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Why Lancaster: Becky Svendsen
08.20.09 // Posted in Lancaster, Why Lancaster
During the month of August we will be posting answers to the question WHY LANCASTER?
Becky lives on Lemon street and works as a grant writer for Hope International. She loves watering her plants and making pots.
Why Lancaster?
Why Lancaster? Because I had no choice. At least initially. I moved to Lancaster to work with one of the country’s most incredible nonprofits, so my move felt like an act of personal sacrifice. At a time when I would have loved to move all my worldly possessions to a far-off place like Seattle or Mexico City, I found myself, two hours from where I grew up, moving boxes into a solitary apartment in an old house in Willow Street. No offense Willow Street residents, but I wasn’t happy there.
Months later, though, I moved into a happy little row home in the city, and over the course of a year, Lancaster has grown on me. While visiting friends recently in Seattle and Colorado Springs, two places that seemed to be natural fits for my personality, I even found myself compiling a mental list of reasons why I liked Lancaster better. So what caused the switch? Lancaster is a beautiful city full of a million small wonderfulnesses – an abundance of trees, few chain restaurants, photogenic buildings, arts and culture galore, and plentiful free parking. But I think my favorite Why Lancaster is simply because people really like it here. I’m realizing that so much of what I love about this city is a result of the love other people have already poured into it.
I grew up in a town no one liked. A dried-up industry hub now home to the descendants of former slate miners and Italian immigrants, the community wasn’t so much low income as it was low-morale. Creepy gray mountains of slate slag piled around the main road set the tone for a sad, frustrated town most kids leave as soon as they get the chance. With our city the butt-end of jokes from throughout the region, hometown pride was infinitely lacking from people of all ages, and the trendy concept of “community” never seemed to stick. People use mean names for people who sit on their porch. Many families making decent money only can because they spend hours each day commuting into New Jersey and New York. One of the area’s only successful festivals, held every fall to showcase art from local public schools, will probably shut down this year because no one is willing to pay for public restrooms for the event.
The people of Lancaster love their city – and it’s refreshing. Theirs is not the same love/pride New Yorkers have in the greatness and grittiness of their city. It’s not the love/pride of Californians and their sunshine, Texans and their bigness, or Las Vegans and their wildness. It’s a pride that’s really more like gratitude. It’s a love that comes from choosing to be content in a place that has everything, or even more, than we really need. The people of Lancaster show their love by buying local tomatoes, hosting cool events, speaking up at council meetings, going to the library, and planting gardens and window boxes in good and bad neighborhoods alike.
Lancaster is no Utopia – we’re not immune to the problems all cities will draw. But we understand that focusing only on the imperfect and the undone shows disrespect for the progress that others have made before us. So we make our lives here, and we find ourselves liking what comes from it. I think I like it too. That’s Why Lancaster.1|2|3|4|5|6|7|8|9|10|11|12|13|14|15|16|17|18|19|20|21|22|23|24|25|26|27|28|29|30|31|32|33|34|35|36|37|38|39|40|buffy the vampire slayer sexy
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2 Comments so far
2 Responses to “Why Lancaster: Becky Svendsen”
4:29 pm on August 20th, 2009
One of my favorite answers so far. You’re a great writer!
5:37 pm on August 20th, 2009
Amen! Here’s to gardens!!