What does the recession look like where you are?

[SidneyCarton]

I live in Riverside County, California, one of several epicenters of the foreclosure crisis. At present the only region of the country which has a higher unemployment rate than the "Inland Empire" which includes my town, is Detroit. The number of homes being foreclosed on and payments being defaulted on in the region is incredible, I forget the actual statistic, but it is astoundingly high. The pitiful image of people begging change in front of stores, freeway onramps and streetcorners has also become more common, although in fairness, they were pretty common around here even before the media took notice (proof positive that things have been bad a lot longer than anyone would like to admit.)

However, one of the most noticible things for me personally are the vacant apartments. My family lives in a "resonably priced" (If such a thing exists in Riverside, we currently pay more in rent than my parents paid in Mortgage on the house I grew up in) apartment complex not far from the University. When we first moved in, the lower rents (in comparison to the neighboring complexes) essentially insured that no apartment in the place remained vacant for long. But in the past months, there have been numerous apartments which have remained empty, with their darkened windows leering at us in the evenings. I can see similar empty apartments in neighboring complexes nearby, which have remained vacant for some time as well.

People don't just vanish, which means that the people who otherwise would be living in these apartments, are living somewhere. Some are probably living with family, others in shelters, still others in the "tent cities" that are sometimes mentioned by the news down here. These empty apartments stand as mute witness to me about the shock of this recession. Their silence is deafening.

How about you, what do you see, and what does it tell you?

[Lost4words]

1. many people are ashamed of their situation, people are standing at intersections

with signs for help. these are not bums and the shame belongs to our government, in my opinion.

I am a long term unemployed, We are luckier than most my spouse has a job making a fraction of her former income, and we manage to stay one step ahead of foreclosure, our retirement is zero, my sister , who lives with us is a diabetic cannot get insurance and she is a pumper, that means $$$$$ and medicare is worthless for her.

Bank robberies are twice for the same period last year, Eclipse Aircraft has gone bankrupt and no buyers on the horizon.

Virtually every biz and industry is hemorrhaging jobs!

Housing in New Mexico isnt as bad as other areas, but still lots of homes on the market, and lots of empty houses. It totaly sucks!

I expect to see families living under interstate bridges soon.

[SidneyCarton]

2. I have seen much the same thing.

One panhandler, in a bit of black humor (perhaps inspired by competition?) had a sign which stated "Lost left testicle in knife fight with Grandmother, please help" I wish I'd had change, because he certainly got my attention. But you're right, these are good people, not bums, and being forced to ask for handouts is degrading to their sense of individual pride and self-esteem, which then makes it even more difficult for them to get back on their feet.

The shame does indeed belong to the government, and as we reminded Washington in November, WE are the government, and WE expect our public servants to do our bidding and fix this. I hope that the President is a good Steward of our interests, for many of our elected officials cannot say the same.

[Lost4words]

14. You have a good heart. From your mouth to Gods ear!

:hi:

jim

[FrenchieCat]

3. The house across the street from my house is now vacant,

as of last weekend.

It is a middle class neighborhood.
Not a subdivision, as the houses are custom built.

Also, my DMV is closed today.

I'm in Northern California.

[SidneyCarton]

4. Aaah. You're in the pretty part of the state.

I have a friend who grew up in south Sac, and went to UC Santa Cruz for his BA (he's a Philosophy Grad Student here at UCR) and he went off for several minutes on how ugly and disgusting Southern California was, then the stopped, looked sheepishly at me and said, "oh, wait, you're from here aren't you, I'm sorry." I didn't take offense. (How can I when its 110 in July, and I can't see the hills a mile distant due to smog?)

As to the DMV, I am so pissed at the legislature I could scream. I almost want to form a human chain around the Capitol, and not let anyone leave until they've figured this mess out.

[FrenchieCat]

7. I'm in the East Bay Hills.....with a 180 view of San Francisco and San Mateo from all of my windows!

We are not surrounded with that much greenery (by California standards), but we still get deers, raccoons, possums, and other wild animals walking down our paved hilly (no sidewalk) streets.

