Last Sunday, a dinner was organized by Andrew Lassiter from the Urban Planning Program for students in the UP and CCCP programs.   We met at the Deluxe Diner off of 113th and Broadway that was large enough to hold the 20+ people that arrived to meet up.   I met two more CCCP peers, Maryam and Meita and we talked about which classes we were thinking of signing up for and the upcoming start of school. 

The group of people at the dinner came from all areas of the world and yet I found myself between two people who were from New York and talked about the city and its various histories, buildings and streets.  I listened to UP student Andrea describe how certain streets got their names.  Pearl Street had been named because of the oyster shells that used to line the street.  Canal Street used to be a canal, and Peter Brightbill who was sitting close by and a professor/guide for a walking tour called ‘Guide to Gotham’, added that once the canal had been paved over, it continued to be a marshland where buildings sank and incubated one of the poorest areas in the city.  The neighborhood turned into a slum and was rampant in disease and crime.  It was so bad that when Charles Dickens came to New York in 1842 and visited the area, he found the conditions to be even worse than the slums in London.  The worst neighborhood was called Five Point slums and was the setting where the film ‘Gangs of New York’ took place if anyone is curious about a fictional representation, as the last century and a half has replaced the identity as the current Chinatown.    

On Tuesday, class registration opened and the wait felt like standing outside an Apple store for the new iphone, and getting a rush when the doors are unlocked.  I’ve been told that during the first two weeks of school students shift/add/drop classes but I am enthusiastic about taking a class with Reinhold Martin and Felicity Scott and intend to keep them.  I may shift other classes around as I’m curious about taking a non-fiction writing course with Mark Rozzo, even if it is outside of the program.   We’ll see if that works out. 

And along with my classes I will be a T.A. for a Curating Architecture course, taught by Irina Verona, and will also be working with Gavin Browning who is the Director of Events and Public Programs.  It’s going to be a busy semester