The Social Life on a City Street - Essay Example

17 April The Social Life on a Street The lights and sounds are all around. The people are pounding the pavement to go to different places throughout the downtown area of Providence. Some days it is more hustle and bustle than others but portions of the heart of the city are along the streets of Weybosset Street. Starting at the northern section of Broad Street right at Empire Street’s intersection and continuing to the northeast to join Westminster Street, crossing the river at the end of College Street is Weybosset Street in Providence, Rhode Island. Right in the midst of Weybosset Street is the Providence Performing Arts Center. Surrounded by large stone buildings with numerous windows is the bright marquee welcoming people to the Providence Performing Arts Center. The streets are lined with black posts and tediously placed concrete tiling. A series of stars surround the entrance as people of all ages, races, and ethnicities await the upcoming performance, standing outside the theater, waiting to get in for the evening performance. Providence Performing Arts Center is surrounded by Page Street, Pine Street and Richmond Street. Johnson and Wales is right across Page Street with a bit of a bustle of students trying to hit class at the right starting time, making the area a bit busier. Parking meters mark these streets surrounding the theater as an additional option for the people who opt for the parking garage. With the nearby courthouse only a few blocks over, at times this vicinity can get busier with people either heading to class or running errands just a couple of blocks over at the courthouse. Maybe they are in a hurry to go to Grace Church just another block or so in the other direction. This area welcomes those in the downtown area to the Provide Performing Arts Center square and while during the day, it is a bit quiet, it is during the mid to late evening that the area on Weybosset Street comes alive. During the day, people might get their fix across the street from the Performing Arts Center at the Pizza Queen or the Yogurt Queen for a little bit of lunch and dessert. Even the 30-plus year old Sakis Pizzeria is just down the street and one would think by looking simply just at this part of town that people in the area only eat pizza. The people may just stay and await the next showing while at these venues. In between the Pizza Queen and the Yogurt Queen is the Vapor Lounge. Across the street to the opposite side is a vacant building ready for a new business or renovation. Next to that is the large three-story brick parking garage. Though the garage is still full even during the midday, it is a solemn location with few people walking the streets. Within a few hours though it begins to pick up with people ready to see a new performance. The traffic lights are a bit fancier and exquisite with their black exterior and their column-like structure. The streets are narrow making way for less traffic and more people. In the middle of Weybosset Street separating the lanes going the opposite directions and separating the side of Weybosset with the Performing Arts Center and the Pizza Queen and Yogurt Queen venues is a small little decorative tower right in the median surrounded by landscaping that is full in bloom. Throughout the city street, banners announce upcoming events and boast advertisements. Along the street lights are a slew of gorgeous hanging baskets to increase the aesthetic appeal of the Providence Performing Arts Center park plaza area. Posts for bikers to chain their bikes line the streets along with the short black posts, letting people know that this is an area for bikers and pedestrians. The city bus travels by with passengers at the bus stop just a block down on Wesybosset Street. It is barely packed with few people. Some of those with a destination in mind while others are simply just riding it for the sake of having something to do and seeing what is going on, giving themselves a cheap view of the downtown of Providence. Perhaps some are even travelers. The few cars which line the street are parked headlight to bumper awaiting their owners to come drive them out of this particular downtown area. The show shuttle is packed transferring people to the Providence Performing Arts Center for those who do not want to deal with the downtown traffic. The traffic of people picks up significantly when show times are approaching though it appears that some days might be more serene when there are no events on the calendar of the theater. However, it would be more crowded on the days where there might be an afternoon matinee along with an evening performance. The scenery right by the theater has its ups and downs of when people are more visible and obviously on their way to a performance or to a nearby eatery. There are people of all types in this vicinity. Some people in the midday are students. Many of them needed a place to park and the parking garage was a good spot giving a clear and easy stroll right to campus. As the hours get later and the event is on the calendar at the Providence Performing Arts Center, the crowd gets a bit more sophisticated though it depends on what is showing. Most of the crowd is older or middle-aged while there are some youthful people and some are dressed up while others are more casually dressed. Some of the youth are dressed up and ready for these performances. They might be a bit outside of their stereotype as set by society because they have an interest in culture and the performing arts. Some