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WINDSHIELD SURVEY Survey Boundaries The City of Trenton has several neighborhoods and sub­neighborhoods. These neighborhoods are clustered into the four cardinal directions (North, South, East, West). For this partic ...

WINDSHIELD SURVEY Survey Boundaries The City of Trenton has several neighborhoods and sub­neighborhoods. These neighborhoods are clustered into the four cardinal directions (North, South, East, West). For this particular survey, the neighborhoods assessed included Greenwood and Hamilton, Wilbur, Villa Park and Chambersburg. They are all considered to be a part of East Trenton, except for Chambersburg, which is considered to be in South Trenton. Despite this discrepancy, these are the four neighborhoods surrounding St. Francis Medical Center. The area surveyed was outlined by East State Street in the north perimeter, South Clinton Avenue on the west perimeter, Cummings Avenue on the south perimeter, and South Olden Avenue on the east perimeter. Furthermore, Hamilton Avenue and Chambers Street were also assessed; These are the two main streets that intersect the medical center. The neighborhoods directly surrounding the medical center were old, established neighborhoods. However, on the outskirts of the surveyed area there were new subdivisions, which will be discussed more in the housing section. The predominant age of the area was middle aged adults in casual street wear, who were mainly of African­American and Hispanic backgrounds. There were also children and teenagers walking home from school from several different directions. The other group that was highly represented in this area was the homeless. Some of them stood in the middle of the main streets asking for money, while others congregated in Columbus Park. Older adults were not seen as much in this area, but if they were, they mostly hung out on porches and outdoor seating arrangements.3 Running Head: WINDSHIELD SURVEY Housing The houses in this area were mainly older rowhomes. The majority of the row homes were converted to multifamily apartment buildings. There were also developments, such as Rush Crossing, that were noticeably newer and run by the Trenton Housing Authority (THA). The THA is committed to building and maintaining affordable, safe and efficient neighborhoods for the residents in the City of Trenton. These newer developments appeared to have singlefamily homes. Another type of housing in this area were rundown, vacant homes that were supposedly abandoned. However, many of the homeless use these rundown homes as refuge. Seeing a homeless person sitting on the stairs of a boarded home is a common scene throughout the city. The boarded houses and the sides of occupied houses are covered with art, which brings some life to these rundown neighborhoods. Very few of these homes have gardens or lawns. The houses that do have lawns tend to have decaying plastic furniture covering their small patch of green area. Trash is littered on the streets, sidewalks are cracked and many of the boarded homes are decaying. The sewers along the streets are rusted and covered in trash and the smoker population, as well as the heavy traffic in the area, undoubtedly leads to air and water pollution. Overall, the housing and maintenance in this area indicates that the urban city dwellers in this particular community are of a lower socioeconomic status. Parks and Recreational Areas4 Running Head: WINDSHIELD SURVEY Fortunately, the parks in this area have remained intact. Many are new, but the park that was explored has been around for quite some time; Columbus Park, located in Chambersburg, is down the street from the medical center. This park was once populated by Italians, but is now mainly Hispanic. Columbus Park used to be the home of The Festival of Lights, a well­known Italian festival that has since been moved to Mercer County Park in West Windsor, NJ. Now, the park hosts Latino­American Festivals and is the meeting point for many Hispanic parades held throughout the year. The baseball field in the park, named the Catherine Ford Field, is home to the Chambers little league. Unfortunately, many of the younger and middle­aged residents also use the park as an area to drink or do drugs. Passing the park, I can see news stands on the corners that distribute papers, such as the Trentonian, as well as Hispanic newspapers, like El Hispano or Latinos Unidos