I see it as a not too "landscaped or planned" neighborhood that is not too urban, not too suburban, not to new and not too old, and very well intergrated (Whites, African Americans, Chinese, and Indians). The owners who cleared out from the house across the street were from Afhganistan.

[azmouse]

5. More crime.

In fact, one of the new tactics thieves are using is to break in through the walls in houses that are surrounded by all the foreclosures. No one around to hear the noise and little risk of setting off an alarm.

[SidneyCarton]

9. Yeah, the crime has been bizarre.

Some one stole the air conditioner from our church a while back, just for the scrap metals. They steal the copper fittings from fire hydrants, and the man-hole covers. I worry that we're going to steal ourselves in the dark ages by effectively reversing the Industrial revolution through larceny.

[crispini]

28. We've definitely seen a lot more crime in our area.

Lots of car break-ins, people looking for stuff to sell.

[Fleshdancer]

6. Austin, TX

on edit: OOPS!

My initial post was somewhat optimistic because I got my information from an outdated article.

The unemployement rate here is 5.2%...not as bad as other cities, but not great either. We were at 3.6% last May.

[SidneyCarton]

8. May fortune continue to smile upon you then...

[Fleshdancer]

11. I had to completely edit my original post

The article I read was out dated unfortunately. Since I live in a large apartment complex, it's difficult for me to get a feel for the local housing market.

[SidneyCarton]

13. No problem...

Things seem to be degrading swiftly all over the place, it makes for interesting, terrifying reading.

[bevoette]

26. i am paranoid about my neighborhood...

every saturday, i make a 2-mile or so loop around the neighborhood...on sunday i do the same but in the opposite direction

i am paranoid about...foreclosures, rental vacancies, are houses still being worked on, upgraded, etc...

that probably seems selfish, but i can't help it - i worry about our home values :shrug:

so far, so good...but we're in central Austin, which is probably doing better than some of the 'burbs

i know we've had some layoffs (mostly tech cos), but we've also still had some businesses moving in. government, university, medical, and strong tech industry is a strong base, i guess


all in all, i feel like we are probably in the best place in the country right now. i am very grateful.

[Fleshdancer]

39. I hate to fuel the fire of paranoia....

but unfortunately travis co foreclosures have increased 58% last month. :( Source: http://www.kvue.com/news/local/stories/020509kvue_home_foreclosures-cb.21585eae.html

A good online resource to use is this: http://www.foreclosure.com/search/TX_453.html

You can punch in your zip code to see how many homes in your neighborhood are in foreclosure. Right now, there are 27 in the 78704 zip. I only use this site to get a feel for how many are out there. I think you have to pay to get specific details on the exact address.

Here's a list of the various tax auctions from the travis co tax office: http://www.co.travis.tx.us/tax_assessor/foreclosure/tax_sales.asp

[bevoette]

43. wow - thanks! good resource...so there are 10 in my zip code...

and 2 of them are small apartment/fourplex complexes

that actually makes me feel better

i think we benefit from the fact that this is a older, well-established neighborhood

most of our neighbors are senior citizens with their homes paid off. of course, the taxes suck, LOL

over the years, some younger families have been moving in as vacancies come up, so not so much flipping/investment property activity going on, which i think is where the trouble comes from

i bookmarked this - thanks!

[bevoette]

36. OK, i found this - KXAN reports local unemployment at 4.8% at end of 2008

http://www.kxan.com/dpp/news/local/company_forecasts_austin_area_job_loss

Houston and DFW quite a bit higher

the prediction is another 2800 jobs lost in 2009. i hope that plays out (as in, no more than that :scared:

[Fleshdancer]

42. first of all...I LOVE your user name!

Very cute! :D

Here's what shocks me...At the end of 2008, Austin was at 4.8% but now (according to this article from Jan 23rd: http://www.bizjournals.com/austin/stories/2009/01/19/daily48.html) we're up to 5.2%. Last May we were as low as 3.6%.

I'm shocked by this. It's still below the national average, but it looks like we're catching up quickly.

