How to Start a Restaurant

Posted on 26. Feb, 2010 by admin in Economy, Middle Class Crunch, Uncategorized

The economic crisis has caused a lot of businesses to close their doors, but it hasn’t been all bad.

Luis Morales saw an an opportunity in the crisis. With two fellow investors, he decided to open the first modern pan-Asian restaurant in San Jose, Costa Rica. Called Gan-Bei – which means “Cheers” in Chinese – the restaurant is the one place that serves fortune cookies in all of Costa Rica. So if you’re in San Jose and want to hear your fortune, go to Gan-Bei!

We recently spoke with Morales about the trials and tribulations of starting a business.
http://www.vimeo.com/9759667

Suck it, Congress!

Posted on 23. Feb, 2010 by admin in Economy, Middle Class Crunch, Uncategorized

The Iwig family knew they’d run out of time to save their dairy – the bank was ready to foreclose, emergency funds promised by the federal government were slow in coming, and their congresswoman wasn’t returning their calls. So they played the last card they had: their community.

Check out the latest “Political Graffiti” episode, featuring the conclusion of the battle to save the Iwig family farm.

Laurel and Tim Iwig: Bring It On

Little Green Shoots: A Coffee Cup Half Full?

Posted on 09. Nov, 2009 by admin in Economy, Middle Class Crunch

“The whole market is doing great,” said Nathan Slusser, a salesman at the upscale kitchen store Sur La Table in New York’s Soho neighborhood. He pointed to a shelf shining with coffee machines in all sizes and colors and added, “In fact, vendors are regularly releasing new models because of the demand.” Slusser’s hand came to rest on a particularly fancy machine with stainless steel casing and a price tag of $229.95. This was the Breville Café Roma Espresso, which makes both espresso and regular coffee. “These are very popular,” Slusser said. “It’s an investment.”

Bringin' it all back home

The economic crisis has gone a long way in re-domesticating coffee brewing. While Starbucks recognizes this and has responded – a spokesperson told us, carefully, “[G]iven the current economic status in the U.S., we’ve implemented a variety of a value based offers to address customers’ desire for everyday value” – home brewing seems to be percolating.

“I make it at home and bring it to work,” said Millee Moctezuma, on a cigarette break outside an office building on Broadway. “I used to go to Starbucks and Dunkin’ Donuts, but not anymore.”

A New York City government worker, Chris regularly bought his morning coffee at places like Starbucks until a year or so ago, when he started making his coffee at home. “It’s a matter of habit now,” he said, “and I’m saving money too.”

Other coffee vendors are feeling the effects, too. Moshe Nisanov, who runs a little coffee stand called Kosher Luncheonette on Fulton Street in downtown Manhattan, readily admits, “Business has slowed down… because people just don’t spend money.” To keep his regular customers coming, Nisanov often lowers the price of a regular-sized cup of coffee from $1.25 to one dollar.

And over at ‘Wichcraft, an outdoor café in Midtown’s Bryant Park, server John Newman says, “People are generally buying smaller sizes.”

- Oli Foster

Common Debt

Posted on 03. Nov, 2009 by admin in Economy, Middle Class Crunch

When photojournalist Kelly Shimoda set out to chronicle debt for Film@11, the average US household had it — Harvard University’s Elizabeth Warren was seen as a Cassandra for her study that found families were in financial trouble due to large, fixed expenses like mortgages and health care insurance —but no one wanted to talk about it, at least not on record. Debt was seen as painful and shameful.

Well, it’s still painful, but the shame is no longer personal. Over 1 million Americans filed for bankruptcy last year. Many of them filed because of health care costs, and many of those actually had health insurance.

Our latest episode of “Political Graffiti” tackles the sticky question of reform and what to reform. Former Cigna executive Wendell Potter suggests starting with the insurance cartel itself.

Little Green Shoots: Goin’ to the Chapel … on the Cheap

Posted on 29. Oct, 2009 by admin in Economy, Middle Class Crunch

The luxury wedding fabric store Sposabella Lace on West 40th Street in Manhattan was nearly empty, but it wasn’t because of the rain falling steadily. “Business hasn’t been this bad in years,” said owner Albert Sposabella. “[Now] people come in to buy just the veil, piecing it together with something cheaper elsewhere.”

