Assignment 6 Benjamin Hom

I live on on E 184th street, right off of Fordham Road. If a "good" neighborhood is defined in terms of conventional shopping, schools and, public transit, then I live in a fantastic neighborhood.

Fordham Road is literally described as an "outdoor mall experience." There are over 300 speciality shops and chains in my neighborhood. There are several elementary schools in my area, two major train lines (the D and the 4), and a decent bus system. When it comes to resources for the working parent, however, my neighborhood is a bit lacking. I found one day care in my neighborhood and it was very inconspicuous. If you weren't paying attention, you wouldn't even know it was there. it is the J.A.D.S Children Center and only goes from children three months old to four years old. There is another daycare way uptown on Jerome Avenue, but that is a substantial walk from where I live. It is certainly out of a working parent's way.

The Bronx is full of the typical gendered spaces. For males, there is the barbershop that I, myself, attend:



This is easily distinguished as a male space because of its definition alone. It is a barber shop. Walking into this barber shop, you would be hard-pressed to find anyone who specializes in dealing with female hair. In fact, you wouldn't even expect it. Just one block over, we have a unisex hair salon.

Although this space is technically "unisex," it is far from it. "Barber Shop" is in small, neon-blue lights on the window, while "Nuevo Look Beauty Salon" is in a big letters on the even bigger awning. In fact, there are only two barbers employed in the entire place and they alternate days that they work. Interestingly enough, this beauty salon is located right next to a training center for Avon employees, which quiets any doubt that this salon is a woman space.

There are also some gender specific blocks in my neighborhood:

I particularly don't understand why there is a need to have two separate sneaker stores right next to each other, but this is undoubtedly a male specific space. Males are by far the biggest consumers of sneakers, especially sneakers with the Nike logo plastered all over them.


Another gender specific block. Danice sells products exclusively to females, and the fact that it is located right next to Kid's World is not a coincidence. There are signs for girls, boys, infants, and baby furniture plastered in the upper windows, basically implying that once a woman is done shopping for herself, she can go shopping for her children easily and efficiently.

This is one of the two laundromats located within a 10 block radius of my apartment building. My building does not have a built in laundry room, and the majority of apartment buildings in my neighborhood (if not all of them) don't have them either. Although not always true, this laundromat is another example of a woman space.

In my neighborhood, you'd be out of luck if you were trying to find a queer space. In the city, however, this is not the case. Greenwich Village is the perfect example an area with plenty of queer spaces. On the East side, but not that far a walk from the village, there are places like Lucky Chengs (a drag queen restaurant). The Chelsea neighborhood is also packed with queer places. The areas that are usually picked as queer spaces are progressive and "trendy" areas of the cities. That's where you find the most gay bars, and queer specific retail stores. When you search for "gay map of new york" on google, you find a lot of links for gay clubs, bars, lounges and even gay saunas and hotels.

If we go back to my neighborhood in the Bronx, you can find a few "private" activities that are being performed in public. In the evenings, people from young adult to middle aged smoke weed in St. James Park. Why? The younger people because they have no other place to do it, and the middle aged people just because they don't care where they do it.