my neighbourhood, my nexus, my nothing

Some might call it progress, but all I see is poor planning. I have observed a large and apparent growing trend to convert industrial buildings into condominiums these past several years, and at the same time I've been noticing a growing number of 'for rent' signs where corporate logos used to live through large swaths of industrial parks. I ask myself one simple question: where do these people who are buying these condos work? I ask this question for many reasons:

1. My girlfriend and I both work, and neither of us can see any one of these new condos as being affordable, even once combining our salaries.
2. They obviously do not work in the factory that used to exist where their home is now.
3. Industrial buildings all over the place appear to be closing.

I drove past an empty lot next to the highway yesterday, and I realized that there had been a building there which once housed Hewlett Packard on some level. The lot looked as though it had been vacant long enough to start growing trees... I had submit a C.V. to that place less than 10 years ago, and yet now, not only does the company not live there, but the entire building is missing. Why? Then we passed a stream of buildings I had also applied at, some had different names on them and at least 40% of them now had FOR RENT signs. And yet, there are new buildings filling in the empty spaces of different areas. Why? There is plenty of space for rent 5 minutes down the highway in either direction but we, instead, pave over an area filled with trees and grass while buildings that already exist fall into history's decay and rot.

It does not make any sense to me at all.

But then I guess life seldom does.

I know that gentrification is simply a fancy word for evicting the poor to, well, we haven't thought of where yet... But that's happening too. I doubt there has been an apartment building that's been built in the past two decades, and 1 bedroom condos appear to average @ the affordable cost of a quarter million dollars. Let's face it, 1 bedroom is not generally for families, so who are we building housing for? Single, well-to-do independently wealthy people? Oh, wait, I know who must be buying these places, those people who steal our money either via internet scams or simply via usury. Possibly it's government bureaucrats moving in since they seem to have job security most of the time. And it would have been those bureaucrats who voted to allow the construction to begin with.

My personal experience with bureaucracy demonstrates there is no real thought involved. The latest episode of stupidity I have witnessed is the abolishment of the receptionist / administrative assistant by my employer. Now, sure, you say, these things happen, except there's a problem with this statement. My employer is expanding into the building next-door and hiring new employees at a rate of several a week... We've also been told that this quarter we exceeded all our 'targets' and will receive the largest quarterly bonus in the company's history. But we cannot afford to employ an entry-level position who just needs to be a friendly voice / face when people arrive or call, and have some basic computer skills to help out other departments when they are overloaded, which several departments actually are right now.

During my interview with this company one of my selling points which was praised by my would be manager was my ability to think and to solve problems, but this is now discouraged and bound by red tape, so I am not at will nor liberty to voice what I see as foolish in favour of following orders. Something I am profoundly bad at doing because I am busy finding problems that need solutions which include an overtly long chain of command which seemingly does not have a thought process or even a sense of direction... Not even an apparent map.

I guess it all falls to the single truth in which 'You cannot go back home again', because progress has replaced home with a new and improved yet inhospitable environment.

-DIrtyKID©