post- post, class date: 9/21/11; written date: 9/24/11

The first thing that comes to mind is a sentence from "Ecology: A Pocket Guide,"

"From an airplane flying over your city or metropolitan area it might easily seem like a giant organism- sprawling amoeba-like for mile after mile. Like a living being, a city pulses with life, drawing in food and water."

I then think of New York City, how it literally "pulses with life," "draws in" and expels food, water and then waste. It is both ecologically efficient an inefficient, being that it pollutes and wastes (condensed driving areas, dirty streets, sleepless lights and buildings upon buildings) yet also conserves (public transportation, multi-story buildings, and multiple environmental and wildlife conservation sites).

It has pockets of trees in parks, or a tree here and there along the sidewalk, as opposed to neighborhoods where there is usually at least one tree in each person's yard. Concerning their watershed- the city rejected proposes to use questionable local water sources and instead thought long-term and invested into going north of the city to provide its inhabitants with pure, pristine water. Water that regularly beats bottled water in blind taste tests and also is imported to England for tea.