Occupy Wall Street Knows Not What It Does Hurting Local Jobs
(Updates with CBO report in sixth paragraph and Oakland arrests under ‘Not as Tolerant’ subhead.)
Oct. 25 (Bloomberg) -- Occupy Wall Street protests assailing income inequality, joblessness and big banks may have some unintended consequences. They’re hurting nearby merchants as police barricades deter shoppers.
“If this doesn’t stop soon I will be out of business,” said Marc Epstein, 53, president of Milk Street Cafe on Wall Street, less than a block from the New York Stock Exchange.
Sales have dropped about 20 percent since the protests began last month and the 103 jobs created by the cafe’s opening in June are now at risk, said Epstein, who is not alone. Caroline Anderson, general manager of Boutique Tourbillon, a Wall Street jewelry store, said customer traffic is down about 20 percent, and Vincent Alessi, a managing partner at Bobby Van’s Steakhouse on Broad Street, said his lunch business has been cut in half.
The Occupy Wall Street movement that began in New York with about 1,000 people on Sept. 17 has spread to cities on four continents as demonstrators from London to Rome and Chicago to Sydney have pitched tents in public spaces. Police, whose displays of force also may be hurting business as they block access to tourist destinations, have arrested hundreds.
“These protesters don’t understand the consequences of their actions,” Epstein said. “Who’s going to create the jobs they’re banging their drums for?”
Income Inequality
Participants say they represent “the 99 percent,” a reference to Nobel Prize-winning economist Joseph Stiglitz’s study showing the richest 1 percent of Americans control 40 percent of U.S. wealth. A Congressional Budget Office report released today shows that from 1979 to 2007, after-tax income grew by 275 percent for the top 1 percent of households, compared with 18 percent for the bottom 20 percent.
Thai Food Delivery Oakland - News
Amos Winbush III, a Wall Street resident, said he has stopped frequenting a local Thai restaurant and started ordering groceries for delivery. “I'm super passionate about the movement, but the frustration is feeling like you're in a war zone with
While some water doused streets and shops along the river, the tide fell short of the expected high predicted by the Thai navy and there was no major breach. Higher than usual tides will continue through Monday, but none was predicted as high as
By Associated Press Thai residents walk on planks to keep dry from floodwaters as they alight from a train station at the Mon Chit area in Bangkok, Thailand on Tuesday Nov. 8, 2011. Thailand's energy minister Pichai Naripthaphan said the flood crisis
Asian Markets – Oakland's Chinatown « Thai Food and Travel Blog
One of the best places to buy Asian ingredients in Oakland, California, Chinatown Oakland. When Kasma goes shopping for his weekly Thai cooking class, she invariably starts in Oakland Chinatown. Below are the stores where she shops.
A map I found Chinatown shows the limits of Oakland as a rectangle bound by Broadway and Oak on two sides and 6th Street and 11th Street on the other two sides. Stores where Kasma stores are all in a smaller area, bounded by Broadway and Webster on both sides and 7th Street and 9th Street on the other sides.
Although it is called Chinatown, it is really more pan-Asian as the stores are run not only by Chinese but also by Southeast Asians such as Vietnamese.
Street parking can be somewhat hard to find in Chinatown, particularly on 8th Street and 9th Street where there are many stores. Double-parked vehicles, including large delivery trucks, are very common on these two streets. On weekday mornings, Kasma can sometimes find parking on Broadway between 8th Street and 9th Street. When I shop here I usually drive up 9th Street (it’s a one-way street) coming from Clay Street and park at the metered-street parking either between Clay and Washington or between Washington and Broadway. Alternatively, there’s a parking lot under the Asian Cultural Center, which is found on Franklin Street in-between 9th and 10th. Drive up 9th (one-way) from Broadway and turn onto Franklin (left only, Franklin is one-way) and the parking lot is underground to your right. It costs the same to park here as on the street, but they charge in hour-long increments.
(Click images to see larger version.) (510) 839-9094
Khanh Phong is a medium-size Southeast Asian market, owned by a friendly Vietnamese family. This is where Kasma normally begins her shopping. In addition to all the usual sauces and canned goods, there’s a butcher, a good selection of frozen seafood and fresh produce. Like many of the markets, the produce spills over onto the streets. The meat in Chinatown is very inexpensive; unfortunately, this means that it comes from large, industrial-sized factory farms. Kasma prefers to buy meat raised more naturally and sourced from smaller farms at other locations (such as the Berkeley Bowl); however, there are certain cuts of meat, particularly pork belly and pork leg with the skin still on, that are all but impossible to find outside of Asian markets.