At 04:31 PM 7/17/97 -0700, you wrote:
>
>Perhaps the sole reason NY is considered extremely expensive to live in
>is because of the cost of renting an apartment.  However, I have friends
>who have gotten incredibly lucky and rent 1 or 2 or 3 room apartments for
>$500-$600.  In Manhattan, in the East Village.  There are great deals to
>be found here, if you don't mind not living on the Upper East Side.
>
>Besides rent, though, NY is not expensive, relative to other cities I
>have lived near/visited.  Food - a range of choices, a range of prices.
>There are more "discount", cheap-o, 10-pairs-of-socks-for-one-dollar
>stores here than possibly anywhere else in the U.S.  Finally, I'd rather
>be poor in New York than rich in Idaho, or Indiana, or Iowa.
>
>Yeah, museum/non-profit salaries suck.  I know that many of these places
>do not have the money to pay adequate salaries, and that's life.  If you
>want to work in this kind of arena, you must accept this.  There's no
>point in complaining about it.
>
>
Dear New York Expert-On-Salaries-That-Suck-And-Life-As-It-Is,

I can't understand why you take the position that salaries are bad, museums
don't have the money, and we just have to accept it.  It isn't written in
stone that museums/non-profits must pay poorly.  I would agree with a
previous poster:  Instead of sitting back and taking what we are given,
museum professionals should take a more active role in local and national
debates on cultural institutions and raise awareness of the real value of
our work.  Unionize?  Who knows? But I would welcome the chance to discuss it.

And, lastly, I would rather live poor in Iowa than rich in New York.

The views expressed are certainly my own.

Peter B. Stevenson
Exhibit Developer
Field Museum/Chicago
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"Everywhere is walking distance if you have the time."
                                        --Steven Wright