Observation Of Salinas

I had a great time learning and exploring the community of North Salinas. By visiting the community, interviewing locals who live and work in the community, and developing my own research I had the opportunity to learn interesting facts about the community that I never learned before. Even though I do not live in Salinas I feel like I am part of the community because I have many friends and family who live there. My family has the habit of running errands to Salinas. My family does most of the grocery shopping in groceries stores located in Salinas such as Foodmaxx or Walmart. Even though we have a small grocery store in Castroville my family prefers to go shopping in Salinas because those stores usually have the necessary personal items we need at a much cheaper price. For example, in Castroville, a small package of bread costs around four dollars and twenty- nine cents. In a grocery store in Salinas, the same package of bread costs 3
dollars and ninety-five cents. It might not be that much of a difference but in our generation saving a dollar really makes a difference. I think that my family as well as other families who live in the community of Castroville feel more comfortable shopping, putting gas on their cars and going to the bank in Salinas because it is easier to find more than more bank, gasoline stations, and grocery stores in different locations instead of just one specific. Completing errands and visiting Salinas almost every day makes me feel much closer to the community however although I think I know the community of North Salinas pretty well learning and researching made me realize that there was still more to learn.
Before visiting the community I assumed that we were going to encounter traffic on our way however when driving to Salinas that was definitely not the case.
All of the members of my group decided to carpool and on our way to Salinas the traffic was clear and we were able to get from CSUMB to Salinas in twenty-five minutes. Another assumption that I had before exploring the community was the population. Since Salinas is mostly known for agriculture and farm working I assumed that the majority of the population living in North Salinas was mostly composed of Hispanics however when we were exploring Main Street I observed different groups of people other than Hispanics walking on the street and buying their groceries. When I saw the farmer’s market which is located in front of the fast food restaurants I observed how many Asians were buying their fresh and organic fruits. I assumed they like to buy their groceries early in the morning because there is not a lot of people shopping at that time however I am not sure if this is
true.
I know the area of Salinas pretty good but every time when people mention the city of Salinas they often see it as a violent city full of gang groups. Since it is known as the city with higher crimes and murder I thought we were going to hear sirens and see an ambulance since that is typical to hear in the community. However during our time exploring and going places the streets were really calm and quiet which made me and my group feel safe.