Introduction to Ethnographic Research - The Ironbound and COVID (Newark, NJ)

The Ironbound is a majority immigrant neighbourhood in the New Jersey city of Newark. It's going through a traumatic Gentrification process. The city itself is quickly growing and starting to leave behind its past as one of the most dangerous in America, and its close proximity to NYC through 24/7 accessible and cheap transit is only making these changes more pronounced. On the one hand, the services and infrastructure is improving. On the other hand, is pushing immigrants and people with less means further and further away from New York into more and more marginalised communities, and depleting an already exhausted supply of affordable housing in the greater Tri-State area.

For this project, the class was divided into different categories of research,  I was placed into "Current Happenings", and chose a Free Covid Testing Facility placed in the heart of the neighbourhood. First, I'll show my presentation, and then I'll follow it with the full investigation: