The Upper Classmen: Blog 7

  1. Hurricane Sandy affected 24 states and the entire eastern seaboard. It was the fourth-costliest US storm, costing an estimated $71 billion. Sandy is directly responsible for at least 147 deaths in the Northeast United States, Canada, and the Caribbean. Sandy made first landfall in Jamaica on October 24th. After leaving that island, the storm gained strength over open water and became a Category 2. The storm hit Cuba early October 25th, then weakened to a Category 1. On Oct. 26th, it swept across the Bahamas. Sandy weakened to a tropical storm on October 27th, then gained strength again to become a Category 1 hurricane while turning north toward the U.S. coast. Hurricane Sandy hit the United States about 8 p.m. on October 29th striking near Atlantic City, N.J., with winds of 80 mph. A full moon made high tides 20 percent higher than normal and amplified Sandy’s storm surge. On October 30th, Sandy moves away from New York, toward Pennsylvania, but is still drenching the Northeast. On October 31st, Sandy finally dissipates over western Pennsylvania. At one point, Sandy’s hurricane-force winds extended up to 175 miles from its center and tropical storm-force winds out to 485 miles. Sandy’s strength and angle of approach produced a record storm surge of water into New York City. The surge level topped 13.88 feet, surpassing the 10.02 feet record water level set by Hurricane Donna in 1960. Along the Jersey shore, people were left stranded in their homes and waited for rescue teams in boats to rescue them. More than 80 homes were destroyed in one fire in Queens. About twenty other fires were started throughout the New York metro area. Hurricane Sandy combined an end-of-season Category 1 hurricane with a cold front and a second storm, turning rain into snow. More than 8 million people were without power, as stations flooded and trees fell on power lines. More than 15,000 flights into East Coast airports were canceled. As of the Tuesday following the storm, all three New York airports were closed. New York subways were flooded with seawater and remained closed until the following Wednesday. (This was the worst damage in its 108-year history.) Limited bus service was restored Tuesday afternoon. Service was fully reactivated by the following Wednesday. Bridges and roadways were closed in Manhattan, but the East River bridges opened the following Tuesday.
  2. Hurricane Sandy is portrayed in articles following the disaster as full of fury as well as displaying damages in the city. In One such article, titled, “Hurricane Sandy Hits New York in 2012” is explains how the hurricane whipped around a crane that did much damage to many of the buildings around the city. Years later, the hurricane is still affecting people. An article that was written in 2017 titled “How to hurricane Proof your house” explains the measures one should take after the damages done by Hurricane Sandy and how to take protective measures for your family. As readers can see, the articles immediately following the disaster report on the damages done and the impact that the hurricane had on the civilian population, and then following that later articles are written for preventative measures in order to prepare people living around sites of natural disasters for the worst that could happen. Some articles that are in the middle of this time period talk about tracking the storm as it travels across certain states, so these articles are written to keep people updated on the path and trajectory of the hurricane in order to warn people that are in the path to evacuate to safety as well as a way of recording history as it happens.   
  3. There were multiple problems that contributed to the devastating human and material impacts following Hurricane Sandy. One was that much of the infrastructure, buildings, and shore houses in New York and New Jersey were not constructed with the proper materials that can withstand flooding and high wind speeds. Second is the scarce amount of resources following the storm. For example, New Jerseyans had to wait every other day in order to buy gas for their cars and power generators due to the limited amount of gasoline.
  4. There are multiple strategies communities can use to protect themselves from future hazard events such as Hurricane Sandy. One is to build flood walls near rivers, bays, and shorelines along the New York and New Jersey coastline. Second is to rebuild and/or renovate buildings that contain boilers, electrical systems, or vital resources for human life with more durable equipment. This equipment includes includes doors made with Kevlar curtains and prohibiting resources to be kept on ground level floors. Third is to have shoreline houses elevated safely from ground level. These shoreline houses can be composed of concrete and steel or other robust materials that can withstand significant flooding and high wind speeds.
  5. One potential barrier that can affect this strategy is the cost to renovate and/or rebuild the shoreline houses, buildings, and floodwalls is the total cost. This barrier can be minimized by arguing that it is important to spend this money now and be prepared for another disaster rather than take risks and potentially deal with another horrific aftermath similar to Hurricane Sandy. A second barrier is the argument that New York and New Jersey have not experienced another storm such as Hurricane Sandy in the past six years, highlighting that a storm of this significance happens on occasion. This barrier can be minimized by arguing that research is showing how weather has become more severe over the last couple of decades, correlating with the effects of climate change. Therefore, it is important to be prepared for this extreme weather, as data insists that these types of severe storms are going to continue overtime as a result of climate change.

