Downsize NYC
August 27, 2009Jon Brooks Comments OffFifteen video journalists from the Columbia Graduate School of Journalism have produced some great reporting on the effects of the recession on individual New Yorkers. The videos are archived on Downsize NYC, which describes itself as exploring “not only the statistics but also the sensibilities of the economic crisis. Our stories consider how this recession is impacting average New Yorkers – from taxi drivers and hedge fund managers to unemployed volunteers and single parents.”
Some of the best pieces include Pink Slip, Yellow Taxi, a report on the glut of cab drivers resulting from the large-scale layoffs. “People get in my cab and say ‘wow an American cab driver who speaks English,’ says a former UBS/Warburg employee, just one professional who has taken a traditionally working-class job to make ends meet. Now What Do You Do? features a former worker who describes his downsizing as “the most poignant failure I’ve had in my life.”
