Muncy, Pennsylvania is a small automobile suburb of the Williamsport metropolitan area. This suburb has deep agricultural roots, while housing developments are slowly growing; it is still common to see large family farms throughout the town limits. While the Williamsport area has a population of roughly 117,000 people, Muncy only comprises about 2% of the metropolitan area or 2,400 people, this is a stark contrast to the Chicago neighborhood I grew up in. This is my husband’s hometown and now it is mine. In the 3 years that I have called Muncy home I would say I have become a product of the area. This Chicago girl now has an acre garden and a back yard full of chickens, something that I never thought would happen.

At first glance Boston, Massachusetts has little in common with the Williamsport-Muncy area. Boston is a large sprawling port city while the Williamsport area has recently become classified as a mining town due to its proximity to the Marcellus Shale fields. To find their similarities one must look at Williamsport’s history as once the lumber capital of the world which caused areas of influential housing known as Millionaire’s Row to spring up in the 1860s. This area still exists today and has a Beacon Hill feel to it, just slightly more spacious. The recent influx of money from the Oil and Gas industry has seen a revitalization of this area, bringing back a pedestrian-oriented neighborhood and helping to stabilize a dwindling business district. This change has slowed the expansion of the Williamsport area and helped rebuild its core, thus diminishing the need for farmland to be converted into housing developments.

While the Muncy-Williamsport area has strong agricultural roots, the homesteading video focusing on Detroit, Michigan shows that Williamsport is missing out on a big sustainability opportunity. In our area most homes have large enough green spaces to sustain a viable garden for home us, yet few take advantage of this resource. Both towns share a similar make up of blue collar workers, yet some in Detroit are doing more with less. Furthermore townships within the Williamsport metropolitan area are limiting property owners as to which animals can be raised on their property. Simple backyard coops have many sustainability advantages but are consistently under attack from zoning boards. While Detroit is opening up options for its residents, Williamsport residents are seeing their paths to sustainability being closed faster and faster.

Me and my family live in Tripoli which is the capital city and largest city of Libya. Tripoli is located in the northwestern part of Libya. We live 1.5 km away from downtown Tripoli. The city combines pedestrian-oriented neighborhoods and automobile suburbs. Pedestrian-oriented neighborhoods are more common towards the center of the city such as The Old City suburb. Automobile suburbs get more common as we move further from downtown Tripoli. The city has a population of about 1.1 million people [1]. The main transportation mode in Tripoli is driving and I think this is partly because the gas prices are very cheap, 1 Liter of gasoline is cheaper than 1 Liter of water. 290 out of 1000 Libyans have cars and this is the highest rate in Africa [2]. Consequently, traffic congestion is a daily common problem. We have a bus system but the service it provides is not that good. The routes of the bus system are sparse and the frequency is not high which makes people choose cars to transport in.

[1]:“MAJOR URBAN AREAS – POPULATION”. CIA World Factbook.

[2]:Bank Data: Motor vehicles (per 1,000 people)”. The World Bank. Retrieved 2014-02-09. Archived.

My hometown, Tripoli, could benefit significantly from the experience of Copenhagen, Denmark. Copenhagen’s “Calming the traffic” approach to solve traffic congestion problems has been highly successful. I think the way this approach was implemented was really effective where they targeted the city’s main street and made it pedestrian-oriented. This not only reduced traffic but also benefited economy and made people enjoy the outdoors more often. It has made Copenhagen a people oriented city rather than a traffic congested city. I think Tripoli should aspire to achieve such a goal. In Tripoli, we have many streets with lots of shops, restaurants, and entertainment but are mainly accessed with cars which causes lots of traffic congestion. Copenhagen’s approach gives us good insight into how such traffic could be gradually reduced. Besides traffic, this also helps increase public life and affect the social norms in a positive way.

In Tripoli we don’t have a good bus system that encourages people to reduce their car usage. To solve this problem, I think Curitiba, Brazil is a perfect example because it has the best bus system in the world, as mentioned in the module. According to Streetfilms, 75% of people in Curitiba commute to work by bus, so we could say it’s the main transportation mode. Interestingly, even though it’s a bus system it’s equivalent to a subway in efficiency defined in terms of the number of passengers per space. This is achieved by using dedicated lanes for the buses, buying tickets in advance, and boarding at the same level. I think the main reason this bus system has been successful is its accessibility in terms of space and time. This helps people answer the collective action problem of choosing between car vs. bus. I think these technical ideas would really help Tripoli implement a good bus system.

1. My hometown is Lansdale, Pennsylvania. It is located in Montgomery County North West of Philadelphia. So I am generally in southeast Pennsylvania. Montgomery County 812,376 (2013) has a total of about 16,408 people and has a neighborhood I would consider as an automobile suburb. Though not a huge city, Lansdale requires for a car to get from place to place. My neighborhood itself has sidewalks, but throughout Lansdale there is not sidewalks everywhere. To get to any market, school, store you have to drive everyone throughout Lansdale, but people can and get from place to place walking or riding bicycles on the street. We do not have a mayor in Lansdale. Rather we have leaders for the county known as County Commissioners. The Chair’s name is Josh Shapiro. The Vice-Chair’s name is Valerie A. Akroosh. Lastly, the Commissioner’s name is Joseph C. Gate. I have been living in Lansdale for 9 years now. I went through the Pennsylvania public school system from 4th grade through high school.
2. The first city from the module I am discussing is Chicago, Illinois. My hometown is Lansdale, PA now, but before that I lived in Naperville, Illinois. I lived there for about 5 years. Chicago is pedestrian based whereas you need a car in Lansdale to get around. Many places in Chicago are just within walking distance of each other and many people live within the city whereas many people in Montgomery County live in neighborhoods. However, Lansdale and Chicago both use the same types of transportation Lansdale has the Septa trains connecting Lansdale to Philadelphia. The L train connects Chicago throughout the city. Trains are a good form of transportation and that is what Philadelphia is to people who live in Naperville is Chicago. However, Chicago’s cities provide better urban agriculture that South Bend could take after. In Lansdale, there are not community gardens present, however, in Chicago, they have turned community gardens into artwork and created parks to increase plant coverage and improve the air quality there.
3. The second city I chose was Rochester, NY. Just from the image itself, it shows many similarities to Lansdale. In my neighborhood, there are sidewalks like in Rochester. Like Rochester, people that live in Lansdale, need street car transit to get around the city. Unlike Rochester, it is very unlikely to see people walking around the neighborhood, walking their dogs or going on runs. My personal neighborhood actually has lawns and people can be found outside. However, I think that Lansdale should have even more sidewalks and develop a more pedestrian-oriented city. Many side streets do not have sidewalks including many that connects the high school. Students still can go to convenience store to grab food after school. It might encourage people to walk more to save gas if there were more sidewalks in Lansdale.

1)    I live in a non-urban area of Barnesville, PA, where unfortunately I can’t walk to any vital places, and there really are no vital places, in my neighborhood.  The closet pedestrian-oriented city around me is Tamaqua.  Tamaqua has approximately seven thousand people.  A few of my aunts, uncles, and cousins are in that count.  I never thought there was anything special about Tamaqua as it’s really small and less pedestrian-oriented than a bigger city.  For how small it is, the town really makes a positive impact on the people who live there.  There are sidewalks with trees, parks, playgrounds, office buildings, doctor offices, dentists, specialists, lawyers, pharmacies, food restaurants, stores, grocery stores, banks, a public swimming pool, library, and post office that all within walking distance.  Yes, a lot of people do not walk to all of these places, but if they do want to cut down on car use there is a public transportation system that will take them across town or even out of it.  Having everything so close in this small town is great and very pedestrian-oriented.

2)      In this module, the city that I found interesting was Copenhagen.  The car-free streets and slow speed zones are a great idea.  It is very people oriented and brings people together to enjoy their city and each other.  I feel that this is relevant to the city of Tamaqua because it is a small town and adopting this idea would bring the community together.  The people of Copenhagen love the advantage of having this special privilege to access all of their favorite places safely which also helps brings a lot of business into the stores.  This could be very beneficial to the stores in Tamaqua.  Also, another thing I loved about Copenhagen was the slower speed limit.  I personally feel that this should be enforced in every town as driving through towns could be very dangerous.  If Tamaqua took after the city of Copenhagen I guarantee it would be safer and more enjoyed by its residents and visitors as a pedestrian-oriented city.

3)     The second city that I found interesting was Bogota, Columbia.  The process of making cycling and physical activity a social norm was a very smart way to help get their people healthier in safe way. If people are already biking, skating boarding, running, and walking trying to have fun and become healthier , why not take a few hours out of one day to make it safer for them?  The way Bogota, Columbia takes each Sunday is amazing and I believe that if Tamaqua did this, the civilians would utilize it and love every second of it.  I personally feel that if Tamaqua and other towns within my area did this, the towns would grow in popularity and become more fun for the towns people.

I live in Lititz, Pennsylvania which is a suburb of Lancaster, PA. The part of Lititz that I live in is considered to be an automobile suburb because it is a residential area where buses do not frequent and people have to use their cars to get places.  There has been a lot of growth and development in a mile radius of my home, but I’d still consider it to be of a low density as homes are on plots of ½ to 1 acre or more. Downtown Lititz would be considered a pedestrian-oriented community because everything is within walking distance; some residents of this area live and work in “downtown” and only rarely use a car.   There are a large number of shops, restaurants, parks, and convenience stores in downtown Lititz.  According to the 2014 census, Lititz, PA has a population of 9,400 people.  My town and the county of Lancaster are known for the Amish families who live there.  A lot of my culture and that of the Lititz environment is based off the Amish traditions. We embrace their culture while still keeping our “way-of-life” alive. For example, the streets are made for cars and horse and buggies. We share the road and both respect one another. We have many farmers’ markets sustained by the Amish and other farmers which allows for locally grown, fresh produce.   The outskirts of our town is made up of farmland with a few neighborhoods are spread throughout the area.  I was born and raised in Lititz and have lived in the same house for 19 years. I have friends that live close enough for me to walk to their home, and yet I live far enough from stores and my church that a car is a necessity. Bike riding would definitely be a possibility except for the fact that we do not have consistent bike lanes through the pedestrian or automobile suburbs.  My home/neighborhood/community is a wonderful place to have grow up!  