[Lost4words]

10. Those who are able move in with relatives, even friends not hit as hard.

I have been through a number of recessions as I am at the half century mark and I can tell you honestly, this ain't no rescission, and it isnt going to change anytime soon.

the United States economy is HUGE and like a huge ship it takes a long time to turn around, or react to changes. For the most part the economy hasn't even felt the 6 million plus jobs lost over the last year, those folks are living off their savings and or unemployment until they get new jobs, jobs that aren't there. When their parachute runs out, you know the rest.

It has taken 28 years of trickle down to get to this point, to me its a slow motion train wreck and just as it took this long for failed policy to show its effect, it will also take a length of time to see any recovery. Lets hope its soon.

Globalization has, IMO, given the worlds uber rich the ability to exploit the middle/working class and we clearly can see who has benefited. It is nothing short of a class war and NAFTA was Pearl Harbor for the working class in our country.

I watched the Globalazation riots in Seattle, I thought these folks are nuts, now I understand they knew then, what I have since learned.

[SidneyCarton]

12. I think you're right, and it chills me to admit it.

Ruin has a momentum all its own, and this one has had decades to build itself up. President Obama is willing to put forth a Herculean effort to attempt to change our course, but if this mess has become a force of nature, then all we can realistically hope to do is slow the descent and cushion the fall. Either way, this is going to hurt like hell.

[Lost4words]

18. I believe in the courage and strength of the American People.

We can do this! *YES WE CAN*
:fistbump:

[greguganus]

15. North Carolina. We are expanding and hiring. (Pharma company) n/t

[SidneyCarton]

17. That's good to hear.

What's it like in NC, I hear only good things from there.

[greguganus]

19. I only know of one person laid off. My sister who is a graphic designer for auto companies. n/t

[Top Cat]

53. What Comapny? I want to move back to NC

[mwooldri]

62. I'm in Greensboro. There's been some pain here...

... but then we've been having slow pain for years now.

We laid off 5% of the workforce at my place of employment, and we're told that the "re-engineering will be continuing", meaning there may be more later on.

My personal economy is odd though. There's layoffs but I have overtime next week. My wife's got more work than she can handle as a medical laboratory technician. Though she shared some news with us: around August/September we're going to be parents again, and with her it will be a high risk pregnancy automatically (our son was born with a somewhat major cogenitive birth defect) and we're talking short term disability, maternity leave and then straight back to work whilst finding a nice daycare solution at the same time.

My neighborhood is basically "manufactured housing", dominated by older single-wides (including ours). It's not a traditional "trailer park" because we have nice yards and plenty of space and subdivided (fenced in yards), we just live in "mobile homes" that haven't moved for 10+ years. As such, we see the reverse: "For Rent" signs pop up frequently around here when the economy is doing real great (people want to move out and upgrade to their own real homes or nicer places) and right now, there's no "for rent" signs anywhere (because people know rent's cheap here, ours is $150/month including water and garbage) because no-one wants to move out of their cheap housing.

We are cutting costs. Cable TV goes soon next week as soon as I buy a decent antenna for the bedroom TV (beware the crappy indoor antennas Walmart sells, Radio Shack ones are better but better yet outdoor, but that's another story). I'll be calling Sprint to figure out how to trim down the cell phone bill drastically and praying for warm weather so our heater (inefficient as it is) won't have to run (winter electric runs at $230+/month, rest of year electric runs at $80 a month tops). We do want to move out of here but we got to get our bills under control (too many little credit card debts) and save enough money for a house deposit.

Mark.

[JeffreyWilliamson]

16. My situation's a little unique...

In that our city was hit by Hurricane Ike. That's really amplified the economic downturn here. Businesses have cut massive numbers of staff over what I think they would have if it were just the recession by itself. I just posted an article in GD earlier this morning about the school district here planning on laying off about 100 teachers because they can't afford them.

