Years ago: Pontiac, Mich.

I was a college undergrad for years. So I moved around quite a lot, up to 0-4 times a year. Most of my roomies liked having me around; alas, that doesn't pay the bills. 

Usually I couldn't afford to not live with my parents, not until the mid-1990s. Paying for a car and food and rent, let alone utilities, was just too much. 

~ Income ~

For years, I earned Michigan's minimum wage, which was $3.35/hour from 1986 onward. I want to say until the 90s; FRED says it went up to $5.15 by 1998! 

Not a living wage, most certainly. 

(I'd been doing temp jobs from 1988-91, and in 1993, so my wages would've been higher. Probably as much as double. I clearly recall my final assignment in 2001 for Kelly Services. I said I could not afford to make only $9.00/hour for more than the fortnight* they claimed it'd last.) 

I remember getting over $6/hour at Kinko's [1997-98] for the 1.5 years I worked there. When I was with Kinko's, I lived in Rochester Hills, and Oxford, Michigan. 

Neither place had maps with the Mapping Inequality site, unlike the city of Pontiac, which makes sense. The Michigan maps they have are for all the cities, like Lansing and Detroit. 

~ My zones ~

In 1988, I moved out for the first time. I lived on Oliver Street in Pontiac, which means I was in a blue zone, or "still desirable" according to the redlining map. Just south of the Pontiac Fiero plant. 

In 1990-91, I was on East Tennyson, where we used the dirty bookstore at the end of the street as a landmark for directions. In 1994, I was on East Chicago. 

Both of these were yellow zones, aka "definitely declining" by the map codes. 

In 1995-96, I was on Melrose, a redlined zone. 

My apartment complex off Perry -- which my then-boyfriend called Plywood Townhomes, back in 1994-95 -- isn't in a colored zone. It's between a yellow and a red zone. Nor was the house I'd lived in briefly on Walton. [In early 1996, I think.] That house is on the edge of the Pontiac map, in another uncolored area. 

Fifty or sixty years later? Some of those homes are in seedy areas. The homes on Tennyson and Walton, and probably Chicago, aren't so bad. 

And we could order pizza for that apartment, after moving in during August 1994, for a couple months. The same pizza joint wouldn't deliver after that. Apparently Plywood Townhomes had too many robberies in or nearby. :/ 

Inspired by this 2016 redlining article over at NPR. 

= - = - = - = - = - = - = - = - = 

* After that assignment, Kelly Services fired me. 

Probably because the client was mad I had left; they'd assumed they could have me indefinitely. [I'd taken better-paying work with another agency.] The client was an OEM supplier in Automation Alley... 

I'd also informed the client that I was leaving, since no one at Kelly wanted to. 

If you wanted to get paid the same week, you got your timecard signed by the client. The Kelly office had breezily told me they'd handle it, but my recruiter wasn't in that week. Which meant I wouldn't get paid on time. Like most people, I had regular bills, and, "Gosh, I didn't get paid on time!" doesn't cut it...