Fundamentals of Interactive Journalism

1975 South Bronx nativity (image from NYT.com)

Folk artist Joseph Sciorra constructed this unique nativity scene, set in the South Bronx, circa 1975.

My very first post on this blog was about photos of the Bronx during that time.

Over the last few weeks, I’ve spoken with a few people – a bar owner, an unemployed 30-something, a pastor – who are worrying about the near future of the city in this recession.

Maybe a look at this scene (click here for some details) is a good reminder of what the Bronx has overcome and what it will hopefully never have to face again.

All month until Christmas, Union Square transforms into a bustling holiday marketplace. Dozens of smiling vendors crowd against each other in little striped booths and peddle everything from gems to cookies to the festive crowds.

The staggering amount of foot traffic through the colorful holiday maze makes one think that open air markets are the perfect way to do business during a recession. Talk to some of the vendors, however, and their smiles grow sad. With the dark cloud of deflation hanging overhead, the vendors have one consensus about customers: they’re coming but they ain’t buying.

“It’s definitely slower,” said Alexandra, one of the vendors. “People are being more careful about what they buy.”

In years past, Alexandra’s booth where she sells dolls and designer dresses used to bring in at least a thousand every day. This year, she has yet to reach that number on even the busiest shopping days. In a nearby booth, Lorenzo has seen profits from his artwork literally halved.

The drop in retail prices was a record-breaking 1.7 percent in November. Out in the holiday market, it appears that December is faring no better. Many of the vendors had to cut their prices steeply in order to stay competitive.

But the drop in performance isn’t uniform for everyone. Some booths are doing clearly than others, depending on what products they sell. Jewelry isn’t doing so well but bath and comfort items are still in demand.

“We sell a product that makes people feel good,” says Al. “So that usually does well, even in a hard time.”

Some vendors also have the advantage of customer loyalty on their side. Unlike store loyalty, this kind of repeat business is much more personal. This might explain why so many booth owners are smiling, even though they know their business is going down.

I don’t if you guys heard but we are in a recession. And I don’t know about you guys, but I don’t save any of  my money. 

To a large extent I have cut down on some expenses since school started and I stopped making real money. But there is still health expenses, and living expenses which take a huge cut out of my monthly budget. Obviously there are things I could do to pinch pennies, but truthfully I just don’t think to do it. 

I’m not sure if it was just something I’ve never thought to do, but I sure know I was never taught to do it. There was always a sort of “figure it out on your own” mentality in my family.  

I figured out credit cards really quickly on my own when I took out a bunch at the tender age of 18 and one month and spent a lot of money I didn’t have. Still paying one of them off seven years later. 

Yet in times of economic crisis, a person’s savings become incredibly important to livelihood. When push comes to shove that’s what is going to help people get through. 

I hear about my friends in severe debt from school, or credit cards and I wonder, is it an American thing? or a generational thing? 

The Times has a great interactive series on the crisis called “The Debt Trap.” The series includes an amazing graph that shows most Americans have an average savings of $392 dollars per year and around $120,000 per year in debt. What? That’s insane to me. 

CUNY’s own Barbara Raab has some good things to say about saving money, but she also notes that it isn’t easy being thrifty.

 I think the solution is really to start teaching people about money, credit, and saving at a young age. I know that a class in high school on this stuff would have helped me much later on. 

But maybe the recession will force us all to re-evaluate our spending habits, and when we (if we) ever get the economy back to into an upswing I’ll be sure to put some money in the bank and keep it there. Hopefully there are lessons here we can take to heart and actually remember. 

Until then we always have the sage-like Suze Orman to help us. 

Sometimes it’s exciting, breathtaking even, to stand on the media’s rooftop and watch the fiery implosions of our economy.

Today, I found that the bank I keep my money in, Washington Mutual, has fallen. The government seized the enormous thrift on its birthday and quickly sold it off to JP Morgan & Chase. This is the biggest banking collapse in U.S. history.

The recent failures reminded me of stories of earlier decades, about how people would gather on a mesa somewhere and watch the U.S. military conduct nuclear tests. First there was the flash, then the picturesque cloud formation. Then the echo of the blast wave struck, dousing the hapless observers with radiation.

The Washington Mutual collapse is nothing I didn’t see coming. But before, I was merely watching the devastation from afar. Now, I finally feel its heat.

The FDIC says that my money is secure. They did not have to reach into their coffers for the (how strange it is to say this) measly $45 billion. Though consolidation continues on Wall Street with JP Morgan and Bank of America reaching supergiant status, I wonder how long the mightiest pillars can continue to stand.

It’s strange. I’d heard about panicked citizens standing in lines, waiting for their money in the decades gone by. I could never imagine what that must be like. Now, that situation actually has a chance of happening. Today, some of WaMu’s legion of customers will be at their branches, pulling out hard. I will be among them.

Other questions smolder in my mind – what will happen to my student loans? Will I be able to receive the amount I need? How will New York handle the cut in social services? And will other nations, tired of United States’ fading superpower status smell blood in the water and assert themselves?

I don’t know. No one knows. The bailout is in limbo with Democratic and Republican opposition to Paulson’s plan. Apparently the treasurer got down on one knee in front of Pelosi, which, while a joke, symbolizes the entire predicament of taxpayers being asked to pick up the unfortunately necessary bill.

Allright. Enough doom and gloom out of me. Here are some cheering news about smaller banks apparently thriving through the crisis. If we survive this one without a depression, the fall of the investment banks and centralized risk players may even be a good thing. With all the consolidation, however, the number of players had diminished and their power, greatly increased.

Lehman Bros is filing for bankruptcy. Merrill Lynch is being bought. Denied the comfort of rock bottom, Wall Street continues its descent into the deeper layers of a financial Dante’s Inferno.

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