With a little luck, Revere could experience less heartache than other parts of the country
There is the very real likelihood that the effects of the nationwide recession here will be felt much less than in other areas of the country.
While all of us know people who have been laid off or a family here and there who have had to sell their home at a loss or who lost their home to repossession, the vast majority of families residing in Revere are holding their own, maintaining their jobs, paying their bills and getting by.
Because the factory system doesn’t exist here to the degree that it does in midwestern states, Revere hasn’t suffered a major factory closing or a huge business gone bust.
In fact, Necco, one of our largest employers with some 650 employees, hasn’t announced reductions in its work force and is aiming for a good year.
The local hotels aren’t as busy, though. There simply aren’t as many businesspeople and tourists coming by air into Logan Airport needing rooms. Logan reports being down about 10 percent in plane landings this year so far, which means that about 1.5 million less visitors to Boston will be registered than last year, which was already off a good percentile.
There will be less cash coming into Revere as a result of car rentals because car rentals go down when the number of visitors drops.
The biggest layoffs locally are being planned by City Hall as the city government attempts to get a handle on the cash shortfall it faces because of cuts in state aid and decreases in local revenues.
The real estate marketplace appears stable. Houses are still being bought and sold, but not at the highest prices anymore, and not very quickly. It is a period when everything takes time and business has been made that much harder to transact because loans are harder to find and buyers are harder than loans to find.
Bottom line, so far is Revere hasn’t suffered to the extent that other cities across the nation are because of the economic downturn.
The downturn is real. It is dangerous. It is depressing, but it hasn’t hit us here the way it is affecting the rest of the nation.
It has stopped real estate development here but the general business environment remains strong, despite the down market and the bad feeling that comes from watching and listening to too much negative media.
We are going to be affected by the recession, there is no doubt about that. The extent to which we are affected is what remains in question.
