Johannesburg South Africa- Amazing City

GREAT VIDEO OF THIS PROSPEROUS CITY CAN BE FOUND AT:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mZcCtKiAo5c





Cityscape

Johannesburg is one of the most modern and prosperous cities in South Africa. Due to its many different central districts Johannesburg would fall under the Multiple Nuclei Model in Human Geography terms. It is the hub of South Africa's commercial, financial, industrial, and mining undertakings. Johannesburg is part of a larger urban region. It is closely linked with several other satellite towns. Randburg and Sandton form part of the northern area. The east and west ridges spread out from central Johannesburg. The Central Business District covers an area of 6 square kilometres. It consists of closely packed skyscrapers such as the Carlton Centre, Marble Towers, Trust Bank Building, Ponte City Apartments, Southern Life Centre and 11 Diagonal Street.

Architecture

Johannesburg is home to some of Africa's tallest structures, such as the Sentech Tower, Hillbrow Tower and the Carlton Centre. The Johannesburg city skyline has most of the tallest buildings on the continent and contains most international organisations such as IBM, Absa, BHP Billiton, Willis Group, First National Bank, Nedbank and Standard Bank. Johannesburg is a modern and exciting city. Many of the city's older buildings have been pulled down and more modern ones built in their place. North of the CBD is Hillbrow, the most densely populated residential area in southern Africa. Thousands of people live in its towering blocks of flats. Northwest of the CBD is Braamfontein, a secondary CBD housing many offices and business premises. The Oriental Plaza, west of the CBD, is a unique Indian shopping complex.

Parks and gardens; Johannesburg City Parks

Parks and gardens in Johannesburg are maintained by Johannesburg City Parks.[18] They are also responsible for maintaining and planting the millions of trees in Johannesburg. The KwaDukuza eGoli Hotel Johannesburg Botanical Garden, located in the suburb of Emmarentia, is a popular recreational park.


Residential Areas

Johannesburg's residential areas range from luxurious, well-wooded suburbs, to shanty towns and squatter settlements. Alexandra, a township northeast of the city centre, is home to about 125,000 people. It was established by workers who migrated from rural areas in the late 1930s. Since the 1980s, large numbers of people have moved to Johannesburg in search of work. A lack of housing in the city has forced many to set up squatter settlements on the outskirts of the city. Most of these communities lack electricity and running water, and residents live in makeshift shacks made of scrap metal,board, and other discarded materials. In some settlements, such as Phola Park south of Johannesburg, town planners have attempted to build streets and provide resisents with basic needs.

Suburbs

Johannesburg's suburbs are the product of extensive urban sprawl and are regionalised into north, south, east and west, and they generally have different personalities. While the Central Business District and the immediate surrounding areas were formerly desirable living areas, the spatial accommodation of the suburbs has tended to see a flight from the city and immediate surrounds. The inner city buildings have been let out to the lower income groups and illegal immigrants and as a result abandoned buildings and crime have become a feature of inner city life. The immediate city suburbs include Yeoville, a hot spot for black nightlife despite its otherwise poor reputation. The suburbs to the south of the city are mainly blue collar neighbourhoods and situated closer to some townships. The suburbs to the west have in recent years floundered with the decline of the mining industry but have in some cases experienced some revival with properties being bought up by the black middle class. The biggest sprawl lies to the east and north. The eastern suburbs are relatively prosperous and close to various industrial zones. The northern suburbs have been the recipient of most of the flight from the inner city and some residential areas have become commercialised particularly around the area of Sandton, stretching north towards Midrand, a half way point between Johannesburg and the capital Pretoria.

Traditionally the northern and northwestern suburbs have been the centre for the wealthy, containing the high-end retail shops as well as several upper-class residential areas such as Hyde Park, Sandhurst, Northcliff and Houghton, where Nelson Mandela makes his home. The northwestern area in particular is vibrant and lively, with the mostly-black suburb of Sophiatown once centre of political activity and the Bohemian-flavoured Melville featuring restaurants and nightlife. Auckland Park is home to the headquarters of the South African Broadcasting Corporation and the University of Johannesburg.

