Queens College Professor of Sociology Anna Maria Bounds photographs murals on Houston Street in SoHo.\u00a0Bounds, who’s writing her first novel, studied Philadelphia’s “Avenue of the Arts” for her doctoral dissertation.<\/strong><\/p>\nAnna Maria Bounds is a passionate advocate for urban policies that make cities more vibrant and livable places. When city authorities decide to transform a traffic-clogged downtown section or a disused industrial area, they face a stark challenge, says Bounds: they can choose an approach that either \u201cpromotes or undermines urban citizenship.\u201d<\/p>\n
Bounds has studied recent examples. She did her doctoral dissertation on Philadelphia\u2019s \u201cAvenue of the Arts,\u201d a one-mile block of performing arts venues, hotels, and office buildings that has transformed Philadelphia\u2019s downtown. More recently, she has written about the development of NYC\u2019s Governors Island.<\/p>\n
Both are successful examples of urban planning, says Bounds. But she is particularly enamored of Governors Island, a small landmass off the southern tip of Manhattan that, until the mid-1990s, housed a U.S. army base and a coast guard installation.<\/p>\n
Under Mayor Michael Bloomberg, the city has been promoting tourism on the island: staging concerts, tapping disused officers\u2019 houses as art galleries, encouraging walking and bicycling. A free seven-minute ferry ride brings visitors from downtown Manhattan and from Brooklyn. Visits have increased from fewer than 3,000 per year before Bloomberg\u2019s tenure to 200,000 last year. \u201cTalk about a stay-cation!\u201d says Bounds. \u201cIt\u2019s a beautiful gem with a breathtaking view of Manhattan.\u201d<\/p>\n
But the island is a work in progress, and the city must continually ask itself \u201cwhat would be a good mix of amenities and public space that would appeal to the widest number of people,\u201d says Bounds. \u201cYou don\u2019t want a rarified space that only appeals to a few people.\u201d<\/p>\n
Another vexing issue for urban planners is gentrification, a process that has been transforming such neighborhoods as the Lower East Side, Williamsburg, and Jackson Heights. It may bring striking improvements, but can destroy lower-income communities that become priced out of their own neighborhoods. \u201cIt\u2019s hard to strike a balance,\u201d says Bounds.<\/p>\n
Favorite reading:<\/strong> The New York Review of Books<\/i><\/p>\nFavorite music:<\/strong> Not Radiohead<\/p>\nUnusual fact:<\/strong> Bounds is writing her first novel, a dark comedy. The plot: After discovering the personal diary of a young woman who lived on the outskirts of Chicago during WWI, a New York woman keeps a companion diary to reflect on their differing perspectives on life, and, to her surprise, the dead pen pal writes back. The book is based on Bounds\u2019s discovery of a real diary written by a young woman from 1915 to 1919.<\/p>\nCourses taught:<\/strong>\u00a0 Modern Urban Communities Research Methods, Urban Tourism.<\/p>\n[\/et_pb_text][\/et_pb_column][\/et_pb_row][\/et_pb_section]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Name: Anna Maria Bounds Title:Assistant Professor Department: Sociology Degree(s): PhD in Urban and Public Policy, 2006, Milano, the New School for Management and Urban Policy; MA in Writing, 1991, Old Dominion University; BS Political Science, 1990, Old Dominion University Contact Information: Phone: 718-997-2822Office: Powdermaker Hall 252 JEmail: anna.bounds@qc.cuny.edu\u00a0 “Our students are discovering how sociological concepts […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":22,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"on","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"page_category":[],"wf_page_folders":[137],"class_list":["post-1241","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.qc.cuny.edu\/communications\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/1241","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.qc.cuny.edu\/communications\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.qc.cuny.edu\/communications\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.qc.cuny.edu\/communications\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/22"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.qc.cuny.edu\/communications\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1241"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.qc.cuny.edu\/communications\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/1241\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.qc.cuny.edu\/communications\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1241"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"page_category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.qc.cuny.edu\/communications\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/page_category?post=1241"},{"taxonomy":"wf_page_folders","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.qc.cuny.edu\/communications\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/wf_page_folders?post=1241"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}