Courtney Hirsch

Commerce

M.T. Food Store

293 Third Avenue, between 22nd and 23rd Streets

Christopher Caines

Behavior

Avant-garde begging

Three recent sitings, all near 14th Street and Fifth Avenue on the Village/Chelsea border, of imaginative recession-era humor-driven begging strategies:

A young guy, hiphop-stylin', on the move, with a sign on his chest reading: "Keeping it real: Need money for weed" and a small pizza box with a slot in it, with "Donations" written on top attached to the sign.

A sad-looking heavyset woman sitting on a fire hydrant holding up a crude corrugated-cardboard sign that says: "Tired of prostitution. Need money. Please help."

A trustafarian Indie rock type—many tattoos and piercings, scruffy, bearded, Williamsburgian—sitting on the sidewalk holding up another crude corrugated-cardboard sign, this one reading: "Need money for beer. Had to be honest. Please help."

Every New Yorker needs to devise a triage system for beggars. Mine is, I always give money to street musicians (unless their music is unbearably bad, which is rare) and people missing a limb or limbs. So I didn't "donate" to any of these three. But I appreciate their efforts.

near 14th Street and Fifth Avenue on the Village/Chelsea border

kevin

Commerce

parking-lot-office

a few weeks ago, i was walking across the parking lot of a home do-it-yourself building supply store. it was raining, and there was a guy who looked like a contractor sitting cross-legged in the back of his parked pickup truck, with the truck bed cover raised over him -- cell-phone in one hand, notebook in the other -- making his calls. i commented, "nice office!" he said "yeah, well it keeps me dry...."

12th street, 2nd avenue, brooklyn, ny

Pat Hackbarth

Bright

What They Did on Their Summer Vacation

Yesterday I went to donate blood at the New York Blood Center. The technician told me that ordinarily at this time of year there is a big crisis in the blood supply, apparently because so many people are on vacation. But this year, for the first time, they're getting a steady stream of donors. Not so great for the tourism industry, maybe, but a fine thing for accident victims.

310 East 67th Street, New York NY 10065

Fay

Bright

Weak Dollar=New Art Market

I am a full-time emerging artist. In March 2008, before the financial meltdown, I had a solo exhibition at a small Chelsea gallery. My prices were very reasonable, very affordable. Despite my misgivings, I was pressured to raise my prices so that the work could be taken seriously. Apparently, at that time anyways, the price tag had to exceed a certain magical number in order to be desirable.

The show did sell out, but the economy shifted—er, collapsed. I was worried about selling work (my main means of survival), especially with the new higher price tag.

I am now in Paris, with a new solo exhibition opening next week and an art fair next month in Lyon. The weak dollar is my friend, believe it or not: once the price in US dollars was translated into Euros, my prices once again became very modest. Apparently, in this new economy, artwork has to be priced under some magical number to be sell-able.

44, rue Barbet Jouy, Paris, France

Paula Winnig

Commerce

Uncommon Economic Indicator--Puppy Paper

Dear Brian:

Here is my uncommon economic indicator:

The shrinking NY Times Newspaper....

I am a daily subscriber to the NY Times. For years as I saved my newspapers for recycling I was convinced that they, like rabbits, multiplied overnight because I always seemed to have more paper than I could use or lift to put outside for recycling. Then I adopted 3 bichon frise puppies. Eureka! I found a real use for my leftover NY Times. Puppy paper for them to use when they could not go outside! For six years this was a wonderful usage of the paper after having read it of course. While I still had piles of paper left, even after my puppies usage, the stack seemed reasonable. Now....I find I have to beg used newspapers from my friends because the NY Times has shrunk so much, I barely get through a week with just my own paper. No stacks piling up anymore! Clearly the loss of ad copy and the curtailing of sections in the NY Times is impacting my household in unique ways.

Paula Winnig

P.S. I would be happy to bake for a bake sale! I am a monthly sustainer and can't give more right now as I have had my own setbacks in this economy, but I am a great baker and would be happy to help generate additional income for WNYC!

Jennifer

Housing

Patience with the landlord

My landlord has decided to turn off hot water because it's warm outside. For several weeks now, I have been taking cool to cold showers. Although my landlord is a cheap skate, he's never gone to these lengths before. I wrote asking why there's no hot water. No response. I'm letting this go (hoping hot water returns as the weather cools) for a few reasons, including I know times really are tough.

Bleecker St. and MacDougal St.

