Tuesday, June 3, 2008

Lakeshore: Aesthetics

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.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

What I really enjoy about the Lakeshore area is that you can walk around and see lots of different things - the lake, different shops and restuarants, a beautiful rose garden, and all other sorts of unique Oakland areas. There aren't too many walkable areas like that in East Oakland. Why do you think there is no graffiti? And why do you think it is so aesthetically pleasing?

Anonymous said...

Very interesting observations. You seem to pick up on the fact that there's less graffiti on buildings, but still graffiti elsewhere and a fair amount of littering. What is the reason for this? Are we more likely to litter or graffiti when it is or is not our "home"? Do you think that the graffiti and littering you saw is more from people that live/work in that area or more from visitors? How might this apply to our move to Calvin Simmons? It is a new, strange place for us. We might see graffiti there from others and a high amount of littering. How do we positively impact that culture? Lastly, how can we impact individuals to "pick up trash even if no one is looking"?

Dream-er said...

I really liked this that you said :"People thought of the trash as a big problem, but that didn't stop the two people we saw littering." I completely agree with your group on this one. A lot of people complain about how "bad" Oakland, but still people don't do anything to improve it, instead they go along with it. It's was good that you guys didn't see a lot of graffiti. I didn't go on this field trip, but it kind of sounds like its pretty much what we see here in East Oakland, subtracting the tagging.

-Danni