I remember late last Summer everyone started noticing a large increase in the number of houses for sale. It seemed like almost every block had a sign in one of its yards. Now every other remaining house seems to have one. Either the owners can't afford them or they don't want to live here anymore, (which in all honesty, I can't blame them). A couple of the grocery stores have closed down here, because of the hurricane and in the case of one because there's not enough business to repair and re-open. Aside from Home Depot and Wal-Mart I haven't been in one store that had any business for a couple of months, including during the holidays. The local Target seems to have 3 cashiers handy for every customer each time I go in.

I am unemployed, and I quit looking for a job about a week ago. It's been a little over a month, and after 3 weeks without one single return call or interview I finally decided that for once I would take a vacation, since I haven't really had one in about 10 years. The job section of the local paper is pretty much empty, and when something does come up it seems like everyone and their grandmother is competing for it.

I keep hearing and reading about tent cities springing up, but never see them properly reported on television. Why does there seem to be a black-out on them in the media? I'll run across a newspaper article online occasionally, or hear about them from someone, so I know they're out there, but it's almost as if the media doesn't want us to know how bad it really is. The same thing goes for the communities of people sleeping in their cars in abandoned parking lots. Every now and then I'll come across an article about these car communities in California, and the way they describe it sounds as if it's happening on a larger scale than anyone is really saying. I never see those communities covered on cable news.

Right now in the UK there's a huge scandal with Gitmo documents that seems to be on every front page, but there's next to nothing being reported on it here. I wonder if the media is censoring a few things going on in our own back yard in much the same way.

[SidneyCarton]

21. Oh, I'm sure its being censored.

In part because it's not the rosy picture that some in the media (and some in Government as well) want us to believe. I would assume that the powers that be would prefer to keep our eyes from the tent cities as well because, the Homeless are effectively outside of the protections of the law. Heaven only knows what exploitation people are suffering, once people fall beneath the radar, it is very difficult for them to find assistance.

[Numba6]

20. Thousands Stood In Line For Job Fair

While Republicans and "moderated Democrats" fiddle and search for things to cut out of Obama's stimulus bill, it looks a lot like this:





Thousands Stood In Line For Seattle Job Fair

[SidneyCarton]

22. If nothing is done, it will look much worse.

The flames may end up being kindled by the people who live in those very cities. I know that some see revolution as an encouraging thing, but I don't. So much more than oppression goes up in smoke when we decide the only option left is to burn the whole thing down.

[Lost4words]

23. I see myself , I'm number 1217 WOW thanks for the Pic!!

Actually it looks like the Burning of Atlanta, Shermans March to the Sea. I was there as well, maybe just a few years later that is!

:freak:

[DevonRex]

24. My kids can't get jobs that pay their student loan payments.

One is living at home because of that and the other is going to law school in the fall so he can defer the loans a bit. Of course he'll be taking out even MORE loans to cover that. They have both submitted paperwork to defer payment because they don't make enough money, but haven't heard back yet on whether the deferment will be granted.

The one who is living at home may have to join the Peace Corps or something and this is after graduate school no less.

And let me say this: They're both so VERY smart, and so very accomplished and so very dedicated to whatever they do in life. They're good students, good workers, good people. Both were in gifted and talented programs and the International Baccalaureate Program through high school. Both got academic scholarships to college for some of their tuition. Both played college sports, soccer for one and lacrosse for the other. Both campaigned hard for Obama, even though they're working their butts off just to make ends meet.

I'm sure everyone here has a similar story, either about themselves personally or a family member. If this economy can't even hire exceptional college graduates for entry level positions we are well and truly fucked - for now anyway.

[SidneyCarton]

32. I'm in much the same position.

I'm in grad school right now for my PhD, (It should take a few years, 4-6) I'm thinking of a job with the fed. Govt. (something analytical at State, maybe) as a way of trying to get loan forgiveness.

[DevonRex]

40. It makes me so angry that people like you and my sons, who did everything right,

are now in this situation. You could have been slacking off, partying and doing whatever unskilled job there was to be had. But you didn't. You worked hard, studied hard, burdened yourselves with loans so that you could make something of your lives. It seems like in the blink of an eye the rules of the game changed and now a good education doesn't guarantee a good job, or any job, anymore.

My thoughts are with you. I just know everything will work out in the end.

