We need green

In the 3rd unit of Urban Planning, which is called Flow, the class was able to learn about the history of cities. Where did they come from? How have they evolved? Where are they going? What makes a city a “good” one or “bad” one? The purpose of learning about those topics is so they can help us when we have to redesign our own perfect block for the action project. I had a hard time when it came to picking a spot to redesign. I was first thinking about other cities in the world, but then I stopped and realized that my own block needs some improvement. I’m proud of how I took the time to look at the flaws my block has. I even discovered some new ones along the way.


The area I decided to focus on is the intersection of Montrose and Lockwood ave. I live in this area, so I consider it to be mainly residential. It’s surrounded by tall apartment buildings and trees which block the sun. There’s only one business there, which is a haircut shop. The problem with my block is that a lot of children cross there when they get back from school, yet there isn’t a crossing guard, or a stop sign for cars or a light. Lockwood street, which is a smaller one, is very narrow, which causes a lot of cars to lose their mirrors. I also would want to see more green and color to that block because it looks very sad. There also aren’t any bike lanes, so people who ride, ride very close to parked cars, which is very dangerous.


The shape of the area that needs to be redesigned is a rectangle. When it came to trying to find the area I had to find the length and width of the block. I got 483 and 42. When multiplied I got 20286 square feet. I have a picture below of the space that I want to redesign.

To be more specific about the changes I want to make, I’ll explain them more. There is only one business on my block and I want that to change. It’s a small hair salon that has apartment buildings above it. I would take those apartments out and expand it to other businesses. I would want to add circular benches outside of that business building. I would also add a green roof to that building. We need some color as well as having something environmentally friendly because all that surrounds it is car pollution. I also added a small little pond in between the green roof business building and the small garden. I want to add a bench where the bus stop is. A lot of people wait for the Montrose bus in the morning, so I think it would be convenient for those passengers. I really want to push this block being as environmentally friendly as it can be, so I’m adding a garden, along with many trees. The biggest concern I have is safety. Montrose is a very busy street and it’s very close to a elementary school. The problem is that it does not have any stop signs or light. I would for sure add a stop sign to better control this busy street as well as making the kids feel safer. I added a blueprint below.

RD. Blueprint. 2016

My design was inspired by a city in Oregon called Eugene. It’s naturally surrounded by green scenery and that’s what I envision with my redesign. I want to not only add the beauty of natural greenery, but I also want to bring on the environmental benefits to my community. It doesn’t have much, and I think it deserves some environmental love.


My design incorporates THIS. THIS stands for transportation, housing, infrastructure and services. For the transportation part, I still kept the main huge street Montrose because many people use it. I also still decided to keep my block residential because I live there. Infrastructure would consist of me building in some more roads, and water and electricity pumps, which would also tie into services.


I decided to add some cylinder benches/chairs so people can rest after doing some walking around and shopping. In order to find the volume of those cylinders, I had to apply the formula which is, pi x r^2 h. The volume of the cylinders came out to be pi x 22^2 x 54=67858.4mm cubed. I also added a small little pond in between the green roof business building and the small garden. The shape is a sphere and in order to find the volume of that, I had to use the formula, 4/3 pi r ^2. My calculation looked like this: 4/3 pi 20^2, which came out to be 33510.32 meters cubed.




Citations:
Chief. "Top 10 Green U.S. Cities." MNN. N.p., n.d. Web. 31 May 2016.

Gideon V Wainwright

The third course of my humanities class for junior year, is a class called Policy.This class focuses on how to use rhetoric and argument to create a policy.The second unit of this class was called Judge because we learned about the purpose and power of the judicial branch and learned how those powers have been executed throughout time.The third action project is giving us a chance to do some research on a specific case and talk about the background, as well as looking at the impact it has left on soceity today. I had a hard time picking which case  to do more research on, but as I went on in the list, this one caught my attention. I hope you enjoy my slideshow below! 

Novelas!

In my spring term of my junior year, I took a spanish class. This class gave me the chance to improve my speaking skills as well as grammar skills. The teacher did an excellent job of teaching as well as making sure the class was enjoyable. She provided us with some good treats when we did a good job, which is sweet. For the action project, we were to pick a topic that had to do with something Latino or Spanish. I decided to create a slidshow on telenovelas because it's something that I'm used to watching. I hope you enjoy my slideshow below!

Why are we in Vietnam?

The third course of my humanities class for junior year, is a class called Policy.This class focuses on how to use rhetoric and argument to create a policy.The second unit of this class was called Execute because we learned about the purpose and power of the executive branch and learned how those powers have been executed throughout time.The second action project is giving us a chance to do some research on a specific war and talk about our position on whether or not it was right for the U.S to become involved.It was a bit challenging at the start because I personally believe any war is unjust. I also had a hard time picking which war to do more research on, but because of the book we're reading in class, I was inspired to pick the Vietnam War. I hope you enjoy reading my essay below!