The Upperclassmen: Blog 5

  1. The University District addresses the future of urban design, capital improvements, and land use in the city of Columbus. The University District is utilized to guide neighborhood and city review of development proposals and inform future investments in the region. It also provides land use recommendations for the planning area that establishes the framework for zoning. Land use defines how property and/or a building is utilized. In order for neighborhoods to be sustainable for future generations, it is significant for a variety of land uses to be provided. A primary goal is to focus on the higher intensity development on the Ohio State University campus. In addition, there is a goal to encourage low intensity development in areas away from the campus.

2. A lot of the land that is used is used for residential use where 89 percent is renter occupied. The Ohio State University is placed alongside the olentangy river and the river itself is used as a park or green space. Tuttle park, as well as Echo Glenn park serve as green space for the campus. What is nice, is that there is is a strip of mixed use area going right down the middle of the map. This is nice because it sort of makes a center of entertainment for both the more residential part of the university for the university side, so students can come from class to find entertainment and meals or they can come from the more residential side as well.

3. One of the primary goals is for intense development on the physical campus of OSU. This is absolutely being fulfilled and actively being worked on. Over the past four years, the campus has changed tremendously. North campus as a whole has completely transformed. They have added many new dorms as well as other components such as  the clock tower. On south campus, there has also been an addition of new dorms, but overall the development on south campus has more been focused on the aesthetic aspect. For example, they spent a couple years remodeling mirror lake and redoing the creamery. They also have worked on modernizing some of the older buildings, such as the relatively new student union. While the goal of high-intensity building on campus building is only one of many, this is a clear example of how the university has done a pretty good job at following the plan.

4. The comprehensive plan contains an entire section of land-use issues, most of which is devoted to the issues with high density parking in low density residential neighborhoods. The problem is that many of the neighborhoods were built for families, long before Ohio State became such a densely populated school. Now that students are packed into houses at greater numbers than originally intended, parked cars have clogged the thin streets near student housing. The next section of the plan is dedicated to recommendations for future land-use. One specific recommendation is to decrease the area that a building will take up in a specified lot for developments near High Street. This tactic eases parking overflow for shoppers near High Street, and residents of upper floor apartments in mixed-use buildings. However, this tactic does not ease parking overflow near housing, because there will always be an incentive for a student to park for free near their house, rather than paid parking further away.    

5. There are a couple of suggestions for things that can be added and improved in the University District Plan. One is that there can be more of an initiative to implement small businesses on High Street along the Ohio State campus. As more corporations ranging from fast food to retail stores such as target buy/rent property on High Street, it becomes more difficult for small businesses to buy/rent along this area of property. Second is that the University District Plan can focus on adding a more efficient transit system from the Ohio State campus to downtown. Unless if one has the access to a vehicle, it can be difficult to commute around the campus and the city of Columbus.   

The Upperclassmen Blog 3- Jayne Farrah, Hudson Wagenbrenner, Colin D’Emilio, Eian Patel, Michael Gannaio

We thought that this area on campus more south was a great representation of the ramp use on campus and was great for people with wheelchairs. One thing that I thought was great was there would be a set of stairs and on the other side there would be a ramp that was not too steep as to make it hard for a person in a wheelchair. One way that I think that would be more inclusive for people with disabilities would be to properly think of what a disability is. In reality, a disability is not just a leg disability but could be a number of things that could range from mental to sight and the way people see things that does not match up to the flow of the natural order.

 

At least at this point on the street the street feels like a good width for cars to come and go at a comfortable pace without a congested feeling. Generally when the street is skinnier, the road feels tight and traffic is often times pretty bad because people generally go slower when there is less space to work with. The wider the street is generally makes for good flow of the traffic and creates more room for parking on the side of the road as well.

 

The building use of this white stone really makes it unique in comparison to the other buildings and their style, and theme. The buildings on either side of this building are brown and reddish brick which really makes this building stand out in a bold way. Not only is the color bold, but also is the style this building is. It seems like this building is ornamented with some designs along the white stone. None of the other buildings contain these designs on them. Our conclusion is that this building is not in sync with the buildings around it.

 

We would say that the setback for this building is not appropriate with the overall theme of the neighborhood. The modern look to the building indeed speaks a newer more progressive theme and the building behind it speaks an older and more traditional look. This can be shown by the use of brick as opposed to this building displaying large see through glass which usually is used in newer more modern styles. Usually a neighborhood has a certain feel and style to it and when there are a bunch of buildings with brick and then a large building with large glass panels it makes it seem out of sync in comparison to the other buildings in the neighborhood.

 

The sidewalks in this area feel natural and free and give plenty of space to pedestrians.  The sidewalks in this area feel very new and are almost giving off an artistic feel to them because they really open up to the academic part of campus or they kind of open up to the commercial part of the campus. There is not many bad things about this section of sidewalk on campus. It seems very open and makes for good circulation through this part of the campus. Some ways that the sidewalks could be improved might be to have a lot of the sidewalks on high street on the opposite part of the street to be this wide so that there can be better circulation especially at night.