by Patricia Spears Jones, May 2009

Patricia Spears Jones, Columnist

I am exhausted.   Been out of work since end of October and well, being out of work; looking for work is work.  The editor asked for something on the environment, but this time, I got to talk politics, the economy and very ugly buildings.

We have a new President who despite his more conservative bent and a not altogether Democratic Party has still done some real good in his first 100 plus days. I will be able to have medical insurance until November because of the subsidization of COBRA payments.  Other folks are getting better refinancing.  I still thank the bank bailouts started by the PREVIOUS ADMINISTRATION is tantamount to socialism which I think is a hoot.  Especially with all the Republicans going on and on about Obama’s economic policies and they were the ones who started it. And the Republicans are in disarray, but they have the media on their side.  I’ve seen more footage of Eric Cantor than I have of Nancy Pelosi and she’s running the House of Representatives.  Is it that people don’t want the Democrats to succeed? Ah irony of the political kind.

Bloomberg’s mayoral candidacy is truly ironic.  If he had said goodbye, farewell, so long adieu (okay I am a Sound of Music fan) he’d have left with his popularity intact.  But he is rich, bored and has weak competition—I like William Thompson, but he’s got a snowball’s chance in heck.  But our current and future Mayor has given New Yorkers something they really don’t want: many UGLY BUILDINGS.  There is one near BAM on Fulton that sucks the life out of the street. Density is not a bad thing, but the poor design and placement of these new developments are so bad, they make the most mediocre of brick buildings look downright classical.  And can someone explain how all this reflective glass is good for the environment?

This has been yet another cold rainy spring.  Today, the rains stopped long enough for people to get out, walk about and smile somewhat.  But we need more than sunshine.  We need to not bail out the people who were so greedy and neglectful that they pretty much destroyed their companies and our economy.  I think they are all guilty of fraud and should go to jail, but then I am not a SEC investigator or a prosecutor. Bernie Madoff is just a more spectacular version of what was happening in every investment bank on Wall Street.  I am only sorry that many wealthy people are less wealthy because lots of people who worked “back of the house” are now out of work—administrators, janitors, messengers, limo drivers, caterers, IT folk, et al and it is not likely that those jobs will return anytime soon.  We need an economy for the “back of the house” folk.

Barack Hussein Obama is a supremely confident man and he handles his new role with a warrior’s gait and a diplomat’s tongue.  Very very smart man married to a very very smart woman.  Finally, we are seeing some of the promise of the American Ideal personified, and that helps on days when the bills come for things we bought four years ago.