Outdoor reading room indicative of coming recession

The Bryant Park Open-Air Reading Room is scheduled to re-open this month in New York City…. The Bryant Park Open-Air Reading Room is scheduled to re-open this month in New York City.

The original reading room stood as an illuminant innovation of the Great Depression. But today, its presence seems a frightening coincidence in the dimming light of our nation’s faltering economy.

According to an article published last week in The New York Times, the outdoor reading room was first opened during the 1930s as part of a collaboration between the Parks Department and the New York public library, and was intended to stimulate the minds of an ever-growing unemployed population.

The corner of the park – framed by weatherworn seats, book carts and garden umbrellas – served as a place where people could spend their afternoons under the maple trees, distracting themselves between the pages of a bound Joyce or Fitzgerald. The reading room presented an alternative to the monotony of the soup kitchen lines and the day-to-day job hunt.

Now, the Bryant Park Open-Air Reading Room will again offer to engage New York’s temporarily idle, as well as those just taking their lunch breaks.

But, as our nation’s economists focus their fears on an imminent deflationary recession, could such a move foreshadow a great downward plunge towards – dare I say it – a second Great Depression?

Do today’s sponsors, the New York Public Library and the Bryant Park Restoration Cooperation, anticipate something that the rest of us only conjecture?

Daniel Biederman, the executive director of the Restoration Cooperation, told The Times that “the timing is coincidental,” but he went on to say that “in a bad time, it’s nice to have a good book, and a nice place to read it.”

Though it seems far-fetched to predict another economic collapse equal to Black Tuesday, it is impossible to ignore the current unemployment rate, the decreasing value of the dollar and the deflation associated with what critics call the White House’s weak dollar policy.

Furthermore, President Bush’s latest tax cut could be the straw that sends our economy to the breaking point, rather than jumpstarting our failing fiscal engine.

Tax cuts can boost consumer spending and ultimately lead to a new, stronger-standing economy. But, in today’s economic environment, is such a solution viable?

People simply are not able to spend the kind of money they did five years ago. In the last 12 months, the number of personal bankruptcies has set a new record, rising to 1.5 million across the country.

No matter how deep the tax cut, people are finding themselves in debt, and are less inclined to go out and be consumers.

In light of our role in the global economic community, I also question the White House’s stimulus plan. This is where the weak dollar figures in. The Times noted that, as of mid-May, the dollar hit an all time low, in comparison with the Euro, down more than 10 percent.

A reduced-value dollar might stimulate U.S. trade export, but, according to USA Today, this could discourage global investors from considering U.S. Treasury securities. As a result, the United States will have a continually limited monetary amount contributing to our increasing deficit.

Therefore, the reopening of the Bryant Park Outdoor Reading Room may not prophesize another great economic depression, nor, apparently, will it serve the same purpose as its predecessor.

Its resurrection, however, will serve a new purpose, it seems: a distraction and a place of solace for those caught up in the storm of doomsday economic theories.

Underneath the maple trees, those with jobs, without jobs, or those simply in need of an afternoon off, will be able to divert their attention from the latest financial predictions to the less-frightening world of a Steinbeck novel.

Avid reader Christian Schoening is currently ignoring Fitzgerald in favor of French erotica. She can be reached at manager@pittnews.com.