Results tagged “recession”

Washington State leads the country in troubled banks: a whopping 26.3% of banks in the state are either troubled or have outright failed.

Polling of grant funders revealed that they'd lost about twenty-two percent of their assets in 2008 and forecast losing another ten percent in 2009. Because they base their funding on rolling three-year intervals, artists and arts organizations can look forward to seeing the impact of these losses in 2011 and 2012 (in addition to an immediate ten-to-twenty five percent decrease in individual giving this year). God help you if you're a new organization, or are looking for funds from new sources, because the prevailing wisdom was that funders weren't looking for new opportunities.

The PSBJ was just explaining "debtenfreude" to us--the delight you take in another's real estate misfortune. Now we have a word for how we feel after reading this headline: "Economy eats into funds for Thunder arena project." The AP says "the tax approved by voters as a way to lure the NBA's Seattle SuperSonics to town--where they were renamed the Thunder--has produced $4.2 million below projections." Seattle leadership has gotta be happy they're not knee-deep in a Key Arena renovation right now.

SILENT SCREEN: Trader Joe's Silent Movie Mondays at the Paramount is back and focusing on the speechless girls of black-and-white. Words fail you when discussing Cecil B. DeMille's The Godless Girl anyway--Judith and Bob are young atheists who naturally end up in a reform school run by sadists. This is an ur-Girls Gone Wild visual text and will count for credit if you are a student of this kind of counter-history. The important thing is, Judith and Bob learn that those fires of hell are real and they burn, thus making Christianity something more than an academic choice.

Not that kind of pew. It's a Pew Charitable Trusts report on how major cities are handling deficits, and Seattle, we think it's fair to say, is full of fiscal win: our one-year deficit of $44 million is just 5 percent of our general fund. For context, L.A. and Chicago stand at 12 and 13 percent, respectively. For even more context, we're tied with Baltimore, so don't get cocky. "Proposed service cuts are mostly targeting libraries, recreation facilities and aspects of trash collection." It probably makes budgetary sense, but it's really unfortunate, symbolically, that we're cutting library hours and increasing the size of our police force.

We took the I-5 Mercer Street/Seattle Center exit the other night and while waiting for the light to change, we noticed ten--a seemingly abnormal amount--construction cranes littering the South Lake Union neighborhood. (Yes, some probably dedicated to building the new Amazon HQ.)

MSNBC has just updated its Adversity Index, which uses data on employment, business growth, and housing prices to label each state and metro area as expanding, at risk of recession, in recession, or recovering. The most recent data (through February 2009) in their economic downturn-ometer indicates that the recession reached 367 of the nation's 381 metro areas and 47 out of 50 states. But good news: Olympia--while still in a recession since January--hasn't been hit too hard due to being a state capital chockful of government employees. And then there's this: "the Kennewick-Pasco-Richland metro area has only now joined the recession, thanks to a resource that will pay glowing dividends for thousands of years: nuclear waste from the Manhattan Project and the Cold War." Um, three cheers for Hanford?

We knew that SkyCity—yes, the restaurant in the Space Needle—attracted tourists, but never did we imagine that it would be Seattle’s highest-grossing independent restaurant in 2008, earning $15,116,739. That is more than 275,000 meals served over the course of the year. Who said something about a recession? We are suckers for a good view of the Seattle skyline, but come on, we know the Emerald City has some serious culinary talent that rivals the Space Needle's food--and maybe even the view.

This morning, the state Senate will reveal their plan for a 2009-2011 operating budget; the House will release their version tomorrow. Given an unavoidable $9 billion shortfall, major cuts are only to be expected. Schmudget reported that if the Senate uses the entire Rainy Day Fund and frees up all available federal funds, legislators will still have to reckon with a deficit of $3.1 billion; that's where the program slicing and dicing comes into play. Stream the budget unveiling proceedings live at Washington State Public Affairs' website, tvw.org, or check online sometime after 10:30 a.m. today to find out what the Senate's budget looks like.

The weirdest thing on the news last night with the least amount of airtime, thanks to the Sounders game (which was fun to watch, and we won 3-0, but moving on), was the stand-off down in Federal Way between a SWAT team and some guys accused of assaulting someone with a live electric cattle prod. The stand-off ended when the cops blew up the door of the guys' house with explosives. A cattle prod? Guess during a recession you're forced to get creative with your assault weapons.

