community-based, non-corporate, participatory media
Pittsburgh �worst for singles� judgment inspires change, yet are efforts in vain?
by Chris Holm
Sunday July 06, 2003 at 07:12 AM
chris@indypgh.org (email address validated)
Is a suburbanized soccer mom agenda by the establishment the real reason our city suffers from youth and artist flight?
Coming to a new city that has been voted best city in the U.S. and finding agreeably a lack of many negative qualities, such as high traffic, crime, and high priced housing, Pittsburgh at first glance appears to be worthy of it�s accolade.
Yet paradoxically, it comes in dead last for singles, something one wouldn�t notice at a glance, or if one has never lived anywhere else, but in comparison to other cities, and after a year or two of trying to find a vibrant single social community, one may soon agree.
After two years of noticing a significant difference between other large cities I�ve lived in like Chicago, Dallas, and Hamburg, it came to a head when I tried to purchase a season swim pass to an Allegheny pool and found that only family passes could be purchased. I began to look for a sign that said �No street shoes, no glass, no pets, and No Singles allowed.�
Like Newton's Third Law of Motion, the equal and opposite reaction to this phenomenon is the formation of singles groups. One would think this would serve to offset such a stigma.
The problem is that most singles groups don�t exist to foster a better conditions for the single community, but to help singles rid themselves of the stigma of singledom, and join the more socially acceptable lifestyle of the nuclear family, and suburbia.
Why does this phenomenon occur in Pittsburgh? Why do youth flee this �best in country� city?
A scene out of the movie "Pleasantville."
http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/03157/189034.stm
Some claim that Pleasantville is an orchestrated agenda imposed on Pittsburgh by the establishment.
In efforts to suburbanize Pittsburgh, that include an overall sterilization of neighborhoods and the arts, to become precisely the image of Pleasantville, free from lifestyle choices, and conducive only for white picket fences and a city with a soccer mom agenda.
It can be easily seen in the Arts, the agenda of building demolition, and the recent planned cutbacks of evening and weekend public transportation.
The Arts Fest, which is mocked as the �Arts and Crafts Fest� or worst �The Arts and Crap Fest� is a Avant gard tour de force of funnel cakes, booths peddling leather Bible covers, and monopolization by the now artless WYEP and it�s corporate purchased music acts that are the audio equivalent of funnel cakes and Bible covers, and go as well together as popcorn and B movies.
A WYEP staffer told me two years ago that their music was targeted to the forty-something demographic. So whether cause or effect, has gotten with the program of operation soccer mom.
Some who follow the city government claim this whitewashed Pittsburgh makeover is the vision of big money that influences the city government, and fuels the foundations that in turn fuel the Arts organizations. Without this money, the non-profits like WYEP and the Arts Fest would be effected and the cozy nest of 401K plans, health insurance, a life of free CD�s, free food, free concerts, and a lifestyle of hanging out with rock stars, is apparently not worth risking for the forty something folks at WYEP. The comfort of the few outweigh the needs of the many.
The Forbes article includes not only youth flight, but artist flight. This system for musicians forces local musicians to either play ball and play easy listening soccer mom friendly schlock, or relocate to one of the top of the list cities like San Francisco which welcome diversity, and the avant gard. It may be felt by other mediums of art as well.
You may see less paroquial art offerings by establishments like The Warhol, yet they validate WYEP with underwriting support. Like the lawmakers that help push through other's agendas to get their own, the establishments in efforts for their own self survival, work with each other and form a weave of concentric circles of manipulation that will never be broken without an orchestrated unified revolution of public policy.
Instead we�re offered minor window dressing placations, that do not foster change, but divert our eyes temporarily, and provide the establishment with an argument to the contrary.
One a side note, all my married friends spend 60 hours a week working, come home and if responsible family members, eat dinner together, then some quality time, then baths, diaper change, stories, snacks, off to bed with the kids, maybe some news, and then collapsing due to exhaustion, which isn�t very good advertising for me for the lifestyle, but moreover leaves little time to be active members of society, regardless of your views. All my married friends see a movie in a theatre maybe every other year, and art galleries, clubs, live music, and bohemianism is nearly non-existent. A recent study shows that most marriages are becoming loveless, sexless marriages as well.
(June 30, 2003 Newsweek We�re not in the mood)
http://archives.newsbank.com/ar-search/we/Archives?p_action=search&p_theme=NWEC&p_product=NWEC&p_perpage=20&s_search_type=keyword&p_text_base=marriage&p_maxdocs=200&p_sort=_rank_%3AD&xcal_ranksort=4&xcal_useweights=yes&p_field_date-0=YMD_date&p_params_date-0=date%3AB%2CE&p_text_date-0=&p_field_YMD_date-0=YMD_date&p_field_YMD_date-0=YMD_date&p_params_YMD_date-0=date%3AB%2CE&%5B+Search+%5D.x=54&%5B+Search+%5D.y=14
A provincial Pleasantville society of this sort cocoons in it�s houses makes sure it can sustain this lifestyle, and may stand up for busing or school lunch issues, but has little need to worry itself with the arts. It leaves little time for activism which is the only thing standing in the way of corporate, and upper class agendas, which is the utopia of such demographics, a society of T.V. watching cocooners, too busy to take personal responsibility for society, and too concerned for their own creature comforts to be altruistic about people with differing lifestyles. They leave policy decisions in the hands of the establishment which is exactly where the establishment wants it to be.
