Hot Dogs = Apples, the new math

Wow... apparently there are blog posts I wrote that I never posted. Here's one from 2009. I like the image of the boys selling apples on the streets, shining shoes, things like that. 2009 seems like so long ago, doesn't it.

Remember the images from the last Great Depression when people were selling apples on every street corner to try to earn a little bit so they wouldn't starve to death? Bloomberg hasn't yet jumped on the bandwagon yet, but advocates are pushing. But instead of selling something healthy like apples, he wants to promote selling hot dogs instead. So the unemployed can also be unhealthy.

Read the story from the Village Voice.

Some Stuff

As the five readers I have left might have noticed, I haven't been posting too much of late. I haven't been inspired, mourning the loss of my baby who has abandoned the nest and gone south for the winter. It's quite disorienting.


Some interesting things might have happened worthy of relating, but now I can't remember them. I'll try.

Today I was sitting in the outdoor part of a restaurant on the very west side, when an M8 bus went by and the bus driver leaned out the window and shouted "hello" to me and waved furiously. That he 1) knew who I was, and 2) recognized me from so far away, was exciting. My lunch companion was duly impressed. Now I need to learn his name so we can move this relationship to the next level.

Last Saturday evening, if you were wondering where all the white people went, I found them at the Stone Street Oyster festival. Seriously. All white. Like the suburbs somewhere in the 1950's. Sorry I have no photos, it was so crowded I couldn't move my arms.

After escaping from that oyster nightmare, I ran into the Wall Street sit in, and marched with them for a while and ate one of their peanut butter sandwiches. First time I've had white bread in about 20 years. Ran into some of my son's ex-high school friends, one of whom had organized a couple dozen people and some buses from Ohio to attend. She's my hero.

Last week I saw former President Al Gore give his 24th hour presentation of his new slideshow. Powerful stuff. Claimed that over 8 million people around the world saw it, but I have yet to find one of them who wasn't with me in that auditorium. If you care one little bit about our earth, please watch the video. It's an hour long, but well worth the time. Step two is work toward not having nightmares of alternating flooding and drought.



Video streaming by Ustream

One More Thing

The Lo-Down has an excellent recap of the meeting this week at the Community Board regarding their attempts to change of policies and procedures on how liquor licenses are approved. Read here.

And in case you don't read all the way down, they are voting to approve that transfer licenses for existing bars and restaurants be transferred with no additional review of stipulations, in perpetuity based on the location of the business. That means (as I read it) that unless a bar owner loses his or her license based on infractions (rare, very rare), there will always be a license in that location, forever. And only in Community Board 3, as no other community boards abide by this same rule.

Stark Raving Mad

Last night the community board held their final open meeting about revising their policies on liquor license approvals. It is now 24 hours later and I'm still stark raving mad about the whole thing. I could only stay for an hour due to a Chinese food commitment that, if broken, would have brought bad luck for at least another year. So I can't tell you how the meeting ended, only how it started, which is badly....

... when I got yelled at for cross talking, when in fact it was my turn to speak and I was defending myself against a bully who was trying to shout me down.

I would like to ask the question of the public: is there another kind of business besides restaurants and bars that is allowed to traffic in state or city issued licenses for profit? Taxis? Hot dog vendors? I honestly don't know how those licenses work but am curious to know if this is status quo for all licensed ventures, or just liquor licenses. Doctors can't sell their license. I can't sell my drivers license, but is that only because there is no market for it, or because it is frowned upon? This is a burning question.

As a non-politician, and merely an interested citizen, what is so stunning to my innocent self, is that people who have a financial interest in profiting from the rules of how liquor licenses are approved for recommendation by the Community Board (they don't actually approve licenses, only make a recommendation to the SLA), also have a vote in how those rules will be created. They say they've been over this with the lawyers, but I still can't wrap my mind around it. I believe it is the very definition of cronyism.

