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Uncommon Economic Indicators

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

Snow Plowing Reduction

Story submitted by: Mary Grunmeier

Thursday, January 29 2009

Hanover Township, NJ

Before snow season started, my town in Morris County NJ announced that they would discontinue a 40 year tradition of plowing parking lots and driveways for churches, private schools, the american legion, the VFW, and so on.

Pay What You Wish Cafe

Story submitted by: Mary Goddard

Thursday, January 29 2009

Olmsteadville, NY 12857

A small, family-owned/operated restaurant in upstate NY (Olmsteadville, NY) has created "Recession Buster Sundays" Scott, the chef, and Theresa, the server, offer their Sunday meals as a "pay as you want". (While their three kids play upstairs with a babysitter). No price is set for any of their Sunday meals and customers pay whatever they wish. They serve what my husband and I consider to be gourmet meals and,by all accounts, wonderful pizza Thursdays through Sundays at their Lucky Leprechaun Cafe.

Credit cards for pizza??

Story submitted by: James Walsh

Thursday, January 29 2009

I often find myself chatting with the local pizzeria owners to gauge the neighborhood business activity- that's what you get when you take a NY born and bread Italian American and put him in North Jersey:)
I recently asked how business was and was taken by surprise to hear his observation that many of his regular customers had switched over to paying for their orders with credit cards.

My instinctual answer to that query would have been to expect cash payments to have gone up as people stray from using credit..

Less overall household money, cheaper food sources like pizza make sense- but so little money that they are increasing credit card usage is a little frightening..

stores closing, banks opening

Story submitted by: Mindy Lewis

Thursday, January 29 2009

91st Street and Broadway New York City

In my upper west side neighborhood, stores have been standing empty for 2, 3, 4 years. Local landmarks, like Embassy Florist on the corner of 91st & Broadway since the thirties, finally closed. After several months, the script signage over the empty storefront was finally removed, leaving a ghost image. Other casualties like Ivy's Bookshop, Liberty House are slowly being sold, and still stand empty. Yet on almost every block, there stands a shiny new bank, the only businesses that seem able to afford the massive rents.

One small business surviving

Story submitted by: Justine Poldino

Thursday, January 29 2009

14A Railroad Ave Babylon, Ny 11702

I am an owner of a small cafe in a village on Long Island It is the kind of place where besides eating, the arts, politics and social issues are all in focus. Since the first day we opened six years ago my partner and I have struggled to keep it alive by giving up all the extras in life including our dwellings. Thankfully we have wonderful family. The cafe has always had great reviews, and a cult following but all that is not enough to pay the bills. Financial infusions are provided by the freelance work we still need to take. It seems since August the economic turns of the US have helped to keep the cafe alive. It has more business than ever. People are eating on a budget, wanting home cooked food and need to be part of a community. What took them so long!

Not So Happy Hour

Story submitted by: Kate

Thursday, January 29 2009

115 Broadway New York, NY 10006

My husband used to have a job DJ-ing at a bar down here during happy hour, ostensibly catering to traders and Wall Street types. No more! Needless to say, he is not collecting unemployment on this loss.

No NYS tax forms

Story submitted by: Sarah

Thursday, January 29 2009

New York State didn't automatically mail me my tax forms and tax booklets, as they have for the last 5 years! Instead, I got a little postcard telling me that as a costcutting measure, I have to download and print everything myself (including the hundreds of pages of the tax instructions booklet) or pick up the forms at the library myself.

The gas shortage, so to speak

Story submitted by: Katrina

Thursday, January 29 2009

Valley Road Maplewood, NJ

I go to the gas station I go to all the time and ask the guy to fill me up (I'm on E). Cash is $1.61/gallon; credit is $1.71. My car takes 18.8 gallons. The total is $31.25. Great. I pay and drive away, but I only have 7/8 of a tank. Somehow, I think, he managed to siphon off a couple of gallons, or short me. I went back 2 days later to complain and the owner promptly gave me $5 (very good business move).
Moral - make sure you're not being shorted, even at your regular spots!

Yoga To The People

Story submitted by: Andrea Riggs

Thursday, January 29 2009

12 St. Marks Place New York, NY 10003

In the East Village there's a gem of a yoga studio called Yoga to the People. They take only donations - no membership or fees. They've been open 3 years and now just opened a 2nd location in Midtown at 38th & 6th. They are thriving -- they have 50+ people in every class. Great place, great yoga, and wonderful people doing something good for the community.

good find: flatiron picture

Story submitted by: tim

Thursday, January 29 2009

14th St. New York, NY 10013

I never used to stop and look at the artists and their work in Union Square. But I got a gift there out of necessity and found that there are a few pretty serious artists and photographers selling there. And cheap! Just make sure that you're not getting a DIGITAL PRINTOUT from them (watch out for the 'woodblock print thats a digital job). There are some real silkscreen artists and a good photographer. here's the picture I found there

Impervious to the recession

Story submitted by: Sue in West Village

Thursday, January 29 2009

254 bleeker street new york, ny 10014

Impervious to the recesseion, Bleecker Street continues to be remade as the Madison Avenue of the West Village. Brooks Brothers Black Label and Seven for All Mankind ($200 jean store) just opened on the corners of W.10th & Bleecker. Rent for Brooks Brothers is reportedly $45,000 @ month and replaced Nusratty's, an unique and wonderful middle eastern store of 30 years. Seven for All Mankind boasts a celebrity clientele.

