Summary Seven

“Beyond Urban and Rural Communities in the 21^st Century” by Walter P. Zenner

In the olden days, there was a blatant difference between rural and urban areas.  However, as the world developed, many people strayed away from agricultural and focused on telecommunications. Zenner claims that because of this shift, the classifications of rural and urban are somewhat irrelevant. In the article, “Beyond Urban and Rural Communities in the 21^st Century” by Walter P. Zenner, it focuses on rural life then and now.

                “Until recently, it was convenient to classify communities as either urban or rural” [Zenner, 413] Back in the day, there was a differentiation between urban and rural. According to Zenner urban communities consisted of large amounts of people who usually didn’t partake in agricultural occupations. Most relationships were considered impersonal. One of the characteristics of a rural community is “encompassed scattered homesteads and villages.” The relationships that people developed in rural communities are opposites of those in urban communities. Most of their relationships were created through face to face contact.

                When a person moves away from New York City and towards Upstate New York, the density decreases and houses are spread far apart. However, most of the people in these areas are not employed in agriculture, but rather the service sector. “Other residents commute to New York City and, increasingly, people are able to work as employees or as providers of services for corporations and yet never go to the office.” [Zenner, 417] This is made possibly because of the advancements in technology. People can remain connected through computers cell phones, and fax machines. The only reason they are considered “rural” is because of the comparison with cities.

                Technology is such a wonderful thing. It keeps people connected without having to go anywhere. It changes the way people live and what they do. It helps them peruse different jobs and travel to those jobs without problems. The power of technology is amazing.

“The Cultural Life of Urban Spaces”

                William H. Whyte wanted to know why some public areas of New York City were successes and why others were failures. The public areas were that were deemed a success were filled with people partaking in activities while those that were failures were barren and unused. In chapter one, “The Cultural Life of Urban Spaces,” the importance of cultural is a public space is addressed.

                “In this new centenary, we are facing a different kind of threat to public space-not one of disuse, but of patterns of design and management that exclude some people and reduce social and cultural diversity.” [pg. 1] Those of a different race do not feel welcome in public spaces and that is the goal because they are considered “undesirable.” In exchange for doing this, the public space suffers. There is a lack of vitality and vibrancy because the only types of people that feel welcome are tourists or middle class visitors. That is not the only negative side affect, another is the fact that it causes a decline in the number of places that people can meet and partake in public life.

                “The redesign, however, destroyed the social ecological balance. A new social group, a gang of young men, took over the public space, creating a dangerous and even more undesirable environment.” [pg.7] Parque Central in San Jose, Costa Rica used to be wonderful park full of cultural. On the northeast corner, shoe shining men could be found. When moving to the southwest corner pensioners and on the northwest corner vendor and religious practitioners. Lastly in the inner circle prostitutes and workmen could be found. In 1993, the park was closed and redesigned as to remove people deemed undesirable, which were considered bad for tourists and the middle class. Destroying the tradition didn’t have the effect that was desired; it instead made the area worse.

                In the chapter, numerous reasons why culture is important to urban spaces, if I was to list them all, it wouldn’t be a summary, but rather an essay. I believe that the destruction of Parque Central was a prime example of why it is important to preserve cultural in public spaces. Just because some people are poor doesn’t mean that they should be considered undesirable. Changing the space only turned Parque Central into a danger zone and the overall cause for chasing people away wasn’t achieved. People would have even less of a reason to wander into a park with their lives as stake. It doesn’t matter where you go in the world the poor and the immigrants are always mistreated.