The Vietnam War is understandably considered to be one of the most controversial wars ever. In the beginning of the war, most of it took place in the south of Vietnam. As the war went on, it expanded northward and eventually into Cambodia and Laos. It started on November 1, 1955, up to April 30, 1975, lasting 19 years. The United States joined because the government, under Dwight D. Eisenhower, saw it as a way to prevent the spread of communism in South Vietnam. On March 8, 1965, the first U.S troops arrived in Vietnam, however, America had been involved way before then.Vietnam was apart of the French Empire. The United States sent aid to the French fighting, because we were allies. The people of Vietnam took a chance to establish their own government under the rule of Communist Ho Chi Minh. When he defeated the French, the U.S became officially involved, fearing the spread of communism.The main countries involved in the war were North and South Vietnam, with South Vietnam backed by anti-communist nations, including the United States, South Korea, Australia, the Philippines, New Zealand, Thailand, Khmer Republic, and Taiwan. Guerrilla and attrition tactics were used during the Vietnam War.Guerrilla warfare is when small combats use the element of surprise to kill the opponent, sneaking up and attacking the enemy. In my opinion, the Vietnam war was unjust. It sent Americans right into a danger zone and led to many deaths, including innocent civilians in Vietnam. That truth right there, indicates an unjust war. 

Mickey in Vietnam. DisneyTube. 13, August, 2013. 

The Vietnam War went on for 19 years, so it lasted during several presidential terms. Dwight D. Eisenhower was the first president to become involved. Once the Geneva Accords were put into place by the United Kingdom, France, the Democratic Republic of Vietnam, the People’s Republic of China, and the Soviet Union, Vietnam was separated into north and south. That pushed Eisenhower to put together the South East Asia Treaty Organization in 1954, which served to stop communism from spreading in Southeast Asia. The President used SEATO as a cover to build up a democratic nation in the South that fought against the communists in the North.


The Republic of Vietnam was barely born in 1955, because the French ruled them before. During that year, Ngo Dinh Diem served as the first president for the new Republic. John F. Kennedy became the second U.S President to become involved in 1961 and provided extra aid to the Diem regime in 1961. He didn’t send troops, but he did send more advisors and machinery to South Vietnam, and accepted a plan to overthrow the North Vietnamese leader in 1963. The Gulf of Tonkin incident took place that same year.The Gulf of Tonkin Resolution was passed by Congress on August 7, 1964 and enacted three days later on August 10th, which gave President Lyndon B. Johnson the chance to have more power when it came to joining the war. Thus, Johnson sent the first American troops to fight in the Vietnam War in 1965, after there was an attack on a U.S air base in Pleiku, a central city of Vietnam. Shortly after this incident, the military draft was put into place, causing an uproar of anti-war protests. While Richard Nixon was in office in 1969, he expanded the Vietnam War into Cambodia and Laos to try to get rid of Communist food, weapons and other supplies through the Ho Chi Minh Trail to South Vietnam. In 1972, Nixon directed the Christmas bombing to try to convince South Vietnam to give in to the peace treaty. The following year, the Paris Peace Accords was signed, which ended U.S involvement in the war.

The U.S draft was used to enable 4 wars, including the Civil War, World War I, World War II, and the Cold War, which included the Korean and Vietnam Wars.The draft was used to fill in spots in the armed forces that couldn’t be filled with volunteers, and was put into place for the first time in U.S history on March 28, 1862 by Jefferson Davis, the president of the Confederate. For the Vietnam War, one third of the American men who fought were required to by the draft. The Selective Service collected the names of men between the ages of 18 and 26 and if the man’s name was drawn, he had to report to the local draft board to check his status. President Kennedy’s wish was that the men who were married and had children would be put at the bottom of the list. Above them would the men who were just married. Many citizens opposed the war with burning their own draft cards and even going to the extent of fleeing to Canada to avoid fighting. There was also a lot of controversy when it came to who was picked. When people looked at the reality of who was serving in Vietnam, they suspected that the local draft boards were being unfair. Although it seemed unfair, the draft was considered to be constitutional, as long as it was written in place with American’s two other world wars, which let some men pose objections as to why they could not serve.


The Vietnam War not only wasted over 50,000 American lives, but also many innocent civilian lives. Let’s say the United States never became involved. That would have saved the lives of almost 1,475,000 military men on both sides, as well as the 4 million civilians. The Vietnam War not only affected the people, but also the land. Because of the war, 15% of Vietnamese farmland will not be able to be used for 200 or more years. American Presidents used some sneaky tactics that Americans did not know about.The war went on for many more years than it should have. The U.S did not save anyone by involving themselves.





Citations:


"Vietnam War." History.com. A&E Television Networks, n.d. Web. 16 May 2016.

Zelizer, Julian E. "How Congress Helped End the Vietnam War." The American Prospect. N.p., 6 Feb. 2007. Web. 16 May 2016

"Statistic Brain." Statistic Brain. N.p., n.d. Web. 16 May 2016.

"What Was the Role of Each Individual President in the Vietnam War?" - Quora. N.p., n.d. Web. 16 May 2016.

Circuits are cool

The second unit of Urban Planning is called Power. In this unit I learned about electricity and how to efficiently power a building, The class learned about magnets, static electricity, and also current electricity. When going into some more complicated stuff, we studied voltage, circuits, amps and resistors. We also looked at the history and meaning of AC/DC and the war that was going on with that. For the action project, we were asked to design our own energy efficient circuit. We have to design our own efficient electrical plan as well. It was a bit of a challenge at first trying to create what the teacher wanted with our circuit, which was 5 resistors,a parallel branch switch, and a main switch. Either way, I'm proud of how my partner and I communicated with this project.