Sentinel City windshield survey

Sentinel City Windshield Survey

A community refers to a group of people living in the same region, where they live in harmony, share common beliefs, interests, environment, and interact with each other to share the limited resources (Coale & Hoover, 2015). This paper represents the windshield survey that is a personal collection of observations made while driving a car, walking or using public means of transport in Sentinel City. The primary purpose of this essay is to write a virtual experience of Sentinel City. During a tour, the principal focus was to evaluate the core of the community environment through windshield survey method, which identifies the population dynamics and identifies the community’s communication and economic status based on employment rate, travel time to work, and occupational groups. The windshield assessment will also identify analyze the factors that promote people’s wellbeing.

General Overview of Sentinel City Community

The windshield survey on Sentinel City community begins from Ashley Road in Acer Tech Center neighborhood. The region is estimated to have a population of 16839 individuals, where the culture is diverse. The White and Hispanic / Latino represent (70.2%) and (13.7 %) respectively of the entire population (Chandra et al., 2016). Based on the living condition, people working in this region are believed to have household income of $166,300 on average (Chandra et al., 2016). The general appearance, sanitation, and clean environment signify a well -maintained environment. Along Ashley Road, the sentinel community has well equipped healthcare facilities including urgent care and dentist centers. In addition, the area has various catering services, serving both local and Italian meals. The transport network is also commendable and Men and women walk/ride with ease.

Communication

The community has various observable communication means including advertisement billboards located in the populated areas. The Casper Park District is estimated to have the largest population hence major billboards are concentrated in the region, counting for 18.33% of all advertisement billboards (Chandra et al., 2016). In addition, a number of billboards on commercial houses promote the use of e-cigarette.  The Nightingale Square is occupied by older people and has two billboards advocating for proper eating habits and calling for active living to control the severity of chronic diseases in the region.

The community bulletin boards are available to inform the society pertaining the current happenings in various facets including posting of public messages, for instance, to advertise new products wanted or for sale, information on product advancement, and announcing events. The Bulletin boards in Leominster are important because they offer a genuine service to the community in that they form an open forum to post and elaborate issues and problems of diverse nature facing the society.

The sentinel community has no identifiable evidence of a predominant political party affiliation. The recent protests at City Hall by residents imply dissatisfaction of people by the current ruling party because of abuse of power and tax revolting. To gain popularity, there are various billboards at Casper Park to sensitize the residents to engage in fair and responsible voting.

There are various formal and informal means of communication. The formal means involve the application of official means to convey messages to the residents. This is evident due to the accessibility and availability of various tools including email, magazines, books, signs, and letters. On the other hand, informal communications are symbolized in various joints occupied by people from different ethnic and religious backgrounds. These areas include bus stops, job sites, parking lots, sidewalks and soup kitchen lines.

Displays or posters that tell about life in the community are observable in the abandoned houses. The posters show a warning regarding the consequences of trespassing and interfering with private property.  In addition, a post at Casper Park shows that the region is estimated to have a higher working population, where the culture is diverse and predominately occupied by the White and Hispanic/ Latino (Lloyd-Jones & Rakodi, 2014).

TV and Radio stations are the primary sources of mass communication. The availability of satellites in the major buildings signifies the availability of radio and TV stations. In addition, all hotels in the region are equipped with either a TV set or radio. The tools are meant to entertain and inform the community regarding the current situation of the region and the world at large. They also create awareness and acts as an advertising tool for medium and large organizations.

Economics

The availability of economic activities in the region promotes high level of per capita income, economic growth, improved GDP, and low level of unemployment. The community has been predominantly occupied by retail services. For instance, the retail income resulted to 34% of the GDP in 2007 while income from industrial activities contributed to 17% (Gumus & Regan, 2015). The industrial activities are few because the region relies on imported goods from the neighborhood. The retailing businesses include clothing businesses, retail shops, supermarkets, restaurants, fuel stations, chemists, grocery stores, and cafes.

During the visit, the signs of low unemployment rates in community emanates from the fact that most people were active and work within the community. The presence of high number of retail and industrial investments is an indicator of people’s willingness to participate in economic activities. In addition, convenience stores and fresh fruit shops located at rail and bus terminals promote self-employments and easy creation of jobs. People work within the community due to easy accessibility of jobs in the stores and industrial manufacturing companies.

Conclusion

The virtual experience in Sentinel City helped to identify the current economic, social, and communication status of the community. Billboards and notice boards are located in the City to create awareness and promote sales of the industrial and retail goods. Sentinel City has no signs of high rate of unemployment whereas the use of formal and informal communication fosters understanding to people from different religious and ethnic groups. This helps in promoting healthy working environment hence improving per capita income.