The first town that I want to discuss is Beacon Hill, Boston Massachusetts.  This would definitely be considered a pedestrian-oriented community because there are many places to work, shop, and seek entertainment within walking distance. The urban area has many streets that were first built 200 plus years ago, are made of “cobblestones”, and are so narrow that only one car can pass at a time.  Beacon Hill is a wealthy neighborhood and the residents can afford cars, but they choose not to use them very much because walking is a better option for the area; walking places makes their community more “sustainable”!   Beacon HIll is an inspiration for Lititz in my eyes because it is so physically beautiful!  The residents take pride in their homes and they strive to keep the area beautiful which, in turn, keeps the residents emotionally happy and fulfilled.  This fact about Beacon Hill reminds me of Lititz, PA because most Lititz homeowners do strive to make their “piece of the block” as aesthetically pleasing as possible.  Also, there are many shops, churches, doctor/dentist offices, a farmers’ market, schools, and recreational facilities within Lititz that are in walking distance that families can be sustained in the town.
The second city that I’d like to discuss is Detroit, Michigan.  Detroit really impresses me as a city with a lot of resourceful citizens.  The urban gardens, “farms”, rooftop gardens and markets are unbelievable and should encourage the people of any city to become more sustainable with “Mom and Pop gardens”.  As I watched the Detroit video, I could not help but think that the citizens of Lititz are not using half of the space that they have available to raise healthy food.  Certainly the Lititz Farmers’ Market that is held every Saturday morning could sustain more food stands and would, in turn, encourage the consumption of more locally grown, nutritious food.  One other thing that I noticed in the Detroit video was the fact that a volunteer was willing to help Will harvest and sell his crops.  I know that Lititz houses MANY high school students, church clubs, and adults who love to volunteer their time so as to help others.  I believe that , as Detroit, Lititz and its residents could grow a lot more fruits/vegetables and become much more self-sustaining.   

The closest town that I live near that I can relate most to with this assignment is Wayne, PA. Wayne is located about 30 minutes outside of Philadelphia and about a 5 minute drive from my house. Wayne is a small town; it is located on the Main Line and encompasses areas both within Radnor Township as well as Tredyffrin Township (which is me!). The last census done in Wayne was 2000 and there were 30,892 people residing within 12,662 households. The town itself is about 10 blocks in length and goes generally about 4 blocks in depth. The town is extremely friendly to both cars and pedestrians making it a combination of pedestrian-oriented and automobile neighborhood/suburb. It has lots of foot traffic especially on the weekends when people go in to the restaurants and shops, but one of Main Line’s largest roads cuts right through so it has very obvious traffic in it during peak hours.

I liked the video about Copenhagen’s efforts to make the city more bicycle/pedestrian friendly. One of the unique things about Wayne is that it is located on the Main Line, a train path through several large towns spanning to about an 80 minute ride outside of Philadelphia. Currently, this path is extremely unsafe to bike because the main ways of traversing through the towns is by the Main Line or a single road (Lancaster Road). I think something that Wayne could really prosper from is if they started making the town more biker friendly. It would be awesome to be able to go from town to town along the Main Line by bicycle and only one town needs to start that trend. I think once this happens there would be a lot more traffic into particular towns such as Wayne, promoting more customers to both restaurants as well as shops.

Another city that I learned to appreciate from this lesson was Curitiba, Brazil. I really admired the efforts that they put in to making sure the city is bus friendly and I think its something that Wayne, PA could prosper from. During peak hours, Lancaster Road (the main one that cuts through town) gets extremely backed up as most people commute into the city for work. I think if buses were more prevalent and easier to use, Wayne could really cut down on the traffic that it experiences, making a casual commute through much easier as well as appeasing to what I just talked about above in making it more bicycle/pedestrian friendly. I think one of the ways to do this would be introducing more buses that go into the city. The few times I’ve had to take a bus (or train) downtown the wait can be up to 60 minutes. If they began introducing train and bus schedules that overlapped with each other I think commuting would be a lot more efficient.

1. The city I am choosing is Vancouver. Vancouver is located just above Washington. It is a city within the country of Canada. It is a west coast seaport in British Columbia. It is quite an ethnically diverse city. Within the city of Vancouver, there are all kinds of different neighborhoods. I will focus on downtown for this portion however. The downtown area of Vancouver would be classified as urban downtown. There are about 50,000 people living within downtown Vancouver. The reason I chose Vancouver is because I really want to visit there. Vancouver is so close to the border of Washington. I wanted to know how different it would feel to cross into Canada for a trip. It seems like such a beautiful place. I would absolutely love the outdoor recreational opportunities and the downtown scenery.
2. The first city I am going to discuss for the next part of the post is Boston. After I read up on Boston, Massachusetts, I was able to get a deeper understanding of how life would be. They referred to an area in Boston named Beacon Hill. It has beautiful streets and is a very wealthy neighborhood. I think if Vancouver were able to decrease the amount of cars used and increase the amount of people walking, that it would increase the sustainability significantly. If Vancouver had beautiful streets to walk on, some people would be more enticed to walk among them and not drive a car. Although, Vancouver is doing rather a good job with transportation. They have 6 train stations and many busses for alternative means of transportation.
3. The next city I would like to look at is Copenhagen. Copenhagen decided to take the cars out of the main streets. Denmark has opened so many public spaces which allowed for many locals to walk down the streets. People have coffee, ride bikes, and socialize on the streets now. There are far more bikes used for transportation than cars. All the cafes and bars have bikes outside of their establishments. If Vancouver were able to transition to a bike and open-street lifestyle, the businesses would thrive. The amount of cars would be limited, also aiding in the sustainability of the city. The many people employed in sustainable development could facilitate the transition in the city of Vancouver. Giving the people of Vancouver their open spaces back will help with sustainability and also the happiness of the community and local businesses.

I am from Doylestown, Pennsylvania, a suburban town roughly 40 minutes outside of Philadelphia. If I were to classify Doylestown as one of the categories from the module, I would call it a streetcar suburb. While there are sidewalks aligning the town and surrounding neighborhoods, driving a car is the social norm to get from one point to another. My neighborhood is about a 15 minute car ride into downtown Doylestown, so walking would not be an option due to distance. The population of Doylestown is 8,337. While there are buses that run from Doylestown to Philadelphia, these options are not widely used. I have enjoyed growing up in Doylestown, but never critically thought about the amount of dependency I have on my car. Doylestown itself is very pedestrian friendly, but in order to get downtown I need my car, which is counterintuitive.

A city I have chosen to discuss is New York City. New York is about 80 miles North of Doylestown, and I have a lot of family members who live there currently. None of those family members have a car. In contrast to Doylestown, New York City is very pedestrian friendly, and relies heavily on mass transit. My cousin takes the subway every morning to get to work, completely eliminating the need for a car. When looking at New York City’s streets on a map, they literally look like a grid. The urban planning in New York’s case is very practical in its straight and parallel streets. Every form of dining, entertainment, shopping, or work, is easily accessible by foot or by mass transit. This is different from Doylestown in that all of Doylestown’s local hotspots are accessible through car. It would be more sustainable for Doylestown to become more pedestrian friendly and less reliant on cars.

The second city I have chosen is Copenhagen. Copenhagen’s unique social norm of cycling is something Doylestown should strive towards. Riding bicycles has become a part of this city’s culture. In Doylestown, if I wanted to ride a bike somewhere I would have to be mindful of cars potentially hurting me. Recently, however, Doylestown has been adding more bike paths. In my neighborhood in particular, a new bike path was added last year. People are often seen walking their dogs and riding their bikes along this path. In my opinion, biking is a very pleasant mode of transportation, and something I would take advantage of if there were more bike paths. I think Doylestown’s dependency on cars could be reduced if there were options to safely ride bikes. By adding more bike paths, the environment would benefit along with the health of Doylestown’s residents.

I come from a fairly small but active town called Doylestown, which is located about an hour drive north of Philadelphia. I have lived in the suburbs just outside the town, which is considered within Doylestown Township, my entire life. Because of this, I have grown up to become very used to this town, as well as learning many things about it and the people who live there. It is full of restaurants, bars, museums, and a variety of other things that attract many types of people. The town consists of a fairly pedestrian-friendly downtown area that is surrounded by many automobile-suburb type of areas and neighborhoods. The population of the downtown area is a little over 8,000 people, however when including the surrounding suburbs of the whole township, the population rises to about 18,000. Because of this, the town is easily accessible, with cars, to many more people who live just outside the downtown areas.

The video in this module did a great job of showcasing Denmark’s efforts to make the city a very pedestrian friendly and help the economy thrive. These methods can be applied to Doylestown. The downtown area is already a pedestrian friendly place, with dense placement of businesses and being nice to walk around. However, I think this can be expanded greatly if the town is made more accessible without using cars to the very high population of people outside of the town. Where I live, there is no easy way to walk or ride a bicycle into the town due to narrow fast roads and a lack of paths, despite the town not being far away. It is the same story for most of the surrounding area. Since most people drive cars into the town, there’s often a shortage of parking spaces and traffic becomes congested. If more walkways and pedestrian friendly methods of transportation into the town are implemented, it will help keep the town more sustainable, increase business, and make it a nicer place to be.

Lessons can be taken from the urban farming in Detroit and implemented in my hometown of Doylestown, despite the two being drastically different places. Doylestown is surrounded by a decent amount of farmland, but much of it is being turned into suburbs and neighborhoods. In order to preserve the local food availability and sustainability, we can adopt some of these urban farming techniques. More local grown food markets like the one shown in the video can be created within the town. Being a fairly wealthy and thriving area, many of Doylestown’s residents would be happy to support something like this and purchase more locally gown food if it was easier to buy. A movement like this in my hometown would bring in more business, create healthier diets, and make the town overall more sustainable.

I originate from San Juan, Puerto Rico. San Juan is the capital of Puerto Rico, so it is a very highly active city town. Where I live mostly it is an automobile suburb, actually most of the island’s living areas are automobile suburbs. The municipality itself has a few areas of urban downtown, though no specific downtown area. The population as of 2010 is around 395,000 people all distributed through a various types of urban landscapes. I was raised in San Juan for most of my life, I personally love the place due to it having such a blend of both historical areas and urban life. There are a lot of problems with it, crime, abandoned buildings, decreasing population is affecting the local economy, but overall it is a very great place to be around. An issue is that public transportation is fairly poor and limited, so not having a car means you won’t be able to get around much

Boston actually holds a lot of similarities to San Juan regarding how many varied urban landscapes are found in such a small area. Having personally been to Boston and it being mentioned in the readings gave me a good insight as to what comparisons are there. There are clear automobile suburbs in certain areas as well as an urban downtown. Though in Boston the downtown is more clearly defined as a single area than San Juan which has several. Something that Boston does have an advantage is that their public transportation system is much more efficient which in turn allows pedestrians to be able to commute around the city with relative ease and without the dependence of a car. This reduces traffic and lowers the carbon footprint in the environment around it.

A city which probably has the most difference to where I am from is definitely Copenhagen. It having such a heavy cycling culture around it makes it a very interesting contrast to what I was raised in. The conditions there are much cleaner for transportation options and also inspires people to be generally healthier and has good air quality. This form of urban transit would be generally better for urban downtowns of San Juan as well as the old Spanish area. All this would translate for faster movement throughout the city, it would be safer for those living in the area, and could greatly reduce transportation costs. Something that differs though is the fact that Copenhagen is around half the size of San Juan, so that is a factor regarding the feasibility of doing this in my home town.

