Capital

Daniel Gross states that New York time as the Capital of Capitals is over. He said that places in Manhattan like JP Morgan & Company and other businesses are beginning to be replaced by condominiums. Gross points out that in 2001, New York Stock Exchange used to account for over half of the world’s stock capitalization and that has dropped to 37%. He goes on to talk about the development of other countries like China. Because China is developing capital, NY assets manager have to go elsewhere to raise capital and that is causing the U. S to lose its leading competitive position. Times are changing and the U. S is still one of the superpowers but the power is shifting. Gross mentions positions of power being multi-polar. New York has gone from agricultural to industrial to financial. In my opinion, Gross is stating that New York’s luck is beginning to run out. The emigration of people from farther areas is not necessary because the trust attorneys, accounting bankers are growing up in this environment. However, I believe that there has to be something about New York that cities like Paterson, the Bronx and other dead cities lacked that New York managed to hold onto for so long.

Post-Modernism

We talked about Edward W. Soja in class today and his six discourses of the postmetropolis. The six are flexcity, cosmopolis, exopolis, metropolarities, carceral archipelagos, and simcites. Soja goes on describe each in depth but he states a few things in his introduction that caught my eye. Soja said that one can not mix the old with the new because they would be incompatible. And he goes on to say that instead of doing so we should deconstruct and reconstitute the forms of urban analysis. I thought about Jane Jacobs' Life and death of Great American Cities, when she said that it would be nice to start a city all over again but it would cost entirely too much. However, I believe it is more of a mental than physical approach. We have talked about buildings that has authority or silent authorities and in the following video, Edward W. Soja describes the Westin Bonaventure Hotel and its structure that has invisible authority, boundaries, and the overall post-modernism. One example, he describes a lounge-like spaces that welcomes people to sit but has concrete chairs that makes it impossible to get comfortable in.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hhyQ0HES8mM

Soja also describes the complexity of the building and how everything is sort of hidden from plain sight. In comparison to the various buildings that resembles Roman architecture, there are beginning to be less and less like it.

Profit

When an individual begins a business, he or she wants to maximize profit. I highly doubt that those individuals are thinking about the benefit of the workers. The United States finacial situation is because other the overwhelming of greed. I understand that there are the few that cares about their employees. However, the employers that is considerate of his or her employees owns small businesses. I was told on numerous occasions that business is cut-throat. I also believe that the larger one business becomes, the more distal the employer becomes. Everyone wants to get off cheap. Factory workers are treated horribly because they have been pushed into a corner.

Boundaries

In class, Mike Davis’ “Planet of the Slums” was being discussed and he writes about boundaries that are not said straight out but sort of put into place to keep certain individuals out. He said that there are several laws or rules that put into place to keep those individuals that do not belong out. That makes me think of something that happened that makes a lot of sense now. For instance, Newark Beth Israel Medical and Saint Barnabas hospital in Newark, New Jersey was remodeled when it merged with Saint Barnabas. At first it was one large building. The renovation cause it expands into several areas in the area around the major building. Those separate building were even had different addresses. However, there major building has these bridges that connect one building to another. I thought that was a cool idea because if a person has to go to the other building for some reason they would not have to walk down the stairs and cross the street. The parking lot is even connected to one of the buildings. I was then told that the bridges were put into place so that the employees did not have to come in contact with the local residents. It makes a lot of sense because the majority of the people that work there are doctors and Newark is not a neighborhood that your local doctor would reside in. This brings about the topic about obstacles that are put into place to separate the classes. Even when walking through the hallways of the hospital, there individuals that are looking at you as if you do not belong and some even ask you if you need assistance if you are walking too slowly.