We knew it was coming, but it still stings: Boeing has announced it will lay off 900 employees today of the 10,000 expected over the course of 2009. 700 of those employees will be from our area. Ouch....On the first day of spring, too. At least it's not sunny or anything, because that would really be unfair.

The housing market might be crashing, the sky crumbling (oh...that's snow, you say?), and layoffs increasing, but don't worry: along with the booze biz, the tattoo industry here in Seattle is doing just fine. That doesn't really make sense to us except in conjunction with the liquor sales increase. People get laid off, get drunk, get a tattoo: it's a time-honored tradition.

This guy, a Fort Lewis officer, thought it was a great idea to embezzle $700,000 from Uncle Sam during a recession and a war. Genius! Did he think they weren't gonna notice that kind of pocket change missing from the coffers? The only explanation we can come up with is that his 14-month service in Iraq was more traumatizing than has yet come to light, and if that's the case, our heart goes out to him--but dude still owes the country some cash.

Our first thought on reading that the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation had granted $1 million to Seattle and Washington to preserve affordable house was of the first movie, where Dr. Evil tries to hold the world for ransom for the same amount of money. A million dollars, huh? Talk about a drop in the pond.

Seattlest looked up at a snow-covered skylight and wondered whether anyone would catch their bus. Sure enough, some are running late. Good thing we went to REI on December 26 and scored some of these.

SERENA RYDER: Who doesn't love a Canadian singer/songwriter? Only the very, very small of heart. Our sister site Torontoist called Serena Ryder "up and coming" back in 2005, and she just won the Juno Award (it's Canadian!) for New Artist of the Year in 2008. Plus, Wikipedia says, "Ranging musically between folk, roots, country, and adult contemporary, Ryder possesses a three-octave range." Here she is on the YouTube, here she is on the MySpace. Matt Duke opens, but you're on your own there.

Economist, New York Times columnist, and Nobel Laureate Paul Krugman doesn't want you to miss any of the intricacies of his thought, which is why he bothers to explain how Wile E. Coyote generally flies off a cliff, pedals the air for a bit, and then plummets like a stone to the canyon floor below--all for the benefit of those of us "not familiar with the classics." He's ruddy, glowing with the good health of a man whom circumstances have put in the right, and facing a sold-out house at a World Affairs Council talk at Town Hall, 850 people hanging on his every word.

Last week we noticed that chi-chi children's clothier Flora and Henry had closed their storefront on Pine to focus on online sales. Today we walked past an unilluminated Illuminations store in Pacific Place, which had a clearance sale followed by a "Two Hours Left! Everything Free!" smash 'n' grab over the weekend. Who will be next? Because there will be next. We'll be posting about last night's Paul Krugman talk at Town Hall later on, where he predicted a "pretty ugly several years" ahead of us, and not just for upscale retailers. [UPDATE: Aha! The Napa Auto Parts store at Westlake and Harrison has closed. That's about as far from upscale as you get. We were told auto repair would be a bright spot in this economy, since people aren't buying new cars. What gives?]

Fourth quarter wasn't good to Boeing, with a $56 million loss reported today by executives. The company expects to lay off 10,000 employees this year, 4,500 of which will be in their commercial airplanes division--and more than half of which will be local jobs down the hatch. We'd like to note for the record that we're getting tired of reporting all the layoff news from the biggest employers in our region, and once again extend our best wishes and send good financial vibes in the direction of those Seattleites who will be affected by the upcoming round of job cuts. Perhaps all the bad news signals the beginning of an era of unprecedented creativity and community building; that's what we're holding out for, anyway. In other job news, U.S. Customs is hiring.

The liquor business is booming, despite--or perhaps because of--the recession impacting every other sector of Washington's economy. Gregoire's '09-'11 budget attempts to capitalize on the boom, using Washington's convenient state-run liquor store set-up by requesting that ten more liquor stores open across the state. In theory, this would mean more cash for a state government under such a financial squeeze that social and health care programs are being slashed right and left. But, as the P-I points out, the budget specifications are dredging up the old debate about the state's involvement in liquor sales. Here we go, again. More information for you while you make up your mind:

There may be a scary economic recession, but the Gates Foundation won't be slowing down on their philanthropy this year, according to Bill Gates' first annual nine-page letter to the Foundation supporters at large. "The goal of our foundation is to make investments whose payback to society is very high rather than to pay out the minimum to make the endowment last as long as possible," he writes.

