-The town I live is Belmar, Central New Jersey; a few blocks from the beach. Although my neighborhood is generally packed with tourists all summer, I would consider my neighborhood to be both pedestrian-oriented, as well as automobile suburb and non-motorized suburb. The population is roughly 10,000 people in the metropolitan area. All the houses are close together, as well as schools, shops, so walking distance for pedestrians is never an issue. However, the downtown beach area consists of many motor vehicles such as motorcycles, cars, and water vehicles for transportation, so during the summertime the transportation varies. Of course we do have a high amount of pedestrians on the boardwalk and walking around by the downtown beach area, so I do consider this part of my town a non-motorized suburb. Depending on the season at the shore, my type of town changes. I have a close relationship with my town; people consider the beach their vacation, while I consider it home. I have grown up here my whole life in this beautiful environment.

-Just like Beacon Hill, Massachusetts, downtown Belmar is an urban area designed to make walking distances are attainable. The buildings are very close to each other for a specific reason; to make walking, work, social interactions, and entertainment distances accessible. In regards to urban density, Beacon Hill and downtown Belmar are both compact with taller buildings for more families to settle, and have lower use of automobiles because of shorter distance. These are considered mixed-use areas because shopping areas, grocery stores, and residence life are all very compact to each other, reducing the distance. Insights from Beacon Hill would help Belmar’s sustainability in such significant ways. Beacon Hill makes the environment more sustainable because it decreases pollution from car emission, as well as greater health because of high amounts of walking. Though Belmar is comparable to this, we have an issue with a high amount of motor scooters and water vehicles for entertainment, which we can learn from Beacon Hills ideas and methods to reduce this impact in order to stay more sustainable.
-Jamaica Plain, Massachusetts, is a comparable area to the township of Belmar mainly because this is what my neighborhood looks like. In my neighborhood, most families commute to the city for banks and businesses, so we consider ourselves a streetcar suburb neighborhood just like Jamaica Plain. Although there is a larger amount of spacing between houses compared to Beacon Hill and downtown Belmar, we are still somewhat close and consist of local shops a few blocks away that are convenient and accessible. On a similar note, Jamaica Plain and the township of Belmar are both related to the idea of physical infrastructure, which makes the idea of sustainability a little more difficult for us. We have adapted and grown to the idea that roads and automobiles are our main way of transportation and operating in our daily lives. Transitioning to a less automobile concept would be difficult because this is the way our areas were created! Unless we cognitively consider carpooling, this sustainability idea for both these areas is far too complicated.