See each of the submitted stories below.
miriam rosenstein
Employment
museum fires staff: museum goers and art adversely affected
At the Met Museum, no elevator operators this past Sunday: elevator doors closing on wheel chair occupants, baby strollers. etc, hitting them midway .. no guards in many of the galleries to keep people from touching the paintings and sculptures, etc etc -- not to speak of the miseries to those unfortunate workers who who now have no incomes!
Maplewood, New Jersey
Eugenia Renskoff
Employment
No Work Ever
Hi, I am living in Williamsburgh, Brooklyn. I love New York and would like to remain here, but after suffering through mortgage fraud/foreclosure in GA, being back here has proven harder than I would like. At one point last year, I was homeless, living on the steps of St. Bart's church. I am an author (my novel Different Flags came out a few years ago) and a translator/language teacher. Yet, I can find no work. Maybe it's my age (55), maybe it's the economy. The bottom line is that I seem to have no options. But, unfortunately, I am still alive and need to pay my bills. Eugenia Renskoff
338 Berry Street, Williamsburgh
Josh Holbreich
Employment
Unemployment Benefits Nationwide
Perhaps this is not so uncommon, but as an unemployed journalist, I felt the need to do some research. It seems that 23 states pay out a higher maximum weekly unemployment benefit than New York State's famous $405. Of those 23, only 3 have a higher cost of living (COL) than the Empire State (44th Highest COL). MA ranks one lower at 43, but pays out $900. OK, with the lowest COL pays $392.
David CG
Employment
Odd Jobs - Craigslist
I am helping a friend who is sick and getting treatment in Boston by packing and moving his belongings out of his apartment in BedStuy. I posted an ad on CL, offering to pay 100 dollars to 3-4 people for several hours of work just to pack the place up. I received 92 postings in the last 24 hours - not just from the expected recent grads, musicians and writers, but also from Engineers, Architects, PHDs, Construction Managers, x-Military, etc... I was shocked.
Brooklyn, NY
Trin Frost
Bright
Cleaning
As a disabled female liviing with 3 males I am SO SO grateful to have someone help with cleaing.
Before October she could be hard to get. After Oct.she was more available. Recently it seems she is busier. Good for her, bad for me.
Nell
Commerce
uncommon drinking habit indicators
I live in Brooklyn and own a rock and roll tiki bar in the East Village (Otto's Shrunken Head). Traditionally people went to bars as a meeting place, a kind of town hall. Today people are still coming in to celebrate and commiserate, however the purchasing is different. Top shelf whiskey, tequila, vodka... and imported beer sales are down. And the sale of cheaper domestic (ie $3 PBR) beer and well drinks is quite noticeably on the rise. Also, bartenders will tell you that regulars are still tipping, but the weekend warriors that only come in occasionally are either not tipping or tipping less.
538 East 14th Street, NY NY 10009
The Corrections
Bright
Wrong, Wrong, Wrong...
The whole Atlantic Avenue piece by "Gaye Leslie, Wednesday, September 9 2009" is completely wrong. Lisanne has not been open in years and the storefront is now Betty Bakery which is owned by the same owners. Downtown Atlantic is still going strong. The bizarre rant about the diner on the Smith and Bergen is just delusional. Sounds like she's depressed and disconnected.
Greg
Employment
uptick
I've noticed a slight uptick or should I say improvement in the amount of temp work that I'm doing--not fully recovered yet from the depression myself, but seeing some signs of light at the end of the tunnel.
My work as a musician is still pretty flat and has always been a clear barometer of the overall economy conditions.
Evan Player
Housing
Under Construction, Again
Construction seems to have resumed in a lot of the Williamsburg condos that were idle all summer.
tom
Commerce
hard to tell through just observation
i know the economy is bad, but something like the store "life is good" in Hoboken, never did well and failed to 'not belonging in Hoboken' . the store was an outcast from the beginning and never did well. point being, some of these places were going to close in the first place.