The issue is thus (very briefly, it's much more complex): the bar owners are insistent that when applicants are buying a liquor license from an existing owner, the community board ought to approve the "transfer" without much review, ie a rubber stamp. The reason for this is because if they apply any stipulations (close their windows by 10pm or no live music) then that reduces the value of how much the owner can sell their liquor license for. That is because when restaurants and bars fail, they can get upwards of $100,000 for their liquor license if they can find a new sucker to buy it, and suckers there are aplenty. So they are rewarded for failed businesses, supported by the policies of the community board. I cannot think of another business that gets this benefit, based on having a state-issued license in your pocket. A guarantee of big money, even if you fail. Supported by our community board, all our elected officials, and the state liquor authority. Which does make me think that there must be something I'm missing, I just don't know what it is. I seek enlightenment.

In short, the bar owners, who are members of the community board, have a vote on making this policy, which has an impact on the value of their liquor licenses. Huh?

So there are two issues: one, a state issued license can be sold and bought right in the open air, not underground, under the table, or out of sight, right there in broad daylight. And second, a member of the community board whose business is impacted financially by the decisions made by the board, can vote on these issues. Not only do they have power to keep the value of the licenses inflated, but they can also, in effect, choose their competition with the power they have to approve or deny license recommendations.

I'm not sure I'm explaining this clearly, but if you read this far, thanks for listening, I'm still kind of ranting about it because I'm some kind of crazy nutjob who thinks things should be fair, when I know, I know they are not.

Commenters, if you are so inclined, please be polite or I will delete you. Cross talking and intelligent conversation is allowed, personal attacks and hate is not.

TSP

This video is a little long, badly edited and ends abruptly, but there are some good images in there if you can find the patience to stick with it. Don't forget to vote tomorrow.

I Know Who I'm Voting For

I was onto this guy last summer, when his website got my attention.

Precinct Meeting

Tonight's monthly community precinct meeting was well attended, standing room only, but only five people signed up to speak, which makes it easy for me to summarize for those interested in the goings on in the 9th precinct. I encourage all to attend because there are free donuts.

1. The "press" was in attendance, so speakers would be called upon by initials, not names.

2. The "press" was actually the NYU student bloggers for the NY Times.

3. We were reprimanded for not attending the annual festivities thanking the police for their hard work, which was held on October 14, and commemorated in an extra large magnet.
4. The cop in charge of the domestic violence unit gave a brief update on what she does, in honor of Domestic Violence Awareness month. She said she responds to calls and refers women to shelters or agencies that can help them. Even though she was very vague, I participated in the only applause of the evening.

5. There was a complaint about Diablo Royale, the crowds, noise and violations of their agreement to not use the backyard after 11pm.

6. There was discussion about the bike lanes on 1st and 2nd Avenues. The police explained that they are distributing pamphlets and issuing summons to everybody who isn't following the rules.

7. There was a plea by residents who live next to Campos Plaza to find a way to get cameras installed due to the impression that youth crime is on the rise. The police said crime is down. Scott Stringer's office said they are working to end the moratorium on cameras in NYCHA.

8. I tried to tie together several disjointed thoughts I've been having that didn't quite come together in a cohesive statement. I tried to thread together these ideas: a cabaret unit in the precinct would better serve the community's nightlife issues, there is an upswell of emergency room visits by NYU students on weekend nights from alcohol poisoning (which I have no facts about, just hearsay from an emergency room doctor) which is a preventable emergency potentially clogging up our hospitals that can't handle it due to the closing of St. Vincent's, and a cop telling me to call 911 for a noise complaint that I made about excruciating amplified music coming from a rooftop party at 2am.

9. A guy from Avenue C went on and on about traffic patterns that create utter chaos. I think his point was that it all results in a lot of disturbing horn honking.

Stop the SuperNoise - Please Help

A new bar, SuperDive that has recently opened on Avenue A between 12th & 13th Street and has caused quite a stir in the blogosphere. I went in there a couple weeks ago and experienced a hot, sweaty, stinky bar of the kind regular people avoid. Young girls in extremely short skirts and their beefy boyfriends, however, seem to like drinking from kegs at their table, and also while hanging upside down, which is what I witnessed.

The main problem is how drunk the people who go there are when they depart. They stand outside and scream at each other as though they are all hard of hearing even though they are way too young for such problems, or the upside down drinking is stuck in their ears. I can hear this drama, most loudly on Friday and Saturday nights, from way around the block. Seriously. They aren't even on my block and I can hear them around the corner and up 76 steps.

