Climate Change and Cities
Evident in today’s data, the planet that humans have inhabited from the record of time is drastically changing in ways detrimental to itself and its inhabitants. Particularly due to the excessive forms of waste from human settlements and society, the planet’s atmosphere is receiving dangerous levels of harmful elements. Cities and developed metropolitan areas are the center of waste and pollution distribution into the earth’s soil, water, and air. With a complicated city network comes an intricate methodology needed for progression. The integrated elements that characterize a city area’s condition include, hazards facing the city, attributes that involve the city’s vulnerability, and the city’s ability to act on the issues contributing to climate change. Although it is too late to reverse the effects of the damage already done to the earth’s environment, significant steps to take in order to control in any other effects include demanding management programs initiated to lessen the stress on the city during times of heightened vulnerability, developing natural replacement cycle, and diversifying the local power supply sources to decrease infrastructure fragility. Despite disputation by some, climate change is depicted through researched data that proves that the average temperature on the planet is projected to increase between one degree celsius and four degrees celsius by the 2050s, heat waves will occur more frequently and will last longer, and variations of precipitation will cause an increase in floods and droughts in areas. Therefore, climate change not only is a real issue for the planet and its inhabitants, but the solutions to control the effects humanity has on the planet are a necessary obstacle to expand lifespans.
Group Project:
Ahmrii
As most of the residents of New York City are already aware of, homelessness is a significant issue that not only plagues the local area, but various metropolitan areas across the nation. Nearly 4,000 people sleep on the street, in the subway system or in other public places (The Bowery Mission). However, what goes unnoticed are the vast majority of New Yorkers experiencing homelessness in shelters rather than visibly on the streets. Much of the cause of homelessness is due to the effects gentrification has on affordable housing. Gentrification, “when wealthier, usually white, people arrive in an existing urban neighborhood and cause [financial, infrastructure, and physical] changes in the community” (Episcopio). The neighborhood of Harlem specifically, has had a long wrought history of gentrification and to this day the community is seeking to manage the effects. In 1961 James Baldwin recorded in Fifth Avenue Uptown: A Letter from Harlem, that “the landlords make a tidy profit by raising the rent, chopping up the rooms, and all but dispensing with the upkeep; and what has once been a neighborhood turns into a “turf””. This quote summarizes the issues of weak integration and the resulting form of gentrification that Harlem experienced dating back to the era of reconstruction (1863 – 1877) after the Civil War . Homelessness throughout Harlem is a tragic result of the decades of discrimination, corruption in city networks, and population variances due to migration that constructed the act of gentrification. Various increases in the cost of living in Harlem allowed for those from suburban areas who can afford the costs to move in , push out the original residents and expand the region of middle and upper class living. Unfortunately, those who could not afford the raises in price usually could not afford the prices in any of the surrounding areas or transportation to travel elsewhere. This historical chain of systems and socioeconomic effects all contribute to the condition of Harlem, and various neighborhoods across the nation. Issues continue today as well, in the New York Times writer Michael Henry Adams mentions that Harlem’s “influx of tourists, developers and stroller-pushing young families, described in the media as “urban pioneers”, attracted by city tax abatements” have torn down historical buildings that make up the character of the neighborhood and replaced them with more expensive structures unrelated to the area’s character. Fortunately, in New York groups like FUREE and Picture the homelessness have set out blueprints for truly affordable, democratic, and achievable forms of housing, which politicians are beginning to take notice.
Ford, Matt, et al. “The New Republic.” The New Republic, 4 Sept. 2018, newrepublic.com/.
Adams, Michael Henry. “The End of Black Harlem.” Nytimes.com, The New York Times, 27 May 2016, www.nytimes.com.
Baldwin, James. “Fifth Avenue Uptown: A Letter from Harlem.” Www.esquire.com, 11 Mar. 2017, www.esquire.com.
