Notes on Metropolitan New York

First , what drew attention, this is a decrease in the number of vehicles on the roads. I do not exclude, that my opinion is purely subjective and may differ from the opinion of others. Nevertheless, I clearly noticed, that the congestion of roads has decreased in the zones, where there used to be a decent congestion of cars. Therefore, I did not experience the difficulty of driving( a few days) in Manhattan through the Lincoln Tunnel during rush hours, even in the City itself, moving from the 90s area down Lexington , traffic was acceptable during rush hours , albeit slow. I don’t know how long ago, but the organization of the movement was changed in this way, what , for example, moving from north to south along 5 avenue, difficult to turn right, there are traffic controllers and do not let. You either have to fight with them, getting his way, either go far down and then return along the parallel avenue( if there are no other traffic controllers, which do not allow left turn). In this way, they are trying to make passages from north to south and from west to east and to avoid congestion. Basically, maybe this organizes the order , but from the point of view of convenience for the driver, it is unlikely.
Or maybe this is all due to the economic crisis and therefore, in fact, the number of transport has decreased., after all, the crisis has made its own adjustments to both employment and the costs of corporations for transport( in particular the cost of limousines)!!!
Howbeit, I enjoyed driving not only in the City, but also extreme on the highway(freeway).
Of course, I was interested to see what is happening in the shopping mall, to evaluate the consumer. I drove on Saturday around noon to one of the large malls and saw just a packed parking lot, I have not met this before.
Crowd of people, like sharks darting around the shops and you can see , what did you buy, because we carried packages in our hands. And how not to buy, if retailers made deep discounting earlier than usual period, to get rid of the product at the end of the year. I would say, what is shopping paradise in the states now, prices have been significantly reduced and therefore those, who lost their job cannot refuse purchases, especially in the pre-holiday time. It should be noted, that Americans are still not Japanese and do not hide their heads " under the shell & quot;, like turtles. They are careful, but optimistic. In some stores, I talked to the managers and they almost all say, that things have improved in about the last 6 Months. But an electronics store like Best Buy was inundated with products., it was not even easy to pass and they reported weaker quarterly.
There is also a store like Toy or US ,the largest in toys and other items for children. Usually very sensitive in times of crisis, but I look they are still in business and the manager said, that they are doing fine and improving. There, prices are also decently reduced., where not to look discounts from 40 to 70 Percent.
Interestingly, so many people are surprised, what kind of crisis, but all the same activity is normal everywhere.
I had to talk to those, who deals with car service and limousine , they celebrate, that the volume of work has fallen and is not being restored.
With regard to the real estate market, then the majority thinks about recovery in a couple of years.
All in all, the consumer is not dead and lives his own life. See, what the post-new year period will show. Truth, as can be seen from economic indicators, the process of stabilization and healing of wounds in the United States is underway.