1. My hometown is Niles Michigan. It is located in the Southwest corner of Michigan. Most neighborhoods are automobile neighborhoods, as most people commute into the city or to nearby cities such as South Bend. The population of Niles was 11,200 as of the 2010 census. There is an Amtrak train line that runs through Niles and goes to major cities, Detroit and Chicago. Not many people use this train line as almost everyone has an automobile that they can take to Detroit or Chicago. These train lines would be more convenient if Niles was closer to either of those two cities as people could then commute to work in Chicago or Detroit. I moved 10 miles from South Bend, Indiana to Niles, Michigan three years ago and therefore do not have much of an attachment to it. It still feels like I live in South Bend as I spend most of my time their and there is more to do.
2. My first city is Rochester, New York. The picture of the neighborhood that they show reminded me a lot of the neighborhood that I live in. It is also an automobile neighborhood, which does not have sidewalks just like my neighborhood. However Rochester is a lot bigger city than Niles. The picture of Rochester shown has a neighborhood that is towards the outer edge of the city. This is why the neighborhood looks as it does, as you would need a car to commute the city. My hometown of Niles is not very big and that’s why almost all the neighborhoods are automobile neighborhoods. Most people have to commute to nearby bigger cities. Niles could become more sustainable if neighborhoods closer to downtown Niles had sidewalks that people could use to go to nearby convenience stores. Also, car-pooling could provide a way for those who have to use automobiles to commute to the city.
3. My second city is Detroit, Michigan. Detroit may not be very similar to Niles in many ways as it has a bus system that allows people throughout the city to not have to need cars. What caught my eye about Detroit was the way that the city has taken initiative and developed urban farming. There are many farms around Niles, as this area is known for their farming. However, there is not much farming throughout the city. Detroit has implemented urban farming that would help Niles become more sustainable. Many people do have gardens and there is a farmers market near the city but Niles could emphasize the development of urban farming and become more sustainable. The city is never very populated and any abandoned areas could be used to implement urban farming. This would allow Niles to take advantage of every part of the city and not leave spaces unoccupied or unused.

I am from East Stroudsburg, in Northeast Pennsyvlania. According to the 2010 census, there are 176,567 people living in the Metropolitan area. I would consider my town to be an Automobile Suburb. The module states that these are neighborhoods designed for residents to commute into the city via car, and many residents make the 1 and half hour commute to New York City for work on a daily basis. Only around the college and certain areas downtown are there sidewalks to walk along the streets. Other places like restaurants, stores and businesses, and our mall are in different locations and often difficult to walk to, so the car is the main mode of transportation. The hilly geography is another huge discouraging factor to walking. I was born and raised in East Stroudsburg, so taking a car on even short trips is normal for me. Luckily, even with the mass use of vehicles, the environment is still relatively healthy. The air is clean, and there are many national recreation areas with healthy forests to enjoy.

The first city I’d like to discuss is Curitiba, Brazil. Although it is significantly larger than my town, their model bus system is definitely something East Stroudsburg could look at. East Stroudsburg has a bus system; however, it is not used very often due to lack of knowledge of the system and sporadic stops. Using the Curitiba as inspiration, a massive renovation for the actual bus stops could help immensely. The module states that our minds need to transition too, and since most people from my town don’t use the bus system, renovating the bus stops to be safer, cleaner, and simpler to use than they are now will ease this mental transition. The benefits of using busses to transport people are there, but there need to be incentives to ride the bus like they have in Curitiba.

The second city I’d like to discuss is Copenhagen, and their programs to reduce traffic. For this, I will focus specifically on the downtown borough region of East Stroudsburg, because the rest of the town would be too hilly to promote consistent cycling or walking as transportation. Copenhagen closed a 1 kilometer stretch of road to cars. There are many stretches of road in downtown East Stroudsburg that should be closed to traffic. On these streets are restaurants and shops that often suffer due to the fact that it can be hard to find a parking spot and walk across the busy streets. If these streets were closed and traffic was routed around, people would have more incentives to safely walk around and explore the vibrant downtown region. The downtown borough contains around 11,000 people. Convincing these people that walking or cycling is easier than driving a car would have huge sustainable benefits for the environment.

1. My hometown is Plymouth Meeting, Pennsylvania. Plymouth Meeting is an automobile suburb in Montgomery County, about 25 minutes from Center City Philadelphia. Plymouth Meeting has a population of 6,177 as of the 2010 census. Plymouth Meeting is a part of Plymouth and Whitemarsh Townships and closely borders Conshohocken, Blue Bell, and East Norriton. Plymouth Meeting is a middle to upper middle class area and has multiple parks in the area. I was born in Plymouth Meeting and at age 7 moved from one part of Plymouth Meeting to an area closer to the main line. Plymouth Meeting is a popular location because of it’s close proximity to the King of Prussia Mall and Philadelphia. My home is located 3 minutes away from the Plymouth Meeting Mall, a mall that seems to be getting less and less popular – possibly decreasing housing value.
2. My first city is Boston, Massachusetts. My reason for picking this city is that one of my close friends lives there and I appreciated it’s pedestrian oriented style. Beacon Hill, Boston, Massachusetts which is discussed in the article reminds me very much of some of the surrounding towns like Ambler, PA. I appreciate the pedestrian oriented towns, as I think it brings the community together more than other towns where everyone is in their own car separate from their neighbors and friends. This style of transportation affects more than just community, it is better for health in terms of exercise and car emissions which affect the environment. A closer knit community can also result in decrease in crime rate.
3. The second city I want to take a look at is Detroit, Michigan. Detroit is VERY different from my home town of Plymouth Meeting, Pennsylvania. Detroit median home sale price in 2015 was ~$40,000 per home compared to Plymouth Meeting’s $350,000 per home. The towns are very economically, culturally, and geographically different. One thing I found surprising was that Detroit actually has a large urban farming community. One would never assume there was any form of prospering crop or livestock production within a dilapidated urban city, but the urban farming has brought in life to the community with it’s urban agricultural growth. My town has areas that are more rural with farms that sustain our town and stimulate the economy.

My hometown is Mountaintop, Pennsylvania. Mountaintop is in Luzerne County   and located in the Northeastern part of the state. The population is about 15,000. It is an automobile suburb. There aren’t any sidewalks in Mountaintop, so it is very rare to see people walking places and mostly everyone drives. I’ve lived in Mountaintop for ten years. Although it does feel like home to me, I don’t love it there. It was a great place to grow up, but there is not much to do in the area. There is a nice park to go to with basketball courts, tennis courts, and an ice rink in the winter, but besides the park, Mountaintop doesn’t offer much more than that. I don’t dislike Mountaintop, but I definitely don’t want to live there forever.

Boston, Massachusetts is a place I could definitely see myself living in the future. I have a lot of family in that area and I even considered going to school there before I decided on Penn State. Specifically, Beacon Hill is where I would want to live in that area. As it was stated in the module, there are tons of interesting things to do there like shop, enjoy various types of food and entertainment, and it is all within walking distance.   Since the area is designed in a way that makes walking to places easy and desirable, walking is the main mode of transportation there, unlike Mountaintop. If Mountaintop put sidewalks in, I think that would definitely help make the area more of a pedestrian-oriented neighborhood, while making the area more attractive.

Another city that caught my attention while reading the module was Curibita, Brazil. I was really surprised to learn that the city is able to keep the public transportation affordable while still being able to run busses about every minute. The subway system is extremely conducive to keeping the environment healthy as well. After reading about their subway system and how successful is it there, it made me wonder about the public transportation offered in Mountaintop. After thinking about it, I realized there is no public transportation offered whatsoever. If Mountaintop were to provide some form of public transportation, it would eliminate a lot of pollution and save people money. This would be a positive change for not only the environment, but for the residents of my hometown as well.

My hometown city is Plymouth Meeting, PA. Not to follow a bandwagon, but it is located outside of Philadelphia, but also not far from King of Prussia. I would consider Plymouth Meeting to be somewhere in between the streetcar suburbs and the automobile suburbs. We definitely have a ton of sidewalks, but people always drive to the stores and commute into the city to work by cars, etc. The stores are close enough that it’s convenient, but not close enough to walk there. When I did a little research, I found that it has a population of about 5,593. I love Plymouth Meeting! It’s small enough that you don’t feel crowded or weighed down by a ton of traffic or chaos, but it is big enough that there is every store I need within a ten minute drive. It’s so convenient and just an amazing place to live. It’s my home and I wouldn’t want to live anywhere else!

The first city from the module that I chose to talk about is New York City. This is because I think it compares a lot to Philadelphia, which is right outside of Plymouth Meeting. The first reason I connect them pretty closely in my mind is because of the busyness of both cities. I’ve been to both numerous times and there’s never a dull moment. There’s always tons of people walking, biking, driving, everything. The second reason I chose New York City is because I think it also compares to Philadelphia in the sense that they could both really improve upon cleanliness. In both cities, there is constantly waste on the sidewalks and in the streets and it’s honestly really sad. There are clearly a lot of people in both places, so it would take a lot of effort and individual work to make a big difference and steps towards better sustainability. However, I do believe that the little things add up and the more steps we take, the closer we are to a sustainable state.

The second city from the module that I chose to talk about is Rochester, NY. I chose this one because as soon as I saw the picture in the module, it reminded me of Plymouth Meeting and some of the neighborhoods there. They are very similar to my own street in regards to the fact that we also don’t have sidewalks on our street, all of the houses are lined up in a row, and there are lots of trees and plants everywhere. The one difference that I noticed in that picture as opposed to my own neighborhood is that our houses are much smaller and we also each share a driveway with one other house, which it doesn’t look like here. However, they are very similar because of the fact that they are both automobile suburbs, which means they are both very mainly automobile centered. I think they could become more sustainable by using public transportation more often, or by carpooling.

1. My hometown of State College, PA has many different types of neighborhoods. Park Forest is a pedestrian-automobile oriented neighborhood – sidewalks line the streets and many different centers exist in this neighborhood, however you have to drive to get many places. The downtown area is more mixed, with a high urban density and a lot of area to walk. One issue that is the source of much debate in my town is the accessibility and usability of the streets for cars. Most of the streets in town do not possess a bike lane, which has led to several accidents over the past 15 years. With ~40,000 people living year round, as well as ~45,000 students living for most of the year, the issue of safe and sustainable transportation is a pertinent one. For me, I have always lived within walking distance to my schools, as well as downtown and have never had an issue with walking. As the third safest metropolitan area in the United States, I think it would be beneficial to focus on other aspects of safety such as transportation.
2. As we learned in previous modules, as well as this one, Copenhagen has a deep love of cycling and sustainable transportation embedded in its culture. The closing off of main streets in the downtown area and availability of bikes has greatly improved the overall vibrance of the city, despite it being located in a colder region. This concept can be applied to State College, a town that has a relatively warm summer, but cold winters. By learning from the way Copenhagen is designed and how they implemented bikes into their culture can help State College reach a new level of sustainability. The majority of University Park students walk to get to class, however, with the expanding landscape of State College, many new apartment buildings are being constructed further away from downtown. CATA buses do a good job of transporting some of these students, but many days the buses are completely full and you have to wait another 40 minutes. By learning from Copenhagen now, instead of waiting until State College is too large, the issue of sustainable transportation can be mitigated.
3. Another city that State College could learn a few things about sustainability from is Detroit. Although many issues plague the city, urban agriculture has grown to be a viable and appealing option for many. In Detroit, it arose because it is so difficult to come by food in the city. This led to the innovation of any potential piece of land being used for farms. Though State College does not face a food drought, and it does not appear as though it will be an issue any time soon (State College is surrounded by farm land), it could be a good idea to implement programs in the downtown area as the town begins to expand. This could lead to an expansion of urban mixing, as the downtown area already hosts several food markets for local farmers. As State College grows, it could become a part of our culture, much like cycling and Copenhagen.