[SidneyCarton]

41. Thanks. We're all crossing our fingers.

:hi:

[JohnnyBoots]

25. A Giant Elephant. nt

[WinkyDink]

27. Volunteers sought here (Lehigh Valley, PA) to put together some type of "pack" for people living

under bridges, etc.

Oh, but Socialism is the Devil's work.

[SidneyCarton]

33. The Devils work...

I just read E. P. Thompson's "Making of the English Working Class" in a history seminar. If Socialism is the "devil's work" then whose work is it to sacrifice the poor and the laborer to the incarnadine maw of the market, allowing thousands to starve in wretched filth?

If progress is allowing the ruin of the many for absolute capitalist freedom, then progress is overrated.

[WinkyDink]

37. I hope you caught my sardonic tone.

[SidneyCarton]

38. I did.

Sorry if that came off as a rant on you, It wasn't intended that way. :)

[rufus dog]

29. Over the hill from you in OC

No foreclosures yet although one family seems to be close and a few others had the major breadwinner laid off over the past couple of months. I just got an email today requesting that my company take a million dollar plus payment 12 months after the project is completed, which means my business partner and I would have to work for no salary for a year and lay out cash to pay others. The person blamed it on the economy, which I can understand, but I am waiting for his call back to let him know we will have to sit on the sidelines if that is the best his organization can do. By sitting it out at least we don't go into debt and put everything at risk.

[SidneyCarton]

34. It's funny.

Riverside County got a lot of the people who either couldn't afford to live in OC or San Diego County, or thought they could get a better deal here. (Hell, almost all of Temecula works in San Diego, and most of Corona works in the OC.) I wonder if we ended up with all the people with bad judgment from other places.

[Sen. Walter Sobchak]

46. is it all bad judgement?

I think bad judgement would be spending $650,000 on a crappy old bungalow in Garden Grove,

[SidneyCarton]

47. Perhaps not.

But when the other option is the 3-hour commute from Menefee to work, coupled with a life for one's children which consists of meth, more meth, and booze, it may not be bad judgment, but the options are lousy.

[eridani]

59. Or lower incomes n/t

[uponit7771]

30. Dallas\Fort Worth with 43,000 jobs lost...it aint nice around here...HP really screwed the metro are

[prolesunited]

31. I'm unemployed and my husband is underemployed

after a time of unemployment. We are hanging on by a very thin thread thanks to the fact that I've always been very fiscally conservative. Health care affordability is what is going to do us in. If we can get some help from the stimulus bill, we might be able to ride it out.

The local utility company advertised it was hiring 125 meter readers and construction helpers. It received more than 4,000 applications within about a week and shut the application process. I look at those numbers and try not to get too discouraged that I'm not receiving any responses when applying for something that I think I'm perfectly qualified for.

[SidneyCarton]

35. I've seen this from the other side.

We had an open position in our department at the University (I work in the Library) and we had a huge number of applications for our clerical position. We could only hire one, and I felt horrible as we decided which people we would interview and ended up weeding out many excellent people due to experience or qualifications. (Hell, we rejected two people with Library degrees, because they had no experience in our particular field, and there were applicants who did.) I felt like a total jerk.

:scared:

Best of hopes for you and yours, may things get better, and may it happen sooner rather than later.

[ColbertWatcher]

44. I see fewer people at the grocery stores.

It's frightening.

[Sen. Walter Sobchak]

45. Orange County

In my neighborhood most of the houses owned by speculators are in some stage of default and foreclosure and have been vacant forever and good riddance. There was one house nearby that went unsold forever. The flipper installed floor to ceiling windows, he setup a theater room, he re-did the pool in marble and added a fancy cabana with a bar, marble everywhere and land scaping that will in a few years shower the roof with rotten fruit. Anybody who is going to be willing to pay for those upgrades isn't going to want to live here.

Not to stereotype but most of my neighbors are Vietnamese and misc. Middle Eastern and lived frugally at the best of times I don’t anticipate their in much trouble.

