Recession No Fun for Fundies

'Rents cutting the aprons strings, tightening the purse strings

Shifts in the cultural landscape inevitably introduce new words enter the lexicon. As the global economic crisis tightens its grip, many in Williamsburg are learning words like "job application," "bills" and "Hey, Mom, can I move home?"

At the Urban Rustic Market across from McCarren Park,  co-owner Luis Illades says his store is being flooded with job applications that bear a CV littered with unpaying jobs.

"They say, 'You want me to work eight hours?'" Illades told The New York Times. "There is a bubble bursting."

What's happening is sort of the reverse of Ronald Reagan's "trickle down" theory; as the parents of fundies living in Billyburg find their financial resources dwindling, they find one place to cut down expenses is their layabout dilettante kids, who have been pursuing artistic pursuits and internships that pay little to no money.

On the real estate market landlords are seeing kids flee leases they can't afford without help and agents seeing buyers downsize their aspirations.

"A lot of the money came from family," Ross Weinstein, managing partner of the Union Square Mortgage Group, told The Times. "That piece, it’s gone for a lot of people."

For some, like artist/bartender Kate Deedy, the cold wind of reality is a breath of fresh air.

"If I’m going to be completely honest, it does make me feel a little bit better," she said. "It's bringing a lot of Williamsburg back to reality."

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