During the Great Depression, the economist George Taylor conceived the hemline index (finding that skirts got longer as the economy slowed). We decided to check the bridal gown index. After all, people are still getting married (2.16 million in 2008, according to the U.S. Census Bureau), and they’re still having weddings, albeit with a budget.

“It was pretty normal to see girls spending $4-5000 on a dress,” said Janet Sampieri, owner of The White Gown, a jewel-box boutique in Brooklyn. “But, now it’s come down to $1500, maybe $2000.”

Which means: out go poufy sleeves, beading and bling, according to Sampieri, and in come less costly fabrics like chiffon and organza. The most popular skirt isn’t the billowing princess. “A-line shapes are popular right now,” Sampieri said.

Gerald Lee, a manager at Wedding CafÈ, which is positioned as “New York’s premiere wedding center,” admitted the gowns have become as toned-down as the weddings themselves. “We’re letting the lesser-known designers (take on projects),” Lee said.

But over at Abe’s Formal Wear, the tuxedo index was soaring. “Profit and sales may be down,” the manager said, “but rentals are sky high.”

- Oli Foster

A special dress for a special price

Little Green Shoots

Posted on 28. Oct, 2009 by admin in Economy, Middle Class Crunch

Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke recently said he saw green shoots of new life cropping up amid the wreckage of the economic crisis. Film@11 reporter Oli Foster went to Wall Street to see whether people there thought a recovery was on the way.

My Public Option

Posted on 27. Oct, 2009 by admin in Economy, Middle Class Crunch

Flu season is nearly upon us, and the good folks at the New York City Health and Mental Hygiene are providing the population with free access to the influenza vaccine. However, while there are over 8.3 million people in New York City proper, there is only a grand total of five free walk-in clinics operated by the city – one for each borough, or one clinic per 1.7 million people. In practice, this turns out to mean that it takes roughly four hours for a person to get a flu shot.

I arrived at 9 am at the clinic on Flatbush Avenue in Brooklyn. The place had been open for an hour, and the line was already a hundred and fifty people long.

I spent the next three hours in line. Arguments broke out over line etiquette. A rat ran through the crowd. Every 20 minutes we shuffled forward en masse as another group was taken indoors. At last I was called, and with renewed vigor I strolled inside and down to the basement … where we were told to sit in chairs. Another half an hour passed.

A custodian cleaning the nearby bathrooms peered at us. “You know, y’all could just head to a Duane Reade or a Walgreen’s or somewhere and get this same shot right now! Fifteen dollars!”

“Twenty-five,” replied a Russian lady.

“Okay, okay, 25,” said the custodian, smiling. “Still, that’s not so much.”

Finally a female police officer coralled us into the elevator to the fifth floor, and then on to another seating area where we filled out several forms and waited for our number to be called. As I sat down, I heard the nurse bark “93!” I was number 140.

An hour later, I heard my number. After a series of quick questions with an attendant (all of which I’d already answered on the forms I’d filled out), the attendant pointed, without looking, towards a door, and I entered a hallway leading to the exam rooms. And sat down to wait again.

The shot itself, when it finally came, took about a minute and a half to administer. My arm throbbed afterwards.

At this rate, if everyone chooses to save their $25 and go with the public option, for all of New York to be inoculated would take approximately 3,718.6 years. Considering that the flu virus changes annually, we’re a bit behind.

- Ned Thorne

Little Green Shoots

Posted on 23. Oct, 2009 by admin in Economy, Middle Class Crunch

Hair Salon Blues

There are about 100,000 hair follicles on the average human head, tended by an 80,000-strong army of hair salons and barbershops in the US. African Americans, though just 12 percent of the population, account for 80 percent of this multi-billion dollar industry, according to Chris Rock’s recent documentary “Good Hair.” So I headed to 125th Street – Harlem – to see how hair salons were doing in the economic downturn.

