Talkin Bout My Generation

I've been mulling over this whole state of affairs for a while. Not in the sub-prime mortgage meltdown sense of the world as I have in the past. But in the how the heck am I going to get a job!? ("call the recruiters" Yes Dad, thank you.), where am I going to live? What will my life be like post-graduation????

It used to be that you'd get an internship, if you did a good job and they liked you, they'd hire you when you graduate. You'd advance, save up for a down payment on a house, get a nicer car, etc., But now no one is in a position to hire, irregardless of how much they like you and we are stalled in terms of advancing up the prosperity ladder at a steady clip.

While this makes me rather upset, I'm more upset about all of the squandered potential that is occurring. I was at a birthday party for a fellow planner last week and another planner friend was talking about how he was applying for a job at Chase. The bank.

In the meantime, time continues on and we all get a little older and have to make our own concessions.

To cite one of my all-time favorite poems, the Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock,

And indeed there will be time
To wonder, “Do I dare?” and, “Do I dare?”
Time to turn back and descend the stair,
With a bald spot in the middle of my hair—

I am ever-curious about the lifestyle habits of my peers and what does it say about our values?

As Scott Doyon noted in his post, "Settle Down Now, Is Community the New Frontier for Generation X?" March 4, 2011 "the youngest members [of Generation X] are now turning 30"

http://placeshakers.wordpress.com/2011/03/04/settle-down-now-is-community-the-new-frontier-for-generation-x/

Ten years ago, "settling down" would mean getting married, having kids, and often moving out to the burbs where the schools are "better." But recent studies have shown that people are getting married later than (some of) their parents. And the more education you pursue the longer it takes you to walk down the aisle. Not that they make the actual aisle longer, statistically those who pursue advanced degrees tend to marry later than their peers. Add that to the fact that having kids is an expensive undertaking and frankly rather "conventional" and an act that can be put off without too much repercussions in this age of fertility drugs, surrogates, and adoption.

But in non familial ways I have batting around the concept of Doyon calls, "the desire to sidestep authority in pursuit of a more appealing alternate system of their own creation. . . our instinct still tell us to sidestep power, to make things work on our own terms instead, . . ."

Doyon goes off on a different path of thought than the one that I am thinking. I am considering the potential for collectively pooling our resources, living with less, freecycling, and admitting our dependence on one another.

The last part of the above quote ends in "and nowhere is this [sidestepping the current system] more evident than in the rise of localism"

I'd talked earlier about the rise in "collaborative consumption" on my post "Sharing is Caring" on February 22nd, 2011. But I've been thinking about how would it work to live in a post-millennial commune, if you will. There is a ton of cheap real estate in underserved areas, such as Oakland, California, Detroit, or Hartford, Connecticut. How awesome would it be to hang out with my friends from planning school and form a loosely bound consulting agency while striving to fix the world's problems?

This would work, if it were say, 1970, and we weren't bound by our student loans (thanks inflation!) Ruth Reichel is one of my favorite authors/memoirists. And in her first memoir, Tender at the Bone she recounted her life in late 1960s/early 1970s Berkeley, CA where she lived in a huge house with a bunch of people in her early adulthood. It'd also be nice to be guaranteed a little private/personal time from my housemates so that if one wanted to bring a beau over, have family spend the night, just have a little peace and quiet one could get it and also give to others.

It's a lovely dream, but I'm not entirely sure that it can take root in reality.

As I try to make sense of an ever-changing world I leave you with a link to the recording of King George VI's , which was featured in the Oscar-winning (!) the King's Speech. Even though the quality is a little scratchy, the message still has the power to reverberate in the soul. Especially when you know the context in which this man spoke out against the darkness that threatened to engulf his nation (ie Hitler's march across Europe)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DAhFW_auT20

It's All in How You Look at It

I'm not even going to comment on the incredible lapse of time between this and my last post. Suffice to say I have been learning a lot and have been very busy in grad school. Future posts will expound on some of the concepts I have been learning.

But one of the most interesting things I have learned in college is how other people see L.A. This is especially interesting being in an urban planning concentration, so I am surrounded by people who take note of the world around us.

I live near downtown LA, right next to USC, but I am highly partial to the West Side- mainly Santa Monica, Culver City, and Mar Vista. I attribute this mainly to the fact that my ride and bff lives on the West Side and that's where she hangs out, so that's where I hang out.

It was interesting talking about the West Side with a friend who lives in West Adams, which is north of campus and about a 30 minute walk from me (I am west of campus). She doesn't have a car and as West Siders get prickly when the subject of mass trans infringing on their private paradise it's hard to get over there from where we are without the assistance of a car, or multiple bus transfers. Therefore, when I mentioned my favorite hair salon, which straddles the line between Culver City and Mar Vista she looked at me without comprehension.

I also enjoy Glendale, which, when I mention it, I often receive blank stares from my classmates as their errands don't take them up there often. And I admit, it is rather suburban. But in spite of, and at at the same time, because of that fact, I love it! There is a Whole Foods, a Trader Joe's, a Target, and a mall (the Target is actually inside the mall) all within easy driving distance. This is, unfortunately, why people love suburbia so.

My friend who is a born and raised Oakland guy lives in downtown/ the Arts District in a very chic converted loft, etc., He loves it there even though he has to bike to campus, which takes about 5 miles as he has no car. Being from the San Francisco Bay Area he is no stranger to weird happenings. However, when he went to West Hollywood for the first time, or WeHo, he described his first impression as Disneyland on heroin and Xanax. Apparently, there are all different kinds of "strange."

Personally, WeHo isn't my favorite place, but it'll do. LA INK is filmed there and that is also where all the "cool clubs" are. It's the new "cool" place to be in LA. But I'm not one for paying to get into a club and dressing up like disco Barbie, as I prefer a dark bar or a great restaurant.

For more on great eats in LA based on personal recommendations, check out http://gastrojan.blogspot.com My latest blog, written with other USC grad students on our favorite food finds LA!

Another friend lives in a condo that I am horribly jealous of, as it is clean and sophisticated, unlike my bedlam asylum of a house. She lives in Little Tokyo, or LT, which is really close to where my Oakland transplant friend lives and also Skid Row. She has an internship and a husband both of which require a lot of time. (My Oakland friend and I are both currently single, my West Adams friend has a boyfriend, but he is currently in Chicago). So, she has no frame of reference when I mention my favorite West Side spots, even though she does have a car. But she loves LT and knows her way around very well, including a great spot where one can get peach basil white sangria served by Zachary Quinto, the new Spock,'s doppelganger.

In the end, having or not having a car, tends to make a huge difference how one sees the world, especially, our microcosm that is LA. But it is always interesting learning about other people's perceptions and frames of reference.