I grew up in Huntingdon which is a small town in central Pennsylvania about 25 minutes away from campus. I live out of downtown Huntingdon though in McAlevy’s Fort. McAlevy’s Fort is an automobile suburb while downtown Huntingdon is a combination of a pedestrian-oriented an automobile suburb. In town some people choose to walk and do not own cars, however the major of the population does own cars and drives everywhere. Huntingdon is home to just over 7,000 people. This is the town that I grew up in and I loved growing up in a small town. However, I do feel it can be rather wasteful how we do not have a bus system and so very few people walk to the places that are easily accessible on foot. In that case I feel this town is not as sustainable as it could be.

Beacon Hill, Boston, Massachusettes is a city known for walking where the residents there rarely own vehicles. I think Huntingdon could learn a lot from this sustainable city. Due to the residents here walking and owning bikes they save a lot of money by not owning cars and paying for gas and car insurance. If more residents in Huntingdon walked everywhere they would boost their family’s monetary status. Another thing Huntingdon can learn is the effects of walking everywhere versus driving. The people of Beacon Hill are exceptionally healthy from the amount of exercise they get. If the people of Huntingdon would start walking or biking they would also see health benefits. I know walking and biking isn’t the ideal option for the people that work out of town but for the people that do live and work downtown walking and biking could be a highly beneficial life style change that could boost the sustainability of Huntingdon.

Chicago is another city Huntingdon could learn a lot from. Urban agriculture has become rather popular and seen in Chicago as a way to make the city more sustainable. Although there is a lot of agriculture already prevalent in the rural parts of Huntingdon, the residents of downtown Huntingdon could benefit from growing their own produce. Growing their own food on their porches in hanging baskets, or using a small portion of their yard would go a long way in saving residents here money on their grocery bill and helping them to eat better. It would also help to clean the air from all of the solution from the cars driving through downtown. Gardening has also been known for relieving stress. Finally the residents that choose to sell their produce could also make money from this. There are lots of benefits to Urban Agriculture and Huntingdon could learn a lot from Chicago’s example.

1.

My hometown is Cherry Hill, New Jersey, a county of Camden. Cherry Hill is approximately 30 minutes from Philadelphia and has about 71,000 residents. The city is dependent on automobiles as markets and entertainments are not walking distances from most homes. In most cases students rarely walk to school as the school is not near homes. Usually parents give students rides or students take the school bus. Different from other cities, Cherry Hill does not have a near park for people to enjoy a walk. Thus, a car ride to a near by neighborhood is required. In recent days, urban agriculture has been popular in the city. As for my family and neighbors, more and more residents have been farming their own vegetables. Most people farm as a hobby. However, this probably has helped them save couple of dollars on buying food.

2.

The first city I chose was Chicago, Illinois. Although Chicago is pedestrian-oriented because it is a city where most buildings are all within a walking distance from each other. It also has 30 times the amount of residents in comparison with Cherry Hill. At a first glance, it may seem like that Chicago as no relevance with Cherry Hill. However, there is a particular similarity that stands out. In both cities urban agriculture is present. As south Chicago is notorious for its poverty, urban agriculture might be able to reduce hunger rate. If these people have enough space in their yards to start their own small farm they may be able to eat on a regular basis. Bringing sustainable food source may be very crucial for these people. If the city provides urban agriculture food, the poverty rate decrease in Chicago.

3.

The second city I chose was Rochester, NY. Just from the image itself, it shows many similarities to Cherry Hill. In my neighborhood, there aren’t many sidewalks like in Rochester. However, Cherry Hill does have some sidewalks because of elementary school. Like Rochester, people that live in Cherry Hill needs automobile transportation to get around the city. Like Rochester, it is very unlikely to see people walking around the neighborhood or to get to the grocery store. I think that Cherry Hill should more sidewalks and develop a more pedestrian-oriented city. This allows high school students to go to convenience store to grab food when their parents are at work. It might encourage people to walk more to save gas.

The town I am from is called Plainview. It is located in central Long Island, New York. The types of neighborhoods within the town are pedestrian-oriented. It is a small/medium-sized town of about 26,000 residents. This is on a different scale from what I will discuss on New York City, as well as Shanghai, China. The streets are usually quiet and pretty empty, besides the few main roads, which have some heavy traffic during peak times of the day. Plainview is the town I had grown up in from the time I was 6 years old. In this time, I have seen many changes go on. As the recession and other factors hit the town during 2008-2009, the first thing people tried to cut back on financially was transportation. Many residents downgraded vehicles in order to save money, or simply used the bus system. From a financial standpoint, this change was very helpful, but what was even better was that the recession resulted in environmental benefits as well. By using smaller and fewer cars, the environment experienced less pollution and this even saved fossil fuel resources.

The first city that I will be discussing is New York City. New York City’s population is of the largest in the world of any city. The city makes my town seem nothing but a spectrum in a major galaxy. This can cause many issues for a city. One major issue is pollution. The environmental impacts of pollution have been devastating in New York. The city deploys thousands of tons of pollution into the atmosphere everyday. A major cause of this pollution has resulted from the transportation methods. Whether it is taxi cars, automobiles, buses, construction vehicles, and more, New York City has way too many. These vehicles exhale pollution, all day, everyday. The city is small enough that most people can commute around on foot, yet people choose the lazy option of auto transportation. As stated in the lesson, there are many ways that people can cut down this pollution and find other ways of transportation. The lesson suggests biking, walking, or even trains if needed. My town shared this problem of pollution caused by transportation. Both places were forced to make change, but for different reasons.

The second city I will be discussing is Shanghai, China. Shanghai has the largest population of any city in the world. Again, this issue causes them to have more air pollution, as well as water pollution. The air pollution of Shanghai is between 23 and 31 times greater than the international standard. Residents of Shanghai need transportation in order to get around, but they are much more efficient at using environmental friendly methods. They use subways, metros, and efficient bus systems that enter every town and city in China. The high population still results in major pollution, but the country is working to solve this problem everyday. People of Shanghai also use bicycles to get around at a high rate. Automobiles are more of a luxury than a necessity. My town can relate to this way of living. We had to cut back on spending so we realized how luxurious automobiles were not as important as living well and healthy.

My hometown is Harrisburg, PA, about 80 miles from State College. This city was originally constructed for trade along the Susquehanna River from North to South, but as technology progressed, train tracks were constructed for trade East to West. Today, the city can be considered “streetcar suburbs” because there are railroads, sidewalks, and car travel. There are also shops and restaurants within walking distance of residents. The total population in the city of Harrisburg is 49,528. While it may not be the most exciting city in this area, I enjoy spending time in the metropolitan area. My father works in the city and I enjoy visiting him to walk along the sidewalks and eat at the easily accessible restaurants. However, in recent years, the city has made efforts to fix our rainwater runoff issue. When it rains, the water travels along the surface of the roads, gathering pollution along the way, and polluting the river. The city would like to develop a system where the water soaks into the ground and not along it.

I found Copenhagen’s initiative to calm traffic very interesting. I really liked how pedestrian-oriented their city is. In particular, I liked their ideas of social and economic benefits to limiting the amount of traffic permitted. The video talked about how local stores initially thought this car-free lifestyle would hurt their business, but has actually proven to benefit them greatly. Incorporating more areas for walking and cycling in Harrisburg may benefit local businesses and boost the economy. The absence of cars will also improve the air quality. This is turn may help to resolve the rainwater runoff issue in that without cars, the roads and streets may not be as polluted. In addition to economic and environmental benefits, Harrisburg would benefit socially. Copenhagen was able to create a sense of community and the people shown in the video appeared very happy. More opportunities to socialize in the city would help to build a stronger community.

Urban farming in Detroit, Michigan has become more popular. Growing food locally can have many environmental benefits. For example, there is less transportation needed, better air quality, and more rainwater management. If Harrisburg were to introduce urban farming, just as Detroit did, our rainwater runoff issue may resolve itself. With more areas and land for farming, or just more plant life areas in general, the city can reduce the amount of polluted rainwater being carried into the river. Implementing these ideas, however, may be difficult because of the physical infrastructure and the cognitive transition. Rebuilding parts of the city for farming will cost a lot of money, but will be worth it in the long run. Nevertheless, people are turned off by this idea because of the change in habits and social norms it requires. Hopefully, in the near future, the people of Harrisburg can learn from Detroit and promote locally grown foods.

As someone who is from a rural area, I will use nearby Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania, for this discussion. Located in Luzerne County in Northeast PA,Wilkes Barre has a few square miles of urban downtown neighborhood, with a majority of town being an automobile suburb. In 2014, 40,814 people resided in Wilkes-Barre. The city is about seven square miles in area. Although public transit exists (bus lines), nothing about the city screams sustainability. Anthracite coal, the city’s greatest economic venture, has become obsolete. River travel on the Susquehanna has also become obsolete. Those who can afford to, live in neighboring towns and commute to Wilkes-Barre via automobile.

I found Copenhagen to be a very intriguing city. The sense of community within the pedestrian zone seems unprecedented for a big city. Wilkes-Barre has a public square which hosts events like farmers markets, but the family atmosphere created in Copenhagen seems far superior. Residents of Wilkes-Barre must travel to churches, clubs and bars to find the same level of community. Utilization of bicycles may work to an extent in Wilkes-Barre, but many major businesses are located in the highway-esque business district, Wilkes-Barre Township. Another solid aspect of Copenhagen was the sense of safety created by limiting how fast drivers may travel in certain areas. In Wilkes-Barre and most neighborhoods throughout the United States, reckless drivers are a fairly common occurrence

Haiti is also a very interesting place. One would expect poverty and natural disasters to keep morale down, however, small vegetable gardens seemed to make a Haitian mother content. Organized by United Nations groups, urban agriculture gardens give old tires a second life and provide nutritious foods to the people of Haiti. Wilkes-Barre’s economy has seen better days, but working and purchasing vegetables still makes more sense economically than operating a subsistence farm. Rooftop gardens may be something to look into for those residing in apartment complexes, especially college students. The comparison of Wilkes-Barre and Haiti shows that the quality of life in post-industrialized struggling cities is still well ahead of the quality of life in developing nations.

