Critical Reflect #6

Throughout these six weeks our essential question has not changed. We started out wanting to understand how the culture in New York City has changed over the duration of Covid-19. During the 6 weeks of senior project we continued to have that question leading our project.

We expected to learn more about the changes the city has made to adapt to the new restrictions. For example, the Natural History Museum now has time slots that you must sign up for in advance. Generally we spend most of our time in the same area, downtown Manhattan, so branching out, even though there are general regulations throughout the city, we wanted to see what the changes were put in place.

We anticipate this experience affecting us by giving us a new and deeper understanding of the city. Getting to interview people we never would have the chance to, and learning more about the place we have grown up in right before we go to college was really important. I know when we come back from college or even now when we walk around the city, we will see it in a new light.

What we want people to know most is that although the city is different now because of Covid-19, it is coming out stronger than ever. We believe that the city going through all of this will only make it more resilient.

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Harlem Explorations

When we visited Harlem, we walked around several blocks including 125th between Lenox and Adam Clayton Powell Junior Blvd, which were the most crowded streets by far. As we walked further West down 125th street, we passed by several shops set up on tables on the side of the block. They were selling things ranging from jewelry, clothing and phone accessories. We approached a few of these street vendors, and one nice man agreed to talk to us. He was selling sweatshirts on a large table on a busy corner. This man, who wanted to remain anonymous, told us about how his business as a street vendor had changed because of the pandemic, but he also explained how it wasn’t just the pandemic that had caused changes in business, but also gentrification. A new hotel had gone up fairly recently and the man described how, “in this area most of the garment stores are closing down because of this hotel that is driving up the property taxes.” The hotel changed the way that people interact with businesse

Critical Reflection #1

“Write about a single experience or moment, and ask: how does this moment, experience, or encounter relate to my essential question?” An experience that relates to our essential question is when we were talking to a security guard at the Museum of Natural history. We had a short but informative conversation with a very friendly security guard right before we exited through the back of the museum. We asked him about the changes he has noticed in the museum since the pandemic. He explained to us that the museum could no longer have tours and school groups and that there weren't as many tourists or visitors. He told us that school groups and tours were a vital part of the museum and what made it so lively. He also said that although those tours were not happening the museum was still getting back to its old self and soon groups would start coming in again. This relates to our essential question of or larger idea of proving New York City "isn't dead." Although the museu

Grand Central

Before Covid Grand Central was always booming with people, LIRR workers, train conductors, business people, tourists and more. Stepping into Grand Central now is a very different vibe then before. There are no longer crowds of people. The dining hall is empty with many iconic stores that used to be there before closed, the infamous clock tower no longer has groups of people trying to take photos in front of it. The apple store is empty, the ticket holders seem bored, and the homelessness issue seems to have grow immensely. One of the biggest shocks for me was that the transit store was closed. When I was a kid I would go to the transit store every Christmas with my family. My eyes would light up at the toy trains dusted in fake snow, and my brother and I would push through the crowds to get the best looking spot. It was really hard to see the store closed, it honestly made me emotional. Another big change that I noticed was how many stores closed in the dining hall. Th

NYC with Acadia and Lily

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