Stewart Acuff-"Getting America Back to Work"

Mayor Mike's narrow win

Mayor Mike's narrow win reflects seething unrest among working-class New Yorkers to his neglect of their interests over his eight year tenure. This so-called Wall Street business wiz-kid hasn't attracted enough blue-collar jobs nor enough affordable housing. Hell! Mike couldn't even keep a cookie company(Stella Dora) from vacating the Bronx. Out went over eighty good paying union jobs. Stella Dora, after a hard fought battle by the workers, paid the kind of wages workers need to pay the escalating rents that's enveloped Bloomberg's Gotham. But, we all know who Mike caters to. It's not the same folks who almost voted him out two weeks ago. It's the real estate fat cats and the folks that make six-figured salaries. And another thing Mayor Mike. Take off the Yankee jacket. We all know you don"t follow baseball and besides.... you're from....Boston.

What's going on here? Big luxury condos are being turned into rentals because the owners can't find any buyers. Commercial real estate is in gotham is in the pits. Store closings are up all over. Yet, the happy news from our corporate media is crowing that the "Great Recession" is over and happy days are here again? Below are some pix of recent store closings in the city.

The recession and store closings on West 8th St. in the Village

Recovery-What Recovery?

For several weeks now we've been getting happy news from our corporate-controlled media that we are coming out of the worst economic recession in history. We're in economic recovery they say. The news shows issue government stats that indicate instead of losing 500,000 jobs a month we are now shedding 200,000. Wow! Unemployment is about to hit 10% (It's at 9% in New York City) and a part-time job is the best you can do if you"re lucky enough to find a job at all. A headline in the September 2nd edition of Women's Wear Daily reports that "shop lifting is soaring" at a lot of clothing stores. Another fun fact of this so-called recovery is the closing of many retail stores in our area. But Wall Street has been having a swell time recently, right? Well that was a week ago. Lately stocks have been kind of flat or like today-down. I just don't think we're out of the woods yet folks. My advice is to not unbuckle your seat belt just yet. It might be another steep drop ahead on this roller coaster.

Pix From Montreal, Canada during 2009 R.A.C.E Conference 6/5/09

Snafu-You a Train Blues

Over the past few years the MTA has been supending A train service from 12AM-5AM. I live in Bed-Stuy, Brooklyn and the A and C trains are my only options to get to work. The MTA offers the dredded "Shuttle Bus" service to Jay Street-Borough Hall where you can pick up a Manhattan bound A, C or F train. Now train service is supposed to resume at 5AM, so I usually will wait until service resumes. I have to get to work by 6AM so I'm hoping the MTA is true to its word. Not today. The train showed up around 18 minutes afterwards. Lots of people are wainting and like me, some of them might get into office disciplinary action for lateness. Even before this latest suspension of service the A seemed to crawl through the tunnel, thus making me late to catch my E train connection at West 4th St. This nonesense has been going on for most of the year, with hardly any C service on most weekends. If you have a job in these economic hard times then you are blessed. I know of many friends who have lost their jobs in this current financial meltdown. My supervisor told my that I'm on the company "radar scope" for past lateness. all of my latenesses are due to the snafu's of the MTA on the IND A, C, and E lines. I'm well aware that routine repairs must be made to the tracks, but some of the MTA's capital spending should be shelved during this Great Recession. Especially interior fix-up jobs like what's happening at the Jay Street/Borough Hall station. It's sad that people are losing their jobs due to the collapse of Wall St, but to lose a paycheck because of MTA incompetance is a outrage. I would like to know who does the dispatching on most Thursdays when the 4:45am train doesn't arrive till sometimes-5:15 or later? Soon we'll be paying more for this nonesense. Can a member of the working poor get a break?