My hometown is Mountaintop, Pennsylvania. Mountaintop is in Luzerne County and located in the Northeastern part of the state. The population is about 15,000. It is an automobile suburb. There aren’t any sidewalks in Mountaintop, so it is very rare to see people walking places and mostly everyone drives. I’ve lived in Mountaintop for ten years. Although it does feel like home to me, I don’t love it there. It was a great place to grow up, but there is not much to do in the area. There is a nice park to go to with basketball courts, tennis courts, and an ice rink in the winter, but besides the park, Mountaintop doesn’t offer much more than that. I don’t dislike Mountaintop, but I definitely don’t want to live there forever.
Boston, Massachusetts is a place I could definitely see myself living in the future. I have a lot of family in that area and I even considered going to school there before I decided on Penn State. Specifically, Beacon Hill is where I would want to live in that area. As it was stated in the module, there are tons of interesting things to do there like shop, enjoy various types of food and entertainment, and it is all within walking distance. Since the area is designed in a way that makes walking to places easy and desirable, walking is the main mode of transportation there, unlike Mountaintop. If Mountaintop put sidewalks in, I think that would definitely help make the area more of a pedestrian-oriented neighborhood, while making the area more attractive.
Another city that caught my attention while reading the module was Curibita, Brazil. I was really surprised to learn that the city is able to keep the public transportation affordable while still being able to run busses about every minute. The subway system is extremely conducive to keeping the environment healthy as well. After reading about their subway system and how successful is it there, it made me wonder about the public transportation offered in Mountaintop. After thinking about it, I realized there is no public transportation offered whatsoever. If Mountaintop were to provide some form of public transportation, it would eliminate a lot of pollution and save people money. This would be a positive change for not only the environment, but for the residents of my hometown as well.
Hey Sophia! My name is Peter Han and am intending on studying mechanical engineering here at Penn State. My hometown is Niles, Michigan. Your post caught my eye because your hometown sounds a lot like mine. Mine also has automobile neighborhoods but it has some sidewalks throughout the city. However your description of the city sounds a lot like what mine would be about Niles, as there is not that much to do in Niles either. I also agree that provided public transportation or providing sidewalks would allow your city as well as mine to become more sustainable.
Here is a link to my blog: http://geog030.dutton.psu.edu/2016/03/18/peter-han-module-7/
Hey Sophia, here is a link to my blog post: http://geog030.dutton.psu.edu/2016/03/18/dylan-hellings-module-7/
I found it really interesting that your town doesn’t have any sidewalks, there are definitely parts of my town that don’t but I would say that at least 75% of roads have an accessible sidewalk, even though my town is also an automobile suburb. I agree with your sentiment about Boston, MA. I have only been there once but it seems like everything I personally would want in a town. Although Brazil not so much.