Civic Center 2

The first couple weeks, I primarily went to the Financial District and Civic Center areas on the weekend. It hit me quickly that the Financial District is quite boring during on the weekend. This week I went on Friday, and it made a huge difference. By 9 am, every Starbucks was packed with business men and women getting ready for their daily meetings. On Market Street, where the Financial District is primarily located, there are 12 stores that are breakfast places, five of those being Starbucks.

There is not much housing on the north side of the Financial District, but there are about 8,000 households to the south. According to the 2000 U.S. Census, there are almost 14,000 people who live in the area. The primary purpose of the area is for business, not for living. The demographics from this census show that 58 percent of the people who live there are Asian, followed by 37 percent who are white. I took these statistics with me when I went to the Financial district and found these numbers to be roughly true even though it is ten years later.

When I went back down to the Civic Center, I noticed it was a lot slower than it was on the weekends. I talked to some people on the street, and they told me it was common to be slow on the weekdays because of the slumping economy. Randall Jones, 45, said, "Ever since some of these stores closed up, it's like a graveyard during the week. The weekends are only busy because of tourists, but usually they see this area and leave for Union Square."

The pinnacle of the Civic Center is the City Hall area. Home to all of the big federal and state government buildings, the center is usually busy during the business day. However, once 5 pm hits, there is suddenly no one there unless there is a meeting of some sort.

Almost 29,000 people live in the Civic Center area, which is north and slightly to the east of city hall. According to the 2000 census, which is the most recent data available, white people made up 46 percent of the population, followed by Asians at 25 percent, and African Americans with 16 percent. On my most recent trip to the area, I feel these statistics are incorrect. Based on my observations, I feel African Americans have passed Asians, but that is based on what I saw on the streets. Some of those people could have been visitors from out of state or simply do not live in the area.