By the time I decided to leave New York, it was about a decade after The Onion published an article titled, "Cost Of Living Now Outweighs Benefits". This 'parody' article was written like a piece in a respectable financial periodical and outlined the very real expenses and limitations that were making the cost of living in NYC feel more like the cost of barely-getting-by, or worse, the cost of working.
By the time I left, this situation had spent 10 years getting worse. Rents have become outrageous in EVERY neighborhood of New York; there is no longer a "Yah but if you are willing to take the subway for an hour and a half, or live in a less safe neighborhood, you can still find affordable rents" option. Every neighborhood in every borough has become inaccessible unless you win the affordable housing lotto (which yes, is a real thing). Store fronts along Broadway in SoHo, empty for months and even years, sport signs that read PRIME RETAIL SPACE available. Huge apartment, condo, and hotel complexes are being erected all over Manhattan, Brooklyn, and even Queens, with more housing being built in one city than is needed for the entire country, and still there are millions of people living there without homes.
For me, I was working 30+ hours a week art modeling at 3 different colleges, giving manicures 3 nights a week in a dive bar, performing on average 2 nights a week, and picking up any odd jobs I could find. I had zero social life, and only two-thirds of 1 day off every week. And despite all of this hustle and sacrifice, I was always in the red. I couldn't afford to go to see a movie; I even stopped browsing online (goodbye pintrest!) and looking at magazines because it was too depressing to see all of the things I couldn't even afford to fantasize about getting. All expenses were necessity only.
I decided that this living was no life, so I sought greener pastures in New Orleans, where housing is still reasonable in some parts of town, and the sort of work I do is available if I am willing to work to find it.
Then, today, I picked up Gambit Weekly (a free local paper which nicely captures the NOLA politcal, social, and cultural highlight reel every week). The cover article? "Is New Orleans Worth It? The cost of living vs. the cost of leaving."
My first reaction was to guffaw and roll my eyes a bit. After 15 years of making life way harder than it had to be by living in New York City, I still see a whole lot of silver lining to living here in NOLA. I've seen how bad the struggle for quality of life can be, and I can see that it can still get a whole lot worse here.
But, I also see that we are getting closer to "worse"; People who have been here their entire lives are being displaced. There are people here who have stories similar to my NY experiences, but for New Orleans. So, while there are still parts of this town that my skewed New York perspective still views as affordable, for many that is no longer the case.
This strikes me; If the place I left is untenable and I came here to try to rebuild, where are the people who are finding my new home inhospitable supposed to go? And, where will I go if NOLA becomes impossible for me?
This isn't a NOLA problem, or a New York one, or Chicago, or San Francisco (or even Oakland). This is an American problem. It may even be a global one, but I'm not that well read, yet.
We have a major issue. The world is and has been changing in ways we have never experienced. The internet is allowing us to find refuge in previously unknown (or previously un-thought of) towns, allowing us to form new communities of like-minded people without having to go to a major city. This has the potential to create a renaissance for small town America. But we aren't looking for these new homes because we are passionate and driven to create our best possible life; we are seeking refuge, not the American Dream. We are looking to just survive, to do more than get by, because the Capitalist structure of our country has been so successful in protecting and prioritizing business that the needs of the individuals who are the cogs of that business have been factored in less and less. We are constantly in a state of reacting to our circumstances instead of having the privilege of approaching life with the question, "What do I want? What is the best life for me?" Which, when I was in school, was supposed to be the point of this country, and the American Dream.
I am not an anarchist, but I do understand the desire to blow it all up and start over again. I don't know, realistically, how we as a nation can start prioritizing people and quality of life over greed, when it's the foundation of everything we've spent the last 200+ years working toward as a nation. As a child, Capitalism made sense to me; work hard, make money. Simple. But as I've gotten older, I see that it has been corrupted. A system created with the intention to uplift and serve the people has become a system that the people serve.
This is why I don't (won't) shop at Walmart. This is why I'm willing to deal with the minor inconveniences of shopping at a local brick and mortar pet store instead of buying online. Creating the world you want to live in isn't about showing up to vote for one day, or writing facebook rants that result in doing nothing; it's about being present every day, in every choice you make. It's about recognizing that no, it doesn't get easier, but if we work for it, it does get better. Because as a nation, I don't think there is anything we can do. But as individuals who make choices every day—choices that have repercussions—we can make a difference. We can vote with our wallets and our way of life. Define yourself and your nation by being the best of what you want it to be. Maybe if we all work harder to be better, eventually we can fix this nation. But until then, my love goes out to all of the transplants and refugees of America. We will make a home, somewhere.
