The Young Demographic

This economy is terrible for qualified college graduates looking for jobs. But one upside is that young professionals can really follow their passions without feeling like they made a mistake by not taking the safe, beaten path.

Take Constantino Rago for example. The 24-year-old from Bethel dreams of establishing sustainable development in impoverished countries. He has a bachelors degree in international relations and masters in political economy. Were we in better times, I have a feeling he would have a comfortable job in some NGO in D.C., or something equally impressive and staid.

But because of this economic downturn that we are spiraling down, Rago can’t find a job. And then the earthquake in Haiti happens. And he decides, because he has nothing to lose anyway, he is going to go down there with no definite return date, and attack the problem at its very root. If he had an actual job, would he have been able to just get up and leave on such short notice? Probably not.

You can read the full story I wrote about Rago here.

We are a lucky generation. Our parents usually had to wait until retirement to follow their passions. We get to do it now.

It seems like a lot of young professionals I talk to assume that to have a great night, they need to go to New York City. We are very lucky that we are such a short distance away from the mecca of arts, entertainment and culture. But why do we have to have a mass migration to the city every weekend? Why can’t we have a lively and diverse social scene in our own towns? I am not saying we can compete with New York City, but we should have a local option. And it would save us some time and some train fare.

Westport resident Gene Seidman had the same exact sentiment as me. So he created MIX Events. He thought Fairfield County was “fun-challenged” and needed some New York City-style zest.

MIX’s next event is this Thursday night, and Seidman described it as a “killer barn dance.” If that doesn’t have you intrigued, then you must have let Aerosmith jade you.

A salsa band will play at The Barn in Westport. Besdies dancing, you can try the “monkeypolitan,” mixed by Holistic Drinks. And if you are shy, a mixologist, someone who specializes in engaging people in conversation, will probably search you out.

“It’s going to be a suburban rave,” Seidman said. “If there is great music, people will connect.”

Full disclosure: I went to a MIX Halloween event last October, and although very fun, my friends and I were the youngest people there. But Seidman assured me the young professional attendance to his events has been growing.

I hope I’ll see you there. Here is the info:

An article in the New Canaan News today explored how dating can be difficult if you’re a 20-something living in a bedroom community in Fairfield County. One 22-year-old in New Canaan got so desperate, she turned to Match.com.

But a 23 year-old New Canaanite is trying to save all the sad singles, by turning to something they all have a very stable relationship with: social media.

Last October, [Michael] McClure launched a social media initiative aimed at organizing and bolstering the social lives of Connecticut’s 20-somethings. Aptly named Connecticut Social, the viral campaign to get young professionals off their couches and onto the bar stools of local taprooms reaches about 370 members through Facebook, Twitter, the blogosphere and good, old-fashioned word-of-mouth.

Still in its infancy, Connecticut Social primarily targets Fairfield County residents, but McClure is working to grow its reach. Connecticut Social sponsors a weekly bar night at Tequila Mockingbird on Thursdays and services its members with online daily drink special listings for an array of bars in New Canaan, Darien, Greenwich, Stamford and Norwalk.

“Our goal is to get 10 percent of our members out to every event,” McClure said, adding, “Everyone saying `I never go out because there’s nothing to do,’ is the reason why there’s nothing to do and it’s probably the reason why singles aren’t meeting new people.”

For all my young professional singles, what better Valentine’s Day present is there then hope? You’re welcome.

You can read the whole article here.

Stamford (CT) – Will Gregory, in association with AmeriCares and Hip Hop Republicans, has launched a disaster relief initiative, CT4Haiti, which will raise funds and awareness in Connecticut to aid the earthquake-ravaged nation.

Mr. Gregory, who spent time as a high school student in Haiti, said of the situation; “The degree of devastation is nothing short of horrific.  Tens of thousands have been killed, hundreds of thousands displaced, and millions more impacted.”

He continued, “The people of Haiti are suffering in a way that is difficult to comprehend.  As caring and compassionate people, we Americans have a duty to lend our support.”

“I am proud to be working with a relief organization like AmeriCares to help provide aid and assistance on the ground.  Their reputation for effectiveness and speed of response in situations like this across the globe is fantastic.”

CT4Haiti will be hosting its first fundraising event on Saturday, January 16^th from 7-10 pm at Tiernan’s in Stamford, CT.

AmeriCares is a nonprofit relief organization founded and headquartered in Stamford, CT.  Hip Hop Republicans is nationally recognized urban-conservative blog headquartered in New York City.

In today’s print edition of our daily papers, we are running a package about young people and their behavior in malls. The stories were in response to an incident that happened at Trumbull mall where a group of teens got out of hand and a 17-year-old and 14-year-old were tased by police.

I interviewed teens and young adults at the Danbury Fair Mall, a decidedly “safe” mall. There are no gang wars, racial rivalries or indecent behaviors going on here. But I was absolutely struck by the amount of young people who came to the mall because they had nothing better to do. They were bored, they said, and the mall was the only other option. Some insinuated, off the record, that if they weren’t here, they would be drinking or getting high.