Part 1:

I was born in Northeast Philadelphia but have spent most of my life in Yardley, PA.  Yardley is located in Bucks Country which is about 30 minutes north of Philadelphia and 10 minutes from Trenton. Yardley is primarily an automobile suburb because it is in a lot of farm land so things are pretty spread out, except for in the borough which is a small “downtown” and mostly pedestrian oriented. From the 2010 census about 2,500 people live in Yardley. I am very connected to Yardley because I have spent most of my life their. Also when I lived in Philly I traveled to Yardley to play hockey and met a lot of friends so when we moved I was around all my friends and got to go to school with them in the Pennsbury school district.

Part 2:

The first city I am going to talk about is Beacon Hill which is located in Boston, MA. I chose this city because it reminds me a little bit of how the borough is in Yardely. Like Beacon Hill, Yardely is very historic and was founded in 1683, so it has a historic feel in its architecture and layout. Even though this layout is very appealing to walk a lot of residents still drive as their primary  from of travel. I Like how Beacon Hill promotes walking which is good for everyone involved. Walking results in less infrastructure costs because the roads aren’t being abused by cars and walking promotes healthy living for the residents. I believe that this approach can be adopted by Yardley and improve the city’s sustainability.

The second city I chose is Copenhagen, Denmark. I found Copenhagen very interesting because bike travel is considered a norm there and here bikers are almost considered a nuisance. It was a big risk they took disallowing cars in the main street of the city in 1962 but it ended up working wonderfully. I also like how Copenhagen changed old parking lots into town squares and they now have eight for residents to enjoy. I think that their approach to sustainability is a unique and very effective one that can be implemented in any city, including Yardley, PA.  With the close proximity of businesses and activities in Yardley Borough I think they could close the main street, just like Copenhagen, and remain to be just as, if not more, successful in there economy. Also the benefit for the residents and the environment would be massive, less car emissions, and more exercise for residents.

My hometown is Minersville, Pennsylvania. My address states Pottsville but I live within the Minersville Area School District. I have a strong connection to Minersville because I have lived here my entire life. I have not lived in the same house my entire life. My dad likes to build, so my family and I have moved quite a bit! Most of my family members, such as aunts and uncles, live within 25 minutes of me. The population of Minersville is approximately around 4,500 people. Minersville is a very small town and I would consider it to be an Automobile Suburb. In town, there are a few sidewalks with small shops, but a car is needed to get from one place to another outside of town. If you live in the main part of town it’s easy to walk to the public pool, the schools, and more. Minersville and surrounding towns provide public transportation systems such as buses. The neighborhood I live in does not have sidewalks. There are a couple stores such as a pharmacy, grocery store, hair salon and restaurants about three minutes if I were to drive from my house (not a safe walk). This area of stores is called King Village. People who live in town and do not have a car can walk to this area.

The first city from the module that I want to discuss about is Beacon Hill, Boston, Massachusetts.  Beacon Hill is north of Boston Common and adjacent to downtown Boston. Just like Beacon Hill, Minersville is an urban area designed to make walking distances reasonable. Beacon Hill is similar to downtown Pottsville (which in 5 minutes away from my house) because it includes several places to work, to shop, and seek entertainment, among other things. Walking in Pottsville is a more attractive option if you’re going to places within the town. Unfortunately, not a lot of people use bicycles or walk. Most people rely on cars or busses to get from one place to another. Beacon Hill makes the environment more sustainable because reduces the amount of health issues and decreases pollution from automobiles. My town can lean ideas and methods from Beacon Hill to reduce these issues in order to stay more sustainable.

The second city from the module that I want to discuss about is Rochester, NY. The picture shown in the module looks similar to the terrace I live in. Rochester is an automobile suburb with a variety of neighborhoods just like Boston and also my hometown.  Rochester, there are no sidewalks because they are built with the assumption that people will not walk along the streets. This is similar to the neighborhood I live in. To get to destinations such as a grocery store, offices, restaurants, and banks a car is needed. If Minersville was to redevelop and put in more sidewalks and make stores and offices in a much closer distance, we could be a lot more efficient.  Much like Rochester, very rarely does anyone walk to get anywhere unless they are down the street. This would lead to fewer cars on the road which would help reduce pollution and also people walking to bus stops encourages exercise.

Part 1:

I live in Bucks County, PA which is located roughly an hour from Philadelphia and about 30 mins from a bridge to New Jersey. Bucks county has an approximate population of 626,976 people living in the county as a whole as of 2010. Within Bucks County I live in the township of Perkasie, PA which has a population of approximately 8,515 people. I live in a more rural part of the township, by that I mean I live on a larger piece of land with fewer neighbors. I would definitely classify my area as a automobile suburb. While you could walk from place to place inside town, for people like me that is difficult to do. I am not in close proximity to the necessity stores that I could walk to if needed. We use cars to get almost anywhere. I like the area within Perkasie I grew up because it was spacious and not crowded like a development, we have fewer neighbors to deal with and when you want to see someone or need something they are only a short drive away.

Part 2:

For my first city I chose Charlottesville, Virginia. I was interested in this town because of the rustic older feel to the town itself. I personally and a bug history buff so I am fascinated by old buildings and the history behind them, which Charlottesville has a lot of. In Perkasie we have a few older buildings that we have been able to restore and keep around which I am grateful for. I also love the old time southern feel of Charlottesville, VA a town that has existed for a while and has prospered with the traditions still intact is very intriguing to me. They have also done important things like creating the Pedestrian Mall in order to create a place reserved for walking and enjoying the town. Perkasie does not have anything like this but we do have many sidewalks that you can roam for the day to gain a new perspective on the town itself.

My second city I chose was the city of Haiti. I chose this because I actually was able to visit there once and saw some of the damage that was caused by their many tragedies that the city has gone through. Although they seem to always rise from the ashes of the terrible hands they are dealt and try to make some good come out of it. Like the old tires that are then used as planters, this is an innovative way for the people of Haiti to use the resources they have to improve on a situation. Perkasie has never been through the tragedies that Haiti has but they do tend to do innovative things in order to brighten the community as a whole. Haiti uses these planters to grow fruits and veggies to support their community, although Perkasie is not primarily urban area it does have buildings in which we could try this method of growing to aid in the community.

I currently reside in Blair County, Pennsylvania just 15 miles north of Altoona. My home is in Tyrone which is right along the Little Juniata River, and the most recent population count was in 2013 where there was a record of 5,412 people in my community. This small town is only 2 square-miles, so the town has an urban feel to it lately with just over 5,000 people residing in that area. Along with the public Elementary school, we have a small Catholic School in town that only teaches up to the 5th grade and then students transfer to the public Middle and (eventually) High school.The Catholic school averages at about 15 students per grade where the average graduating class at Tyrone is around 130 students each year. I live at the northern end of Tyrone, located outside of the town in a more rural setting. I spend a little time in town as I possibly can being that I am not attracted to areas with a high population density.

The first city I would like to recognize is Beakon Hill. Located in Boston, Massachusetts, this town promotes physical exercise through walking, biking, and other means of transport other than the automobile. As I mentioned in the previous paragraph, Tyrone is only 2 square-miles; however, people refuse to walk anywhere because of the few hills in the area. The sidewalks, in Tyrone, are hardly able to be traveled on due to their poor condition except for on the main avenue located just off the interstate. If there was a better layout of our town with more sidewalks, playgrounds, outdoor organization, etc., then I feel that the population would be more open-minded to going to their friends house beside a vehicle who is barely a mile away.

One of the cities that seemed to catch my attention was Detroit. The mention of a second Green Revolution through the use of urban farming seemed to be be working rather well in more urban settings such as Detroit, so I figure that using such technique in Tyrone would be great for those of us who actually reside here. A majority of our residents are not in the healthiest states, so using some of our abandoned properties and small yards would help in improving our diets, health, and satisfactory of living such as it is doing in Detroit. We do have a farmers market that comes to town once or twice over the summer, but that does not really impact us in the same way if we were to grow it ourselves where we would have access to these products more than twice a year. Tyrone needs a wake up call in the fact that we cannot sustain ourselves on burgers and pizza.

I live in Chester County, Pennsylvania. I live in a town called West Chester, though I attended Downingtown High School. West Chester has about 19,000 people while Downingtown is home to about 7,000. West Chester is located about forty-five minutes North-West of Philadelphia. I would describe this area as a prime example of an automobile suburb. This is because it is almost impossible, living in the small development that I do, to travel anywhere without a car. Although some may argue that biking is an option, the closest grocery store is 5 miles down an extremely busy road. Although Downingtown seems like a fairly small metropolitan area, I graduated with a class of about 500 and there are three high schools in the district. I do have a strong connection to this area because of my family’s orchard, called Highland Orchards. I spend a lot of time in this much-less inhabited area of my hometown.

The first city from the module that caught my eye was Copenhagen. The main idea that was discussed about this city is the fact that bicycle transportation is considered the norm. Although, as I previously stated, my town is not well-suited for this type of travel, I think that this is a very sustainable method that could take West Chester into the future. Another aspect that Copenhagen incorporates is the pedestrian-oriented neighborhoods. Although the traffic going through West Chester has many limitations, I think that more of these pedestrian-oriented roads could benefit the environment as well as increase the overall health of the area. By adapting the roads to be more suitable to both bicycles and pedestrians, I think that the city of West Chester could become a more eco-friendly place, similar to Copenhagen.

The second place where I saw some extraordinary efforts was the district in Haiti from the video. Although this is an area that has repeatedly been devastated in recent years, through the earthquake, through economics, and through lack of medicine and technology, they have found a way to create a sustainable program. The video states that all unused or broken tires are put to use in the form of planters, which can be seen everywhere from gardens to rooftops in this area. This method both reuses material that would simply clutter the landfills or sit on the side of the road unused. Also, it takes advantage of the fertile soil and moist weather Haiti experiences to grow fruits and vegetables for the community. As a somewhat affluent area, I think that West Chester could be the perfect place to do a test-run of this idea. Fresh fruits and vegetables are always appreciated, and there are always individuals who are in need of this kind of produce.

Currently I am residing outside of Asheville, NC in a rural area in a very small town of 2225 as of 2010. The city of Asheville now has 87,882 and 424,858 in the metropolitan area. It is a city and region undergoing large scale growth. There are mostly grass fed livestock farms here and are spread out in the low land areas of this mountainous region. At one time there was more diversity such as tobacco and corn. Not so much anymore as in the smaller farms as in this area is no longer profitable. Asheville is one of the few exceptions of liberalism in the southeastern United States. People in the south are generally very slow and resistive to change. In the city of Asheville not so much. However NC is is no longer as some would have considered 30 years ago, a so-called a southern progressive state by any stretch and is generally speaking by and large Christian and conservative.

Prior to moving to Asheville, NC I lived in Charleston, SC for quite a long time. Charleston in may ways is quite the same as Asheville. Geographically speaking though are totally different. In regards to inner city transit systems both cities have very good and adequate bus systems serving the community at affordable costs. Buses in both cases historically replaced what in our reading for the week refers to “street cars” and street car communities in and around the communities. Neither city is terribly large and at this time do not have longer “commuter service” type of runs or “commuter rail” services. However this will undoubtedly be arriving with the continuing expansion of both cities as an economic and efficiency concern in the future.

