Ten Interview Questions

1． What’s your name?

2． How long have you lived in this neighborhood?

3． What do you like and dislike about this neighborhood?

4． Has this neighborhood changed since you lived here?

5． What are your opinions on certain changes of your neighborhood?

6． Do you feel the crime had been increased or decreased over time in your neighborhood?

7． Is the location you live convenience to go shopping, or doing any other activities?　

8． What’s your major mode of transportation?

9． Do you have any comment on the physical appearance or any change to it?

10．How satisfy do you feel about your quality of life by living in this area? (In the scale of 1 to 10.)

Two Paragraph HW

Since I lived in a big city for 14 years when I was in China, I was so excited after noticed that my family will move to New York City in august, 2006. Because I really missed those days in China, walking with crowds on street everyday, smell of gasoline in the air and big buildings all around you...etc. That was also one big reason for me to decide to move to NYC. And the first time when I got to Flushing, suddenly everything came back to me, it just felt like; I have never leaved from China. Everything here in flushing was just so Asian. The people, street signs, store signboards, restaurants, music from the CD stores, KTVs......Everything, they just made me keep thinking maybe I am not in USA anymore. No wonder it is the second largest Chinatown in NYC（according to some of the research, they say Flushing is the largest Chinatown in NYC). I was just so glad, finally I made to NYC, because another thing I missed so much about China is the food. Chinese food is my favorite and will always be.

The area that I live is kind of suburb of Flushing, It is mostly residential around my neighborhood. But just a couple of days ago, I heard the Korean street is just several blocks from the place I live, however I really doubt that if it is some place that you can walk to. Anyway, maybe I will make a visit someday when I figure out the direction. Since there are not much commerce and business in my neighborhood, most of the time it is just awfully quiet here. You see nobody, not even a cat on the street. Sometimes when I walk down the street from the bus station, the neighborhood is really make me feel sad and nervous, especially during the night. One reason about this is most of the people live in this area drive, because you can always see enough cars park on street. It is very difficult to find a parking space during the night. Anyway, from the research I did online, I learned that Flushing is not only the second largest Chinatown here in NYC, it actually dominates the north central Queens of New York. It is also the biggest urban center in the borough, and the growing heart of Chinese and Korean communities.

First Baptist Church, Flushing

Yesterday I was wondering along on Sanford Avenue I saw this church that I will pass by it almost everyday and never really paid much attention to it. Since from the appearance of that church looked so old it was not hard to guess that it built in a very old time period. And from my research it actually had been there for more than 100 years, isn't that impressive? I was thinking maybe it was built during the 1900, but never thought this old church was built in 1980. My god, it is even older than the age of both of my parents age adds up together.

The church is not big; it is a smaller size church. Like most of the churches here, it has pointing roof for every single one of its body structure. So are the windows, they are just very classic style of western church window. As you can see in the picture, the whole body part of the church is build with common bricks. The pointing roofs are instructed with black tile. And as I researched online: "First Baptist Church is a multi-cultural, multi-lingual, and multi-ethnic urban body of Evangelical Christians committed to worship, fellowship, discipleship, social justice, mercy, and sharing the Good News of our Lord Jesus Christ." Unfortunatly I couldn't go inside there since the church was locked up. maybe next time, I really would like to see how they designed the interior of it. Because most of the official church's inside are just so beautiful. Even you can't see any thing from the apperance of the church. Here is a brief history that I found online of this church:

"Geographic Profile

First Baptist is located in what may be the most religiously diverse neighborhood in the world. The church is located on the corner of Sanford Avenue and Union Street in Flushing, NY. Within a forty block radius there are multiple Mosques, Hindu Temples, Jewish Synagogues, Sikh Temples, and Buddhist Temples. The New York Times ran an architectural review on the $3.2 million dollar Mosque construction on the corner of Kissena Boulevard and Geranium Avenue.

Flushing has a rich history of religious inclusion dating back to the 1647 Flushing Remonstrance. This document drafted by local residents freed John Bowne, a practicing Quaker, from prison on the grounds of religious freedom of expression. Flushing was also the site of early anti-slavery activity in the 18th century.

In 1964 Flushing hosted the World's Fair. The whole world came to Flushing and the whole world stayed. During the 1980's Flushing's population went from 10% Asian to 50% Asian in seven years. Today immigrants occupy 70% of all available housing. The median income for the 11355 zip code area, of which the church is a part, was $33,000 at the time of the 1990 Census.

