Road Map Through The Heart Of Atlanta
This picture represents the routes that the Atlanta Street Car makes in its trip through Atlanta. Like Marta, the Atlanta Street Car has many different stations where you can get on and off from. If you are a student at Georgia State University, you have probably seen the Atlanta Street Car every single day as it frequently runs through the campus.
Hop on fast or get left
Here is a picture of one of the many stops that the Atlanta Street Car makes. There are twelve different stations that the Atlanta Street Car makes in its trip across the city. This stop that is shown in the picture is located at Woodruff Park.
Atlanta’s New Transportation
The Atlanta Street Car began construction for their new project February 1, 2012 and opened to the public December 30th, 2014. The Atlanta Street Car gives rides an inexpensive way to navigate throughout the city. In 2015, the Atlanta Street Car was free, but in 2016 it costed one dollar to ride.
Hi! My name is Julian Wright. I am from Norcross, Georgia and the high school I went to was Greater Atlanta Christian School. In high school I played football all four years and was a state champion on the track team. I now go to Georgia State University where I am majoring in Computer Information Systems. My goal is to get a high GPA for the first couple of years then transfer to University of Georgia where I plan to graduate. I hope to continue to make my family proud by doing well in college and by being the respectable christian-like man that they raised.
The authors of this article start off by stating facts about how the enrollment numbers for college are on the rise. With the enrollment numbers on the rise this has forced people to ask the question of what makes college campuses a good learning environment for students. The authors say that many students don’t pick colleges for small things such as technology upgrades or new buildings, but that they choose to go to the college that has the type of environment that best fits their needs. With college being both stimulating and demanding this can cause attention fatigue and begin to erode a students academic success and learning goals. This raised the question of how can a college campus’ environment help replenish a students cognitive functions.
The authors of this article state that one way a college campus can help replenish a students cognitive function is by having a lot of open space. In a study done in 1994 it was found that having a lot of open space on a college campus adds both quality and value to a campuses environment. A landscape designer by the name of Fredrick Olmstead claimed that the way a college campus looks has a direct impact on the way a student is able to learn. He states that natural scenery can be very influential in refreshing both the mind and the body. In a major body of research it has been discovered using the Attention Restoration Theory that nature is a catalyst when it comes to healing the human attention system.
According to this article a college campuses landscape is instrumental in providing an interconnected type of feeling. The authors state that with colleges beginning to employ a more holistic type of feeling, nature is starting to be implemented more frequently around college campuses. Interaction with nature has been shown to have positive effects on the mind and body as well as have positive effects on a person’s voluntary and involuntary attention system. When students experience this type of holistic feeling on a college campus this can definitely impact their college experience in a positive way.
The authors of this article stress the importance of finding a space that best fits a students needs. Some students like to be outdoors and some people like to be in a quiet area. If you feel stressed or feel like your attention is suffering find an open space on campus, preferably around nature to help freshen up your mind and body. It is very important when choosing a college campus to try and find a place where you feel interconnected with the environment around you, because in the end it will benefit your academic success and student goals.
This article by
Bazelon, gives many different definitions for the word ‘accommodation’, but the main idea in her definitions was to allow people of all kinds to be able to fit in without having to feel different or left out. She cites many different times in history where people have had to make accommodations and how the end result was something positive. In the case of transgender people, Bazelon feels like they are the ones doing all of the accommodating and does not think that’s right. Bazelon expresses that in order for us to coexist as a civil society accommodations have to be made for all people including transgenders. Bazelon’s hopes are that in the future we will be past this and that it won’t even be a topic of discussion.
Coming into this class this semester has been a relatively new experience. In the past my english classes felt more traditional and had basically the same rhythm and flow. In this class we are focusing more on doing research about different environments and how the world around us reacts to these environments. I will say that something similar about this class is that we are still putting our thoughts and opinions in writing and submitting that for a grade. This class just forces us to be more creative in our thinking.
Turning in our first annotated bibliographies, reading summaries, and built environment assignments were pretty time consuming and a lot of hard work, but it did teach me a lot about the way I conduct my research. In the past I would just look at what was obvious and write about that, but now I have learned to open my eyes and dig into what might not be so obvious at first glance. These class assignments have taught me that there is always two different sides to every story and as apart of my research it is my job to uncover both sides. I believe that for my upcoming research assignments I can do a better job of taking notes while I am reading and observing so that my final research product is more credible.
At first I thought that Professor Wharton would be the only audience member I had for my assignments, but now I have realized that I have a lot of people that I am reaching with my research assignments. I have my classmates, other GSU students, and future GSU students. I take pride in having the pressure on me to do well on my research assignments because I am contributing to changing other people’s view points. A big part in changing someone’s view point is being credible so that forces me to put in the extra amount of work to make sure that my research is well written and contains factual information. My main goal in doing all of this is to open another person’s eyes to the REAL world that we live in and not just the world that is obvious to all of us.
The place that I chose to do my research on was the Lenox Marta Station which is located on Paces Ferry Rd in Atlanta Georgia. The Lenox Marta Station was constructed in 1912, but opened for the public in 1984. In order for me to arrive at the Lenox Marta Station I had to hop on a Marta train and travel on the gold line until I reached the Lenox Station. The first thing that I noticed was the majority of the people on the train got off at the Lenox Station. I made the assumption that it was because a mall by the name of ‘Lenox’ was a popular attraction for many people of every race. Upon getting off the train I noticed that this particular station had an old fashioned type of feel to it. The station had dull colors and not many paintings so the vibe that I received was one where I wanted to leave as soon as possible. 
That seemed to be how many other people felt as well because with the amount of young and old people there it felt very crowed, but it seemed like everyone was rushing to get out of there. I hopped onto the escalator and instead of people standing there waiting to get to the top, some people were running up it and bumping into everyone in their way.
Finally, when I reached the top of the escalator, I saw what looked to be the gates of Heaven letting me out of this dark, echoing, colossal underground hole. What I saw was the security gates that let people in and out of the Lenox Station. While I was there, I observed how some people bypass the security gate, and some of the techniques that were used were walking quickly behind someone while the gate was open, crawling underneath the gate, and having a friend swipe his card twice. I did some research on the penalty for if you were caught doing this and I read where one man had to pay a hefty fine and do community service.
Upon exiting the Lenox Marta Station, I noticed that this particular Marta Station was located in a beautiful area. If you look across the street, you will see many fancy restaurants to eat at such as Houston’s and if you look across the street from that you will see this grand Marriott Hotel. It was pretty obvious that this area pumped in a lot of money and, therefore, the atmosphere surrounding the Lenox Marta Station appeared to be thriving.
Overall, I enjoyed my experience at the Lenox Marta Station. If I were the person that was designing this exterior I would add more vibrant colors and paintings. I would also have soft elevator music playing in the background to make the tone of this place more welcoming. Yes, Marta has a reputation for being dirty and unsafe, but I believe that people of all races and all ages would appreciate this station.
Here is a picture of the railroad tracks at the Lenox Marta Station. If you were to fall onto these railroad tracks it would be a pretty far drop despite how close the picture makes it look. These tracks also have a high voltage of electricity that runs through them so there are signs everywhere that encourage people to stay off of the tracks.