Sorry, again, for not posting for so long. Between helping launch an online project for the business section of the Globe, transitioning to a new beat writing about sports business and banking (which will both make for some good posts here), and some family drama, it's been hard to keep up.
This entry comes from my hometown of Pittsburgh. Besides having the greatest football team on Earth, Pittsburgh is a little like the land that the economy forgot. That's both good -- a decent house can still be had here for far less than $200 grand -- and bad, because many neighborhoods here, especially black 'hoods, haven't seen a new job, store or anything else in years. Ain't been a house built or a business opened around my way in my lifetime -- and I'll be 30 three months from now.
That said, I owe a lot of my own ambition, if not career success, to the 'Burgh's sorry economy. If I hadn't watched my overeducated mother and hard working aunts and uncles struggle to make ends meet here, and watched my own neighborhood slowly disintegrate under the weight of disinvestment, I may likely not have had the motivation or the stones to go away to college, land jobs in politics and journalism and end up at one of the biggest newspapers in the country while in my 20s.
But as an adult who makes his living writing about how people make money, coming home to see the fam and riding through my old hood is a crazy mix of depressing and ridiculously encouraging. Depressing because the fam still struggles -- peep how my uncle who picks me up from the airport runs down how he's out of work and trying to hold it down for his wife and kids, and because the neighborhood looks worse than ever, with no fewer than half the buildings on The Ave. (don't ask which one, it could be almost any Ave from Brooklyn to Watts) standing empty.
Those buildings, though, are the reason why I'm optimistic, perhaps foolishly. I mean, if anybody had a solid plan and any cash at all, they could make something out of those buildings, like a store or two since there are none for people to walk to, or some decent apartments in an abandoned school, or a renovated single family in a solid brick building that nobody's called home for years. Hell, how bout a salon, cuz damn if black folks are goin' spend their money on anything, it's going to be looking good!
If I had any money of my own, I'd definitely give it a go. Anybody have a story about what it looks like around your way?
A coupla sidenotes: I bought my 9-year-old son a pair of $75 Timberlands today. Did I do wrong? I mean, under normal circumstances, I let my boys pick out their own clothes, within reason. I'm definitely not raising label whores here, but I'm not of the mindset that the best way to teach kids to save instead of spend is to deprive them of any and everything just for the sake of them hearing Daddy say "no". Still, I normally wouldn't have paid that much for a pair of shoes for a nine year old. Thoughts?
Meanwhile, my seven-year-old sees me writing this and wants to know what I'm doing. Daddy is writing for a web site that he owns, I said. "That you own? You mean you're the boss of yourself? That's stupid!" he said. Apparently, that little one has a lot to learn.
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6 comments:
75 bucks on Tims? Definately not bad. Regardless of the street cred they have, they are really good shoes. That's why people buy Volvos. Expensive, but they are the safest cars in the world. Literally!!
Anyway, can't wait for some juicy stories. Sports business sounds fun!! Got groupie leftovers? Lol.
I have a similar view of the world, since I'm in finance. Day in, day out, I meet wealthy succesful, self-made men (and the occaissional woman), virtually all white in my experience. The nice part, for me, is learning how they got that way by talking to them or analyzing their businesses, and also learning by observation how they conduct themselves, what they focus on and consider to be important.
My job is all about analyzing successul enterprises, yet like you, when I go back to my hometown or any largely black area, mostly what I see is a permanent recession. Sure, there are some hugely successful black businessmen, but they are obviously, by far the exception to the rule.
So many reasons - we could write a book on this.
FWIW, I don't think paying $75 for Timberland's for your kid is too extravagant. I didn't even know you could find shoes for much less than that. And tell you the truth, when I was a kid in the ghetto, I got teased something awful about my "catheads". Finally got some Converses and what a relief. So, in my opinion, sometimes it is worth it to be a label whore at least to avoid the cruelty kids can punish you with. I wouldn't want my kid to be treated the way I was.
Ironically, when my family was able to move out of the ghetto and into a more integrated setting, the white kids I went to school with were not nearly so label-focused. At least they didn't kick your ass just because you were wearing the wrong shoes.
Interesting post, as I graduated from UPitt last yr. I moved back to Philly within hours of graduation for all of the reasons you mention though!
At the same time Philly is the same way, although better off than the Burgh, but still sets a record for the # of abandoned properties & businesses for a city of this size.
$75 is too much for a 9 yr old if you're living in the 'hood and are trying to feed 2 mouths or more on $10/hr. If you're doing okay & don't have to go into debt or anything to buy $75 boots then that's cool, imo. I'd prolly only buy them once every yr or 2 though.
I moved from Pittsburgh for the same reasons. I attended Howard University and was so impressed seeing African-Americans in such a large variety of positions with power, influence, and financially doing better than well that I never considered returning to Pittsburgh.
Unfortunately, in my opinion, Pittsburgh does not provide African-Americans the same opportunity as the Washington, DC metropolitan area.
I sometimes can’t believe the blatant racism that still exists in Pittsburgh. By the way, where did you grow up in Pittsburgh?
I totally relate to your article here. I'm from Pittsburgh myself and joined the Air Force to get a job and get out of Pittsburgh for a bit (because I couldn't find a job at all). Its surprising to see how people view success in a "get by as best you can" scenario like my old neighborhood and even how my parents lived, getting by paycheck to paycheck. To alot of these people success is any job outside of McDonald's just to get food on your table. Forget about college by the way. As the youngest of three with none of us having any college, or our parents having college, you sort of get brought up with that mentality and not much desire or know-how on how to be an entrepreneur or own houses or businesses. I am now only starting to take online classes while I work. With the qualified people leaving the city to find work elsewhere a person with only some qualifications and even just an associate's can find good work in the city. Unfortunately lots of people living in the inner cities don't even have that much.
I think $75 is too much for a 9 year old. maybe it's that they were timberlands. If you're not teaching your child to be a "label whore" then why those and not some other shoe? He could have had two pairs of boots for that cost.
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