Introduction
This paper is about a Windshield Survey conducted while driving through Hialeah City. The intention was to observe the community and describe its every aspect. The areas of study include the geographical description, economy, transportation, health resources, welfare services, citizen services, and protecting services to evaluate the community. The Windshield survey gives a snapshot of the community. The City of Hialeah mainly comprises of the Hispanic speaking community.
People from other races and tribes also reside in the city. It is a developed city with most of its citizens being immigrants from other nations. The Cuban population is the majority in the city. It has a well-structured infrastructure comprising of a good network of roads. Most of its buildings are old. But there are a few new buildings and constant renovation for the upgrading of the old structures. It has some of the best recreational facilities in the state of Florida. Its climate enables the settlement to feel at ease and continue with business investments.
The City of Hialeah is among the greatest cities in America. Its location is in Dade County, Florida. It has a population slightly above a quarter million. The population density is among the highest per square mile in the United States of America. It is a city with over 90% of Spanish speaking people. The city’s plan and supply of social amenities are well structured. The majority of the citizens are an average class with few being major investors in the city. The public transport is the primary means of transportation. The paper will discuss the City of Hialeah and its population.
Geographical description
Hialeah is a name that originated from the two words in the Muskogee. ‘Haiyakpo’ means prairie and ‘hili’ means beautiful. The combination of the two terms produced the city’s name. Its location is in the large meadow which lies between the Everglades and Biscayne beach. In 1921, two men – a pioneer aviator and a cattleman- developed the town (Hialeah, 2016). They also came up with the well known Hialeah Park Race Track. In 1925, the population was 1,500.
Hialeah is a city in Dade County, Florida, United States. As of the 2014 census, Hialeah had a population estimate of 235,563. I can mention that the town of Hialeah is the 5th largest city in Florida, and it is the tenth-largest city in the United States (Hialeah, 2016). Hialeah is to the west of Miami. The city of Hialeah has the highest percentage of Cuban and Cuban American residents of any city in the United States. It is approximately 71% Cuban population.
Due to this, Hialeah is one of the largest Spanish-speaking communities in the United States. Hialeah has a total area of 19.7 square miles. It is surrounding the cities of Opa-Locka, Miami Spring, Miami Lakes, and Medley.
Hialeah has an unusual weather pattern. It has annual high temperatures of about 85°F and an annual low temperature of about 70°F. The average temperature is approximately 76°F. The annual rainfall is about 71 inches. The city does not experience snowfalls.
The city of Hialeah has important commercial centers. Among these commercial hubs, I found major stores such as Target, Kohl’s, Walmart, Lowe’s, The Home Depot, Publix, Navarro, and Sedano. The Westland Mall located on 49 Street has many stores. Three of the most familiar stores are Macy’s, Sears, and J. C. Penney. Consumers can enjoy shopping but also dine at Los Ranchos Steakhouse, McDonald’s, and Chili’s, among other eateries.
The mall has seats along the main hall that allow especially older people to rest while other members of the family continue shopping. They have set up convenient stores for all shoppers (Hialeah, 2016). On 2290 West 8th Avenue, is located Telemundo. As we know, Telemundo is the second-largest Spanish-language TV network in the United States.
The city of Hialeah is within Florida’s 27th Congressional District. It has a representative in the legislative house. Its delegate in the House of Representatives is Republican, Cuban-American, Ileana Ros-Lehtinen. The current mayor of Hialeah city is Carlos Hernández (Hialeah, 2016).
Most of the buildings and houses are well painted and clean. They have different times of construction. I could easily identify their closeness to each other. Each house had an air conditioning unit (City of Hialeah, 2016). Some houses had big backyards, and others had small back yards. Most of the fronts of the houses had vehicles. There were the condominium and building complexes with well-inscribed names of the buildings. The houses had important signposts with information offering the premises for rental services.
Outside of the buildings, I observed some people walking around the town. Most of them were elderly people. It shows that the city occupants were mainly the people who had advanced in age. The type of houses and building complexes indicated that the residents were mostly in the lower and median class. They all maintained their homes and property in such a way that they looked neat and appropriate for occupation (City of Hialeah, 2016).
