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.