There are already several bars within one block and SuperDive adds to the incredible noise and street drunkeness that already is out of control. It is located directly next door to Habibi, and close by there is Destination, Drop off Service (sigh I miss the laundry that was there), Common Ground, Planet Rose and some others on E13th Street but I don't know the names.

The legal/technical problem with SuperDive is that they never applied for their liquor license in the same way that everybody else is required - by going before the Community Board and describing their intentions. New applicants are required to get signatures from people who live in the immediate area where the bar will be located, to prove that they are a welcome addition to the block.

Instead, the owner closed down the former place, a book shop that had a liquor license, and who were quiet and upstanding members of the community, and reopened a few months later as SuperDive, using the same liquor license that the book shop had, becoming the frat party go to joint in the East Village.

I wrote to our Community Board and asked, "what's up with that?" The answer was that I am not the first to complain, and they are in the process of putting together a report for the State Liquor Authority.

WHAT CAN YOU DO?
You can write a letter detailing your concern for their not having properly applied for their liquor license through the Community Board and not giving the neighbors a chance to comment on their application. Also include your experience with the noise and any other concerns you may have about this establishment, and mail it to:

Woody Pascal
Chief Executive Officer
State Liquor Authority
80 South Swan Street, Suite 900
Albany, NY 12210

• Cc: Susan Stetzer, Community Board 3 District Manager
  
• Rosie Mendez, City Council Member, District 2
• Scott Stringer, Manhattan Borough President
• Daniel Squadron, State Senator
  
• Brian Kavanaugh, State Assembly Member

Related Reading:
Eater's Live Blog from SuperDive
UrbanDaddy
Gastrochic
Yelp reviews
EV Grieve

The Rent is Too Damn High

Jimmy McMillan has a great song on his website, and despite his slightly anti-semitic remarks, I'm loving this guy. I especially admire how tucked into his rent control agenda is a single sentence in support of not ticketing UPS trucks when illegally parked.

New Yorker Summit

A full day of talking and more talking by people on a stage, it might have been boring but in fact nearly every panel was interesting, kind of like the magazine live. They do Sesame Street Live on Ice, so why not New Yorker Live at NYU?

If you were so unlucky not to have been there, I will give you a VERY BRIEF summary of what they said. While there were no new headlines (that is if you keep up with current events; I think they were afraid of giving away next week's articles), they repeated some pretty important and interesting bits, with all the men in dark suits and white shirts, it was hard to tell them apart without their name badges.

So read this and I have now saved you $350 and a day at Skirball (I love saying Skirball, much fun).

Gladwell: The market crash was not due to stupidity or lack of regulation, but to overconfidence of those in charge.

Taleb: Economists and cab drivers can predict the future with the same degree of accuracy. Bernanke should be removed, you don't give a new plane to the guy who crashed the old plane. Debt is bad.

Kuttner: Depression averted, long stagnation to come. Predicts unemployment will increase by another 1 million.

Steiner: The US has lost $11 billion in household wealth.

Klein: We've been on a hopeacoaster (a hope roller coaster). People need to stop wearing their Obama t-shirts; it's weird. The crisis will now shift from Wall Street to Washington as it becomes a Debt Crisis. The spell of Reaganomics has been broken and collective solutions are now possible.

Canada - Treat new teachers like lawyers, pay them high, work them hard and fire them if they don't succeed.

Sachs: People don't care any more or less about poverty than they ever did, it's not cyclical, they never care. We keep throwing military solutions at problems caused by poverty and wonder why they don't work. Case in point: Somalia piracy is due to extreme neglect and poverty. We abandoned all collective solutions and let Wall Street run the show.

Duflo: Poverty solutions come in fads ie building schools, dams, microfinancing, but nobody ever recounts successes and failures to build on them, they just move on to the next fad.

Reicher: Stimulus will certainly move us forward on the environment (consensus from everybody who took the stage)

Hitt: EPA will regulate pollution. They took the first step with the endangerment finding, and now they can start regulating without Congressional or any other approvals.

Woolsey: Former CIA director is now an environmentalist. 2% of electricity is produced from oil. Oil is a transportation issue. The rest is a coal issue. Quoted Thomas Friedman: "We have a policy to fill 'er up with dictators."

