Friday 10 April 2015

Reflections on Blogs

The blog Urban Infrastructure in Port of Spain focuses on the infrastructure of Port-of-Spain and it touches on two of the factors in our blog, drainage and solid waste management. Their drainage post was very well done and put together, it would complement our post on flooding as we barely touched on the factor of drainage which is Port-of-Spain's biggest problem when it come to flooding. Their relation to the city's ancient structure shows how it is not suited to facilitate the capacity of water that is now running through the streets as more buildings were constructed, greatly decreasing rainwater infiltration into the ground. We stated this point also on the city's old structure. Thus resulting in all this water collecting on the streets and the small drains do not do an efficient job of collecting and guiding the water away. The drains are also clogged by litter from pedestrians who do not utilise the bins throughout the city. They made a link that the rainwater can be contaminated and if in contact with the skin can cause illness.

The blog Urban Life covered our posts on carnival, nightlife and the traffic situation. Our blog covered Carnival but only the negative impacts of it in terms of sound pollution, we forgot to give praise to its involvement in the development and display of our culture, and also the impact it has to tourism and foreign exchange as many tourists enter the country for this season to participate or view the festivities. Also how it brings together all walks of life to have fun and enjoy themselves in stress free environments. They covered nightlife on the Avenue which we pointed out was a great disadvantage to the residents in the area as the noise levels can be quite high. Finally, the traffic congestion that contributed to the air pollution in our blog was covered by theirs and they mentions how the traffic may be coming from a specific area, and the bad parking done on already narrow streets. However, we did not give attention to the government's effort towards mitigating the traffic situation by the introduction of public transportation, PTSC, which is a transportation hub that provides maxi-taxis and buses to and from the capital city.

Finally, the blog Urban St. James covers all aspects of the area, especially the financial aspect which we did not give any mention to. It can be thought of as an outlying business district as the Harris and Ullman multiple sector model shows. The quote they took from discovertnt.com "The district of St. James has been called“the city that never sleeps” because of its thumping music, sidewalk vendors and straightforward, down-to-earth drinking dens. You’ll find loads of bars along the Western Main Road. Of these, the most famous is the signature Smokey and Bunty‘s, a legendary liming spot where regular characters who are an evening’s entertainment all by themselves." says how it's called "the city that never sleeps" which is bad for the residents there that actually want to and need sleep at night.

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