Today's program has started at the East Village's Neighborhood Preservation Center which is located next to the historic the St. Mark’s Church in-the-Bowery landmark site. The Neighborhood Preservation Center is project of the St. Mark's Historic Landmark Fund. The NYC's Department of Housing Development and Preservation has joined the Center to organize a couple of lectures with the participation of both institutions' intern students who briefly explained how community based initiatives work in NYC and how their organisation takes part in it.
The website of the Center provides loads of information on their function and role within the preservation of neighborhoods that deserve to be protected. The lectures did not only highlight specific information on research on historical preservation, affordable housing and sustainability issues in the NYC but also gave our students a chance to interact with the researchers and get feed back from them.
One of the projects that was presented by the young researchers was the City Atlas. It is an initiative of the NYC in order to increase the awareness of NYC residents on the climate change. It is simply a bottom up sustainability plan for the city (check their website at www.thecityatlas.org).
'
In 1677, nearly 80 percent of New York's inhabitants were of Dutch origin, 18 percent English, and about two percent French Protestants and Jews. Twenty years later, six white New Yorkers out of ten were Dutch,three out of ten English, and one out of ten French. But the greatest waves of British immigrants arrived in the eighteenth century, and in 1790, three quarters of the some 33.000 New Yorkers were originally British'. This is a quote from Francois Weil's fascinating book called '
A History of New York' (Columbia University Press, 2000).
In fact this diversity has grown in time and New York has stayed, to this day, as a magnet for immigrants. Our afternoon walking tour was guided by Professor James Defillipes (Rutgers University) and took places in the most amazing immigrant neighborhoods of Queens. We started our walk right in the heart of Queens' most diverse communities that included Indian, Bangladeshi, and Chinese populations and many others. Surprise of the day was the Jackson's Diner, where we had our lunch, a very special Indian Restaurant (http://jacksondiner.com/).
Being there was an experience itself. From there we walked towards the Flushing Meadows Corona Park, which was not only special because it was developed for the World's Fairs of 1939 and 1964, but also because it housed a very special building (Queens Museum of Art) in which model of the whole New York City is located. The model is known as the Panorama, which is built by Robert Moses for the 1964 World’s Fair, in part as a celebration of the City’s municipal infrastructure. The model includes every single building constructed before 1992 in all five boroughs, which equals to 895,000 individual structures.
. Wow! We moved on towards our final destination, Flushing, under the burning sun. Flushing is an old and a very interesting neighborhood because of it's predominant Chinese and Taiwanese populations. Dr. Defilipes explained us how different waves of immigration was experienced in this neighborhood and how it changed throughout the time.
We called the day off around 18:00. Tomorrow is student's day for preparations as they will guide us to their neighborhoods in the coming days. Thus they are making observations, collecting some data and preparing a walking route for the group.
Can't wait to see the first couple of team presentations tomorrow!
Tuna
Today's program has started at the East Village's Neighborhood Preservation Center which is located next to the historic the St. Mark’s Church in-the-Bowery landmark site. The Neighborhood Preservation Center is project of the St. Mark's Historic Landmark Fund. The NYC's Department of Housing Development and Preservation has joined the Center to organize a couple of lectures with the participation of both institutions' intern students who briefly explained how community based initiatives work in NYC and how their organisation takes part in it.
The website of the Center provides loads of information on their function and role within the preservation of neighborhoods that deserve to be protected. The lectures did not only highlight specific information on research on historical preservation, affordable housing and sustainability issues in the NYC but also gave our students a chance to interact with the researchers and get feed back from them. 
One of the projects that was presented by the young researchers was the City Atlas. It is an initiative of the NYC in order to increase the awareness of NYC residents on the climate change. It is simply a bottom up sustainability plan for the city (check their website at www.thecityatlas.org).
In fact this diversity has grown in time and New York has stayed, to this day, as a magnet for immigrants. Our afternoon walking tour was guided by Professor James Defillipes (Rutgers University) and took places in the most amazing immigrant neighborhoods of Queens. We started our walk right in the heart of Queens' most diverse communities that included Indian, Bangladeshi, and Chinese populations and many others. Surprise of the day was the Jackson's Diner, where we had our lunch, a very special Indian Restaurant (http://jacksondiner.com/). 
Being there was an experience itself. From there we walked towards the Flushing Meadows Corona Park, which was not only special because it was developed for the World's Fairs of 1939 and 1964, but also because it housed a very special building (Queens Museum of Art) in which model of the whole New York City is located. The model is known as the Panorama, which is built by Robert Moses for the 1964 World’s Fair, in part as a celebration of the City’s municipal infrastructure. The model includes every single building constructed before 1992 in all five boroughs, which equals to 895,000 individual structures.
. Wow! We moved on towards our final destination, Flushing, under the burning sun. Flushing is an old and a very interesting neighborhood because of it's predominant Chinese and Taiwanese populations. Dr. Defilipes explained us how different waves of immigration was experienced in this neighborhood and how it changed throughout the time.
We called the day off around 18:00. Tomorrow is student's day for preparations as they will guide us to their neighborhoods in the coming days. Thus they are making observations, collecting some data and preparing a walking route for the group.
Can't wait to see the first couple of team presentations tomorrow!
Tuna
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