WNYC

The Austin scene

By Laura Hertzfeld | Published: March 12, 2010

Even if you can’t make it to Austin for the big South by Southwest conference this week, there’s plenty going on online, including new (and free!) music, great ideas in social media and other ways to boost your business without spending a lot of cash, and innovative technologies to keep up with the kids these days. Here is some of what the public media crew is planning for the week:

EconomyStory will be hosting a panel on Saturday called Covering Big News on Small Budgets – something we think we know a little bit about by now! The panel recording will be made available online following the event.

To give a sense of what we’ll be talking about, check out this slideshow showing how public media covered some of the biggest events of the past year:

Former NPR producer’s Davar Ardalan previews SXSW Interactive in Austin with notes on speakers and activities:


PBS will be broadcasting live video interviews and updates from Austin, so you can keep up with all the panels online and on Twitter @PBS.

Austin NPR station KUT (Twitter @KUTAustin) has a comprehensive roundup of events and ideas. KLRU’s Austin City Limits is taping its first episode of the new season during the festival, with Cheap Trick in the studio on March 18. For more on music, NPR’s All Songs Considered previews the bands to watch over the next week.

You can follow all the Austin happenings on Twitter, too. All of the public media attendees will be adding their posts under the search: #pubsxsw. A list of SXSW speakers is here and I’ll be tweeting from @economystory and @laurahertzfeld. Yeehaw!

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Following the money

By Laura Hertzfeld | Published: March 2, 2010

During the 2008 presidential race a number of sites, like FiveThirtyEight.com and OpenSecrets.org, looked at the data behind election results and political contributions. The answer is always to follow the money and other projects are now building on those sites’ pioneering work.

In New York City, the politics site Gotham Gazette is launching Councilpedia. Founder Gail Robinson discusses the project on MediaShift’s Idea Lab:

Councilpedia will provide information about New York’s 51 City Council members and two citywide elected officials, including their campaign finance information, the bills they introduced, and the groups they gave “member items” — the parlance here for pork or earmarks. (Our third citywide elected official — the mayor — only takes contributions from one person: his billionaire self.)

Our main source for much of the raw data will be the New York Campaign Finance Board. By most accounts, the city has a model campaign finance law, and the board gets as much information into the hands of the public as it can. That said, the lists of donors often seem to be little more than an undifferentiated list of unfamiliar names.

Councilpedia is a recipient of support from the Knight News Challenge, which funds innovative ideas in journalism.

Statistician Nate Silver’s FiveThirtyEight.com is building on its 2008 work by ranking the most contested Senate races in the country by aggregating polling data. The latest rankings are quite preliminary since many candidates have not yet filed, so fundraising data hasn’t yet been added in.

WNYC’s Brian Lehrer Show today spoke with Micah Sifry of Tech President, a blog covering how politicians are using the Web. He’s currently leading an effort to increase transparency in government called Demand Question Time.

To go more in-depth on these issues, join OpenSecrets.org on Thursday, 3/4 for an online chat to address the issue of money in politics and whether or not it’s been affected by the recession.

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Under one roof, or none at all

By Laura Hertzfeld | Published: March 1, 2010

The job shortage for recent grads is forcing more young people to think about alternatives to getting their own apartments after finishing college and going out into the “real world.” Often this means moving back in with their folks. But those who can move in with family are the lucky ones – homelessness has also increased with this recession.

In many countries, young people often live with their parents until they get married and start a family of their own. In this country, “moving out” has become a rite of passage, but that’s changing, as The Takeaway reports in Many Generations, One Roof: “President Barack Obama does it, and according to a study by the AARP, so do 33 percent of all 18-to-49 year olds.”

Having an extra person in the house can be more costly for parents. Smart Money magazine mentioned this phenomenon in a piece about renovations in the current economy, explaining that having a child move back into the house as an adult can necessitate expensive changes – such as redoing an attic or adding a bathroom.


And whether it’s a boomerang kid grounded by a tough job market or an aging in-law whose portfolio losses nixed her own housing plans, adults usually cohabitate best when everyone’s got some privacy. After all, who wants to bring a date home to a room that shares a wall with his parents or be woken at odd hours when Grandpa blasts his TV at full volume?

Making Sense: New England also has some tips for cheap home renovation:

But not everyone has that kind of back up plan. EconomyBeat struck a nerve this morning when it linked to a post by someone who’d turned to drugs and became homeless after losing his job.