I started asking them, how do you feel, being defined as the generation that went to the mall and hung out? “Well, we would also the best looking. They had some bad hair in the seventies,” one kid responded. But another said, “that’s kinda depressing, to think of it that way.”

One solution is for towns and cities to build teen centers. (Even though in this economy, most Connecticut towns aren’t starting any new projects.) But any sort of town-sponsored teen center is inherently doomed to fail because “the cool kids” won’t go there. They have a teen center in New Canaan, and the staff there told me it was meant for older teens, but they tend to stay away, so it is more utilized by pre-teens. “Those teen centers are usually kind of tacky,” one older teen told me.

It’s very difficult for an institution to create a space and market it correctly as cool.

What I think the solution is for private entrepreneurs to provide the kinds of establishments these kids are looking for. When asked, most of them said they just wanted a place they could go hang out. Somewhere that has a lounge to relax, music, food, and an arcade with some games. Someone could open that type of lounge and market it to the 23ish crowd, and then the teens will think it’s what all the cool, older guys are doing and go there.

It’s a lucrative business. These kids were saying they spend $50 to a few hundred dollars every time they come to the mall. The most I heard was one teen who said he came and spent $1000 in a day. And they aren’t going to come and tear up the place. The teens I talked to seemed responsible. They were just bored. Teens are going to be loud and hyper, but that doesn’t necessarily mean they are dangerous or destructive.

An establishment like this would also be a great way to bring some life to the downtown main streets that are suffering all over Connecticut.

So who is going to step up to the challenge?

I know they’re tempting. Those little facebook quizzes that tell you which Gossip Girl character you are most like, or what kind of person you attract. They’re harmless, and just for fun.

Actually, they’re not. Facebook basically gives developers the right to access all your information, and use it however they want. From the American Civil Liberties Union:

The only protection Facebook offers by default is its Terms of Service, which state that developers must collect only the information that they need and use it only in connection with Facebook.

But all it takes to be a developer is an email address, and so few of even the top developers have a privacy policy at all, it’s hard to believe that Terms of Service will hold them back if they want to collect information, and (as this quiz has shown) they can access a lot of it.

And once details about your personal life are collected by a quiz developer, who knows where they could end up or how they could be used. Shared? Sold? Turned over to the government?

Even if you’ve never taken a quiz, you’re still not safe. If a friend of yours takes a quiz, the developer can access information about their friends, which includes you.

The ACLU has a petition you can sign to Mark Zuckerburg, demanding users have more control over their provacy settings. It also has put together an educational quiz (it only takes a couple minutes) that you can take to see just how much information access these developers have.

So think twice the next time you want to find out what you were in your previous life, etc.

The Brookfield zoning commission met Tuesday to talk about rezoning a section of town to create a “village center.” For more details, read my article here.  

One change they are considering is zoning the buildings have a two-floor limit with commercial space on the first floor and residential space on the second floor. When I heard that, I thought, wow, that would be a great place for young professionals to live. Being in the center of town, there would be lots of restaurants nearby for the days they work late and don’t have time to cook dinner. They may hit up a bar later, and hang out and catch up on work at the local coffee shop. It would really get young people involved in the community. It would certainly beat living in a sterile apartment complex, especially with the rents that they charge.

But if Hal Kurfehs, the chairman of the Brookfield Economic Development Commission has his way, the regulations will change to allow for three-story buildings. Then the apartments will be two stories, and allow for more “upscale” tenants.

When I interviewed him on Wednesday, this is what he said:

[Single story apartments] are not going to attract good tenants.  I couldn’t characterize what kind of tenants. It’s going to attract people who want cheaper. Its an argument I really don’t want to get into because it would sound like, because it just wouldn’t sound right.

Mr. Kurfehs has some good visions for Brookfield and I can tell he really cares about the town, but it’s this kind of thinking that makes Connecticut a difficult place to live if you are just starting your career in an industry other than, say, finance, and don’t have a trust fund to get you through your fledgling years. I think Brookfield should zone in favor of the affordable housing so that young professionals have a place to live.

EDIT: I got the following email from Mr. Kurfehs and I wanted to share his comments:

Hi Vinti,   Saw your blog.  Thanks for saying that I care about the Town—I really do.  On the question of a third story I guess I didn’t explain my position right.  If there is only one extra floor it would be a walk-up.  It would not be attractive to an investor to build such a building in the first place because it would be hard to rent—walk-ups are not attractive and an investor would want more square footage to spread his expense.  It is not really a question of rate on the two story if it never gets built.  Three stories would justify an elevator thus providing better living conditions plus a better incentive to the investor.  Potentially these improved conditions along with competition could provide an affordable rent for young professionals, perhaps even more affordable than the investor trying to recoup costs on a less economical  package.