Boston is a very large metropolitan region. In regards to the aspects of mass transit and efficiency the area is very well served by its mass transit system(s). Boston is an area that accommodates many many people coming and going all the time. It offers commuter rail service, street car service, subway service, inner city bus service, commuter bus service, inter-city bus service, inter-city rail service and more. Many downtown people don’t own cars and ride bicycles and or ride buses, subways (street cars inc.) or in taxi’s. It is a very efficiently run system. Much of the electricity used for the subway cars is however fired with coal and nuclear and these technologies are becoming outdated and have proven dangerous. At this time we have no clear answers but prospects for a better cleaner more efficient future. Solar, wind, water hydro power, and hydrogen and others replacing diesel, coal and nuclear means and leaving less carbon footprint and lower cost.

The city I would like to talk about is Beijing, China, where I spent six years there. As the capital of the most populous country, the population reaches 21.15 million as of 2013. So there are lots of neighborhoods, located all over the places in Beijing’s metropolitan area. However, there are all types of neighborhoods, pedestrian-oriented, automobile suburb and urban downtown. In terms of transportation, in general, the car possession rate is not so high comparing to it in U.S. So people mainly commute by public transportation. Roughly 10 million people take subway every day. The central city is really dense with numerous high-rises. Neighborhoods spread over the city and business areas scatter among them. In terms of density, the center city of Beijing is like Manhattan without a Central Park but a few smaller ones. I love living in Beijing with all kinds of parks I could hike in and all kinds of delicious food I could eat despite the ugly sides like smog and traffic congestion.

Curitiba makes the best example when I am going to talk about the BRT (Bus Rapid Transit) system of a city, particularly metropolitan. From the text content one must be familiarized what this concept differentiates from the normal buses. BRTs has special lanes to avoid the traffic, metro-like stations to speed up boarding process, and high-capacity articulated buses that function as a small metro unit with much lower cost, much, much lower. Beijing has 4 BRT lines with a few branches, connecting suburb areas to inner city transit hubs. However, these lines aren’t efficient enough as the buses were set with 30mph speed limit and lots of private vehicles use bus lanes. A more sustainable way of doing this is to have BRTs running across the city on all major roads, set strict rules to give highest priority to buses, and use environmental friendly buses just like Curitiba does. A large BRT network attract commuters from driving and taking the subway, thus relieve the stress on subway system and traffic congestion.

The second city I would like to talk about is Detroit and its urban farming strategy. In the video locals and the city clean up the abandoned houses and yards and started growing vegetables. It helps people to get a healthier diet, supply the local markets to avoid transportation cost, and helps with the environment by relieving the heat-island effect by more vegetation coverage. Beijing could also use this strategy to relieve its heat-island effect to get more sustainable. As the air pollution problems getting more serious, city is moving all of its industrial factories out to nearby provinces. The places left by massive abandoned factories could be converted to urban farmlands, rather than converting to business districts or high-density neighborhoods. Beijing is heavily relying on the vegetables and fruits that being grown and transported from hundred miles away. When the weather conditions worse prices on these greens would go up and nobody likes to see that. It would be more reliable and sustainable to do some urban farming in Beijing.

Lucas Skiba

3/16/16

Module #7

GEOG 030

Sustainable Cities

            I am from Boalsburg, Pennsylvania. It is located in Centre County right next to State College. It is a small little town where I was born, raised, and also attended school. To me Boalsburg is definitely an automobile suburb. It is very middle class with lots of suburban neighborhoods. Boalsburg is very quiet and quaint and only has a population of almost 4,000 people (City Data, 2016). I will always return to Boalsburg, it is my home and where I feel the most comfortable and safe. Boalsburg isn’t just important because I was raised there it is also the home of Memorial Day and where I’ve spent most of my life making memories with my friends and family. I would say Boalsburg is an environmentally friendly town where people do a lot of gardening, hiking, snowboarding, skiing, golfing, walking, biking, etc. But I would love to see it evolve even more and become more sustainable and efficient.

For my first city I chose Charlottesville, Virginia. It decided to close eight blocks, in 1975, permanently and created a pedestrian mall (Pedestrian Perfection: The 11 Most Walk-Friendly U.S. Cities, May 2011). Some of the shops are also renovated old historic buildings as well. I chose this city because Boalsburg is very historic due to its creation of Memorial Day and it also has very beautiful scenery, shops, parks and restaurants. Downtown Boalsburg is probably only 6 to 7 blocks long, but it would be interesting to permanently block the few streets running through it. I feel the shops would blossom, and the gardens and flowers would fill the streets. Not only would it be more green, but more people and families would come to walk and enjoy the town. Also some of the buildings in downtown Boalsburg are also renovated historic buildings, especially the Boalsburg Mansion. But overall I feel like this would make the town more sustainable and environmentally friendly due to less automobiles and more gardening and pedestrian walking.

For my second city I chose Curitiba, Brazil. It has one of the best bus systems in the world. They designed their city around the bus over a subway system because they could get the same function as the subway with the bus (Street Films, Vimeo, 2011). I chose Curitiba because Boalsburg only has probably around 10 bus stops (CATA 2009) and that’s not that many for the size of Boalsburg. Also with a lot of people biking I also think we should have more bike lanes, or certain bike routes in Boalsburg. Curitiba has begun to design bike lanes on there streets to have a steady flow of pedestrian movement. I believe if we had more bike lanes, routes, and a better more consistent bus route as well we would have less people driving automobiles, and all around better urban panning. With less people driving and more car pooling, biking, and pedestrian transportation I think we can make Boalsburg a little greener.

Bibliography/Citation List:

1. City Data (2016). Retrieved March 16, 2016 from

http://www.city-data.com/city/Boalsburg-Pennsylvania.html

2. Pedestrian Perfection: The 11 Most Walk-Friendly U.S. Cities (May 2011). Retrieved March 16, 2016 from http://www.theatlantic.com/national/archive/2011/05/pedestrian-perfection-the-11-most-walk-friendly-us-cities/238337/#slide10

3. Street Films, Vimeo (2011). Retrieved March 16, 2016 from https://vimeo.com/12499536

4. CATA (2009). Retrieved March 16, 2016 from http://catabus.com/ServiceSchedules/CATABUS/CommunityService/B%20Route/index.html

5. GEOG 030 Module #7 Urban Planning (2015). Retrieved March 15, 2016 from https://www.e-education.psu.edu/geog030/node/365

I actually live literally just outside the town of State College, Pennsylvania, the home of Penn State’s University Park campus. State College is primarily a college town where the population actually doubles during each school year. The town’s resident population is around 50,000 people and then when the students all return it jumps up to around 100,000 inhabitants. State College is roughly 4.5 square miles large. I would say that the main downtown area of State College is fairly urban downtown, while the suburb, Overlook Heights (where I live), would be an automobile suburb. Everything is relatively close together, well within walking or biking distance, however it certainly is not pedestrian oriented. Most people drive their cars here and there. Biking is becoming more common, however it is still rather uncomfortable to bike on the road alongside automobiles. There are a number of bike paths to get from place to place by bike, but we’re still working on constructing more of them.

The first city that I would like to talk about is Copenhagen, Denmark. In the module it was discussed how Denmark has established car free streets and slow zones. I think this is a great idea, exactly for the reason I discussed above when talking about State College. There are bike paths, but simply not enough and it isn’t really safe to bike alongside cars and trucks on the road. This traffic calming not only makes it safer for bikers and helps to establish a social norm of biking and exercise, but it is also sustainable in that nothing is taken from the environment to fuel the bicycle nor does it give off dangerous chemicals or emissions. I suppose the one major downside to this idea would be that for some people, this method of transportation simply isn’t possible.

The second city discussed in the module that I would like to comment on is Detroit, Michigan. I find it incredibly interesting how people actually began to ‘urban farm’ there. The fact that there are so many abandoned areas in the city and that people actually decided to grow food there is quite amazing. Actually, even when looking at State College, I think that there is quite a bit of underutilized space. By farming in the city the way they are in Detroit, they can actually produce their own food and not have to worry about transporting it miles away. It is also natural because, as they said in the video, they simply don’t have the money to buy pesticides etc. This allows for a very sustainable method of food production. This indeed is a collective action as well on the part of the residents of the city. Penn State is starting to do things like this with their student farm, but we still have a way to go, I think.

I live in a city called Seoul in South Korea. South Korea is located at the east part of the Asia and it is the southern half of the Korean Peninsula bounded by the East sea in the east, Yellow sea in the west and the Korea Strait in the South. Within the country, Seoul is located at north-west side. Seoul would be considered to consists mainly of both automobile suburbs and pedestrian-oriented neighborhoods. Furthermore, Seoul is the capital and the largest metropolis of South Korea. The city holds 10.01 million people in 605.21 km 2 area and is ranked as the second largest metropolitan area in the world. Seoul is both my parent’s birth place and home and it is one of my favorite cities in the world. Even though I have only lived in Seoul for 3 years, I crucially believe it is one of the busiest, safest, organized and developed cities. Also, Seoul is recognized for its clean, fast, safe public transport as well as the fastest internet speed in the world.

The first city from the module I will be discussing is Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. The city consists of an exceptional urban setting encompassing the highest point of the Tijuca National Park’s mountains and down to the sea. The city has a well-balanced of urban beauty and natural environment. It is also located on an inlet of the coast of Guanabara Bay, allowing natural harbor and port. Similar to Rio de Janeiro, Seoul is also located in an area with natural environment surrounding it. However, unlike Rio de Janeiro surrounded by ocean, the city is surrounded by 8 mountains, with Mount Nam situated in the central area of the city. To become more sustainable, I personally think my city should use Rio de Janeiro’s balanced setting of urban and nature as a model to try to recover or enhance more nature aspects. For example, Seoul is one of leading cities that has the world’s fastest growing economies. Due to this, the city consists majority of urban and city features rather than balancing with natural aspects. With Rio de Janeiro as a model, the city should plant more greenness to the city brining the environmental factor to the city.

The second city from the module I will be using is Detroit, Michigan. Detroit is the most populous city in the country and is also one of the largest cities and the center of a three-county urban area. The city is a major port on the Detroit River as well. However, unlike the city’s rank, Detroit has been acting out an interesting urban agriculture things and made a great case study for urban agriculture. As far as I know, Seoul does not have a lot of urban agriculture practices or may not even have started to adapt this practice. While we are also one of the busiest and urban metropolitan area, the city did not focus on implementing agriculture contribution to sustain urban development but rather focused more on the economy. I think the city should adapt urban agriculture practices like Detroit and continue the urban development.

The town that I live in is Kingston, Pennsylvania and there are roughly thirteen thousand people that currently live in the area. It is about twenty minutes away from the city of Scranton, where the television show “The Office” took place. I believe that Kingston would be considered an automobile suburb because the majority of the people use cars to travel around. Even in the summer you don’t see a lot of people walking unless you are at a park. I do like the town I live in but one thing I do not like is that it is not very social. Because of the lack of people not using cars, you rarely see people outside hanging out unless you go to a park in the summer.

