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.