In our last during week 7 we made a visit to Barrio Logan in San Diego. This neighborhood was full of culture and I loved it. As a Mexican American, I felt very familiar with the type of people I saw walking around the streets, and the restaurants and shops they had, for example the birreria they had at the corner of a street my group and I walked on. I felt comfortable in the area because I could identify with this culture and its people. I loved Chicano park, I loved the murals. I love my Mexican culture and seeing it displayed for everyone to see was very refreshing. My peers and I were there to walk around the neighborhood and observe how age friendly it was. At the end of our walk we met up at Chicano park and discussed our observations. Although Barrio Logan is a culturally rich neighborhood compared to many other parts of San Diego we found that for the most part it was not an age friendly place for seniors. There were not any benches for seniors to sit at, the only exception was bus stop benches. We found that the sidewalks were not as flat and not very safe for seniors to walk on alone, we also discussed how we had to rush when crossing the street and that it could take a senior a longer time to cross than us, meaning that they needed more time to cross the street making it unsafe. We also found that the only large area with grass was Chicano park and even though it is full of trees, tables, and benches, it is directly under the freeways. It was very hard to hear each other because of the noise from the freeway and this led us to the discussion on pollution and how Barrio Logan is one of the areas where people are most affected by toxic air emissions such as particulate matter. We also discussed how this neighborhood is generally hotter than La Jolla because of the lack of grass and because there is more cement in Barrio Logan making it retain more heat. All of these environmental factors have a great effect on one's health. This also made me think about my home in Los Angeles where my grandparents live and how it's structured very similarly to Barrio Logan. As a young adult I am able to navigate the city much more efficiently and faster than my grandparents so that may be the reason why I never noticed it. I began to compare what I saw in Barrio Logan and draw similarities between where my grandparents live in Hawthorne California. I discovered that the sidewalks are also very old and cracked, and that in general it is not a neighborhood that promotes interactions between people or that is friendly for seniors. My grandparents love their home because they are comfortable and they have lived in their house for many, many years but the city is definitely not the safest in terms of crime. This also made me think about how I have never asked my grandparents if they feel safe in their neighborhood or if they wish there were more resources for them. Luckily they have their children, grandchildren, and great-grandchildren to help them and take them to those medical resources they may need, but this is not always the case for many seniors. As Life Course Scholars in this class, I think it is important that we create awareness around this issue because many young people like myself never noticed little details like this before. Overall this was a great enriching experience, and I am excited to learn more through communities such as Barrio Logan
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Jimena Carolina SalazarJimena Salazar is a Public Health major with a concentration in Community Health Sciences. She is from Archives
March 2022
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