Port Orchard, Washington is located in western Washington on the Kitsap Penninsula in the southern Puget Sound. According to the NATHAN map data, we are located within a zone 3 earthquake region that has the potential to experience earthquakes within the range of 8 on the modifies mercali scale. According to the NATHAN maps, Port Orchard is at a low risk for all other listed natural hazards. Going beyond the required maps, we do experience warmer than average weather during an el nino and wetter that average weather during an el nina. It is my opinion that while the NATHAN maps are informative, the scale at which they present their information is slightly to large to ascertain any accurate information regarding a specific town or city. It is an excellent set of maps if you only desire to view hazards on a large scale.

After viewing the Hungarian National Association RSOE EDIS interactive map, I selected an earthquake located 14.29 miles outside of Los Banos, California. Although the date was off (it occurred today, but they had it listed as tomorrow), the earthquake had a magnitude of 3.5 with a shallow depth of .62 miles. The potential effect of the earthquake was listed as “People do not feel any earth movement”. I found that strange, and I suspect location and geology are to blame, but here, in Washington, it makes the news. This type of event does happen with a slightly regular occurrence in my hometown of Port Orchard. We are in a seismically active region and are “due” for a large quake. Although we are aware of the risks and potential of moderate to large earthquakes in our area, many homes and businesses are still under prepared to handle a large earthquake. Had this same earthquake occur in Port Orchard, the magnitude, timing and duration would have little to no effect on the community at large. Schools and most businesses practice earthquake drills and damage would be minimal. The effect this disaster would have on the population of Port Orchard would also be minimal. Its magnitude is not large enough to create any large or moderate scale discord. Had the magnitude been higher, Port Orchard and Kitsap County at large would be in a very precarious situation as we are largely only connected to the rest of the state by 2 bridges (which would close down until deemed safe) and a small patch of land. In the aftermath of such a large disaster, we would largely be left to fend for ourselves and wait for assistance (which would take time, larger cities first). In that aspect, we are very vulnerable, and that is why our DEM preached the importance of shelter in place and having emergency supplies.

As an ex firefighter I volunteer as a CERT (community emergency response team) leader for the south end of Kitsap County. Through many long hours and days (last year), in conjunction with the Kitsap County Department of Emergency Management and local fire, PUD and law enforcement, we have focused the likelihood of  any natural hazard that would have a large impact on the county. Of all the scenarios (omitting terrorism for the sake of the lesson, and earthquakes which were previously discussed), wildfires and drought are on the list of highest concern. Recent warming trends (global warming or otherwise) have caused areas of our county to experience wildfires that we are not fully equipped to handle. To add further complications attributed to warmer and drier weather in the region is Kitsap Counties unique geology. water is a precious and limited resource. We have no snow-pack to supply water to our county, and with the exception of one city and its reservoir, all of our water is sourced from groundwater that is recharged from rainfall. In recent years, well pumps have actually began to suck up salt water from the sound as the aquifers run dry. These are the two largest issues (other issues aside) that we currently face in Port Orchard and the county. There is no ready answer for these situations, but plans are in place to help those most in need, including the elderly and local healthcare facilities (all schools are prepared and have emergency supplies in case of ANY disaster). (Kitsap County Department of Emergeny Management 2016)

In Port Orchard (or any city for that matter), the best way to reduce vulnerability to natural hazards in preparedness. Inform the public, show and teach them how to build and use a survival kit. Increase public awareness to the availability and location of community points of distribution. Create and actively recruit for CERT teams. Build stronger communities and neighborhoods by establishing neighborhood watch programs. All of these things are the absolute core fundamentals when it comes to reducing vulnerability. All of these things can be performed by your average citizen as well. I would encourage everyone to contact their local DEM or fire department and ask about the availability of programs like CERT and neighborhood watch or a community action corp.

Philadelphia, the city of brotherly love. That nickname can actually be sort of deceiving to foreigners of this region as the city is home to some of the most dangerous neighborhoods in the country. Located on the east coast, it makes it very easy to commute to neighboring states such as New Jersey, Delaware, New York, and Maryland. Within Philly, the neighborhoods vary on so many different levels. From the skyscrapers downtown to the private homes on the outskirts, each neighborhood has their own culture and heritage. Philly is the largest city in Pennsylvania, and fifth most populous in the United Sates with approximately 1.5 million people residing in it. They saying of “Product of your environment” is very realistic in Philadelphia. Different areas have different culture. You can grow up downtown around the museums and grow up loving art. Whereas in my neighborhood, every kid growing up loved football and basketball. Other areas are more baseball, or hockey. This city has molded me to who I am today, and I wouldn’t change it for anything.

A lot of the big cities along the east coast have some similarities, especially Philadelphia and New York City. Having lived in both cities, I’ve gotten accustomed to both lifestyles and cultures. The sports culture is huge in both cities, which offers a huge rivalry between the two cities. In both cities you can find pedestrian neighborhoods, and automobile dependent suburbs. New York is definitely famous for the amazing skyline it offers, and although a bit smaller, Philly’s skyline is just that much to talk about as it continues to grow. One thing I’ve always said that Philly needs to adopt from NYC is the public transportation system. Not that we have a bad system, it’s just that NYC offers the best transportation system I’ve seen in any US city. Outside of the inner city of Philadelphia, it is almost necessary to have a car. New York’s subway system is amazing, and you can get anywhere within the 5 boroughs with a simple metro card. Philly does have a system in place, they’re just not as frequent as the transportation in NYC.

Another city that might be even closer to Philadelphia in similarities is Baltimore, MD. Unlike NYC, the Baltimore skyline doesn’t over shadow Philly’s as the buildings are closer in size. If anything the Philly skyline might be a little bigger. The local neighborhoods are also a little more similar, especially those in the inner city. In both cities you can find similar road homes, where majority of the population most likely live in. One big distinction between the two however, is that Philly is a lot more crowded. With Philly’s 1.5 million count, it nearly doubles that of Baltimore’s 620k. If there is anything that Philly can do more like Baltimore to be more sustainable, is that try to gain ideas from Baltimore’s harbor. Although we do have a seaport in Philly off of the Delaware River, it is nothing compared to that of Baltimore.

My town is Swarthmore Pennsylvania. It is outside of Philly and is a mix of suburban automobile for people who live in the area and commute to Philly and pedestrian-oriented due to the clustered main area which contains an old college. The college part has narrow walkways similar to Beacon Hill but other parts are automobile oriented like Rochester NY. It is part of a much larger general metro area outside Philly but the smaller town area itself has roughly 15,000 people. The place is nice, definitely a good mixture of a town and suburb style. However, the people there are very old fashioned and this ends up messing with the surrounding areas who do not have the same old design. I like the town and the area but sometimes the people cause massive problems.

The first city I will focus on from the module is Rochester NY. I am choosing this because it is how a lot of the surrounding neighborhoods and towns are aside from Swarthmore. In Rochester, things are more focused on automobiles and getting into the city. My area needs to take this into consideration. My area has a road, the Blue Route, which connects two major areas of transportation and many many people rely on it for work each day. It was designed as a shortcut back when the suburban neighborhoods in the area were booming. However, my town blocked the highway from being 3 lanes in their part, meaning there is a several mile stretch where the road is only 2 lanes. While not a huge deal back in the day, this causes massive traffic jams not only on the Blue Route itself but also on the major highway it connects to. Because my area was determined to remain a mix of pedestrian and automobile focused, it really screwed the whole region. This is a problem that should have been addressed back in the day and is now causing major issues for commuters in the area. My town would be more sustainable if it allowed the highway to expand: less traffic, pollution, and overall higher quality of life for the entire region.

The next city I will focus on is Detroit. I really believe that there is a major opportunity for urban farming in my town. Swarthmore is a place that enjoys organic food but there is a real lack of it, meaning prices are extremely high. This could be solved by putting the developed area to use as urban farms. Small scale urban farms could produce local goods and have a major opportunity to sell them right in the town. Swarthmore is obviously not as developed as Detroit however, and it must be noted that our version of urban farming would be a more open and “rural” one in comparison to theirs. Both achieve the same goal however: reduce the footprint of shipping food and also satisfy a demand for local, fresh, organic produce that cannot be easily accessed.

My home town is a small pedestrian friendly town surrounded my suburbs and farmland. In Marietta Pa the population is barely over 3,000. The town features its own elementary school, fire and police station, post office and a variety of small businesses. The 0.80 square mile town is easy to walk around and has all of the services that would allow one time never have to drive, if they so chose. If you lives a few miles outside of the small town of Marietta you would have to rely on some form of vehicular transportation for virtually every aspect of your needs. Although many people who live in the area still prefer to own cars and drive many places. Even though my hometown is walkable many people do not utilize this characteristic nor value it. Major cities like NYC have every service available within walking distance or through public transportation making owning a vehicle an obsolete notion. If this was more widely available in a larger variety of areas more people would value the idea of a walkable town or city.

My hometown is Greenwich, CT. It borders different parts of NY, and many people commute daily to New York City for work. The population in Greenwich is about 65,000 people and it is located in southern CT. There are many different parts of Greenwich. The downtown area is more of a streetcar suburb, while central Greenwich is a pedestrian oriented part of town, with famous shopping locations such as Greenwich Avenue. Where I live however, is very much an automobile suburb type area. It is known as backcountry Greenwich and is about a 10 – 15 minute drive from the downtown area. Growing up in downtown Greenwich, I love being able to walk to parks and other friends’ houses. However, the seclusion of being in the backcountry area where I am now is so beautiful and I wouldn’t trade it for anything. One reason why I love Greenwich is because it is such a big town with many diverse areas. I think that it makes its residents very well rounded. My whole family lives within 15 minutes of each other in town and I hope to live in Greenwich forever.

The town that compared most to Greenwich was Rochester, NY. The houses there seemed to be very similar to the layout of those in Greenwich. Each house had its own green space with their own driveways. It was also an automobile suburb, like Greenwich is. In backcountry Greenwich, there are no sidewalks. The town’s layout in this area is not meant to be pedestrian friendly, and that is very similar to how it is in Rochester. In Greenwich, it is not feasible to get from backcountry to downtown, as it is a 10 – 15 minute drive in the car. I do not think that adding sidewalks would help. However, because each house has its own backyard, it does encourage people to go outdoors and allows for children to have playdates in the comfort of their own homes. As far as downtown Greenwich goes, adding more green spaces for people to gather could be something that engages the community and encourages people to get outdoors and exercise.

Another town that is relevant to Greenwich is Beacon Hill, Massachusetts. It is relevant because in central Greenwich, there are many places to shop, eat, work, etc. There are so many shops that you can go to and they are all within walking distance. The street layouts out and the proximity of all of these stores to each other makes this a very pedestrian friendly area. Beacon Hill, being developed in the 1800s, when walking was the main method of transportation, is very pedestrian oriented as well. Beacon Hill is a very wealthy area, and Greenwich is one of the wealthiest towns in the country, even with central Greenwich having many low income housing apartments. What I love about Beacon Hill is that people can afford cars but would rather walk. I think that central Greenwich could work on making those housing projects look a little bit more attractive and then people would be more inclined to walk through the area, if the roads and sidewalks looked as beautiful as those in Beacon Hill.

