A Year In New York

When the economy imploded last fall, one of the first victims was the Circuit City on Union Square. It was the first I saw to post “Going out of Business” signs and invite the hordes to vulture up its merchandise. (Thanks for the new home phone, guys.)

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In the frigid air of March, in the gloom of a deep recession, Manhattan’s clothing merchandisers have announced the dawn of a new, happy age in which everyone wears lime-colored golf shirts and bright peach polos. New Yorkers pull up their collars and seem unmoved.

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My wallet lacked $20s, so I visited the WaMu down the street. This particular block has a coffee shop,  a frozen-yogurt place and a cigar store with a wooden Indian outside, yet I like the bank the best. That’s because it’s a WaMu.
WaMu is Washington Mutual, the Seattle bank known for its open floor plan [...]

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NEW YORK, Dec. 2, 2008 – After taking drastic cost-cutting measures brought on by the nation’s financial crisis, the blog A Year In New York announced that it would resume production today.
In November, the popular blog interrupted service and disappointed readers as it nearly filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy. However, the site regained its footing [...]

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One day after Lehman Brothers vanished into debt and Merrill Lynch was swallowed whole, I headed out to see whether the sky-is-falling media coverage is translating into a sense of desperation on the streets of New York.

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Tonight I walked into a bar called the Big Easy on Second Avenue to catch the closing ceremonies of the Beijing Olympics. Only four people sat at the bar and I joined them to catch the contribution of London, which will host the 2012 games.
Sixteen days earlier, China had opened the Olympics with thousands of [...]

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