I could not find any signs of decay. I found the streets, parking lots, and shopping centers with no trash on them. During my round, I saw houses and buildings well painted. There were no graffiti signs. The presence of trash cans indicated that city management had an organized system of keeping the city clean. Many of the people were city dwellers. They resided and worked within the city. They had businesses within the city. Only a few people came to the city from the neighboring towns. It is a city of immigrants from various nationalities (City of Hialeah, 2016). But Cubans are the majority according to the national data. There are a few rural citizens who mainly deal with farming. They plant crops and practice animal husbandry. They belong to the suburban areas.
Health Resources
The city of Hialeah has many health resources. They include hospitals, private offices, Urgent care centers, medical centers, and dentist offices. Palmetto Hospital, Palm Spring Hospital, and Hialeah Hospital are among the best hospitals in the city (City of Hialeah, 2016). The distribution of these facilities in the city is fantastic. They are at strategic points of the city. The citizens have the opportunity to select any one of them based on the distance.
Urgent care centers and Leon Medical Center are other health resources for the Hialeah community. Leon Medical Center has many buses offering service transportation to its clients. I observed some big pharmacy chains, such as CVS, Walgreens, and Navarro, which are available to the community. I also found small pharmacies around the city. These pharmacies not only give to the community the same service that the big ones do but also bring great experience in customer service.
The advantage that the large pharmacies had over the small ones is that they offer value additions to their services. There are enough parking lots, consultancy services, and even large stocks of medicine. In the east of the city, I found a psychiatry facility named Alpha and Omega. Alpha and Omega provides Occupational Therapy, Residential Care, and Intermediate Care to patients with mental health problems.
Regarding education, I found many daycare facilities, elementary schools, high schools, middle schools, private schools, and the College of Business and Technology. For the convenience of the young and adults interested in continuing their studies, there is a university, Florida National University. All of these have adequately labeled information to advise the community about traffic velocity required during school hours. There are some elementary schools.
An example is the Palm Lakes Elementary, which has a nursing facility to provide care for its students. Miami-Dade College Hialeah Campus is in 1780 W 48th Street. It is a community college. Among the private colleges and universities include the College of Business and Technology, and Florida National University (Hialeah Schools, 2016). It has a big parking lot. The city of Hialeah has six libraries. The libraries have enough space for adults and children who want to study.
They offer excellent services because of the availability of different types of literature for varied interests. They also have big parking lots to accommodate the huge number of people who have an interest in reading. One of them, John F. Kennedy, has two floors. It boasts of the convenient elevators. There are only two public high schools (Hialeah Schools, 2016).
Hialeah city has a lot of service centers. I found banks, optics, family doctors, travel agencies, auto-insurance offices, barbershops, and beauty salons. There were also dry cleaners, gas stations, pet shops, jewelry, libraries, pharmacies, doctors’ offices, urgent care centers, daycare facilities, elementary schools, and nursing homes. The number of these service centers was in hundreds. They also had excellent customer care services and enough space for parking and relaxing.
The city is also blessed to have varied religious structures and denominations. Some of the churches include the Witness of Jehovah, Catholic, and Bautista churches. The services they provide are mainly in Spanish and English. But the majority of them are in the Spanish language. Outside every church is a signpost that indicates the time of service and the activities of each day.
The city of Hialeah has risen to become a major commercial center in Miami-Dade County. There are a lot of stores in the community. Fast-food chains, such as Burger King, Mac Donald’s, Taco Bell, Wendy, Checkers, and Subway, Sissy pizza, and Rey pizza abound in the city. Markets that bring to the community fresh vegetables, fruits, and meats are Public, Sedano, and Walmart (City of Hialeah, 2016). The Westland Mall is on 49 Street and has many stores, and eating restaurants.
It also has fast-food restaurants with a lot of tables and chairs for waiting for customers. Other shops, such as Target, K-mart, Burlington, The Home Depot, and Lowes are available to the community. I was impressed with the cleanness of all of these places. The town also has mom and pop stores that originated from the city. They provide stiff competition to national brands. National brands have had to change their business strategy to meet the local demands in the city.
The means of transportation in Hialeah city are public buses, private cars, taxis, and a few bicycles. The city has a vast network of bus transport for the public. I observed that some bus stations have benches, but others do not have any of those seats. Therefore, I think that this is an inconvenience especially for older people using this type of transportation (City of Hialeah, 2016). The city’s transport management has done well to provide traffic signs and lights. They help to promote safe driving through the community. I could see some gas stations in good condition. There was also a lot of traffic in the streets which made me think that Hialeah is a busy city (City of Hialeah, 2016).
