March 18, 2009

From http://www.boston.com/bigpicture/2009/03/scenes_from_the_recession.html

Scenes from the recession

The state of our global economy: foreclosures, evictions, bankruptcies, layoffs, abandoned projects, and
the people and industries caught in the middle. It can be difficult to capture financial pressures in
photographs, but here a few recent glimpses into some of the places and lives affected by what some are
calling the "Great Recession". (edit: After reading some comments about this on Boing Boing, I was
able to track down the location of the newspaper boxes in photo #30. The boxes belong to the San
Francisco Chronicle, who I called and confirmed that the boxes had been removed per city rules, not due
to recession. The photo came across the wire with the caption below, the contextual error was mine.) (35
photos total)

Hotel property manager Paul Martinez kicks in a tenant's door after no one answered the knock during an
eviction February 26, 2009 in Colorado Springs, Colorado. The tenant said that he was laid off from his
job in a retail store two months ago and had fallen behind on his rent payments at the low-budget hotel.
(John Moore/Getty Images)
2
Sheriff's Deputy Bill Ewell searches an apartment before an eviction team removed the remaining
furniture February 26, 2009 in Colorado Springs, Colorado. The tenants, who had not paid the rent the
previous month, had already left the apartment ahead of the eviction. (John Moore/Getty Images) #

3
Storm clouds hover near unfinished home lots during a break between storms after the dwindling new
home sales market brought construction to a halt at a new home development December 16, 2008 in
Rancho Cucamonga, California. Home construction took its biggest dive in 24 years in November to reach
a record low. (David McNew/Getty Images) #
4
Hundreds of people stand in line as they look for jobs at the Miami Dade College Mega Job Fair 2009 on
March 4, 2009 in North Miami, Florida. Job fairs are swamped with applicants as the economy continues
to tank and many people find themselves unemployed. (Joe Raedle/Getty Images) #

5
Thousands of job-seekers flock to a job fair in Hefei, Anhui province, China on March 1, 2009. At least 20
million of China's 130 million migrant workers have become jobless after tens of thousands of labor-
intensive export-oriented factories closed due to the global financial crisis, and job training schemes for
migrant workers are springing up around China, Xinhua News Agency reported. (REUTERS/Jianan Yu) #
6
A sign informing readers that Fremont Pontiac GMC is permanently closed is seen on a door at the
Newark, Calif. dealership, Tuesday, March 3, 2009. The dealership closed due to economic conditions
earlier this year. (AP Photo/Paul Sakuma) #

7
A construction site is seen in Almaty, Kazakhstan on January 27, 2009. Dozens of projects in the
construction industry have come to a standstill due to a deepening financial crisis. Kazakhstan expects
economic growth to stall further this year as major industries ranging from construction to energy and
banking experience lack of financing due to tighter credit conditions. (REUTERS/Shamil Zhumatov) #
8
A stopped construction site is seen behind an older two-family house occupied by only one family in
Almaty, Kazakhstan on March 4, 2009. (REUTERS/Shamil Zhumatov) #

9
A RE/MAX Central bus advertises tours of foreclosed homes March 7, 2009 in Las Vegas, Nevada. The
real estate group began giving tours for prospective buyers three times a week in February 2008, in an
effort to clear inventory of foreclosed properties. They have seen a steady decrease in foreclosure listings
since the summer of 2008 in the Las Vegas area. (Ethan Miller/Getty Images) #
10
People attend the REDC Foreclosure Home Auction in New York, in this photo taken March 8, 2009. About
1,400 people crowded into New York's first foreclosure auction over the weekend. One family bought a
2,062-square foot home in the Finger Lakes region of upstate New York for just $12, 500 or $6 per
square foot, according to the New York Post. (REUTERS/Shannon Stapleton) #

