1.
My hometown is Cherry Hill, New Jersey, a county of Camden. Cherry Hill is approximately 30 minutes from Philadelphia and has about 71,000 residents. The city is dependent on automobiles as markets and entertainments are not walking distances from most homes. In most cases students rarely walk to school as the school is not near homes. Usually parents give students rides or students take the school bus. Different from other cities, Cherry Hill does not have a near park for people to enjoy a walk. Thus, a car ride to a near by neighborhood is required. In recent days, urban agriculture has been popular in the city. As for my family and neighbors, more and more residents have been farming their own vegetables. Most people farm as a hobby. However, this probably has helped them save couple of dollars on buying food.
2.
The first city I chose was Chicago, Illinois. Although Chicago is pedestrian-oriented because it is a city where most buildings are all within a walking distance from each other. It also has 30 times the amount of residents in comparison with Cherry Hill. At a first glance, it may seem like that Chicago as no relevance with Cherry Hill. However, there is a particular similarity that stands out. In both cities urban agriculture is present. As south Chicago is notorious for its poverty, urban agriculture might be able to reduce hunger rate. If these people have enough space in their yards to start their own small farm they may be able to eat on a regular basis. Bringing sustainable food source may be very crucial for these people. If the city provides urban agriculture food, the poverty rate decrease in Chicago.
3.
The second city I chose was Rochester, NY. Just from the image itself, it shows many similarities to Cherry Hill. In my neighborhood, there aren’t many sidewalks like in Rochester. However, Cherry Hill does have some sidewalks because of elementary school. Like Rochester, people that live in Cherry Hill needs automobile transportation to get around the city. Like Rochester, it is very unlikely to see people walking around the neighborhood or to get to the grocery store. I think that Cherry Hill should more sidewalks and develop a more pedestrian-oriented city. This allows high school students to go to convenience store to grab food when their parents are at work. It might encourage people to walk more to save gas.
Hi David, my name is Katie and I really enjoyed reading the similarities and differences between our towns. First off I come from Huntingdon which is also highly dependent on automobiles as a source of transportation. I also talked about Urban Agriculture in my post and how beneficial it would be to my town if it became a more common thing. I also discussed how certain parts of Huntingdon could become more pedestrian-oriented if the residents there made the choice to walk to the places that they could. If you are interested here is a link to my post.
http://geog030.dutton.psu.edu/2016/03/18/katie-kurtz-module-7/