Shovel Your Walk?

Here's a legal scenario: one of the kids who shoveled my walk (for $3) actually slipped and fell down my stoop steps after her was "hired" as a day laborer. He was fine, thankfully, but if he were hurt on the job, how am I, the property owner and employer, responsible?

Raiding the Family Jewels

It's not like I need to chime on the Bernie Madoff scandall: everyone else has already, and I consider myself lucky that I'm poor enough to not have been hurt by this Ponzi scheme, but I am strangely fascinated with the media coverage of it all.

My day job requires me to read the Wall Street Journal everyday to follow the markets, particularly the housing markets, and this has been big news for Murdoch & Co, for obvious reasons, but I'm most amused by a recent headline from Crain's New York:

Prosecutor: Madoff raided family jewels

Ain't that the truth?

Those Damn Penny Pinchers

The headline just below the fold in today's Wall Street Journal could have just as easily been a clip from The Onion:

Hard-Hit Families Finally Start Saving, Aggravating Nation's Economic Woes

The lede is features an Idaho couple that has recently reduced their credit card debt, opened a savings account, and cut back on taking their children out for dinner. They've even created something of a co-op with other families in purchasing bulk goods at what is presumably a nearby big box store.

For the economy, it's death by thrift.

But this same thriftiness, embraced by families across the U.S., is also a major reason the downturn may not soon end. Americans, fresh off a deacadeslong buying spress, are finally saving more, and spending less--just as the economy needs their dollars most.

Americans are not known for their frugality, at least not the last few generations following those who came of age in the Depression Era. I can tell stories of my grandfather, a Russian immigrant, who monitored the amount of toilet paper his children used and made them walk on the outer rim of the carpet so as not to wear out the main part. Serious stuff.

And while we're not going to see a return to that type of behavior any time soon, and while the no-money-downers will still suck in willing consumers who just don't have the longview to keep from spending beyond their means, the Idaho couple, the Capps, will likely represent a shift in American families. After all, with gas prices at their lowest point in years after hitting peak in Summer 2008, the auto companies are signalling their worst sales in decades, with Toyota showing a sales decline for the first time in its 70-year history.

Maybe, just maybe, Americans are getting the point, and this type of long-term, pragmatic spending will result in a lasting, sustainable economy -- one that is not based on debt.

In Defense of Rutgers

In Defense of Rutgers

I was listening to WFAN the other morning and there you had Boomer Esiason, a former star QB for the Bengals and the Jets, talking about how even though New York (New Jersey, really) has two first-place football teams, you wouldn't know it based on the media coverage.

There's something about this area that makes us supremely cynical and pessimistic, even when things are going well.

But this is not the case with Rutgers and, specifically, Rutgers football -- the Scarlet Knights. New Jersey has rallied behind the football team of the State University of New Jersey. New Jersey was, in fact, crying out for a good football program. Something we can hang our hats on when we say why we're proud to be New Jerseyans.

Now on gameday, there's unity and pride for school and sport. Undergrads, grads, and alumni are interacting in ways they never did.

But the Star-Ledger and some in the New Jersey Legislature are not having any of it. They point to impropriety, they point to scandal and corruption, they point to misappropriation of funds, and their arguments are weak at best, and destructive at worst.

Today, a group of dedicated fans, alumni, faculty, and staff, launched an information campaign to basically set the record straight about Rutgers. That group, assembled through Internet message boards and a Facebook group called I Got Rutgers' Back, of which the Bowie of Suburbia is a member.

The group, which organized only three weeks ago and raised upwards of $10,000 from over 200 individual donors in that time, is an indication of the hunger for a successful RU, both athletically and academically. But with RU's increased success, particularly since the Scarlet Knight's first bowl game in 2005 and now-fired RU Athletic Director and Political Fallguy Bob Mulcahy, the school and the athletic have fallen under increased scrutiny from the Ledger. And it ain't been good.

The group takes specific aim at the Ledger for a December 7 report, "Rutgers Football: A Game of Secrets", which claims that:

In the past five years, as Rutgers hiked tuition, eliminated six other varsity sports and canceled classes to cut costs, the university more than doubled annual spending on football, from $7.5 million to $15.6 million.

The obvious implication here is that is that money was moved from other areas to fund football, and that's patently untrue. The subsidy that RU actually provides football is less than it was five years ago, when the Knights went 4-7 in 2004. Increased spending has been offset 100% by increased revenue stemming from, what else? Increased quality of the Rutgers football program.

