Andrea Mygrants Discussion Board Post for NUR 340- Week 4, submitted 9/18/13 Week 4 Windshield survey The

city that I chose to survey is approximately 30 minutes north of where I live in Lansing MI. I chose St. Johns MI to survey because it is a small city that I thought would fit well with the scope of this discussion post. 1. AREA: The city is suburban and mostly residential. Most of the houses seem to be well maintained and in good condition. It is a small city of 3.9 square miles that is bordered by rural farmland. 2. DEMOGRAPHICS: The demographics appear to be evenly split between male and female. There appear to be many families with children of all ages. There appears to be mostly Caucasian people with only a few African Americans and Latinos seen. 3. AMENITIES AND OPEN SPACES: There are a couple of parks with one very large park that has a swimming pool, baseball diamonds, tennis courts, and a wooded area with picnic tables. There are sidewalks throughout the city, and people appeared to use them to take walks with their families and dogs. There are no movie theaters or sports arenas. 4. TRANSPORTATION: Public: There does not appear to be any public transportation available. There are no buses or cabs. Private: All of the transportation appears to be private vehicles. There appear to be mostly two vehicles per house. The vehicles appear to be newer model vehicles that are in good condition.

5. SAFETY: This appears to be a safe city with active neighborhoods. There is mild pedestrian traffic with many families and children playing outside in their yards. The homes do not appear to be fortified and there is not a heavy presence of police. 6. COMMERCIAL BUILDINGS AND AREAS: There are two areas of retail. One is the downtown area with small shops, salons, and restaurants. The other retail area is on a more heavily trafficked area that has fast food, a large grocery store, several gas stations, a strip mall, and a large department

store. 7. GOVERNMENT OFFICES: This city is the county seat of government, so there is a large court building prominent in the downtown area. There is also a small combined police station and fire station. 8. HEALTH SERVICES: There is a small community hospital that has an adjoined building with a pharmacy and doctor's offices. There are also two other pharmacy/convenience stores, and pharmacies available in the grocery store and the department store. There are also several other small buildings with doctor's offices in them. 9. SCHOOLS: There are two public elementary schools and one large building that houses both the middle school and high school. There do not appear to be any private schools, colleges, technical schools, or universities. 10. RESIDENTIAL AREAS: The city has mostly large single-family homes that appear to be older homes, but well maintained. There are a couple of apartment complexes that also appear well maintained. 11. RELIGION: There are a few Christian churches, with the Catholic Church being the largest. There do no appear to be any other religions with worship buildings. 12. COMMUNICATION: There did not appear to be any graffiti or political signs. The grocery store did have some flyers posted in the entryway. 13. ENVIRONMENT: The environment appeared to be clean. There was no smog. There were a lot of trees and plant life. 14. OTHER OBSERVATIONS PERTINENT TO YOUR COMMUNITY The city of St. Johns is a small city that is bounded on all sides by rural townships. I also used information from city data.com to verify the size and boundaries of this city.

From my windshield survey I would generalize that this is a small middle class city that appears to be in good shape. From a community health prospective, I would want to know more information about what resources are available to people in this town that may have a lack of transportation to make it from the main area of houses to where they are able to buy groceries, since the grocery store and the department/grocery store are both on a busy and un-walk able street. I would also wonder about what community health resources are available, as I did not see a prominent community health building.