Adventures of Urban Life

Charles Kan
Around my neighborhood, there are a lot of good neighborhood that is for conventional shopping, schools, day care, and many others. In my neighborhood which is Chinatown, offers a good transit system. It is because of Canal street station and grand street station which is really convenient for those who have to work uptown or out of the borough. It is also easy for commuters to go on bus and call for taxi or car service in case they are late to work. The picture shown in the right show a park. its not just an ordinary park, it a park also filled with old man and old women playing cards, chess, checkers, and mahjong. Many of them are there to enjoy and have fun while some of them are just hanging out and talking to their friends. The picture on the left is a very conventional shopping for any age people but mostly for younger generation like us. This place is called Elizabeth Center, a center that has a game store, jewelry store, pharmacy, barber shop, spa. and many other store. While I was walking around, there are couple of day care/ evening clinics. The most famous Daycare is a building owned by the government which provide many old people to go there to eat, hang out, and a place for them to learn English. It is really lively around this area, every minute you will see them entering or leaving

These two picture you see to the right is place where a lot of males go to. The most famous place to gamble in Chinatown is OTB, where many of them go there to gamble on Horse Races. This place is always men, there are some middle income men while there are a lot of low income men. You can tell that many of them are low income because of their manners and attitudes. I also see a lot homeless people there, some of them smell while some wear really old clothing that are dirty and in wrinkles. This OTB place open till morning to late at night. The picture in to the left of the OTB picture, is not any regular barber shop. It is a barber shop but behind it is where people gamble not with cards but mahjong. They have a license there for them to gamble there. However this is fill with women more than men. I think is the women mostly Chinese women find this place to be more convenient and less dirty than the ones the men goes too.

In my neighborhood, there are no queer/gay individuals claiming space, however there a place called New York Area Bisexual Network located at Chamber street and Broadway which is a 5 to 10 minuter walk from Chinatown. When I search up gay map pf new york, it shows up where gay bar, club, lounge and also hotels are located. In Chinatown, there are many places occupied where there are a lot of private activities. Such private activities are people selling fake LV, Gucci, and may fake items which they are not suppose too. Many of them were caught and the places they engaged in these private things has been search and clear up. But still, there are a lot more left which is still happening.