Today, we went to the Lakeshore district of Oakland. Lakeshore is to the north of Lake Merritt, near Piedmont (a small island city within Oakland, that is a lot wealthier than Oakland). Lakeshore is different than East Oakland, but it still felt like Oakland to us.
Up crew went to the Lake Shore area of Oakland. While we were there we got something to eat. Some of us went to Noah’s Bagels and purchased a bacon and cheddar bagel. It. Was. Super. Special. Awesome. It was so filling with the omelet thing on top with the bacon and cheddar (drool). However, after that, we went to get a green tea milkshake at the Yogurt Deluxe. That was not so great. We don’t know if it was the ice cream or the fresh milk that they used, but it tasted kind of sour. From now on, we're only getting my green tea shakes at Lord’s in Castro Valley.At Lake Merritt we interviewed five people about food. We saw some fast food restaurants there like a Subway, and a Chinese food place; they had a lot of Cafes, etc. They also had some healthy food stores where they would sell organic foods and pills to lose weight. They had a few restaurants that seemed like they had pretty healthy foods, like salads. The people we interviewed said that Lake Merritt is healthier then it used to be.
By Cinthia, Juven, Claudia and Jackie P.
Yesterday, we went to Oakland Lakeshore district. There was a Burrito shop, Starbucks, Chinese food, Subway, Hamburgers, Walgreen’s, Gas station and a KFC. Something that we saw was that none of this stores had graffiti on them. It was amazing because here in East Oakland you see lot of graffiti on the stores.
We also went to the Oakland Rose Garden. It’s a big place and the only thing that you see around the garden is a lot of roses. They have different kind of roses. We've never seen a place so beautiful! We really liked it, and think that it’s a good place to go to and be with your family.
Lakeshore's landscape was flat and the architecture was pretty nice. There was also some graffiti art on some of the sidewalks and streetsigns, but not on the buildings. There were a lot of small restaurants and cafés. There was a taqueria that looked like the ones we see in East Oakland. There was trash on the sidewalks. People thought of the trash as a big problem, but that didn't stop the two people we saw littering.
By Delilah, Alejandro, Lesley and Vanessa R.
Our experience in Lake Merritt was o.k. It was really hard to get interviews there, even though there were a lot of people. They were mostly busy. The people we got to interview said that they were mostly middle class.
Food and things in the shops were affordable there compared to other places we've been so far, but the prices in Lakeshore are higher than East Oakland. When we were in Foot-Locker, there were some shoes that were $99. Some of their food places are expensiv: there was this one burger place where their burgers $7 to $8. But even though some of the stuff was a little more expensive that we'd like, it was good quality.
A lot of people we asked to interview said no. We went inside this office to see if they could answer some questions, but they said they were too busy and gave us their manager's email address. In some ways, this trip was a waste of time because we waited for people who ended up saying "no" to an interview, and only three people said yes to an interview.
By Amairani, Olivia and Ernesto
Our definition of diversity is when there are differences ethnic backgrounds, culture, and traditions, and to have a little of each race not just one race in that community.
To different people we interviewed they had a different definition of diversity, but there is no right and wrong answer. People at Lakeshore do think there is a lot of diversity because they see different kinds of people, food, and cars. We asked people if they saw diversity there they said they do and they liked it because it was different then other places. They say things are simpler there not like in other places. While we were at Lake Shore interviewing, we noticed that there were different types of ethnicities. This was really different than what we saw in the previous field trips we had go to, because in the other trips there weren’t that many types of diversity.
By Jasmin, Yesenia and Jessica
In the Lakeshore community, a lot of people run around the lake to workout and stay healthy. We asked some of them about safety, and people said they thought it was safer in day light because people are surrounded by other people walking, and not running alone. Most people said they walk at noon and not at night because most burglary and crime happens at night. People said that there have been robberies in stores at night, and purse snatchings are common, too. Most people we interviewed said that the police don’t seem to try their best to respond for this actions. We interviewed this one lady who ran the Blockbuster Video store and she said that she has been robbed a couple of times. One time, the police were called and didn't arrive until two hours later.
The majority of the shopkeepers that we interviewed said that they didn't feel safe at night because of crimes that have happened before. They said that a lot of the stores, including their own, have been robbed or held up. When we asked them if they think the police are doing their job, they would say no. A guy at an autoshop told us that he didn't think the police are doing their job at all. One time, his friend was getting robbed, and somebody saw from across the street. That person ran to a policeman on the corner, and the policeman told the man to call 911 to have someone dispatched. The poiceman didn't go himself. People feel unsafe walking around their community, but they just have to deal with it, and watch their back when their walking aaround this community.
By Vanessa, Maria, Beatriz and Miguel
There were a variety of healthy food choices around Lakeshore. Some foods were healthy, others weren't. Some of the more healthy choices were Subway, Vegetarian pizza, and places where they sold different types of soups. There was also a Trader Joe's market, which is a grocery store that sells organic and locally-sorced foods. At the same time, there were also a lot of unhealthy choices; there were a lot of fast food restaurants, like Chinese take-outs and greasy-looking burritos. Most people around were eating different kinds of food.
On our way to Lakeshore we saw a lot of people exercising, running around Lake Merritt. We interviewed women and we asked her what people do to keep healthy. She said, "they go and run in the morning, and try to eat healthy". We passed by the restaurants and saw people eating healthy for example salads, vegetables and other things. We were amazed because if you come to Oakland you don't see as many people eating healthy.
While walking around Lakeshore asking people about health, we figured out that there weren’t any free Clinics in that area. This lady we interviewed said it would be nice if there were more free clinics around this area. Free clinics would be a good idea for people that have a low income and can't afford health insurance. If these clinics aren’t free, they should at least be at a low cost. This way, people can go for checkups to make sure they're healthy, and find health problems before they get bad. Overall, we think Lakeshore had both healthy and unhealthy people. There were a lot of people there for work, not living there, so this might not show what the neighborhood people might be like.
