A little anecdote to give people a little hope that things are getting better.

[closeupready]

Last night, I went for a walk around the neighborhood, and there was yet another new French restaurant being finished for opening soon at a later date, this new business is in addition to a new 'Latin' bistro and several new Italian 'ristorantes', a few organic groceries, an imported glassware shop, some Thai restaurants, some new laundromats - it's amazing that in the depths of the Second Great Depression, there is so much economic activity going on here in NYC. Granted, this is where the Wall Street banks/casinos who were bailed out of their bad bets courtesy of the US taxpayers, but nonetheless, despite an official unemployment rate of 10%, new businesses imply optimism for a particular area's future, and not only is that optimism well-founded IMHO, when you look around and see all these new businesses that seem to be doing well (esp. in a time when credit to businesses is hard to come by), I am heartened by what I see going on.

Have a good weekend. :)

[dkf]

1. Well we went out to eat the night of our cancelled tsunami warning and

Couldn't find parking at two malls because everyone went out to eat. The CPK was down to an hours wait after having 3 pages of people on their list. The second mall had a basement parking that was full and had to be backed out of while avoiding 5 extra cars. It was a mess!

[closeupready]

2. lol

yes, brisk economic activity has a down side. :D