For the past six years, I’ve been living in an automobile suburb in Dallas in Pennsylvania. Dallas has a current population of roughly 8,000 people. A vast majority of residents travel to Wilkes-Barre, a city with a population of around 41,100 people for work, which is at least 10 or more miles away for most Dallas residents. The majority of residents get their licenses at 18 years old or younger, driving is the main method of transportation. Personally, I really enjoyed the privilege of driving around everywhere. Although I’d rather live in a pedestrian-oriented city, a lot of conveniences did come with driving a car. While living there, I made a lot of personal connections and built relationships to the community that greatly influenced my life.

At over 8 million people, New York City is the most populated city in the United States, making it easy to use for comparison to other cities and areas due to its diversity of its neighborhoods. In New York City, most people rely on public and pedestrian transportation to get around, however many still own a car due to its size. Personally, I think I would try to own a car if I lived there, but not use it as my main method of transportation, but rather for more less frequent occasions. I also feel that main transportation methods are deciding factors for residents in the United States due to both the finances tied to getting a car or transitioning to a pedestrian-oriented area in an environment such as New York. Dallas can learn from New York by increasing the population density of developing areas of the town and push for an increase in business opportunities within nearer distances.

The discussed town that compared to Dallas the most was Rochester, NY, where most houses have driveways and backyards, making the area an automobile suburb. Most streets don’t have sidewalks and most residents mainly commute to where they need to go. In my opinion, this lifestyle has its benefits, in regions like Dallas, streets and water bodies are cleaner. The residential development of these areas allows for open air areas, preserve the surrounding natural environment and avoid congestion, which makes up for it being a driving-oriented area. Open spaces also promote agricultural and more “green” practices.

My hometown is Jaipur. It is the capital and largest city of the Indian state of Rajasthan in Northern India. It has a population of 6.6 million people living within the area of 249.2 square miles. Its housing areas match Automobile suburb perfectly but has similarities with the streetcar suburb as well, as even though there are not a lot of sidewalks and the main way of commuting for people is through automobiles but most houses there are built with up to two car holder garages, but on average there are more than two drivers living in the house with their personal car, which allows rest of the cars to be parked on the streets outside the house. Also, not all of the houses have a garage, therefore those cars are also parked on the street. Personally, I feel it has elements of both automobile and street car suburbs as cars ae their on the street, but people use those cars to travel as well. The cars make the area look busier; also you see a lot of new faces and so many people make the city lively. I relate it to University Park campus as well, as even though not a lot of people use car to commute but campus is crowded and the area is always lively.

Jamaica Plain, Boston is the first city from the module that that also falls under the category of streetcar suburb. Both cities have sidewalks in residence areas, as well as have bus services provided to them by government, though Jaipur has a lot of people using cars as well. I think, Jamaica Plain has almost a similar population to Jaipur, like in the picture houses are congested, they are built right next to each other leaving no space for backyard or front garden; also the roads are broken, making it very similar to Jaipur. This way I personally do not think that Jamaica offers a lot of  ideas to make Jaipur more sustainable, but both need to take similar measures, such as better planning and better roads for safety of the residents living there and cleaner actions  for reducing the amount of pollution caused by the automobiles and households in the city, making the city more sustainable. But one thing is there, Jamaica plain is way cleaner than Jaipur, therefore Jaipur can adopt some cleanliness procedures from the city and take a step toards sustainability.

Another city from the module is Venice, Italy. As we know, boats are the main transportation source in Venice; but still I could relate to it. Because if I walk around in my neighborhood in Jaipur, I will see cars coming and going as well as parked outside of every house; and people walking around. And then if I walk around in neighborhood in Venice, everything will be the same except boats instead of cars and water instead of roads. Insights from Venice have a lot of ideas to offer to Jaipur, in order to make it more sustainable. First of all, Venice attract a lot of tourists because of its landscape, and still maintains the cleanliness in the neighborhood; so this way Jaipur being one of the topmost tourist cities in India attracts a lot of tourists but still there is way less cleanliness in the neighbourhood. Also, Venice has really good public health and urination system, and Jaipur can integrate that in its development plan, making the city more cleaner.

I am from the very small rural town of Montgomery, PA located about 15 minutes outside of Williamsport. It has approximately 1,500 people residing and located in north eastern PA.Because of how small the town is, there is a very close-knit downtown. This can be classified as pedestrian-orientation. There are plenty of sidewalks that lead from some of the most essential places in the town such as the grocery store to the library to the school, ect. Everything in our town is within walking distance of each other. Although Montgomery is pedestrian friendly, the majority of people still use automobiles even for very short distances. Walking is just not considered a norm in my town. I feel if more people realized that health, and environmental benefits of using walking as a means of transportation it would become much more common. We can look at other cities who do have walking as the primary means of getting around and observe the many benefits.

My first city I would like to discuss is Beacon Hill in MA which is adjacent to Boston. It is an extremely pedestrian-oriented. The module mentions that the people of this neighborhood are very wealthy and even though they own automobiles they often choose walking as a popular choice. This can relate to my town because unlike in Montgomery, it is a social norm in Beacon Hill to walk. Even though we have a small downtown in Montgomery with easily accessible sidewalks, many people still choose to drive their automobiles because walking just isn’t something many people do here. I think we can look at the town of Beacon Hill and see how overtime walking has become more of a social norm than driving. The people of my town too, can create this new healthier norm.

The second city I would like to discuss is Bogota, Columbia. This South American city practices walking as a social norm every Sunday and every holiday. Cars are not allowed on the streets. The streets are then used safely for people to walk, bike, and skate at their own free will. There are street performers, and all kinds of celebratory events held in the streets. I think this is a wonderful way to embrace the benefits of walking and to almost celebrate it in a way. Its a benefit to the people of Bogota’s health to be forced to walk everywhere at least once a week, and prevents the usage of automobiles which cause pollution. I feel this kind of festivity promotes walking as a social norm and the use of automobiles as a kind of second resort. I feel a lot of communities including mine can take note of this and physically see the benefits of creating walking as a social norm.

I live in Dubai, United Arab Emirates. It is an urban city located in the Middle East. The city is divided into several small districts. Each district has residents and some of them also have malls, restaurants, and other recreational facilities. The neighborhoods and districts in Dubai are all automobile suburbs and urban downtowns in relation to the descriptions in the module. I live in an area called Jumeirah, which is an urban suburb. It is located right in the center of Dubai, Jumeirah is divided into three parts and many people live here from the common public to the sheikhs of Dubai. The population of Dubai is approximately 2.6 Million however the population in Jumeriah is approximately 50,000 – 60,000 people. This place is extremely close to me as I have lived here for the most part of my life. The place is the center of Dubai, which makes it easy for me to easily travel.

The first city I chose is Manhattan located in the center of New York. Manhattan can be compared to Dubai as a whole, as they are both one of the most popular cities in the world. The reason this comparison can be made is due to the small size of Dubai. Comparing Jumeirah and Manhattan becomes slightly difficult as Jumeirah is a very small residential neighborhood in Dubai, where as Manhattan is much larger in terms of sustainability and population. The population of Manhattan is approximately 1.6 Million, which is much larger than that of Jumeirah. Both these places are urban areas located in a large city. Jumeirah’s residential area consists of buildings and villas, where as Manhattan has tons of buildings everywhere. In Manhattan people use buses, trains, and walk to get to their destinations. However, in Dubai the most common means of transportation is in cars. Due to this Manhattan is a lot more sustainable in terms of pollution and emissions.

Rocinha in Rio de Janeiro is another city that I will be comparing to Dubai. The population of Rio de Janeiro is approximately 6.1 Million people and is a lot larger than Dubai. The population of Rocinha is about 60,000 people, which is similar to that of Jumeirah in Dubai. The area Rocinha has a lot of houses and buildings similar to that in Jumeirah however, there are mountains and hills in Rocinha, which makes the layout of the area a lot more different from Jumeirah. Rocinha is a lot less developed than Jumeirah in terms of sustainability due to crime rates for example. Also, the conditions of these buildings and houses in Rocinha are much worse than those in Jumeirah that are much more cleaned and modern.

Pottstown
The town I am from is Pottstown, PA. It is located in Northern Montgomery County just north of where Chester County meets it. It is a suburb of Philly and is an automobile suburb at that. The town features a bunch of different housing developments of cookie cutter homes that are several miles from the different stores, businesses, and restaurants. Unless your development happens to be next to a strip mall, you have to drive to get to where you want to go. The actual borough and the surrounding neighborhoods have a population of about 22 thousand. What used to be the borough and a lot of farm land is quickly developing into more living spaces. I don’t mind the area, except that the borough is getting poorer every year and many of the attractions are shutting down leaving the town pretty boring.
Rochester
One city from the module that I can compare Pottstown to would be Rochester, New York. Rochester is another automobile suburb. Pottstown doesn’t have any sidewalks outside of the borough. Like Rochester’s suburb areas, it is encouraged that people travel by car to get around. In Pottstown, it’s not only encouraged, but for the most part it is necessary to drive. Pottstown could use more sidewalks on the outsides of the borough to make it easier to walk. Rochester has sidewalks in all the right places to help their residents get around quickly. If more sidewalks were available in Pottstown, more people could get more exercise. The Riverwalk trails are a step (ha) in the right direction, but having more sidewalks going to the places where people go the most is a much better plan.
Copenhagen
Going to another country Denmark, Copenhagen has a biking friendly neighborhoods that people can use to get around without having to walk or drive. While I am not a fan of having cyclists on the same roads as drivers, I think Pottstown’s neighboring townships could use more bike routes especially running parallel with highways to help people ride places. It’s faster than walking. It’s healthier than driving. It can help keep the town less crowded from motor vehicles. Less vehicles on the road mean less pollution for an already dirty city like Pottstown. Car exhaust helps lead to greenhouse gasses which are harmful as we know. Reducing the pollution keeps everyone healthier. Having a bike friendlier area could help attract more people to the town.

My hometown is Downingtown, PA, a small suburb about 30 miles west of Philadelphia. It has a population of 7,930 and the majority of neighborhoods are automobile suburbs. Although it would be a considered an automobile suburb, I did spend a good amount of time walking between the high school and downtown during my high school years. There are a good amount of recreational parks in my town as well, and many people take advantage of these by walking their dogs or riding bikes. There is also a local lake, so when the weather gets nice a lot of people come out for watersports.

The first city I would like to consider is Copenhagen. Their bike-friendly culture and infrastructure makes it extremely easy to use a bike to travel throughout the city. The bike-only streets and lanes give an added sense of security to bikers, which I feel is important. As well as the social upsides, the environmental impact of switching from cars to mainly bikes is very positive and should be something all cities should try to model themselves after. Adding bike lanes in my town would provide all the above benefits and more.