I am impressed by individuals who continue to give generously even in these difficult times. I believe that the wealthy have a responsibility to invest in addressing inequity. This is especially true when the constraints on others are so great. Otherwise, we will come out of the economic downturn in a world that is even more unequal, with greater inequities in health and education, and fewer opportunities for people to improve their lives. There is no reason to accept that, when we know how to make huge gains over the long term.

You're walking down the street, maybe hitting the ATM to see if there's any cash left, when you spot a small pink cupcake with a little flag that says, "The economy is going to be OK." It's not a dream, it's the magic of Seattle blogger Cakespy, who in recent weeks has sweetened our streets (and No Parking signs, and ash trays) with ersatz cupcakes bearing upbeat affirmations. Call us old and sentimental. We are. We know this twee whimsy does nothing but make people smile.

Everyone knew it was going to be harsh. For weeks, arts orgs around Seattle have been struggling with the fallout of the recession and its impact on their projected budgets for 2009. Now hard figures are coming out, and they're not pretty. Over on the Slog, Brendan Kiley has a report on the budget cuts at some of Seattle's largest theatres. ACT Theatre, following the wildly successful run of their annual Christmas show, , is in better shape than some others: It only had to chop 20% out of its budget. The Rep, by contrast, may be looking at up to a 40% cut to make ends meet, though there's no hard numbers yet. No information was available from the Intiman.

Starbucks may be having difficulties, but the liquor industry is doing just fine, thank you very much. Washington state liquor sales are up five percent this year, a statistic owed (we suspect) in large part to the contributions of all the laid-off Starbucks employees. After all, a latte may wake you up, but a whiskey-laced latte will wake you up to a world much softer than the world in which you fell asleep. Perhaps it's time to stimulate the economy by buying stock in Grey Goose. We would never suggest partaking in illegal activities, but we're certain now would be a lucrative time to get busy making moonshine. You could peddle it right outside Starbucks Corporate! (There are rumors of fast-approaching Microsoft lay-offs, too...supply and demand, people.)

    

As we were saying just yesterday, there's a new cafe in town. Oddfellows Cafe. They opened in the teeth of weather in the teens last night, so we thought we owed it to them to trudge down Broadway and take a look at the new digs. It's much more spacious inside than we expected, more like Smith than cozy little Volunteer Park Cafe. The menu was limited, thanks to the effects of snowy, icy streets on deliveries. But the bar was pouring cocktails, and the beef stew had already won some hearts. (Sidebar: since we were promised a "great value" on food, can we discuss the $6 side of French fries? Seems de trop, even with a "special sauce." You know, what with the ongoing "longest recession of the post-war era" and all?)

Nordstrom has just released its monthly sales report, which you can find online here. Alternatively, you can rest your mouse finger and let a friendly man's voice tell you all about it by calling (800) 891-8250, which is the option we chose. Lest you be tempted to sink into an investor's funk by what you hear, Chris Holloway from Investor Relations reminds us that the changing date of Thanksgiving lopped off an entire week of holiday shopping this year, and that hurts the numbers. Chris also reports that the departments that did the best were Contemporary Women's Apparel, Junior Women's Apparel, and Cosmetics, proving once and for all that women are the stronger economic sex.

Conference call this morning with Uncle Howard, who says there's nothing to worry about, really. Those Dunkin Donuts commercials, nah; America runs on Starbucks, folks. Micky D? A low-rent interloper. Cut the price of $4 lattes and you imply that Starbucks might not be a premium company after all. Coffee taste tests? Don't even think about it. Loyalty cards for sale in bulk at Costco, on the other hand, that's classy. The market lapped it up; shares jumped 8.5 percent.

According to the Puget Sound Partnership, 150,000 pounds of toxic chemicals find their way into the Puget Sound every day. That, along with being absolutely disgusting, is one of the primary reasons behind the urgency of the group's creation of an action agenda to restore the Sound to at least something resembling its former pristine glory. Yesterday, the PSP submitted a full agenda to the Washington state legislature at Gov. Gregoire's request; if you're interested in the details, here is the plan's full text [pdf].