My hometown is Southampton, Pennsylvania. It is about 30 minutes outside of Philadelphia and is an automobile suburb. According to Southampton Demographics, there are about 40,000 residents in this city. There are a lot of single-family homes spread out in a large area so we have a low urban density, and we are single-use. This relates back to being an automobile suburb because there is more space between houses and there are no sidewalks to walk to businesses, like the grocery store. We have less residential health because we are more likely to use cars, however, in my neighborhood there are a lot of gym options. The catch is, you have to drive there! Even though our transportation mode is car use, there are a lot of train stations to get into Philadelphia; a lot of adults work in Philadelphia so they use the train to avoid traffic. It is also a collective action because people are using public transportation to at least get to work, which in return helps air pollution.
The first city I picked is Chicago. From looking through the pictures, they seem to have high urban agriculture. My city does have some farming in large plots of land and the people sell the food at local farmer’s markets. However, I think we can expand this like Chicago has. There are multiple hospitals in my town and I like the idea of having plant life around them so patients can see it outside their windows. By doing this, we could become more sustainable because we would be using unused land to help the local community get homegrown food. We would be putting the unused land into good use and could even bring the community closer together because people could volunteer to help keep up with the plants. It will also help the air pollution because it requires less transportation of food from other counties.
Next, I picked New York City. This is completely opposite from my city because it is predominately a Pedestrian-Oriented Neighborhood. However, there are a lot of public transportation options, like subways, to get around the city. I feel like my homework could learn from New York City that walking should be another option of getting around. We could become more sustainable by adding sidewalks throughout neighbors and streets so that people could walk to another house or a business. This could even help air pollution because people could walk instead of just driving everywhere. Also it can help the health concern in my town because it will encourage more people to walk. Even though most people drive to the gym, an easy and cheap way of getting exercise is just to walk! People in New York City do this all the time so I feel like that is what we can learn from them.
2 thoughts on “Urban Planning – Jessica Moritz”
Hi Jess! My hometown also is an automobile suburb so I can relate to having to drive everywhere. I agree that areas can be more sustainable if there is more locally grown food through urban farming and also if there were more sidewalks so that people can walk to where they would like to go. I think that if sidewalks were more available, people would be more willing to walk around their town. I think that there is a lot to learn from other places such as Chicago and New York City that will help other towns become more sustainable.
Hey Jessica, my name is Lizzy and I chose to comment on your blog post because I, too, live in an automobile suburb outside of Philadelphia called Huntingdon Valley. Its a bit closer to the city than you but nonetheless, I agree with so much of what you said about transportation. We have lots of trails and parks near us for exercise, which benefit residential health, but like you said, everyone drives there. My mom actually works in Philadelphia and takes the train in like you said, which is a better option than driving. Here is a link to my blog post containing all that I commented about: http://geog030.dutton.psu.edu/2016/03/15/sustainable-living/. Thanks for your insights in your blog post!
Hi Jess! My hometown also is an automobile suburb so I can relate to having to drive everywhere. I agree that areas can be more sustainable if there is more locally grown food through urban farming and also if there were more sidewalks so that people can walk to where they would like to go. I think that if sidewalks were more available, people would be more willing to walk around their town. I think that there is a lot to learn from other places such as Chicago and New York City that will help other towns become more sustainable.
If you have the chance, take a look at my blog post: http://geog030.dutton.psu.edu/2016/03/15/urban-planning-across-the-world/
Hey Jessica, my name is Lizzy and I chose to comment on your blog post because I, too, live in an automobile suburb outside of Philadelphia called Huntingdon Valley. Its a bit closer to the city than you but nonetheless, I agree with so much of what you said about transportation. We have lots of trails and parks near us for exercise, which benefit residential health, but like you said, everyone drives there. My mom actually works in Philadelphia and takes the train in like you said, which is a better option than driving. Here is a link to my blog post containing all that I commented about: http://geog030.dutton.psu.edu/2016/03/15/sustainable-living/. Thanks for your insights in your blog post!