Health and Accessibilty around the Bay Area

By Jackie B, Valeria, Yesenia, Miguel

In different places that we went to visit, we noticed that they have different ways of getting from one place to another. In Walnut Creek most people would walk from one place to another. Some people in Walnut Creek would also drive to places. In Chinatown it was mostly the same, you would see people walking and driving. In Alameda people would ride their bikes, walk and take the bus to places. In Walnut Creek the bus was free and in the other parts that we went to visit we had to pay to get from one place to another or we would have to walk around.

When comparing the amount of free clinics of the Castro District in San Francisco and the Lakeshore Area in Oakland, there was a big difference. In the Castro, a lot of people told us that there was a very large amount of free clinics in that area. However, not everybody was educated about them. In Lakeshore, not a single person said that there were free clinics in the area, but most said they wish there were.

Another thing we noticed about the different areas was that the Castro had stop lights, but there wasn’t any way that a blind person would know when to cross because it emanated no sound! In the Lakeshore area (and in Fruitvale as well), that was not the case. Actually, we were surprised when no one else noticed this because we almost missed our chance to cross the street in the Castro because we weren't used to not hearing the sound.

There are places where there is healthier restaurants, and others where it's just unhealthy. The reason for why there are communities with an unhealthy lifestyle is the food that's being sold and the activities that people involve themselves in. For example Rockridge is a place in where you would see people out in the streets riding their bikes or walking out with their dogs, which is something that helps residents there be healthy. There were also many restaurants and grocery stores around, some sold organic food, salads and healthy food, although there was also unhealthy food. That is probably why they have a healthier life. Compared to Fruitvale it is the complete opposite, while walking around this community you would se many fast food places such as McDonalds, Jack in the Box, Pizza places and other kind of unhealthy food. You would hardly see people buying salads or drinking water, instead you would see people eating other things, probably is because fast food is much cheaper than organic food or just in general healthy food. It seemed that people in this community are surrounded by all this unhealthy food that they have just got used to eating this food.

The difference between Old Oakland and Fruitvale's food is that in Old Oakland the food is healthier than the food in Fruitvale. Like in Old Oakland they have a farmer’s market every Friday. So if you want to get fresh fruit and healthy snacks and foods you should go there. And in Fruitvale, the food there is more like fast food joints. They have taco trucks, Chinese food, and Puerto Rican restaurants. And the food in old Oakland is healthier for you than the ones in Fruitvale.