Lake Redline Renovations

For the last action project of my Urban Planning course (the last STEAM course of my Junior year), we were asked to pick a street that we wanted to redesign. I chose the street that’s home to the Lake Redline stop. I chose the Lake Redline stop (188 N State) because in the last few years, I have frequently gone down this street to get to and from school. Now, of course, in many cases there are a lot of improvements to be made involving infrastructure and urban planning, but I have only have a few. I honestly love this street and I feel like architects did a great job acknowledging the surrounding buildings and places around the Red Line location. The name of this unit is “Flow” because it was basically about the flow of a city. I learned a number of terms, such as Eminent Domain and Redlining. Eminent Domain is when the government forces someone out of their property against their will, while paying them money to cover moving. Redlining is when the government denies services to certain areas based on ethnic/racial background. I feel as if this project is quite clear and easy to understand so I’m happy that this project was pretty fun.

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The area I tried renovating is located on 188 N State in Chicago, IL. This street is mainly used for the Red Line, transferring from line to line, attractions for tourists & citizens, and jobs. This popular place is full of opportunity and I believe it could use more restaurants and more civilian-friendly things, such as seats and mobile charging stations. That's essentially what I tried to tackle as an architect of this space. I tried to make this space more citizen-friendly.

The space I chose is shaped like a rectangular. The length of this rectangle is 374ft and the width is 110ft. The area of a rectangle is length X width. 374 X 110 = 41140ft (squared). Below I will show a diagram of this space and I've labeled a few things I found wrong with it.

DNR "Issues with Lake Red Line Area," Web. 24 May, 2016.

Below I have a diagram that I created, highlighting the changes that I will try to make to this space. I chose the same layout to explain my improvements so the scales are similar.

DNR "Resolved Issues with Lake Red Line Area," Web. 24 May, 2016.

My designs were inspired by one area. I was definitely inspired by the idea of mobile charging stations, which I learned about from the AT&T mobile charging stations in New York City. My other inspiration is also from New York, where Metropolitan Transportation Authority created better looking and much safer train grates for New Yorkers with high heels and others.

Below is my 3D model of the improvements I chose to make. In my model you will see a number of different structures and shapes. The light grey boxes are representative of the 3 buildings and the one wedge shaped building is my new gas station design, with the small rectangle shaped structures in front being gas tanks. The two small white shapes represent the new and improved clear train grates. The three small yellow pyramids represent some of the seating arrangements. The one cylinder represents one of the mobile charging stations.

The volume of the seats (pyramids) in my 3D model is: height: 11mm X length: 11mm X width: 20mm/3 = 806.67mm (cubed). The volume of my charging station (cylinder) in my 3D model is: height: 11mm X radius: 10mm (squared) X pi = 3455.75mm (cubed).



There’s a concept called “T.H.I.S” that I will briefly address. T stands for transportation, and my improvements relate to transportation because of the renovation of the Lake Redline area and my idea of blocking off the alley for safer bike commutes. H stands for housing, and my improvements relate to housing because the Lake redline is transportation to an assortment of different homes for Chicago civilians and even hotels for visitors. I stands for infrastructure, and my improvements relate to infrastructure because I plan on implementing charging stations which requires an alternating current system to carry power far distances. S stands for services, and my improvements relate to services because the charging stations will require an electricity company to make it happen.

First I thought about the traffic that would generate from there being a gas station and no alleys, but then I thought that maybe I could only make one alley for bikes only. I learned after a while that this street isn’t as perfect as I once thought. Next time, I would definitely look into making the charging stations cost money, just to make more money.

Poetry Is Bliss, English or Spanish

In my third period class, we were asked by our Spanish teacher to pick a topic and tackle it fully. I chose poetry because of my love for rhythm and rhyme. With researching our topic, we had to create 20 sentences in Spanish, related to our topic, while corresponding with a certain vocab word for each sentence. We were also asked to create some form of creative art. Since I researched poetry, I created a short poem about the awesomeness that comes with being bilingual. There was also a required Reference page that's included in my slideshow. If you were thinking, yes, all of the researched I collected is put into the slideshow below, into a cohesive and beautiful presentation for you all to read. I loved this project and I love Spanish. Sometimes I even wish it was my first language. Although the required 20 sentences was extremely challenging to a beginning Spanish student, I took on the challenge and I learned a bunch about grammar, concerning Spanish.

The Teachings of Evolution, Illegal?

