My Ngoc To

My Ngoc To

This picture was taken next to the Bunker Hill monument on the side closer to Monument Square. I was walking along the sidewalks of the beautiful brick homes when I saw a couple stop and take a picture of something on the gate surrounding the monument. As I got closer I saw that there was a hawk perched on top of one of the pillars. It had just caught and killed a squirrel and was getting ready to eat it. Many of the residents had just witnessed the spectacle and were coming out for a peek. A father and his little daughter were taking pictures, and then passerby also stopped, soon there was a large crowed. Almost everyone was white and seemed very comfortable talking to each other, commenting on how beautiful the hawk looked. It was very peaceful, and with the autumn foliage and afternoon sun gleaming through the trees, it felt like a scene out of a Boston movie. I captured a moment where the little girl was starting wide-eyed at the hawk. I think it captures the sense of how safe and affluent Charlestown feels now (at least in the gentrified parts), which contrasts so much with how it was in the past.

The map shows the signs of physical disorder in Charlestown. I also mapped my bike route. This was the most interesting indicator to me because it shows that there is slightly more physical disorder along Bunker Hill Street, with the most concentrated on the far-East side around Tufts Street and Corey Street. I thought this was an interesting easily observable indicator of how Charlestown is divided into the richer, safer West and the poorer, more chaotic East.