Another Reason Staten Island is Going to Rock

Ok, let’s face it. Staten Island isn’t really New York. Nevermind New York City. It’s not really even New York state.

Here’s a satellite image of the New York area. I love looking at the natural terrain.

Here’s a closer image. In this picture, I give you a sense of where things are.

If you look right to the left of Manhattan, you’ll see the Hudson. On the other side is New Jersey. It’s just beautiful over on the esplanade looking over to Jersey City. It’s so different on the West side from the Brooklyn side. Ever since Battery Park City was built from the debris of 9/11, it is ridiculous. Sometimes you hear New Yorkers complaining about the Disney Landification of the city, and there’s something to that for sure. I mean, aside from the video screens (those I like), I can’t stand Times Square. I have to go there when people visit from out of town. Bleh. And while that may be the case in some areas, I don’t hear people complain about Battery Park City. It’s pleasant to stroll through. I googled and this dude I don’t know has some cool shots of the areas. There are a lot of moms and these stupid SUV strollers (you can always find reasons to complain), and kids. Jeesh. Who needs ‘em.

In any case (yah, I’m seeing this post like a leisurely stroll. If you get bored, feel free to hop off.), on the other side of the river is Jersey City and post 9/11 it’s more developed and it has a decent skyline. Jersey City itself is more of a city than most in other parts of the country. Hell, in my opinion, it’s more of a real city than Dallas. I can see a bit of Jersey City from my window in Brooklyn. But if you follow the Jersey side of the river down, you see Staten Island at the end. Now clearly, Staten Island is geographically closer to New Jersey than New York. Aside from Howard Ave and area by the Ferry, S.I. is pretty much like suburban New Jersey. You can’t do much without a car. A lot of New Yorkers don’t consider SI part of the city. (Man, some people don’t consider Queens part of New York).

Back in 89, I lived in S.I. for a year while going to Wagner College. I enjoyed that time, but I moved to Florida and finished my BA at FSU. Wagner is across the street from the St. John’s S.I. campus. Both Wagner and St. John’s are located on Grymes Hill. It’s funny. If you take the Ferry over to S.I, you get the bus and then the bus takes you to a shuttle. That shuttle only runs once every half hour. The way I understand it is that there’s an issue with that hill. It’s too big. People don’t want to go up, not even by car. I used to walk that hill when I was at Wagner, and, if I remember correctly, it would take around an half hour. Needless to say, the views up there are magnificent. Here’s one of Brooklyn from the Wagner entry at Wikipedia.

But from spots up there, you look down on New York Harbor, lower Manhattan, the Statue of Liberty, and the Verrazano Bridge. Many people not from New York don’t know how beautiful this bridge is. Until 1981, it was the longest in the world.

But all of that isn’t why SI is going to rock.

As I said in my previous post, David and Chiara are interested in using networked environments. Since we got the Ning site running, Chris Leary, who is the Assistant Director of the writing center, put up some videos that he prepared for a conference. I liked them very much, and it got me wondering about the efficacy of recording these kinds of conversations for larger groups. Each week, the faculty comes together for meetings. Yesterday, one of our members talked about how she structures her FYW class. It would have been nice to have a video of that. A lot of interesting things were said in the conversation afterwards, and it’s the kind of thing that could spark ideas and develop over time if we had videos similar to the ones that Chris put together. I want to put up one of Chris’s videos, but if it’s not on Youtube or Google video, this dang new interface at WordPress won’t allow it . Uggh. This summer I’m definatlely moving the blog to my own domain. You can see these vids at Chris’s page in the institute.

Ok, update. I fanegeled it by downloading the flash file using RealPlayer, then uploaded it to Youtube. I’m glad YT accepts flash files. Too many steps for this, but here’s the taste.