A Renter's Market?
For the first time in decades it's cool to be a renter. So why is it so hard to rent a home and still be “green"? This week, as news outlets across the board reported a steep decline in home sales and prices in July, especially in the West, some reported increased preferences for renting, especially with the added uncertainty wrought by high unemployment levels. Particia Orsini of AOL's Housing Watch reported Aug. 26 that Americans, particularly homeowners, are now more likely to think that renting a home is more prudent than buying one. Other news outlets, such as Forbes and the Real Estate Channel and Time's “Curious Capitalist" blog, also recently dissected the growing preference for renting.
Orsini cited statistics from Harvard's Joint Center for Housing Studies. I took a glance at that report – titled State of the Nation's Housing 2010 – and found it shows that rental vacancies grew from 2006 to 2009, even though the renter pool was growing at the same time. In fact, U.S. Census Bureau housing vacancy survey data cited by the report shows that fewer people own homes in the West compared to any other region in the nation. The same numbers also show that nearly three-quarters of white Americans own homes while fewer than half of minority populations do.
So, what does this all have to do with the environment?
Northland
Searching for Sherby Paradise, I discover the Northland. I discover strong friendships and traditions in a wilderness on the verge of destruction. I discover hospitality in a town bracing itself against outsiders.
Jackman doesn’t fear foreign terrorists. It fears domestic tourists. The same influx that breathes life into the town will be the force that changes it forever.
For now, life goes on much as it always has.
Rearranging Our Pieces, Playing With Our Future
Is our imagination so limited that we think anyone will survive by doing the exact same thing we've done for half a century? Why can't we take the same simple wonder of an afternoon of play and build a new world with the pieces we already have? Why can we not take our bricks and track and blocks and rearrange them, as we did countless times as children, into new buildings, new cities and new transportation networks? Why can't we put our architects to work redesigning the decrepit spaces that already pepper our world? Why can't we put builders to work reconstructing our destroyed communities? Why must we mine new materials and continue the urbanization of our wild lands when so much unused housing stock and other structures sit vacant?
Why can't we rearrange the pieces we already have? If we could do it endlessly as kids, we really can do it now.
Undercutting the competition
If publishers and other hiring managers want to succeed, they will need a committed, loyal and stable staff, and they must develop sharp, insightful contributors. An investment in skilled journalists ready to take risks to lead publications into the future is a wise choice. It may seem counter-intuitive to talk about investment in a time of economic malaise, but those who take such leaps of faith will be best positioned for future success. Those, however, who treat their content producers as chattel will continue to struggle to maintain a stable source of original content, and thus, they will spend all their time watching editors and writers leave for greener pastures while their competitors invest in competent, devoted teams passionate about the work their doing and the success of their organizations.
Lucky Day
This is our moment to choose. We can choose to live life as we have, to return to the way things have been, to struggle and claw against time, or we can choose to live differently, to stop fighting the current and instead, to be carried along, to let the world unfold before us. We are where we are, and we will be where we will be. Shouldn't we accept that? Or is that easy for me to say, not facing the worst of these times?
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