Essay Six: Crime and Circumstance

Summary:

      This essay topic allowed me to explore many different areas of the city’s crime rate. The young men of the city between the ages of 18-25 are usually seen as the main offenders of crime. I wanted to give not only a reason for the increase in crime, or decrease, but also a considerable way to change that. The research would allow for the reduction of crime and the increase of the city’s pride.

Reason:

       While there is always going to be crime in cities there can be a way to change how much crime there is committed in the city. A major factor of crime is the unemployment rate in the city of New Bedford. The question allowed for us to think outside the normal thoughts of bored teenagers with nothing else to do because they decided they didn’t want to go to school or they couldn’t handle the system that has been provided to them. People who don’t have the money to support themselves because they lost their jobs will look to other ways to take care of themselves and their families.

Purpose:

        In researching for this essay I was able to put different pieces together and create a more realistic picture. There is no one reason for the rise in crime and there can’t be a single fix to lower the crime rate. I think that the purpose of this essay was to allow the different pieces to take their own shape and create a valid and perhaps easier and eventually permanent solution to the crime rate that other cities may find useful.

Direction:

        During the research for this essay I found myself thinking about friends of mine in high school who had run-ins with the local town police. My own home town is very small so everyone knew everyone else’s business. I thought about how there was always a blame on the lack of structure that the high school students had in their lives. Students were free to do what they wanted after school because the town didn’t really have a place for kids to go and use their energy productively. There was also a lot of traveling to the neighboring Rhode Island city of Woonsocket, where kids would find even more ways to get into trouble. I thought about the job I had my senior year of high school and how even though I was only working 12 hours a week I stayed out of trouble because work forced me to create a schedule for homework and sleep.

Impressions:

        As I was searching the statistics and the different numbers for the past ten years in the city I was amazed to see how the crime rate went up and down. It got me thinking why was there a drop in crime that would only climb again the next year or even two years later. There was an article that gave me a small glimmer of hope for the education of students. The school has evening classes that if implemented the right way can cause students to stay out of trouble and allow the crime rate to lower. I was amazed to think that they would also allow students who have been out of the system for a few years to come back to school and finish in the night program.( South Coast)

Part Two:

    During the past ten years the crime rate in the city of New Bedford has gone through stages of ups and downs. There hasn't been a stable set of good years or a stable set of bad years. There are however some different aspects of society that may play a role in the rising and falling crime rate. There was an increase in the city’s graduation rate had a rare increase in 2009 to 60.3% which only turned around and fell in 2010 to 55.8%.(South Coast) 

     This was a driving factor to the low employment rate that the city has been facing. According to the Labor Bureau the unemployment rate for October 2011 was 9.9, this isn’t finalized as of yet. The unemployment rate from exactly one year earlier in 2010, was only a percent higher 10.9. The graduation rate for 2011 hasn’t been released yet.(South Coast)

     The unemployment rate would attribute to people’s need to find other ways to provide for their families. There would be an increase in the number of thefts and there would be an increase in the number of arson attempts on the empty buildings in the city. Buildings would be empty because, as discussed in a previous essay, there are fewer people able to pay for their homes and they would move away or abandon them.  This would allow for the increase of empty neighborhoods and make it harder for police to control squatters and kids looking to impress their friends.

(Property crime table)

   The crimes committed in New Bedford would decrease with the addition of neighborhood pride. There has to be a strong connection for the people who live to want to take care of their homes. People who go on vacation tend to leave a light on in their kitchen or hallway to deter robbers at night. If there were more neighbors willing to help out they would be able to keep a closer eye on the homes around theirs. Crime rates are lower in more populated areas and areas that look like they are well maintained and people care.

   Sadly the graduation rate and the increased number of young adults without high school diplomas is another huge factor. There are startling statistics that show that only one in two New Bedford High School students will graduate. "The student enrollment in 2010-2011 is 12,538 students; the district has 26 schools.Nearly three-quarters of the district’s students are low-income, and for about one in five English is not their first language."(School Review)

  Crime needs to be handled for the city to get back on its feet both in the education area and in the community strength. The city would be a safer place if the community took charge of their own well being and became more active in helping to fight the causes of crime.

