User:Normaa22/sandbox

History:

The Rose Parade in Pasadena, California happens every year on New Year’s Day. The first parade known as the “Battle of Flowers” was initiated by naturalist and teacher of zoology, Charles Frederick Holder, who was the first to introduce the idea of the Tournament of Roses to the Valley Hunt Club. The Valley Hunt Club was made up of wealthy Pasadena residents who migrated from the Eastern and Midwestern states. After moving to California, they became fascinated with the flowers that bloomed during winter. While the elite community began the Rose Parade as a celebration for the winter flowers, some involved in the real estate business used the parade as a way to attract land buyers in Pasadena.

Initially, the Rose Parade had challenges with the number of people who attended the event. Since many residents attended church services, in 1893, members of the club came up with a solution, known as “Never on a Sunday” that continues today. Two years later, the Tournament of Roses Parade became one of the biggest events in the city and The Valley Hunt Club was not able to handle the event on their own. Members of the community created the Tournament of Roses Association to take over the annual parade.

Almost ten years since the first Rose Parade, the tournament became a larger festival that gained popularity in many other cities, and eventually cross-country. New technologies were available and made communication and travel easier. In 1898, the first newspaper coverage of the Rose Parade traveled to the East Coast. After the first production of automobiles, the Tournament of Roses Association allowed motor vehicles to be used as floats, as long as they were in the back of parade where they would not disturb and scare the horses. As technology evolved, the tournament increased in popularity. In 1939, the Tournament of Roses Parade was aired locally on television station W6XAO Los Angeles. In 1951, the parade was shown nationwide on US television.

Just like technology, the community also began to evolve. In 1916, the association allowed for Edith Wright, the first woman to pilot a float. For almost a century, members of the Tournament of Roses Association were white males. In 1923, tournament officials decided to invite minorities and women into the committee. Although given full voting rights, new members of the association could not serve the same amount of years, serving two years instead of 9. Members in City Hall wanted to be an example of change within communities. They envisioned a more diverse and inclusive community. Advocates, volunteers and community leaders supported the decision.

Tournament of Roses Association carefully chooses participants who will represent their local community. Many floral structures that are accepted each year from corporations, and voluntary associations. During the early parades, floats were carried by horses and carriages that transported local dignitaries and resident elites. Modern-day Process:

Over time, contestants began to incorporate unique and original designs. Today, floats are more elaborate and bigger in size.2 Although participants continue the tradition of decorating floats exclusively with flowers, the use of new technology such as computerized animation, and robots has also been incorporated into design. Some materials also allowed in floats include, steel, plastic, wire mesh and plasticized spray coverings. One of the primary and most enforced rule of the float is that structure must be completely covered in flowers, petals and other vegetable materials such as “seeds, leaves and stems” Some flowers used in floats include roses, orchids, chrysanthemums and different types of blossoms.

Float design and construction is a multi-million, year-long process that begins once the parade is over. It provides jobs to many people and demands for big amounts of flowers each year. Much of the labor however is done by students, volunteers, and members of organizations. An average of 80,000 hours of labor is put into the process of float sand about 900 volunteers each year. In 2013, the Tournament of Roses Association reported the roses events had an economic impact of approximately $300 million.

There are three different types of entries in the Rose Parade; floats, marching bands and equestrian units. There are two divisions of floats: large commercial, which include big companies such as American Honda Motor Company, and Kaiser Permanente; non-commercial entries include smaller companies or organizations such as Cal Poly Universities and participating cities. Large commercial floats attract more attention due to the amount of time and money invested. Small, non-commercial floats are usually self-built and often obtain money through donations and voluntary labor. Together, there are approximately 50 floats participating annually.

Since the early parades in history, the 5.5-mile-long annual festival has had a major impact within our community. Themes are chosen carefully, and avoid controversial topics such as politics, religion, sex. Most theme names are broad and simple for people to understand the theme without an explanation. Themes can be interpreted in many ways and designers can get creative and express meaningful, important messages within their floats. The collaboration between the volunteers provides a community bonding that is rewarding to the people involved in the design, construction and decoration process of the floats.

Article Evaluation: Parklet


 * 1) Is everything in the article relevant to the article topic? Is there anything that distracted you?
 * 2) * Yes, every thing I read was relevant to parklets. Nothing distracted me from the page.


 * 1) Is the article neutral? Are there any claims, or frames, that appear heavily biased toward a particular position?
 * 2) * Yes, the article is neutral. There are no claims that appear heavily biased toward any particular position.
 * 3) Are there viewpoints that are overrepresented, or underrepresented?
 * 4) * No, the article was direct and described what a parklet is.
 * 5) Check a few citations. Do the links work? Does the source support the claims in the article?
 * 6) * Yes, the citations are public websites. The links work, and direct you to the website which the information was found. The information provided on the websites support the article.
 * 7) Is each fact referenced with an appropriate, reliable reference? Where does the information come from? Are these neutral sources? If biased, is that bias noted?
 * 8) * The references are appropriate and reliable. Most information comes from areas from where parklets were adopted and have done multiple studies.
 * 9) Is any information out of date? Is anything missing that could be added?
 * 10) * Most of the information is relevant and sources were from years 2011-2015
 * 11) Check out the Talk page of the article. What kinds of conversations, if any, are going on behind the scenes about how to represent this topic?
 * 12) * One of the comments in the Talk page mentioned why the origin of the name 'parklet' is not mentioned.
 * 13) * Another conversation in the Talk page comes from San Francisco Design Team and want to make corrections on the definition of a Parklet. They also mentioned they want to continue to edit and add to the page.
 * 14) How is the article rated? Is it a part of any WikiProjects?
 * 15) * The article has good information but still needs more information. There is a note on the primary page which states that if you know more information then you can improve it by editing.
 * 16) How does the way Wikipedia discusses this topic differ from the way we've talked about it in class?
 * 17) * The article describes parklets the same way we have discussed in class before. However, the article lacks cons. It describes what benefits it can bring to a location but not the challenges it can bring.