I live in a central New Jersey suburban town called South Brunswick.  South Brunswick is a decent sized town and would most likely be considered an automobile suburb.  Although some neighborhoods have sidewalks, mine specifically does not and I know of others that only have the automobile road as well. I’m not sure that there is one specific place to be considered the metropolitan area however the town has around 37,734 people living in it.  That being said my transportation mode for most of my childhood was by car, being driven to friends houses across town or to the mall which would usually be somewhere about fifteen minutes away.  There was always an occasion where I would ride my bike to a friend that lived close by to me, however that was rare, as my parents did not find the roads safe enough to ride my bike on especially with the lack of sidewalks.  The same goes fro many other kids in my town however you do see a decent amount of bikers during the warmer seasons which I would guess keeps our resident health up.

The first city I chose is Rochester, New York.  Rochester is an automobile suburb with a variety of neighborhoods just like Boston and like my hometown South Brunswick, New Jersey.  Specifically in Rochester the urban density does not seem to be very high along with my hometown South Brunswick and especially in my own neighborhood.  My neighborhoods urban density recently slightly went up however, as they turned one of my neighbors houses into a place for two families. Overall much like Rochester, there are few sidewalks and to get anywhere you use a car, very rarely does anyone walk to get anywhere unless they are down the street.  Reading about Rochester makes me realize that perhaps if they had more sidewalks the traffic would be much calmer and the same goes for South Brunswick.  As it says in the module transitioning into sustainability takes a lot of work and a lot of rebuilding, who knows, in Rochester sidewalks could be the first step.

The second city I chose is Detroit, Michigan.  Detroit, as said in the module “makes a good case study for “urban agriculture”.  Downtown Detroit did not previously have grocery stores offering fresh produce prior to them having urban agriculture and it has reshaped diets in Detroit and across the country.  This has allowed Detroit more affordable and healthier produce for the people in its environment.  It allows more people to make a living off of selling their produce.  On top of that it reduces their ecological footprint.  To connect that to my hometown there are a couple of houses that have their own garden near me but enough that there would be a time for them to sell at a market.  If more people went out of their way to be involved in urban farming it would improve resident health, because of the physical aspect of being outside and physically farming as well as reducing our ecological footprint.