IT IS HARD TO BELIEVE THAT A CITY IN SOUTH AFRICA CAN BE SO SUCCESSFUL.....

City Life in Antarctica

The concept of cities in Antarctica is different than the concept elsewhere in the world.For one thing, each Antarctican city has its own unique design, unlike the cities that we know in America. Almost every single city is characterized by the same things. For example, buildings, business, downtown, city hall, public transprotation, etc. It is hard to imagine someone strolling through a city in Antarctica and not immediately knowing which of the cities they are in, based solely on the architecture. Us Americans might have a pretty hard time doing that, even if we are aware of the state that we are in, cities are so much alike that distinguishing on from the other might be extremely hard. For another, there are no streets in Antarctican cities, one of the most identifiable characteristics of American cities, how wierd is that! People get from one area to another either by walking along the boulevards and forest paths, or calling upon their flyer to drop them off at their next destination, flyer meaning hot air balloon. Big difference from taking the bus huh? Because the people of Antarctica handle much of their own needs through home-based technology, most of the buildings in Antarctican cities are devoted to the arts and sciences, private residences, and a generous representation of restaurants, rather than commerce (office buildings, as that term is understood elsewhere in the world, make up less than ten percent of city structures). Now how can there be a city without office buildings? As we have been learning, there are a range of what a city can actually be considered. Antarctican cities also contain an unusually large amount of space set aside for parks and natural habitats, this seems like more of a suburban characteristic right? No matter where you are in an Antarctican city, you are never more than a five minute walk from a small forest, or a ten minute walk from a waterfall.
I thought that this article was interesting, it gave me an outlook on the lives of people outside of the realm that I am used to. Having to do with cities, I feel it is relevent to the class.

Ghetto Story

Louis Wirth talked about Jewish ghettos and how they were a community that people actually wanted to be apart of, almost an ideal place to live. I pulled from my interpretation of his analysis that these ghettos aren't the ghettos that we know today. He explained that they were not the "arbitrary creation of the authorities, designed to deal with an alien people. The ghetto was not the product of design on the part of anyone, but rather the unwitting crystallization of needs and practices rooted in the customs and heritages, religious and sedcular, of the Jews themselves." WOW, after reading this, I was shocked, how can a place that seemed so well organized and structured to meet the needs of its people turn into the hells that we know and see today? Jewish ghettos were not instruments of control, they were a way for a people related through heritage, religious and secular to bond together and make the best life that they could. Today, blacks, whites, hispanics,etc are forced to live ghettos and the probability of making a better life are very slim. They are under the control of a bigger person, a person that is not looking out for the best interest of the ghetto people. It is even safe to say that today's ghettos serve a purpose. People are forced to be poor, sick and immobile at the expense of others. It is amazing how the social function of a group of people is suffer so that the rest of the world can prosper.

Being one who has been born and brought up in the ghetto, I have to say that I wish my ghetto was like the Jewish ghetto! By the looks of the photos that I have posted, you can get a clear idea of what a child like myself had to walk out of the house and witness day to day, drug dealing and prostetution is done right outside your window; Compare that to the picture of the Jewish ghetto at the top. It is safe to say that Jewish children were probably taught better values and the concept of hard work. The feeling that I recieved while reading Wirth's article was that Jewish ghettos were full of love and support. It seems as though the people understood the element of community. Like Wirth said " Ghetto....for it is not merely a physical fact, byt also a state of mind." A very powerful statement I must say! I say this because from my experience living in the ghetto, people have moved far far away from the idea of family. Parents are killing their young, brothers and sisters are murdering each other, no one is safe in the ghetto. For this reason, the fact that people have a ghetto state of mind,. they will remain in the ghetto. Until that is change and the morals and values are transformed, ghettos will continue to be one the saddest places on earth to live!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H5p7Y1cYaCw