might believe that they are outside of their social norm because they might think that the youth should not look as sophisticated and be interested in the arts. Some older people in the setting might wonder why they are not off doing something else that younger people might typically be doing such as going out or hanging out with their friends. They could be at night clubs, bars or bowling allies. Why are they at a performing arts center? On the other hand, youth might be looking at children wondering why someone brought their child to the performing arts area. The young adults might be hoping that the children are not attending the performance. What if the children would be annoying or obnoxious during the performance? Young adults might also wonder why the elderly are out in the area. Shouldn’t they be at home knitting or in bed? Can they even hear or see a performance well enough to enjoy it? There are people of different races. Due to racial discrepancies in society, some may think that a certain demographic of people have no place in the performing arts district. They might have a different concept of what a certain race should be doing rather than taking in what could be considered as a more sophisticated means of culture. Why are they not out doing drugs? Why are they not out hanging in gangs? Why are they spending money on educating themselves on the arts? Are they even educated enough to understand performing arts or what value is it to them? This might just be the ideas of what is going on in the various demographics of people who are waiting to go see a performance. However, out on the street, it might be completely different. A group outside the Vapor Lounge stands. They are a younger group and some of them are dressed in black clothing. One has hair with different colors but within the same group is a girl dressed in khakis and a dress shirt with long blond hair. She looks as if she does not even fit into that certain group. A group of middle aged people keep glancing at the group of young adults. One older woman in particular keeps eyeing the boy with the different colors of hair. When her group walks from the Yogurt Queen, past the Vapor Lounge and toward the parking garage, she deliberately walks as far away from the boy with the different shades of hair as possible and it is obvious that she looked him up and down. There was one Hispanic man who keeps walking back and forth down the street. Out of his change of pace, he then darts quickly into the parking garage. No one was with him but his fast pacing was quite obvious to observe. Nothing seemed to happen but it seemed like an odd behavior. There were not many people around at that time but it seemed peculiar to me. When going into the Pizza Queen, a young couple are walking in. They were going in during the early part of the midday before a crowd gathered so they were able to park close by to the venue. She waited in the car and it seemed like he was by himself and then he came around and opened the door for her. He walked beside her for a second and then deliberately changed sides so that he was on the outside of the paved walkway closest to traffic as a means of showing chivalry. However, when they walked in to the Pizza Queen, he opened the door first and walked in first. It seems to be a violation of the typical chivalry a man might offer to a young lady he is perhaps dating. Another group of people walk down the street from the parking garage and are headed toward campus. They are yelling really loudly and one is running backwards. A car is coming out of the parking garage and they are just standing there. The car honks and they continue to just stand there and wait talking loudly. Finally the person just swerves around them and one of the young people in the group who was heading out of the parking garage only to halt to where the car could not make a right and head out of the area yelled an obscenity to the driver of the car even though it was their group who was in the driver’s way. I watched as an elderly couple came from the shuttle down to the Yogurt Queen and they were holding hands. A group of young girls who were walking from the opposite direction stopped a second to watch them. They were pointing and you could hear them “Ohh” and “Ahh” and talk about how cute it is. The couple just gave them a wave and went on in as if they were on their own date. It is hard to tell if there were any breaches of these expectations. In society, as a youth it is hard to see the stereotypes that some people have established based on their prior belief system. As I try to be open minded, I do not always look at whether or not there is a breach. I try not to judge people so some of these scenarios are hard for me to pick out unless I see someone being obvious about their behavior. I do see some people around me who appear to be judging others and while they do not say anything necessarily, you can tell by the looks on their faces or the wandering gazes that seem to linger a little too long and then they continue to look when they think no one can see them. Overall, there did not seem to be too many obvious violations. When it was crowded in the area, it was really difficult to watch all of the interactions. Some people were more closed off in their groups when they were standing and waiting. Others were just patient and struck up friendly conversations. It was just an interesting perception to watch the people interact or choose not to interact perhaps based on how large their group was, their age or even their race. Read More