1. United States
2. La.
3. Letter

My mortgage went up two hundred dollars this month, yet again raising my cost of living. I work in the film industry but thanks the the state legislature and the Super Bowl/Mardi Gras there are no jobs coming here till at least the spring. I haven’t worked since the summer. My union sent out notice of a stagehand job with the superbowl setting up stages for the halftime show that pays a whopping twelve dollars an hour! The NFL is a multi billion dollar organization putting on an event with a halftime show sponsored by Apple, a multi billion dollar company, with a multi millionaire performer at the helm. With all supposed economic impact the superbowl will bring all they can muster is a paltry twelve bucks an hour? This city can’t do anything right, it can’t protect us from vehicle attacks, murders, building collapses, it can’t hold greedy, contractors, accountable, it can’t repair its crumbling infrastructure, it can’t seem to do anything right. It can’t even repair my broken sewer, clean out that sewage and water board damaged while making repairs to a sinkhole caused by Entergy. I have to bear the brunt of the cost of this roof, which will ultimately save the insurance company money when the inevitable storm comes, but I Have to gamble on how much I will even get back at the added expense of fortifying my roof. My cost of living here is insane, I have no work, I can’t afford insurance, I can’t afford basic necessities like food, and the only jobs I’m getting offered pay so little that they are not worth doing. What’s the point of attracting the Super Bowl to the city when they can’t even pay the people that live here a living wage to work one of the most high profile events of the year, which will bring in billions of dollars? I have lived here over 20 years now, and in that time nothing about my life here has gotten any better. It’s only gotten more expensive, I’ve made less money overtime, and it’s just gotten harder and more dangerous to live here. It is absolutely pathetic that the best job offer I have right now is a cattle call to work the Super Bowl halftime show for $12 an hour, a stagehand job that should pay three times that, one that should be organized by IATSE local 39. It is beyond disgusting that the city allows one of the most profitable organizations in the country to step into our city and offer poverty wages to its citizens because “it will be a fun experience“ to work an event like this. This is a stagehand job, setting up staging for one of the most watched events on television, and some of the wealthiest companies in the world can barely throw pennies at us. This is the city that you govern, a city, with no jobs, outrageous insurance, outrageous, taxes, no quality of life, no security, no reasonably functional infrastructure, no opportunity, With only the possibility of going destitute and losing everything. Thanks for nothing.