Yakov Epstein

Employment

Walgreens saves money

Even Walgreen's needs to save money on their advertisements. Have you seen the ads featuring Nancy Marchand talking about how shopping at Walgreen's leaves her more time to walk her dog Daisy? Nancy Marchand has been dead for 8 years. I guess this is saving Walgreen's the cost of paying her royalties.

Mark S

Commerce

Life was good

The hoboken "Life is Good" clothing store closed after a run of just a few months. Apparently it ain't.

Washington and 6th streets, Hoboken, NJ

Eve Birnbaum

Employment

What About Big Law Firms?

So have the big law firms been affected by the meltdown? You bet they have. The AmLaw 100 as the top 100 law firms (by revenue and profits) are known in the industry, have almost all reported decline in revenues and massive layoffs in attorneys and staff - and several have blown up.

I've started a new company, offering law firm management services with an hourly charge and the law firm is only on the hook for a 1-month commitment at any one time. I believe that this is the new model born out of this economy.

35 west 90th St, New York, NY

Miss T

Commerce

Lesser Expectations

Almost two years ago I joined a lottery pool. Our objective: to "pool" our money and when the jackpot reaches 250Mil we'd use the "pool" to purchase a large number of tickets. (Purchasing tickets each week is time consuming, inefficient, and unsuccessful.)

In the first year there were only a few times the Jackpot came close to our target goal, but never reached it. So, just after 14 months, there were a few members suggesting we lower our goal believing we set it too high. Our groups leader decided we should stay true to our mission and keep it at 250M.

This morning, just after 19 months, I got an email from our leader indicating we will now lower our goal to 200Mil.

Union Avenue & Bayard Street, Brooklyn, NY

James Warwick

Commerce

Venture Capital

The sign of a healthy economy is not how much money is going into the stock market, as those are established companies, but rather how much is going to new companies. There is almost no money for start ups and very little for small businesses looking to expand, and without that, there are no new jobs. Without that, the economy will continue to tank.

60 Wall Street, New York, NY

Ruth Shire

Behavior

A ditty for tight times

During WWII we had this bit of philosophy: "use it up, wear it out, make it do or do without"

Mark Hudson

Employment

the "streetsweeper index"

Newly unemployed? The city is likely to greet you with a nice parking ticket your first week home. Street-sweeping is scheduled twice a week in most downtown urban areas. On my street it is one side Thursday 8-10 AM, next side Friday 8-10 AM. Parking by the curb is always tight in this neighborhood, built in the era where "commuting" meant streetcar or horse-and-buggy, so street-sweeping days are always tight for late-risers or out-of-town visitors. But in recent months it has been absolutely packed for blocks around.
Revenues are on the rise from parking-ticket fees: when do we see the trickle-down benefits from that?

AHMED ALI KAHN

Behavior

FEEDING ANIMALS DISOWNED IN THESE BAD ECONOMIC TIMES

In my neighborhood some families stopped feeding their pets because they could not afford to do so becuase of job lost or decrease in the income. I have started feeding these pets as they show in front of my door. This money is my pocket money i get from my parents. I think we should leanr to share to get over with this diffcult times.

3545 wayne street, jersey city nj 07302

Peter T. Daniels

Commerce

McDonald's

Listening to your rebroadcast 8/14, mentioning stealing straws from McDonald's, reminds me that McDonald's has been "rationing" napkins for quite a while -- instead of having them in a dispenser (next to the straws), the counterperson puts a stack on the tray. (And they always give me more than I would have taken for myself.)

Address -- only one McDonald's I've been to recently doesn't do it that way, and I don't remember where it was.

Erica Rex

Bright

Cancer I can't Afford

I can't afford to have breast cancer here, so I'm moving to England, England....

Kathleen A. Kelly

Commerce

Bank economies

I took change, wrapped with my account number diligently written on each roll, to the bank. I had to wait while the teller crossed off the account numbers, because Chase is now reusing the coin wrappers by giving them to other customers.

Broadway & 53rd

GeneGC

Commerce

Checking out the future as the present stinks!

Unfortunately in our neighborhood, there have been a lot of store closings. What I have noticed recently is that every time one of these business closes, a psychic moves in. What that means, I can't quite figure out.

5th Avenue (Bay Ridge), 3rd Avenue (Bay Ridge)

soumiya

Commerce

window stopping

Have you been to Herald Square lately? Done any window shopping? Macy's infamous window displays feature Yarn. Just Yarn. It's piled up or on the skein, with nothing fancy, and a single item sitting atop the yarn pile. In the biggest windows, they've hung those yarn diamonds that kids make at camp- wouldn't be surprised if they were from some employee's kids... Having once worked in retail, and specializing in visual, i feel sorry for them...

Macy's Herald Square