Dean: Obama's health care plan is the best he's seen. Against mandates.

Edwards: Obama's health care is on target. Hissed at Dean when he said she was right about mandates but he didn't support it because it's politically unfeasible.

Pickering: Wants Obama to move forward with the torture commission, not to prosecute but to learn lessons. Play chess, not checkers. Also, he's fluent in Swahili, among others.

Kilcullen: $10.2 billion has been spent on the Pakistani army since 2001. Three years ago we started bombing the Taliban in Pakistan with drones. We've killed 14 high level targets and 700 civilians. And they are now 60 miles from the capital. What is wrong with this picture? We throw military solutions at problems steeped in poverty and it never works. Obama has not radically changed Foreign Policy, but a friendlier face is important.

Hersh: We should be very afraid of what is happening in Pakistan. Watch out for his upcoming story, he will tell us why.

Want more detail and actual information? They blogged about it in depth here.

Earth Hour

Don't forget to take part in Earth Hour tomorrow (Saturday) at 8:30 pm. Lights out!

And, UFO sings it.

Are Bankers Vampires? Part two

I am going to post this video again because the first time it was DARK but they listened, and voila, it's much much better now that we can see the actors (including Steve Carter as a vampire, who also did the animation).

When Uke (who wrote the song and produced the video) played this at my house a few weeks ago, a friend who is a banker walked out because, well, obviously, it's really insulting. What I didn't realize at the time was that this friend is the brother of one of the top villains of the banking crisis, and definitely on the list of people "they" want to indict, if they can get at him. This fact coming to light has been really shocking to me, and frankly I don't know what to do with it; it kind of swishes around in my head and conversations with my friends are interrupted every 10 minutes with, "Can you believe it?". I wish I didn't know.

(Note: according to Steve the video is exactly the same as before, so it must just be mine eyes that are deceiving me.)

Why Recycle?

Plastics are insidious, and we are so dependent upon them. We try to recycle, but let's be honest, who is really that diligent about it? Also, NY doesn't recycle many of the plastics we use (take- out containers, yogurt containers etc).

This is a very entertaining video from the TED Conference about recycling. Makes a boring topic easy to understand, though depressing. Please watch, and learn something new today.

Obama Sushi

Sorry but I cannot resist this, it's too funny. From a Japanese site. And this one too.

Biden Sings

Ladies and Gentlemen, our new Vice President... Turn down your speakers.

Save the M8 Bus

Please sign the petition to save the M8 bus which will hopefully help to save the service, not just for the downtown residents, but more importantly, for me personally. The loss of this bus will add either 1/2 hour to my commute or force me to walk 40 minutes each way cross town, causing severe back pain, too many worn shoes and a basic negative disposition toward life in general. Or, I might have to ride my tiny little bike, causing possible bodily injury to me and other pedestrians in my way.

www.savethem8.org

If you are even more inclined, and are disgusted by the idea of cutting a lot of bus and subway service while raising prices, you can show up at the hearing about the MTA budget cuts, and make your voice heard.

MTA PUBLIC HEARING
Wed. January 14, 6pm
1335 6th Ave (off 53rd st)
The Hilton, Trianon Ballroom
Topic: Fares and service cuts

In Our Depression of 2008 Stores Close, Not Banks

Here is a list of upcoming closures of retailers. So, if you are a gift card buying kind of gifter, think hard before gifting from these companies:

84 Lumber: 12 stores closing

Ann Taylor closing 117 stores nationwide. A company spokeswoman said the company hasn't revealed which stores will be shuttered. It will let the stores that will close this fiscal year know over the next month

Big Dollar: dollar stores closing 10 stores

Bombay Company The company unveiled plans! to close e all 384 U.S.-based Bombay Company stores. The company's online storefront has discontinued operations.

Cache closing stores. Women's retailer Cache announced that it is closing 20 to 23 stores this year.

Circuit City Filed Bankruptcy, they promised to keep all stores open for the holiday season, but afterwards, they plan on closing 155 stores nationwide.

CompUSA (CLOSED) clarifies details on store closings Any extended warranties purchased for products through CompUSA will be honored by a third-party provider, Assurant Solutions. Gift cards, rain checks, and rebates purchased prior to December 12 can be redeemed at any time during the final sale. For those who have a gadget currently in for service with CompUSA, the repair will be completed and the gadget will be returned to owners.