Further, the Star-Ledger distorted the findings of an Athletics Review Committee, heavily suggested impropriety in the November 20 report, "Report Says Rutgers Failed To Properly Oversee Athletics Department":

The Rutgers athletic department was allowed to become a virtually independent operation within the school - bending rules, answering to no one and spending freely.

That's the LEDE! If you were reading this with no prior knowledge, you would immediately conclude that this is a corrupt, back-room dealing, club. Only paragraphs later, the article acknowledges that the report found Mulcahy was not involved in any "wrongdoing," but that the University, in an accelerated attempt to improve the football program, moved too quickly and that oversight was lost. That's a legitimate gripe, but fortunately, that lack of oversight did not result in corruption, scandal, or mismanaged. In fact, the Athletics Review Committee audit found the program to be transparent, well run, and was producing dividends.

The report does call for:

• Establish a director of compliance/ethics
• Signatory authority for contracts
• Review and approval of sponsorship agreement policies and practices
• Review and approval of high-level employment contracts

Like I Got Rutgers' Back says "Athletics could have done bad things and nobody would have caught them, but fortunately they actually did great things."

Other areas of concern related to the Star-Ledger coverage included Coach Greg Schiano's alleged contract stipulation that offered an "out" if the stadium expansion were not completed (not true), and a Schiano salary subsidy from Nelligan, the school's sports marketing agency that was labeled as a "secret side deal." This kind of contract arrangement is so common in collegiate athletics.

The Ledger also characterizes the Rutgers Stadium expansion as mismanaged, and that bonds couldn't be sold as a result. Any superficial examination of large-scale development projects in the current economy -- institutional, medical, corporate, or otherwise -- would show just how difficult it is to get a project completed. But with all of that said, the first phase of the project was completed on time and on budget, the second phase as been scaled back in an acknowledgment of the economy, but will still provide increase revenue generators in the 11,500 additional seats

Star-Ledger should have known better, or if they did, they chose to avoid it, cynically looking for scandal.

Edison, NJ: A Lot of Dough for A Little Talk

For those of you who don't know, Edison, NJ, named after the esteemed inventor, is the fifth-largest municipality in the state with a population of roughly 100,000. It's a huge, sprawling expanse of a township, composed historically of pieces of older townships. As most things in New Jersey, it used to be miles of rolling hills and farmland and now it's mostly built out. There is no central downtown (an unincorporated section of Edison known as Clara Barton, comes close, but offers little in the way of a vibrant downtown), you can only drive from here to get there.

That said, Edison is a desirable place to live for its schools, proximity to transit and New York City, budding Indian population, and family-oriented communities.

Oh, and there was recently a revolution in local government there.

A Wha??!! Yes, a revolution. It was a big deal. Edison, along with New Brunswick and Perth Amboy, was one of a dying few localities in NJ's Middlesex County that was still run by an entrenched and corrupt Democratic machine. In 2005, Democrat Jun Choi, a former senior official at the state's Department of Education, beat Democrat George Spadoro -- a long-time mayor who was part of his party's political machine -- in the Democratic primary. It was huge. Two years later, Choi (who, at 34, was the youngest mayor ever to be elected in Edison) campaigned successfully to get elected his own slate of change candidates to Township Council.

Challenges abounded in Edison, from a campaign to build a new high school to how to redevelop a massive expanse along U.S. Route 1 that was the site to the local Ford plant. There was, and still is, promise in Edison under Choi's progressive leadership. Choi was among the first New Jersey officials to support President-elect Barack Obama, while most of NJ's old-guard Democrats fawned over Hillary Clinton (Clinton won NJ handily in the presidential primary), and set a bold agenda for the township.

There have been hiccups along the way, though. In summer 2006, an incident between an Indian man and the police set off a high level of racial tension. Choi sided with the police, though called for an investigation of the officer (who was later cleared) and was criticized for it. The PBA president called for Choi's resignation, but that call was largely dismissed by newspapers and residents alike as part of the "old Edison guard." One local paper actually called for the PBA president's resignation because of his actions

And while Choi has taken bold stances, he comes off as arrogant often times, in curt responses to questions over his style of governance, and the choices he makes in the name of progress. A local paper, The Home News Tribune, reports that the township's communications director, hired in 2006 with a handsome $65K yearly salary has enjoyed a 38 percent salary increase and now makes $90K a year -- an exorbitantly high wage for someone in the communications field that only oversees an assistant, and not a whole department.

