1 Parris Hobbs Interview Transcript Interview date: 04/13/2014 Interviewer: Kyle Pitzer (KP) Interviewee: Parris Hobbs (PH) Kyle Pitzer: Alright...so, it's April 13th, 2014. This is Kyle Pitzer, I'm here with Parris Hobbs. Parris Hobbs: Hello KP: Hello. Interview number 5 in the Occupy Dayton project, so I guess just to start off -- I don't really know that much about you, so can you just kind of give me your background? PH: Yeah, sure. I am from the Dayton area. Went to West Carrolton High School, studied dance at Wright State. Left, was a professional dancer, came back, went to business school at UD and now I work as a banker. KP: What made you want to get into banking? PH: Actually I had a knee injury when I was dancing with St. Louis Ballet, so I moved back home and decided to go to business school. I just wanted to try something different, and I thought maybe I could run like arts companies. and you know a lot of the banks that recruit off campus, so I got a job offer and that was a pretty good one and decided to take it. KP: So how long have you been in Dayton? PH: Back in Dayton? KP: Yeah. PH: Since 2005. KP: So what do you think of Dayton in general? PH: Um, I love it. I think it's a great city. Of course, I'm from here, so I have a lot of ties to the area, but it's a great city. Lots of great people. Wonderful history, and plenty of things to do. There's no beach, but you know -- we got the pool I guess. [Laughs] KP: Where do you live at right now? PH: Right now I live with my partner in Kettering, so kind of by where the Greene area is. 2 KP: Yeah, yeah. What's Kettering like? PH: Kettering is fine. I'm more of a city person, but he had already bought a house there, so when we met we moved in together. I mean, it's nice. Kettering is----they take good care of the area, the streets and things like that. So, I don't have any complaints. KP: How would you say Kettering compares to the other parts of Dayton and the other neighborhoods? PH: I think, I mean it's pretty comparable. If you're looking for a place that has good services in terms of cleaning the streets and things like that, and the taxes aren't outrageous -- then it's a good thing. It's definitely not as expensive as Oakwood or somewhere like, but you still get a pretty good area. So yeah, I like it. KP: Mm, hmm. What about the... are you familiar with the rest of Dayton or any other neighborhoods like that? PH: Yeah, well I grew up in Miami Township area, down in West Carrollton -- so I'm really familiar with that, and I bought a condo down there. So I have some property down there. It's in that, you know, that South Dayton area by the Dayton Mall is pretty nice. Um, but yeah I know Dayton like the back of my hand. I can get around. Downtown, I've worked downtown for a while. I work in Oakwood, so all pretty good areas. KP: Mm hmm, so just to clarify, how old are you? PH: I'm 40 KP: You're 40, and you've lived in Dayton for most of your life, moved away for a little bit, but- PH: Yeah. KP: -you've been back for fairly a while. PH: Mhm, yep. KP: Yeah, how would you say… how would you say Dayton has changed since you've lived here, since your childhood? Since you left and came back and everything? PH: Uh, that's a good question. I spent most of my childhood in the south suburbs, so I wasn't really that familiar with anything besides like West Carrollton-Miamisburg-Kettering areas, but of course a lot of things have changed in terms of- GM leaving was a big thing for that area down there, so a lot of shops have closed up, and it can kind of look kind of scary over there. [Laughs] It's kind of like a ghost town. But, um... Yeah, I think they really try to do a lot with downtown which is nice, because it was kind of dying a little bit. There wasn't a whole lot going on right before I moved to St. Louis. For example, right where the St. Clair lofts are, down there 3 that was just an abandoned building. So I noticed that when I would come back and visit, and definitely they have done wonderful things with the downtown area with all the updated living and then the ballfield and stuff, so I think Dayton is making a comeback, kind of, from the 80's. So it's kind of exciting to watch. KP: What do you mean making a comeback from the 80's? What was going on in the 80's? PH: Well I think that… I think a lot of people, factories and things started leaving when outsourcing happened, and so Dayton was hit pretty hard like a lot of the other cities in the Midwest were. When manufacturing and things like that started moving to China. So it got there for a little that it started looking run-down, there weren't a lot of jobs, and I think then with the crisis and with like the meltdown in 2008 that like precipitated a lot of hard times for Dayton. But I think it's making a comeback in terms of, you know, there's a lot of energetic people, and jobs are starting to come back. They've got that company coming in down where the old GM plant used to be, which will bring a lot of good jobs, so...um...yeah. KP: What about your time in St. Louis? How would you compare that to Dayton? PH: To Dayton? They’re actually really kind of similar cities. Older cities based on manufacturing with probably a lot of the same challenges. St. Louis is a little bit bigger, but they face a lot of the same things that Dayton does; older neighborhoods, trying to get people to move into the city, because a lot of the people want to live out in the suburbs when they start having kids, so I think one thing with St. Louis, they were a little bit ahead of like trying to get young people to move back in downtown and make it fun to live in the city and have a cool music scene and stuff, but I am starting to see that a little bit in Dayton. KP: Mm hmm- PH: But, yeah, the time in St. Louis kind of reminded me a lot of Dayton, just like a bigger version. [Laughs] KP: Mm hmm. Why'd you move back? PH: I was leaving St. Louis Ballet. I was there for 4 years, and then I got a fellowship to go to Mercy Hurst College in Erie, Pennsylvania and I wanted to finish college, because I studied here at Wright State for 2 years- dance- and I wanted to go back and finish school. So, they were like, "We'll pay you if you come up here and dance and finish your arts degree" so that's what I did. I went to Erie, Pennsylvania and then from there I moved back to Dayton and went to U.D. for Business School. KP: Mhm. PH: Been back ever since. [Laughs] KP: So, at what point did you become a banker? 4 PH: Um, and I know this is going to sound funny because I was involved with Occupy Dayton, and I'm also a personal banker, but I'm not like a Wall Street banker. I'm a… I work at a local bank, and help people with their accounts and help people get their finances together, and stuff like that. KP: Yeah. PH: So it's not like the banker you think of that's on Wall Street, because people always were like, "You're a banker and you're with Occupy Dayton? What, isn't that kind of an oxymoron?" and I'm like, "Well, I don't really work on Wall Street". In my defense with that, I think there are a lot of things with the banking industry that need to change. I think there are probably a lot of people that work on Wall Street that think that, but unfortunately everything is controlled from the top. So, we don't get a lot of say at the local level of how things get to run. I worked in financial services, I've been working in financial services for about 9 years now. I started at GE Capital, and started in customer just helping people with their credit card accounts. So it just came naturally to me, and the jobs are available. There are a lot of bank jobs available, and they pay well. It just made sense for me to do that. I like working with people, so I'm on the front line -- I talk to people all day. I try to help them out with their finances. It just kind of stuck, and once you start down a road and get experience, it's just what you're labeled as, so now if I wanted to get out banking- I'd probably have to go back to school for something else.