Urban Living and Decorating

There's an alternative weekly here in Columbus that recently began a column called "Urban Manifesto". Please. It's not urban and it's certainly not a manifesto. It's amazing what some people consider urban living. For instance, there are some new condominiums going up downtown which are being advertised as being for people who like to live where they work. The prices start at $450,000. Actually, the advertising may be right on, if you don't count the janitors and waitresses and office clerks, because since Columbus is the capital of Ohio there are a lot of lawyers and overpaid government bureaucrats. But to me that's not the kind of urban living that would be covered by a manifesto. I myself don't actually live right downtown, but I think the way I live puts me in touch with more issues of urban living that someone who lives ten floors up in a $450,000 condominium.

For example, one of the first columns of "Urban Manifesto" was about IKEA. I'm sorry, but the vast majority of people who are attempting to make a home for themselves in the downtown or inner city area are more likely to decorate in the cast-off cool style. And those in the know already know that Target's IKEA knock-offs are even cheaper that IKEA, and attainable, considering that IKEA's closest stores are in Illinois and Pennsyvania. A much better article would have been about how inner city inhabitants make do with thrift store finds and occasional IKEA left-overs from college students. And the bottom line is, for the most part they have more important things to worry about.

Writing about furniture and decorating reminds me of how college students made do (and still do) when I was in college, and it made me realize that at least part of the reason why I like living where I do is that it reminds me of that period in my life, when no one really cared if you had the latest fashion or the most expensive whatever.

Welcome to Urbia!

Welcome to Urbia! It was either this or "Urban Alchemy"; I got that idea from a book titled "Suburban Alchemy". But I didn't really want to use that, even though I like the sound of it and the idea, because most of the idea was the author of the book's (I guess---well, at any rate, it wasn't mine). But, "Urbia", that's all mine, probably with good reason, because it kind of sounds like a burp when you say it, but the thing is, when I got to thinking about it I couldn't help but wonder why we have the word "suburbia" but not "urbia"? I kind of like it; and besides, I'm sick of the word "urban". Muse: What connotations does the word "urban" have?