764 in Georgian style. One thing that is interesting about this church is that George Washington attended services in this church in his reserved booth. There is also a booth reserved for the governor. What the church has become famous for in the famous 9/11 memorial inside. This was a place where the victims and workers came during the weeks following the attacks to rest and eat. This church became a shelter for the workers who could not go home because they only got a certain amount of time off during the weeks after the attacks.

          After St Paul’s Church we went to Trinity Church which was built in Gothic Revival style. The bronze doors on the front of the church were done by Richard Morris Hunt in 1893. This church has been here for a long time. When our country was founded these churches were here. This church holds great significance in the history of our country. As our founding fathers were in New York they most likely would have attended churches just like this one. I was intrigued and wanted to go inside and take a peak but there was a service going on and i realized it wasn't Catholic when I saw a woman minister on the alter, so I decided not to enter the church.

            After we visited all the different churches we walked by the New York Stock Exchange and I was surprised to see all of the barricades and police officers protecting the building. After that we went to Federal Hall National Monument. This was one of my favorite places that we visited during this class. It was so cool to see where George Washington was sworn in as our president and all of the things that were included with him becoming president. After this we strolled through Battery Park and saw the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island which are not part of the course but still fun to see. During our walk we saw the World Financial Center and the Irish Hunger Memorial.

            Finally after a couple of miles of walking we reached the Poet’s House. This building is completely devoted to the art of poetry. They take in hundreds of works every year from a variety of different writers. One unique thing about this place is that you do not need to be famous to enter poetry. Anyone can walk in and get their works put on the shelves of the house.

            Next on the agenda is Chelsea Market for lunch. This market has a wide variety of food to eat ranging from pizza to cupcakes to sushi. From the Market we walked on the  much-admired High Line. The High Line is an abandoned freight line that has been phenomenally converted into a amazing garden in which the people of New York can walk through and admire.

            Finally we took the stairs from the high line down into the heart of Chelsea’s art gallery scene. This area has undergone huge gentrification because it used to be a hot crime stop and a very bad place to be but now it had become one of the most famous art gallery scenes in the world. While in this area we did what any other wealthy person would do we gallery hopped. We walked into 10 galleries, looked at a couple of weird paintings or sculptures and walked right out. We spent no more than 5 minutes in each gallery. It was quite an experience.

Class #5: Eastside Explorations- Part Two

           

            As we got ready to depart for our adventures today Mike informed us that we would be traveling from Spanish Harlem on Central Park East to the Midtown East. To get to the Eastside we had to take the Times Square Shuttle, otherwise known as the S train over to Grand Central Station and take the number 6 train uptown to Eastern Harlem.

            Once we grotto East Harlem we walked to Museo Del Barrio. “Located at the edge of Spanish Harlem or ‘El Barrio’, El Museo was founded in 1969 by community activists, teachers and artists, mainly Puerto Ricans” (BG, 376). This museum was built from a one man show in a spare room in an apartment to a magnificent showcase for art around the world. This museum housed some of the most famous Latin-America art in America while also housing children’s art from the surrounding communities. The museum does this to show the kids that you do not need to be a famous artist to create art. Unfortunately, like NBC Studios, the museum did not let us take any pictures. This is unfortunate because this was a very interesting museum with a lot of interesting pieces.

            After walking around the museum for a little bit we started our walking tour of Spanish Harlem. The tour guide was a young man who worked for the museum as someone who reads and performs his art. His art does not hang in museums or even on walls. He speaks from the heart and creates images in his spectators heads while they listen to him preach. He showed us all around Spanish Harlem from the famous graffiti wall to the fallopian tube art in the park, and even showed us a gallery where street art hung. My favorite part of this tour was the graffiti wall where graffiti artists get permits to spray their message on the wall. In this part of Harlem the kids are encouraged to create art. To assist their knowledge in the area of art the city makes sure they surround the kids with positively influenced art.

            Once that tour was over we headed across the street to the Museum of the City of New York. “Founded in 1923, the Museum of the City of New York offers exhibitions that explore the city's complex history from its early days as a Dutch colony to its present eminence” (BG, 376). Here we saw how the famous Grid of New York was created. There were huge images and information showing and explaining every little detail that went into making the city what it is today. Here we also watched an interesting short film called “Timescales.” Timescales traces the growth of New York City from a settlement of a few hundred Europeans, Africans, and Native Americans to its status now as one of the greatest cities in the world.

            After the museum we went to the Conservatory Garden right across the street. As we hiked through the park I was tired but remembered that I wanted to enjoy myself and soak up the environment and the atmosphere in the park. After this park we made our way to Central Park where we all sat and discussed everything we saw in the class so far. I was amazed with the amount of different answers people gave when asked what was their favorite part of the course. I guess that’s what makes this course so interesting and fun; everybody has a different perspective about the different places we visit. Something that can be boring to me, others can find very interesting.

Class #4: The Wild Westside

Today our day began with an exploration of the Westside of Manhattan. We almost immediately left Penn Station at the designated time 11:05. First on our stop we went to Broadway where the city has given the pedestrians a nice place to sit in the street without being disturbed by cars. These pedestrian zones were created so that the people in the buildings surrounding them would have a safe place to walk and sit.

            At 42^nd Street we arrived at Times Square. Mike continued to tell us that Times Square was not a great place to be in the 60’s and 70’s. It became a popular spot for drug use and prostitution. With the help of Mayor Giuliani and his administration the area was cleaned up and now has become a central hub for the city; making this spot a popular one visited by millions of tourists every year. From here we walked through the G.E. Building, home of NBC Studios.

            At NBC Studios we got a guided tour of the place. It started with about a five minute video of how NBC Studios came to be. After about 30 seconds of NBC history, the video concentrated on promoting NBC’s shows. Filled with propaganda, the film showed famous actors starring in shows from many different shows that NBC is in charge of. Although I like most of the shows they brainwashed into watching I thought this was a little over the top.

            After the video we proceeded through NBC studios going up and down the floors getting tours of the different studios that make NBC what it is today. Unfortunately we were not allowed to take pictures during this tour because some of the things we saw they did not want getting out into the public. We got to see the Dr. Oz show and although it seems big on television the whole set can only seat 159 people.

            After eating lunch we hopped on the subway and took the 2 or 3 down to Harlem, which is undergoing major gentrification. We passed by the Studio Museum in Harlem which a museum for African American artists all over the world at different stages in their career. “The works here are inspired and influenced by black culture as it embraces 19^th and 20^th century African American art, 20^th century Caribbean and African art and traditional African art (BG, 440). We met up with someone who gave us a walking tour of the Mount Morris Historical District. This part of Harlem was filled with magnificent churches and brownstones from the 19^th century. Our tour guide proceeded to tell us the many famous spots in Harlem such as the Lenox Lounge where many movie stars have been. He even pointed out the Apollo Theatre which we did not go into but we were able to pass by it. George Keister was responsible for designing the Apollo Theatre in 1913. When it originally opened it and was a whites only theatre. “However in 1934, under new management the amateur nights began which has helped to launch the career of many artists such as Aretha Franklin, Diana Ross and Ella Fitzgerald” (BG, 440).

            The tour guide finished his tour but decided to stick with us as we walked through Morningside Park. This is located at 120^th street in Harlem. There was a beautiful flight of stairs that we all climbed up which lead us to Morningside Heights, a section of Manhattan. After walking through the park, we walked to the Grant Memorial where General Grant’s life and accomplishments are recognized. “General Grant was the commander in chief of the Union Armies in the Civil War and was also the president between 1868-1876” (BG, 434).