At Oumou Express, a rental space for freelance hairdressers, most of the booths were empty. A slim man in a sharp jean jacket and suede shoes laughed and swept his hand across the space when I asked how business was going. “I work every day,” Henry Mars said, “but Friday and Saturday are the only days I do work.”

And the work needs to last. That was the message heard by Freddie Decaldeell at Barber Lounge on Premise, who said her business was “low but constant.” She recently hired three articifial hair operators to handle the demand for wigs, weaves and braids, which customers opt for to cut costs. “Braids cut down on the salon business (for real hair),” Decaldeell said.

As customer Kim was getting her black and gold braids done at Super Barber Hair Braiding & Barbershop, she told me, “Usually I’d wear my braids for maximum two months, but I leave them in at least a month longer if it’s going to cost me $100 every time.”

Despite the empty chairs at the salons, Henry Mars remains hopeful. “The days of spending are over,” he said. “Even if times are tough we don’t have to look like it. Things are going to get better. They can’t stay down forever.”

- Oli Foster

Economy at Anchor

Posted on 22. Oct, 2009 by admin in Middle Class Crunch

Hidden in a scenic, sheltered river in Cornwall in the southwest of the UK, there is a sight that shows just how bad the state of the world economy has become.

“The Fal Estuary is the barometer of world trade,” said Captain Andy Brigden, Harbor Master of Carrick who is responsible for the Fal Estuary. “When the Fal is empty of ships, trade is buoyant. When it’s full, as it is now, things are tough”.

The Fal Estuary has seen similar gluts before, during the Great Depression and the troubled economies of the 1960s, 1980s and as recently as the 1990s.

German ship-owner Claus-Peter Offen says the current glut is unlikely to change anytime soon, because of the severe downturn in trade and major over-capacity in the shipping industry. Offen predicts that one-fourth of the world’s fleet will be laid up by 2011, and world trade will not recover to early 2008 levels until 2014.

“As soon as a vessel leaves (the Fal), another vessel replaces it,” Captain Brigden says. “Some of the departing ships are lucky and find a cargo to deliver. Others are scrapped. Because of the drop-off in trade, many of these ships that are scrapped are not even a third of the way through their working lives.”

According to Captain Brigden, car carriers and container ships have been badly hit. These vessels make up the majority of ships in the estuary.

“Basically what’s happening is we are buying and selling fewer cars. So that is why we have car carrying ships here. We’re buying less goods from China, and that is why we have container ships here.”

Yet, for the Fal Estuary community, things aren’t all bad. The glut in ships has brought a small boost to the local economy. Harbor authorities charge ship-owners thousands of dollars each month for laid-up vessels. Claus-Peter Offen says that this boost is going to continue for sometime yet.

- Ed Head

Good Times with NATO

Posted on 16. Oct, 2009 by admin in Middle Class Crunch, War on Terror

The Times of London is sticking by its story that Italy paid bribes to the Taliban in the Sarobi area, east of Kabul, last year while on patrol. The French took over the territory believing it was relatively quiet, and within a month suffered 10 casualties and 21 injuries.

Both the French military and the Italian government deny the report, but surely this won’t make those NATO meetings very pleasant. There was already discord among the NATO countries regarding duty in Afghanistan–we saw it firsthand in 2005, when the situation was relatively good–and although not necessarily related to the Times report, French president Nicholas Sarkozy is refusing to increase the Gallic contingent.

Great Britain, however, is–500 additional soldiers to its approximately 8,300. And Bob Shepherd, a SAS veteran and security contractor who has traveled through most of Afghanistan between 2004-2009, believes this is flawed.

“You could put 40,000 in Helmund alone and it won’t make a difference,” he said. “It’s just going to mean more deaths to soldiers and more money, and right now we can’t afford it. Britain is about to implode–I don’t know how you (in the U.S.) are doing, but we can’t afford to bethere.”

As for the potential to pay off the Taliban, Shepherd points out that “Mullah Omar and his people won’t negotiate with the U.S. and coalition forces, but the people below him will, as long as they get paid something. Forget a surge (like in Iraq)–you have to pay money and a lot, but the question is, how are you going to get it together, and how long are you going to do it? We’re all in tough, tough times right now.”