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You may have seen in the legitimate media some news lately about disappointing jobs numbers like this one in the Wall Street Journal. I try not to read too much or watch too much on TV other than sports (nothing really equals playoff hockey) and Modern Family (still funny). Oh yeah, and Sherlock is finally returning to Masterpiece Theater on what used to be public television.
But I digress. I think that what’s happened is that US employment is no longer very important to the markets. Markets are interested in earnings and profits, not in how many people are working in any given location. People doing a job for less money anywhere in the world helps a company’s quarterly earnings statement (or whatever they call it – read disclaimer below). So, many companies have little or nothing at stake in any particular community, e.g., the community of the United States workforce.
DISCLAIMER: I’ve done no research on this. I don’t have statistics to cite, or scholars and pundits to quote. I’m not particularly educated nor have I been trained in economics. It just seems that way to me. Use the search engine of your choice and your findings may be different. FURTHER DISCLAIMER: I nearly failed macro economics.
Oh, and here’s a nice picture – a few weekends ago in Central Park, New York City. I stitched two photos together, and by gum it, I like the way it came out. For the camera compulsive, I used a Fargomatic Ultra 11, model 16 (firmware version q) with a 16 caliber 1.2 mm desensored lens.
Like this:
At a subway stop last November… 42nd Street maybe? Part of the backlog.
A woman records the moment.
Later that day, maple leaves float in a fountain in Bryant Park.
Meanwhile far away in another part of town…
Like this:
Spring has signaled return of the fruit stands, little islands of spherically-contained naturally sugary fruitplosions and fruitruptions all nurtured to fruition by a little bit of warm weather.
…and horning in on the action, a few pathetic inedible houseplants, clad only in their limited shades of green.
A few weeks ago I posted an update on the economy and talked about my many interviews with ESTRADCO. Early last week ESTRADCO made me an offer and I, following 3.2 seconds of negotiation, accepted. So the economy has improved and I am again earning a paycheck after a gap of 15 months. Civilization may still be doomed, however, I can now buy an ipod.
The YouGoGirl building on the West Side Highway shows signs of recovery. If you focus on the right side of this photo, you might notice a guy in a third floor window with what appears to be a power tool, let’s call it a drill. This building also tells us bears the starkly obvious but largely ignored message, “Cars kill.”
Further south on the West Side Highway, this building, lonely, pre-abandoned, an arboreal takeover looming behind it, pleads for someone, anyone to lease it.
Vacant lot with posters, West Side Highway.
Even further south near the World Financial Center I accidentally found the Irish Hunger Memorial when swerving to avoid a string of wide-walkers, tourists oblivious to anything not in their 3″ LCD screens. There this was, this memorial sprouting wildflowers and grasses and stone walls.
Group of protesters with Iranian flags protesting near Battery Park during the recent UN sessions.
Other protests seen but not photographed during the past week: People wanting China out of Tibet making excellent use of a bullhorn for call and response. The Transport Workers Union deployed several large inflatable rats closing several streets in the east 40s along Madison Avenue.
Are the Washington Square Tar Mounds, which last erupted in 1893, a threat to public safety? The Tar Mounds, the only known such natural formation on the east coast, have long fascinated visitors to the park. Oddly enough, the parks service, the city’s 311 information system and the National Society of Geological Phenomena (NSGP) make no mention of the Tar Mounds. And these potentially volatile formations have at one time even been used by skateboarders.
In the relative geological calm of the last century plus, life has returned to reclaim some of the formerly barren landscape.
The constant threat of eruption has prompted city officials to enclose the Tar Mounds, creating a safe boundary for viewing by throngs of thrill-seeking tourists.
A construction site at the corner of W. Houston and Hudson Sts. The sign posted at the gates makes makes we wonder: what is the future of the city; why is it being built by the Dept. of Environmental Protection; and is this the proper way to use semicolons or am I just being pretentious?
A pile of rusted pipes or braces.
An activity center in the middle of all the construction.
St. Brigid’s Church, the oldest Keely church still standing in the US, has been closed since 2001. The Committee to Save St. Brigid’s Church has a website describing the condition of the church, photos of the interior, and their efforts to raise funds and restore the building.
The view across from Avenue B. Windows boarded, garbage accumulating on the steps.
A pawlonia tree has taken root in a crack in the base of the building. These fast growing trees do a lot of damage, widening cracks, allowing more moisture to creep in.
The first two photos should be one long panorama, but I couldn’t get them to stitch together properly. In the first shot, one of the doorways is crooked – there wasn’t an earthquake, I just lined things up crookedly.
This DVD store is NOT closed. It just looks that way. NOT Closed. Still Open. You can buy DVDs there. I think you can sell them or rent them too. Not closed. Open.
Finally, this image, a panorama of a section of the garden at St. Luke’s of the Fields on Hudson Ave. I know – it’s too long and narrow to really see any detail from this photo. If you’re in the neighborhood and like trees, flowers, birds, and butterflies, pop in for a visit. There are some fantastic and uncommon or NYC trees there, like a Dawn Redwood and what I think is a Crape Myrtle.
In Riverside Park just north of the Boat Basin, a pair of red-tailed hawks have made a nest in a London planetree. I chatted with a woman who told me that this is the same pair who had built a nest last spring and hatched several chicks. Unfortunately, the nest fell from the tree before the chicks could fly, killing the chicks. There are three chicks this year, although I saw just two plus the adults plus dinner.
The bushy-tailed hawk…
…on closer inspection
is turning its prey to prepare to eat it.
Meanwhile, the squirrel in the foreground flees.
A chick waits or its dinner.
