For a brief introduction to the town of New Paltz, I thought the Wikipedia page did an okay job. It did have a decent amount of categories to look through, although I feel like many of them could be expanded. One thing I felt was missing was the general “feel” of the town. New Paltz definitely has a “feel” and this is part of its appeal. I especially get this when walking down Main Street. I almost feel like there needs to be a description of Main Street because it is such a main part of the town and in my opinion it is very cute with all of the local businesses and small stores.
I need to comment on the fact that the village area of New Paltz is only 1.8 square miles. That’s tiny! I was curious so I looked at my town’s Wikipedia page… my town is 49.6 square miles! Also, just from looking at my town’s page, I’m seeing many things that I think could be included into ours. On my town’s page, it includes local landmarks in a bullet pointed list and traces back each building’s/landmark’s personal history. I’m sure that there are several historic landmarks in New Paltz that have a fascinating story, so it would be interesting to include this on the page.
The culture section of the New Paltz village page does not do the town justice at all. It mentions “big” events such as “Memorial Day Parade” and the “Halloween Parade” and these are such standard events that most towns have. The culture definitely needs to be described and expanded more. The culture section focuses on events, and there is so much more to culture than just “events”.
Also, I think it’s very strange that we have a sister city in Japan. According to Wikipedia, a sister city is “cooperative agreements between towns, cities, and even counties in geographically and politically distinct areas to promote cultural and commercial ties.” I’d like to know how we came to get a sister city in Japan, and what exactly goes on between the two cities to promote cultural and commercial ties. It would also be interesting to see if any of the old newspapers mentioned in this wiki page are still around somewhere. Maybe they’re in a museum or an archive? It would be fun to try and track them down!
SUNY New Paltz would have some crazy stories on its wiki page (such as the events from November 1997). Although this page was more interesting than the New Paltz village page, I still think that the cultural feel of the school is missing. I want to know more about the bell tower. Maggie brought it up one day and I’ve never stopped thinking about it since then. There must be some sort of history to the bell tower!
The Materials of History, Thought, and Art 
I’m so glad you defined what a sister city is! I was reading Jessi’s post in which she commented on our sister city, and I was wondering what that meant. Thanks for clearing that up!
Also, I have always been so fascinated by the Bell Tower in Vandenberg Hall. I was so excited when I heard about this project because now I finally have an excuse to really learn more about it! 🙂
Yes I know! You’re the one who made me interested in the bell tower. It seems like it would have some significance in New Paltz history… like a cool bell-ringer story or something (The Hunchback of New Paltz perhaps….haha).
We have a sister city? It definitely doesn’t seem that we have any commercial or cultural ties to Japan. I mean there’s Japanese restaurants, but I don’t think that has anything to do with it. However, that’s very interesting. Maybe we can research it sometime. I’m beginning to think everything just returns back to Japan in this class. I’m also disappointed in the amount of holidays on the wiki page! We have so much in this town. The Gay Pride parade in New Paltz brings so many people from different parts of Ulster County. Someone needs to update that. Great job on this post!
I looked on the sister city’s page and that city has three different sister cities around the world. I feel like it would make sense if we were a big city… but New Paltz is so tiny! It doesn’t make sense. I guess it “looks good” or something like that. I also think it would be interesting to think about language within New Paltz. I recently learned that New Paltz has a large French-speaking population (although I’ve never actually come across anyone speaking French). It would be interesting to see a breakdown of languages spoken in our area since language is such a significant part of culture.
My hometown (Omaha, NE) has a Japanese “sister city” as well–Shizuoka (don’t ask me how I remember that!). When I was in junior high I recall my social studies teacher showing us pictures she took when she went to one of their schools on some kind of exchange program. I remember thinking, “why does she get to go to Japan”?! I don’t know anything about the history of sister cities, but I’m guessing this comes out of attempts in post-war America to build bridges between us and our former enemies(?) It would be an interesting topic to research.