|
|
|
Students strive to stay in city
May 20, 2009 3:40 PM
|
||
|
As the end of their schooling approaches, many SF State graduates are hustling to stay in a big city ripe with opportunity. But multiple jobs and cramped living situations are sometimes the only options for graduates when the city price tag is out of reach. Notorious for its high cost of living, San Francisco has also been named the "Best City for Young Professionals," according to Forbes magazine. The publication proclaims that the city has an "abundance of high-salaried positions in some of the finest big and small business in the country" and attracts the most "elite school graduates." San Francisco also ranked the fifth "smartest" city in the nation, with 43 percent of residents over 25 having a bachelor's degree or higher. College graduates prefer San Francisco because of its favorable job prospects. She currently has an unpaid internship for ABC television station, a job she says gives her a first hand look at her prospective field of work. "Here is where I need to be for the opportunities," said the 21-year-old. "I'm finally established here after four years and packing up is not something I want to do." To keep her rent at an affordable $350, she shares a large living room with two friends. "It's a whole sense of pride just to know that I can do it," she said. In a time of economic hardship, many students are faced with the temptation of free rent and comfortable accommodations that come with moving back home. Jay Ly, like Paradero, is fighting to not take that offer. He not only prefers the business market of San Francisco to his native Los Angeles, but also the restaurants and cold, foggy weather. This determination forces him to work two jobs teaching elementary school kids while he looks for an additional job that uses his college expertise in business information systems. "I just want to find a job so I don't have to go to a place where you need AC all the time," he said. "I'm just going to keep looking and working hard so I can stay up here." The 23-year-old has been up until 3 a.m. every day of the final weeks of the semester due to his busy schedule. Kathryn Elizabeth Styer Martinez shared Ly's end-of-year experience of late nights balancing school and work. Martinez just finished a framed drawing of a Chicano domestic worker for the final project of her La Raza degree. American and Mexican flags serve as the backdrop for the painted portrait of a proud-looking, middle-aged Latina woman. The piece attempts to put the "ordinary" woman, whom Martinez interviewed, on the pedestal of a national figure. Also a political science major, Martinez is staying in San Francisco because it is the "most politicized" city in the country and the best place to work with immigration and Latino culture issues. She is trying to get a grant for a community oral history project from the city's many Latino organizations but, if unable, will continue to work at bike shops for a living. "There is no way I could do as much work in the Central Valley," said the 23-year-old. She was even called "country mouse" by her friends. Over her four years studying at SF State she has come to love San Francisco and its diversity. "This is the best place in the nation for me to be," she said.
»
|
ADVERTISEMENT
COMMENTS
POST A COMMENT
| |
|
|
|
 |
||
 |
|
|
 | ||
| BACK TO TOP | Copyright © 2008 [X]press | Journalism Department - San Francisco State University |
The undeniable consequences of unfettered illegal immigration, illustrates the terrible burden placed on Californians with a crushing budget meltdown. A time back city councilor Andronovich stated, " $ 11. billion can be attributed to every illegal alien, who slips across the border." Annually the cost of illegal immigration to Los Angeles County taxpayers exceeds one billion dollars, which includes $220 million for public safety, $400 million for health care, and $500 million in welfare and food stamps allocations. Public Social Services also shows that children of illegal aliens in Los Angeles County collected more than $21 million in welfare and more than $22 million in food stamps in March 2009 -- an increase of $1 million from the previous month, according to a news release from Los Angeles County Supervisor Michael D. Antonovich. In addition Twenty-four percent of the county's total allotment of welfare and food stamp benefits goes directly to the children of illegal aliens born in the United States he indicated. But that's just Los Angeles County? That's the awful quagmire of taxes of forced mandates. REMOVE THE STIGMA OF SANCTUARY CITIES & STATES OF WHICH CALIFORNIA HAS IMPLEMENTED AGAINST FEDERAL LAW.
It is estimated 3 to 4 million foreign nationals have illegal settled in this county alone. What about the rest of California? How about the the liberal stronghold of San Francisco, where illegals criminals are sheltered, and where a drained city treasury can still find hundreds of thousands of dollars to issue illegal ID cards. How about the mandatory taxes extracted from every American nationwide? The people will no longer accept higher taxes to support illegal immigrants and their families, who have strained the both federal , county and state funding. The reservoirs of money supposedly to pay for medical care, education and government to benefit citizens and residents in California have been paid out instead to illegal immigrants. The dire cash problems in California shows years of neglect by its legislators, who have genuflected to the business communities.
Analyst Robert Rector of the Heritage Foundation found high school-dropouts-who headed households pay an average of $9,700 a year in taxes but collect an average of $32,138 a year in benefits. Overpopulation should be a major concern in the state. Only the nocturnal drivers are free over traffic clogs. In a third year of drought, this is the time to enact in California, the illegal alien extraction tool called E-Verify. Only the predatory businesses refuse to identify foreign workers with this excellent successful program. Only the corrupt members of Sacramento’s state assembly have not made it a permanent law, that should be used for all American workers. Only Sen.Harry Reid, majority Speaker Nancy Pelosi and other mostly Democratic Senators have tried to weaken or kill it’s power to perform. Learn more at JUDICIALWATCH, NUMBERSUSA & CAPSWEB.