 The first city that I chose from the module is Bogota, Columbia. The city bans care on a 75 mile stretch of their streets every Sunday. This promotes physical activity outdoors and as a whole it improved the atmosphere of the city. I believe that this is something that my hometown needs to start doing because it would force people to be more active and more social. Sometimes I feel that the overall mood of Kingston is not very good and if we do what is done in Bogota, the people will be happier and it would lighten up the mood. Also, by promoting physical activity and restricting the use of vehicles, the obesity rate in Kingston would definitely go down, which is always a plus.

 The second city that I chose is Havana, Cuba. One reason I chose this city is because that is where my dad was born and he moved here when he was in his teenage years. The other reason is because Havana is almost completely self-sustainable. Because of the embargo with the United States and the fall of the Soviet Union, Cuba was forced to become as self-sustainable as possible. I believe that the people of Kingston should start to promote urban agriculture and try to rely less on purchasing their food from grocery stores. This would be healthier for everybody and it would save people a lot of money. Also, the food that you do not eat could be sold as another source of income aside from their current jobs.

I live in a city West Nyack in New York. It is located approximately 18 miles north of New York City, on the western side of the Hudson River. West Nyack is absolutely an automobile suburb. My house is located on its own plot of land, and my neighbors on all sides are approximately an acre away. The main shopping stores are concentrated in their own area and take 5-10 minutes to drive to. According to Wikipedia, the population of West Nyack is 3,439 people living in a 2.9 square mile area. To me, West Nyack will always be my home. I was born and raised in West Nyack and have been living in the same house for all of my life. I could not imagine my parents moving and selling the house. I hope to live in New York City one day so I can remain close by to home.

The city presented in the module which most closely represents West Nyack is Rochester, New York. Rochester is also an automobile suburb, where cars are the primary transportation method, and are necessary for living in the area. The areas that comprise Rochester are all single use, like West Nyack. The urban density is also going to be on the same order as West Nyack, where there is minimal development per unit area of land. I believe that for these automobile suburbs, sustainable development is certainly achievable, but is probably very limited. Without complete reconstruction of the towns and cities, sustainable development can be achieved by improving the existing homes. Things like solar panels, better insulation, and more economic appliances can reduce the energy consumption of each household. From there, it can be effective to introduce more bus routes in a neighborhood which can reduce the number of cars being used.

The city presented in the module which represents the complete opposite of West Nyack would be Beacon Hill in Boston. Beacon Hill is a pedestrian oriented neighborhood, which prioritizes walking as the primary transportation method. The urban density is so large in Beacon Hill, compared to West Nyack, because of the huge amount of development per unit area, which equates to large apartment buildings and shopping centers which are all connected with narrow streets. I feel that if West Nyack was converted to a urban center such as Beacon Hill, it could become incredibly sustainable, but to do so would require humongous amounts of effort and complete cognitive transformations by the residents in West Nyack. By moving people closer together, and making the city a walking city, automobile transportation could be completely removed. Also with the knowledge of sustainable development today, compared to the knowledge when New York City was being built, a new city could be one of the most sustainable in the world.

My hometown is in Doylestown, Pennsylvania. Doylestown is a City and the county seat of Bucks County. It is located 27 miles north of Philadelphia and 80 miles south of New York City. Within this town, it is fully dependent on automobiles, thus is it an automobile suburb. However, in the Doylestown Borough, the heart of Doylestown, it is a mixture of pedestrian-oriented neighborhoods. Here, people can park their cars and walk all around the town where there are many shops and restaurants very close together. For a given estimate, there are around 9,000 people living in this area. A majority of these people use cars to transport to work and for shopping. Although the Borough has shops, there are also bigger shopping centers and malls that are designed to use cars since everything is relatively close to each other, although most places are car dependent!

The first city from the module that I am picking is Beacon Hill in Boston, Massachusetts. Beacon Hill is a pedestrian-oriented neighborhood, allowing its entire people the ability to easily walk from place to place. Their urban density tends to be high meaning that there are lower environmental impacts. Since Beacon Hill is a pedestrian-oriented neighborhood, they also are very mixed-use. This means that all of their stores are very close by to each other and reduces the use of transportation. Unlike Beacon Hill, Doylestown is the complete opposite. My hometown neighborhood is very dependent on automobiles; however, the Borough follows some of the same patterns as Beacon Hill. Doylestown as a whole should focus on becoming more pedestrian-oriented which will lower the health risks for its individuals since they would be able to walk every where and exercise more instead of driving everywhere. Also, if Doylestown became more like Beacon Hill, their lower urban density would rise to a high density, lowering its environmental impacts. The same thing does for its mixture. Doylestown currently is a single-use, creating higher environmental impacts, but becoming less reliant on cars, and more reliant on walking will lower the environmental impacts.

Another city from the module is Detroit, Michigan. Detroit made a case study about urban farming. In the video, American Revealed, it shows that the person Will grows his food in the inner city of Detroit, Michigan. Detroit is a food desert meaning it’s very hard to find produce, especially fresh groceries. Urban farmers transformed abandoned land into alternative agriculture. Different from Detroit is Doylestown. In Doylestown, nobody usually grows their own produce, but rather drives to the local supermarket. Doylestown should adopt the action of urban farming, which can greatly lessen environmental impacts. With every individual driving to the grocery store to get produce, they emit tons of pollution into the air from their car emissions, affecting everyone who breathes air in. Adopting urban farming can grow a greener future for Doylestown because it requires less transportation, which lessens air pollution and therefore reduces its ecological footprint!

I live in Wyckoff, New Jersey. Wyckoff is located in the northern part of New Jersey, and it is only about a 30-minute drive from New York City. There are about 17,000 people who live in my town, and most of them are families. Since most of my town’s population is made up of families, the most prominent type of houses are single-family homes. There are only a few sidewalks in my town, so it is definitely an automobile suburb. You need to drive in order to get almost anywhere, including New York City. There is a main road that runs through the town called Wyckoff Ave, and any kind of store or restaurant you will need is on that road, which is very nice luxury to have. I think my town is in a perfect location. It is a suburb so it is not as crowded or as a busy as a big city, but we are close enough to New York City so we can still get a taste of the city when we want to.

The first city I want to talk about is Beacon Hill and Boston. This area is designed to promote walking, even though it is an urban area. I wish my town was made more like this, so more people could walk to get to their destinations. Right now there are not many sidewalks in my town, and it is very dangerous to walk on the side of busy roads. If more sidewalks were built in my town, then people would be able to walk more, and that would reduce the amount of cars on the road. With less people driving, my town would become more sustainable. My neighborhood too is a pretty wealthy area, where most people can afford cars, so currently everyone drives to get everywhere in my town. The addition of only a few new sidewalks would help dramatically.

The second city I want to talk about is Curitiba Brazil. Curitiba has an excellent bus system, and that is the main form of transport in that city. There are not as many people living in my town as Curitiba, however a better bus system in my town would still help make us more sustainable. Right now there are a few busses that go into my town, but they are very few and far between and usually only bring people to New York City. If there were more busses in my town, and they brought people to more locations, my town would be more sustainable because less people would be driving. I believe my town has enough roads, and they could fit busses on them, so the only thing needed is the busses themselves. This seems like a pretty simple thing to accomplish, and would make sense for everybody. I am going to look into seeing who I need to talk to in order to get more bus lines running through my town.

1. My hometown is Gig harbor, WA. It is a town of about 12,000 people, located on the Puget Sound. It was originally founded as a fishing village. Today it has become a very modern port town with a bustling city center lined with shops, restaurants, and other tourist-minded activities. It is very pedestrian oriented, although I would still consider it an automobile suburb. The streets of downtown are sidewalk lined and parking is minimal to encourage people to take the bus, bike, or walk. Directly across the Puget Sound is Tacoma. Tacoma is a major port to the Northwest. Buses run in 15 minute intervals to the transfer station in Tacoma for commuters. Growing up in Gig Harbor was a great experience. The town was large enough to offer plenty to do, while small enough that people engaged each other and took advantage of the outdoors.
2. Gig Harbor is much like Copenhagen. Each city has a vibrous city center where people can shop, dine, and get together. Each city encourages people to use modes of transportation other than cars. Although the weather can be wet in Gig Harbor due to its semi coastal nature, people prefer to walk, bike, or take public transit to get around town. One thing I would like to see more of are people walking and biking. It has been slow to gain traction as the primary source of transportation. Small shops and restaurants are beginning to offer discounts to those who walk and bike as a way to encourage people to leave the cars at home and keep the streets clear and pedestrian friendly.
3. The next comparison to Gig Harbor would be Beacon Hill in Boston. Beacon Hill is much more pedestrian oriented. To reduce the car congestion in Gig Harbor to that of Beacon Hill would be difficult. In Gig Harbor, housing is spaced apart like most suburbs. The streets are car friendly and most people use them often due to the amount of rainy days that are seen. In the spring and summer however, people are more likely to walk due to the close proximity of everything.

If you are familiar with Penn State and what is outside of State College, PA then you are well aware that it is mostly surrounded by rural areas. My hometown, Bellefonte, is 20-30 minutes outside. I do not live directly in the town of Bellefonte therefore, my house is surrounded by farmland and woods or as some like to think of as small forests. Where my house is, it would be considered an automobile suburb since there are few houses near me but as you move closer to the center of Bellefonte it is more pedestrian-oriented. I would have to say that the town itself would have about 5,000 people in it and the closer to the core of the town is where the majority of these people are. Living in Bellefonte my entire life I have realized that it can be very laid back and boring at times due to the lack of people and things to do. Typically, most Bellefusions find themselves spending all of their leisure time in State College.

All though Beacon Hill located in Boston, Massachusetts is very different from my town, I have found some similarities between them when it comes to being pedestrian-oriented. Within the actual town of Bellefonte you are able to walk to a few things such as school, a few restaurants, the court house and some areas of work. Like the people in Beacon Hill, people a tend to walk everywhere within the town rather than drive cars around unless they are similar to my family who is still considered part of the Bellefonte zip code but lives too far to walk. If my town had more of its housing options closer to the the core of the town I definitely think we could be more similar to Beacon Hill and increase our sustainability efforts by more people walking rather than having to drive.

I never thought I would ever compared Detroit, Michigan to Bellefonte, Pennsylvania but due to the Urban Farming video that was provided in our module I realize that the two do have similarities. In the video it even mentions how Detroit is nothing like the rural areas in Pennsylvania but it does not mean they cannot have similar things like farming in Detroit. As I have said the town of Bellefonte is very pedestrian-oriented in the center so you never see things like farms or backyard gardens but after watching the video in Detroit, I can see the feasibility behind it. Growing up my parents always had a garden so this was something I could really relate to and with that being said every so often central Bellefonte would have farmers markets were local farmers would sell their goods for cheap to the community just like they showed in the video. Bellefonte could absolutely do this more often to be more sustainable.

