socio-urban

[socio-urban]

New Orleans Typological Series: The Creole Cottage

The creole cottage is one of the most commonly studied and recognized typologies within the city's historic fabric. It's mostly confined to the areas west of Canal St which had developed before 1850 (in general between Canal st and the Press St railroad in the French Quarter, Marigny, and Treme). They were built as humble homes for working families as the city grew in the antebellum era, there's a notable lack of space for servants and such when compared to the grander townhouses of the French Quarter and English side of the city. It has elements which act as a predecessor to the prominent shotgun house, like having to pass through a series of rooms on the ground floor to get to the kitchen which always was near the back of the house. Room use was less defined at the time, with the possibility any reorientation of use of space between living, sleeping, and dining in the ground floor rooms while upstairs rooms were often devoted to being bedrooms. They were very street oriented, with side windows bringing in minimal light, and there being only a few steps between the door of the house and the sidewalk. This historic kind of building only makes up a portion of houses in the historic districts of the city, but it's humble origins have now passed and these homes are considered fashionable as the neighborhoods in which they sit have gentrified intensely.

[socio-urban]

New Blog

This is a blog I want to start to organize my thoughts about new developments in Urban Spaces around the world. About me:

I am from the US South, having grown up in Memphis, Tennessee and went to school in New Orleans, Louisiana. My introduction to Urban Studies came from witnessing how ableist planning in Memphis can actively destroy people's lives in times of dramatic change or crisis, exacerbating deteriorating mental and physical health of people who are in need. Once in New Orleans I was given the opportunity to study in-depth the failures of government short-sightedness and how it affected a major city in one of the most vulnerable environments in the world, the Mississippi river wetlands. I also witnessed the intensifying cycle of gentrification, ongoing at a speed greater than anything I had seen in Memphis, propelled dually by the cycle of building and rebuilding because of Hurricanes, as well as the removal of housing stock from the general renting pool for the premier sphere of vacation rentals. New Orleans has more vacation rentals per capita than any other comparably sized city.

After graduating i worked in the non-profit and arts spheres there, there's a pretty thriving ecological activism scene there which reaches across all points of the political spectrum, with trump supporters working with anarchists and communists in order to save the place they all live in. (somewhat all done in vain in the face of further extraction of oil off the shores of the state)

Since Oct 2022 I've been away from the USA, living in East Germany in the college city of Cottbus from Oct to Feb to start my masters. I had the pleasure of living in a community of Environmental Activists and Students there who were fighting against the ongoing coal mining in the region.

As of right now (June 2nd) I have been living in Cairo since February and am nearing the end of the second semester of my Masters. My studies here are more fulfilling and rigorous than in Germany, but political opportunity here is lessened through the paths which I understand and thus I am less inspired. People with my ideology here tend to work for NGOs as liasons between the government and the people but there are just too many limitations for me to want to stay for my career.

For July and Aug I'll be back in the States enjoying myself travelling around spending my scholarship money mostly having fun and doing a little thesis research, and From Sept to Jan I'll be back in Egypt for the 3rd semester of my Masters.

I hope this introduction to me illuminates both who I am and what my interests are both related to Urbanism and outside of the sphere.

Fun facts:

I'm 23; The countries I've been to are: USA, Canada, Germany, Poland, Greece, Jordan, Egypt; The countries I wanna go to are: Austria, Hungary, Lebanon, Turkey, Mexico, Colombia, Japan; I only speak English fully, but I speak a little Japanese as well as German & Arabic of course.