SEEING THE CITY: 2025

In 2024, I traveled to Cape Town, South Africa. When I landed, I was met with a mix of excitement and unease - I didn't know what to expect. How could a city capture so much beauty and encourage reflection on its brutal history at the same time. I was worried, but I wanted to know whether it was possible. Cape Town is often sold as a postcard city with coastlines, wine country, sunsets over mountains, but the underlying historical reality is far more layered. It is a place wh

For nearly the entirety of my childhood, my connection to my family’s geographic heritage was pictures, stories, and food. Other than the occasional family vacation to international waters, I had never even left the United States. I had, however, learned about Hong Kong and its bustling streets, innumerable bakeries, barbeque joints, and beautiful architecture. My grandparents both lived in Hong Kong, and my mother had visited multiple times as a young adult. To me, however,

To me, Suzhou is a city that lives in between, functioning as an axis, dividing and connecting water and stone, silence and growth, and memories and tomorrow. Starting anywhere and walking for an hour, this axis reveals itself, making you feel the high density of culture. From a ginkgo-shaded temple or a black-tiled courtyard, past Republican-era halls and powder-washed walls, to the glass towers of the CBD or the Singapore-planned Industrial Park humming with Japanese, Taiw

Los Angeles. As someone born and raised in LA, I realize now how much I took it for granted. Cheap and authentic Mexican, Central American, East Asian, and Southeast Asian food on every street, mountains 10,000 feet high acting as an extension of my backyard, warm weather year-round, and the vast Pacific Ocean just a 45-minute drive away. I’ve also come to realize just how different Southern California is from the rest of the country; humidity, indoor schools, townhomes, and

Most people have bucket lists full of their goals, aspirations, and adventures. Throughout high school, I curated what has since been dubbed the ‘bus-ket’ list: a checklist in my phone’s Notes app containing every bus route in Nashville with checkmarks beside ones I’ve ridden. My goal was to ride all forty-three before I graduated. This quest soon caught the attention of a Nashville news station who profiled my passion  for transit on the heels of Nashville's November 2024 T

Los Angeles is often defined by its beauty -- palm trees, sunsets, oceans, and hillside homes. It is a city that sells an imaginary lifestyle to the outside world. I grew up surrounded by that version of LA in Bel Air, where privacy, quiet streets, and overall safety was never something I had to worry about. For a long time, that was the Los Angeles I knew. Sadly, it did not take long for me to realize there was much more to LA than the little bubble I grew up with. Drive twe

My grandfather would always tell me that Seoul, and the very soil we are standing today looked extremely different only couple decades ago. As the very generation that went through the Korean War, my grandfather would tell me Seoul was not a city built preserving historic scenes, brownstones like New York, or old gravel roads of Paris. It was a city that had to build itself from a total destruction, and I remember reading a newspaper article published by London Times saying t

A drawing of the Silver Spring Civic Building - Tzivia Schwartz In a written work titled, “The City: Suggestions for the Investigation of Human Behavior in the Urban Environment,” American sociologist Robert E. Park describes the city as “a mosaic of little worlds” (Park 1915, p. 608). As I understand it, this description perfectly encapsulates the beautiful complexity of cities and reminds me of an urban space I consider my home: Washington, D.C. The very mention of The Capi

Taiwan recently took the world’s notice when free solo climber Alex Honnold free solo’d Taipei 101 with millions watching. When he reached the tip of the 11th-tallest building in the world, the livestream and his infamous selfies introduced Taiwan, my home, to the world.  The selfie showed the dramatic juxtaposition of Taipei, with tall skyscrapers surrounded by green mountains. The view presented Taiwan as a futuristic and new metropolis. But the images in my head of Taiwan