1. My hometown is Wyckoff, NJ. Wyckoff is a township in Bergen County, New Jersey, which is located about a half hour outside of New York City. I would consider Wyckoff an automobile suburb. My town has a public high school, roads with sidewalks, and bus transportation to New York City. Although Wyckoff doesn’t have their own train station, we have neighboring towns that provide transit to New York City and other major cities, which is very popular for commuters. The population of Wyckoff is just a little bit over 17,000 people. Growing up in a town like Wyckoff has been pretty great because of the proximity to the city as well as having that small-town feel. Wyckoff has provided people with shops and restaurants around town that are easy to get to by walking, bike, or car. Lastly, Wyckoff and its neighboring towns have provided public transportation to larger cities by either taking the train or bus.
2. First, I will be comparing Wyckoff to Copenhagen. Wyckoff and Copenhagen are similar in a way that just like Copenhagen’s pedestrian streets, Wyckoff has a center of town where a lot of people like to visit that have some restaurants and other shops. Wyckoff can be more sustainable like Copenhagen by encouraging more public transportation into the larger cities instead of individually driving. Also, the use of bikes should be more encouraged than cars, when people are leisurely driving around town. Walking to school can also be an alternative from driving to schools in the area because with everyone driving to school in the morning, it creates a large amount of traffic. This alternative would improve air quality as a result of less fossil fuels being burned by cars.
3. Lastly, I will be comparing Wyckoff to Rochester, NY. Rochester and Wyckoff are both automobile suburbs and are both neighborhoods designed for families. Wyckoff is both similar and different than Rochester in a way that the town does have sidewalks on main streets and roads that allow pedestrians to walk from their homes to the middle of town. But, if you were to walk in your neighborhood, you sometimes have to walk in the middle of the street because of lack of sidewalks. In Wyckoff, most grocery stores, work, shopping malls, and schools require you to drive to and from. This causes a lot of traffic in the area, which causes pollution affecting the air quality and health of the citizens. Wyckoff can be more sustainable by encouraging activity such as running, walking, and biking that will not only increase the air quality but, also the health and happiness of the community.

I am from King of Prussia (KOP), PA, which is right outside of Philadelphia. It is both a streetcar suburb and an automobile suburb. King of Prussia has a population of around 20,000 people. I have a strong connection to King of Prussia because I have lived there my entire life. It recently has started to add on to the mall and build a lot of new stores, which has been causing a lot more traffic and it just all seems very hectic. It definitely does not look the same as it did ten years ago. Although it is pretty cool to have one of the largest malls in the United States, it kind of annoys me that the town is growing so much because every time I go home I come home to something different. Sometimes it is just too much to handle and is becoming less sustainable in my opinion despite the fact that is developing quickly.

The first city I chose was Beacon Hill because of how different it is from King of Prussia. While Beacon Hill is a pedestrian-oriented neighborhood, KOP is not. KOP is very much so a streetcar and automobile suburb, like I mentioned above. Although there are many shops, stores, jobs, and other things in both places, it is not as desirable to go to these places in KOP because it does not nearly look as beautiful as Beacon Hill. There is so much traffic in KOP that it is impossible to get anywhere without hitting it. If KOP was more like Beacon Hill, there would be a lot less traffic and a lot less emission from cars. This would make the air quality so much better.

The next city I want to discuss is Detroit, Michigan. Although Detroit is a big city, urban agriculture has been becoming more popular to keep the city healthier, reduce poverty, and even improve climate change. King of Prussia, although useful when you’re on the run, has a lot of fast food places. I admit that yes, I go there. But it would also be nice to have a farmer’s or local market where there is a healthier option that is affordable for everyone. There is in fact a small farmer’s market, but it is only once a week for a couple of hours. It would be nice if there was one that was open every day or even just a couple of days a week. It would not only improve the health of the people in King of Prussia, but also the environment.

1) I am from Greensburg, Pennsylvania and it is a distant suburb of Pittsburgh. It is a little under an hour outside of Pittsburgh and has a population of about 15,000 with a population density of 3,546/ sq. mile. I would consider it to be an automobile suburb. Most people use their personal vehicles to get from place to place. There are sidewalks in downtown Greensburg, but you have to drive there to be able to use them unless you live directly in the city. There are businesses, restaurants, banks, and bars all in the city and all easily accessible by foot. Which is convenient if you live in the city but most of the population does not live directly in town. I have lived here since birth and enjoy the small town aspect of while still having close access to Pittsburgh.

2) The first city I will talk about is Rochester, New York. I chose this city because the picture portrayed in the module is very similar to a Greensburg residential neighborhood. In Rochester, businesses and different shopping centers are spread out and require a car to navigate back and forth between plazas. That is a similar setup to my town of Greensburg. You almost have to have a car to get around because of the few sidewalks. A few ways Greensburg could be more sustainable is to have more apartment buildings in the city to increase the population density. This might decrease the use of cars because more people would be located in the center of town and can walk to work or to stores. A change like this would lower emissions from cars and cut down on greenhouse gases.

3) The second city I will talk about is Detroit, Michigan. I chose to write about this city because of their urban farming program. As far as I know, there are not a lot of farms within the city limits of Greensburg. While there are farms in the rolling hills surrounding the city, there are not a lot within the city. Detroit has established urban farms throughout the city and it has helped it become more sustainable. I believe this could work in Greensburg. There are some abandoned lots and buildings that could be turned into gardens or parks. This food could be sold at local food markets or donated to food banks to help with the nation’s hunger problem. An array of urban farms or gardens could make the city of Greensburg more sustainable.

I live in the city of Port Orchard in Washington State. It is a predominately automobile suburban type of neighborhood, largely due to the fact that a large portion of this area is rural in nature. The city of Port Orchard and it surrounding area has a population of 12,959 people as of our last census and has a rough area of 5 square miles (incorporated city limits). I bought my home and lived in Port Orchard for a little over 10 years. I am an active member within my community and neighborhood. Although my home is in a suburban area, we make the most of our home and property by having gardens everywhere and really focus on vertical gardening. We recycle rainwater and try to find alternative uses for items before throwing them out (I have built some really cool things!). I love my city. We have a thriving and growing community of sustainable gardeners and “preppers” who are truly trying to be self sufficient and learn more sustainable practices.

The first city I would like to discuss is Copenhagen. I am completely envious and totally admire their mindset and city planing towards slowing down and increasing the amount bicycling and walking done by its residents. Although my hometown in Port Orchard is largely automobile based, we have a large city center area (located on the waterfront) that would be perfect for a slow speed, pedestrian oriented atmosphere. We do have one small park and some walking paths, but we also have a lot of parking lots and a couple of abandoned buildings on the waterfront as well. These large (and largely unused) lots would make an excellent place for community gardens and parks. With a slower speed and no (or very limited) vehicle traffic in this area, more locally owned businesses would be noticed and visited and the vitality of downtown would be rejuvenated. 

The second city I would like to discuss is Detroit. I admit, I do take a largely ecocentric philosophy when viewing things. That being said, I like seeing more green in  Detroit. I like seeing how abandoned lots and derelict buildings are being reclaimed by both nature and urban farmers. I love the idea that people are growing their own food and even selling this local food to others in the community. We have a farmers market here, in Port Orchard, but it is not large. We do not have a lot of local farmers providing their goods, instead, we have a lot of craft and food truck style vendors. Some of the produce vendors we have are coming from Eastern Washington, as far as several hundred miles away. If we had more local farmers, our footprint would be smaller, our food fresher and we would make a huge impact on the food miles attached to our produce. 

1.

My city is Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania and it is located in northeastern PA. I live in a township within the city named Hanover Township. Where I’m from has a more automobile suburb feel to it, although it is not exact to the definition in the module. There are many streets for traveling into and around the city, and the township I live in has few sidewalks in residential areas because most people travel by car. In the downtown area of Wilkes-Barre, there are however many sidewalks for people. The setup of the city is that it has many parking garages so people can drive to the city to go to work, park their car in a garage, and walk to their office building or job location. The population of Wilkes-Barre is around 40,000 with a land area of about 7 square miles, so it is decently populated for how big the city is. My connection is that I have lived there all 20 years of my life

2.

The first city I chose was Copenhagen, Denmark. Copenhagen has implemented a more efficient space for pedestrians to walk, bike and do recreational activities without the worry of traffic from automobiles. Wilkes-Barre is much like Copenhagen, where we have many people walking around downtown with a lot of traffic in the form of automobiles. I believe it would be in my city’s best interest to come up with a similar traffic control plan so that pedestrians can coexist with automobile traffic in a more safe matter. I also would like to see the idea of more speed bumps in Wilkes-Barre much like Copenhagen has designed. Many people drive too fast in the suburb areas of Wilkes-Barre making it not safe for pedestrians especially when there are less sidewalks.

3.

The second city I chose is Bogota, Colombia. Every Sunday and holiday, streets for 75 miles are forbidden to have cars on them. This allows for people to walk and use their bikes to get more exercise and reduce pollution produced by automobiles. I believe this would be efficient in my hometown much like the work done in Copenhagen would make a huge impact. If Wilkes-Barre denoted just even one day a month, people would be able to get more exercise, and it would reduce the amount of pollution especially with the amount that is trapped in the city by tall buildings. The module stated that it is more likely to be unhealthy if you live in an automobile suburb because you use your car everywhere you go. This would be an easy yet effective way to get some exercise in the city.

My hometown is a suburb about 45 minutes from Philadelphia called Ivyland.  I would definitely consider this town an automobile suburb, due to the fact that I have only one neighbor that would be considered even close to walking distance.  The population of my town is probably somewhere close to two or three hundred, because of the way the houses are so spread apart.  One cool thing about my town is that it is almost surrounded by woods.  This allows for some awesome views especially when the leaves start to change in the fall.  It is definitely a different feel than it would be living in a city, but after getting used to the peacefulness of being secluded, it is hard to live in a crowded area.

One city that caught my attention from the module was the urban farming in Chicago.  These farms will be able to supply hundreds of people with food, which may be a problem in a big city, but more importantly, it provides a relaxed and scenic view for its citizens.  Gardening can be a huge stress reliever to many people, and by giving these people places to grow natural plants is very important.  This relates to my hometown, Ivyland, because we already have tons of plants and wildlife all around us.  As I stated in the first paragraph, these views always provided me with a sense of relaxation or calmness even in the most stressful of times.  To incorporate this into many cities would, in my opinion, lower a lot of the anxiety and depression that seems to be running rampant today.

Another city that has really good ideas when it comes to sustainability is Curibita, Brazil.  They claim to have one of best subway systems in the world, and it could be saving not only the consumers, but also the world.  This system has busses running just about every minute, while still keeping their service cheap and affordable.  In my hometown, there is virtually no public transportation at all.  This results in everyone driving a car, everyone having to buy gas, and worst of all: everyone polluting the environment,  If my town took an approach more similar to Curibitas, we could save ourselves cash while also saving the environment.