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The “Berliner” Attitude

In my previous blog post (number 4) I discussed the difficulties Dayton, Ohio faced surrounding the Recession of 2008 and how the poor communities in Dayton were hurt. Berlin, Germany was also affected by the worldwide Recession, but not in the way one might think. According the Berliners themselves, many didn’t notice much of a change; “The city wasn’t doing terribly well even in the good times. It has become used to a pour economy and didn’t have very far to fall” (McGrane). This is weird to think about, that a city would not be very concerned about a faltering economy. However, this is where Berlin’s unique attitude comes in. People in Berlin are quite different from what Americans might expect. They pride themselves on this poor and grimy image, even going so far as to say that it gives the city character; “The city thrives on its grungy, unkempt image, one that Mayor Klaus Wowereit immortalized in his 2003 comment that Berlin is ‘poor but sexy'” (McGrane).

It is not that Berlin was not affected by the Recession either. In fact, during 2009 and in the height of the recession ” some 15 percent of city residents are unemployed, a number much lower than it has been in recent years. In some central Berlin districts, the jobless percentage is over 20″ (McGrane) These seem like huge numbers, and the poor in Berlin are suffering, but Berliners just aren’t very preoccupied with it. They see recessions as a natural part of any economy which will go through cycles of growth and decline. “In August 2015, the unemployment rate in Berlin was 10.7 %” (EURES), seeming to show that Berliners were right in their assumptions that recessions are part of Economic cycles.  It is interesting to see this differing perspective, and how optimistically Berliners seemed to handle the Great Recession. Despite Berliners notoriously being blunt and rude, they seemed to handle the recession better than most Americans. Berlin is truly an enigma in city culture.

Dayton, OH is my home-city and is the birthplace of aviation (the wright brothers were born and lived here). Though I love my city there are issues facing it, especially poverty issues. During the Recession of the early 2000s, poverty increased starkly; ““Between 2007 and 2008, the Dayton Area United Way experienced a 240 percent increase in its Food Pantry Visits; a 220 percent increase in Basic Needs Calls for food, housing, material resources, temporary financial assistance and transportation; and a 160 percent increase in ‘other needs calls’ for such things as legal services, income security and mental health care counseling” (McCormack). This was largely due to offshoring of Dayton Jobs. The Recession, and offshoring of Dayton Jobs, led to over 30,000 Dayton jobs being directly lost and over 100,000 jobs that were indirectly effected (McCormack). Ohio is a center of Manufacturing for Ohio and employs hundreds of thousands of people for jobs related to it.  Therefore, the recession severely hurt Dayton jobs and led to a stark increase in poverty.

Dayton is combating this poverty by maintaining their food pantry, shelter, and job finding resources, as well as by remaking their economy. Dayton still is home to manufacturing, but are moving towards businesses related to logistics. Dayton lies right along a major highway intersection where millions pass by the city each day. This makes Dayton a perfect place to move products across the country for other businesses, especially foreign businesses. This is why Dayton is trying to become a center for product movement, commonly referred to as logistics. Dayton hopes to rebuild and recover from it’s job loss through remaking its economy in this way.

McCormack, Richard. “A GM Factory With 2,100 Workers Closes, And 33,000 Other People Lose Their Jobs — Impacting 120,000.” Manufacturing News. Web. 30 Sept. 2015. <http://www.manufacturingnews.com/news/10/0112/GM.html>.

Blog Assignment #3: A First Experience With Rowing Competition

For this assignment I attended a friend from Dayton’s rowing tournament. This was the first rowing tournament that I had ever been to and it was quite interesting! The first thing I noticed was, even though the tournament was for rowing, the tournament was indoors. Contestants had little bike-like machines and looked like they were just exercising at first glance. But every rowing-machine was hooked up to this screen that had little boats on it to see how fast you were rowing relative to all the other contestants (as shown in a picture above). It was great because my friend ended up having her personal best performance and came in second!

What was even more interesting was watching the contestants competing in the boating tournament. I have heard my friend talk about how physically strenuous and difficult it is, but this can be difficult to see at first when you are watching someone on a machine. It was often hard to tell who was in first (even when it was listed on the board), because they all look like they are moving similarly on the machines. However, the difficulty of the sport was apparent as soon as the race ended. Racers would often fall off the machines as they finished and their coaches would have to help support them as they walked back to their team’s bench. Every single race there would be someone who broke down crying at the end (even when they won). It was interesting to witness the intense culture surrounding this sport and just how seriously every teammate takes the sport. This event left me eager to see another race!

My Journey to the Ohio Theatre

My first blog entry explored the ways in which art and media were represented in cities; I explored how art is often greatly represented in cities and helps embody city-culture. My first visit to the Ohio Theatre happened this weekend, as well as my first time seeing a live professional musical, and I can easily classify this as another example of the arts being greatly represented in cities (especially since the Ohio Theatre is in the heart of downtown Columbus right by the State House).

The Ohio Theater is symbol of art’s importance to Ohio Culture. In fact, it is known as the “Official Theatre of the State of Ohio.” This “historic 1928 movie palace was saved from demolition in 1969 and completely restored. It was declared a National Historic Landmark in 1977” (Wikipedia). Ohio’s dedication to preserving this cultural art center shows the importance it has in the history of city culture. Inside everything from the walls, to the cielings, to the chairs, were extremely ornate and showed just how much money people spent on movies and theater performances.

I chose to look at this experience from the angle of diversity of culture; the Ohio Theatre showed me how theaters can be used to expose people to varying cultures. Perhaps the reason people love theaters, movies, musicals, and plays so much is because they help us to better understand varying people and varying cultures. The Sound of Music was a perfect example of this (this being the musical I went to see). By seeing this musical I was shown the cultural struggles many Austrians were dealing with as WWII began to unfold. I began wondering if I would have understood the identity crisis Austrians were dealing with, had I not seen this musical which showed it to me. Therefore, as this experience has shown me, arts should not be underestimated in their ability to be useful cultural centers in cities, and arts can also be powerfully effective tools in educating people on the struggles of diverse cultures.

Citation

(I apologize that I could not get a better shot of the building, it was dark outside so my girlfriend and I took a picture of ourselves by a piece of art in the lobby. I also took two other pictures of artwork that seemed okay to photograph)

My picture is of a piece of art found in the lobby of the Columbus Museum of Art which is found in the heart of Columbus on E Broad Street. This museum is quite old and was first formed as the Columbus Gallery of Fine Arts in 1878. In fact, it was the first art museum in Ohio that registered its charter with the state of Ohio. Though it is old, it looks quite modern thanks to the variety of donations it receives. What attracted me to this place was how it looked both old and modern; this was reflected in the artwork itself as well. The museum was also very lively with people of all ages which made the area attractive (it was a free admissions night to the museum). There were people talking, networking (older individuals), eating in a ballroom area, and many individuals seemed to be truly taking in the art and moving throughout the galleries slowly.  Donations are a significant form of income for the museum. In fact, there were entire sections of the museum dedicated to Wexner and his contributions to the museum (for those who don’t know Wexner owns Limited Brands, Victoria Secret, Bath & Body Works, has his name everywhere and owns the wexner center at OSU, and went to OSU).

Museums of art are really only ever seen in cities. It makes sense because cities are centers of culture, and art museums are centers of art-culture. Museums, like this one, are also found inside of cities because there are vast amounts of people to view the artwork compared to places in more rural areas. This museum currently serves as a center for art primarily in Columbus, however it also incorporates art from all over the world; I even saw a few Picasso’s! I learned that many exhibits were also created through donation.

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