Wednesday, May 21, 2008

Walnut Creek: Economics

By Valeria, Ernesto, and Jackie B.

On our trip to Walnut Creek we saw the kinds of cars people drive. We saw one lady who was driving a Bentley. She got out of her car and got into another Bentley. They were both hers! Then, she went to a Mercedes Benz. She had three cars. We filmed both of the cars she was driving. Two of our interviewees told us what kind of cars they drive. One had a Porsche, while the other had a hybrid. We also got footage of a Maserati. The people at Walnut Creek were all dressed really nice. They had ties and were dressed really professional. They seemed like they were business people who made a lot of money.

When you compare the sidewalks in Oakland to the sidewalks in Walnut Creek, there's a huge difference. In Walnut Creek, you won’t find any random cracks or potholes. The sidewalks are a lot more taken care of. You can see trees and even water fountains and benches. The sidewalks are also a lot wider than the ones in Oakland. Their sidewalks even have room to have little tables for the restaurants. This goes to show how much time and money is put into the care of the city.


In Walnut Creek, there are a lot of stores that are expensive. When we got there, the first thing we noticed were the fancy restaurants. Since they look really fancy they must be
expensive. There was a store where they sell baseball stuff autographed by the players. Also, when one of our classmates went to buy lunch, she told us that there was this one store where they wanted to sell her a slice of pizza for ten dollars. In McDonalds, the prices were the same as they are here in Oakland. Walnut Creek also had an Apple store, a Tiffany's, and a Coach store.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Wow! Two Bentleys and a Mercedes... that's unusual, even for Walnut Creek. I guess it says a lot that they have a Tiffany's and a Coach store. The people there must have more money to spend. I'm looking forward to reading what you find in other neighborhoods.

Timothy, Berkeley

Anonymous said...

In your next post, can you talk a little bit more about how the stores in an area tell you something about the people who live there? For example, stores like Coach are successful in areas where people can spend more money. So, what kinds of stores would you expect to see in neighborhoods aren't so wealthy? In my neighborhood, there are a lot of cash-checking places and bail-bonds houses... I don't think Tiffany's would set up shop here! :)

Erin, Oakland

Anonymous said...

Hi, my name is Jackie, and first I would like to say "Thank you" for reading our post and responding to it. Secondly, to Timothy, I would like to say that we're making inferences on what we see. We don't really know for a fact that the woman owned the 2 Bentleys and the Mercedes. We just saw her get into each of the cars.
And to Erin: Well, considering the fact that I live in an otherwise poor neighboorhood, you see a lot of liquor stores and small chain markets up and down the street. And you also see a lot of big chain stores that have low prices like Walgreens, and Walmart. There are also a lot cash-checking and bail-bonds companies in my area as well(but that's probably because we're both in Oakland).
Thanks again, and hopefully we'll be posting something new soon. (*^-^*)