Monday, October 19, 2009

John Curall-Algorithmic City Wandering-Design Study II

Rule of 10's:

Start out at 15th and Market

Movement 1 = Go 5 blocks west, then 5 blocks south

Movement 2 = Go 7 blocks east, then 3 blocks north

Movement 3 = Go 4 blocks west, then 6 blocks north

Movement 4 = Go 8 blocks east, then 2 blocks south

Movement 5 = Go 9 blocks east, then 1 block north

At each stop: 1- record where I am

2- record what I see

3- record anything interesting

4 take pictures

General Notes: I was able to see the full spectrum of parts of center city, historical, business, trendy, ethnic, and residential. I saw a lot more for sale and for rent signs then I remember seeing the last time I walked around Center City. It must be the economy. There were a lot of shops with "recession sale" signs. There was even a restaurant with a "recession menu" on certain days. Yet with all these recession issues I saw not one, but 2 stores devoted to freakin dogs. I find that very disturbing! Sorry dog lovers! I noticed the dog stores didn't have any "recession sales". I also found that approaching areas from a different direction and not planning on going there gave areas I had been before have a different perspective. Sometimes it took me a second or two to realize I had been somewhere before. Walking a total of 50 blocks in 2 hours is way more exercise then I was interested in! I saw several shops, restaurants, and locations that I had not seen before that I might want to explore later.

Journey: Started out at 15th and Market at 4:48pm. There was the usual level of activity a lot of business people, etc. moving about, nothing out of the ordinary there, just business as usual. I took movement 1 and arrived at 20th and Spruce at 5:07pm. This area was more residential, row homes and a few small restaurants and shops as well as a small grocery store. There were a lot of for rent and for sale signs. I took movement 2 and arrived at 13th and Samsom at 5:30pm. There were several trendy restaurants in this area, a construction zone where a bar used to be, and one of those freakin dog stores I mentioned earlier. I took movement 3 and arrived at 17th and race at 5:52pm. This area was a bit quieter than the previous ones, a lot less people. There was a vacant storefront, a church, an office building, and the rear of a hotel and a school. There was a big truck loading dock at the hotel. I took movement 4 and arrived at Arch and 9th Street at 6:16pm. This area was on the outer edge of Chinatown. There was an Asian bank, the police and fire credit union, a parking lot, and various Asian restaurants and shops. I took movement 5. I ran into a problem on this one as I ran into a dead end where the Interstate was so I did not follow the rule completely. I arrived at my final stop at Race and the Interstate at 6:40pm. There were no people around here, just cars, the interstate, and a couple of buildings. It wasn't the most eventful trip, but I did see a few things I might not have seen otherwise and may explore more of later.

I took 30 pictures, which would be too much to post on here. Here is a link to a Flickr webpage where you can view my pictures:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/36941293@N04/sets/72157622498280529/

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