Postcards from the recession: What do you think?
Riverside resident Susan Straight says losing the "community on my street, the street I've lived on for 22 years, breaks my heart." She shares tales of metal thieves, homes going vacant and more symptoms of the recession's disproportionate toll on the Inland Empire. South L.A. resident Toni Ann Johnson tells a more upbeat story. She says the last thing she expected to get from her move to Morningside Circle was a lesson in financial planning -- and she got exactly that.
More writers will offer their on-the-ground reports of the recession's toll on their neighborhoods on our Op-Ed pages this week and occasionally in the future (click here for the complete series). But our writers aren't the only ones with tales of the economic downturn's drastic effects on their neighborhoods. Click on the "Comments" link below to post your own thoughts about the recession.
Photo credit: AP
I too, was moved by Tom Engelhardt's column, but there is another truth involved here. A few truths, in fact, that aren't to be shone the light of day by any media. Poor Tom worries about his town, but guess what? Tom's town is mostly responsible for the fear we find ourselves in today. This first truth finds Tom's town suffering like the rest of America, but what Tom won't tell you is that Tom's town think's it's removed from the corruption and ineptitude of the current situation, the way certain members of Congress complain about it with conviction. All the while they, and Tom's town, are in bed with each other- AND RESPONSIBLE! You may now own truth #1. Truth #2 find's Tom's town sharing something in common with some AIG execs. They were rewarded for failing. Failing their company. They were bailed out. Tom's town received a reward of its own. It's flagship industries were given a gift.... a gift of continuity. Other cities with industries of their own will not see this. They don't get help from the government when they fail. Tom's town did. To the tune of 2 Trillion dollars! Will anywhere else in this country, cities and states alike, dream of a gift like this? Forgive me, Tommy, if I don't shed any tears for your town. Those empty condos will soon fill up, and the construction of new towers will continue to fill your sky, while the rest of us will still suffer. Oh, you'll still consider yourself part of the rest of the nation, but the rest of us will know better. We will know how you financed those new buildings, those new museum wings, those new stadiums! Whatever respect I ever had for your town, Tom, is long, long gone... own that one too...
Posted by: milquetoast | March 23, 2009 at 01:06 AM
I was deeply moved by Tom Engelhardt's poignant essay in today's L.A. TImes. I thank your editorial staff for sharing truth on these pages, and I await the day, I pray soon, when Americans will clearly see and demand what's in their interests and those of their communities.
Posted by: Charles M. Carr | March 22, 2009 at 01:40 PM
Ms. Straight is a Creative Writing Professor. She is a fine writer of FICTION. This is one more example why you can't believe anything you see in the Newspaper or any media outlet. Take everything with a "grain of salt". Yes, of course Riverside has it's problem, no doubt, a lot of people are hurt by the down turn of the housing market, lose of jobs, lose of income etc., but to portray Riverside in this light, please spare the melodrama!
Posted by: Proud Riversider | March 13, 2009 at 09:05 AM
Linda -- not to quibble, but the "Postcards" pieces are all Op-Eds. They're not written by "LA Times writers" such as myself. Ms. Straight is a novelist, and she'd probably consider it a demotion to join our staff.
Posted by: Jon Healey | March 12, 2009 at 05:40 PM
Oh woe, thy name is Susan Straight, with thine melodramatic tales of the Hell that is The Dreaded Inland Empire. Imagine what poor Susan must go through. Imagine the shame she must have to endure when she's forced to admit that she's from "The 909".
If only she could live somewhere else like "The OC" or -since she likes to publish her opinions there, in LA.
But I must admit that I share Susan's pain. I've had an occasional egg tossed at my car during the night,- and just the other day a small section of the sidewalk in front of my neighbor's house was 'tagged'. It was sheer luck that the man from the city came to clean it off as soon as he did. I could just feel the property values dropping as long as that magic marker scrawl remained on the concrete. And those RATS and RACOONS and OPOSSUMS and SKUNKS and OTHER ANIMALS!
Take another look, dear Susan. They were here before the recession and they will be here after.
By the way, Susan, are your chickens up to code? I don't believe so.
Alas, I'm certain that that this dreadful recession has hit poor Susan too. Perhaps the advertisement for her most recent novel at the bottom of the article will boost her book sales, so that she can escape her wretched life here in The Wood Streets.
Posted by: Another Riversider | March 12, 2009 at 05:37 PM
Guys, don't focus on what the LA Times writers do, write your own story.
Post it.
We need to document for ourselves what is going on. Then we can try to change it.
I am sue ladies, Riverside has many good point, nobody doubts it.
Posted by: Linda Winsh-Bolard | March 12, 2009 at 05:03 PM
Bill Batten: What kind of a misanthropic monster reads this and is angry at the writer?
