Medium Stakes #3: Forest Hills, Queens Queens, the most populous county in the State of New York located on the easternmost side of the five boroughs of the State of New York. Queens State is also the largest in the area and is the second most populated county in the state of New York and in the context of the United States, Queens is fourthly densely populated. Queens is located on the west of Long island, alongside its neighbour, Brooklyn State. Queens has quite a diverse population with over forty eight percent of its estimated population of two million and two hundred thousand people being foreigners from all over the world comprising of over a hundred and thirty eight languages being spoken in the region. Queens in comparison to the other boroughs of New York City has been reported to have the most diversified economy and the second largest of them all. Queens has differing character with there being presence of both the affluent and those who live from hand to mouth. These are characterized by the diverse housing structures especially with in urban areas such as Ridgewood among others having high density apartments and in suburban areas such as Bayside having large free standing single family homes. Queens is home to major airports among other attractions such as the Flushing Meadows Park which is home to the New York Mets; a baseball team and also to the US Open Tennis tournaments; Silver cup and Astoria Studios. Astoria is one of the most popular neighbourhoods of New York City with many residing there and still attracts more to move in and settle there. Forest Hills in Queens is where I was raised. It is originally home to many Jewish residents. In the past it was one of the affluent neighbourhoods with most well of people living in Forest Hills Gardens. Originally, Forest Hills was known as White Port though got renamed by Brooklyn Attorney in 1906. The area got developed as from 1909 when Margaret Sage bought a hundred and forty two acres of land from the Cord Meyer Development Company and construction of good housing to improve the living conditions of the working poor began. The resulting huge property values made this claim totally impractical and this was also the beginning of the foundations of the Russell Sage Foundation. Forest Hills was planned in context of English garden communities hence explaining the Tudor styled homes. There is a diverse mixture of upscale housing in the south where there are single family houses, attached town houses and both low and high rise apartments. The expansion of the subway between the 1920s through to the 50s led to the expansion of Forest Hills. In Forest Hills, there are two monuments erected in respect to the victims of both World War One and the mast of Columbia. Forest Hills has received worldwide recognition with it being the home of fictional comic book character of Marvel pictures, Spiderman, and Peter Parker. Forest hills is also bordered by two of the largest parks in Quee ...

1. Medium Stakes #3: Forest Hills, Queens
Queens, the most populous county in the State of New York
located on the easternmost side of the five boroughs of the State
of New York. Queens State is also the largest in the area and is
the second most populated county in the state of New York and
in the context of the United States, Queens is fourthly densely
populated. Queens is located on the west of Long island,
alongside its neighbour, Brooklyn State. Queens has quite a
diverse population with over forty eight percent of its estimated
population of two million and two hundred thousand people
being foreigners from all over the world comprising of over a
hundred and thirty eight languages being spoken in the region.
Queens in comparison to the other boroughs of New York City
has been reported to have the most diversified economy and the
second largest of them all. Queens has differing character with
there being presence of both the affluent and those who live
from hand to mouth. These are characterized by the diverse
housing structures especially with in urban areas such as
Ridgewood among others having high density apartments and in
suburban areas such as Bayside having large free standing
single family homes.
Queens is home to major airports among other attractions such
as the Flushing Meadows Park which is home to the New York
Mets; a baseball team and also to the US Open Tennis
tournaments; Silver cup and Astoria Studios. Astoria is one of
the most popular neighbourhoods of New York City with many
residing there and still attracts more to move in and settle there.
Forest Hills in Queens is where I was raised. It is originally
home to many Jewish residents. In the past it was one of the
affluent neighbourhoods with most well of people living in
Forest Hills Gardens. Originally, Forest Hills was known as

2. White Port though got renamed by Brooklyn Attorney in 1906.
The area got developed as from 1909 when Margaret Sage
bought a hundred and forty two acres of land from the Cord
Meyer Development Company and construction of good housing
to improve the living conditions of the working poor began. The
resulting huge property values made this claim totally
impractical and this was also the beginning of the foundations
of the Russell Sage Foundation. Forest Hills was planned in
context of English garden communities hence explaining the
Tudor styled homes. There is a diverse mixture of upscale
housing in the south where there are single family houses,
attached town houses and both low and high rise apartments.
The expansion of the subway between the 1920s through to the
50s led to the expansion of Forest Hills.
In Forest Hills, there are two monuments erected in respect to
the victims of both World War One and the mast of Columbia.
Forest Hills has received worldwide recognition with it being
the home of fictional comic book character of Marvel pictures,
Spiderman, and Peter Parker.
Forest hills is also bordered by two of the largest parks in
Queens; the Flushing Meadows Corona Park and Forest Park
under management of New York City’s Department of Parks and
Recreation. The iconic Unisphere and the sites of the two World
Fairs are at the Flushing Meadows. Forest Hills was the site of
the US Opens Tennis Championships from 1915 to 1977 which
were held at the West Side Tennis Club. It also has a lot of
fancy restaurants with lots of good food and everyday choices
though standing out with best values is Queens Boulevard.
Lately Austin Street has been striving on business being one of
the more popular destinations to visit in Queens.
Being a gated and private community, Forest Hills happens to
be among the safest neighbourhoods in Queens. It also boasts a
strip of hoity-toity chains of supermarket, small shops,