I'm not around much these days since I spend most of my time in Canada for work so I don't really have my finger on the pulse. Where I work hiring continues and there have been no cutbacks and none are planned. Although the tech company where my girlfriend works massacred sixty-two last week, she survived but is so furious about the cuts to her department she is ready to quit. Some of the cuts come out of contracting prototyping and assembly to a company in Texas which appears to be completely incompetent. Rather than look at the garbage coming out of Texas and re-evaluate the management decided that it had to be sabotage by the people about to be laid-off.

[SidneyCarton]

49. Amazing, isn't it?

Those of us who know what it is like to live on little, manage to make due with less and survive.

[Meshuga]

48. I was hit by the downturn this week...

I live in Maryland (DC Metro area) so we don't get hit that hard over here. However, I personally just got hit by this recession since my team was made part of a major cut in costs. So I am going to be out of a job in two months since my position is being shipped to Bangalore, India. My job now is training the people who are going to take over. :-(

It is going to be weird to look for a job after being part of this team for the past 12 years. And the job reports, especially the hiring freeze, don't make me feel so optimistic. :scared:


On edit: BTW, I live in Montgomery County, Maryland.

[SidneyCarton]

50. I'm sorry to hear that.

I wish you the best of luck, may things get better soon.

[Meshuga]

51. Thanks,

My company might end my employment at the end of March or in September but they are offering a nice severance package that will give me plenty of time to look for a new job. I hope! :-)

[Sarah Ibarruri]

52. Miami - joblessness, foreclosures everywhere....

buildings left unfinished, lawsuits due to those unfinished buildings, condos offered at bargain basement prices, more empty buildings than ever before, garage sales like never before, homeless people multiplying by leaps and bounds, 750 people sleeping in a line overnight to apply for one of 35 positions as firefighter, small businesses dying exponentially, layoffs everywhere, Macys in Miami let go of almost 700 employees. It's bad. It's very very bad.

[Baikonour]

54. I live in Philly.

I think you can figure out what the recession has done to this hell-hole.

One of the most poor, corrupt and crime-ridden cities in America, and it's getting worse by the day.

[Colobo]

55. Tampa, FL: The number of homeless people and street prostitutes

is going up like crazy- I've never seen so many folks living on the streets of Fletcher and Nebraska avenue, and so many non-addicted females working the streets. It's dramatic.

[Odin2005]

56. Here in Fargo the stores and malls are empty. Deflation is rampant

Not sure what the local unemployment situation is, but I'm expecting many stores to close by summer, wiping out many jobs. We mostly escaped the absurd extremes of the housing bubble, fortunately, but I have noticed several foreclosure signs in the newest housing developments. Thrift stores are packed. People who need car loans are having trouble getting them even if they have good credit. A lot of people with bad credit (and so don't have credit cards) are resorting to loan sharks.

I'm 22 and This is the worst I've ever seen it. I'm too young to remember the Bush Sr. Recession and we shrugged off the Dot.Com bust much better then many other places. My parents say this is the worst they've seen since the Carter-Reagan Recession. Last I talked to my 85yo grandmother (who proudly voted for Obama) she was saying "well I guess I'll be able to say I lived through 2 depressions caused by the Republicans".

[rainbow4321]

57. I've noticed more houses in my neighborhood with for sale/rent sign out

Restaurants and movie theaters are still packed. I rarely go to the mall so I can't speak about that setting.
Every day there are articles about local companies either shutting down or laying off (7-Eleven, Pier 1, Brinker-owned restaurants, Nortel). One report had new car sales down by 50% in the Metroplex.
Up til a few months ago the Dallas Morning News was trying to say how wonderful the local economy was, acting like our area/state was immune to it all, blah, blah, blah.
Funny how since Pres Obama took office they NOW decide to have all these negative (more realistic) articles each and every day. Needless to say, the DMN is a right wing rag.

[bertman]

58. NC. Glad to hear greguganus say he's in a good area. Ours is starting to feel the hit.

Home building and home sales very slow. Layoffs in many building supply companies and contracting firms. Restaurants are starting to feel the pinch. This is in the Research Triangle Park, which is supposedly recession-proof. Also, pending layoffs at state government.