Dell Inc. closed its 140 kiosks in the United States

Dillard's to Close More Stores Dillard's Inc. said it will continue to focus on closing underperforming stores, reducing expenses and improving its merchandise in 2008.At the company's annual shareholder meeting, CEO William Dillard II said the company will close another six underperforming stores this year.

Disney Store owner has the right to close 98 stores The Walt Disney Company announced it acquired about 220 Disney Stores from subsidiaries of The Children's Place Retail Stores. The exact number of stores acquired will depend on negotiations with landlords. Those subsidiaries of Children's Place filed for bankruptcy protection in late March. In the news release, Disney said it has also obtained the right to close about 98 Disney Stores in the U.S. The press release didn't list those stores.

Eddie Bauer to close more stores. Eddie Bauer has already closed 27 shops in the first quarter and plans to close up to two more outlet stores by the end of the year.

Ethan Allen Interiors - The company announced plans to close 12 of300+ stores in an effort to cut costs.

Foot Locker to close 140 stores In the company press release and during its conference call with analysts today, it did not specify where the future store closures - all planned in fiscal 2008 - will be. The company could not be immediately reached for comment

Gallery - 160 stores will close as part of a reorganization plan to exit bankruptcy. The video rental company plans to close 400 of 3,500 Movie Gallery and Hollywood Video stores in addition to the 520 locations the video rental chain closed last fall.

Gap Inc. closing 85 stores In addition to its namesake chain, Gap also owns Old Navy and Banana Republic . The company said the closures – all planned for fiscal 2008 - will be weighted toward the Gap brand.

Home Depot store closings Nearly 7+months after its chief executive said there were no plans to cut<>the number of its core retail stores, The Home Depot Inc. announced Thursday that it is shuttering 15 of them amid a slumping US. economy and housing market. The move will affect 1,300 employees. It is the first time the world's largest home improvement store chain has ever closed a flagship store for performance reasons. Its shares rose almost 5 percent. The Atlanta-based company said the underperforming US stores being closed represent less than 1 percent of its existing storesThey will be shuttered within the next two months.

J. C. Penney, Lowe's and Office Depot will be scaling back and cutting jobs.

KB Toys posted a list of 356 stores that it is closing around the United States as part of its bankruptcy reorganization.

Kirklands: A chain of home decor stores will be closing nearly 130 stores nationwide.

Lane Bryant, Fashion Bug, and Catherines closing 150 stores nationwide. The owner of retailers Lane Bryant , Fashion Bug, Catherines Plus Sizes will close about 150underperforming stores this year. The company hasn't provided a list of specific store closures and can't say! when it will offer that info, spokeswoman Brooke Perry said today.

Levitz- closed already The furniture retailer, which is going out of business. Levitz first announced it was going out of business and closing. All 76 of its stores in December. The retailer dates back to 1910 when Richard Levitz opened his first furniture store in Lebanon, PA. In the 1960s, the warehouse/showroom concept brought Levitz to the forefront of the furniture industry. The local Levitz closures will follow the shutdown of Bombay

Macy's - 9 stores

Linens 'n Things: Is closing 120 stores nationwide

Liz Claiborne Inc. said it's closing the entire 54-store Sigrid Olsen chain.

Lone Star Steak House: 27 stores closing.

Pacific Sunwear will close its 154 Demo stores after a review of strategic alternatives for the urban-apparel brand. Seventy-four underperforming Demo stores closed last May.

Pep Boys - 33 stores

Pier 1: Announced that they would be closing an undisclosed number of stores.

Rite Aid: 28 stores

Sharper Image: The company recently filed for bankruptcy protection and announced that 90 of its 184 stores are closing. The retailer will still operate 94 stores to pay off debts, but 90 of these stores have performed poorly and also may close.

Sprint Nextel - 125retail locations New Sprint Nextel CEO Dan Hesse appears to have inherited a company bleeding subscribers by the thousands, and will now officially be dropping the ax on 4,000 employees and 125 retail locations. Amid the loss of 639,000 postpaid customers in the fourth quarter, Sprint will be cutting a total of 6.7% of its work force (following the 5,000layoffs last year)! and 8% of company-owned brick-and-mortar stores, while remaining mute on other rumors that it will consolidate its headquarters in Kansas. Sprint Nextel shares are down $2.89, or nearly 25%, at the time of this writing.