3. boutiques and antique shops.
Sears Holding Corporation 25 page Analysis Paper
Strategy Project
Select either a publicly-held corporation or a private company
(where the financial data is accessible) that is facing interesting
strategic issues. The use of a publicly-held firm rather than one
that is closely-held may be important to ensure adequate access
to important corporate information such as financial statements.
I highly recommend that you select organizations where your
efforts will make a difference - firms you work for or firms that
need a strategic analysis performed. You will then develop a
detailed written analysis. A project guideline (this is only a
guideline) is provided for you here.This guideline should be
viewed as the firm's strategic balance sheet. Fundamentally, the
project allows you to use both the art and science of strategic
management by developing your research skills in competitive
analysis, applying the strategic tools learned in class, and using
your imagination and judgment to formulate the
recommendations and implementation plan.
The written analysis should be approximately 25 pages, double-
spaced, not including exhibits. The paper should describe and
evaluate the firm's current position and include an analysis of
the relevant industry issues. It should conclude with
recommendations for both future strategy and implementation.
The paper should be fully referenced with citations in the body
of the paper and with a complete reference list of sources in
APA format.
This is what we covered in the course. The paper has to reflect
what we learned and be included in the analysis.
Mission, Vision, Values, Goals
Wertheim’s Case model
Industry analysis
Analyzing resources and capabilities
Competitive advantage

4. Industry Life cycle
Porter’s Five Forces
Pest Analysis
Technology
Vertical integration
Global strategies
Medium Stakes #1
For those that have the privilege to live in the city-big or small,
they have come to realize apart from the many benefits a city
may have, life can be a negative, problematic and downright
detrimental experience for an individual. In explaining this, it is
necessary to look into deviance and normalcy. The two are
directly opposing forces that exist in the society. In a
sociological perspective, deviance depicts the acts that happen
to be contradictory to the set social norms. It is this paper’s
purview to state how and why the experience of a city can be
negative in regards to normalcy and deviance.
Primary and secondary deviance forms a major part of this
elaboration. Primary deviance has been found to have rather
negligible effect on individuals and the society as a whole. This
is because it mainly entails random and casual acts of defiance
that have no significant implications, an example being a
child’s mischief in illegally eating candy. On the other hand,
secondary deviance is what is perceived as the crimes that we
engage in due to the society’s view and influence. For those
who fall prey to such societal reactions, they are put in self-
concept crises, as they fail to know where and how they fit in
the society. This leads to having rather negative experiences as
they often resort to further misconduct.
Through the Labeling Theory, one is able to understand the

5. concept of primary and secondary deviance. This is because it is
closely related to symbolic interaction analysis and social
construction. The theory holds that deviance is a result of
people’s tendency to negatively label those perceived as deviant
from the set societal norms; a perception that is considered
contrary to the common belief of deviance being inherent to an
act. Continued negative influence and experience of an
individual sequentially leads to degradation of societal norms.
The theory of ‘Differential Association’ provides a different
analogy of deviance which leads to detrimental experience to an
individual. According to this theory, it is presented that
deviance is a learned trait, stating that people get to learn the
behaviour based on the groups they associate with. This is a
counter-theory to the previous depiction of deviance as a
biologically oriented trait or a result of personality. From the
theory’s explanation, one will experience a negative life due to
his or her deviance that as a result of associating with
individuals whose mannerism that is deviant.
The strain theory has also been used in explaining the plight of
detrimental experiences to persons living in the city. In regards
to negative experience, people engage in criminal activities due
to pressure from social structures that exist in the society. The
structural structures being mentioned in this case are the
societal processes which affect an individual’s perception of his
or her deeds.
The conclusive projections indicated in insight to deviance and
normalcy has been reached upon following a series of
mathematical and statistical study. These form the basis if the
empirical investigation that has been done systematically to
each quantitative research. Heteropathological traits are still

6. shunned in most societies and significantly contribute to the
problematic experiences that go through in the city. The society
has not yet come out of its cocoon of having an
autopathological society; a position that is causing many their
happiness and freedom to have a great experience.
Low Stakes
Most of the core aspects of urban ecology can be provided in a
diverse collection of reading based on its rich background. The
discipline is essentially the study of ecosystems, including the
humans that occupy cities and urbanizing the vast landscape.
This emerging interdisciplinary field indicates impacts on our
lives through its projections and understanding of humans and
ecological processes ought to coexist in the systems that are
predominantly occupied by humans. Through its findings, we
are challenged and informed of how best we as a society can
work towards sustainability.
The branch of study largely uses imperative data and
comparison ways in its findings so as to clearly lay out what is,
what ought to be and how it can be. It incorporates the works
other disciplines that we are chiefly acquainted to; disciplines
such as architecture, public health, ecology, economics, urban
planning and anthropology to name but a few. With deep
regards to the facet’s unique focus on natural system and
humans, the term ‘urban ecology’ has come into existence as it
studies humans in cities.
Activities such as trade have been affected by the study which
tries to amplify the need for security, which in this case is in
relation to the environment and not the usually threat to one’s
life or property. The facet is providing further information
which is in turn contributing to our improved understanding of
urban ecosystems; an issue that has become of great interest