For the last ten years, the population change has been 4%. There are about 112,000 males and 124,000 females. The figures translate to 47.5% men and 52.5% women. The median resident age is approximately 43 years. The foreign-born residents are about 74%. There are varying levels of education among the population ranging from high school to graduate and professional level. Only about 10% are unemployed. The people take approximately a mean of 22 minutes to get to their work stations. About 16% of families live below the poverty line (Hialeah, 2016). Only 18% of the entire population lives below the poverty threshold. The city has four retirement schemes.
The Employee Retirement System as a defined benefit pension plan, the Differed Contribution, Defined Contribution Pension, and the Elected Officials Retirement Trust. All of them serve the interest of the employees in the city with varied needs and goals (Hialeah, 2016).
The estimated median household income is about $26,000, while the estimated per capita income is about $14,000. The estimated condo value is $150,000. The mean prices for all housing units are approximately $150,000. Mobile homes cost $66,000, while townhouses go for $117,000. The median gross rent is about $980 (City of Hialeah, 2016).
Citizen Safety and Protective Services
The city has some locations for police and fire departments. I saw three of them during my windshield survey. As Hialeah is a large city, this is a good step in the management and maintenance of law and order. All of them had good structures in clean environments.
Among the shelters for victims of abuse, I found one located on 150 E 1 Avenue. The shelter is named Women’s Shelter of Hope. The shelter assists victims of domestic violence. The place was clean and well kept. During my rounds, I did not manage to see anyone outside the building.
Services provided in the City
The city has many daycare facilities and long-term care centers that provide adequate transportation. I found some parks and playgrounds in the city. One of the parks in Hialeah include the Amelia Earth Park. It is a safe place for children and their parents (Hialeah, 2016). Older people always had fun in the park together with their families. People can make barbecue, walk, and also play around. The park has big spaces for all activities. The kids can ride bicycles, ponies, and go fishing.
They can also take a look at other animals such as pigs, squirrels, ducks, and goats. They can also take a ride in the aquatic bicycle while they watch fishes in the lake. All the areas of the park were clean. It has well-labeled garbage disposal cans.
There was a little cafeteria that offers soft drinks, ice creams. There were also machines for water and other drinks. Next to the cafeteria, I found two bathrooms and a drinking fountain. The lake was clean except small areas with some candy bags (City of Hialeah, 2016). Amelia Earth Park is an excellent option for the community of Hialeah city. During my visit, I discovered that the people in the park were dressed appropriately to spend the whole day in the park. There was also a dominant race I observed on that day. It was a Hispanic race, specifically for Cubans. I also saw some gyms available to the community being flexible about the hours for workouts.
I found a recreational park with enough space for playing baseball, football, basketball, and tennis located over 12 Ave 60 St with adequate lighting. It has invitation signposts to families who want to maintain a healthy environment. It has a big parking lot. Another park was on 2250 W 60 Street. Its name was Bucky Dent Park. It had a playground for kids. The park has benches for parents to watch their children during games. It also has a pool with lifejackets available and some lifesavers. It has a basketball area. Located on 1800 W 68 Street is the University Health Care Center. It is the senior center that offers seniors transportation to and from the medical facility. It has various offices and diagnostic facilities (Hialeah, 2016).
Community Welfare Services beyond City/State
Hialeah has emergency food programs provided by Food Pantries and Soup Kitchens. They provide food to the individuals that need it, mostly the homeless families. Every year the city takes the necessary measures to be ready for the hurricane season to provide shelters, food, and clothes to individuals that need help (City of Hialeah, 2016). The city has community welfare services for those in need in case of natural disasters or emergencies.
Conclusions
During the windshield survey in Hialeah city, I found a clean environment and a lot of resources for the community. Among them, I found important recreational areas for the whole family, such as Amelia Earth Park. The community of Hialeah has many stores, service centers, and other amenities that give the community the opportunity of employment. I suggest that there should be the construction of more benches in bus stations. In my opinion, Hialeah is a healthy community that enjoys the opportunities that its environment has.
References
Hialeah Schools. (2016). Web.
Hialeah. (2016). Web.
City of Hialeah. (2016). Web.