A SAD STATE OF AFFAIRS

I was in the Atlanta area last week to work at my apartment building.  The economy is still slow in Atlanta, and we have many vacant apartments.  Several years ago, I rarely advertised, yet had several people ready to move into any vacant apartment.  A classified ad would result in fifty or more calls per day.  Now a nicer, longer classified ad results in maybe ten calls a week.  We have nice street signs, the newspaper ad, flyers, craigslist, business cards, tons of cosmetic improvements, and lots of vacancies.

While driving from my place to stay in Alpharetta to the apartments in Roswell, I was struck by the number of vacant storefronts.  This is a short drive through an affluent area.  Five miles of driving or less, and one sees probably twenty or twenty five vacant places.  Several years ago, they all were filled.  How many jobs can be accounted for each vacant store?  I figure at least five for the primary business, plus more for landscaping, cleaning, maintenance, and more still for the businesses who have survived, but have let people go.  Several hundred jobs have gone AWOL, just on one stretch of road.  Repeat that across the town, the county, the state, the nation.

So what is missing?  What are we going without?  People have gone back to cutting their own grass.  They clean their own homes.  They are not considering moving to the still-unfinished homes sitting around the area.  Tires get balder.  Trees remain unpruned.  Faucets are left to leak.  People pack a lunch, instead of eating in a restaurant.  They drive less, and use less fuel.  They eat some nasty factory bread, instead of fresh-baked.  Home repairs are postponed or forgotten altogether.  It seems something has made us lose confidence in the future.  Two miles of bad road makes one expect more bad road, and makes one forget that the road four miles back was a little bumpy too.

I will avoid getting political for this installment, but be clear that this mess is not your fault, despite what you have been told.

Matt Bruner                   Coldspring, Texas          8/16/10