Steve Lookner Discusses His Housing Situation
Steve Lookner has a new live stream video on his Lookner channel on YouTube entitled “My Housing Dilemma”:
He’s speaking from the kitchen of his apartment about his housing situation, telling us that he worries about it a lot. While he says he loves doing Agenda-Free TV, there isn’t always breaking news happening. This causes him to be anxious on days when there isn’t breaking news, as he’s then not doing streams, which means he isn’t getting donations from the viewers, which means that he’s not making money. He explains that he lives in Midtown Atlanta, and pays “significant” rent.
Steve talks about how for the fix six months of Agenda-Free TV, he lived in Roswell, Georgia, just north of Atlanta. But he found it too quiet there, and felt too isolated. He also had to drive from his apartment complex to go anywhere.
So he decided to take one year to live in the city, to see how it would work. He has found it more convenient. There’s a gym in the apartment building he lives in, for example, that allows him to work out but still get back to broadcasting on Agenda-Free TV quickly if there is breaking news. Groceries and food are also quicker to get, especially on busy news days. He says the first year is over, and he has just renewed the lease for his apartment in Midtown Atlanta, and now he has to decide what to do.
Steve says he has no anxiety on days with breaking news, but he finds himself getting anxious on other days. He wonders if he should cover more stories, or whether or not he should move somewhere cheaper. He could move somewhere where it’s very cheap to live, but he needs high speed fiber Internet and it’s not always available in some communities. He also needs to be able to stay close by, so he can get on Agenda-Free TV quickly if there is breaking news. He talks about living in Opelika, Alabama for a year. He found it nice, but also too quiet. He also points out that he needs to be in a building with solid walls, so his broadcasting and work doesn’t disturb his neighbors, and he doesn’t want to be able to hear them, either.
This leads to the question he’s facing: should he leave Atlanta for somewhere cheaper, to help with the anxiety and worry about not making money on slow news days?
Somebody in the live chat suggested that he should move to Hawaii. Steve says that his family is in Boston, so he doesn’t want to be too far away from them. He also has some doubts about the speed of the Internet there, as well as how to get his possessions out there if he were to move there. Orlando is also suggested as an option.
Steve mentions that there are other complicating factors. One is that 2020 is an election year in the US. His current Agenda-Free TV studio setup works great, and he thinks it’s risky to move because things might not work as well. He’s also not sure what he’ll be doing in a year.
He says he had considered ignoring the temperature requirement, and moving somewhere very cheap, like Sioux Falls, South Dakota. The Internet download speeds there are fast, but he thought the upload speeds would be too slow for the work he does. Steve talks about how he’s never owned a property, as he’s always moved around a lot and never knew where he was going to be the next year.
Chattanooga comes up as a possible place to move to. Steve says he checked it out before renewing his lease. It apparently has very good Internet, but he also says it seemed too quiet on a weekday when he visited.
Steve ends up cutting the stream short because of a breaking news story that he wants to cover on Agenda-Free TV.
I think that this housing situation is a complex problem to deal with. There are a lot of factors involved that may not be as important for somebody who works in a separate office or building, for example, or for somebody who doesn’t have the high speed Internet requirement that Steve has. Although it’s a short stream, it sure gave me a lot to think about and to consider. I hope that Steve is able to find some arrangement that works, so that he can continue to create Agenda-Free TV and Lookner channel content.
- Karl