Unemployment, bored kids, crime and penniless in Collier County, Florida

Seems that, over the past couple of weeks, there have been a lot of dumb crimes committed...

Normally, we could attribute summertime crime to kids, boys AND girls, teenagers and young adults as being out of school for the summer. It gets to the last couple of weeks of summer, and these kids are bored of playing video games, "flirting" and hooking up on MySpace, hanging in their bedroom with friends, even going off into the woods to do what illicit things kids often do in secluded (hidden) places during the summertime. (there are no railroad tracks in Collier County for the kids to hang out on, which is probably just as well, although with the overpass, they'll be hanging under bridges before long).

They get tired of boating, fishing, tanning on the beach, Sk8in', gardening, pottery, Harry Pottering and whatever else kids do. Things don't change much, just the group of kids.

This includes the shroom kids(see Got shrooms? THIS guy is shroomin' and he's a local!), even though trespassing *is* crossing a line (literally and figuratively),

BUT, the break-in kids... See: http://free.naplesplus.us/links/click.php?url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.naplesnews.com%2Fnews%2F2007%2Faug%2F01%2Fteens_face_armed_robbery_theft_charges%2F a rash of playstations, jewelry and liquor getting taken out of people's homes -- now THAT'S a lot more than walking on a cowfield, or finding older men and women on MySpace to get them in trouble. [okay, that's bad too]

Even STILL, dragging my point on, the boredom of summer has a lot to do with this.

HOWEVER: Grown men and women committing bank robberies, vandelism and the like... THAT'S due to mostly one thing (outside of having a weak character as a human being):

UNEMPLOYMENT

The laborers are leaving Naples. Day labor folks are heading out to the MIDWEST and some to the north. If the day laborers go, there's a sure sign. Small businesses are getting close to shutting down.

We've moved BACK to being a tourist stop. A lot of regular "joe six pack" folk moved here in the meantime - but overall, now that the boom is no more, and until people start lowering their prices to get people to buy - we're back to:

ALIVE IN THE FALL AND WINTER (brushfire season)

DEAD IN THE SPRING AND SUMMER (rainy season)

My favorite little sign/t-shirt shop (the ones who printed up our beautiful animal trapping T-Shirts for NeighborHelp Referrals' Affordable Trapping (465-9291 - blatent plug) - their t-shirt press broke and they can't get parts. If business doesn't pick up, he's going to go back to regular work and have to shut down a nice business.

It's really too bad.

Things WILL pick up again, but we had gotten accustomed to the boom, and forgot what it was like BEFORE the boom. Run your business in the season, then get a job in the summer.

But the mexican workers leaving town says a lot. They're the first to see what's already gone. It just takes the rest of us a while to realize it too.

If you go to the stores during the day (I do and can because I exclusively work from home - I'm administrative, my brother does the trapping in his big green truck) - you'll see that there are a HECK of a lot of people shopping during the day.

These aren't tourists so much (although we've been getting a lot of tourists from Germany and England and Ireland and Scotland over the past few weeks - must be the season and rates ARE cheaper in the hotels and restaurants and such) -- but people who LIVE HERE. And why are they able to shop during the day?

Either they're working from home like me.

or

They're unemployed.

And unemployment for too long can lead to crime. Blame drugs if you must, but drugs are only some of the reason for some of the crimes. People need money to live. Homeowners have to pay homeowner's insurance. All of the insurance companies renewed their policies before June 1st in order to circumvent the lower prices they are supposed to pass on to us. Mine suddenly renewed our policy on May 17th. Gee, awfully early, wasn't it? $1000 more suddenly. Not the end of the world, but dang, it was a crappy move.

Anyhow, that's my rant for the day.

Bored kids: get thee back to school. Unemployed adults: Stop being so PICKY and get a job already. They're out there, you just don't wanna do what you don't wanna do. Small Businesses: Don't shut down yet. Hold out through the summer. Get a part time job. Network with other businesses (See my great local business lists on this site - look up your zip code and you'll find a TON of locally owned businesses to network with). Work together and you'll get through the summer. You can get competitive again in the fall.

Get our local economy up and running.

Kenneth Udut, webmaster http://free.naplesplus.us/