Time Flies and Floats.

It's been six -  yikes! - years since my first post on this blog and four since my last.  Part of me wishes I could say my life has changed monumentally. That I've been around the world and back. The truth is, I'm still the same person. My life is different, but not drastically so - and I'm back in Bridgeport.  I returned over a year ago and am "sweating it out" until I leave again.

Whenever I think that living in Bridgeport is really rough (taxes, traffic, etc.) I remind myself that being a business in Bridgeport is terribly tough.  The local Staples office supply chain store closed down about a month ago. Now we have to drive to neighboring towns (with a fraction of the population - but whose residents are less likely to drive to Bridgeport) for a copy job.  I guess Bridgeport residents are not considered office supply "material". This makes sense because there is a myriad of issues to consider when looking to cultivate commerce and produce profits in this sparse economic landscape.  

For instance, the recently closed high-end downtown grocery store geared toward the class of elite loft-dwellers and corporate day-jobbers seemed out of step with the mass of working class, minority, residents. The smattering of lawyers and bankers who get off and on the commuter train are unlikely to spend money in the same city where they earn a living. Ironically, so are the people who live here. For those who are gainfully employed commute out of Bridgeport to work and are just as unlikely to spend money in the same city where they sleep.  I've heard of bedroom communities but now I am becoming more aware of the "bedroom city" and the contradictory nuances of this consumer profile.