Pictures that i took of Perth Amboy

These are just pictures I took of the Waterfront, houses near the, the Propriety House, and The Police Station.

Thinking of Perth Amboy- Edited

Thinking of Perth Amboy- Edited

The City of Perth Amboy

Facts that interest me:

·    The city of Perth Amboy has a population of 48,343 with 36,933 of the people being Hispanic or Latino. They make up 76.4% of the city.

·         Ethnicity- Next to the Hispanic community, the second most populated race is White. There are about 28, 182 living in Perth Amboy, which make up 58.3% of the city. After that are Blacks, or African Americans that make up 4, 211 of the people and 8.7% of the population. Asians are the least with about 507 people and make up 1.0%. Those with two or more races make up 29.8% being that the estimate amount of people is 14, 427.

·    When it comes to language spoken in households, an estimate of 11,366 people speaks English only. About 15,000 people living in Perth Amboy speak English fluently along with their native language Spanish. 70.1% of the people speak only Spanish.

·        There are more females living in Perth Amboy than males. Males make up 48.7% whiles females make up 51.3%. The majority of the population is people between the ages of 18 and over, which is about 35,163 people. There are about 3,869 females living without spouses that have children under the age of 18. The single women make up 25.3% of the people in Perth Amboy while the women with children under 18 make up 14.3%.

·         When it comes to education, there are 55.7% of people who are 25 and older that have earned a High School diploma. However, only 9.7% of people about the age 25 or older received a bachelor’s degree in College. This goes to show how many people go to college after school. Reasons for this could be anywhere from, financial problems, High School dropouts, and more.

·         Economics- The good part about this is that more than half of the people, 59.6%, are employed within the city. This means that 21,853 have a steady income, while 1,635 are unemployed. The average age that females begin working in this community is 16.  The majority of the people in Perth Amboy have occupations with sales and office occupations. Only 20.2% make the average income which is between $50,000- $74,999.

Two other facts that interest me:

·    Perth Amboy was originally supposed to be the capital of New Jersey until they decided not to make it anymore.

·    William Franklin, Benjamin Franklin’s son lived in the proprietary house which is still standing as a historic place.

Gangs

Violence in the Community

May 17, 2011

          On Monday a Ñetas gang member from Perth Amboy pleaded guilty to the kidnapping of an 18-year-old man. He allegedly beat him and shortly after took him to a motel in Sayreville, where the man was held at gunpoint, the state Attorney General’s Office announced. The member of the gang, Oswaldo Santillan Jr., 20, pleaded guilty to first-degree kidnapping before state Superior Court Judge Mathias E. Rodriguez in a statement that was said by state Attorney General Paula Dow and Criminal Justice Director Stephen Taylor. Santillan’s sentence will most likely begin serving possible sentence of 30 years in October. It is said in the No Release Act that he needs to serve 85% of the sentence without parole.

            The crime took place in December 2009, and Santillan was indicted on April 20^th, along with two other gang members. The third gang member is currently facing pending charges. The names of the other two members in the Netas gang are 21 year olds Hector Montoya-Garay and David Santana. These two men are also being faced with other charges, such as third degree criminal restraint, conspiracy, and possession of weapons, assault, and more.

            According to the New Jersey Gang Survey viewer, there are 8 known gangs in the city of Perth Amboy. They are the Bloods, Crips, Latin Kings, MS-13, Eighteenth Street Gang, Neta, Dominicans Don’t Play, and two others. The survey says that this is worse than 97% of all New Jersey municipalities. The survey also says that between seven to nine months before the survey, gang activity was 63% worse than the cities that do report gang activity. This is because most of the activity goes unseen. The most recruiting gang is Bloods, and the most problematic is Dominican’s Don’t Play.

http://www.mycentraljersey.com/article/20110517/NJNEWS/305170039/Perth-Amboy-gang-member-admits-kidnapping?odyssey=nav%7Chead

http://www.nj.com/news/index.ssf/2011/05/alledged_perth_amboy_gang_memb.html

Social Issue- Education

Social Issue in Perth Amboy: Education

Charter Schools within Central Jersey

            A charter school for middle-school students in Linden, Elizabeth, and Roselle has recently received state approval. Also, a virtual school will serve high school dropouts from Perth Amboy, Camden, Neptune and Paterson. The charter school and virtual school’s main focus is on character, leadership and culture. For those who don’t know, charter schools are schools that receive public money, and sometimes private donations, but do not have to have the same rules and regulations as other schools. They usually specialize in certain criteria’s like, English, Mathematics, or any other subjects in school that students tend to need more focus on. For the most part, they are usually open to all students.