In a time when the average Edison homeowner pays roughly $6,500 a year in taxes and New Jersey localities are under pressure to build state-mandated affordable housing, and are limited to only 4 percent annual budget increases as the Legislature lamely tries to address the state's misguided property tax system, Choi, a reformer in his own right, needs to make sure this doesn't happen. Further, he needs to steer clear of arrogantly defending it.

Hell, I'm an experienced editor. I will happily take that job for a mere $70K/year. Mayor Choi -- are you listening? While I'm not a resident, I live right near Edison.

Food Banks: Another NEO Casualty?

Last week, when a prominent and long-standing central New Jersey soup kitchen went to the newspapers as a last resort to inform the public that demand was up, donations were down, and that it would have to cut back on meals, the immediate response was overwhelming. Donations, totaling upwards of $7,000 poured in almost instantly, the full meal service was restored, and there was a happy ending just in time for the pre-Thanksgiving headlines. The support was touted as a “Thanksgiving Miracle.”

But what happens to places like Elijah’s Promise—that central Jersey soup kitchen—when it’s March, or August, or any other time when holiday spirit cannot be tapped? It’s just another characteristic of this New Economic Order. Americans are spending less, and have less disposable income. At the same time, not-for-profit organizations like Elijah’s Promise, face the daunting challenge of carrying out its mission with fewer dollars and more demand.

Of course, it goes without saying that this is not an isolated incident. While foundation support for nonprofits has yet to take a major toll, there is the looming threat of a sustained decline in charitable giving, putting the hurt on nonprofits everywhere.

Whereas not-for-profit services might decline with diminished funding, the demand for food banks increases in tough economic times. AP reports:

The Greater Chicago Food Depository, the city’s food bank, has seen a 33 percent increase in food pantry demand from July to September of 2008, compared to the same period last year, said spokesman Bob Dolgan, “Our network is strained right now,” Dolgan said. “Our most successful pantries … are having to turn people away.”

And to make matters even worse, those who were donors or volunteers at food banks in years past are now clients. Food, sadly, is one of the first “luxuries” to go—before gas and electricity, according to Paul Ash, the executive director of the San Francisco Food Bank, who appeared Wednesday on PBS’ NewsHour. Last year, his organization distributed more than 27 million pounds of food.

Ash explains:

Well, it bites worst at the end of the pay period, so just depending on how someone is paid. We always see more people showing up to a pantry if the distribution is in the last few days of the month, or the, you know, 13th, 14th, 15th of the month, just before someone can expect their paycheck.

Food is the one thing that you can just parse out your dollars very, very slowly. And so that’s why you end up running out of food toward the end of the middle of the month.

The other penalty there is you don’t buy the giant economy size. You have to buy the small size, so your dollar doesn’t go as far. So there;s a lot of penalties to living paycheck-to-paycheck and trying to stretch your dollars out for food.

The food stamps program, and other federal nutrition programs do not limit the number of participants, those programs do not offer sufficient support to feed a family for a month. As a result, more strain is placed on food banks, which suffer from falling donations.

No Choice But to Age In Place

Aging in place for some is the ultimate ideal. Elderly individuals, with their faculties in tact, and who are physically sound, stay in the houses where they raised their families, and remain in the communities where they have roots, paid taxes, and have an historic reference.

A community with a sound housing policy would ideally provide low- and moderate-income housing for aging seniors so that they can downsize, while remaining in their community. For residents of greater means, market rate senior housing, replete with wide doorways, limited services, and near town amenities is, or should, be an option.

But with the New York Times Saturday reporting that aging in place might, in fact, be a burden, this whole ideal is going out the window.

Welcome to the new economic order. With every passing day, as housing values plummet and the level of unsold houses approaches a one-year extent. Older Americans can no longer sell their houses to downsize—never mind downsizing within their own communities. They can’t downsize anywhere, presenting a potentially frightening prospect for people—stuck in their homes.

According to The Times:

Facilities that have watched their waiting lists wither and their occupancy rates fall in the last year are now scrambling to bring people through their doors. Some assisted-living centers have called in real estate agents to teach prospective residents about online advertising and how to clean and preen their homes for showings. Others have set up programs with banks to provide bridge loans to homeowners, or are discounting apartments and offering low-interest loans.

“It is part of the hidden problem of the recession,” said Larry Minnix, president of the American Association of Homes and Services for the Aging.

Talk about aging in place. But in these cases, it’s not by choice.