Rockridge: Economics

By Yesenia, Beatriz, Henry and Valeria

While interviewing in Rockridge, we noticed that the majority of people who lived there must be people with money. We interviewed several people who owned business, and they often said they owned two locations of stores, not just one. One of the ladies owned two shoe shops, and these shoes were really expensive: there were a pair of flip-flops for like thirty dollars. Even though the shoes in this store were expensive, there were a lot of people shopping there. Another lady we interviewed owned a baby store called "Milk" and she also had two locations. When we came into this store, we thought the clothes were cute. Then we looked around and saw a baby's tiny t-shirt for $33. That's way too much!

Rockridge is a community of different people's perspectives. Some people we interviewed said that owning a home is better than renting and others would say the opposite. One person out of five people said that renting is better that owning a home. The reason why she thought it was better to rent was because, in case of an emergency or if she needs the money for something, she won't be worried about paying so much money for the mortgage of a home, and she would have money to afford what she needs. Four out of five people said that it is better to own a home just because it's something you own -- it's yours.

In Rockridge we saw different types of cars. Some people would had beat-up old cars and others would have a BMW, Jaguar or Mercedes-Benz. The more wealthy people are the ones with the BMWs and the college students were the ones with the "as long as it takes me places" car, because they don't have that much money because they're students. When we were in Rockridge we saw one place where it was three Benz's in a row, and other cars like it around. You would never see that in the ghetto side of Oakland! There were also a lot of Prius's and fuel-efficient cars. We were impressed when people told us that they don't really spend a lot of money a day. One lady told us that she didn't spend more than $10 a day. Can you believe it, $10! We usually spend $20 a day. Maybe she makes her own lunch at home so she won't spend money. Another lady told us she spend around $20 a day. That seems more real.