Thursday, November 6, 2008

Thoughts from the neighborhood on Election Day

Though the election buzz has calmed down a little, here's a little recap of what locals thought about Nov. 4. I was surprised to hear that most people didn't care about the historic day:

Stella, a 26-year-old employee at Yorganic in the Financial District, wasn’t sure if she would vote today. She said that she should, but didn’t know enough about the candidates to make an informed decision.

Regina, a 22-year-old employee at Pylones, said the same thing. “I’m not sure [if I’m voting] because I’m not aware of their economic policies, and I think it would depend on that.”

Though this is one of the most exciting elections in recent history, business owners and employees by Wall Street were unenthusiastic about Nov. 4. No one believed that the election would affect his or her business. The owner of Wall Street Wine Merchants said, “If people want to drink, they want to drink.” Martin, an employee at the Stone St. Financier Patisserie said, “people still need their coffee.” Newell Cheung, an investor of B4, said, “people are still going to want to come in [to the bar] and unwind.”

No one cared about the election because they thought it would not create immediate change. As Stella said, “just because one person becomes the president, the economy’s not going to go up the next day.” She couldn’t talk specifically about the candidates’ economic plans, however, because she didn’t know anything about them. Like Stella, most people I talked to had little to say about the election, simply because they were uninformed.

The proprietor of a hair salon on Maiden St. summed it up best: “I’m not voting and I don’t want to talk about it.”

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I was pretty excited - it was my first time voting!

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