A sampling of features in today's NY Times:
*Generation OMG
*Appeal of the Dollar Adds to the Pain of Ailing Nations
*Multiple Identities Can Be a Good Thing: Living In - Fort Greene, Brooklyn
*Looking for Bottom in N.Y. Real Estate
I Love reading the New York Times, especially on Sundays. Today's read, however, left me with a bit of an unnerved feeling. Generation OMG says that today's high school and college students will be the most negatively affected by the current depression, facing up to 10 years of stagnant income. Then Appeal of the Dollar Adds to the Pain of Ailing Nations speaks to the dire situations in pretty much every country outside the US. Sure things are pretty bad here right now, but that also means that areas that were already in rough times have been catapulted into the most frieghtening form of dire. Then hopes are lifted in Multiple Identities Can Be a Good Thing as our very own little neighborhood in Brooklyn is spotlighted as "Brooklyn’s latest culinary mecca, bewitching foodies with hip, minimalist restaurants" and as a "bastion of African-American pride and culture, a historic home to a vibrant community of black families" as well as "the artistic center of the borough". Not bad.
But then I read on to Looking for Bottom in N.Y. Real Estate to find that housing values in NYC have already dropped on average 25% and many think this could rise to as much as 40% in the very near future. Depending on your status this article could be taken several different ways, two that come to mind are:
"We just bought our $1M 1BR last year and it's already lowered in value to $750K!" (Experts suggest it will take upwards of 9 years to recover this loss)
Or
"Where do I sign?"
On the upside, it looks like our dollar will travel quite a bit further in Spain than it did the last time we were there, but at who's expense? And on another upside it looks like our Brooklyn neighborhood is enjoying a period of true community, yet silmultaneously housing prices are plumeting to 40% of recent values. My generation pulled the long straw. We're sons and daughters of the sons and daughters of the Great Depression, so in theory we were raised by those who watched this happen once before, and in theory passed down tidbits of knowledge that would teach the next generation about how to achieve while in survival mode.
Thankfully, we don't yet feel like we're in survival mode, but I do know way too many who have been in it's depths for months already, and it looks like it sucks.
(Insert positive uplifting comment here...)
3 comments:
Thanks for sharing these, Jo. After reading, I decided to print up the Generation OMG article and share it with my 20th Century History class tomorrow. I think it fits in well with a conversation we had last week regarding economy today versus that in the 1950s (post WWII).
Thanks!
I went to a lecture by Susan Faludi last week, although it was titled, Is Feminism Still Relavant, it does offer an option that I think fits your musings.
Yes, this space and time sucks, but now is the time to band together as a community where we can make a difference. It's going back to the "village" concept, where even small activities like supporting one new effort, a food shelf, a blood drive, or giving some extra $$ or support at a church effort will make a difference. If we all make an effort it will lessen some of the effects. mmmmmmmmmmmmmm sounds like the audacity of hope or the reason why women decided to take on the accepted defintion of who women are and what we can do in the 70's.
I'm committed to trying it and am asking my friends and fmaily to join the effort.
More to come.
Mom C
Forgot one thing, There's a good article in the Times, In a Charmed Life, a Road Less Traveled. Love is the answer, regardless of question. Pat
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