The second city i would like to consider is Beacon Hill in Boston, MA. The pedestrian-oriented neighborhoods mean they have a smaller reliance on cars than my town, and they most likely have a smaller carbon footprint. The pros of walking around town versus driving are numerous, and the people in my town could certainly benefit from such a norm. A higher reliance on walking or using public transportation takes stress off of personal finances, and reduces one’s carbon footprint, both of which are important.

I am from the town Kennett Square, which is located in south-eastern Pennsylvania. Kennett Square is split into two different types of neighborhoods. My house is located in an automobile suburb because due to its placement one will typically need a car to go anywhere. Located five minutes from my house is downtown Kennett Square which can be considered a pedestrian-oriented neighborhood. All shops and houses are located walking distance from each other for those who choose to live there. According to statistics taken in 2013, the population of Kennett Square is about 6,000 people. I have lived in Kennett Square for about six years now and I believe the community has a huge impact on the environment. Though we have a centrally located pedestrian neighborhood, it is only a fraction of the size of the automobile suburbs surrounding it. The only buses in Kennett Square are those for school children otherwise everyone is driving, which hurts the environment.

On occasion Kennett will close some of their streets for festivals or parades, but only for these certain events. On those days where the streets are closed the community will fill the streets and truly enjoy what the town has to offer. In Bogota, Colombia there is a program that closes 120km of road on Sundays so that people may enjoy the outdoors. It’s interesting how much the community enjoys and takes advantage of this road closing. As we saw in Columbia people were not only happier with being outdoors, but it also reduced the amount of pollution cars were having on the environment. In order to become more sustainable, I think that Kennett Square should close down the streets more often just as is done in Columbia. It will not only encourage the community to grow and thrive, but also reduce the amount of car pollution by reducing the amount of cars on the road.

Located in Curitiba, Brazil there is a bus system that mimics the efficiency of an underground subway. This bus program has greatly reduced the number of cars on the roads, which greatly increases the city’s sustainability. In my opinion Kennett Square would benefit from a bus program such as the one in Brazil. Currently our biggest environmental issue is that there are too many cars on the road and the environment is suffering. If implemented, the bus system is Kennett Square would be significantly smaller than the one in Brazil, but it would still have the same benefits just on a smaller scale. The buses in Kennett Square would mimic those of State College. There would be different loops running different directions, but all together reducing the number of people who drive. The car pollution in Kennett Square is a collective action problem. It takes the community to cause this problem, but it also takes the community to reverse it.

I live in the small town of Carbondale, Pennsylvania. It is in the Northeastern part of the state. It is about 45 minutes North of Wilkes-Barre. The types of neighborhoods that are in Carbondale are very mixed. It is very pedestrian oriented and you can easily walk everywhere but most people drive everywhere instead of walking. There is a downtown section where there are privately owned. There is also a hotel downtown that has shops and restaurants in it. Carbondale has a population of about 8,800 people. I have a deep connection with this city. This is where I was born and raised. My parents and grandparents were also born and raised here. It is a small town and I love it. I love that everyone knows everyone. Whenever I am home for a weekend I am always sad to go back to school because I know how much I will miss home. Home to me is cozy and adorable.

The module talks about New York City. Where I live is only about 2 and a half hours from New York City. There are so many people in my hometown that go on day trips to NYC. Personally I do not like the city, I prefer the country. I think the one convenient thing about cities like New York City is that you can walk everywhere. Being a pedestrian oriented city makes is easy for people not to own cars. It is also convenient that the biggest city in the United States has a harbor that is popular. This means that many good can come into the harbor. I also feel like because of the harbor, there are plenty of jobs for people to have there. If Carbondale had something like this then there would be more jobs there and people would not have to travel as much to find a job.

I loved that the module talked about Venice, Italy. This is somewhere I am always wanted to travel to. Something I love about it is that is is car-free. Cars pollute our air, making them not good for us. I can imagine Venice being so clean with fresh air because is it pollution free. Not having a car is not possible to have in my area. Although Carbondale is small enough to walk around, in order to go to the mall or grocery shopping or movies you have to drive at least 30 minutes. I would love to live in an area where I could get a bike and ride that rather than have a car. If everywhere was like this is would be better for our planet. The module talks about automobile suburb and that is what Carbondale is when you need to go somewhere that is not in Carbondale.

My I live in my small hometown of Delran, NJ, about 20 minutes away from Philadelphia. It has a decent sized population of 17,000 and is overall a middle class township. Being a town of 7 square miles, the population is pretty dense at 2500 per square mile. It’s definitely an automobile suburb, but I often found myself walking across the town to get some food with my friends as a kid. I grew up in this town all of my life, and experienced a lot of what it had to offer. In the part of Delran I lived in, the main community spot was the local swim club. During the summer it was very common to see a lot of your neighbors, making it great to socialize and get to know your neighbors. We also had a park close by that was often frequented by kids from all over, especially during the summer.

The Danish city of Copenhagen is the first city I would like to talk about. It really caught my eye and I thought what they did there was what I’d like to see more cities do. The emphasis on pedestrian and cycling modes of transportation is definitely appealed to me, as it both adds an incentive to use automobiles less, which lowers emissions and less pollution, and creates a relaxing release from stress. If more cities had better cycling and pedestrian infrastructure, we could see more human-based architectural development that could lead to some beautiful cities. While my town is no city, I would like to see some of these ideas implemented in my hometown to further encourage social activities, which can really pull together a community.

The second city I’d like to talk about is the New England city of Boston, Massachusetts and its Beacon Hill. I chose this one because one of my roommates was born and raised around Boston. This place is another example of a pedestrian focused town, something I really value. I really love the design of pedestrian only streets, especially with the beautiful Boston architecture. Without a doubt I think that pedestrian designs are effective in bringing a community together, since you aren’t as solitary as you would be in a car and are more likely to socialize. It also has the effect of lowering car usage and therefor emissions produced will also decrease.

I live in a small town in North central Pennsylvania by the name of Osceola. I will be discussing the joint area of Osceola and Elkland in Tioga County because the towns are right next to each other. This is a largely rural area built for automobile transportation. In town there are not many businesses, but there is school so ease of access via automobile is important to sustain the school. More importantly Corning, NY is within a 30 minute drive. A state route and the northern corridor of Interstate 99 provide access to Corning. Corning has far more opportunity for work so many people in the Elkland/Osceola area drive to Corning to work. Elkland is a small town with houses that are close to one another. Osceola is a smaller town yet with a small town like structure towards the center and houses spanned out over large distances. Osceola has a grocery store, post office, and a few churches, but it mostly it consists of farms. Elkland has small businesses including restaurants, a hunting supply store and a bank. Osceola spans an area of 13.9 square miles with a population of 700 people, and Elkland occupies 2.3 square miles with a population of 1,800 people. I am connected to this area because it is where I grew up and went to school. I learned how to hunt and fish in this area and I worked my first job at a local grocery store.

The first city I would like to compare the Elkland/Osceola are to is Rochester, NY. Rochester is only a few hours away from my home area, so naturally it is a very similar kind of urban design. Rochester is an automobile transportation area too, as mentioned in the module. There are rural areas around Rochester that use roads to allow people to drive into Rochester every day for work. My area could be more efficient if the automobile transportation aspect was implemented closer to a larger area. Being so far from Corning makes driving inefficient compared to if Elkland/Osceola was more like Rochester and built automobile neighborhoods closer to the area people need to commute to.

Copenhagen is an interesting city to compare my area to. My home area is not similar to Copenhagen very much at all. There is no real push to stop driving so much to cut back on emissions. This may be because there isn’t much pollution from the little area that includes Elkland and Osceola. Also, Elkand and Osceola residents rely on their cars to get them to work and everywhere else. Even getting around town usually consists of driving. Unless you’re a kid that is not old enough to drive, there is no real consistent and encompassing use of bicycles to get around town. Walking is more of a leisurely activity as well. Most people walk around Elkland to get out of the house or as a form of exercise. However, if someone needs to go to the bank or anywhere else they tend to drive even if its a few blocks away. I think this is similar to Copenhagen’s characteristic of taking for granted how the town works. Everyone has lived for so long driving cars around the area that they don’t consider there may better ways to maintain a sustainable environment. I think Elkland/Osceola should try to follow in Copenhagen’s footsteps and promote local bicycle usage along with walking to cut down on unnecessary driving to get somewhere that is only a few minute walk away. This would make the town more sustainable and save money on gas and decrease emissions in the air around the town.

Since I’m not from urban area, I choose somewhere else but close to my town and urban area which is Seoul. Seoul is the capital of South Korea I can say whole city is urban downtown.  It is such a big city and has high urban density at the same time. Population of South Korea is about 50-million and the population of Seoul is about 10-million 1/5 of nation population live in Seoul.  Area of the city is 605km^2 which is 1/3 of Tokyo. Seoul has great transportation system.  There are 18 different subway lines you can go almost everywhere with subway not only in the Seoul but you can go to another city. There are lots of bus lines too, in general the first bus is starting at 5am and running through about 12am. Han-gang river flow across the city and Bukhansan(Mt.) national park is located in the Seoul. Even though I don’t have any family or relatives I often go to Seoul for fun like meeting friends, shopping etc.

First city I chose is New York. New York is one of the biggest cities in the USA which is very similar to Seoul. I thought New York and Seoul are very similar to each other whenever I visited New York. First, both cities have high urban density. Second, they have good transportation system. As I mention previous paragraph, Seoul has great transportation system and also New York have 24 hours subway, and lots of buses running throughout the day. Both cities have limited space but many people to manage, they built skyscrapers. However, big attraction is both cities have green inside of the city (Central park and bukhansan Mt. national park). Finally, two cities have river which running through the city but the difference is that Hudson River has New York harbor which is very active,but Han-gang River isn’t active as New York harbor they don’t transport big ships. To be more sustainable, they need to develop the parks and encourage people to use transportation systems.

Second city I chose is Shanghai, China. Shanghai is not a capital of China but it is the greatest city. The area is 10 times larger than Seoul and population 24-million. It means Shanghai has less urban density than Seoul. First, as many big cities, Shanghai has Yangzi River running through the city. Shanghai is still developing level, they don’t really concentrating on the sustainability yet. Air quality is very low, because of factories and constructions. Today, Seoul people having hard time with fine dust, it is much worse than that in Shanghai. But Shanghai also has good transportation system, for example subway have 16 different lines. They can encourage people to take public transportation and to be more sustainable, they should consider environmental aspects when they develop the industries.

1) I come from a small town called Coplay in the Lehigh Valley, Pennsylvania. Coplay is a suburb of Allentown located just north of the city, right along the Lehigh River. With a population of just over 3,200 people, Coplay would be classified as a pedestrian-oriented neighborhood because of the many shops, restaurants and offices all within walking distance of the residential areas. Growing up I would walk to school everyday with my friends and then grab dinner with them at a local pizza shop just down the road. Living in a pedestrian-oriented neighborhood is nice because on days you can’t make it to the gym, you are still getting a little exercise by walking everywhere and may even find yourself running into a friend or two along the way. The only problem in my town is the amount of traffic coming through from other areas on their way to the main parts of Allentown (especially to downtown).

