Craigslist Experiment Monday August 7, 2006

My first foray into the craigslist world start at 9:30am holiday Monday morning. By 3:00pm my inbox looked like this.

I shit you not, by 9:00pm it was 20 emails deep of people looking for a room in Calgary. My expectations where for maybe 5-6 respondents. Now I have to narrow a list of 15 potential roommates down to 1. The great roommate search of ‘06 has turned into America’s Next Fucking Top Model. I might have to set-up a little judging booth and tear up head shots of each unsuitable candidate.

Contestant #1, there’s no e in Connor. Learn to spell. You’re gone!
Contestant #3, So you’re a stripper and enjoy pillow fights in your underwear. Welcome to the second round.
Contestant #10, You also enjoy pillow fights in your underwear. You’re also a 40 year old Greek man. You’re gone!
Contestant #13, if given a chance you’d burn Edmonton to the ground. Ah shit! You complete me.

In all seriousness though this situation is a little stupid. Come on, who says there’s a rental crisis in Calgary? All those reports on the news are crap! There’s plenty of room for the homeless. What’s the problem with the all those fucking bums in Calgary! Think about this, I posted this on a holiday Monday and I only posted on Craigslist-Calgary, which has a very small and internet exclusive readership. I did this intestinally to narrow down the target audience. Imagine if this was posted in the Herald on a Saturday?

Worse of all at least three of the emails I received began with the lines I have been sleeping on my friends couch for the past few months. Really sobering stuff. And we are not just talking about laborers or sociology majors either; we are talking about full-time working professionals. (Graphic Designers, Photographers, Servers and Management Students) I’m sorry but the housing situation in this city is beyond ridiculous. Bare with me as I get on my soapbox for a second, but when the media gets it’s knickers all tied up in knot about 3,426 homeless individuals, realize that count doesn’t include the individuals living on people’s couches or the working poor bouncing from house to house until they find a permanent address. That census count only concerns itself with the visible homeless (people utilizing shelters, c-train cars and others non-profits), I can guarntee you the real homeless population is double or three times larger than that.

I guess that went from a fairly humourous post to a rant pretty quickly. Sorry about that.

Categories: The-Humourous, The-Urban, The Blogosphere, The Inane

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