Corporate Signs of Doom

Story submitted by: boomergirl

Thursday, January 29 2009

1120 Sixth Ave., Manhattan

One of the first indicators at my job was an e-mail saying that the guy who'd watered the plants for the whole company for years had been let go and that from now on, employees would have to water their own plants. Not long after that, a bunch of us were laid off. And not long after that, the company converted to a holding company so it could get a share of the bailout money. (More people got laid off after that too.)

Love Still for Sale at a Premium

Story submitted by: phyllis

Thursday, January 29 2009

10 Columbus Circle New York, NY 10019

Check out Zagat's list of Valentine menus offered at upscale restaurants....no lowered prices there. Per Se is sold out with a over $500 per person price. And the rest are right behind with prices less but more. How about showing up at one of their back doors with begging bowls?

Item Vintage

Story submitted by: Sunny Chapman

Thursday, January 29 2009

Williamsburg Brooklyn, NY

I'm an artist and also sell vintage clothing and handmade accessories online. Normally, both the art business and the clothing business die down in summer and resume in September. This year, neither business came back, I lost my entire fall and holiday season. But on January 12, business suddenly picked up again and my online business has had steady sales since then. Nothing's going on with my art, but as long as I can eat, pay the bills and have time to paint, I'm happy.

facebook surge

Story submitted by: Philip Shubin

Thursday, January 29 2009

UWS NYC

I have noticed in the past few weeks that I am getting a surge of "friend requests" on facebook from my middle age friends that I never thought would use the social network site. My personal explanation for this is that people are unemployed or underemployed if they are freelance and have more time on their hands.

People are being mugged

Story submitted by: Ksenia Vidyaykina

Thursday, January 29 2009

689 Myrtle Ave Brooklyn, NY

We live in BedSty. Luxury condo converted 6 years ago. It is near Marcy projects. In the past 3 months 3 people were mugged from our building. One with concussion and broken bone, one at gun point. This all in the last 3 months.

Upper Eastside

Story submitted by: Abigail Bedrick

Thursday, January 29 2009

Lexington Avenue between 86 and 75th streets

I was on the upper eastside this weekend on my way to the Whitney museum and as I was walking down Lexington Avenue I saw several longtime shops had closed including a children's shoe store on 84th street and a coffee shop on 75th street. I can't remember the last time I saw so many shuttered places in that neighborhood.

desperate people selling old gold

Story submitted by: Joe Mirsky

Thursday, January 29 2009

200 Wanaque Ave Pompton Lakes, NJ

I am a jeweler and I buy old gold from people. Last year it was mostly people selling gold for extra money. This year, it's for desperation money.

One woman needed $200 for medicine. She would have gotten it but at the last minute she pulled back her engagement ring and got $140.

A man sold his gold chains I had sold him years before for $600 that he needed for a car. A month later his son came in wanting to buy them back. He had suddenly died from stress. Of course, they were long gone.

big and bigger

Story submitted by: Phil Henshaw

Thursday, January 29 2009

Way uptown...

There's a big difference between the individual solutions and the economic solutions talked about. People are looking for how to live more realistically, and the "experts" still want to restart the process of making ever bigger and more uncertain promises that just failed. It's that “mind split” that I see at all levels, that with one hand we look for common sense and the other for returning to black magic. I think we're really confused, and not eager to admit it. That's bound to be the only way to get out of our bind, though. [see advice on our bulletin board.]

brother gets a raise

Story submitted by: Peter in Manhattan

Thursday, January 29 2009

My brother works for a software company that specializes in IT development for large companies and handles projects with huge price tags. Being a wizard at computers who is fluent in an array of coding languages, he has always been a shoo-in for lucrative IT jobs - he got his current job even though he didn't have a BA and is still in his 20s, and now he can afford to own a motorcycle while living in Mahattan (not on the Upper West Side, though).
Around Christmas, my bro got a present that took the whole family by surprise - a 30k raise, just 5k shy of my own yearly salary. I really can't explain why that happened, except to say that a crazy amount of money is still being exchanged in the IT world, in spite of the recession. (Around the same time he got the raise, my mom, a part-time professor who lives in California, lost a huge chunk of her income in a flash, when the university she teaches at, beleaguered by budget cuts, cancelled most of her classes - which turned out to be a blessing in disguise; now she's looking for work in the non-profit activism sector.) At this point, my brother's salary is even bigger than my dad's, who has worked at a large defense contractor for over twenty years. All I can say about that is...Wow.