Monday, August 1, 2016

Oh, Yeah, It's Theme Day: Doh!


It's another theme day and I've been rushing around, 
home-job-swim-repeat, for what seems like months, 
but has really only been a few weeks.
Gee, I even recall looking at the CDP page 
to find out what the topic would be for August, 
then promptly forgot about it.
Oh, well, here it is - a short presentation
of pictures of one of the many apartment buildings
that are being constructed in the downtown area.


I caught this moment as workmen were directing a crane
as it flew in some trusses for a floor in the new building,
just outside the Downtown area, at the corner 
of Massachusetts Avenue and New York Street.
The rents of most of the buildings starts at just over
a thousand dollars a month for a small, one bedroom
apartment. I have to wonder about this because
the property owners don't expect their tenants to become
long-term residents of their buildings; no, they
expect them to stay a year or to, then move on to
bigger jobs or to finish school and go on
to other places. In a state where the government
isn't exactly known for attracting businesses that
pay their employees a substantial wage,
who is going to be living in these buildings?
Where are the jobs and where are the educated 
workers who will be qualified for those jobs?


I also noticed that most of the crew working 
on this project are Hispanic. 
This is progress: earlier migrants seemed
to form the backbone of roofing crews who came
into the area during the summer, going from
town to town to put roofs on houses all
through the Midwest. And they do drywall
work, and they paint. Those that do good work
go on to have their own businesses, laying
the foundation for the new wave of immigrants
who will eventually become they mainstays
of their American working communities.
They are, perhaps, in the process of maintaining
and building the very neighborhoods
of which they will eventually be a part.


2 comments:

Anonymous said...

I also wonder about the residents of these new pricey departments. But a demand must be seen and if not, the rents will drop after a while. Eventually folks like you and me can move downtown.

William Kendall said...

I like the perspective of these shots.