7. following the plight of global warming and climate change. The
studies in this particular aspect affect our lives as it prompts us
to be cautious of the available natural resources in all our
doings and proceedings.
In relation to urban geography, there is study of buildings and
infrastructure concentration in various areas of a city. It is
basically an abridged section of geography demographics. The
study relates to the economic activities that take place in the
secondary and tertiary sectors which often take place in cities
with high population densities. The study particularly impacts
our lives as the crucial aspect of trade is dealt with in the
intradisciplinary study and eventual findings.
Our lives are involuntarily affected by the studies as it is the
branch of science with primarily deals in urban areas,
specifically on the economy, concentration, infrastructure and
environmental impacts. Through this, we are informed of the
maximum or minimum population an area ought to have, it’s
distribution, the suitable economic activities and how they can
be undertaken in consideration to the eventual environmental
impacts. The city’s grid is determined and established by this
branch of study; places that you and I end up residing in due to
the favourable factors that we note in the areas.
Being arguably the most evident and clear impact the scientific
branch has on our lives, the concentric zones act as
determinants of how an entire city is laid out. The zones act as
contributing factors to where; the people reside, the industries
are located, the working area is situated, is allocated for
commuter zone and the zone of transition. Basically, we are
impacted by the study for it depicts how a city ought to look
like and its functioning. This is mainly because the urban land
usage presented by the science branch explains the distribution

8. of various social groups in a city.
No Stakes
The dawn of Industrial revolution brought about changes in
various aspects of a man’s life, being conveyed more towards
urbanization. In turn, this prompted some to ask how the pre-
industrial ages were like. In this case, the paper focuses on the
1500s up to the 1700s. This was a time when man underwent
several stages before finally entering the industrial world that
led to today’s urbanization. The 1500s and periods before that
saw times when communication was a problem and the
population largely adopted farming lifestyle. By the 18th
century, there was waning of the feudal system. This led to the
espousal of a new system in which people now depended on
each other and their masters.
It is during the Middle Ages that the guilds were established.
These were exclusively created regiment organizations created
to partly preserve their members’ privileges and create a
distinction from the civic government. It was however hard to
tell the difference apart as the functions of the two separate
bodies mostly overlapped each other, with many prominent
guildsmen being part of the civic government. The two kinds of
guilds in existence were the merchant and craft guilds, both of
which required one to go through the three stages of
apprenticeship, journeymen and finally becoming a master.
Essentially, the guilds came into being after the failure of
previous systems which took great toll on the civilians through
high taxations and generally unfavourable living conditions.
The system managed to protect both its members and the
consumers. Through it, there was increased stability of the
society as its many achievements rather than aspirations made

9. the society more conducive for persons to flourish. The new
authority relations ensured that each member of the guilds was
protected, an issue that was made possible through the
overlapping factor of guilds and the civic government.
Going through the three stages was mandatory for any guild
member, with the lowest being the apprentice. A teenager,
mostly male, would go and live with a master where his parents
would pay for this to happen. The apprentice was principally
subject to the master and had to do as told and learn what was
being done. This may run between 2-7 years, of which one was
not allowed to marry.
The next was journeymen who were similarly under the master’s
watch but were entitled to a salary in return for their services.
They had the task of presenting a masterpiece that would
impress the masters or exhibit characteristics of having gained
the much needed experience, knowledge and capability in the
merchant field. Completion of this step led to a voting process
to decide whether or not to accept the journeymen before being
considered a master.
Due to insufficient education, the Putting Out System was not
able to work in the 1500s. Being the first method to be used in
making clothes during the industrial revolution, the machines in
use didn’t run on coal or fuel and were generally small. The
method was also slow but on the positive side, it was a safe way
of industrialization as the workers were not subjected to
harmful material. The first part required one to cover all
expenses in production while in the next step, it was making of
profits to make up for the expense.

10. 18th century saw increased improvements in industrialization,
leading to the cut of unreliable workers. The workforce was
progressively turned into a factory with increased diversity
through Cultural Heterogeneity. The Protestant Work Ethic was
also adopted during this period, as people now ventured in
production for exchange and not simply for individual use. As
instigated by the adopted theory, they were to work emphasizing
on zeal, discipline, thrift, reinvestment and prosperity.