See: Boston Sunday Globe Business Section Not For Me
Turns out it was for me today:
"Greenfield feels optimism amid uncertainty; Four communities show the uneven recovery since the recession ended in June 2009" by Sarah Shemkus | Globe Correspondent June 29, 2014
GREENFIELD — “I would say that the recovery hasn’t reached people who live with low income,” Clare Higgins, executive director of social services agency Community Action of the Franklin, Hampshire, and North Quabbin Regions.
That would be the 99% of us then!
But many residents, civic leaders, and business owners sense the economy has turned around.
Pffft!
************************
Manufacturers that survived the downturn are hiring again. Greenfield Community College and local technical schools are working with companies to train workers in the math and machine operation skills needed in modern precision manufacturing....
“If you’d asked me six months ago, I would say we’ve seen no sign the recession has ended,” said Patricia Crosby, executive director of the Franklin Hampshire Regional Employment Board, the area’s workforce development agency. “Then, things started to feel better.”
We were told it had been over for five years before!
Related: Most of the benefits of the economic recovery have been concentrated in Greater Boston
In the upper cla$$es.
In January, the city released a plan to revitalize vacant commercial buildings, lend money to growing businesses, and market the area as a tourism and recreation destination. The strategy calls for shaping Greenfield’s picturesque brick-and-stone downtown into a vibrant mixed-use neighborhood that includes a variety of businesses and market-rate rental housing.
You know, the same failed strategies after deindustrialization that we have seen all across this country.
Also driving optimism is a plan for restored train service to Greenfield, making the city more easily accessible and bolstering its tourism efforts. The project, partially funded by federal stimulus money, will connect southern Vermont to New York through Greenfield and Springfield. Construction has already begun.
That stimuloot was six years ago.
About 30 businesses, including restaurants, bars, boutiques, and music stores, have opened in the downtown since the economic downturn was at its worst.
I don't believe that, and all I need do is walk Main Street.
I mean, who are you going to believe, a lying, agenda-pushing paper of and for the one-percent or someone who lives here?
Scott Seward opened his used record shop, John Doe Jr., in 2009 and said his business has increased steadily since then.
He added that he’s noticed a distinct change in the downtown vibe over the past five years as more young people — the core of his customer base — have moved into town.
“It just feels like there’s more buzz,” he said. “There’s definitely been a turnaround.”
And because he says that and thinks it, it must be true! After all, it's in my Globe!
--more--"
Turns out it was not for me after all.
In keeping with the theme of this post I am going to retire for the evening and watch a ball game while preparing tomorrow's posts.
"Ex-manager charged with stealing from Greenfield tire shop
The former assistant manager of a Greenfield tire shop — who was described by his boss as a trusted, well-mannered employee — has been charged with embezzling $33,000 from the business. David Ovitt III of Montague was released on personal recognizance after pleading not guilty to larceny over $250. Prosecutors said that while Ovitt, 24, worked at Tire Warehouse last year, he skimmed cash from the shop’s night deposits, then discarded the original deposit slips and wrote out new ones. The shop’s owner said Ovitt sometimes just took the entire cash deposit."
Just $pinning my wheels, folks.
"29 mailboxes stolen in Greenfield, Deerfield
Police are investigating after someone stole some 29 residential mailboxes here and in Deerfield and tossed them off an overpass onto Interstate 91. Officers responded to the overpass about 4 a.m. Monday after getting a report that youths were tossing rocks off the overpass onto the highway below. The youths were gone by the time police arrived, but 29 damaged mailboxes were recovered. It appears as though some had been flattened by vehicles, but police did not receive reports of accidents or injuries."
Is that why there was no Globe out there today?
