Hometown: Woodside, Queens

Hey, my name is Ahmed Ismail. For the majority of my life, I grew up in a crowded little neighborhood in one of New York's congested five boroughs. It is called Woodside, which was located in the borough of Queens. Like Sarah and Nicki, I have also moved but only twice. The first was within the city and the second was my more recent move to Tampa, Florida. Like most towns and neighborhoods, there is a main road to connect everything together. Only in my old neighbor hood in Queens, there were several main roads including Queens Boulevard, the Brooklyn Queens Expressway or the BQE, the Long Island Expressway or the LIE, and many more. The land around New York is very much and exceedingly developed - meaning all the space is pretty much taking up by some sort of building or road. This would also mean that green space within parks or anywhere else for that matter is very scarce.

Even though the idea of a city is put on the same page as major air pollution and traffic congestion, New Yorkers seem to have seem to have a relatively small carbon footprint as compared to the population of other major cities and town, according to Blueprint America. This is pretty hard to believe, especially when you have lived in the city for about 16 years and then suddenly be placed in a newly renovated area with air that is much cleaner.

One of the major differences between a city like New York and a newer urban area like Tampa are the modes of transportation. In the city, there is no need at all for any sort of vehicle where as in Tampa, there is basically no survival without one since that would be the only way to get to work, school, or anywhere else for that matter: a classic example of sprawl. But as you can see below, New York City has a pretty complicated subway system.



Obviously, my hometown of Woodside mostly resembles the New York City as how it is displayed in Blueprint America, considering that Woodside is physically within the New York City limits.

Other than the whole underground subway system, there also numerous buses with even more complicated routes as well as the Long Island Rail Road, or the LIRR. There is also the train that runs above the ground, known as the 7 train. Below is a little showcase of the 7 train, which connects Manhattan to the Inner parts of Queens including Shea Stadium, home of the Mets, as well as Flushing, another big area of Queens.




Queens, along with most of the five boroughs, is stock full of apartment buildings, with buildings that get taller as you make their way into the city. The buildings are all structured differently for the most part, and most are made of the same dull-red colored bricks. Mostly everything you may ever need is basically within walking distance. And if not, there is always a subway or a bus almost on the same block as the one you live. These neighborhoods are extremely diverse. I could not see how any neightborhood in the entire world can possibly be any more diverse. There is a mix of different Asians, Hispanics, Middle Easterns, African Americans, and Caucasians within a one mile radius at most. In a community such as this, people are always out and about, day and night. It doesn't seem right to think about a New York that will always just keep to themselves. As NYC's Transportation Commissioner Janette Sadik Khan mentioned, "New Yorkers are not known for their bashfulness."

Below is a picture of the newly renovated train station that was about 35 feet from my apartment in Woodside. It is the 74th Street Station.





Just like Duluth and Gainesville, there are the good and the bad to the city lifestyle. From crowded and roadways to extensive mass transit transportation to having hardly any green space, I would say that if one doesn't mind a community that is more fast-paced, then a place like Woodside would be perfect, as it is not in the middle of the city nor is it necessary to drive anywhere.