 New Yorkonomics: For a study of New York occupations
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Jun. 5th, 2007 @ 01:41 pm 
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New York magazine has an amusing series on doing business in New York City
The Profit Calculator: The wild risks, unexpected niches, and day-in-day-out grind behind making a dollar in New York...for everyone from a drug dealer to Goldman Sachs.
The series is a great idea but I think it should have been extended and filled out in more detail. It should be a regular series. For instance there is a section called "The Drug Dealer", which sets out the risks and profits of the trade. A detailed parallel comparison between "the Drug Dealer" (Nick) and "The Drug Company" (Pfizer) would have been helpful.
A continuing series concentrating on niche occupations in New York would be an important cultural contribution. For instance a history of the rise and fall of the Italian-American run fruit and vegetable wagon, and how that niche occupation was replaced in the 1980s by the Korean-American run green grocer, would provide insight into New York City economics, immigrant waves, and family structures. A similar insight would be provided by an account on how Albanians came to replace Italians in ownership of small Pizza shops in Manhattan.
One could compare various levels in the same occupation. For instance, vibrant neighborhoods, such as mine in Astoria, Queens have dozens of small law offices scattered around. How do these law offices keep in business and how do these neighborhood law offices compare with the small law suites located near the courthouses in Manhattan, and the big law firms located in midtown? One can also make a comparison of street prostitution with high-level "escorts," the small neighborhood shoe store with the big manhattan shoe store, etc.
A concentration on unique New York occupations would be a helpful insight into how the city works. Why those occupations are unique to New York would help us to understand the special needs of the city. One rather unique New York occupation ( or rather an occupation unique to all cities where people walk a lot) is the shoe repair shop. There are two shoe repair shops within ten blocks of my apartment. I believe the density of these shoe repair shops has decreased dramatically in the last 25 years. The economics of shoe repair is an interesting New York subject. Of course another occupation rarely found in other U.S. towns is the street food vendor. Out on Steinway there seems to be at least one vendor sausages or shish kebobs or honey-roasted peanuts on every corner.
Soulvaki Stand In Astoria, Queens -- Why do New Yorkers need so much street meat?
Why do New Yorkers need so many street vendors and what is the economics of it all? When I first came to New York many of the street vendors sold roasted chestnuts in the Winter season. I remember I used to buy a bunch and put them in my coat pockets to warm my hands on especially cold days and then eat them with lunch later. Now there are very few roasted chestnuts vendors around. What happened to them? Why did the Winter sales of roasted chestnuts decline?
In Long Island City, not far from the Queensboro Bridge, there is a district that seems to exist just to service hotels, parties, delis etc. There are industrial "bakeries" which make the kinds of muffins and cakes that I always see in the Korean green grocers; there are laundries that seem to do nothing but wash sheets, pillow cases, table cloths, and towels for hotels, hospitals, and restaurants; and there are "rental" places that do nothing but rent folding chairs, tents, etc. for parties, gatherings, and receptions. There are still many "small factory" districts like this in New York City. They seem to service mostly "local" needs. What are the economics of these various small factory districts?
There are also many old time bakers in New York, making bread all night. There is a good one on the corner of 31st Street and Broadway here in Astoria, Parisi Bros Bakery, an old time Italian bakery, the kind I remember from growing up in Schenectady -- hot bread every morning, and Italian cookies and biscotti. This bakery is right underneath the El train Broadway exit and it does get a lot of walk in traffic. But surely it can't survive on walk-in traffic alone. I assume that this kind of bakery must sell its bread to New York restaurants, and other retail outlets in order to make ends meet. How does this work? How are the deals made between the restaurant and the bakery? What are the transportation arrangements?, etc.
In short the series at New York magazine left me wanting more information and more thought on the information given. But sometimes I was a bit annoyed for example with this quote in the section on "A Publishing Company: Random House"
"New Yorkonomics: Printing and publishing has been a big industry in the city since the early 1800s, when New York publishers were the first American printers with access to pirated English best sellers. "
I would like somebody to point out sometime an historical point that is largely forgotten: the U.S. was a nation that regularly violated intellectual property and its economy expanded greatly by such violation of intellectual property rules. More precisely all our complaints against China for stealing "our" intellectual property" used to be British complaints against the United States for stealing patents and copyrights from them. Why do we never mention this history of U.S. patent and copyright piracy when we complain about the piracy of other countries? It is just the usual hypocrisy I suppose.
Even when U.S. violation of intellectual property is alluded to as here, it is only mentioned as a rather quaint joke. But there is a real economic point to this. Up and coming economies are always and everywhere havens for pirates, free-booters, and privateers. I don't think that there is an historical exception. For some reason piracy is part of what makes for a fast-growing economy. Yet the same free-marketeers who are for "free" markets in everything else are not for free markets when it comes to certain kinds of state guaranteed monopolies in intellectual property. Even though such hypocrisy is usual, it is annoying that it is rarely noticed.
Jerry Monaco
New York City
5 June 2007
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons License.
music: Kermode: The Wedding Daze, 01 June 07 |
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