The neighborhood chosen for this assignment is Astoria, located in the borough of Queens, New York City. Astoria is situated in the Western part of New York City, and it is neighboring three other Queens neighborhoods: Long Island, Sunnyside, and Woodside. The neighborhood is well-connected with other parts of the city by various types of public transport and is known for being a melting pot of cultures.
Regarding the architecture of the neighborhood, these days, Astoria is mostly a low-rise neighborhood full of apartment buildings and multi-family homes. Previously, Astoria was known for prominent Greek-style influenced architecture, yet its prevalence diminished with time. In general, New York and Astoria do not have such noticeable signs of militarization compared to the cities like Beirut, Cairo, or Jerusalem (Elshahed et al., 2015). Moreover, even in comparison to Oakland, the neighborhood of Astoria looks and feels much more peaceful, with no dominant architectural forms symbolizing power, control, or security. On the contrary, this part of New York City offers calm and quiet public spaces, such as Astoria Park, vibrant street social life, and cultural enrichment.
While the definition and perception of a slum are relative, it is safe to say that Astoria has been a wealthier part of the city for most of its history. Therefore, the neighborhood escaped some of the problems mentioned in the GlobalPOV (2013) video, such as extreme social inequality. According to Niche.com (n.d.), the median household income in the neighborhood of Astoria is around $73,000.
However, New York itself had a long and rich history of slums with such areas as Seneca Village, Five Points, San Juan Hill, Little Syria, and others. Most of those slums were destroyed and replaced by various projects that were thought to be more suitable for the city throughout the 19th and 20th centuries. Overall, New York authorities have consistently demonstrated a more destructive approach towards slums, criticized by GlobalPOV. These days, it is believed that there are no more slums in New York; however, this still depends on the point of view.
References
Elshahed, M., Akawi, N., Shirazi, S., Fawaz, M., Harb, M., Gharbieh, A., Theophanidis, P., Martin, J., Ayub, Z., Vo, Y., Elder, M., & lambert, L. (2015). Militarized cities. The Funambulist: Politics of Space and Bodies, 1, 1-37.
GlobalPOV. (2013). The #GlobalPOV project: “Are slums the global urban future?” with Ananya Roy [Video]. YouTube. Web.
Niche.com. (n.d.). Astoria. Web.