              The Dr. Therman Evans Charter School for Excellence in Union County and the New Jersey Virtual School for students in grades 10-12 are just two of the twenty three charter schools to be approved. The New Jersey Virtual School for 10th-12th grade students, that will also be ran in Perth Amboy is expected to begin its operations in 2012. However; it could be earlier. The virtual program will be taught on online classes. The classes will follow New Jersey content core standards. When the schools begin, students will meet twice at week at local community colleges with high school guidance counselors and a resource team.

            The Dr. Therman Evans Charter School for Excellence will be offering a program that focuses on character, leadership and culture for students in middle school students in grades sixth through eighth. The school is named for Evans, a physician, professor and pastor of Morning Star Community Christian Church in Linden since 1999. “Increasing the opportunity and choice available to families is crucial to reforming the education system and building a foundation for excellence” says Chris Cerf, acting state education commissioner.

New Jersey Virtual School will join another charter in Perth Amboy, the Academy for Urban Leadership Charter High School. The academy opened in the fall of 2010. It is the former site of the St. Michael Byzantine Rite Catholic School. Overall, these charter schools are great for the towns of Linden, Roselle, and Perth Amboy. They provide benefits for these students to excel in fields that they need help with in regular public schools. It is a great opportunity and experience for these children, especially those who feel neglected by their communities.

Crime Statistics

Statistics of Crime in Perth Amboy

Perth Amboy is a city in Middlesex County New Jersey with a population of about 48, 742. Throughout the 90’s, population has increased about thirteen percent. But since 2005, the population has grown to about only one percent. The property crime levels in Perth Amboy tend to be the same as New Jersey’s average level. Also, violent crime levels appear to be about the same as the New Jersey’s average level.

Violent Crime Reports

·        Violent crime in Perth Amboy was about 335,000, about 0.80 times the National Average, since 2009.

o   Murder – 1; 0.27 times the National Average

o   Forcible rape- 3; 0.17 times the National Average

o   Robbery- 81; 0.84 times the National Average

o   Aggravated assault- 79; 0.79 time the National Average

Property Crime Reports

·         Property Crime in Perth Amboy was about 2,162,000, about 0.65 times the National Average, since 2009

o   Burglary- 207; 0.68 times the National Average

o   Larceny, theft- 736; 0.60 times the National Average

o   Motor Vehicle Theft- 114; 0.21 times the National Average

NY Daily News Article

April 13, 2011

The Style Network seeks to appeal to Hispanic women with new shows “Single With 7,” “The Riveras”

            This news article discusses how the Style Network is in the process of developing two shows that are appealing to the Hispanic audience. The network is already known for having a multicultural attraction to it, but feels that targeting a new audience would be a better approach for the network. The President Salaam Coleman Smith says that his target audience is Latinas between the ages of 18 to 49. This idea came about when Style went about doing research to figure out what would be the next improvement for the network. They came to find out that Style was one of the top TV choices that targeted Hispanic moms. Smith says “It told us the Style brand - which is fundamentally a brand of optimism, an aspirational brand and a brand focused on life improvement - truly resonated with them.”

            The names of the two news shows in progress from the Style network are “Single With 7” and “The Riveras.” “Single With 7” is a show centers around a 29 year old woman named Yesi Ortiz. She is from Los Angeles California and she is a radio DJ. Ortiz raises her nieces and nephews as her own children after her sister ends up in jail. “The Riveras” is about three sisters, Jorday, Daziann and Tiffany, who run a dance studio in Queens. Not only are they working to make these shows a hit, but they are also willing to incorporate more Hispanic fashion as well as beauty experts in future shows.

            The Hispanic audience is constantly growing more and more everyday; however, they are still underserved. “For example, 33.4% of the Los Angeles TV market is Hispanic. In New York, 17% of the TV homes are Hispanic, according to Nielsen Co. estimates for the 2010-2011 season.” The main priority of Style Network is to embrace woman and also their beauty. Smith says that they have already been reaching out the Hispanic community but feel they need a more understanding connection. The show as of right now do not have a launch date, but hopefully it will be soon.

Issues in the community

Update of Downtown

Madison Ave. - downtown has a lot of Spanish restaurants in Perth Amboy.

The mall is beyond small. Reminds me of this flee market place my mom and aunt go to in the city

State St. - has three restaurants “Mi Tierra” “El Pollon” and “El Taco Loco”

State Fayette gardens- a little townhouse where Latinos live.

