Lately it’s easy to find a parking space on the main street in town and it seems as if every third house is for sale. I haven’t been shopping for anything other than groceries. Major chain stores are gone. I know people who have lost their jobs.
And yet living in an idyllic and beautiful part of the world, sometimes the harsh reality of the economic crisis seems far away. Even though I’m worried like everyone else. And I see the stories. Factories closing. Companies laying off thousands. The newly homeless. A recent article describing New York where the economic crisis is on every corner.
Compared to those places, life in our community can give the illusion that things are normal.
Lately the movies are more crowded than ever. The beaches seem busy. So are restaurants. V and I are fortunate–and at times I could almost forget.
Then the other night we go out to dinner and afterwards decide to take a walk in our local mall. It’s around 7:30 on a nice night–the stores are open till 9. We go out into the mall. We look down one side. Then down the other. The lights are on but V thinks all the stores are closed. They aren’t. They’re empty. So is the mall. We are the only people there–not a single person is anywhere in sight.
As we stand in that completely empty mall, at that moment for both of us the economic meltdown comes alive in a stark and vivid way. It’s not as dramatic as a Dorothea Lange photo of a ravaged face or a breadline—but that utterly silent deserted ghost town of a mall feels as if a door has slammed shut on the consumer culture of consumption. And for me it’s a snapshot I will remember as the moment reality bit. And hit home with a bulls-eye.
Hopefully you’re managing to sidestep the worst of the economic minefield–but I thought I would ask–whether you’re in New York or Nebraska—whether you too had any AHA moment–whether your malls are empty too, and how things look from where you are.
After becoming a writer, artist, TV journalist, mother and breast cancer survivor----I realize nothing turns out the way we expect. So I blog about handling the big and little things — with humor, humanity, and hope.
Just as the doctor ordered: INSUFT in my mailbox first thing in the AM. As for the state of the economic maelstrom, living in New York affords us a ringside seat since this is where it started and was born. In addition, I have been involved in the mortgage markets for 30 years. So, like many of my colleagues, I saw this coming two years ago when lenders were making loans that people would not be able to afford when egregious adjustments kicked in. The only alternatives for those borrowers were to either refinance or sell their properties, both choices made impossible by a rapidly depreciating real estate market. Admittedly, the real estate market took a little while longer to react here than a lot of other places, i.e. California, Nevada, Florida, but it has very definitely taken a very serious turn for the worst and has taken the commercial real estate market with it. We have empty stores both because of shuttered businesses and due to the fact that fewer people are shopping. Until consumer confidence returns in the form of job security, safe and secure housing, and renewed spending (with cash not credit), we have a very long way to go, probably another year or even two. And that is going to be too long for many, many people.
My previous comment was written having not read the attached Peggy Noonan article but she basically reinforces my comments that the recession has certainly invaded New York and is here to stay for quite a while.
I’m not typically a Peggy Noonan fan but I thought it was a great description of how it must feel to be in New York right now. Sad–and scary. Thanks so much for providing your own insights. I do find in conversations I have daily with both friends and strangers— considering all the problems and the fear, people feel remarkably positive and hopeful.
As I said in my comment, consumer confidence is the one economic indicator that will herald the turnaround that we all need. I am glad to hear that people you know are feeling positive and hopeful.