The only up side of this that I have seen so far is that the NC Employment Security Commission seems to have its shit together and is fully operational online and via phone; although, phone contact does require some wait time.

Our company had a very good year last year but this year we're feeling the slowdown. Also, talked to a banker last week who said her bank is running at 60% of last year's business. No surprise there.

[crimsonblue]

60. It's fine here. n/t

[eridani]

61. Early retirement after 1000 cut at headquarters

Major income drop, but my regular pension and hubby's SS are a solid but minimal base, and we haven't lost any 401k money due to pulling out of the market last March. I'm rolling that over into an IRA annuity with 8% interest the first year, and unless we get really unlucky have enough laddered CDs in to supplement income for 3 years until I turn 65 and can collect higher SS payments than I'd get now. Thinking of going for a census job, and have put my name in for scientific temp employment. I haven't pushed hard, not wanting to take work from younger people who are raising their families now.

[Optical.Catalyst]

63. The Military is taking this opportunity to expand

Joint Strike Fighter program approved for Eglin
02/06/09 - 11:10 AM
Senator Mel Martinez's Office

The community will still see an increase of approximately 4,000 personnel and more than 6,000 dependents with the arrival of the 7th Special Forces Group and F-35 related activities. Military construction is expected to bring $700 million to the area.

This announcement allows for the delivery of 59 aircraft to Eglin and defers the beddown of additional aircraft until completion of a Supplemental Environmental Analysis (SEIS).

http://www.panhandleparade.com/index.php/mbb/article/joint_strike_fighter_program_approved_for_eglin/mbb7714151/

The Air Force is going to use the economic down turn to ram through the Environmental Impact Statement because no body is going to complain about the noise, construction, dust, increase in road congestion, or pollution when they ar blinded by dollar signs. $$

[cherish44]

64. Real jobs have been disappearing here since about 2000

People stay here because it's cheap. It's still possible to rent a house here for $500 a month. You can't find a job that pays more than minimum wage and offers more than 20 hours a week though so even $500 a month is a strain for lots of folks.

[DCBob]

65. I am in DC area and we are somewhat insulated from economic crisises...

due to Federal jobs and money but it is starting show a bit. We see more houses for sale and with some foreclosed. Also, many stores are very quiet, some closings and many layoffs. Also, I hear alot more desperation from people working in federal contracting who are nervous about what may be coming. There are reports of big cuts in contracting money even to existing contracts which means layoffs. However, there are some hopeful signs once the stimulus plan kicks in we should see a healthy chunk of investment here. All in all though a feeling of general foreboding because this seems different than any economic downturn in the past.

[treestar]

66. A lot of houses for sale by owner

They're trying to save on the realtor's fee.

More than usual, anyway.

Other than that, a couple things contrary to the general economic situation - there are adds for getting employees, some new construction, and some new businesses opening.

[avaistheone1]

68. A bad market is not the time to try to save on a realtor's fee.

The only time a for sale by owner has a realistic chance of selling by owner is in a good, strong market. This isn't that time.

[treestar]

70. They could be finding that out

One went from sale to "for rent"

[mopinko]

67. in chicago it is not so bad, but

i am part of a little cabal that has white sox season tickets. we got to move up 9 rows, and over 1 section due to people canceling their tickets. and they went to the playoffs last year.

a little thing, but it is really not that bad here, and yet folks are cutting back on something that i am sure means a lot to them.

[MrSlayer]

69. Construction projects cancelled all over the city. 800 out of work in my Union.

Not real good. I've been laid off for two weeks, supposed to get a call back next week but we'll see. It's going to be bad for a while. Guys in the carpenter's union are being told to come back in two years.

[Numba6]

71. Are all these people standing in line for a tax cut?

Thousands jam job fair

More than 30 employers and thousands of people looking for jobs converged at the Greater Seattle Job Fair at Qwest Field on Wednesday. Thousands waited in line outside the stadium before gaining access into the fair. The fair was put on by Jobbernaut Career Fairs.


FREE DENNY'S -- we like to stand in line!


But A Tax Cut Won't Educate Your Child