E &H communications- this is where people go to make international calls to their home countries.

A new restaurant fancy restaurant/grocery store opened called “Terraza.”

Update on Waterfront

As discussed in a previous blog, mostly white people live by the waterfront where the homes are nicer. They have big houses, along with really nice condominiums. I have some pictures that I can upload into my blog of the scenery.

As I was in Perth Amboy a few weeks ago, I asked a few of the Saint Michael’s church members about some issues within the Latin community of this city. Here is a summary of their responses.

Schools

When I asked about the education of the Hispanic children, I was told that the schools are becoming too overpopulated with Hispanic students. However, the city discussed building a new school for some time now and has yet to even build it. They feel that in the future some of the children will not be able to enroll in school because of the overpopulation. This will increase taxes in the city for them, especially since the taxes are already high.

Taxes

One of the main issues in Perth Amboy involves taxes. Taxes are high all the time and also rent payments for apartments. If you want to sell your house and put it on the market, the cost for the house will be low. They feel like with prices going up for everything, they cannot pay for much, including the bills for their own homes.

Jobs

As for jobs, there are none available. Perth Amboy put agencies around the city in order for people, mainly Latinos, to find jobs. The problem is when people go to these agencies; they don’t ever have any jobs available. Factories around the city pay these agencies to hire workers to work for their factories, but the agencies pay the workers less than what they are supposed to earn.

Churches

While I drove around Perth Amboy, I saw churches on pretty much every corner. The churches are very diverse. Some of the churches I seen were first bapist churches, second Baptist churches, Hispanic churches, and African churches. The Saint Michael’s church where I got information from some of the members is a Catholic Church. It celebrates different masses are different times for different ethnicities. When I was at the church, the mass for the Hispanics was in service. The Catholic Churches are having their own financial problems also. The city said they are going to combine the seven catholic churches because they receive no money.

The Perth Amboy Community Partnership for Youth (PACPY)

The Perth Amboy Community Partnership for Youth

            The Perth Amboy Community Partnership for the Youth, also known as PACPY, is an intervention for the youth in the Latin community. It was created in 1986 by a university medical school called the UMDNJ- Robert Wood Johnson Medical School, Department of Environmental and community Medicine. Members of this organization included people from Latino parents and youth to school personnel, health service providers, representatives from church and other organizations, and more. The intervention is grounded in the principles of community empowerment and participatory education. The idea if this program is designed to help these children to stay away from drugs and alcohol. It also gives the people who created this intervention a better advantage at understanding what it is in society that influences the young children to actively use these drugs and other substances.

            In 1986, Latinos made up 41% of Perth Amboy’s population and 84% attended schools. However, they still had little power to voice their opinions in their own city when it came to decision making in the community of for school boards. At this time, there was only one Latino representative elected when the partnership first began. Residents of Perth Amboy, along with parents and professionals met to discuss the issues faced within the Latino community between the adults and the youth. They soon formed their own program called “La Cooperativa.”

            “La Cooperativa” had three main goals in their program. The first one was for the partnership to provide support for community action to modify the total environment and strengthen resources for healthy living. The second goal was for the partnership works to reinforce and expand social networks and social supports within the community. The final goal of this program was that the PACPY would work to develop the material resources available to the community. They had two particular ways to obtain resources: the first way was through outsiders, such as volunteers, and the second by working with already existing community services in order to be more accessible. So in the end, The Department of Recreation, The Department of Labor, and other departments that lie within the city, have become more active in making efforts to expand services for Latinos.