2) Like my hometown, Beacon Hill in Boston is another example of a pedestrian-oriented neighborhood. Established in the 1800s when walking was the main form of transportation, the neighborhood is set up in such a way that everything you need for day to day life is only a short walk away. Beacon Hill has shown how these pedestrian-oriented neighborhoods are still relevant in urban design today and not just for convenience but also for sustainability. When more people walk rather than drive a car, they are decreasing the amount of emissions let out into the environment. In the lesson it says many people can afford cars but choose not to use them in Beacon Hill. If there was a way that the residents of my hometown could convince the commuters driving into Allentown to take a bus instead, overall quality of the environment would improve. Less traffic means less emissions, just another lesson we could learn from a small neighborhood in Boston.

3) Chicago Illinois is a massive city with 2.7 million people, making it the third largest city in the United States. It may be a bit of an abstract idea to think you can compare Chicago to my hometown of Coplay, which is much smaller in comparison but they both have a common goal, sustainability. Coplay works on being sustainable by promoting healthier ways of transportation to its residents like biking and walking. Chicago uses a system known as urban agriculture to help drastically reduce the transportation time of produce to the grocery stores. This system in return improves air quality and rain water management. I think urban agriculture is a great system and I would love to see this implemented in my own hometown. Not only is it great for the environment but it could be a great community project that would strengthen ties between many of Coplay’s residents.

1. I come from a town called Harleysville, Pennsylvania. It is located in Montgomery County, which is a suburb of Philadelphia. Harleysville is an Automobile Suburb because most members of the community rely on cars or public buses for transportation to work, school, local businesses, stores, and restaurants. Automobiles are pretty much a necessity since many businesses and stores are located at a pretty far distance from each other as well as community homes and apartments. Roughly 8,800 people live in my hometown. I personally enjoy living in the area because it is a small suburb and in the town there are stores and businesses a short drive away from my house. I do not think that the town of Harleysville is not designed to make walking easy or desirable though. The sidewalks in the area stop suddenly and the distance from one location to the other can be two or more miles. Even though the town itself relies on automobiles, the town contains family owned farms that grow crops and raise livestock as well.
2. Copenhagen is a city that my town can look towards for becoming less motorized, by using non-motorized transportation. In Copenhagen, cycling and walking are embedded into the cities culture by designing streets, sidewalks, and roadways to be cycle friendly. The urban design that was placed by government officials and the push to create cycling as a social norm should be a transition that my hometown should make to create a more healthy and sustainable community. My hometown can create this transition because most large neighborhoods are within a five-mile radius of the Main Street, where businesses, shops, and restaurants are located. Through creating a more cycling-friendly environment by adding more complete sidewalks, bike trails, cycle lanes on roadways, and locations to safely park bicycles, my community can help make a transition to a cycling community like that of Copenhagen. This concept would benefit the environment by reducing emissions into the environment while also promoting more healthy lifestyles in the community.
3. Bogota is another city that is pushing citizens to change the social norm of using automobiles to use other forms of transportation such as walking and cycling. The city hosts weekly Ciclovias, which restricts the use of automobiles on the streets. This weekly requirement forces the citizens to figure out alternative means of transportation at least once a week. This helps to transition the citizens of Bogota into thinking of using alternative means of transportation to get around the city even when it is not a Ciclovia day. Currently, the community members of my hometown are use to driving everywhere, even down the street. If the community used a similar concept, along with making more cycle friendly pathways, members of my community may use alternative means of transportation on a more regular basis. This requirement can help alter thinking by creating new habits and altering social norms.

My home town is Lindenhurst New York. To clarify this is on Long Island where most town are automobile suburbs. Lindenhurst is pretty small town and about an hour or so train or car ride to New York City. Lindenhurst is home to around 27,000 people as of 2010. I feel as though Lindenhurst (and most towns on Long Island) are very automobile driven areas. Although, you can walk to some places or bike to many places, it is most common for people to drive everywhere. I am connected to this town because this where I grew up and also where my family lives and will most likely live in for many years to come.

One city I chose to compare Lindenhurst to is Rochester New York. Both cities are examples of automobile suburb areas. Although there are some areas in my town that have sidewalks, most of them don’t get used very often. I feel as though this is similar to Rochester because even though some areas have side walks, most don’t because they mainly encourage people to use their automobiles to get around. But I do believe Rochester uses their side walks more often and efficiently. Lindenhurst can learn from this because using sidewalks and creating more sidewalks to use will reduce the towns pollution. By implementing more sidewalks and making it more common and easier to walk then the people of Lindenhurst can become a little more healthier while significantly cutting their usage of gas.

Another city I would like to compare Lindenhurst to is New York City. One reason I chose this city is because it is only a train ride away from my town. Many people use the train system from my town to get to work if their work is in the city which is great. I feel as though using mass transit is much better than driving just yourself to the city at least 5 times a week to get to work. One area that New York City excels in is using rooftop planting or farming. This is very effective in shortening the food miles you use and more efficient and healthy foods to eat yourself. I have seen a few areas in my town which use rooftop farming but I feel as though we can do a much better job with it.

The city I grew up in is Scranton, PA.  Scranton is medium-sized city, located in the north eastern part of PA, that has a variety of neighborhoods.  From automobile suburbs to an urban downtown, we even have some pedestrian-oriented neighborhoods.  Scranton has a population of 76,000+ (from the census poll of 2013).  Scranton is a pretty comfortable city and it offers a variety of activities and places to eat.  Of course since I’ve been here most of my life, I do find it boring sometimes.  Scranton’s practically like my back yard.  I was always roaming the streets after school and just hanging around with friends.  Even if you don’t find something interesting to do in one part of Scranton, I’m sure you could find something in another part.  Also the local places to eat is a must try if you haven’t already.

The first city I will be discussing is Copenhagen, Denmark.  I chose this city because of their approach on “traffic calming.”  I think the idea behind traffic calming is a great concept.  For the most part the idea of traffic calming was to find other ways to travel instead of using cars or other motor vehicles.  The pedestrians are able to walk without worrying about traffic and they can move as freely as they want.  This allows more communications among the people.  People actually find it unusual to drive places in Copenhagen now.  This is a great approach if we would like to become more sustainable.  By using cars less, people would burn less fossil fuels and also there would be less air pollution.  Although this is a great idea it would be hard since we would need to cognitively recognize this change and put it into motion.

The second place I will be discussing is Rochester, NY.  I chose this city because of how it is very similar to how Scranton is.  Our place of residence has a very strong impact on our choice of transportation.  This affects the air quality in our city.  By having to drive around everywhere and every time we would like to go somewhere; we are throwing pollutants into the air.  This once again ties to what I mentioned above in my Copenhagen discussion.  The trend to become more sustainable is by making a more pedestrian-oriented city where we could be in walking or cycling distance of everything.  Of course this would take a lot of work and planning.  Another problem we’d run into would be the physical infrastructure of Scranton.

My hometown is Little Silver, NJ. This is a small town located on the eastern edge of Monmouth County, and is about 5 miles from the coast and 50 miles south of Manhattan. The town is made up mostly of individual neighborhoods, with a central downtown area. There is a train station in town that is part of the NJ Transit line. As of the 2010 census the population is 5,950. With 2.7 square miles of land, the town itself is physically small. Most people drive in general, although many people do bike or walk when heading to a local destination. There are a couple local parks which are popular destinations, as well as the train station, which is most popular with those who commute from New York City for work. I personally feel connected to this town because I grew up there and went to school in town for many years.

One city I choose to compare my hometown to is Rochester, NY. Both towns are examples of automobile suburbs. For example, there are quite a few streets in my town that do not have sidewalks (mine included). While there are sidewalks in the downtown area, the town itself is designed to encourage automobile travel. Also similar to Rochester is the fact that my town includes a number of neighborhoods that feature a variety of appearances. These two features could be changed to make Little Silver more sustainable. For example, more sidewalks could be implemented. This could be effective in my town because the land area itself is quite small at 2.7 square miles. Better sidewalks or paths between individual neighborhoods could encourage more foot traffic and increase land available for gardens and planting. Further, future neighborhoods could be designed from the ground up to encourage more sustainable activities, such as public gardens and less automotive traffic/travel.

One interesting city to compare to my hometown is Copenhagen, as this city has a very high cycling population. I feel that my town, as well as most other automotive suburbs, could be transformed into cycling towns and cities quite easily. There is a lot that can be learned from Copenhagen’s practices, especially urban design concepts and the influencing of traffic laws to accommodate safe cycling. Car free streets would be extremely helpful, and would be useful for children as well. There are a lot of children in Little Silver and a few schools as well; making safe walking or cycling paths could be beneficial for these children in a number of ways. Slow-speed zones would not be quite as effective in my town as the speed limits are low already,

Where I live

I live in Atascadero, California, its a relatively small town that stretches parallel with 9 exits of the 101 in California, but that is about the majority of the town and does not stretch too far off from there. It is part of San Luis Obispo County population of approximately two hundred and fifty thousand, where there have been significant green initiatives, it was also one of the first counties in the US to ban smoking in bar and has always been in a way ahead of its time. The County has made for several designated Park and Ride areas to promote carpooling amongst people who have to travel for work, like myself and my coworkers who has a forty-five mile drive into work, we carpool into work with groups of as big as five people carpooling together. Carpooling saves gas, saves money, protects your vehicles, and keeps two to four more cars off the road for the drive into work. We also pride ourselves in our farmers markets which occur every night of the week in different parts of the county which minimize food miles for the traveling and promote healthier citizens. The San Luis Obispo world famous farmers market is actually very bike friendly, the roads in the county have been modified to be more bike friendly, and the farmers markets all have bike valets to promote the initiative for bike traveling.

Copenhagen, Denmark

I want to compare my situation to the situation in Copenhagen. Their urban planning parallels some of the things that San Luis Obispo County and Atascadero have done in the last two decades to promote healthier lifestyles. The biking initiative and more bike friendly roads has made commute in San Luis and the surrounding towns very accessible and made it easier for college students at Cal Poly to commute as well as anyone living in the area and working in their respective cities. The really big difference in the respective initiatives is the population density, the density of the area is at its highest near the county, but is fairly dispersed around the county because of the rural nature of the county. The bike initiatives have like in Copenhagen, created more social spaces and pushed towards a more social community. Though it has not been as fully adopted as the community in Copenhagen it is a step forward in the right direction.

