Well, it's been a while since I've had anything to say to you guys, but I figure the New York Times doesn't bother to write articles about your hometown everyday. It includes a fairly decent video to accompany the article, with plenty of shots that make Newark look a lot nicer than it actually is.
The thing about Newark is, it really is in a bad way. It's right at the forefront of the collapse of the manufacturing economy and the rise of the service industry. Right now, it's running around an 11% unemployment rate. I think one of the things that gets lost in discussions of rural and suburban unemployment is the inability of people to go elsewhere. A lot of people say, "Well, why can't they just move to where there are jobs?" Moving costs money. You need a car to have a job in a place like Newark, and of course you need a job to have a car. There's only a hilarious parody of public transportation. And once you're wrapped up in debt, what else is there for you to do? It's a crushing feeling, and you can feel it hovering over the city. In the same way success builds on success, failure is a hard thing to escape.
Thursday, April 16, 2009
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Could we dare to dream that this post marks the resurgence of the Pseudo Body Politic? Does it live again, like a lovable, hideous postmodern Frankenstein? Tell us! The masses demand an answer!
Perhaps so! I haven't really had a whole lot to say in the last couple of months, and starting a new job makes for evenings where the last thing I want to do is try to write something that's not embarrassing about something others have said better than I could before I got to it. Most of the posts I tried to write before the TPBP Hiatus took effect didn't pass the "me, too" test. But we shall see! I still have opinions, dammit!
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