Assignment 3 - Community Map

This map is a picture of my neighborhood at Temple. I live in the Kardon-Atlantic Terminal, and this is the place I've come to know as home. Everyday when I look out of the window I see Temple's campus, this is what I'm use to seeing at least twice everyday. Many of my friends live here, University Village, or somewhere close by, which is cool. You see many of the people you are friends with or have class with. In short this is my community.

What defines a community is completely up to interpretation. It could be two blocks, three blocks, a quarter mile, a half of mile etc. Nevertheless you are surrounded by many of the things you will need. Whether it be the library, the Tech Center, the SAC, your dorm/apartment, your friends, and classmates; most are close by. As a Geography and Urban Studies major I have learned that there are key characteristics to what many but, not all geographers link to the term "community". These characteristics include close proximity of people to social, educational, recreational, and commercial institutions as well as adequate transportation.

I'll try to compare my community to the "geography version" of community to see how well it does. Lets start with the educational portion, this is very clear because, I practically live on my college campus. Access to transportation is easy. I lived just one block from the regional rail station, and just a few blocks away from the subway station. There's is a gym inside my apartment building, as well as others found around campus. Large fields and facilities available on campus to accommodate recreational activities. I'm guessing commercial institutions would include the numerous food stands and stores on Temple's campus, like the ones in Liacorous Walk. You could say that the university as a whole is a commercial institution, since it employs thousands of people.

Social institutions would include our dorms, apartments, the SAC; any social gathering place that the school accommodates. I believe socialization is probably one of the most important elements of a community. Besides visiting home, I typically leave the campus boundaries when going out with friends. So it would appear that my community has everything it needs.

I did want to mention that the areas listed as "Non-Campus Homes", are in fact the homes I allude to in my Juxaposition post. As you can see the areas near these homes are pretty much surrounded by Temple. To get a better look at my argument, you could take the time to stand on each side of 10th and Berks for a minute each and look. Hopefully then you'd get why I consider this area a Juxaposition.




Community map located above was created by Labaron Palmer
Picture below of Kardon-Atlantic Terminal is courtesy of Rent.com