Bogota Colombia

I think the largest takeaway from the Bogota Colombia urban planning is to take away the importance of what kind of impacts better public transportation and infrastructure can have on the population and the environment. While where I live does not have nearly the population density that Bogota has, I believe that there can be an argument to be made for the increase in public transportation. The county I live in has four major towns, Atascadero, Morro Bay, San Luis Obispo, and Paso Robles, though they are connected by the bus system. I believe that something like the train system in Bogota that traveled throughout the county would keep even more cars off the roads. I believe the bus system is under utilized because they are significantly less reliable to than a train system, and poorly maintained, perhaps if the bus system were expanded and better maintained it would be used more, but I believe there is a stigma people inherently place on a bus service vice a subway or train service. I know that when I buy train tickets to travel the coast I ensure that I avoid any train services that do not cross connect with bus services.

Heres a link looking at how San Luis Obispo County was promoting tougher smoking bans as far back as 1990.

http://articles.latimes.com/1990-08-02/news/mn-1350_1_san-luis-obispo-support

I live in Beaver Falls, Pa, which is about 45 minutes north of Pittsburgh. I live specifically in Chippewa Township, which is an area that relies heavily on car transportation. It is very hard to get from one place to another by walking or biking because we don’t have sidewalks on the roads where I live. If you take a short drive to downtown Beaver Falls, it is very pedestrian-focused neighborhood. There are sidewalks and the stores are lined up together, making it easier to move from one to the other. I see a lot of people walking in downtown Beaver Falls, but I don’t see much of that in Chippewa. There are about 9,000 in the Beaver Falls region. I have lived in Chippewa my entire life. I’ve always thought that if it were easier to get around without a car, I would, but there is really no way to do that in the area I live. I don’t think Chippewa has done much to be a sustainable place to live, but I’d like to see them make progress to do that.

Chippewa reminds me a lot of the neighborhood from Rochester, New York. It is a like a little neighborhood that was built with the knowledge that people just would not be walking around. Chippewa has a very low urban density, but that may not necessarily be the worst thing. There is a lot of car usage, but Chippewa is a small town, so I think that the environmental impact is minimal. I think the best thing that could happen in Chippewa to make it more sustainable is to make it a more mixed-use area. A lot of people travel into Chippewa to go to Walmart or eat at a restaurant, so I think it would be good to add a few more stores that people could use while they are in Chippewa, rather than having to travel 15 minutes elsewhere to get what they need. For instance, we used have a shoe store, but they got rid of it a few years ago. Now we have to travel 15 minutes to the mall to buy shoes. Bring back the shoe store or adding different stores would make Chippewa more sustainable.

The next “city” I’d like to examine is Penn State. I think it is great that they are taking steps to making buildings more sustainable. The newer buildings at Penn State are really top-notch in efficiency and minimizing energy. I would like to see this happen more in buildings in Chippewa. My church recently built a Community Life Center. I would like to know if it would classify as a sustainable building. The town also just built a new office complex for the sanitary system across from my house. There are always new buildings being added in Chippewa, so it would be worth it to put effort into making these buildings more sustainable. Chippewa could also implement some type of “energy awareness” program to inform houses of how much energy they use and how they can lessen their impact on the environment.

My hometown is Wyomissing, PA, a suburb of the city of Reading located one hour west of Philadelphia. Wyomissing is an upper tier neighborhood in regards to houses, as there are a lot of wealthy people that live in the neighborhood. It is definitely an automobile suburb, as the closest grocery stores are a few miles down the highway, or you drive through the neighborhood to get to it as they are too far for walking distance. In the area alone, there is about 88,000 people living in the Reading area (that’s as of 2013). Reading is one of the poorest cities in the U.S., and a lot of people have moved out of the county as unemployment continues to rise in the county albeit abundant low wage jobs. I grew up in Wyomissing, and the only thing truly sentimental to me was the house my family use to have when I was a kid. Not much has changed there, and the neighborhood is not as safe as it used to be.

The first city I chose was Copenhagen, Denmark. The city has taken exponential measures to become a more environmentally friendly and pedestrian friendly city. Whereas, the use of cars has dropped drastically and city commerce is done through mainly walking and cycling. This transportation mode has resulted in a more friendly city to the people, where many can congregate in common areas such as markets — this is/was where perhaps the location of a parking lot once was, for instance. My hometown area is far from this. People hardly find common grounds to congregate on and would rather drive to their destination and keep to themselves. Nor are they conscientious of their environment. I think, however, some measures have been taken to improve transportation in my area as buses are transitioning to natural gas — a cleaner burning fuel. Given the vastness of the Reading area, I do not think we will see a transition to a pedestrian or cycling friendly transportation mode anytime soon.

The second city I chose from the module was Detroit, Michigan. The idea of urban farming has actually had an uptick in frequency, if you will, in my hometown of Wyomissing. A lot of people have started to grow their own vegetables again in their backyard, as I do the same (when I am home, that is). Suburban farming in this case, provides a sustainable source of vegetables albeit the work involved. Not to mention that you can get it fresh off the plant versus having to get it from a store where it sat for a few days before consumption. While the magnitude of “suburban” farming is not as high as the urban farming in Detroit, I think it has potential to evolve as more local markets start to infiltrate the area once again.

I live in Greencaslte, Pennsylvania, its South Central Pennsylvania. The types of neighborhoods that are about Greencaslte is automobile suburb. The population that live in Greencaslte is 4,040 and the last recording was in 2013. I have always lived here and I cannot compare it to another town, but I love the feel of small towns and the connection they have on people. There are a lot of people that want to leave Greencasltle because it is so small but they leave and end up coming back. However, not everyone likes small towns and actually do end up leaving and going to a city or a bigger town.

The first city from the module that I will discuss is Chicago. Chicago is a big city with several streets and suburban areas. Even though this is true, they still are able to have some sustainability in some interesting ways. Chicago is good at doing urban agriculture. There are small plants that are used for agriculture purposes all over the city. Whether it be on the top of an apartment building or in a courtyard, they seem to do a good job at urban agriculture. This is relevant to my home town because there is a lot of farming around my area but despite that my town has several urban agricultural areas. You will see tomatoes growing on the side of sidewalks a lot. I think my city could become more sustainable if we had a local farmers market where the whole town could bring their own garden products.

The second place I will talk about is Copenhagen. Copenhagen is great in the fact that they reduce traffic by prohibiting cars in certain streets and allowing bikers to go on them. This makes it more convenient to ride a bike which reduces gas admissions tremendously. This is good because they make it easier to become a bike rider, and as a result it has made Copenhagen an amazing place in the sight of many people. The reason I believe this relates to my town, is because we have a lot of teenage bike riders, but there are no lanes or parking stations for the bikes. I think it would be awesome if my town would encourage more biking in the community. The irony of it all, is we had a local business that only sold bicycles which went out of business due to lack of customers. I feel as though we should implement the same things Copenhagen did in order to be more sustainable.

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.

So I am lucky enough to be from Bellefonte Pennsylvania which is about 5 miles away from our campus. It is a small town with roughly around 10,000 people. It is very pedestrian oriented town. After I left for college I really lost all connection to the town itself. I really don’t believe that there is anything that really ties me to it or the need to be around it. I believe that it is a great area being so close to Penn State but honestly, I believe that it wouldn’t be able to survive without the local business that comes from the university.

The first city I am going to relate to is Beacon Hill, Boston, Mass. It has a lot of different shopping opportunities that bring in business. Luckily it continues to be low key with many opportunities to take walks. The town is very pedestrian orientated with the numerous amounts of sidewalks for the community to easily access from anywhere. Due to the many amounts of sidewalks and accessible walking paths, it is not required to have a car to get to work or to shop. Bellefonte has a mix of a lot of sidewalks in the inner parts of the city but whenever it comes to the outer parts of it you can not live in the outskirts of Bellefonte without a car. There is so much country that you will not be able to attend work etc without it.

The second city I’m going to talk about is Copenhagen. The traffic there is a norm. They are very respectful of different events that are going on to shut down for foot traffic. But many people still choose to have a car. The town is very car heavy. I do believe though that they are moving to be a more pedestrian friendly society. I think that Copenhagen can actually look at this and take note. Bellefonte has not moved forward with trying to make the town less car heavy in a long time. So with possibly moving forward with new innovative ideas, they could all benefit.

My relocation to Joppa, Maryland happened about six months ago, consequently I’m more familiar with my previous locale which for this assignment I will reference – Bailey’s Crossroads in Falls Church, a Washington DC suburb. Falls Church is located in Fairfax County a few miles south of Washington DC, the capital, where there are several employment opportunities particularly in the Federal Government. With a high urban density as well as being a mixed use area, Bailey’s Crossroads has several urban planning features in its landscape. Therefore, it has a mix of mostly automobile suburb with a few pedestrian-oriented areas. Bailey’s Crossroads has a population of about 23,643 (2010 Census) people in approximately 2.1 square miles. For almost fourteen years I lived in this area and really grew to love the community plus made quite a few friends. Bailey’s Crossroads is a great neighborhood with several options for employment, shopping and entertainment. In addition, the public transportation system was available and accessible. As a result, it’s a very easy commute for most of the working professionals going into Washington DC.

My first city for discussion is Bogota, Colombia – Ciclovia. It is quite remarkable to see how a collective action in a community such as the city of Bogota, can take off and become a celebrated weekly event. This car free event that takes place every Sunday and on public holidays is driven by the city’s sustainable development. Several people from the city participate in the Ciclovia event that accommodates a breadth of diverse individuals. Ciclovia is an example of how easy it is to implement goals of sustainability and fitness that bring people together. Bailey’s Crossroads is in the middle to two of the busiest streets in Northern Virginia; King Street /Route 7 and Columbia Pike. The vehicular traffic is constant throughout the day and weekends with several heavy rush hour periods. An event like the Ciclovia could promote a much needed sustainable development and increase the quality of life for the community. An initiative like this event can grow the pedestrian-oriented areas, increase safety and the sense of community. This video clearly shows how a collective action problem can be solved by a simple community and government measure, perfectly in line with what Bailey’s Crossroads needs.

The bus system in Curitiba enamored me. The BRT’s express lanes, bus routes map, prepaid entries, single fare tranfers as well as the same level boarding mirrored several Metrorail systems in large cities like New York and Washington DC. It is refreshing to know that this type of efficiency for a bus transportation system exists. The vision involved in creating, implementing and continuously improving Curitiba BRT is commendable. Some cities around the world could learn from this type of urban transport system. There are several bus routes to and from Bailey’s Crossroads to nearby Metrorail stations or going into Washington DC. The color coding and consolidating of the bus routes, could facilitate a more efficient urban transportation system for Bailey’s Crossroads and neighboring communities. Looking at Curitiba, this would be a very economical way to implement sustainable development and improve the urban transportation system in some parts of Northern Virginia. A more efficient and user friendly system, will make mass transit desirable hence increase ride-ability, economy and ultimately promote sustainable development by minimizing the amount of vehicles on the road today.

