Member-only story
When a Gen Z Loses Her Voice and Asks For a Sing-Along
A boomer’s notes on the kindness and new business-as-usual of Next-Gen
Pieces of life conspire to convince us at times, I swear.
Case in Point: My 25-year-old son is in the midst of trying to secure a home in cooperative housing.
Another case in Point: I attended a concert last week at which the entire audience was under 35 and at the outset of the evening, the artist asked them to bear with her as she was unable to sing that night.
Yes, she did — she asked that of them!
More on that in a bit…
Co-op housing
If you’re not familiar with co-op housing, it’s a wonderful thing and we need far more of it.
Some years ago the Canadian government set up funds, and across the country a number of such complexes grew. People fought to pull together community and housing in this way. Essentially, each resident or family pays an initial fee, anything from $700–$3500 as “shares,” and after that the rent is reasonable. Some of these places have been around long enough for the mortgage to be done with, and the “rents” are about upkeep.
A key piece is that every member spends a number of hours each month volunteering, and at times, work parties are set up — a day of gardening, painting, and fence-building. Most of these complexes have a common area for gathering, either with residents’ own family and friends or together with the co-op community. It’s a good way to live, with many advantages.
In my son’s case, he’s a musician, which means two things: he needs to live in the city in order to find enough work… and he needs truly reasonable rent so he can afford to live in the city! While many creatives can live in affordable rural areas or in a campervan, performing artists generally NEED to be urban folks. This comes with a cost.
The problem is that you might spend years — years — applying to co-ops. This means waiting for infrequent windows of time when they’re taking applications for their wait-list. They don’t generally announce such, so you have to be vigilant and habitually cruise through the online sites, watching and waiting, and ready to…