I lived in California and worked for a startup in the tech industry. I was laid off and as a result of my depression, fell ‘deeper’ into my meth addiction as a way out. This caused me to lose my apartment, and 99% of my belongings.

And he’s not alone. Julie Rose at Charlotte’s WFAE reports on the homelessness problem in North Carolina and a survey that’s trying to get people off the streets.

There are about 6,500 homeless men, women and children in Charlotte. Advocates think some 500 of those people are chronically homeless, meaning they’ve been on the street for at least a year. But that was just a guess.

Also posted in Econstory, NPR: Aggregated Local News Feed, NPR: Local/National Collaboration, PBS: Video, PRX: Public Radio Archive | Tagged , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

A year of recovery

By Laura Hertzfeld | Published: February 17, 2010

This morning, President Obama marked a year since signing the Economic Recovery Act. So has the stimulus package worked? Here are just a few examples from EconomyStory’s partners examining the industries and projects that have benefited the most, and areas of the country that are still waiting for their funding to arrive:

Propublica’s Eye on Stimulus looks at opinions from the left and the right about the package’s successes and failures, and provides tools to check up on projects in your local area.

Has the stimulus lived up to its promise? As we’ve reported before … where you stand depends on where you sit.

The White House is marking today’s anniversary with a stimulus progress report [2] (PDF), which claims the Recovery Act has created or saved 2 million jobs; extended unemployment benefits for almost 20 million Americans; and cut taxes for more than 95 percent of working families. The administration says that by the end of last month, the combination of tax cuts and obligated funds came to a total of $453 billion.

Dante Chinni at NewsHour’s Patchwork Nation reports on what types of communities have gotten the most out of the stimulus package.

NPR features snapshots from around the country of various stimulus projects, including health care facilities in West Virginia, and a jobs program for young people in Washington, DC.

Nightly Business Report answers pressing questions about the extension of TARP benefits.

And PBS’s Blueprint America series focuses on infrastructure projects around the country.

Do you think recovery funds are going to the right places? What should the government’s next step be? Take your pulse on the issue with KQED’s You Decide.

Also posted in Econstory, NBR, NPR: Local/National Collaboration, NewsHour: Economic Patchwork Map, PBS: Video | Tagged , , , | Leave a comment

To buy or not to buy

By Laura Hertzfeld | Published: February 11, 2010
Condo for sale signs/ Credit: Flickr user Sean Drielinger

Condo for sale signs/ Credit: Flickr user Sean Drielinger

Is the housing crisis over? While it may appear that prices have hit bottom, for those caught in the mortgage crisis, the nightmare seems far from over and others are holding back while the economy remains unsteady.

Financial journalist Terri Cullen writes at Nightly Business Report that a second “double dip” in the housing crisis is all but certain:

The last time the housing industry faced the dreaded double dip was in the early 1980s, when the economy struggled through two back-to-back recessions. Today, the economy appears to have emerged from the worst recession since the Great Depression, and the housing market is being supported by a number of government policies, including a housing tax credit, increased lending by the Federal Housing Administration and historically low mortgage rates.

So it seems unlikely that another downturn in home prices would be as severe as what we’ve seen in the last two years — but I wouldn’t bet on it. All that government support is expected to wind down later this year and mortgage rates are already starting to tick higher. Meanwhile, near-record unemployment is keeping many from buying (and keeping) homes. All of these factors will put another crimp in demand.

ProPublica is trying to find those homeowners who’ve been stuck in the mortgage crisis cycle the longest. Do you know someone who’s been paying into bad loan for the better part of a year or more?

But those who are still paying mortgages, even bad ones, are far from the worst off. In New York City, families in between homeless shelters and subsidized housing are being left in limbo – there are no more federal housing vouchers to give out, as WNYC reports.

The city is trying to make changes so people can get housing, but there is a shortage:

According to the Department of Homeless Services it costs the city about $35,000 a year to house a family in a shelter, and about $13,000 a year to provide them with a housing subsidy. While extending the voucher is one fix, advocates for the poor, and elected officials want the New York City Housing Authority (NYCHA) to also provide relief by giving families vacant public housing apartments.

So with all this uncertainty, should you invest? Take the YouDecide quiz and find out for yourself. Leave your results below and tell us what you think about the housing market.

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