Saturday, October 1, 2011

House Eval. in a Kalamazoo Neighborhood

Even though prof. McKinney told us that are target area was relatively safe, I felt quite uncomfortable walking around the neighborhood with a file, papers, and a pen in my pajamas. I received a few glare from the residents of that community. Some came out of their house to signify the proximity issue between me and their property. Obviously, it is understandable that documentation is not the best way to meet people, but I was there on a mission. The mission of founding "foreclosed" houses was quite problematic on my part because I could not clearly distinguish between houses with inhabitants and the ones without. I remembered prof. McKinney indicating that some people might be shocked by how nice/poor these houses are, and apparently I was one of those people. There were so many houses that was in a good condition that broke my perception of "foreclosed houses". Foreclosed doesn't necessarily mean houses that are in unlivable conditions. Yet, there were houses that seemed as if they had not been taken care of for some years. Anyways, don't go off campus in your pajamas.

4 comments:

  1. Wow, I am shocked at how some of your residents treated you, our neighborhood wasn't in the best condition either but at least the residents were friendly. We did not experience any hostility towards us, but this might have been due to us not stopping right in front of the homes while writing stuff down. I wonder how things might have changed if our residents were more hostile?

    ReplyDelete
  2. I went to the same neighborhood as Samuel and I felt uncomfortable as well. The five of us walking around the neighborhood stuck out like sore thumbs. Two residents (from different homes) approached me and asked me what we were doing there. Luckily, once I informed them we were only students from K college collecting info for our class did they become more friendly and welcoming.

    ReplyDelete
  3. I didn't experience any hostility in my group so this is a little bit of a shock to me that more than one person approached you. I also had the same perception of foreclosed houses, that they would be in terrible shape and falling apart and was surprised to see how good of shape some of them were in.

    ReplyDelete
  4. i also went with Samuel and Carly and got some very interesting looks from people when i walked by their houses looking around. there were a few houses that i thought were foreclosed but when i got close, i saw people inside that stared back at me. it was an interesting experience in a neighborhood that i normally would never go looking through

    ReplyDelete