New York state of mind
October 12, 2009Jon Brooks Comments OffOver at The Ice Flow blog, a vivid depiction of a couple of Manhattanites who once lived high-on-the-hog but are now feeling the effects of recent events:
I’m a dogwalker and a catsitter, which places me in a crawl space between the ‘Upstairs’ clients and the ‘Downstairs’ building staffs of doormen, porters and superintendents and the army of service people…and because I have a huge mouth…I talk to them.
*Phyllis, is 45, she’s a designer at an auction house, married with a kid and a dog. She lives across the street from Madoff’s place in mid-level luxury. In 2006, she made $250,000, working 9 months of that year and vacationing/traveling all over the world. In 2008, she made $41,000 and is desperate to sell her condo before she has to tap savings. Her daughter is in an expensive private school that costs almost as much per year as she made last year, which is more than she will this year. Her life was built upon assumptions that no longer exist. By any measure, she has ‘enough’ and is unworthy of sympathy, but simply of note, she will have to adjust and I suspect she will. But the private school tuition seems likely to evaporate and tough choices about where to live and where to school await.
*Marco is 34. He has an MBA from Wharton, the first in his family to go to college, let alone the most prestigious B-School in the land. He took a job right out of grad school that paid him $180,000 his first year, by his 4th year (2006) his income bordered on seven figures. He met a woman, who had an MFA and a taste for fine living and they purchased a condominium apartment in a top tier new high rise and appointed it in style, she decided not to work – preferring to focus on their lifestyle and travel for new art and design elements while her man plugged away at the Bank. They occupied their new 58th floor paradise on January 19, 2007, his company’s stock, where most of their wealth was concentrated, was trading above $170 per share – making them multi-millionaires.
On St, Patricks Day, 2008. Marco was barred from entering his office at Bear Stearns. The shares he had stubbornly held onto, after conferring with senior executives at his firm and others, were essentially worthless and were sold the next day to JP Morgan for $2 per share. He was out of work, wiped out in his investment account and overextended for art, rugs, travel, clothes in his bank account. Within 3 months, he was unable to make the $8,000 per month ‘Maintenance’ payments on his condo and his lady left him. 3 months after that, he’d been evicted from his residence by the board and his possessions were sent to auction. He moved in with his brother, a doorman. Since February of 2009, he has been working part-time as a porter in the building in which his brother tends door. He remains a brilliant, innovative guy and will recover, in time. But right now, he is lucky to have a family who love him, a place to sleep and a job that keeps him fed. His wife divorced him and remarried a 62 year old Mexican millionaire who made his money in ceramic tiles, the sort that can be found in the jacuzzi of the apartment Marco used to call home…
Here’s the full post.
