This week's argument for Brooklyn is brought to you by The Recessionist.
BROOKLYN.
All over Brooklyn, business owners, artists, and consumers are not only surviving but embracing the recession and the creative and innovative opportunities it provides. They are seeking that silver lining and vanquishing the dark clouds.
Independent Business:
Brooklyn Brewery, a legendary and loved local business, is a great example. This small company took the opportunity provided by the recession’s soft real estate market to grab a bigger chunk of the highly desirable Williamsburg spot they've occupied since 2007. Instead of letting it get gobbled up by the commercial real estate monster, they signed a lease good for the next 15 years, and spent $6.5 million on expanding the business (assisted by an 80,000 grant from the state.)
Entertainment:
There are few places in the country that offer a more varied array of free activities and events than Brooklyn. All Summer the McCarren Park film festival offered free screenings of excellent throwback films and the Williamsburg Waterfront sponsored a series of all-day concerts/ “pool parties” (complete with dodgeball and basketball tournaments, all materials provided). Another free outdoor film festival in DUMBO screened a great lineup all summer. Tickets to the Brooklyn Cyclones' baseball games are only $7.50 and are available all summer (the season ends around Labor Day.)
This fall, Habana Outpost (in Fort Greene) has hosted a free series of alfresco movies in the lovely patio outside the bar. BAMCafe, at the Brooklyn Academy of Music, is a reliable source all year for free entertainment: live music of every type and genre every Friday and Saturday night. Remember the Brooklyn Brewery? It offers free tours every Saturday that provide some general borough brewing history as well as a look at the facilities. Plus, the Brewery's happy hours on Fridays are BYOS (bring your own snack) which is a welcome money-saver. Almost all of the great Brooklyn museums are free at least one day a week.
This year additional events inspired by the Recession like the Skillshare, the Blackout Film Festival (not free, but still very cool), and the Depression-themed "Brother Can You Spare Some Rent" party at the City Reliquary Museum have cropped up to keep Brooklyn busy but not broke.
Volunteerism:
Having a great time is something we all deserve, but the other side of the coin is equally valued in the borough that inspired Spike Lee's legendary "Do the Right Thing." Certainly, all over the country the casualties of the recession are tempted to spend their period of unemployment bumming around the basement and cowering on the couch. But many Brooklynites are keeping their spirits high during the recession by using their free time for a cause.
Volunteerism is up all over New York, as Jennifer Senior noted in a May New York Magazine article about how the Recession may change New York for the better. Citymeals-on-Wheels, a food-delivery service for the elderly that has a meal center in Brooklyn, saw a 32 percent increase in its volunteers this year. New York Cares, which places people in charities around the city and features Brooklyn prominently in its volunteer database, trained twice as many people in February and March of 2009 as it did those same months the year before.
And Brooklyn is at the frontline of this surge. New initiatives such as The Brooklyn Healthy Food Campaign's Brooklyn Food Summer 09 and the Brooklyn Green Team are constantly cropping up, against all financial odds.
Community:
For perhaps similar reasons that drive them to volunteer, Brooklyn residents have been supporting their local economies more during the recession. Bedford-Stuyvesant is a great example; this neighborhood has experienced a surge in its local economy even while the rest of the city struggles. The effect on the neighborhoods social climate is, presumably, quite morale boosting.
It's this type of resilience, along with the commitment to community involvement, and endless energy for entertainment that makes Brooklyn the ideal spot for weathering the recession.
BALTIMORE.
A few months ago Citypaper’s "Best of Baltimore" for 2009 opened with ‘Best Reason to Live in Baltimore: You’re Already Prepared for the Collapse of Society’. “Welcome to Thunderdome.” Make all the crime jokes you want, but Baltimore is used to being a little rough around the edges. Our tastes aren't that high brow so there is no way this recession will cramp our style.
Let’s break it down to the basics of life:
Food:
It’s hard to admit when you’re young and social, but the best way to save money is to eat at home. Hey if you feel like being more entertained, invite some folks over and a real stone soup effect can happen, leftovers for everyone. Luckily, the Waverly farmers market runs year round.
$20 a week can get you all the basics, including bread and milk.
Wine with dinner? You don’t have to splurge. Trinacria isn’t much from the street view, but it has been in business for over 100 years and, in addition to selling bulk pasta, great Italian sandwiches, cookies and cannoli, they have palatable bottles of wine for only $4.
Shelter:
In the last year, rent prices in Baltimore have come back down to earth and landlords are more willing to haggle. Those brave enough to buy houses right now will be getting rowhomes down from upwards of 300K just a few years ago. And to furnish that stylin’ new pad? Woodward’s is my new favorite thing for great deals, and this weekend is the mid-century modern auction. $5 Eames chair, here I come.
Clothing:
The Goodwill Superstore on The Alameda (5620 The Alameda to be precise) sells wares for only $1.69 a pound ($1.69!). The deal includes clothes and housewares and the place is filled with work appropriate so you can save your money for 'weekend' apparel. If you don’t feel like digging through stuff yourself, Killer Trash in Fells Point has found the best vintage for you, and the prices are still hot.
Entertainment:
Free Fall Baltimore last month offered over 300 free events in art, music, dance and theater and the BMA and the Walters remain free all year round. Outdoorsy? Baltimore is surrounded by beautiful landscape fit for hiking, canoeing and cliff diving. If you prefer curling up with a good book, you can pick up (and leave behind) free books and magazines at The Book Thing. For over 50 more ideas, you can look here, or here.
In short, only in Baltimore does free have such shameless cachet, and it is that kind of attitude(less-ness) that makes the recession not only bearable, but good times.
This one was neck and neck all week!
final vote: Baltimore 15 (53%) to Brooklyn 13 (46%)
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