The experience of a city often entails the blurring of private and public spheres. Anybody who has spent considerable time walking city streets has likely witnessed something that belonged in the former. Much of the appeal of the city is its density and diversity of life as experienced in its public spaces, in the bustle of the streets, the rush of the subway, the vendors on the sidewalks and the crowding of cultural landmarks. I am interested in exploring a different element of the city through housing research \u2013 the home, the private realm of the city, as impacted by the dynamics of\u00a0the\u00a0pervasive\u00a0public realm.<\/p>\n
Homes are often conceptualized as havens, places of escape separate from their surroundings. This takes on particular significance in cities \u2013 intense, often anxiety-provoking places with statistically high rates of crime. City housing is not a haven for everyone, as Dolores Hayden points out in her description of tenement life in New York City. [1] Homes can be \u201carenas of conflict\u2026political territories.\u201d The experiential quality of these homes depends on a multitude of factors, often sharply and explicitly delineated by distinctive neighborhoods. Socioeconomic status, ethnicity, race, gender, sexuality and age all play into an area\u2019s \u201cessential character,\u201d and its \u201ccultural landscape.\u201d Cities are often sliced into bounded, politicized regions, resulting in a multiplicity of experiences of the same place.<\/p>\n
Hayden references urban planner Kevin Lynch\u2019s mental maps as \u201cstriking images of inequality of access.\u201d The notion of maps as tools for \u201c[raising] political consciousness\u201d is an exciting model for our housing research within Portland. I am fascinated by the diverse network of pathways and trajectories within cities, and maps have much to tell us about social, political and economic dynamics.<\/p>\n
I grew up half an hour from New York City in Maplewood, NJ. I take the train to the lovely Pennsylvania Station at least once a week, and I have developed my own mental map. Despite the general consensus on surrounding suburbs, my hometown has connections to New York City deeper than those of proximity. A 2014 TimeOut article suggests trading Jackson Heights, Queens for Maplewood: \u201cNYC\u2019s cultural and ethnic diversity isn\u2019t always easy to find elsewhere, but it\u2019s well entrenched in this burb, with a 40 percent nonwhite population and active gay and artistic communities.\u201d [2] While my upbringing has made me feel connected to and comfortable in New York, my experiences do not typically extend past the public realm. The visceral experience of having a home in a city, of being entrenched in the politics of housing, has remained a curiosity. I am excited to explore these dynamics in Portland.<\/p>\n
[1] Hayden, Dolores. 1997. \u201cUrban Landscape History: The Sense of Place and Politics of Space.\u201d In\u00a0The Power of Place: Urban Landscapes as Public History<\/em>, 14-43. Cambridge, MA: The MIT Press.<\/p>\n [2]\u00a0Winograd, Jeremy. “The Coolest Places in New Jersey for New Yorkers.” Time Out New York. June 4, 2014. http:\/\/www.timeout.com\/newyork\/things-to-do\/the-coolest-places-in-new-jersey-for-new-yorkers.<\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The experience of a city often entails the blurring of private and public spheres. Anybody who has spent considerable time walking city streets has likely witnessed something that belonged in the former. Much of the appeal of the city is its density and diversity of life as experienced in its public spaces, in the bustle … Continue reading Experience and Politics of the City Home<\/span>