The city of Paterson is filled with a dominant number of people from a Hispanic or Latino background. During my visit, I saw people of all ages on the streets walking around chattering with one another. I saw cheerful children getting off busses and running to their grandmothers so they could take them home. During this time of the day, I did not really see too many men on the streets; just older women. It seemed that because my visit was around the time that children get out of school there were more children than adults. The people in the area seem to be generally friendly towards one another. Children playing tag together as they rush off the bus. There seemed to be a sense of togetherness within the space. The streets were filled with people and shops for the people to enter. They consisted more or less of small corner stores, food restaurants, auto shops, bodegas, and I even found s mall playground in the mess. The shops and small restaurants that surround the area seem to be close together and owned by locals. Towns and cities have popular spots that people often recommend. For example, Banana King, located on 21st and Madison, is a popular Spanish restaurant that people have to try to get an authentic taste. Most of the people who live in the community do work there--when speaking of the store owners. Much like the stores on the streets the houses are very close together. The housing method seems to put the houses close together to give more people places to live. The people that live in these houses are usually three generation houses. By this I mean it’s usually Mom, Grandma, and daughter. Most of these houses had basements and attics with the grandparents living in a fully furnished basement. Some people have their families live with them to help with finances and other do it to be closer to family. With all the people living in one house, I found it interesting that all the houses were touching one another and only fences divided backyards. When crossing the streets there were always cross walks, and the crossing guards were always there to assist children in school zones. The streets are pretty narrow and bumpy in the neighborhoods but they are smooth and spacious downtown and on the major interstates. Though Paterson has a reputation of being rough and dangerous, there seemed to be a lot of people being friendly with one another in the neighborhoods. I also noticed that once night had fallen and the street lights came on, it was still kind of dark, this was because it seemed to lack street lights. It would to the city well to spend the extra money to get these installed because it will make certain places safer and seem safer. It’s hard to see when you are trying to maneuver into your street and its dark and you are afraid you could get robbed going into your house. There seems to be a misunderstanding with the way they set up the city, because all the available streetlights are downtown. This is backwards because even at night the streets are filled with lights because of all the shops and clubs. Because Paterson seems to be self made in a business sense, it seems to have a lot of independent owned places. For example, there seemed to be a lot of family owned cafes and small corner stores. They seemed to have people who were regulars, because they made great conversation with the owners or someone who knows exactly what they are going to purchase. The places that are popular but not noticeable the first or second time you roll through Paterson are the ones that have inexpensive pricing, but give you a lot of what you buy. I even saw a family owned auto shop. Even though Paterson is small it should have more big named companies to lure in people who aren’t in the loop. Paterson has things that have small names, but the people are comfotable with it.
When you are on the outside of Paterson looking in, you see a community in trouble and filled with unneeded violence. When you venture inside of the walls and look deep into the community you see a place where people are fond of where they live and take great pride in it. There seems to also be a huge gap in city finances when being compared to neighboring places like Montclair. Paterson appears to be a poor area, and there isn’t enough money being spent on sprucing it up. All the intuitions seem to be beaten down, like the schools and community centers. They were stricken with graffiti and mold. The churches that were in the area seem to get the largest amount of care. The whole atmosphere is different. For instance, there are only few cars that are expensive in these neighborhoods. But what is special about their cars, are depending on the age group, the cars are either old or they are cars in the 2000’s souped up with sound systems and blue headlights. For those people who do not want to drive they have a regular bus route that they can catch the bus with. There is also, an available train station. Within the community there also seems to be a place where people can post things and people actually read to see what is going on in the town, and since a lot of the people there speak other languages, mainly Spanish, they have them in different languages.
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