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Topic: moving to 'hoods to work? reply please...
| Author | Message |
| jseconds77 | Posted – 6/9/2008 9:37:08 PM | show profile I've noticed most ads on journalismjobs.com are for rags in cities I never heard of. so, after hitting city-data.com I learn the majority of them are unsafe, poor housing options, and no entertainment nightlife. My question to all is..... Would you knowlingly move into a bad neighborhood and risk losing $ and your safety in order to get your start? Would you risk knowing full well that you would be isolated and unhappy and still make the trek? |
| Grateful Deadline | Posted – 6/10/2008 12:48:14 AM | show profile Do you have any example? I'm not finding these ads for jobs at rags in horrible places. |
| dribbledrive1 | Posted – 6/10/2008 3:01:08 AM | show profile Your post leaves me scratching my head. As best as I can discern, you are asking whether it's worth it to take a job at some little paper in podunk, USA, which doesn't have arthouse movie theatres. My answer: Heck, it's your life; do what you want with it. |
| Mag Girl | Posted – 6/10/2008 11:22:16 AM | show profile You also can't judge a place by items you find online. You also don't have to live in the very same neighborhood that the job is in. You sound like you're trying to justify passing up passable employment opportunities. And yes, I would make sacrifices to get my first employment opportunity. Most people do. |
| Village Gal | Posted – 6/10/2008 11:43:40 AM | show profile well, many years ago, I moved into a nabe in NYC that people thought was questionable. Granted I was in Manhattan but people had warned me "Don't live below Avenue A" ( I realize that sounds hilarious now.) So yes, I took a risk to get a start, but I was happy.. |
| Mirage | Posted – 6/10/2008 11:54:01 AM | show profile Why would you have to move to these horrible little towns, whatever they are? Why wouldn't you move to a nearby city you like, and commute? |
| writesonwater | Posted – 6/10/2008 12:04:32 PM | show profile | email poster Good luck getting a job at a rag in an unsafe hood with poor housing options and no entertainment nightlife. For one thing, the smirk is audible from here (in some distant city you've never heard of) so if you apply, dust off your 'tude. Also, I wouldn't just write them off based on city-data.com. Unless you're talking about Flint, Mich., which I understand has a high crime rate, you might be surprised when you get there -- which you probably won't (get there) because you think the sun rises and sets on whichever unemployment-infested berg YOU live in. And who knows what poor housing options mean? My definition of poor housing is unaffordable housing, which sounds like NYC to me. If entertainment nightlife is what you're after, though, definitely best to stay in some great capital of entertainment. Please don't come to my delightful small town (with a big city just half hour away) and whine about the lack of social whirl. If you want to work, go where there's a job or two. If you want to play and remain unemployed, you won't need to budge an inch. I wish employment for every writer, and it's always best if you don't have to move a muscle to do it. But you might need to relo to work, is all I'm sayin. |
| writesonwater | Posted – 6/10/2008 12:24:32 PM | show profile | email poster Here's your question -- "Would you risk knowing full well that you would be isolated and unhappy and still make the trek?" My question back is, what makes you so sure that you know "full well you would be isolated and unhappy"? Don't move a muscle! If you already know that, ALREADY, sight unseen, that you'll be miserable, I double-dog guarantee you you will. Be. Miserable. Foregone conclusion. It's possible you are very change-averse. My suggestion would be to get a job where routine is guaranteed. Toll-taker on the turnpike? Obit writer? Tax preparer? But you might want to re-examine your comfort zone, and make a mental note to yourself, like Jack Nicholson in As Good as it Gets, to try someone else's silverware instead. It might be fun. ------ http://writingporch.blogspot.com/ http://jlouiselarson.blogspot.com/ http://familyrootsandwings.blogspot.com/ |
| rhino writer | Posted – 6/10/2008 12:50:01 PM | show profile I've lived in a building where hookers had sex in the basement and there were drug dealers next door. Two blocks down, an elderly lady was beaten to death and her apartment set on fire because she was trying to watch out for the neighborhood. It was my first apartment of my own (no roommates) and was what I could afford. The surrounding area was okay. So I guess I would say yes to your first question. In terms of being isolated and unhappy, I think that's a choice each person makes to some extent. If you get involved in the community -- on its own terms -- and meet people, you don't need to be isolated. And with e-mail and the net, there's less need as well. |
| HisGirlFriday | Posted – 6/10/2008 1:10:57 PM | show profile WOW: your post gave me my laugh du jour. But don't be dissin' on Flint! I'm a MI girl! :) jseconds; my thought is that - yes, when you start in your career, you often wind up at small papers, small jobs, crummy apartments. Poor. Isn't this kind of a well-known fact of life? My first real solo apartment lacked heat. I could watch shootings from a boyfriend's apt. But because I was doing what I loved, I was thrilled, even though I was poor, lonely and often cold. I had no time for "entertainment nightlife," because I was working too hard. But from a journalist's standpoint - there is nothing better than an environment with unsafe, poor housing options - isnt' that where a lot of the, uh , I don' t know _ NEWS happens? Besides, living through that kind of thing gives you the chance to reminisce fondly about your charmingly poverty-stricken youth. Maybe you don't intend it but you come off sounding pretty whiny and entitled. |
| Village Gal | Posted – 6/10/2008 1:18:40 PM | show profile Just think, if you move to the marginal nabe and stay there long enough, it may become gentrified and you'll have cheap apt and be the envy of all your neighbors. |
| HyancinthGirl | Posted – 6/10/2008 2:44:51 PM | show profile Hey, if you're working for the newspaper, you'll have a bird's eye view from your apartment of the crime. Think of it as an employment guarantee. |
| westsidestory | Posted – 6/10/2008 2:49:11 PM | show profile js, you've been all over these boards these past few days. And asking some fairly basic - and baity- questions Are you researching a book? I did have a laugh at this one. My first job in NYC landed me an apt on Avenue D...so unsafe I carried a knife to and from the subway. The next place I could afford was on the UWS back when my street had four abandoned buildings on it and was particularly known for its drug dealing and transvestite Dominican hookers. And so a brilliant career was launched. Ah, memories. Hope this helps! |
| Village Gal | Posted – 6/10/2008 3:50:19 PM | show profile west side, you and I can compare stories about Alphabet City back in the day when the nabe was literally being burned down. If I took a cab to my corner, the driver immediately made a U turn after he dropped me off. |
| jseconds77 | Posted – 6/10/2008 4:01:32 PM | show profile thanks to everyone that replied. |
