livinginpdx

Well, if it wasn’t bad enough when the Portland Metro area was still enjoying the real estate bubble and flipping homes for well to do new residents of the city, the stock market has certainly caused the little people to take note and begin to think about other means of generating income. The good news is fuel prices have slipped under $3 a gallon again, but will it be enough?

With the rising prices of everything lately including our beloved P-Town affliction - yes, coffee beverages, my friends have begun to gently scramble to earn a little cash on the side to pay things like, oh, bills…? Yep.

I’d like to believe this will all pass rather gently and quickly, but being realistic in my idealism, that may not be the case. We’re all quietly freaking out just a little bit, if not wondering how we’re gonna be able to pay for our rent. I know I am.

There’s a reason people have 20 roommates, and don’t own their own homes in their 30’s and 40’s. The Real Estate market really screwed us up around here, and when community members were saying this wasn’t a profitable and productive action to promote, there were no mandates, and the housing programs in the area are less than a drop in the bucket, and more like receiving a fuzzy sticker from the doctor to ease your suffering after an amputation.

The housing market has been this way for over a decade now. This crisis COULD have been averted, but instead, we now have a new TRAM and all our city streets are torn up while the Pearlies are complaining about hearing the train, KNOWING THEY BOUGHT THEIR HIGH END CONDOS near a TRAIN STATION. Hahahaha… Oh, silly people… But I digress…

It is a little unnerving. I’ve got the credentials to hop into a high pay, fast-paced, do or die job, but my field of preferred employment, as with many fields sustained by economic boon is constantly becoming more software indusive and less people oriented. Dude, automation really sucks!

Especially being an artist of whatever medium I so choose at the moment, getting people out to venues and gatherings is a crunch! More now than ever. You can tell whose doing well or in other words - employed, by where they frequent and how outlandish their sense of adventure and tabs are. It’s getting more and more rare to find a group of pretentious grrls out there creating social drama. I must admit, it’s refreshing, but it’s definitely a barometer of how we are all adjusting to work within our means, and letting go of the petty stuff, cause we just don’t have the time or energy for it anymore.

The world will get back to normal, we all know that. We’ll continue to say we’re gonna colonize the moon and we’ll fly our cars in 10 years and people really do care about their civil liberties and love and respect all people without discrimination. Until then, we’re all hunkering down in our gopher holes waiting for the economic spring to arrive again… This time though I have no idea which career field the community will choose to back this time. It would be GREAT if Oregon decided to pick more than just one field as economic savior and divide the opportunity for success into a decent structural model with many options to generate the revenue we need for urban development. And did I hint at maybe oh, uh, say… Affordable housing and living wage jobs? Well, I have now.

Thanks for reading! Wanna meet up for coffee?

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