11
The Magen Abraham Synagogue sits at center of this photograph taken on Wednesday, Nov. 12, 2008,
surrounded by the gleaming new skyscrapers in Wadi Abou Jmil, Lebanon - formerly Beirut's main Jewish
neighborhood. One of Lebanon's sole remaining synagogues, this building was set for a restoration that
has the rare blessing of all the factions in this divided country - but the global financial crisis has scuttled
the effort for now, leaving the Magen Abraham chained, padlocked, badly damaged and overgrown with
weeds. (AP Photo/Grace Kassab) #

12
As new home sales and housing starts hit record lows, empty lots, partially constructed homes and
abandoned ones are seen in a subdivision on January 30, 2009 near Homestead, Florida. Prices in
November of 2008 declined 8.7 percent from a year earlier, the biggest drop in records going back to
1991, the Federal Housing Finance Agency reported. (Joe Raedle/Getty Images) #

13
An empty house lot is seen through the windows of a home where construction work has stopped January
22, 2009 in Miami, Florida. Construction of new homes and apartments fell 15.5 percent last month to an
annual rate of 550,000 units. (Joe Raedle/Getty Images) #

14
Thousands of unemployed Chinese graduates flock to a job fair in Wuhan, central China's Hubei province
on March 7, 2009. China vowed to help train one million graduates in the next three years to boost their
qualifications, and promised loans to business that hire graduates, as unemployment continues to grow.
(STR/AFP/Getty Images) #

15
Brittney Nance holds her head as she works on her laptop in her motel room at the Old Town Inn March
5, 2009 in West Sacramento, California. Brittney and her family were evicted from the house they were
renting after her husband, Steve Nance, lost his job. The couple and their three children are living in a
budget motel while they save enough money for deposit on a new rental home, but are finding it difficult
as they pay nearly $1200 a month for the motel room. (Justin Sullivan/Getty Images) #
16
Brittney Nance and her children Henry, 5, and Izabella, 7, walk through the parking lot of their hotel on
the way to the grocery store March 5, 2009 in West Sacramento, California. All five family members live
in a small studio sized room with most of their belongings. (Justin Sullivan/Getty Images) #

17
Dodge SUVs sit parked in the Atlantic Marine Terminal at the port of Baltimore February 18, 2009 in
Baltimore, Maryland. As the worldwide economic downturn persists and automobile sales continue to
slow, more than 57,000 new automobiles sit idle in the port of Maryland. The state of Maryland recently
paid $5.26 million for almost 15 acres of additional car storage space near the port, freeing space for
more cargo. (Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images) #
18
A general view shows a halted construction of a highway called "Lulin" near capital Sofia, Bulgaria
November 26, 2008. The highway is facing serious delay due to lack of funding, according to local media.
(OLEG POPOV/Reuters) #

19
People walk in a residential district dotted with unfinished apartment buildings in Kiev December 24,
2008. Dozens of unfinished buildings populate the Kiev skyline, their abandoned hulks embodying the
damage that the world's financial crisis has inflicted on Ukraine. (REUTERS/Gleb Garanich) #
20
Unfinished homes in a subdivision in Maricopa, Arizona are seen through yellow caution tape and fencing
set up to prevent trespassing February 25, 2009. Maricopa was one of the fastest growing towns in
America until vast unemployment and the real estate bust swept through the country. Now,
approximately 75 percent of residents owe more money on their mortgages than their homes are actually
worth. Some developers are left to leave new homes unbuilt due to the slow economy. (Joshua
Lott/Getty Images) #

21
Laid-off workers from the Longbin Distillery in Harbin, the capital of northeast China's Heilongjiang
province, stage a sit-in as security guards surround them at the offices of the China Resources Holdings
Company in Beijing Wednesday, March 18, 2009. The workers are demanding insurance and retirement
benefits they say were lost when their distillery became a subsidiary of China Resources in 2007. (AP
Photo/Andy Wong) #
22
Shoppers walk through a nearly empty aisle at a Circuit City store in Las Vegas, Friday, Feb. 27, 2009.
Circuit City filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in November as it faced pressure from vendors,
heightened competition and waning consumer spending. Later it announced it would liquidate its 567 U.S.
stores, cutting more than 34,000 jobs. (AP Photo/Jae C. Hong) #

