The main observation I had while riding the bus was that everything changed gradually. I was expecting a more stark contrast between the different neighborhoods. Starting from the village, the buildings slowly grew into the tall skyscrapers of midtown, with both neighborhoods having a large presence of national chain stores, such as Starbucks, the Gap, Circuit City, etc. As the bus traveled further, the large buildings slowly melted into smaller buildings and then into landscape as we drove by Riverside Park. When we got to Washington Heights, the trees slowly changed into the buildings reminiscent of the ones that were in the village. Even the number of cabs driving around changed slowly, and by the time we got up to Washington Heights, I hardly saw any cabs at all.
The types of people on the bus changed slowly as well. When I got on the bus, mostly elderly white and some Asian people were on the bus. Around midtown moving into uptown, more affluent people and more families got on the bus. Approaching the end of Riverside Park, a few more African Americans got on the bus, and I did not even notice at first, but soon, most of the bus was African American. Going even further uptown, slowly the African Americans got off and more Hispanic got on. All of this happened very gradually though, a few people getting on here and a few getting off there.
When going up to Washington Heights, I expected to see bad neighborhoods because that is the stereotype you hear. When I got up there I was surprised. The buildings looked very similar to the buildings in the village, with the exception of the national chain stores. In both Washington Heights and the Village, there are buildings that are run down and stores that are closed with the metal gates and the graffiti on them, it is just more prevalent in the Washington Heights. What also surprised me were the people. Most of my bus trip was spent in silence, the further north we traveled, the more friendly people became. In the last 30 blocks or so, the bus was very lively and full of conversations. It seemed like more of a community, with people talking with the bus driver, people they knew and, people they did not know. Granted, most of the conversations were in Spanish, but that does not diminish the fact that it was a friendly close-knit community.
When it came time to create my project about the observations I had while riding the bus, I wanted to play off of my main observation that everything changed gradually. I had never worked with flash before, but I knew it had the capability of morphing shapes. Another first-year was kind enough to give me a crash course lesson in how to use flash, and I was on my way. I decided to focus mainly on the buildings, and adding the cabs in as an accent because of their striking color. There were four main neighborhoods on the bus ride: the Village, Midtown/Uptown, Riverside Park, and Washington Heights/Harlem. I chose buildings that I felt best represent the area, and worked on illustrating my idea of the buildings gradually changing and morphing into one another.
Overall, the bus trip was a good way for me to piece together all of the neighborhoods I visited separately in the past and get a feel for what the whole of New York City really looks like. It was also a great point for me to start learning and working in Flash.