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Losing The American Dream

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By KRIS DIGIOVANNI

The Tampa Tribune

Published: September 14, 2008

Mornings and evenings, Allie, my retired racing greyhound, and I walk. It's a nice little neighborhood. The oaks are big enough now to shade the sidewalks and attract cadres of squirrels. Kids weave around the quiet streets on bikes and skateboards. Families like to picnic on the weekends in the park where the little ones can swing, and the older ones can play ball on the nearby diamond.

It's a blue-collar neighborhood - lots of carpenters, electricians, roofers, and plumbers. Most of the families here depend on two incomes, so the women work too, as nurses, teachers, office workers, and sales clerks. This morning, I notice sadly that the plumbing company truck that always sits in a certain driveway is still missing. I haven't seen it in a couple weeks. With the housing market, the trades are suffering. A few months ago, I began to notice that there were fewer company trucks in driveways, and more men mowing their lawns on weekdays. There are more mothers in the park with kids during the day. Unemployment, just a number on the nightly news, is a reality here.

Most of the people in my neighborhood don't have lots of money in the bank, and their life savings is represented by the equity in their homes. But from a peak about two years ago, home prices have dropped almost 40 percent. When we bought here three years ago, it was hard to find any home for sale, and most were sold within days of being listed. Now, there are plenty to choose from, including lots of foreclosures, which are driving down prices even more. This morning I saw two new "For Sale" signs. One is on my block - more competition for my own house, which has been on the market for five months now.

It used to be I rarely saw someone standing at the bus stop, but now there is a small crowd there in the mornings. It's too expensive to drive to work anymore. I see men on bikes dressed in work clothes, not shorts.

I used to look forward to walking Allie on trash days, because of the boxes people put out. Sarah and Bob have a new flat screen TV, I'd remark to Allie. The Montoyas bought new patio furniture. Now, boxes from recent purchases are rare. Pizza boxes used to be prevalent also. But now it's not delivery, it's DiGiourno, or Totino's, or Red Baron.

The people in my neighborhood are in trouble. It's even more disheartening to know that my neighborhood is not unique. Across the country, there are millions of people in the same situation. They are people like my husband and me who worked hard all our lives, and believed in the American Dream. We believed our elected leaders would keep the economy strong, and that investing in a home would yield a positive return. We believed that if we gave 110 percent at work, we would have life-time employment. We believed that if we lived within our means and put money away, we would not have to worry about our retirement.

My own husband lost his job in May. Hundreds of resumes later and hours every day spent searching have turned up nothing - even at one-third the salary he was making. He's over 50, which is a death sentence in the computer business, where he has worked all his life. I'm in that bracket too, and after being laid off from IBM, it was impossible for me to find work in the technical sector. I worked hard to earn certifications in elementary education and English 6-12, but despite that, plus passing all the state tests required for teachers with up to three years experience, I was unable to get a teaching contract this year. There were too many better-qualified applicants in the pool. As a sub, I can make $60 a day. It's better than nothing, but there are no benefits, and almost half of what I earn goes to pay for our bare-bones medical insurance.

For my husband and me, along with millions of others, our dream has turned into a nightmare. Our home has lost value, and we can't find meaningful employment. We are dipping into our retirement savings to meet daily expenses. And we're angry. We're angry that we did everything right and yet fell victim to poor decision making by others. The government, the banking industry, the energy producers - they all let us down.

It's an election year, yet I haven't heard anything from either candidate that fills me with confidence about the economy. I haven't heard anything from carmakers or energy producers that leads me to believe they are treating fuel and transportation costs like the emergency they really are. I haven't heard anything from the Fed, or any other monetary or lending agency that reassures me the housing crisis will be over soon. I feel like a small boat on the big ocean being slammed around by huge waves, although when I set sail, the forecast was clear. I have no choice but to hang on tight and have faith that this storm will pass. I hope the weather clears before we sink.

Kris DiGiovanni is a Tribune community columnist and lives in Citrus Park.

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