Well, I can't say I'm angry so much as puzzled. I live in Riverside and know Susan Straight's neighborhood well -- I live less than a mile away. Though Riverside definitely has its problems, the picture she paints is sort of a Mad Max post-apocalyptic hell. A friend and I were remarking that it almost seemed like the setting for a horror movie. It's hard to reconcile the horrible circumstances Susan describes with the daily reality of life in Riverside.
I live on a much shorter block than Susan's and recently we had three houses out of ten up for sale or repossessed, but they weren't boarded up or unsightly, and now two of the three are sold and owner-occupied, and the third has buyers flocking around it like crazy. I know that the situation is much, much worse in other communities, and I'm wondering why what she sees is so different than what I'm seeing, what my friends are seeing, when I live in the same town and drive through her neighborhood almost every day.
Susan Straight is a truly gifted writer and I have always been extremely proud to claim her as a fellow homegrown Riversider. Her novels and short stories set in Riverside ("Rio Seco") are so true and so familiar, and so clear-eyed in depicting both the good and the bad aspects of our town and the people who live here, that it makes me wonder what town she is living in now. Yes, times are incredibly hard and scary, and yes, there are people who are in desperate straits, but this has been true before and I'm sure will be true again. I'm not a Chamber of Commerce-style cheerleader for Riverside, and if anything I tend to be a glass-half-empty type person, but I still see people walking their dogs and playing soccer and visiting friends -- both on my downtown Riverside street and in Susan's Wood Streets neighborhood (which is one of the best parts of town, by the way). Though I applaud her empathy with those who are struggling to survive, both friends and strangers, I I think it's a little over the top to equate the gnawing of tree rats or the presence of skunks and possums (all of which have been around forever) as metaphors for the destruction and decay of our community. As she herself admits, Riverside has seen tough times before and survived. True, this is a very anxiety-producing, stress-filled time, but I still think we'll come out the other side OK, however Pollyanna-ish that makes me sound.
Riverside is not a dying community filled with boarded up houses and cars up on blocks (great cartoon by the way), being gnawed away by rats. And I think in her heart of hearts Susan Straight knows this.
Posted by: Molly Dougherty | March 12, 2009 at 04:49 PM
I agree with Linda Lawyer don't read that tail of fiction. I live in Riverside so I am not sure what neighborhood Susan Straight is describing but even in the least advantaged neighborhoods in Riverside I haven't seen it is that bad. Yes there are forclosures, yes crime is up but Riverside is a large, stable city that is better managed than most and with many great neighborhoods that do not equate to that sorry CARTOON at the beginning of her fiction tail! Also she quotes statistics that are for the entire County not the City of Riverside. She should show some civic pride instead of portraying it as a lawless deperate city. What a shameful account.
Posted by: Riversider | March 12, 2009 at 03:51 PM
Linda Lawyer: "Her loss of community is her own fault."
What a horrible excuse for a human being is this Linda Lawyer. What have we come to when a story like this can be met with contempt? What kind of a misanthropic monster reads this and is angry at the writer? Unbelievable.
Posted by: Bill Batten | March 12, 2009 at 11:57 AM
Please don't read Susan Straight's story of the the plight of the Inland Empire as anything other than depressed whining.
She is a writer of fiction, who has gathered bits and fluff of the most negative stuff that happens in any town, at any time, and created a story that draws the reader in by its dire depressiveness. She has truly short-changed her neighbors and fellow Riversiders. Notice this was printed in LA, not her home town? Who would know? To her, we must not have much more learnin' than the poor dirt farmers in the "Grapes of Wrath."
She lives on a main artery of the city, but in a good neighborhood - "the Wood Streets" known for its cute, well maintained craftsman bungalows. It is mere prudence to take possessions in that can easily be picked up. She has a gated driveway - why was her daughter's car out on the street?
She paints a dismal picture of whole streets of boarded up houses, when in reality there may be one or two houses on a long street that are boarded up. These houses are so because people who could not afford them ignored the income/housing price formula and decided to speculate, with greedy mortgage brokers assistance. I could see all of this coming 4 years ago, while living in Indiana, planning my return to MY hometown, Riverside. I kept asking myself - who can afford these houses?
I'll be honest: I lost my job recently too. But I have found ways of making ends meet with my unemployment. I have the time to review bills and call to cut costs. I have the time to clip coupons. I also have the time to look at some of these foreclosed homes and know there are prudent first-time homebuyer programs that will help me get into the home I want that I will be able to afford, without any speculation.
We have some good home-buying programs here in Riverside. The air is much better since Kaiser closed down. Crime and litter are down, even in the low-income neighborhoods.
Her loss of community is her own fault. She needs to get out and meet her neighbors, walk her neighborhood, and not think it is anything special, because that is what being in a community is all about. Chat with the neighbors, pick up some trash, check in with a shut-in, call the police if there is anything suspicious happening. The foreclosed houses should be looked after by the neighbors who tend to their neighborhood, as I know they do.
