Priced Out
As my friends reading this know, I left DC last August and parked myself temporarily at my family home in New Jersey. After being here for longer than anticipated, I’ve been drawn into the indie media scene in New York and am enjoying it, meeting lots of wonderful people. With a series of temporary jobs, I’ve been bouncing around ideas about where I’m going to land, but the question persists: where can I work in this industry that I love, yet afford on the frequently meager salaries (at least meager in terms of living wages in the cities where this work exists)?
NYC is an obvious option, but each morning, I read in the Times how the cost of living in NYC is squeezing out anyone who doesn’t make six figures, and quick scan of Craiglist confirms the issue. Today, Brian Newman posted an entry, NYC Losing Arts, that describes not only individuals being priced out, but also small institutions that support independent art and media.
It’s so odd to be right in the middle of one of those industries where wealth concentrates at the top on the backs of interns and similarly underpaid labor (I have many non-working friends in LA), and what is at risk seems to be the fresh voices, the creative thinkers, the people who can do more with less. Broadway is about to transform into an all-Disney revue, which is the antithesis of what these urban artistic meccas have been to creative communities over the last decades.
Where will the new Bohemia be? I’ve seen this question come up on listservs I’m on, but I’m wondering if anyone wants to recommend where they live? Or even a neighborhood in one of the major cities that you love for its rustic charm (read affordable and safe but without a Starbucks)?
I've only seen some of these, but I loved "They Killed Sister Dorothy". Loved. 
I haven't seen all of the films, but I have been championing Trouble the Water, Man on Wire, and Order ...
I haven't seen all of them either, but I really love In a Dream, hopefully you've seen that as the ...
I'm pulling for "Man on Wire" and "Encounters at the End of the World" my two favorite on this list. ...
Comment by AJ Schnack on 20 June 2006:
I’m starting to wonder if the new bohemian centers will be in the midwest. After years of everyone migrating to the coasts, I find that there’s a lot more interesting things happening in places like Chicago, St. Louis, Columbia MO, etc., than were ten years ago or so. Plus you’re centrally located.
Comment by agnes on 20 June 2006:
That’s a good point. Everyone loves True/False and I know several excellent filmmakers in Chicago.
Comment by Jordan on 21 June 2006:
Agnes, I love this entry. Everything being built on “the backs of interns”….that’s the truest sentence I’ve read online all day. All those times after college shuffling down those office halls fetching xeroxes back and forth….
Comment by agnes on 22 June 2006:
It’s a shame that it rings true for you as well. I was half-hoping someone would write, “it’s not as bad as all that…” and tell me the secret that I’ve been missing.
Comment by Chris on 23 June 2006:
I keep telling people to come to Boston, but nooooooooo.
Austin has always held a place in my under-informed mind as being an indie “bohemian” heaven, but then I hear from people who live around there that it’s all bunk.