Sprint: to cut 4500 jobs. and 125 stores.

Starbucks: Starbucks will close approximately 600 company- operated stores in the US

Talbots, J. Jill closing stores. About a month ago, Talbots announced that it will be shuttering all 78 of its kids and men's stores. Now t he company says itwill close another 22 underperforming stores. The 22 stores will be a mix of Talbots women's and J Jill, another chain it owns. The closures will occur this fiscal year, according to a company press release.

Wickes is going out of business Wickes Furniture is going out of business and closing all of its stores. Wickes, a 37-year-old retailer that targets middle-income customers, filed for bankruptcy protection last month.

Wilsons the Leather Experts - In February the retailer announced it was shutting the majority of its mall-based stores, and turning the remaining 100 mall stores into accessory boutiques called Studio..

Zales, Piercing Pagoda closing stores The owner of Zales and Piercing Pagoda previously said it plans to close 82 stores by Jul y 31. Today, it announced that it is closing another 23 underperforming stores. The company said it's not providing a list of specific store closures. Of the 105 locations planned for closure, 50 are kiosks and 55 are stores.

Proud Voter

In the midst of all the excitement of today's voting, and feeling lucky that I only had to wait 30 minutes on a really weird A-N line where the M-Z's didn't understand the lineup process and all joined our line for a half hour of confusion, a coworker of mine sent out this letter. He is originally from Argentina, but has lived all over the world in his long and illustrious life.

"History in the making" said a reporter this morning. For a day like the one we living today, that is the mother of all understatements..

I first visit the USA back in 1963 (I was 27 years old by then, most of you were not even born!) .

I landed in Miami. My destination was the University of San Francisco where I was going to take a six month course on International Relations.

I had plenty of time in my hands. So why not to take a bus instead of flying, get to
see the landscape, meet a few people on the way and practice my very basic and rudimental English?

So I bought one of those tickets that allowed me to get down the bus at any place and continue my journey whenever I felt like. At the end of the day, it took me almost two weeks to get from Miami to San Francisco after 'exploring' small town and cities from Florida to Atlanta, Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana and beyond. I could write a whole chapter relating that my first experience of the USA. Although I had an old Kodak in my bag, I did not take any pictures, but I can close my eyes now and can see it like a movie all over again.

I had read a bit about discrimination before coming over. But I wasn't prepared to be suddenly immerse in that chapter of our history. It was all literally black and white in most of the states I travelled through: buses, restaurants, waiting lounges, hotels, you name it.

I was pushed to the front of the bus in many occasions, by an authorative driver whose mission besides driving was to inforce the rules or by the people seating in the back, themselves conscious that the rules had to be respected. I ignored all those 'rules', not in protest mind you, only that I did not know about the rules. Then after many warnings, I discovered the signs in the walls and doors and got the picture -not before I had gone to the wrong side of the room too many times to remember.

My language skills at the time were even more limited than today so there is much of what was probably said about my defiance of the rules, but trust me I can't forget first the shock, then the dismay and finally the resentment I felt. It was sad, very sad. It could not be true, I said.

After three months in San Franciso my life went on (Taiwan, Argentina,
Mexico, Hong Kong, Beijing, Mexico again) and not because I had planned it that
way, I came back to the USA in 1983. Times had somehow changed, my sad experience of he past did not hit me again in my face. And from that point on, change kept happening, all around and for the best.

But today, 45 years after those days of my life onboard a Greyhound bus, is when the change is most patent.

Barack Obama will be the next President, I think. Nothing is a given until tonight, I know that too. But the fact that most of us are expecting Obama to be the next President, that is the BIG CHANGE, in my mind. We are all in the same bus today and can freely seat wherever we wish and converse with whomever we please.

I am so proud of the USA !

I am blessed to have become a citizen of the USA, proud to be here sharing The Change with you, living this process not as a passer-by I was '63 but as one proud, very proud American. We have made history already.

God bless America, God bless you all.

Juan