This is 110th st and Broadway, where many restaurants are located such as, Chipotle, Famiglia, Starbucks, Maoz, Tom’s Restaurant, Le Monde, and Five Guys. This is the upper west side also known as the community I live in. This area is usually always hectic, busy and crowded due to the variety of restaurants that are located next to each other. Being that this location is part of the Columbia University campus, it makes it even more busy and is full of young adults. My neighborhood consists more of restaurants than clothing stores. On each block, there are restaurants and groceries stores that offer different foods. I believe my neighborhood is very welcoming and you can’t really see the diversity in the pictures above because I took these pictures in the morning and a lot of people weren’t outside. Although, the timing makes a big difference towards seeing the various people in the neighborhood. These restaurants are also located on Broadway and represent the wide varieties of the types of cultures these restaurants resemble.
This picture was taken on 92nd and Broadway. In this area, there are many delis that surround the area and in the picture you can see the store, Petco. This area consists of several delis and restaurants. This area is also busy and is surrounded by several stores such as, McDonalds, CVS, and many various restaurants. Broadway, the main avenue, is considered to be more of the busy area, where people purchase their necessities. Broadway is also known as the avenue that is more hectic and has a lot more people surrounding the areas. I feel as if there is more access to stores, rather on other avenues such as, Columbus and Amsterdam where there are less stores and more apartments. This pictures doesn't really show the diversity of this area, but going here often, I noticed this area wasn't segregated, there was a mix of Caucasian people, Hispanic, Asian, and African Americans. The communities I usually visit aren't segregated because these areas can be reflected by whether people work in the area or just visit the community because they want to.
To compile a lot of data for our project, Michelle and I took pictures of the people in our communities and the various areas we usually go to. We believe that our communities are welcoming and reflect a lot of the diversity in New York City. I live in the Upper West Side in Manhattan, whereas, Michelle lives in East New York, Brooklyn. These two areas are pretty far from each other, so it’s a great way to see the types of people living in these two communities. What my community may look like to others; it may vary. In my opinion, it is a very diverse, but a segregated area. The different avenues such as, Broadway, Amsterdam, and Columbus reflect the segregated areas. Personally, I believe that at Broadway, there are more Caucasian people, on Amsterdam, there are more Hispanic/Latino people, and on Columbus, there are more African American people. These avenues may segregate people because that is where they live. Although, everyone is entitled to go wherever they want, nobody is stopping them from going to different areas in their neighborhood or in the city.
These avenues segregate people based on where they reside. Although, this does not mean that these people are limited to not go to these areas in their neighborhoods. I made an observation noticing that people are “separated” because of avenues rather than the street number they live on. I live on Broadway, which is where more of the expensive restaurants and stores are. This area is usually crowded and very hectic, but I always go to Amsterdam and Columbus because they are great areas. I consider all the places I go to as my community diverse because they reflect each place you visited and whether you go to these areas often. This does not mean that everybody is limited to going to any other areas in the city, it just shows that people are separated, but not on purpose, but because of the area they reside in. This idea was significant to me because I didn’t think about whether there was any segregation in neighborhoods, I thought that all neighborhoods were diverse. I believe many neighborhoods are are developing which is making it easier for people to move to these areas.
This picture was taken at night and the location is between 90th and 91st on the Upper West Side. This pictures is significant because it shows a Caucasian family walking in the middle of night near their neighborhood. This isn’t necessarily my neighborhood, but I usually walk here to take a stroll around the community. This area is predominantly full of Caucasian people that live in this certain neighborhood. This area also has a lot of restaurants and stores such as, Big Daddy’s, Petco, Equinox, and several delis. This may not only be a neighborhood with Caucasian people because when I took this picture, they were the only people in the area. This doesn’t mean that this a Caucasian neighborhood, but there might be more white people than Hispanic or other races that live here. I took most of my pictures on Broadway because it reflects on where I usually am whether I’m on a different street, I am usually on Broadway!
Are people segregated because of the area they live in?
Overall, identifying the people in my neighborhood wasn't difficult because I've been living here all my life, I see familiar faces and different faces of people all the time. Although, some people may have different opinions on whether the community and neighborhood is diverse, I believe it is diverse in it's own way. There is segregation because of the different avenues that surround the area, but people don't segregate one another because they aren't limited to going to different areas in other communities. In order to communicate with others, we have to speak up and interact with one another. Rather segregating ourselves from each other, people should get to know others in order to discover cultures surrounding them. People should definitely try to surround themselves with people from different races because then that gives them a chance to bring everyone together and understand the growth of culture in New York City.