When I think about what Anapolis looks like, one word always jumps to mind....disparity. While the "average Joe" here definitely lives far below the average standard of living in the States, the dramatic contrast between the way the lower class....
live here never ceases to amaze me. Of course you can find disparity anywhere, including in the States. In Chicago there's the "Magnificant Mile" and the project neighborhoods...but that's just it....most of the time they are whole neighborhoods that are well off or living in poverity. While in Anapolis there are neighborhoods where (almost excuslively) poor people live, however looking around the city as a whole, what stands out to me here is that it's all a big mix. Disparity is SO obvious...a beautiful house and a shack are often next to one another, or right around the block.
Lower class people usually earn minimum wage. What is minimum wage, you might wonder? $465 Reias a month....that's less than $240 (US dollars)....A MONTH! When you divide that by 4, 40 hour work weeks in the month, that's about $1.50 (US) an hour. And it's not just teens that earn minimum wage, this includes adults who do hard, laborous jobs or even the teachers who work at the PETI children's program where I volunteer. (The street below is around the corner from where we live.)
But their neighhoors live more than comfortably.
Many, many families live month to month, and it is not uncommon to see young children selling popsicles or dish towels for a little extra money for the family.
(Here is that above house closer up)
And below is a beautiful manion that I couldn't even get a whole shot of since it takes up almost the whole block!
Did you see it? Did you feel the disparity? That's what it feels like to drive through Anapolis.
live here never ceases to amaze me. Of course you can find disparity anywhere, including in the States. In Chicago there's the "Magnificant Mile" and the project neighborhoods...but that's just it....most of the time they are whole neighborhoods that are well off or living in poverity. While in Anapolis there are neighborhoods where (almost excuslively) poor people live, however looking around the city as a whole, what stands out to me here is that it's all a big mix. Disparity is SO obvious...a beautiful house and a shack are often next to one another, or right around the block.That's the case here with these two houses....
They are next-door neighbors, but the owners probably live in very different worlds.
Lower class people usually earn minimum wage. What is minimum wage, you might wonder? $465 Reias a month....that's less than $240 (US dollars)....A MONTH! When you divide that by 4, 40 hour work weeks in the month, that's about $1.50 (US) an hour. And it's not just teens that earn minimum wage, this includes adults who do hard, laborous jobs or even the teachers who work at the PETI children's program where I volunteer. (The street below is around the corner from where we live.)
But their neighhoors live more than comfortably.
Many, many families live month to month, and it is not uncommon to see young children selling popsicles or dish towels for a little extra money for the family.
(Here is that above house closer up)
And below is a beautiful manion that I couldn't even get a whole shot of since it takes up almost the whole block!
Did you see it? Did you feel the disparity? That's what it feels like to drive through Anapolis.
No comments:
Post a Comment