 

Essay 2: Networking Then & Now

Summary:

Through the research on the changes of communication I will admit my mind went straight to smoke signals and the pony express. While these were ways people communicated it was still a limited amount of interaction. So I jumped ahead and focused more on the way people interacted as cities and towns began to develop and eventually as technology became more advanced.  I felt like there was a distinct connection between communication and generations. I never really thought about how different it is for my parents living in a technologically dependant society. I grew up using all the things my parents have had a difficult time adjusting to.

Reason:

After careful consideration the reason behind this question was still slightly unclear. Then after doing the needed research and comparing what I found to my knowledge of modern social life I began to understand. The question isn’t so much a historical record or a trace of communication changes but how a city that needs to be revitalized needs to have both the public and nonpublic interactions incorporated into its design.

Purpose:

When redesigning the city we can’t just fix up the buildings and call it a day. There has to be some kind of logical and space orientated way that benefits the city and the members of the community.  The community needs to feel like it plays a part in the city design and they are able to have interesting and fun things to do. This would promote happiness among residents and would allow for people to feel more interaction with each other not just their coworkers and their computers. It also allows parents to spend quality time with their children.

Direction:

           As I began researching I had a pretty good idea which direction I was going to go. I wanted to show how the city had changed in regard to people’s interactions.  I wanted to look into how the city’s change into more modern times and a more fast paced design had affected interactions. I wanted to see if the neighborhood bar or park was still as important to the community as it was ten or even fifty years ago. The original plan I had for the question was to trace communication types and how they have affected people’s lives but now I want to determine how the way people interact can help or hurt the way we redesign New Bedford.

Impressions:

Part Two:

QUESTION: Look back on the historical and traditional manner in which people have exchanged news, information, ideas, gossip and the like and compare it to today.  How different or alike is communication, interaction and social networking?

Social interaction has always been a basic human need. As babies that is one of the things we crave, the comforting touch of our mothers or the gentle rocking of our fathers. There is an instinct in humans to migrate towards people because as much as people love to have their personal space no one likes to be completely alone. During the earlier generations it wasn't uncommon to see people gathered at the local bar, nail salons, barber shops, and parks. It was a way for everyone to share the news and gossip they had heard over the course of the week. There was also a distinctly divided way it was done. Men and women had their own places to gather and their own different things to talk about. Men could “complain” about work, their wives, the economy, or the upcoming season.  Women on the other hand would exchange cleaning tips, “complaints” about their husbands, tips on raising children, and little bits of gossip about the other women.

                

                The way people interact now is in some ways similar just the locations and the topics have changed. In some ways they are completely different because people don’t have to be in the same place to have social interactions.  A very well known, often joked about, interaction is the world of internet dating. Before the creation of internet dating websites people would be able to place personal ads in the newspapers. These were for people to look for a potential partner without having to go out and try the bar scenes.  Internet dating started off with the international dating process mostly with the common term of “mail order brides”. By 1995 there was the creation of one of the best known dating sites, match.com, which lead to the major increase in web dating sites. People were able to communicate what they found most interesting in other people and wait for someone to come along that was considered a good match. This takes the social awkwardness about meeting someone new for the first time.

                

In 1998, Internet dating got a cultural boost with the release of the movie "You've Got Mail". The movie, which reunited "Sleepless in Seattle's" Tom Hanks and Meg Ryan, focused on two business rivals who hated each other in person but fell in love over the Web. Though the movie didn't focus on Internet dating directly, it put meeting someone on the Web in a positive light and showcased the Web as a tool for bringing people together, even those who don't like each other in the physical world.

(http://brainz.org/history-online-dating/)

http://www.weblo.com/asset_image/477736/113977/Match.com/

               

The drawback to internet dating is the fact that people lose the personal connection. They don’t have the initial interaction with someone that could make or break a relationship. First impressions can’t be made over the internet because you can’t see the person you are talking to. Someone may sound amazing while they type but they could have a pet peeve that you don’t know about because it is physical. This could cause a serious problem for the local businesses that rely on people to interact with each other or to have large quantities of people in their establishment at once. This can hurt the economy of a city extremely when the smaller businesses don’t have the income to pay the taxes that help support the city education system, emergency system, and public works system.

Another huge change in the way people interact is the development of social networking sites, such as facebook and myspace. Both of these sites offer different ways to communicate with your friends and family both while on line and while on the move.  It allows for people to make events that they want to invite friends to, instead of using the traditional mail delivered invitations, and it also allows people to post photos for their friends to see of their vacation or photography interests.  Social networking is a great way for people who don’t live near their friends anymore to stay in touch. For example a student who moves even a simple two hundred miles from their family can use facebook to show their mom photos of the new and exciting things going on in their lives. It can be a very useful tool when it isn’t used in place of being out in the real world.