My fieldwork in Perth Amboy

On Thursday afternoon, my friend and I took the train down to Perth Amboy to pretty much walked around for a bit to get to know some parts of the city. I invited her along because she is from Perth Amboy so she guided me around so I wouldn’t get lost. First we arrived at the train station which is very small and has two tracks, north and south. The train station drops you off right by the downtown area of the city. The downtown area of Perth Amboy consists of multiple shopping centers, restaurants, barbers, and hair salons. It is very similar to Broad St. in Elizabeth; however, it is much cleaner. There is also a mall downtown called Amboy Mall. It is not a big mall, like Newport or Jersey Gardens, but it does have a few clothing stores in it, kind of like the Hudson Mall on 440 in Jersey City. Leaving downtown, there are a few Spanish food restaurants called Montezuma and Mi Tierra, to name a few that are in the same direction going towards my friend’s house. She lives only about ten minutes from there. While walking, I noticed there are a lot of two family houses and apartments more than one family houses. I asked her if there is a division between class and income in families living in the city. She told me that the majority is pretty much the same which is middle class, although I wouldn’t doubt there are lower class families. My friend lives next to her family church which is called St. Mary’s. There is a gym located right next to it that belongs to the church where children usually come together and play sports such as basketball and more. After passing her home, we walked three more blocks down towards the waterfront. The waterfront area has more of the expensive housing. Near the waterfront there is an old fire and police department building that was just remodeled. Around the waterfront, there are signs that go along and tell you factual information about the waterfront, such as the history and events which I thought was pretty interesting. Around the waterfront she also pointed out to me The Proprietary House, an Art Gallery, and a popular seafood restaurant called “The Barge.” For those who don’t know, William Franklin, Benjamin Franklin’s son lived in the Proprietary House which is still considered a historical place. There’s a club called the “Yacht Club” which didn’t seem that interesting, but they also have a boat at the front where people can go crabbing and fishing. The ice cream shop that everybody goes to by the front is only open in the summer time. As we leave the waterfront, we stop at the park that’s nearby known as the Waterfront Park. In the park there is a staircase thing that has a stage on the top where bands usually perform during the spring and summertime. After the park, we pretty much were done looking around for the day and headed back to school.

Black? White? Asian? More Young Americans Choose All of the Above

The beginning of the article briefly talks about how the game of “What are you?” was played at the University of Maryland with about fifty students. The students from this discussion were formerly part of the Multiracial and Biracial Student Association and they talked about how they are all proud to be a mixture of races. Today in our generation, there are a lot of people come from mixed backgrounds and this is affecting how people feel when it comes to filling out forms because they feel obligated to choose “other.” According to data, Multiracial Americans are the most rapidly growing demographic groups. “I think it’s really important to acknowledge who you are and everything that makes you that,” said Ms. Wood, the 19-year-old vice president of the group. She feels like the reason people refuse to acknowledge, or make known mixed race individuals is because of how society makes of it. There are those few groups of people who do feel like multiracial population will help benefit the United States because this can help diminish the amount prejudice people that are in our society. On the other hand, there are those people who will always be against this because in their opinion, the more people want to be accepted for their mixed backgrounds, the more they feel that society will be divided. Sociologists also say that interracial people are basically cover ups for the differences that are seen around us. For example, “among interracial couples, white-Asian pairings tend to be better educated and have higher incomes, according to Reynolds Farley, a professor emeritus at the University of Michigan.” There are fewer black and white mixed people than any other races because of economic and societal differences. The face of America is rapidly changing with this diversity of people coming together to have interracial marriages. This goes to show that the United States has come a long way in making the society a better place because decades ago, this would not be occurring.

Thinking of Perth Amboy- Edited

The City of Perth Amboy

Facts that interest me:

·    The city of Perth Amboy has a population of 48,343 with 36,933 of the people being Hispanic or Latino. They make up 76.4% of the city.
·         Ethnicity- Next to the Hispanic community, the second most populated race is White. There are about 28, 182 living in Perth Amboy, which make up 58.3% of the city. After that are Blacks, or African Americans that make up 4, 211 of the people and 8.7% of the population. Asians are the least with about 507 people and make up 1.0%. Those with two or more races make up 29.8% being that the estimate amount of people is 14, 427.
·    When it comes to language spoken in households, an estimate of 11,366 people speaks English only. About 15,000 people living in Perth Amboy speak English fluently along with their native language Spanish. 70.1% of the people speak only Spanish.
·        There are more females living in Perth Amboy than males. Males make up 48.7% whiles females make up 51.3%. The majority of the population is people between the ages of 18 and over, which is about 35,163 people. There are about 3,869 females living without spouses that have children under the age of 18. The single women make up 25.3% of the people in Perth Amboy while the women with children under 18 make up 14.3%.
·         When it comes to education, there are 55.7% of people who are 25 and older that have earned a High School diploma. However, only 9.7% of people about the age 25 or older received a bachelor’s degree in College. This goes to show how many people go to college after school. Reasons for this could be anywhere from, financial problems, High School dropouts, and more.
·         Economics- The good part about this is that more than half of the people, 59.6%, are employed within the city. This means that 21,853 have a steady income, while 1,635 are unemployed. The average age that females begin working in this community is 16.  The majority of the people in Perth Amboy have occupations with sales and office occupations. Only 20.2% make the average income which is between $50,000- $74,999.Two other facts that interest me:

·    Perth Amboy was originally supposed to be the capital of New Jersey until they decided not to make it anymore.

·    William Franklin, Benjamin Franklin’s son lived in the proprietary house which is still standing as a historic place.