I live in the small town of Bellefonte, PA. It is mainly automobile-oriented. However, in downtown Bellefonte, there are sidewalks all over the town and throughout the neighborhoods. As you go further out of town, there aren’t sidewalks and it becomes more like an actual automobile-oriented town. There is a CATA bus that takes people from one stop in Bellefonte to State College, Boalsburg, and Pleasant Gap, so you could also say that Bellefonte is partially a “streetcar suburb” but as previously stated, it’s primarily automobile-oriented. Bellefonte has a little over 6000 people living within its borough. I was born here and never left. I hope to one day maybe move to a city or even move to State College. I think Bellefonte is a nice small town, but sometimes it can be inconvenient to go to the store, since I don’t live in downtown Bellefonte, I live more outside of it. Bellefonte is somewhat surrounded by farmlands.
The first city I’ll talk about is Boston. Although Bellefonte is nowhere near as populated as Boston, you will see people driving and also taking buses in Boston, like in neighborhoods and the Jamaica Plains have streetcars which are similar to the buses we have here in Bellefonte. I think that it would be kinda nice for the neighborhoods in downtown Bellefonte to have the pedestrian-oriented neighborhoods. Most of the streets in those neighborhoods are one-way which makes it kinda challenging to navigate, especially if you aren’t from here. I think the bus system we have is pretty good. Most things are within walking distance in Bellefonte, so it really is only necessary to have it commute to State College or anywhere else nearby.
The second city I’ll talk about is New York City. I went there for the first time the fall of 2014 to march in the Veteran’s Day parade with my high school marching band. You may see small gardens on the rooftops of some buildings in NYC. I think, even though the area surrounding Bellefonte is agrarian, that Bellefonte buildings should have some too. There are small apartment buildings and that would be nice for those people that live in those buildings because it makes it more convenient for them. Bellefonte isn’t near as polluted or near places that produce pollution.
hi my name is Jiye Choi. i’m junior studying energy engineering.
I understand that your town is automobile-oriented it is reasonable. i think towns like your hometown should have better public transportation system so that people feel comfortable with public transportation and it will help for sustainability. and it is cool that NYC buildings have rooftop garden and they also have central park. I think those things help to balance sustainability. here is my post http://sites.psu.edu/geog30/2016/03/18/learning-activity-7-jiye-choi/
Hello my name is Gilberto. Here is the link to my post: https://wp.me/p3RCAy-cnW
Seeing as your from Bellefonte it is quite the different environment from the one I am from. I am from San Juan, Puerto Rico. It is interesting to compare home towns as we both come from completely separate spaces, and you have a very efficient public transportation system. I liked your comparison of Bellefonte to Boston and seeing how they are similar even though they are very different in population size. Interesting you found gardens like that in NYC, though I agree it is different in the amount of polllution found in each.