1st paragraph

The once private neighborhood that my house sits atop has changed greatly in the past few decades. It once was supposed to house only electricians and their families, but as times went on, the dynamics of this small community have greatly changed. Electchester was supposed to be a haven for eletricians to escape their long days of working by providing affordable housing in a safe area. The neighborhood has everything from a school, to a shopping center complete with a grocery store and a drug store. Since Electchester has losened its exclusivity, the neighborhood has began to slowly decline in social, economic and religious views.

Interview

I had the privlege of interviewing Shawn Kretzschmar, a long time resident of my neighborhood who comes from a family of electricians. His father is an electrician, he is an electrician, his sister works for Local 3 and his youngest sister is going to school to help prepare her to do the same kind of work. He has been living in the neigborhood for over 30 years and says that the change he has watched has shocked him. I asked him many different questions about the life of the neighborhood, who he has seen come and go, and what he thinks of things as they are right now. He told me that the people he has seen come into the neigborhood recently seemed respectable, but the way they treat the area is horrible. He thinks that the neighborhood is unsafe and he thinks its a shame that there have been many cases of anti-semitism.

"This isnt the neighborhood I remember growing up in, we usto play outside at night and not have to be home when it gets dark, now you would be a fool to let you kid stay out after the street lights go on".

The greatest news to many residents ears is that they are going back to the old ways. In order to live here, you must be an electrician. When Shawn told me that, his face was glowing and he seemed like he just learned that he had won the lottery. "I've watched some great ideas go wrong, but i dont think that is possible in terms of improving the neighborhood".

1. How long have you lived here?
2. What made your parents move here?
3. Did the area you live in have an impact on your career choice?
4. what changes have you seen while living here?
5. How has the anti-semitism affected you
6. Do you think that the neighborhood has room for change?
7. If you could move out now and never come back, would you?

Library research pt 1.

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HOLLOWAY, LYNETTE. "NEIGHBORHOOD REPORT: CENTRAL QUEENS; At Last, the 107th Moves In. " New York Times [New York, N.Y.] 17 Apr. 1994, Late Edition (East Coast): A.9. National Newspapers (27). ProQues

The first article I found was about the 107 police station. The article told how after many in its desired home spot, just across the street from the Electchester shopping center. The police would have moved into the building earlier, but there were many repairs needed. When it all came down to it, a deal was made and the police would move out of their old building, into the newly renovated building which had been teasing them for months now. Although the police had an old headquarters, it was not as roomy as they would have liked. They used to stay in a building, which once was a one-story parking garage. Prior to the police station being taken over, cops used to park in residential areas, taking spots, which could have been used by the people. When the project was done, the police had a parking lot equipped with 122 parking spots. Although the people of electchester felt more safe after the police moved into the station and patrolled the area more carefully. Although there were complaints about how effectively they do there job, residents were still happy. months of fighting and many repairs being needed, the station was finally going to be built.

2 paragraphs

Electchester, a neighborhood once dominated by electricians, is slowly opening up to a much broader group of people. The neighborhood began construction on the buildings in 1949, originally to house the men and their families who worked for Local 3, the union which is in charge of electricians. The community sits atop 103 acres of land every acre developed with buildings, some three stories, most sixstories, and two towers which stand alone. There are 38 buildings which can house approximately 6,000 people. But over time, many things have changed, the people, the neighborhood, and the way everyone sees whats going on.

Before becoming over run by brick and cement, the land was once a country club. Now electchester is nothing more than another place to live. The area usto be safe, but recently there have been burglaries and murders which doesnt sit right in mnay peoples stomaches. The school which is encompassed by the neighborhood is Public School 200, a relatively good school, now taking children from kindergarden to 8th grade. The area is slowly losing its value to crazy kids, a new generation, and a scarse number of electricians, what the neighborhood once stood for.

pre 1950

The bricks seem new, and the air conditioners are inside the building, but this structure is older then you may imagine. The building was constructed in 1949, and has been touched up countless times to hide water stains, broken bricks and a collapsing roof. Although the building seems to be encompassed by a green lawn, they only began maintaining it recently and it doesn’t hold up as well as they wish it did. The wiring scheme inside the building is insane, they made it that way so that no electrician could rewire the apartment or do anything to mess it up.

Although the outside of the building seems well kept, the inside of the building isn’t maintained so well. When it rains, the basement floods but no one seems to do anything. The inside of the building smells like an ethnic food fair, and the people well resemble that. Many of the people in my building are either immigrants or old ladies whose husbands who died. The people come and go, but the building seems to go unchanged. No one seems to realize that no matter what, the building wont change externally.

The structure of the building seems to be holding up very well, and although the people seem crazy, it’s a great place to live. I have lived in the building for 15 years, and I have seen many people come and go, and I have watched more construction than I have the years when there is no construction. The building holds up well on the electrical aspect (go figure) but the building its self is falling apart. Sometimes we all seem to underestimate the place we call home.

When you think about the place you call home, you never think about the historical aspect of the area you live in. After doing this research I realize that places have more than just a visual aspect, you also have to take into account how the structure got there, why it was build and what was its original purpose. I think its more interesting to know what is behind the structure than what it looks like.

Bibliography 2

http://www.cooperator.com/articles/1283/1/Maximizing-the-Market/Page1.html


Maximizing the Market A Case Study in Strategic Energy Asset Management
By:Mike Gordon, 2006 MAY




This article is about how energy can be maximized and how Electchester is trying to do so by using certain air conditioners and also the way they use energy. They use a company called SEAM to help them maximize the energy in the neighborhood and how they can also get money from the energy market to maximize their profit. Before they began using SEAM, they didn't profit anything. Now that they use this company, they get $150,000 a year! Thats a lot of money to play around with.

Bibliography 1

http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9A02E4DF1631F936A25750C0A9629C8B63


Electchester Getting Less Electrical; Queens Co-op for Trade Workers Slowly Departs From Its Roots
By: David W. Chen, 2004, March 15

This article tells all about how the area that I live in, Electchester, was made specifically for electricians. It talks about how over the years it went from a very exclusive neighborhood, to a neighborhood where anyone of any profession could live in. There is still a very strong population of electricians, but now, there are people who live here who don't even know that the union building for electricians is up the block. The article also tells the demographics of the neighborhood, which tells everyone that my neighborhood is made up of mostly white people, and there is also a very strong population of elderly people. Today, rent is almost double the $475 that people use to pay when the neighborhood was first developed.