Social Stations

Earlier this week in class, Mr. Bolos showed us a montage of video clips. These include the stops on the westbound Metra around Chicago suburbs. The video lasted about 20 minutes and painted a nice picture of the communities that were involved.

This video and the activities that surrounded made a great impression on me in a number of ways. Most importantly, it showed the direct correlation of number of Metra stops in a particular town to affluence. Therefore, the number of stops a town has, the higher the average income is. Initially, I thought that this trend would be reversed, since I believed that lower-income workers used the Metra train more than wealthier ones because the latter could afford to own automobiles. Despite this, it is the exact opposite; this was extremely eye-opening to me. Another point that the video made is in the aesthetics and landscaping of the communities that the train stopped at. A good indicator of wealth in a community is if it is well-manicured, green spaces, nice infrastructure (fountains, roads), and new construction. All of these are factors in seeing the relative wealth in a community.