This post appears courtesy of New Market Wilm, who features a new blog about Downtown Wilmington each and every Wednesday! View the original post here.
Ryan Eanes believes in the power of communication. It’s right there on his web page. Ryan is an assistant professor of business management at Washington College. He’s also the director of the marketing minor. “My approach to marketing begins with this belief—that the decisions we make about the things we choose to consume are driven by communication.”
In March, Ryan wrote an op-ed for The News Journal about his experiences living on Market. It was a piece shared and applauded throughout the Market community – including in our offices down here at New Market Wilm – and we wanted to meet the man behind the story. Turns out, he comes with an insanely cute dog. Bonus.
“I’m from all over. I grew up in North Carolina, right above Charlotte, went to school at Wake Forest, then left for New York. I’d been an intern at the Late Show with David Letterman during college, and I knew that I wanted to do something in media. So I ended up living in Brooklyn for 10 years, and worked for a company that did websites for some pretty well known authors and cable TV hosts.”
“But I got bored and started teaching on the side. I got my masters at the New School, starting teaching as an adjunct, got bit by the teaching bug, and thought, ‘You know what? If I want to do this full time, I have to get some letters after my name.” So I left for the University of Oregon in Eugene. I was there for three years, then got my job at Washington College in Chestertown, Maryland. It’s a teeny, tiny little place. And about a year ago I moved to Wilmington, just to be back near … stuff.”
Passerby: “Sir, is it OK if I can take a picture of your dog?”
“Yes! Please! Now would be a good time, because he’s actually sitting still.”
Passerby: “What kind of dog is it?”
“He’s a Shiba Inu. I got him while I was in grad school, so he’s a west-coast native. He’s what they call a ‘wooly’ Shiba Inu, because he has long hair which, as you can see, is falling out all over the place. If you’re familiar with the “doge” meme from the Internet, same breed. Some people will recognize him from that.”
Passerby: “You have a good day!”
“You too! He gets so much attention, like you just saw. Every time we go out. He has dog walkers while I’m in school, and they’ve started calling him the ‘Mayor of Market Street.’ I was really impressed when I found the BPG buildings, because pretty much all of them are pet friendly. Now he’s used to living in an apartment situation and going for walks. And it’s good for me too – gets me out at least a couple of times a day, out from behind a computer.”
“So where was I? Right. So while I was in New York, I was living in downtown Brooklyn, right as it was in the middle of its own Renaissance. I moved in to one of the high-rises not far from where they built the Barclays Center, where the Brooklyn Nets play. And I got the exact same vibe here on Market Street that I did there – that stuff was happening, things were coming, that now was the time to jump in.”
“But sometimes, I’d still hear people talking about Market, and I guess I just hit a boiling point where I thought, ‘OK, no one is telling the full story. You can’t paint a picture of a place with one broad brush.’ It’s just not possible. Since part of my job as a professor is to collect the facts and interpret the data and report on it, I didn’t see writing the piece as anything much different than that.”