A Look at the Financial District

New York City 1970's the Beginning

New York City hit a crisis in the 1970's due to the fall of the stock market. New York City found itself on a verge of bankruptcy and City hall was starting to get scared when banks cut off their credit lines. There was a similar state of economy as their is today. High crime rates and blackouts soon followed this fall. This all came during the administration of Mayor Abraham Beame. Banks looked for bailouts or threatened financial Armageddon... Hmm sounds familiar, but in this instance banks were told to fix the problem themselves and over time they did. The government did propose a small bailout after the problems have been resolved but it came with strict guidelines.
Many lessons can be learned from the 1970's economic crisis. I thought we were supposed to learn from history but maybe not. When the government provided assistance to the banks in need they did it strategically and with many rules. This past economic crisis seems like we just threw money at them, maybe it was needed but I feel it could have been handled a lot better. I hope to expand on the 1970 economic crisis in New York City and see how it transitioned to the 1980's.

New York - The Financial District

On Saturday, May 29th, our class embarked upon a journey to New York City. Our bolt bus took us into Manhattan and dropped us off at Penn Station. The overall course objective is to learn about transitional periods of New York City, including social, political, cultural, economic etc. As a student of Morgan State University Architecture Department, I enjoy seeing cities outside of Baltimore to be able to compare and contrast how cities have changed to be what they are today.
Exploring New York City with two of my professors was a wonderful experience, in that I got to learn about the architectural side of a city while touring it. Now this blog needs to focus on an aspect of New York City that I will research for the next few weeks. This opportunity came about when our professors let us take a two hour break to explore NYC on our own. I went with a fellow student and we looked at our map and knew Wall St. is where we wanted to go. Thanks to Professor Frasier, we knew how to walk at a "New York Pace" and got down to Wall St. where all the "movers and shakers" of the city reside. I decided I would like my research to focus on how the financial district of New York City impacts the surrounding areas in different ways. I will explore all aspects of city life to ensure I fully understand how the financial district of New York City affects the architectural makeup of the neighboring areas. While doing this I also suspect I will learn about how the economy of the world works, as well. Wish me Luck!!