William Foster

1/25/16

ENG 1102

Architectural

This article explains what’s architectural exclusion is and why the court system refuses to acknowledge the racial division that is causes. Architectural exclusion is the physical prevention of poorer individuals being blocked from access to richer neighborhoods. Building lower bridges so that public transit buses cannot pass from lower socioeconomic areas to wealthy areas introduces exclusion. There are highways that do not connect the two areas as well as closed off roads and barrier fences. From a judicial perspective, judges casually dismiss discrimination claims/ lawsuits brought against such demographic segregation believing them to be just. These same wealthy judges live in the wealthy neighborhoods that quietly agree with not allowing poorer residents to travel their streets.

Architectural regulations mostly go unseen but are just as powerful as the law that uphold their long standing legislations. The biggest issue with these exclusions and incidental segregations are the fact that most people whether regular citizens or individuals in the justice system have not an idea of the current laws in place that discretely set a socioeconomic and racial divide amongst citizens. Academic law has also proposed the idea that spaces themselves have racial meanings. The author of the article argues that places have racial identities based on their history of or know reputation for excluding. It is known that courts should consider this racial meaning for purposes of racial discrimination claims. The racial stereotypes that are often prejudice and incorrect continue to exist as long as exposure to different cultures withstand.

The denial of the public transit (MARTA) in Atlanta, Georgia is a major example of architectural exclusion. Wealthy residents view providing poor people/ people of color with transportation to their area north of metro Atlanta as presenting an invitation to unwanted noise, crime, and vagrants. But it also prevents those individuals from access to better jobs, shopping, and resources. This traditional way of thinking will forever prolong racism that many Caucasians refuse to acknowledge as still continuing. In cities such as Hamden, Connecticut there once stood a ten-foot high, 1,500 long fence that divides the predominantly white neighborhood from the predominantly black public housing projects. Because of this isolation, the blacks were forced to travel a longer was to any kind of shopping when there was shopping a few miles away on the other side of the wall. These kinds of physical dividers exist all over the United States.

In Atlanta, Georgia officials have over the last decade torn down long standing projects in the city to “clean” the area and revive the city. Well as a result the occupants of these projects were forced out into the surrounding suburbs where there is now a spike in crime in said areas. This does not solve any problems or “clean” the streets. It only moves it from one place to another. This entire article sheds light on the fact that highways aren’t where they are just for transportation, one-way signs aren’t just for over flowing traffic, and dead end roads aren’t just ending for any reason. Until the right individuals in the right positions of law want to change the segregation between wealthy and poor there will always be architectural exclusion.

William Foster

1/25/2016

ENG 1102

The Tunnel

The underground train tunnel is a community that the public has not been able to get to in the past twenty years. The homeless people dwell in darkness along the two and half mile stretch which is penetrated only by shafts of light angling through air vents. Basically the tunnel had no lighting and energy power at all. Most of the residents who have been there the longest live alongside the tracks in block bunkers originally used by railroad personnel. Some Other residents are high above the tracks in recessed that are accessible only if you climb the walls of the tunnel. More recent tunnel dwellers have built freestanding structures in the dark alcoves of the tunnel or perched themselves on concrete ledges. This book shows the population of homeless people and the living situation of all the homeless people that lived in the tunnel and in New York City. This narrated entirely by tunnel homeless people. The Tunnel shows the beauty of people shun, and the light some people don’t see. This book is a remarkable moving tribute to survival among people.

This tunnel is one of the oldest tunnel in New York City. The tunnel was hidden from public views in an abandoned freight tunnel. The habitation lasted for about sixteen years before it was discovered by Amtrak. The earliest tunnel residents live alongside the tracks in cinderblock structures originally built as storage facilities. More recent tunnel dwellers have built plywood shanties and perched themselves on ledges. Shafts of light angle through air vents. Dwellings are clustered around these points of entry and on the light-washed walls are images and writing left by graffiti artists. An underground water source was shut off in the early 1980’s. The homeless families were forced to walk miles below ground for water and also food. Meals are cooked over fires that also serve to combat the damp chill. Homeless people would recycle the discarded furniture and cookware of nearby apartment to create their own homes. Among the tunnel homeless people was a guy name John who was wandered in searching for a safe place to sleep after being attacked on a park bench. He kept walking to the back and found this house and started to clean it and fix it up. They were there for the workers. He had to walk around the street at night to look for things that he wanted to put into it. And sometimes he had to carry it ten to fifteen blocks just to get it down. John stayed for over twenty years, taking into his care fifteen abandoned cats and three stray dogs. Bernard entered the tunnel in 1985. He supports himself by collecting cans in the early morning hours for redemption at a recycling center. Known as The Lord of the Tunnel. Bernard became the spokesperson for the tunnel residents when they were threatened with eviction in 1991.