I come from a smaller California town called Los Gatos. It’s situated in a sort of natural ‘bowl’ with hills on three sides. There is one highway that runs through the lowest part of the town, which makes the town a hybrid of a walking and automobile suburb. There are streets from downtown to the outlying residences, but most of the constituency lives close enough to the commercial district to walk. There is a nature reserve sanctioned by the town and recognized by the state in the surrounding hills, which contains biking and walking trails by which, if one so desires, one can reach the ocean. The town also facilitates a community event called Music in the Park, which brings in local and big-name entertainers to play in the closed-off main street plaza. And the local electricity provider offers incentives to switch to solar electricity. Solar electricity is big in Los Gatos because solar panels generate enough power that any household that utilizes solar energy sells that excess power back to the power company!

I really enjoyed the first look at Bogotá, Colombia with its Ciclovia. The Ciclovia in Bogota is similar to Music in the Park in Los Gatos in that street closures create a walking mall in part of the downtown area. Bogotá’s Ciclovia seemed more focused on physical activity, which I liked, but the difference that makes this difficult for Los Gatos to replicate is population size. Los Gatos is not so much focused on health through physical activity but togetherness and showcasing local (and on occasion big-name) talent for members of the community. Music in the Park also brings in vendors and local farmers to sell their goods in the walking mall, so people can walk, get lunch, listen to the music with each other, and get some exercise on top of it all. But maybe Los Gatos could make Music in the Park a bigger event by closing down more of the downtown area to vehicle traffic during the event. Maybe they could have two stages on separate sides of the plaza to encourage more physical activity.

I was surprised to learn of the urban agriculture movement in Detroit. The city of Detroit supporting itself by agriculturizing the abandoned parking lots that once supported its industry, I think there is a lot of beauty in that. Los Gatos has a farmer’s market every two weeks, but imports most of its food. The city has very little space available for its own farms, but some of the more environmentally conscious people in the town keep their own gardens and grow their own food. The high school in town has its own small garden too, but not enough food is grown there to make a big difference. Maybe Los Gatos could implement and Urban Farming Initiative like Detroit?

My hometown is the urban town of Shepherdstown, WV. Although the main part of my town has many shops and restaurants, there is one street that goes through the middle of these shops making it an automobile suburb. Everyone also uses cars on every other street around the town. The population of my town only consists of about 2000 people, but this can cause a small town to feel like a bustling city when everyone’s trying to get around and dodge the all the cars. I hope to live there when I’m older as everyone knows everyone else in the town and it’s like having a large, extended family. The elementary and middle school are close to the main part of town, and it was always fun to walk to the local bakery after school and hangout with my friends. I want my kids to have the same experiences I did where they can live in a town that’s close and safe.

The city of Bogota, Columbia reminds me of my hometown because on certain weekends my town will close the main street if there is a festival or farmers market. This would occur only one day of a month, and it reminded me how Bogota closes some of their streets every Sunday to allow the people to freely go through the streets without cars. On the few days where my town closes their street the town is working towards more sustainable development. If my town could consider closing the street to make it more pedestrian oriented at least a few more times during a month it would benefit the environment. My town could also designate certain days that would always be closed so everyone would know in advance and it wouldn’t be a problem.

One big part of my town is the farmers market it has every Sunday once it’s warm out. In order to provide food for the customers that go to the market some people in my town participate in urban agriculture, just like in Haiti. My friend’s mom made her own garden by making rectangular planters from recycled wood panels that weren’t being used anymore. Everything she does is very sustainable as she even has her own chickens that produce eggs, and rain barrels for rain water. That is the only water she will use to water the fruits and vegetables she grows. If more people in town increased their urban density and adopted this method we could completely live without going to the grocery store. There are already many suppliers at the farmers market, and with more and more people adding to the mix there would be plenty of food.

My hometown is Waynesboro, PA. It is in south central Pennsylvania, about 20 miles from Gettysburg and about 2 miles from the Maryland state line. It is made up of mainly automobile suburbs and there are some pedestrian oriented neighborhoods. It is not very urban, there are no buses or streetcars or metros. There are 10,568 people populating Waynesboro as of the 2010 census. The area that makes up Waynesboro is 3.4 square miles. I was born and raised in Waynesboro and it has been going through some great changes lately; a Walmart was built as well as a number of restaurants. Many developments are being built and it is becoming more populated and busy. It is in the middle of multiple cities and industry areas so for the most part you have to drive out of town to get to your job but these places aren’t very far away usually. It is a great central location for people working in Washington DC who don’t want to live in the city.

The first city I would like to talk about is Rochester. It is an automobile suburb very much like Waynesboro. In Rochester you have to drive everywhere because it is located outside of the city. You have to drive to get to work, to go shopping for needs and wants, and other destinations. The population of Rochester is 210,565 people which is very different from Waynesboro but it just goes to show how large or small an automobile suburb can be. There are also some pedestrian oriented neighborhoods where people can walk to their destinations instead of driving. In November 2014, the city of Rochester started construction of walking and bicycle paths to “encourage sustainable economic growth and create a more livable Downtown, Rochester”. I think Waynesboro would benefit by constructing some of these walking and bicycle paths, by building these paths it is encouraging people to get out and be healthy as well as reducing some traffic and increasing the number of people walking by local shops and parks.

The next city I was interested in that I think Waynesboro could learn from is Copenhagen. The population of Copenhagen is also 50 times greater than Waynesboro’s which gives me a glimmer of hope that a town like mine could become better. I think Copenhagen is one of the coolest places; to have so many people biking everywhere is incredible. Waynesboro has been slowly growing and there is becoming a lot more traffic. The idea of traffic calming would be great and I think that Waynesboro would greatly benefit from calming. There are a good bit of people who walk in Waynesboro but there are multiple pedestrian accidents and deaths each year, by creating slower speeds and a more pedestrian/bicycle friendly environment we could save some lives, create a healthier environment, and a better quality town.

I am from the suburban area of Warrington, Pennsylvania. Warrington is located in Bucks County and is 25 miles north of Philadelphia. It is considered an automobile suburb because mostly everyone uses cars to get around and there aren’t many sidewalks aside from ones in neighborhoods. There are about 24,000 people living in 13.8 square miles of land. There are a couple farms throughout my town but in the past few years a lot of big shopping centers have been popping up making my town more urban than it has ever been. I’ve lived here for my whole life except for when I am away at school and I couldn’t imagine growing up anywhere else. It is so close to Philly that I can take the train and be there in 30 minutes or I can drive to New York City or Washington D.C. and be there in about 2 hours. I really like the location of my town because it is so close to so many other fun cities.

The first city I am going to talk about is Beacon Hill, Boston, Massachusetts. This town is pedestrian-oriented with many sidewalks for people to get from different shops, go to work, or just take leisure strolls. My town is nothing like this one because we only have sidewalks in neighborhoods and for the most part people only use them leisurely. Our shopping centers do have a lot of shops and sidewalks but some of the shops for one center are across a busy road and spread out even more. I think that it would be beneficial for my town to consider placing more sidewalks all throughout because right now everyone uses their cars to get to places. By adding more sidewalks this puts less pollution in the air than cars and promotes a healthy lifestyle.

The second town I chose is Detroit, Michigan. Urban farming is very important here because this area is known as a food desert and this type of sustainability not only helps people in need but helps the environment as well. I really liked the urban gardens and think that with all the new construction going on in my town that some of these buildings should consider making them more environment friendly. My town has a couple farms that help produce some locally grown food but what I noticed is that there are a few abandon buildings that have been sitting there for almost 15 years doing nothing. It would be in my town’s best interest to clean up these hazardous areas and make this land something that gives back to the community like maybe a community garden.

The town that I am from is called Northern Cambria, Pennsylvania. It can best be described as a suburb automobile mixed with a pedestrian-oriented neighborhood. There town is fairly small with a population approximately three thousand people. Many of the inhabitants get transported via bikes and their own personal cars. I grew up in this town and I had spent the majority of my childhood seeing my friends by either walking or riding my bicycle. I believe that having this dynamic makes my town very versatile in energy saving ways being that parents do not have to haul their children around from place to place and the children are able to stay healthy as I see this still continuing today.

The first city I will discuss from this module is Detroit. From watching the video in this module, I was reminded of my hometown discussed in the above paragraph. A few minutes outside of my town is a very rural living space where plenty of farms can be found. I believe that the urban farming that is taking place in Detroit is similar to my town, except in the scale. I personally know family and friends who do not live on farms taking the initiative to farm their own potatoes, tomatoes, and other fruits and vegetables in their backyard. It is easy to overlook some of these contributions from other people living sustainable on their own land whenever I am surrounded by farmland and Detroit helped to remind me of that.

The next city I will be discussing is Rochester, NY. My town of Northern Cambria is similar in the automobile aspects that was shown very early on in this module. Even though my town could be considered a pedestrian neighborhood from having a sidewalk on almost every street, automobiles are still the main sources of transportation. There are many people including my family that have to commute to and from work everyday from nearby towns and cities. There are many ways that the residents of my town can make commuting to and from work more sustainable. One of the ways is to take advantage of the bus that runs into town and to nearby towns. This will decrease the amount of cars on the road. Another way is to begin carpooling. The final way is for the residents that work in the town or nearby by utilizing bikes where there would only be a few minutes extra time added to their commute as well as extra exercise.

My hometown is Rochester, Pennsylvania. Located in Beaver County, where the Beaver River meets the Ohio River. With an approximate population of 3,600 and an average graduating class of about 65 at local Rochester Area High School we are a comfortable small town. No matter where I go in town I am guaranteed to see at the very least five people I know. I would consider it more of a combination of a pedestrian oriented town and an automobile suburb. Some of the adults in the community commute out of town to go to work everyday, while there are also local businesses where some walk to work everyday. The local grocery store is a light to moderate walk from any given location in town. All year round there is a steady balance of both foot traffic on sidewalks and automobile traffic on the roadways.

The first city from the reading I’d like to discuss is Rochester, New York. I have now lived in Rochester, New York since the first of the year and have grown familiar with the area. A larger population than that of Rochester, PA increases the amount of traffic almost everywhere. Within the city there are many places in walking distance, but as mentioned in the reading it is an automobile suburb. Surrounding neighborhoods not but five minutes out of the city is where the majority of the population resides. During my morning commute you are able to see the amount of people heading into the city for work.

Next, I am going to discuss Beacon Hill, Boston. Beacon Hill is the example of a pedestrian oriented city where people choose to walk rather than drive. I mentioned that Rochester, PA was a combination of both a pedestrian oriented town and an automobile suburb and this example gives a good comparison. In Beacon Hill, there are places to work and shop. People do not necessarily need a vehicle in order to get to these places. Rochester, PA has the unique ability allow people to enjoy a nice walk to the store if they so choose or drive out of town to a nearby shopping mall.

