Crowd Surge

Crowd Surge

By: Angel Chavez

Growing up in the biggest little city in the world, Miami, it often feels like I’m living in a bubble cut off from the outside. To live in one of the most beautiful places in the world and start to slowly watch it lose its color begged a question in me, why is there so much trash everywhere?

I shared with my girlfriend Sara, and her and I decided to start taking note on some of the biggest pollution causes in Miami and other places we visited such as beach ragers, concerts, and vast events, that all negatively impact the environment and health of others. Through our observations I was able to capture the environmental and health effects of massive gatherings of people.

“Definitely a  fun day to remember. Waking up at the crack of dawn to meet with hundreds of people at the beach for one massive party. I was glad our little group was able to keep together and started digging a hole where other people showed up to help. I began to notice that as people stared leaving, their empty soda cans stayed behind. Eventually depicting a scene of a big sand box with dirty treasures waiting to be rediscovered. My thoughts behind taking this picture was all the empty water bottles being thrown in the and during the process of trying to dig this big hole. The crowd was a little overwhelming after some time to a point where we were planning to leave soon. Packing up our things, my boyfriend stepped on a bottle cap which sunk deep into his foot. His cursing aside, it was pretty funny, however, the stretch of trash left behind by the party attendees was embarrassing.”

-Sara Sanchez

The first photo was a harmless picture of myself, and my new friends digging a hole. We ended up getting the hole to be so deep that a man could fit inside of it. The deeper story behind the photo however is the beach pollution left behind while we took our laughs and fun memories with us. My interpretation of Sara’s response was that she seemed to be very bothered by the inconsiderate behavior of our peers. On the times that we have gone together with just us two, we bring a small grocery bag to carry garbage. However, when a crowd gets so big and rowdy, it’s difficult to clean up after. Her response also revealed to me that I was also a culprit of digging up a water bottle and burrowing it again. Filled with guilt, I searched for it again on our way to the car and made sure to clean and pick up a few things left behind from the masses. A few days after the beach we began to get text messages from our friends saying they had gotten Covid-19 from the party. Our first thought was, “that’s still a thing?” until one of them got hospitalized and couldn’t go to school for weeks.

“The Philly trip was definitely a crazy one that exposed me to a whole bunch of new cultures and people. The most exciting part about this was that neither of has had ever been to Philadelphia and we were going to watch the Dolphins play against the Eagles on prime time. I had never realized how many people really get together to come watch a football game. It was impressionable to see hundreds if not thousands of people crammed into a parking lot eating, drinking, and having fun. In retrospect I wish that I had take a photo of this meeting after the event was over. However, I was able to capture this photo of a group tailgating next to us, leaving their beer can-full garbage bags on the street outside of the stadium. The before the game photo in no way compared to the horrible scene that was that parking lot after the game. There was garbage, throw up, and fire during everywhere. It became disheartening knowing that workers had to stay in that parking lot until around dawn just picking up the filth that fans left behind. Overall we left the game sad because the dolphins lost, and we had to cancel family plans the following week because my dad got covid from the game. ”

-Sara Sanchez

Me being a die hard Dolphins fan, this trip was easily one of the best trips in my life. Being able to the see the Miami dolphins play in person, in another state, at night, was a huge deal for me and I was so grateful to be able to go to it with Sara and her family. However, this event was so big that the whole city of Philly made sure to attend. This caused tailgating in the street, dumpster fires, and crime to rise. The big crowd was so full of passion, that they decided it would be ok to throw their trash at me because I was wearing the opposing teams colors. Throughout the event I could tell that my girlfriend, Sara was shocked at the trash everywhere and how many people there were. Overall it was a great experience for us all, however that does not present us from over looking the fact that her dad got very sick from the game, and the neglectful behavior of the crowd. To me it was unbelievable that such huge fans would treat the place they love with so little respect.

“A couple weeks ago I went to a pitfall concert back in Miami. Honestly it was a once in a lifetime experience and I am so appreciative that I was able to attend. During the concert itself the environment was great. Everyone was full of good energy and just bouncing off the walls with excitement to see Pitbull preform. The lights, music, dancing, and singing almost make me overlook the journey I had to get to the stadium and the experience I had trying to leave. Being that my family and I live around 25 minutes from downtown on a normal day, it came to my surprise that I was stuck sitting in a car in bumper to bumper traffic for over two hours. Thankfully my mom had anticipated the copious amount of people but I had never seen something like that. I couldn’t help but think of how many carbon emissions were being expelled between the hundreds of cars on the road going to this singular event. As we got there we had to walk through the jammed polluted streets and wait in more lines to get into the stadium. Leaving the stadium was chaos. I had never been so close to so many people at a time in my life. During the pandemic, and within the next year my mom had constantly been worried for our health. I feel as if though despite the worst of the pandemic being over, people should still practice normal distancing. In my opinion the event was overbooked, and the design of the stadium is disappointing being that with so many people gathered in one area there is a guarantee that someone is bound to contract something.”

-Sara Sanchez

Although I was not at this event, I got a good sense of what my girlfriend experienced through his feelings in the picture she took. It has made me increasingly aware that she is wary of large crowds for several good reasons. As she mentioned, the stadium’s design is outdated and should consider a smaller capacity max. When it comes to large events like this, most of the time they are located in lower-income places. I have noted that large crowds come with large amounts of pollution, which are extremely harmful to these already less fortunate communities. It is important to be more mindful of the surroundings of large events like this.

THEME

Throughout this project, my main goal has been to bring significant awareness to the risks of large crowds to the environment and surrounding communities. I find it to be very important that in the upcoming years, our generation has to take the initiative to prevent and control the impact of large crowds and events on our community. I chose to name my photovoice project “Crowd Surge” because that is exactly what I feel my girlfriend and I have experienced so many times throughout this semester alone. I believe that after the pandemic many people in our community think it is alright to gather in large groups to this extent again. However, this is extremely far from the truth and more people should take precautions in protecting their health and becoming more aware of the health and life of those around them.

My project was inspired by the lesson on environmental justice in module 4. Connecting the two wasn’t very difficult especially since all of the locations my girlfriend visited were surrounded by low income communities, having to block off their drive ways to avoid stragglers unable to find parking, parking on their lawn. The disappointing looks on the faces of those cleaning empty beer cans off their yard and onto the road spoke loudly to us that it isn’t fair for them. On top of the pollution on their lawn, the air is filled with a diesel scent as all the trucks leave their tailgating spots at the same time, making sure the entire block can hear their car engine. I truly believe that some of these mass gatherings of people really drive their foot into communities and make normal life difficult for those living there. It’s a hub for disease to spread and garbage to be dispersed.

CITATIONS:

Eagles vs dolphins (October 22, 2023)

https://www.espn.com/nfl/game/_/gameId/401547494

Pitbull concert (November 10, 2023)

https://www.kaseyacenter.com/events/detail/enrique-iglesias-pitbull-ricky-martin

The of the beach was taken at South Point Beach in Miami

(the photo of the family protecting themselves from module 4)

Environmental Justice by Ricardo Levins Morales – Shared by Heidi De Vries. CC BY 2.0