On the front page of today's Sun-Sentinel: Middle-income workers now being priced out of S. Florida's housing market:
From city halls to the state capital, politicians have talked for years about the need for more affordable housing. Task forces were formed. A state housing fund was created. Builders promised to deliver.But now -- with teachers, police officers and young professionals joining the ranks of those struggling to find homes they can afford -- South Florida's housing crisis has taken on new urgency .... 'It wasn't on our radar screen to keep track of how fast the cost of housing was escalating,' said Deputy Palm Beach County Administrator Verdenia Baker. 'Our housing market has outpaced our salaries ... We are going to be a community that has to import our workers.'
Well duh. Anyone who lives here could tell you that. The rent on our "affordable" apartment--the twenty six year old building which seems to be going downhill more and more by the day with paint peeling, walls cracking, potholes gaping, garbage piled up by residents in 3-foot piles in front of the chutes, garbage piled in 10-foot piles in the parking lot by management, and so forth--is being jacked up to close to $1100 a month, with more rent hikes to come after they start their much-promised much-delayed renovations and improvements. Thanks to property tax and insurance increases friends I know who've bought houses in the past 3 or 4 years say they would not be able to afford to do so today even with the inflated prices their current homes would fetch on the market (read farther in the article quoted above and you'll see that housing prices have risen 80% in three years with the median price in Broward now at $383,900). You'd think that the people who can afford this stuff, and the developers that build here, would realize that they have a vested interest in creating a community where the people who mow their lawns, serve up their Starbucks lattes, teach their children and patrol their streets could live. Even if it is on the other side of the gates that separate them from the riffraff. Strange.
But, enough of things that I can't change and soon won't affect me anyway and on to other news. The Aziza workshop I went to on the weekend was really good...if really tiring! Aziza is a fun person and a great teacher and performer, so it was really a joy to take a class with her. She lives in Montreal (wish I did too!), though she is originally from Portland OR. She has just released a Practice Companion DVD that I bought at the class. I have been too busy--and too sore!--to practice with it yet, but I will break it out later in the week.
A couple of performance opportunities have come along for me and my friend Diana...we will be doing a restaurant night in January and maybe some dates at the Rennaisance Festival Feb-March. We are busy trying to find music and create dances for them.
Finally, Michael was shortlisted for a position at the Petroleum Institute in the United Arab Emirates. He had an "informal pre-screening" phone call that lasted 2 hours (!!!) last weekend, and on Monday he got an email telling him he'd made the shortlist. Which means that he will probably be flown out there for inperson interviews and so forth. Exciting and scary all at the same time. It's something we wanted, but when the possibility is here now in your face rather than out there for someday it's a little more scary. No word yet on if/when he will be flown out, and what comes next, but whatever happens it should be interesting!