Nina
Employment
wonderful nanny available
It seems that everyone in my neighborhood is looking to place their wonderful nanny. We recently told our own sitter that we might need to reduce her hours drastically. We told her she should take some time to think about what she wanted to do. She said she didn't need to think about it, she was staying with us. She knows how many sitters in the area are looking for work. Fortunately, we wont have to reduce her hours after all.
Jackson Heights, NY
Anne
Behavior
School Choice
I have a child at one of New York's most sought-after public elementary schools. In the last year, its population has increased by more than 10%, including going from 7 kindergarten classes to 9. At the same time, it is much less diverse than when we first got acquainted with the school and its community 5 years ago. Similar to what happens when a cold front runs into warm, it rains. Hard. Between the real estate boom and the financial market crash, all the new people in the neighborhood who are panicking are wealthy finance professionals and corporate CEOs who, in the past, would have sent their kids to one of the many elite private schools nearby. Now we have to deal with their sense of entitlement toward their kids and anger that they have had to cut back. Wait until they discover their weakness before the Department of Education...
Anne Percoco
Behavior
Repaired Things
After reading an article in the Boston Globe titled "The Duct Tape Economy", about how repair and maintenance businesses have started thriving as a result of the recession, I began collecting pictures of things that have been repaired, and have organized them as a blog. I have taken some of these photos, but most were sent to me by other people.
I see these repairs as small acts of creativity and resourcefulness and gestures of self-sufficiency. They are often surprisingly beautiful as well.
Boston Globe Article:
http://www.boston.com/business/articles/2009/04/27/the_duct_tape_economy/
Repaired Things blog:
http://repairedthings.wordpress.com
Fanwood, NJ
Professor Frederick Douglass Opie
Commerce
Police Called over Costco Food Coupon Fight
I am a regular Saturday morning grocery shopper at the Costco in Yonkers. I inquired at the entrance about if the store had the coupons that they mail out to all members. An employee said yes, “they are like gold man!” He repeated the phrase emphatically, “they are like gold!”
[Editor's note: you can read about the arrest incident on his blog: http://frederickdouglassopie.blogspot.com/]
20 Stew Leonard Dr, Yonkers
Kelly Kwedar
Commerce
More empty storefronts con't
A laundry in park slope is closing after 52 years. More neighborhood history goes poof.
60 7th avenue, Brooklyn, NY
Kelly Kwedar
Commerce
More empty storefronts
A laundry in park slope is closing after 52 years. More neighborhood history goes poof.
60 7th avenue, Brooklyn, NY
cynthia ehrenkrantz
Behavior
jewish new year calendars
It's Rosh HaShanah this week, the Jewish New Year and I am usually inundated with calendars. Some raise money for charity and others come from businesses. This year, I haven't received even one and am going to have to go out and buy one.
bonnie
Employment
sign of the times
on my way back from a museum I stopped for a Tasty d lite. In the 5 minutes it took to eat my treat, two people came in to fill out an application for employment. The owner asked the applicants not to fill out the applications in the store. Why? Because there were so many of them there would be no room for patrons!
245 madison ave, nyc, ny
Phil Bernstein, Esq.
Bright
College kids do web fundraising to pay for school.
I have a story to pitch. It involves the grand-daughter, Chautauqua Henderson, of a good friend of mine who is a black women and retired US Army veteran. The grand-daughter has over come a great deal of economic and personal adversity to get into college but, because of the recession she is having trouble paying for it - so she set up a web site for fund-raising for friends, family and even kindly strangers to help out. Apparently there is a company that helps people and organizations do this. It appears that the company makes some money from it as well. Hopefully they are not taking advantage of the kids. This may make an interesting story for WNYC or even NPR. Thanks & be well.
bill subik
Behavior
i don't have an indicator. but i have a question about the spot you run. when the couple say that they're on the the corner of myrtle and knickerbocker, they see a 23 ft high---------- ---------? i can't ever figure out what they're saying ! what are those 2 words?
