Assignment 3

This area of New York City, from Trump Palace to Central Park West, Sutton Place, Beekman Place, and East End Avenue has a very different feel than the Lower East Side, the first area I blogged about. The feel is much more upscale and this is evident for several different reasons. First of all, there is no graffiti, which makes me think that the people who live in the neighborhood respect where they live and don’t want to defile it. The cars that are in this area are well taken care of and so are the streets in general. There is no trash on the street. There is also construction going on that suggests that the area is affluent and capable of expanding and growing in a positive way. The buildings are also clean and well kept.  They appear to be office buildings, since there isn’t a business sign on most of them. The business that there are pictures of are very amusing. For instance, there’s a “Cat Hospital.” This seems to suggest to me that people have the money and ability to take their pet to a specialized hospital if they are in trouble. Trees grow here and there and suggest that someone has taken the time to tend to them. There also isn’t anyone loitering around. If people are in the pictures, they are walking somewhere with a purpose. There is even what appears to be a happy couple holding hands in one of the pictures. What I have to wonder is, are these people truly happy? Popular society suggests to us that money and material possessions can buy happiness. Obviously this isn’t true when you consider how unhappy wealthy people are sometimes. When I think back to the poorer people who I saw when examining the Lower East Side, I can’t help but wonder if they are in many ways happier than the people who reside in this affluent area of Central Park West and Trump Palace.