23
An abandoned building construction site is seen in Warsaw March 5, 2009. Polish analysts are wondering
if the global financial crisis would pull real estate prices down in Poland as well. (REUTERS/Vasily
Fedosenko) #
24
A padlocked chain holds the door shut on a foreclosed duplex as pedestrians walk by Friday, March 6,
2009 in the Bronx, N.Y. Foreclosures are spreading by epidemic proportions, expanding beyond a handful
of problem states and now affecting almost one in every eight American homeowners. (AP Photo/Julie
Jacobson) #

25
Weeds have taken over a row of vacant, unfinished new homes Tuesday, Feb. 17, 2009 in Gilbert,
Arizona. (AP Photo/Matt York) #
26
A section of the Rocky Mountain News newsroom sits empty on February 27, 2009 in Denver, Colorado.
The edition on Friday the 27th was the last one for the nearly 150-year-old daily, Colorado's oldest
newspaper. The owner E.W. Scripps Co. announced the day before that the paper was closing down after
efforts to sell the money-losing newspaper failed. (John Moore/Getty Images) #

27
A home construction site stands idle where construction has been halted, on February 24, 2009 near
Riverside, California. U.S. single family homes prices continued to plummet for the second year, falling 8
percent in the fourth quarter of 2008 compared to the year before. It was the biggest decline in the 21-
year history of the Standard & Poors/Case-Shiller US national home price index. (David McNew/Getty
Images) #
28
A locked gate blocks the entrance at the out-of-business San Rafael Chevrolet Saab Hummer Hyundai
March 3, 2009 in San Rafael, California. (Justin Sullivan/Getty Images) #

29
Job seekers join a line of hundreds at a job fair in Heredia, Costa Rica on March 6, 2009. The job fair
attracted hundreds of unemployed Costa Ricans looking for work across the country. (REUTERS/Juan
Carlos Ulate) #
30
Unused newspaper racks clutter a storage yard in San Francisco, California on Friday, March 13, 2009.
(AP Photo/Noah Berger) (edit: see edit note at top, these unused boxes were removed per city rules, not
due to economic pressure) #

31
Katie Kupferschmid (left) and Lisa Arata test gold jewelry at a gold party March 12, 2009 in West Orange,
New Jersey. Gold parties are a growing trend in the United States where a hostess invites friends and
family to bring their unwanted gold to sell for extra income. The price is based on karat content, weight
and the market price of gold that day. (Daniel Barry/Getty Images) #
32
A homeless resident of a tent city in Sacramento, California wears an American flag jacket on March 10,
2009. This tent city of the homeless is seeing an increase in population as the economy worsens, as more
people join the ranks of the unemployed and as homes slip into foreclosure. (Justin Sullivan/Getty
Images) #

33
Construction is stopped on the Seneca Casino in Buffalo, N.Y., Monday, Nov. 24, 2008. With the state a
signature away from collecting tax from tribal cigarette sales and a mega casino project mothballed
because of economic and legal challenges, even by a former warrior nation's standards there are tough
battles ahead. (AP Photo/David Duprey) #
34
Unused freight containers are seen piled up at storage depots near a residential area in northwest Hong
Kong February 18, 2009. China's hopes for a speedy export recovery from the global crisis could be
undermined by the weakest links in its powerful supply chain - smaller firms too damaged by the
downturn and credit crisis to get goods to market. (REUTERS/Bobby Yip) #

35
A wildflower blooms at an idle home construction site where construction has been halted, on February
24, 2009 near Riverside, California. The January median sales price for Southern California homes fell 40
percent from the same month a year prior and Los Angeles-area home prices ended 2008 down 37
percent from a late 2006 peak. (David McNew/Getty Images) #