[ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] MAY I HAVE YOUR UNDIVIDED ATTENTION PLEASE!” Small guy, big mouth: Hes maybe 15, black, skinny kid, but his voice fills up the noisy New York City subway car and then some. “I am selling candy! I got Snickers! I got Peanut MMs! I am trying to make some money! This isnt for school, this isnt for a basketball team, this is for ME! So I can get more candy and MAKE MORE MONEY!” The straphangers appreciate his no-malarkey sales pitch and his entrepreneurial spirit. He does a bit of business, and a few people just give him a buck and skip the candy. His name is Will, and he is not turning down a dollar. But its a tough hustle: Accounting for the cost of his product and his subway pass, it takes him about three hours to earn $20 free and clear, an implied wage of $6.67 an hour–well under minimum wage. On the other hand, its tax-free, and he sets his own hours. Will wants to go to college–and then what? “Be an independent businessman.” Hes already that, and, if persistence really does pay, hes going to do fine for himself. Theres a whole weird little economy on the subway, from candy hustlers like Will to the Chinese ladies who sell pirated DVDs of movies that have just opened in the cinemas. There are acrobats and mariachi bands, good old-fashioned panhandlers, poets, preachers, and percussionists. Its all part of the famous entrepreneurial bustle of New York. But stay on that No. 4 train a few more stops, north of Harlem and into the Bronx, and that entrepreneurial energy evaporates. Not far from the Kingsbridge Road stop is the Eighth Regiment Armory, a fantastically out-of-place 575,000-square-foot brick castle. Its been a lot of different things over the years–barracks, homeless shelter, boat-show venue, a pre-creepified set for Will Smiths I Am Legend–but it currently is vacant, as are a lot of buildings in the Bronx. Passing by, late on a weekday morning, is a local who calls himself “C,” a black man as sturdily built as the armory itself. C very much wants a cigarette. This is a problem, because he is not currently in funds, in no small part because he does not have a job. In fact, at 35 years old, C has never held a job. His friends, acquaintances, known associates (C is a little foggy on whether hes on probation or parole, but hes got some known associates): no jobs, never really had them. His father? Do not ask C about his father. In fact, the only people C can think of who have jobs are women: His mother worked, the mother of his children works. He did know a woman who was dating a taxi driver once. C says he would like to work but is more of an independent businessman. He describes the informal work he has done as “this and that,” and says he would like to “have his own place,” a bar or a nightclub. But dont expect to see him selling candy on the No. 4 train anytime soon. Asked about the recently defeated plan to convert the gigantic fortress that looms over his neighborhood into a shopping mall, C says he hasnt heard about it. If the plan had gone through, Manhattan-based developer Related Companies would have received about $50 million in tax subsidies for a project that would have created as many as a thousand retail jobs and, during its construction, employed a thousand or more highly paid union hardhats. But the city council killed the project. The Bronx delegation demanded that Related enforce upon its leaseholders a requirement that all of the jobs in the mall pay at least $10 an hour, plus benefits, much more than the prevailing wage in the Forever21-and-food-court racket, to say nothing of the $7.25 minimum wage. So a $300 million project, and a couple of thousand new jobs in a neighborhood that needs them, never happened. Bronx borough president Ruben Diaz Jr. infamously declared: “The notion that any job is better than no job no longer applies.” The New York Post pithily pointed out that when it comes to real jobs, Diaz has never had one–not in the private sector, anyway–and neither has any other member of the Bronxs city-council delegation: All are lifelong politicians, many of them having held elected offices or political appointments since their early 20s. Diaz himself has been an officeholder since he was 23 years old. Its good work, if you can get it. But theres not much other work to be had in the Bronx, where unemployment is currently at about 13.1 percent. Much of the Bronx is young and black or young and Hispanic. Nationally, the unemployment rate among blacks rose to 16.2 percent in the year-end numbers, while the rate for whites fell to 9.0 percent. For black youths, the numbers are startling: 50 percent for 16-19-year-olds, 26 percent for 20-24-year-olds. A study from the Community Service Society of New York puts actual work-force participation among black men 16-65 years of age in New York City at about 50 percent, and the number for young black men nationwide is just 40 percent.
ROSWELL, N.M. — Last weekend, PrimeSource Mortgage, Inc. held their 18th annual
conference. There were over 120 participants attending including the
majority of the branch owners from the 35 offices around the country, as
well as many of their Realtor referral partners. The conference was a
monumental success, and considered the best ever.
The conference included some incredible speakers including Dr. Steve
Greene, dean of the School of Business at Oral Roberts University, Greg
Frost, one of the largest mortgage producers in the country, and several
other industry leading speakers.
During the conference, many of the changes occurring in the mortgage
industry were discussed at length. The overwhelming perception that was
derived from the weekend was the fact that with 75% fewer loan
originators in the marketplace, the “survivors” are now positioned
beautifully for the return of the origination market in 2010 and 2011.
Optimism returned to an all-time high as the conference was drawn to a
close.
There was an awards ceremony held on the last evening of the conference.
The Top Producing Branch award was taken home by the Grapevine, Texas,
branch, lead by Bob Duane and Cary Hise. This branch not only took the
lead in production in 2009 but had doubled their production since 2008.
The Branch of the Year award was earned by the Amarillo, Texas, branch,
led by David Rieff, and two Rookie of the Year awards handed out to
Scott Chronister of the Argyle, Texas, branch and Lisa Hagee of the
Midland, Texas, branch.
Jeff Smith commented, “I would like to personally thank each of the
speakers and participants at this years conference for their commitment
to excellence. I look forward to the difference each made in the lives
of the attendees.”
ITS DISTURBING that Business Editor Drew Voros is so biased in favor of the petroleum industry. In two recent columns, Voros bemoans Chevrons veiled threats to close the Richmond oil refinery. He repeatedly blames the city of Richmond and environmentalists, but he ignores numerous facts that put the responsibility squarely on Chevron and the oil industry in general. Indeed, Voros admits that Chevrons actual plans were quite different, saying that the retrofit “. would have enabled it to process a larger variety of crude oil. “.” — Those living near the Chevron refinery have some of the highest rates of breast cancer and hospitalization due to asthma attacks in the state, among other health issues linked to the refinery. Yet Voros utterly fails to factor in (or even acknowledge) those costs.
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