We define social network sites as web-based services that allow individuals to (1) construct a public or semi-public profile within a bounded system, (2) articulate a list of other users with whom they share a connection, and (3) view and traverse their list of connections and those made by others within the system. (http://jcmc.indiana.edu/vol13/issue1/boyd.ellison.html)

http://www.accessfacebookinchina.com/

Social networking sites have had a huge impact on the younger generations who have grown up knowing how to text and how to send an e-mail or an instant message. They don’t know how to write a formal letter or how to properly write an e-mail to a potential employer. It has created a gap in the generations that isn’t bridgeable by giving kids a history lesson but by helping the older generations understand how to use the new technology that has emerged. Personally my mother has had the hardest time adjusting to using a computer, much more than my father and some of my other relatives. She doesn’t understand how a link works or why a computer needs to constantly update the software to stay current and up to speed with the rest of the world.

http://technorati.com/blogging/article/how-myspace-can-survive-apples-ping/

Essay 3: Pride of Ownership

SUMMARY:  During my research for reasons of urban blight I found myself bouncing from topic to topic. I couldn't get a solid answer until I realized that many of the reasons were and are connected. There isn't just one set reason and then another and another.  At first I wanted to focus on the schools in the area which lead me to the amount of money spent on education. While there I looked into the unemployment rate and following that I looked into real estate to see exactly what kind of neighborhoods I would be dealing with. If they were mostly empty from selling houses or if there happened to be a lot of foreclosures.

REASON: Professor Fortier gave this essay because when you start looking at the reasons behind urban blight you start to see that everything is connected. One can’t redesign a city without taking into consideration what kind of youth generation has taken to calling certain areas “home” and their “territory”.

Purpose: In order to start understanding blight we have to take into consideration that most of the blight is from tagging by the youth of the city and the in ability of the population to pay for their homes. This essay question allows us to relate everything together and see that you can’t just take away the graffiti and expect things to get better you have to give the youth a better outlet for it.

DIRECTION:  While looking into the number and the different areas of New Bedford I realized that I knew very little about the city itself. This essay took me into the heart of a city I barely knew and gave me a light to follow.  I found myself looking further and further into the public school history and the history of each section of the city I figured out different parts of the city and saw them as individuals not just the big city.

IMPRESSIONS: My head started to spin as I took each bit of new information and found a place to put it. I was amazed at exactly how much of the blight was "gangs" and kids tagging buildings. I was also amazed at how many houses were up for sale and exactly how many areas New Bedford has. I realized as I continued my research that I have been living in my small hometown away from a lot of the big city things and it is time to break out of that shell.

Part two:
QUESTION: Identify and investigate what you believe to be the reason for urban neighborhood blight. What do you believe to be the main reason some neighborhoods are well kept while others are not and is part of it, some of it or none of it directly related to income?

   
 Blight is a truly odd concept to understand if there isn't come kind of context to go with it. Urban blight in this case uses the definition " any cause of impairment, destruction, ruin, or frustration" (Blight). The first area to examine when considering urban blight would be the school systems. Most of the urban blight is graffiti done by the younger generation leaving their mark."The stretch of concrete under the highway bridge featured parking lots, a skate park, limited street lighting and more than two dozen pillars, each of which had some sort of graffiti. Some of it relates to drugs, some of it to Satan "(Urban Scrawl). This is related but not limited to the average school kid being bored and wanting to be heard or to have their name remembered.
     The next logical step towards an answer for blight is the decline in occupied houses. Areas have been abandoned because people haven't been able  to afford living in their homes anymore. New Bedford has an estimated eight hundred and eighty houses up for sale( Realty). This a high number considering the size of the city. There are nine area zip codes for the city itself. The city had an extimated 95,000 residents in the year 2010 (At A Glance Report).
   This train of thought was followed by the levels of unemployment in the city. The unemployment rate in the city of New Bedford is 15.5% in the year 2011 (At A Glance Report). Such a high number of unemployed people leads to the decline of income and the in ability to maintain the homes they are living in. Paying the mortgage or the rent becomes more important than the money on gas to mow the lawn or the time it takes to wash your car will be spent going to job interviews instead. This leads a lot of homes being neglected and this then becomes part of the urban blight.