Bottom line is that evening and weekend transportation getting cut will tax the already anemic singles nightlife, youth still leave, and the art population is still sickly, and public policy offers nothing but crumbs and temporary misdirection in exchange for real change.
What are our options?
Marry young, tune out, turn on the T.V. and fire up the grill.
Create an organization independent of the current organizations that are all either playing ball with the current policy, or who subsidize others that do.
Deal with it.
Start packing.
Personally I think those not looking to marry at 20, or who simply prefer the single life should take their cues from the gay movement. A minority that in effort to survive has gained significant political weight. The choice to be single, is as much of a lifestyle choice and needs to be recognized not as a socially unacceptable dysfunction, but as legitimate healthy option, and alternative to the 50/50 chance of marriage and even worse odds of loving marriages. In an overcrowded world that is using up it�s resources at an alarming rate, and filling it�s landfills equally so, in a future that no longer suffers massive population declines due to war casualties, it doesn�t seem to be necessary that our prime directive be that of increasing the already overcrowded population.
Well, outside of Pittsburgh anyway�.
diversity
by Mary Hart
Monday July 07, 2003 at 10:56 PM
mh5r@andrew.cmu.edu (email address NOT validated)
I think in looking at issues of community and how to make the community attractive to people who might otherwise leave for ostensibly greener pastures, it would be good to avoid falling inot the trap of seeing the situation as either-or (either families OR young people/artists/singles, or whatever the choice may seem to be...) We don't have to pit these groups against one another.
What kinds of events/activities/opportunities would be of interest, and important to, all kinds of people, including artists, singles, suburban soccer moms/families, folks married at an early age, and so on. That's a real challenge, but I think a question we should be asking.
Besides which, I think we tend to categorize people, but folks don't really fall so neatly into categories, although I know I tend to categorize when I haven't looked closely...but there are single soccer moms, and so on. So I guess I would personally like to see a Pittsburgh area that is attractive to all kinds of people.
As far as folks spending 60 hours a week working and taking care of kids, my experience as a parent was not that I wasn't interested in the arts/being an active member of society, but that it was a constant juggle/struggle to get everything done, work, being the kind of parent I wanted to be, and so on, and this was sometimes made more difficult by un-family- or kid-friendly attitudes...
So, why not aim for having a place that's hospitable to singles, kids, etc... Where people can interact with, and learn from, those who are different from them as well as those who are more like them?
That said, I agree with Chris that there could be improvements in the Pittsburgh area- but I hope it's not seen as a choice (do you want to attract this kind of people, or that kind?)
Missed the point
by Chris Holm
Thursday July 10, 2003 at 11:14 AM
chris@indypgh.org (email address NOT validated)
That's sounds like a very balanced reply to another article, but the point is not a strike back us versus them type scenario, but rather the current source of the imbalance is a matter of public policy by those who direct policy in the region. According to the source of this story, who's been following local government decion making for over a decade, this is a targeted agenda. It's been them against us for maybe as long as 40 years quietly without anyone knowing about it. It appears positve on the outside, clean up the air, make things nice and pretty, safe from crime, but it goes too far in so far as only being condusive t� a very white picket fence lifestyle. I'm not encouraging a demographic war , but those who find Pittsburgh provincial and only condusive to the life liberty and pursuit of happiness of the older majority, may find they're not just fighting an enigma, rather a very intentional state of affairs.
I personally am a musician who has tried like hell to plug in here. We lack a rythm section, and have placed numerous ads in papers, were snubbed by local musicians and radio. Nearly all music I listen to, I have to go to D.C. to see their concerts because they won't come to Pittsburgh. Essentially I need to leave Pittsburgh to do the only thing on Earth that doesn't seem like a prison sentence to me.
I wish someone would have told me this a long time ago. I don't have time to wait 10 years for Pittsburgh to make it into the 90's. I certainly hope it will, but I see nothing significant that is making a concerted effort at moving in that direction.
We will have said source on the radio show hopefully the show after next. This next show has a priority due to the fact that our guest is risking his life calling in live from Telaviv with Jews Against the Occupation.
http://www.jewsagainsttheoccupation.org
In the meantime, I'm either going to post an promo or encourage him to do so, he's getting a petition that needs to be signed by early August to create accountability in our local government.
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