What will get us out of this economic pickle is not stories such as Susan's. We do not have time to listen to the oh-woe-is-me-life-is-so-terrible tune. There is work to be done! New opportunies have and will present themselves, if we are just looking.
Riverside is a great place to live. Ignore Susan's fiction - come visit!
Posted by: Linda Lawyer | March 10, 2009 at 07:02 PM
I cannot think about myself as an artists. I take photographs (they get shown), make independent pics, they show. I make my money in journalism, or university teaching while I ache to be able to create.It's not lack of talent(prizes and wards I guess, count for something), it's lack of connections. For me, as for many. And lack of social net. And social help. And acceptance.
I cannot even comprehend why would Americans, as the only developed nation, accept that work without health care (dental and vision included), paid sick days and vacation and on living wage.
Or maybe I can: it seems that people are more prone to envy than to attempts at evening the field.
It is noteworthy that the auto industry is competing in a market where these things are offered to workers. Abroad, I mean.I don't remember any of our Representatives mentioning it.
I guess, that makes teachers truly look bad; they missed something very important while educating.Maybe it was when they declined to support the part time faculty and teacher's union putting their own paychecks first.
But on more merry note, there are some fun, underpaid jobs I have recently noticed:
Redland Daily Fact's Managing Editor, Jennifer M. Dobbs, posted a job for full time reporter /photographer at $11 an hour. When I called her on it, she wrote to me: Good luck finding a well paid journalism job!. Then she changed the salary to $20,000 to @25,000. Redlands average income in last census was $58,600.
Now, Jennifer from canvasexpressions, which copies original photographs either as such or as paintings, offered "a very generous commission of 30%" on sold artwork to all interested photographers.
It is accepted that anything less, to the original artist, than 70% is extortion.
Linda Green from Visalia daily newspaper is very surprised that she is posting her editorial job for second time. She offers princely pay of $30,000, or less if you are advancing your career from reporting to editing. For a mere $100,000 you might find a lackluster house in Visalia, CA where an entry computer job pays $35,000 plus full benefits.
These jobs need to be weeded out. It's not about jobs like these, it is about having a living wage salary that will allow the economy to recover.
I am surprised that Barak Obama's Administration had not realized that pushing down the wages of working Americans bellow starving level, will be the Republican sponsored backlash against his policies.
It can be remedied by legislating living wages, pushing the housing down to realistic level and encouraging union representation, but it won't happen on its own.
Posted by: Linda Winsh-Bolard | March 10, 2009 at 03:30 PM
Boy, it really hit home when I read Charles Fleming's postcard Tues., about how this recession is affecting artists these days. I live with three of them. My husband is in the jewelry field, and if anyone has been to the jewelry district downtown recently, I don't have to tell you what the recession has done to that industry. Luckily my husband's field is somewhat specialized, so he still is getting some jobs, and he now works out of our home, so that has cut down on our business overhead. My sons, one of whom is a musician recently graduated from college, and the other who is a photographer, have been forced to move back home as their dwindling incomes made it difficult for them to afford to do otherwise. Needless to say, it's been a strain on all parties, and something none of us had expected at this stage in our lives. It's sad to see them work so hard to become independent, only to have to become dependent once again. We recently have had to use a large chunk of our savings for some mandatory repairs to our home, and it's very scary to watch our nest egg disappearing, without knowing if or when we will be able to replenish it. I have been trying to find work to bring in a little extra, but it's hard enough for young people in the job market these days, let alone a 50 something homemaker who has been out of commission for years. Luckily, our only debts are wrapped up in our mortgage, but at this point, even with tightening our belts, and our son's help, we are paying out more than we are taking in, and how long that will last if the economy doesn't recover soon is anyone's guess. We're a lot better off than many, as we do have a home over our head, and if worse does come to worse, we could sell and move on. That would be a tragic and last ditch scenario that we all hope won't come to pass. All we can do is keep trying, and coming up with creative ways, as Mr. Fleming described, to generate a little more income that we will try to stretch out as long as we can. Let's all hope that our President's stimulus plan kicks in soon. Very soon.
Posted by: Joellyn Mumcian | March 10, 2009 at 11:57 AM
Toni Ann Johnson writes that her neighbors bought their house 50 years ago, send their kids to college, saved on jobs with pensions.
Fifty years ago the ration to entry jobs, for those who had university degree, to price of a house was 3,5 years. State colleges did not start charging tuition until mid 80s.
All full time jobs offered medical, life, vision and dental insurance as well as good pensions.
My generations graduated with tens of thousands of student loans, all of which went to pay for the once free tuition. The ration of pay to house was 10 years to 12 years. Few jobs offered any insurance, fewer still pensions. The real income declined by 30 %.
This was, of course, the courtesy of mismanagement and greed of the previous generation.
Whose financial planning is she admiring?
Posted by: Linda Winsh-Bolard | March 10, 2009 at 10:34 AM