Although I was born in Pakistan, I consider Easton, Pennsylvania to be my hometown, having lived there for a majority of my life. It is located in southeast Pennsylvania, adjacent to Phillipsburg, New Jersey. It has a lot of variety in terms of neighborhoods. I live in an automobile suburb area, where most people own and utilize their vehicles. Nearby though, downtown Easton consists of more pedestrians, but cars are no less popular there especially since people commute from Pennsylvania to New Jersey often. The population overall is 27,073. My favorite part about this city is its diversity of people, neighborhoods, and opportunities. This Lehigh Valley area (where Easton is located) is known for having the most colleges in the area. Easton is also easily accessible for any good or service, whether it is food, stores, jobs, and even a route to New Jersey and New York if someone is looking to explore.

First, I want to talk about Copenhagen where traffic calming is a norm. Their attempt to ensure that cars don’t interfere with people relates to Easton. It is rare in this city, but it could be a good way to attain more sustainability. Often, in Downtown, streets are closed down to cars for the sake of historical or social events. People choose to leave their cars and actually walk around instead, which lowers cars emissions but increases social interaction. It would probably be difficult to make the area completely pedestrian-oriented due to the passage of heavy traffic from and to New Jersey and Pennsylvania. This does not mean that other areas in Easton cannot follow this idea, like near schools. For example, Easton Area High School is next to a sledding hill and many restaurants for students to visit during lunch breaks; this should be an incentive to reduce traffic.

The other city I choose is Rochester, New York. I found it very interesting that it was an example of automobile suburbs, and one of the signs of that was that there aren’t many sidewalks because people choose to use automobiles for transport. This made me realize that although Easton would be considered an automobile suburb, it has sidewalks, and other forms of transportation. In other words, it is not simply promoting a single type of commute. This is a good reminder for Easton though that it should indulge more in sidewalks, bike paths, and other transportation modes to access stores, schools, and jobs more easily. Still, I’m proud to say that Easton already has plenty of sidewalks and bike paths, but of course, it can always improve. It would actually be pretty easy too since many areas (like where I live) already have stores and such close by. As another way of lowering emissions, it can improve air quality and as a result, peoples’ health.

I live in a small township called Sugarloaf.  It is a suburb of Hazleton, PA, which is in the northeastern region of the state.  Sugarloaf is an automobile suburb, because the town is spaced out over a decently large area, and you have to drive to Hazleton to get there.  Within the town, there are multiple neighborhoods and farms.  Roughly 4,200 people reside in the 22.5 square mile township.  Sugarloaf is one of several small municipalities outside of Hazleton.  Sugarloaf is unique because it encircles a borough called Conyngham.  Conyngham has less than half the population of Sugarloaf, but it provides most utility services to my township.  I love living in Sugarloaf.  My family has lived in a neighborhood there for 15 years.  It is a great place to raise children, and many of the activities common in Sugarloaf utilize the plentiful wooded areas.  One way Sugarloaf could become more sustainable is by transforming the transportation systems, especially by means of bicycling and public transportation.

Another city I would like to focus on is Rochester.  As with Sugarloaf, Rochester has neighborhoods that are automobile suburbs.  The city has roughly 210,600 people living in 37.1 square miles, but the whole metro area consists of over 1 million people.  Even being an automobile suburb, Rochester is taking steps to cut down on vehicular transportation.  According to the city’s website, over 45 miles of bicycle lanes have been installed on the streets since 2011, with this project ever-growing.  Bicycle parking is becoming more abundant, and the off-street trails network has been expanded.  Sugarloaf can learn from Rochester’s example.  I believe expanding my township’s on-road bicycle lanes and parking is key in encouraging more people to bike to Hazleton.  Even though Rochester has many more people than Sugarloaf does, every town’s efforts make a difference.

Curitiba, Brazil is also a good role model for Sugarloaf.  With about 1.8 million people living in 166.4 square miles, and over 3 million people in the entire metro area, a good transportation system is necessary.  Choosing buses as the primary transportation method, the city has seen remarkable results, and is contributing significantly to sustainability.  The only time when public transportation is used in Sugarloaf is when children take the school bus.  These buses are not utilized during the other hours of the day, however.  If buses were used more often for transportation to Hazleton, parking would be more available and less gas would be emitted.  While there is public transportation within the city of Hazleton, so many people travel to the city, and therefore a bus system should be better utilized.

My town is East Brunswick, NJ, a suburban community part of the New York City metropolitan area. The towns population is 47,512 as to the 2010 census, which is a decent size mostly attributed to its good public school system and vicinity to New York City and I-95 the main highway cutting through the center of New Jersey. The neighborhoods are set up as small communities of developments made by different building companies who build every unit in that area. Each development is along roads like cranberry and route 18 which are main lanes of transportation through the many dense housing sections. This in tern makes it a very automobile oriented community with it being hard to really walk anywhere efficiently. I have a strong attachment to my town as I have experienced all the benefits it brings. My favorite benefit is easily how I enjoy the life of a large suburban community while being close to many other points of interest. My house is 30 minutes from famous points along the Jersey Shore and 40 minutes from one of the biggest and potentially the most popular city in the world.

The first city I chose to analyze is obviously New York City due to its vicinity to me. The city itself affects my town in two ways, income and supply/demand. The city effects my towns affluence in that the average income in the city is much higher then surrounding areas so a majority of the adults in my town fund there relaxed sub urban life with in the hectic metropolitan area also bringing a lot of their energy to my area. It effects supply and demand in that it being such a large harbor and center of shipping it is able to directly supply the demand from the high density towns  near it like my own. Something I can in turn learn from the city is how to handle large density life. With the supply never ending, demand and density in my town is rising and its best to look to areas who have successfully been sustaining a high density area for many years like New York. One way to do this is to fix transportation ahead of time and make it more efficient prior to overdeveloping my area and not being able to move through it logistically. Having a bus or train lane established to the already risen Use Mixture areas as points of interest on a route could help assimilate an ever growing population to my town.

The second city I chose to analyze is a combination of Detroit and Haiti. These are two urban areas where they have put a huge emphasis on agriculture both of the community and their own personal lives. This can be applied to my town in that as our town grows we have been overtaking our original standing farms and filling them with condos and shops. As a community collective effort we can all apply these simple agriculture ideas. From Detroit we can see how using some of the larger home properties with wasted back yards, we can farm specific crops in rotation to help feed the local area, lowering the cost and emissions from food transportation and giving a healthy farm to table product. By using ideas from Haiti we can use small scale subsistence farming to not only again provide healthy and sustainable food but also to improve air quality around developments and improve peoples active life maintaining their farms and even their psychological states.

GEOG 030: Module 7- Urban Planning

Paragraph 1. Newark, New Jersey

I was born and raised in Newark, New Jersey, the largest city in the state, with a population of 277,000. Newark lies eight miles west of New York City. The city would be considered an urban downtown environment though not necessarily pedestrian.  It has a ‘locational’ advantage which makes it a prime transportation hub with a major international airport, rail lines and an extensive highway system. It is a business hub with major corporate headquarters, performing arts venues and educational institutions. More than 100,000 people commute to Newark each day from the surrounding streetcar suburbs. Despite that fact, most of the roads and trains go through Newark, not to Newark. One third of the city’s population live below the poverty line and much of it is considered a food desert. While the city’s population has declined by one-half over the past fifty years and its manufacturing base has declined significantly, it is still one of the most densely populated cities in the most densely populated state in the country. More than one-third of its residents live below the poverty line and, of course, it has a reputation for being a high-crime area.

Detroit, Michigan

Newark has, unfortunately, many similarities to Detroit. It has a high poverty rate, a declining population and inadequate sustainable food sources. Much of Newark is considered a food desert. Few major food store chains have stores in the city.  Urban agriculture such as described in the video would provide a vastly improved source of food to Newark. Previous city administrations had tried to start an urban agriculture program but a subsequently-elected mayor proceeded to sell off most of the properties targeted as growing areas. (That official eventually ended up serving time for illegal land sales.) This is another aspect of why transitioning to sustainability is difficult. We need to have the ‘will,’ both politically and socially to make the changes required.  It is also interesting to note that industrial urban farming, which would compete with smaller, private farms, is coming to Newark. AeroFarms, backed by several large investment groups, has begun a $30 million renovation of an old steel factory to build the largest indoor vertical urban farm. While this may bring some jobs to Newark, it is not certain if the produce will be made available locally.

Bogota, Columbia

The image, in fact, the self-image, of Newark is not very positive. The city’s air quality is poor and the general health of its residents is not good. However, many positive elements have developed in recent years: entertainment venues, improved parks and access to waterways (a multi-million dollar cleanup of the Passaic River has just been funded.) An event similar to Bogota’s Ciclivia would be a great boost to Newark. Closing many of the streets would give the residents of Newark and the surrounding towns access to safe cycling, skating and walking and provide a way for them to become exposed to the positive aspects of Newark. The health benefits of these activities is obvious.  Such events can provide an uplifting experience with regard to the general psyche of a town.  And it just seems like so much fun!

Mike Evangelista

I will be using my hometown of Grand Rapids, Michigan for this assignment. In the neighborhood I grew up in it was very urban oriented. There were streets for automobiles but it was a narrow two way street. The sidewalks were wide and accommodating for walking, biking, skating and running. There were convenient stores and shops, the famous Frosty Boy, and parks within walking distance. The population of the metropolitan area is roughly 1,027,703. When I was growing up I do not remember the area feeling much like a ‘big city’ it felt smaller and like home. Obviously, it has grown much since I was younger and living there but even now the downtown area still has a ‘smaller’ feel. Many of the streets have pylons that can be raised to block vehicle traffic, they do this many times a year for different events and functions.

The first city I will discuss is Copenhagen. As I mentioned in the previous paragraph, Grand Rapids has pylons they can raise to restrict vehicle traffic. They do this many times throughout the year, much like Copenhagen does, for events and other things. I think that my hometown can take a lot from how Copenhagen operates. If they permanently removed or severely reduced the amount of vehicle traffic in certain downtown areas they would significantly reduce the amount of pollution they produce. Another benefit to reducing or eliminating vehicular traffic from certain downtown areas would be to increase public use spaces. As seen in Copenhagen, the reduction of vehicles did not lessen business as predicted but increased it overall. Making public spaces more appealing to pedestrians brings more foot traffic to shops and retailers in the downtown area that they wouldn’t normally have on a busy city street.

The second city I will discuss is Detroit. As both cities are located in the same state I think this is fitting. While the outlying areas of Grand Rapids are rural and a lot of farmland; it could still be very beneficial for the downtown area of Grand Rapids to begin urban farming. Even turning public spaces into small vegetable producing gardens that are still functional would be advantageous. Restaurants could utilize roof top farms. Many of the parks in the downtown area could be planted with gardens while still maintaining their aesthetic qualities and retaining their functionality as parks and gardens. The combination of reducing vehicle traffic and adding urban farming into the downtown area would significantly reduce the cities carbon footprint and greatly increase its sustainability.

