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Uncommon Economic Indicators

The Brian Lehrer Show's online and on air collaborative project on the economy

Housing

Snow

Story submitted by: Mark Kalan

Tuesday, February 10 2009

413 Storms Rd. Valley Cottage, NY 10989

We've stopped paying to have our driveway plowed. If our Honda CRV can't get up the driveway we leave it at the bottom and hike up to the house. Luckily we have a set of concrete steps that we can shovel by hand.

Are people fleeing the city?

Story submitted by: Jordan

Monday, February 9 2009

Court St. and President St. Brooklyn

I live in a great 2 bedroom in Carroll Gardens, large rooms, high ceilings, low rent, the works. The kind of place people would kill for in the past. But it's almost impossible to find someone to move in. My posts on craigslist are buried under 20-30 similar or cheaper posts within the hour and get only 2-3 replies, many of whom never show up to look. Those that do tell me there are countless options to chose from. Friends have no leads. 4 people I know are moving out of NY to somewhere cheaper (including my brother, a commodities trader). This is not the competitive, seller's market I remember. I wonder when I can head over to my landlord's and renegotiate my rent.

Dear Potential Tenant

Story submitted by: Zack

Wednesday, February 4 2009

25-23 31st Ave Astoria

I found this letter slipped under my door the other day. (See attached.)

Uptick of homelessness

Story submitted by: Frank

Monday, February 2 2009

Jackson Heights-Roosevelt Avenue -74th Street Station

There is a sudden uptick of homelessness especially visible at the Jackson Heights 74th Street/Roosevelt Avenue subway station. We had one resident homeless guy who I think we were all very tolerant of but recently that number has risen close to double digits.

The Team Enters...

Story submitted by: Russell

Friday, January 30 2009

For a couple of years I've been slowly creating an absurdist narrative loosely based on A Pilgrim's Progress and the crumbling economy around us.

Homes for Sale

Story submitted by: Jax

Friday, January 30 2009

120-55 Queens Boulevard Kew Gardes, Queens 11424

The New Depression--toxic mortgages are the eye of the economic storm.

Unshovelled sidewalks

Story submitted by: Severn

Thursday, January 29 2009

287 22nd Street

You can spot the stalled renovation and construction projects in my neighborhood because the sidewalk remains unshovelled for days after a snowstorm.

NICE LANDLORDS

Story submitted by: Michael

Thursday, January 29 2009

Brooklyn

My partner and I received about a 25% pay reduction at our respective jobs. This made our rent in Carroll Gardens really difficult to meet since we basically live paycheck to paycheck. We explained our situation to our landlord and she was nice enough to reduce our rent the same amount indefinitely. TALK TO YOUR LANDLORDS, they can be reasonable!

WNYC is an organization committed to the highest journalistic ethics and programming standards and to independent, noncommercial journalism, both in fact and appearance. Stories submitted by project collaborators that appear on WNYC’s Brian Lehrer Show crowd source reporting pages are anecdotal in nature and should not necessarily be expected to achieve the journalistic standards of WNYC.