For the last project of my Policy course (the last Humanities course of my junior year), we were asked to analyze a controversial case that made it to the Supreme Court. I chose "Scopes' Monkey Trial," which is a case where a teacher (John Scopes) taught his students about Evolution. The teachings of evolution was outlawed in Tennessee at the time. Well, that may sound a bit crazy or excessive, and that's exactly why most people thought that this case was unconstitutional. The purpose of this project is to understand the decisions of the Supreme Court and to dig deeper into finding out how these decisions shape society. I learned that a lot of court cases are very controversial and some may even be called ridiculous. I also learned that the decisions made by the Supreme Court actually do affect society heavily. I think that this project was pretty challenging, but more expressive and informative. This is yet another project where my school allows the student to explore and express themselves. I am quite proud of my work, and I'm super excited about closing out my junior year with a bang!

 

Why The US Occupied Haiti

For the second unit of my last Humanities course of junior year, we were asked to create an organized position on a war being just or not. We specifically targeted wars that the US were involved in, such as World War's I and II. I chose the Occupation of Haiti because I was looking for something different that not many people know about, I saw "Occupation" instead of war and I had to read more. After reading up on the causes and effects of this war, I decided that it was unique enough for me to tackle. This occupation was kind of controversial, but in this case, I believe that the US did what was necessary to protect our country and our allies. This project is one of my favorite projects, where the students can address situations with almost full creative power. I normally never promote war, but this time I have pushed myself to open my horizons and think of the country first. Not the most ideal thought to have in my book, but I am trying to challenge myself as I enter into the last stages of my high school career.

Wikipedia. "United States Occupation of Haiti," Web. 05/11/16

The Occupation of Haiti was what many called "a catastrophe." In 1915, July 28th, Woodrow Wilson ordered 330 US Marines to Haiti, under the influence that foreigners would overthrow the land. The US, being friends with Haiti, thought it would be quite logical to help them fight off Haitian Rebels. That sounds about right, doesn't it? Well, our allies were in trouble and we helped them, but is it really that simple?

US Representatives had the power to veto the Occupation of Haiti, but no such thing happened. Haiti at the time, was using Capitalism. Capitalism is a political system in which private owners profit off the trade and industrial manufacturing of the country, and this could definitely be reason to rebel against the country. The "Cacos," (Haitian rebels) as Americans called them, were quite ruthless in their acts to "purify the country." Haitian rebels were supported heavy by German forces, even though Germany was still recovering from World War I, they still supported the Cacos however they could, including financial investments and additional soldiers. The Cacos also engaged in terrorism and other war crimes against our troops, as well as the Haitian Government and civilians.

The ratification of the Haitian-American Convention allowed the United States to intervene with events that happen in Haiti. With the ratification of this policy, Haiti is vulnerable to US tampering in their country, and the policy also gives the US security and economic oversight of Haiti. The Senate of the US is primarily responsible for this ratification. The US Constitution doesn't seem to contradict the ratification of the Haitian-American Convention policy, although it seems a bit wrong, I feel as if the initial reasoning for this policy was to help Haiti. There is always more negatives and positives though, including 15,000 lives lost during the Occupation of Haiti under the H-A Convention policy. Not to mention the involvement of Germany during their recovery from World War I and the amazing contributions to Haiti's infrastructure.

To wrap things up, I believe that the US Occupation of Haiti was possibly more necessary than we may have thought. The US had legal right to be in Haiti, and that doesn't make it completely right, but the intentions of our country were semi-positive in my opinion. I feel as if Haiti benefited from our supervision. The rebels were going to take over Haiti, and not to mention the constant support of Germany, leaving us more vulnerable for attacks if Haiti was under the control of our foes. So was the Occupation of Haiti just or not? I believe, controversially, that it was.

Works Cited:

globalsecurity. John Pike “Occupation of Haiti (1915-34),” N.D. Web. 12 May. 2016.

windowsonhaiti. Marie-Josée Mont-Reynaud “The Failure of the American Occupation of Haiti, 1915-1934,” March. 2002. Web. 12 May. 2016.

Office of The Historian. N.P. “U.S. Invasion and Occupation of Haiti, 1915-34,” N.D. Web. 12 May. 2016.

Wikipedia “United States Occupation of Haiti,” N.D. Web. 12 May. 2016.

SMITHSONIAN. Helen Thompson “The United States Once Invaded and Occupied Haiti,” 3 August. 2015. Web. 12 May. 2016.

My Fun-sized Oven

For the second action project of the last STEAM course of my Junior, my group members and I were asked to create a parallel circuit with 5 resistors, a parallel switch, and a master switch. This unit we focused mainly on power and who has harnessed it best to create different ways of shaping humanity. For example, Nikola Tesla being one of these great scientists, who created Alternating Current which can be seen throughout large areas where electricity has to travel far distances and Thomas Edison being a contributor to Direct Current whereas, it travels shorter distances, using less voltage. I learned quite a lot this unit I think the project was difficult, but quite interesting. Definitely not my favorite project, but I love the creativity that my school has put into it!