My hometown is Lancaster, PA, which is located in central Pennsylvania. Specifically I live in Manheim Township, which is just north of the city of Lancaster. It’s mainly an automobile suburban area until you get into the city. The traffic is mostly all cars, with a few parks in the area to walk around. Bike paths are also common in the parks and extend into suburban developments. Lancaster and the surrounding areas like Manheim Township house over 100,000 people. With all these people there is a lot of traffic in the city both as pedestrians and cars. Being able to call this my hometown is what brings me closer to the place. It’s a city and suburban area that are closely tied together. It does not have the large tall building feel to it but has just as much to see and do. Every first Friday the surrounding areas venture into the city to see live music and have a nice dinner. In that sense the city is very connected to the suburbs.

Copenhagen is not a terribly large city like New York or Tokyo, but it has a decent size. What is amazing about Copenhagen is its transportation like the module talks about. It’s a very clean and sustainable city that Lancaster could look up to as an example for their future in infrastructure. Lancaster has been looking for ways to change its mode of infrastructure more and I think bicycles are the way to do that. A thing as simple as a bike path can go a long way to improve the sustainability of a city. It’s not getting over the hump, but it’s a step closer.

Another way to become more sustainable is to eliminate import pollution and transportation costs. In Chicago, they have started this plan by improving their urban agriculture. Urban agriculture lessens pollution by selling fresh food that most people actually prefer to imported food. There are many more gardens than the one shown in the module in Chicago, and these are a start to improving the cities food. Lancaster, can take a similar approach by turning unused space into a garden or citizens growing products in their small backyards. Roof gardens are even becoming more popular and making places more environmentally sustainable. This would be a large step forward to sustainability.

I live in a town located in Pennsylvania named Downingtown where the population is roughly 8,000 people. In this particular town there are two different types of neighborhoods it contains. Directly in town where the high school is located, the neighborhoods are designed for the urban downtown part. Through this, the residents of the town are able to walk to different locations as well as drive. Around the outside part of the town, the neighborhoods are designed as automobile suburbs where the goal is to drive in town to the shops, to work or to the city. My metropolitan are is considered Philadelphia-Camden-Wilmington, which has a population of approximately 6 million people. I was born and raised in Downingtown and I am used to the type of town it is. The way the streets are set up around my high school allowed me to walk to different destinations with my friend after school. The set up of the town allowed my peers and I to find activities to do instead of getting into trouble.

In Copenhagen, the residents have transformed the city in to a pedestrian based city. Some of the streets have been changed so that no cars are allowed on them. Through this, the residents have more places to walk and bike to as well as more of a chance to explore and relax in the city. These aspects of the city relate back to my own home town because of the amount of sidewalks that are directly in town and the trails in the large variety of parks that allow the residents to walk and bike to different places. My particular town can take notes from the city of Copenhagen in how to become more sustainable. I believe that my town would really benefit in closing off streets and parking lots and turning them into a place where the residents of the town can become more active, go outside more and enjoy those around them.

In Bogota, Columbia every Sunday and holiday the citizens experience car free roads from 7 in the morning until 2 in the afternoon. This experience allows the citizens of the city to become more active, enjoy activities put together by the cities and to enjoy the outdoor experience. Through this action, the city helps cut down on the pollution that comes from automobiles and overall has created a healthier city. While the streets in my town are set up the same as Bogota, there is not a designated day for cars to be off the road. I feel as though my town can benefit from this more than it could benefit from the set up of Copenhagen because it is more possible to designate a certain day and time frame to these activities. It would allow the residents to become more active, cut down on pollution and bond with one another as well.

I come from the hometown of Doylestown Pennsylvania. Doylestown is a large town and a “city” that serves as the center of Bucks County. It is located 27 miles north of Philadelphia and 8- miles south of New York City. Due to the fact that this town is split in-between sections of rural and suburban areas, it is fully dependent on the use of automobiles as transportation. Differing from this belief that its fully dependent on automobiles, when you actually start to enter the heart od Doylestown and the Borough, it becomes more and more pedestrian-oriented. In this area people may find a place to park and can then walk around to different neighborhoods, parks, libraries, shops and restaurants in a very small vicinity to each other. Although the borough of Doylestown and downtown Doylestown do have shops they are more like boutiques and smaller shops. Any real retail store or wholesale shopping center or shopping mall is a drive away in the automobile dependent areas. To given an estimate there are around 10,000 people in this setting.

The first city form the module that I chose was Detroit, Michigan. One of the coolest aspects of the city is how they have transformed abandoned buildings and areas into urban agriculture. This differs from my hometown Doylestown slightly; in the way that we do not use abandon land for farming but yet the other way around. Our city is kind of the reverse of Detroit in that it is solely used for agriculture but then what ever land isn’t used by agriculture is used for Suburban use. This does lead me to the belief that we should take advantage of abandon urban area and also just the use of peoples personal property. Like Detroit we should attempt to have more area used for personal agriculture. This would lessen the harmful impact on our world in a plethora of ways such as shipment of supplies and food and the fuels needed to do this.

The Last or second city that I chose due to its sustainability is Curibita, Brazil. This city has claimed to have one of the best transportation and subway systems in the world. They have buses running every minute while also making this service cheap and reliable. Where I am from public transportation does not exist and I think that’s a huge flaw within our town. I believe that the introduction of a public transportation would save time, money, energy and also the world. This is because when not everyone is driving a car, buying gas and polluting the environment it would now be coming from a much smaller source that would benefit the environment greatly. I believe that Doylestown should take after Curibita in the attempt to better our earth.

1. My hometown is Pottstown, PA. Pottstown is located in the southeastern part of Pennsylvania in Chester County. It takes about 45 minutes to an hour to get to Philadelphia. Mostly all of Pottstown would be considered an automobile suburb. Everyone drives their car from place to place in my town because everything is so spread out, it would be impossible to walk everywhere. There is also no bus or subway system in my town, so people need their own mode of transportation. I specifically live in a part of Pottstown called North Coventry. There are about 7,866 people that live in North Coventry as of the 2010 census. I have lived in my current house for exactly 14 years as of this past February. I only moved there when I was five, so most of my childhood memories are there. One of the main reasons why I like my hometown is its location to other things. It is relatively close to Philadelphia, the King of Prussia mall, the Exton mall, and other towns that surround us.
2. The first city that I’m going to discuss is Detroit, Michigan. This city was discussed in the module in respect to its up-and-coming sustainability method of urban farming. Since this is a fairly large city consisting of many hi-rise buildings, there is not that much space for locally grown food. However, Detroit is taking the initiative to start little gardens all throughout the city in order to increase their currently small amount of locally grown food. My hometown could very much benefit from this sustainable idea. Pottstown used to be covered in farmland, but now with an increasing population and the demand for more residential living areas, the land for farming is dwindling. The population of Pottstown could use the method of urban farming, so people can start to make their own food. It also provides healthier food choices, and it leaves less of an ecological footprint without the need for transporting the food.
3. The second city I’m going to discuss is Curitiba, Brazil. This city was discussed in the module in respect to the fact that this city has the best bus system in the world. There is a decent amount of people living in this busy city, so they designed their city around the bus system. Since they couldn’t afford a subway system in the early stages of development, the people of Curitiba designed their city around the bus system. It makes sense now because of how cheap and efficient it is. My hometown could also benefit from this method of sustainability. Having a bus system in my town that mostly everyone would use could make transportation much more efficient and better for the environment. Pottstown does not even have a bus system set up right now. But with one, we could decrease traffic in high-density parts of my town.

I currently live in Scranton Pennsylvania which is roughly located in northeastern PA. The particular area I live in wold be considered an automobile suburb. There are many houses around however, nothing too close as far as shops go. Although cars are not necessary, considering there are places around that sell small groceries or bus stops to take you further, they still beat walking or biking a few miles every time you need to go somewhere. That is the beauty of this area though, if you’re in the mood for a nice stroll down the street, there are still sidewalks and friendly neighbors to walk around with. Originally, I grew up in a much more rural area  more north with a population of around 700. I then moved to Scranton to be close to school moving to a population upwards of 75,000.

The first city I would like to discuss is Copenhagen. I focused a lot on how bicycling took over transportation in the city. Two years ago I took a trip to Copenhagen and witnessed the crazy amount of bicyclists for myself. Of course that was not the reason for going there. Cars were actually seen very seldom and the streets were packed with bikes in all direction on nearly every street. In addition, the week I was there, every person I came across was generally slim and in descent shape, which is no surprise considering everyone rides bicycles everywhere rain or shine. Bringing bicycles to Scranton, or even any city for that matter, would greatly decrease Co2 emissions produced from gasoline vehicles. In addition, it may begin to fight this countries obesity epidemic.

The second city I focused on was Detroit. It was quite amazing seeing the Youtube clip of how much the city has changed over the past 70 years. The video mentioned, it is reverting back to a rural standing opening more and more green zones from abandoned structures. People in Detroit starting using urban farming to utilize the green areas that have been opening up. Around Scranton I have noticed in certain areas there are many abandoned buildings and structures that are dilapidated and lots that are overgrown and unable to be used. If this city were to fund such projects to remove that debris then citizens here could begin to adopt urban farming bring both some farming and money into the city. Not only would hazardous material be removed but, healthy planting would be taking place resulting in healthier diets and cheaper organics.

1a. I live in a small town in North-Eastern Pennsylvania called Old Forge. It’s a small town between the Scranton and Wilkes-Barre area. I would consider it an automobile suburb because the main way of transportation is by car. We have a main street that has some restaurants but in order for entertainment, we have to drive 15 to 20 minutes. The town is so small that we could walk places but most people don’t. It’s not a preferred method of transportation, which is not good. Our population in the 2013 census was recorded at 8,264 residents in a 3.5 mile radius. I’ve lived in OF for about 15 years and love it but hate it. There is not a lot to do even if we do drive to surrounding areas. If we really want to have some fun we have to travel to Philadelphia or NYC. There is also a lot of heavy drinking in my area due to lack of things to do.

2. I would like to compare Beacon Hill, Boston, Massachusetts to my hometown, Old Forge, PA. There are differences because Beacon Hill has a more walking oriented structure than my hometown. The module states that residents in Beacon Hill choose to walk because it is a more “attractive option”, however, it does talk about a main street where there are plenty of things to do. This is where the residents would walk to. My town has a main street too but not as many things to do on it. However, Old Forge is such a small area that walking should be a useful means of getting around. It would reduce pollution from automobiles and increase health in individuals by exercising and not breathing in so many pollutants.

3. In this second example, I would like to use Curitiba, Brazil. Curitiba’s population is hugely more than my hometown’s but I like the idea of the bus. We have a bus in my area but it’s not used by many due to the lack of places it goes. We don’t need a bus system as large or frequent as Curitiba’s but if we use it more frequently we could reduce road traffic, cost and pollution. If my town, or this relative area, created bus systems that would shuttle people to the movies or to bars people would be much more likely to use that method! Not only will this system reduce pollution but it can also aid in exercise and reduce frequency in D.U.Is. If everyone is dropped off at a communitive area, then they have to walk the rest of the way to get where they need to be.