I come from the hometown of Doylestown Pennsylvania. Doylestown is a large town and a “city” that serves as the center of Bucks County. It is located 27 miles north of Philadelphia and 8- miles south of New York City. Due to the fact that this town is split in-between sections of rural and suburban areas, it is fully dependent on the use of automobiles as transportation. Differing from this belief that its fully dependent on automobiles, when you actually start to enter the heart od Doylestown and the Borough, it becomes more and more pedestrian-oriented. In this area people may find a place to park and can then walk around to different neighborhoods, parks, libraries, shops and restaurants in a very small vicinity to each other. Although the borough of Doylestown and downtown Doylestown do have shops they are more like boutiques and smaller shops. Any real retail store or wholesale shopping center or shopping mall is a drive away in the automobile dependent areas. To given an estimate there are around 10,000 people in this setting.
The first city form the module that I chose was Detroit, Michigan. One of the coolest aspects of the city is how they have transformed abandoned buildings and areas into urban agriculture. This differs from my hometown Doylestown slightly; in the way that we do not use abandon land for farming but yet the other way around. Our city is kind of the reverse of Detroit in that it is solely used for agriculture but then what ever land isn’t used by agriculture is used for Suburban use. This does lead me to the belief that we should take advantage of abandon urban area and also just the use of peoples personal property. Like Detroit we should attempt to have more area used for personal agriculture. This would lessen the harmful impact on our world in a plethora of ways such as shipment of supplies and food and the fuels needed to do this.
The Last or second city that I chose due to its sustainability is Curibita, Brazil. This city has claimed to have one of the best transportation and subway systems in the world. They have buses running every minute while also making this service cheap and reliable. Where I am from public transportation does not exist and I think that’s a huge flaw within our town. I believe that the introduction of a public transportation would save time, money, energy and also the world. This is because when not everyone is driving a car, buying gas and polluting the environment it would now be coming from a much smaller source that would benefit the environment greatly. I believe that Doylestown should take after Curibita in the attempt to better our earth.
Hi Ben, my name is Molly and I am actually from Warrington, PA which is pretty much 5 minutes away from Doylestown. I’ve lived in Warrington my whole life and know Doylestown pretty well. Doylestown is so historic that I feel as though a lot of buildings are just sitting there when we could try and use them for different types of urban farming. I’m not saying to tear the buildings down but maybe add some rooftops gardens or the inside of the building could house a local food market. I’ve always liked how the center of Doylestown is pedestrian oriented because it is such a fun place to walk around leisurely or go shopping. Overall, I really liked your post and the cities you chose to look at and see how yours can benefit from what they do. if you’re interested here is the link to my post http://geog030.dutton.psu.edu/2016/03/18/sustainability-in-my-town/
Hello Benjamin. I’m about 2 hours away from Doylestown in Scranton. Being from PA I have an appreciation for the combination of suburban and rural areas spread throughout the state. It is nice knowing that if the city scene is too much, you can just drive 30 minutes to big open fields. I also discussed a little about the urban farming in Detroit. It is a brilliant idea considering it can turn a profit and help the environment.
If interested, here is a link to my post.
http://geog030.dutton.psu.edu/2016/03/18/scranton-pa/
Hi, my name is Alex and I’m from the Worthington campus. I chose to comment on yours because I used to live in Philadelphia and passed by Doylestown all the time. It’s neat that when you get toward the center of the city it is more pedestrian oriented. It also sounds like there’s a lot of small businesses in the area and they are great for our economy. I also chose Brazil because I thought their bus system was a great idea too. It’s not too city oriented but a good way for cheap and beneficial transportation. If you’d like to check out my post, here’s the link: https://wp.me/p3RCAy-ctv
Hi! My name is Joelle and I’m also located in a town that is within 30 miles of Philadelphia. I talked about it in my post! Here is a link! http://geog030.dutton.psu.edu/2016/03/18/sustainable-cities-6/
Your town is very similar to mine in the way the neighborhoods are set up. The town has automobile dependent neighborhoods but as you get further into the borough there are neighborhoods with sidewalks. Where I am from there is little to no public transportation as well. I believe that where your town can benefit from it, mine can as well. I relate very well to your post!