Kwanzaa

Kwanzaa, the seven-day festival which celebrates African-American and Pan-African heritage and culture, starts today and ends Tuesday, January 1. Owing to the rich cultural diversity of New York City, there are several Kwanzaa celebrations in different parts of the city. During the week, a candelabrum called a Kinara is lit, and ears of corn representing each child in the family are placed on a traditional mat. Pictured above is a kinara on display in front of the New York Stock Exchange in downtown Manhattan. Kwanzaa's focus is the "Nguzo Saba," or the Seven Principles—unity, self-determination, collective work and responsibility, cooperative economics, purpose, creativity and faith. In New York City, celebrations include Kwanzaa festival (storytelling, art, music, dance, food, and crafts) at the Brooklyn Children's Museum. Another activity is Harvest Celebration which takes place at the Dana Center in Harlem. The festival features presentation of fruits of the harvest, candlelighting, dancing and singing. The Museum of Natural History also holds a Kwanzaa celebration featuring live performances. Happy Kwanzaa!

Red, White and Blue

The American flags at Rockefeller Center

The Empire State Building

New York Stock Exchange on Wall Street

The American Flags in front of The Plaza

A pedestrian in Times Square

The U.S. Armed Forces Recruiting Station

At the Pedestrian Mall in Times Square

The Gap Store on Sixth Avenue

5 Subway Train

Bloomingdale's window display

Tommy Hilfiger's Mannequin 

Banana Republic window sign

Pedestrians on Third Avenue

Pedestrians in Times Square

Rug store on 60th street

Video of the Macy's Independence Day Fireworks from Rocketboom

These are some of the red, white and blue sights in Manhattan this Independence Day weekend.

WALL STREET - the Proposed Bailout

Today, negotiators from Capitol Hill and the Bush administration resumed talks about the proposed $700 billion bailout of the financial system by the US government. Earlier today, I made some images of the Wall Street sign and the New York Stock Exchange in downtown Manhattan. NYC is at the center of the economic turmoil, but the fallout will be nationwide. Already the financial sector alone has lost 10,000 jobs through July, or about 2% of finance jobs. Moody's Economy.com projects that New York City and its suburbs will lose 65,000 finance jobs by the middle of 2010, or 11% of the total. Economists are projecting that Manhattan real estate prices will finally sink under the pressure of financial-sector layoffs and shrinking Wall Street bonuses. Wall Street accounts for about 12% of jobs in the city of New York, and a quarter of salaries. "New York is the stone in the puddle that ripples across the country," said Scott Simmons, vice-president and founding partner of Crist/Kolder Associates, an executive recruiting firm in Chicago.

From wikipedia:

Wall Street is a street in lower Manhattan, New York City, USA. It runs east from Broadway downhill to South Street on the East River, through the historical center of the Financial District. Wall Street was the first permanent home of the New York Stock Exchange; over time Wall Street became the name of the surrounding geographic neighborhood. Wall Street is also shorthand (or a metonym) for "influential financial interests" in the U.S., as well as for the financial industry in the New York City area. Several major U.S. stock and other exchanges remain headquartered on Wall Street and in the Financial District, including the NYSE, NASDAQ, AMEX, NYMEX, and NYBOT.