Scranton: Male Householder, No wife present. Income below poverty line.

Reading: Male householder, No wife present. Income below poverty line.

Scranton: Female Householder, no husband present. Income below poverty line.

Reading: Female householder, no husband present. Income below poverty line.

Citgo Gas Station at the corner of 3rd and Buttonwood

Intersection of 3rd and Buttonwood

United Refrigeration and GMI First Inc. on Buttonwood St.

Field notes:

On April 12, at approximately 3:00pm, my group and I conducted our field observation in the Historic Queen Anne District of Reading City. We parked at the corner of Buttonwood and N 3rd St. It was a cloudy, yet warm day and the streets were busy with elementary aged children starting to come home from school. We saw several people, comprising virtually every age group and ethnicity, walking by themselves or in groups on the side walks. Traffic was heavy around the intersection that we parked at and the gas station on the corner was continuously crowded with cars and people. The roads were not in great condition and probably have not been repaired or repaved in several years. Obvious trash and litter was not a problem in that area. There was grass at the edges of several of the properties we passed with the Jehovah’s Witness property looking like it was the most well maintained. There were also trees lined sporadically around the gas station as well as other areas in that part of the city. Other buildings at or around that intersection included a Spanish Jehovah’s Witness center, a refrigeration business which had that mural you can see in the pictures on the side of their building, a electrical installation service, a tire shop, beauty salon and a dollar store which was up the street from the gas station. As we went west down Buttonwood St. we came into a heavily populated residential area with numerous rows of townhouses. The townhouses were all older as we were in the Historic Queen Anne District, with many of the buildings being close to 100 years old. Making a left on 2nd St. we passed Lauers Park elementary school where the kids were being released for the day. Back at the Citgo Gas station on the corner of 3rd and Buttonwood there was an old, run down ice-cream truck that was parked on the corner of that gas station. Several vehicles stopped and the drivers, who were all young males, got out and looked into the truck, talking to whoever was inside I am assuming. This looked a little strange, but no one else seemed to care or notice.  Overall it seemed like a typical Thursday afternoon with everyone going about their days as usual.