ISSUE 011
“Newness, and its superficial quality of well-being, is a very perishable commodity.”1
Jane Jacobs asserts many things, but T H I S - this is it. The instability of new is an inescapable conundrum. This is the philosophy that is driving the technological anxiety of teenagers, car insurance companies - any insurance company really, the ladies and gents that work at the reurn desk at local retailers, people who buy used books on Amazon, people who sell used books on Amazon, women who park in parking spots designated for “New Mothers Only,” the foolhardy underground technicians who feel that NEW and REFURBISHED are synonomous... The list goes on. I am 23 years old. There are a lot of facets (and responsibilities) that go along with being 23 years old in 2015. I still get to enjoy the title of “young adult,” I pay my own bills, have been so eloquently tagged with “Millennial” and “Generation Y,” and have grown up with and without technology. I check the news every day on my iPhone, read the New Yorker when I have an extra minute, and try my hardest to find gems amongst the excess at second-hand and thrift stores. I grew up in Youngstown, Ohio, and I recently saw a completely renovated 4300 square-foot historic home go on the market for $190,000 - a whopping $43 per square foot. I want to teach. I want to write. I want to read. Somewhere in there, I want to be an architect, too, I suppose. Like I said, I’m from Youngstown, so one can surely imagine the origins of the argument I am about to make. 64