I was born in Hong Kong, at Mathilda Hospital on The Peak. It’s a fact that sounds more dramatic than it feels. For me, Hong Kong has never been an abstract global city, it’s simply where my life started. I visit about once a year. Each visit feels familiar, but slightly disorienting. I grew up in New York City, so Hong Kong has always existed in my mind through comparison. I don’t experience it on its own terms at first I instinctively map it onto what I know and what i grew

Hong Kong is commonly seen as the golden city in the entirety of the APAC region, with countless skyscrapers forming a skyline that is unforgettable, rivaling that of other major cities like New York City and London. It also serves as a key financial hub in the entire world, often coined as a bridge between the East and West, not only in its ability to bring talent from all across the world. Growing up in this modern city, I have always been exposed to the mainstream aspects

Systems. Complex systems. Intricate groundworks and detailed frameworks are the underlying factors that underpin our everyday lives. Yet, there are few places where the roles of each individual mechanism are as evident as in New York City, a controlled chaos I am lucky enough to call my home. From a young age, I was fascinated with the moving parts that comprise the city. I would spend hours sitting on my windowsill, watching the cars and people go by down bustling First Aven

Salt Lake City, Utah, is uniquely positioned between two sets of mountains. The Oquirrh Mountains form a gentle Western wall that hides the setting sun in the evenings. To the East, Wasatch Mountains tower over 7000 feet over their bases (11,000 above sea level), forming a nearly impassable barrier.  Salt Lake City from the Wasatch Mountains This creates a 30 mile long, 15 mile wide valley that contains about ⅓ of the population of Utah. I grew up among these mountains in a q

Flowers from my backyard Seoul has been my home since I was four. Most of my childhood memories come from our old house with a backyard, where my siblings and I would plant flowers and small trees. We would run around the space every day without thinking much about it, the same way I moved through the rest of my surroundings. Seoul didn’t really feel like a “city” to me back then, but rather just a home and a familiar environment I didn’t feel the need to analyze. As a city i

Nairobi does not ease you in. It is loud, unapologetic and relentless. The city hums to life just before sunrise, with a morning coffee of ambition, survival and creativity. Wrapped perhaps in a pastry of hope. To me, Nairobi is a rhythm, a pattern, a pace. I keep likening it to NYC but way smaller, compressed and unmistakably African. Nairobi is both home and a city I constantly return to, physically and emotionally. It is where I first understood hustle and grit. In the cit

Until I left for college, I had lived my whole life in Hillsborough, North Carolina. Hillsborough is a small, quiet town right outside of the Research Triangle, home to Duke, UNC, and NC State. Due to the location, my county averages higher levels of education than the vast majority of the country. As a matter of fact, my county ranked 4th in the percentage of people with doctoral degrees as of 2022 (RELPI, 2024). As a student, this was great, but as a teenager, it was boring

Lying on the Baltic coast of Germany, Travemünde is a borough of the City of Lübeck, the center of which is just a short train ride away. Generally, Travemünde can be seen as a resort town for mostly domestic tourism. My family and I have visited this town almost every year of my life, either over summer or winter break, mainly because my grandparents live there, as well as other extended family in Lübeck. Having only seen Travemünde in intervals of a year, I feel that change

When I see Los Angeles, I see a makeup of different cultures and backgrounds.  It is a city  made up of many diverse people.  From endless restaurants to vibrant nightlife, there is  something here that everyone can enjoy.  It is a fluctuating city that is still growing to this day.      Having been in Los Angeles my whole life, I still feel that I haven’t partook in everything it  has to offer from its endless trails, vibrant beaches, and the many restaurants.  It is a place

All my life I’ve lived in Suburbia. I was born in Suburbia, AL, moved to Suburbia, AL when I was 3, and moved again to Suburbia, AL when I was 13. There is a decent possibility that after my time in Ithaca, I will live in Suburbia, (INSERT STATE HERE). Now, you may ask, “what is Suburbia?” I will now attempt to answer your valid question. “Suburbia,” as I define it, is a general term for all the suburbs in the country. After all, they do not differentiate between themselves t