The Church is surrounded by many institutions in a dynamic neighborhood. Across the street from the church is Public School 20 for elementary students. Nearby, the Flushing Branch of the Queensborough Public Library has the highest rate of book loaning in the city. The Church shares parking facilities with the Franklin Nursing Home. A few blocks away is Main Street, a thriving economic center which has become a second Chinatown in New York City."

Source:
First Baptist Church of Flushing. Who We are. 2008
<http://www.fbcflushing.org/docs/who.html>

Chater 9

The title of Chapter 9 is The Need of Small Blocks. So in general, Jane Jacobs talks about how this idea works and gives several examples that exist in New York City. She believes that short blocks have much more advantages than long, super blocks. First she wrote about how inconvenience for people live in the area of Columbus Avenue and Eighty Ninth Street in Manhattan. Since there are long blocks all over that place. The author said: “In this neighborhood there is geographically so little street frontage on which commerce can live, that it must all be consolidated, regardless of its type or the scale of support it needs or the scale of convenience that natural to it.” And after this she also gives good examples short blocks like the one constructed in Rockefeller Center. During these paragraphs, author talks about the importance of the extra street across the Rockefeller Center between Fifth and Sixth Avenue. In her opinion without this street the Rockefeller Center will no longer be the center of economic and everything else in that area. Most importantly as successful block planning must be short and convenient for people to use.

School on Sanford Ave

This is a Korean Church School, which located on Sanford Ave. and 147th St. It just two blocks from where live. Since it is so obvious and so close to my house, I decide to write about this place. In the picture you could see it is very nice day sunshine all over the place. Unlike other buildings around it, the building seems unspeakable large and new in this whole area. There is this big basketball field just right on the side of it. The building designed with a very modern style. And I really like the color, just makes people feel so peace and full of youth spirits.

Without going in to the school I could already know that this structure was constructed after 1950, no more than fifty years. First of all from the outside of the building it already looks new and clean. After I asked one of the stuff works in the school, I learned that this building of the school was built in the late 80th. It is really not hard to tell in the first place. And the students going to the school are mostly Asian kids. Since it is a Korean high school, we can easily guess that most of the children here are from Korean or American born Koreans.

Chapter 7 & Chapter 8

From Chapter 7 and 8, we could tell from the author's point that the existing of diversity is very important to the part of big city planning. At the end of chapter 7, Jacobs generate four indispensable conditions that exuberant diversity in a city’s streets and districts. And according to her, “the necessity for these four conditions is the most important point this book has to make.”(p151) Chapter 8, as it titled, basically it gives many detail information and explanations about how important the need for the mixed primary uses. The author talks about this idea from many aspects, such as: time, space, people and etc. As it just begins, she said: “On successful city streets, people must appear at different times.” And in this long chapter, the author also gives different examples about how the mixed uses function in different situation. One other main point the author wants to tell us is primary use mixtures must be effective if they are to generate diversity. Then she talks about how to combine all the condition together in order to make them effective to the diversity.

Historical Component I: Waldheim, FLushing

"Forgotten NY Neighborhood."Flushing, Queens.11 April. 2002. 2008.
Forgotten NY.< http://www.forgotten-ny.com.>Path: STREET

SCENES; flushing;flushingremnants.

It is really such a miracle; I never know that the area I live actually have a name until I did this assignment, and looked at this website above. Before when people ask me where I live, it is always very difficult for me to explain to them. Maybe Flushing just has too many streets and Avenues. When I told people that I live on 147th Street and Beech Avenue that close to Sanford Avenue, it seemed always so hard for them to recognize this place. Anyway, finally I can tell them loudly that I live in Waldheim, Flushing. Although people may still never heard about this place. Still, it has an official name now for them to remember. Well I don't know why don't people use this name so often anymore lately, but the name actually exists according to my research.

" Today, Waldheim stretches between Franklin Avenue on the north, 45th Avenue on the south, Bowne Street on the west and Parsons Boulevard on the east." This webpage gives a detail information about the neighborhood that I live.

"Queens, NY."Flushing, Queens - Info on Flushing, a Pulsing Center of Queens, NY. 2008.
About.com.< http://queens.about.com>
Path: Flushing;Queens Info on Flushing;a Pulsing Center of Queens;NY

From this website I found may useful link about Flushing, such as: Queens: history, economics demographics, photos, famous spots, restaurant, etc. Almost anything about Flushing you can find it here. Even information about job finding and housings, it is really a great website to explore and learning.

"Flushing is the biggest urban center in Queens, and home of the largest Chinatown in New York City. Learn about its real estate, history, and restaurants through these articles and photographs" Chinatown is one of the most important identity about Flushing. It is hard to find anything about Flushing with out typing this word.