Were They The Really Good Days?

[dr_phil_physics]

A Convoluted Route

This is a nice essay! Found while going through yuki_onna's LJ, after hearing about Jim C. Hines and Catherynne M. Valente giving the Writing Workshop at this year's Penguicon.

Whew. Anyway, the essay is about an America which doesn't exist anymore in the Rustbelts of Ohio and Detroit and the seacoasts of Maine, except in the minds of an older generation. And, especially in some of the comments, about how the younger generations have to make their own America with their own expectations.

You know, Penguicon used to be just a couple of weeks after ConFusion, and traveling across the state in February is not an inviting prospect, after doing it in January. But if Penguicon 7.0 is in early May -- and WisCon is already sold out of the main hotel -- maybe I should plan on some Linux and SF conning... Wil Wheaton and Spider Robinson are amongst the GoH's.

Dr. Phil

Comments

[kizmet-42.livejournal.com]

Interesting post - thanks for the link.

You and I are of the same age, growing up in the late 50s and 60s. We saw the crashes of the Rust Belt - in my case, Akron - and have seen what's happened for bad and good since. (I'm less hopeless than perhaps the OP is for Youngstown - but Youngstown is truly a showcase of civic destruction.) OTOH, I've seen what Akron, and Cleveland and Pittsburgh, have done, and to a lesser degree, Detroit has failed to do. I don't think the industries will return, but I don't write off those cities either.

The lack of commitment to home-ownership baffles me. Perhaps it's inbred (I've been reading the SF race discussion posts and am aware of my failings as a white woman who lives in suburbs) from generations of family for whom home-ownership was THE goal. But the science is there - home-ownership is the number one way to get a family out of poverty.

[dr-phil-physics.livejournal.com]

The dream of home ownership has been exploited by the consumer demand people. Buy a bigger house. Get a bigger/plasma TV. Build a home theatre. Put in the granite kitchen counters and the faux pro-grade stainless steel oven and refrigerator. Get that home equity/improvement loan -- and then roll in a vacation to Hawaii while you're at it.

It was all insane and has damaged people. But it also makes a younger generation who doesn't think about "lifetime employment" with just one company, assume that home ownership isn't for them. Yea, they even reject the endless winding subdivision neighborhoods in the suburbs, all without sidewalks and a walking or porch culture.

Sometimes I think I'm an Edwardian at heart. 1900-1914. "Even God cannot sink that culture!"

Dr. Phil

[wendyb-09.livejournal.com]

Gee, we remember that world, don't we, just from the Western New York & Pittsburgh angle.

Went to a convention in Buffalo about 8 years ago, and was shocked at the condition of the downtown "convention" district. Even stranger was the fact the part of the convention center used to be one of the department stores our family trekked to from our small town haven several times a year. The central Buffalo business district only the has the two colleges going for it. Niagara Falls was worse, and sad. Not the vital area it once was at all.

And she's right, that world just doesn't exist any more.

[dr-phil-physics.livejournal.com]

Remember driving into Buffalo... or near Secaucus NJ and saying, "What's that smell?" and being told, "That's the smell of money." ? (grin)

Dr. Phil

[wendyb-09.livejournal.com]

Yes, and summers in Aliquippa where the cinder pollution from the steel mills turned your car black in a day. To say nothing of us kids looking like lil' indians with war paint before our baths, it was almost as good as sunscreen!