Harvey, our New Yorker of the Month, November 2008

Ask a New Yorker: How is your day going Harvey?

Harvey: Well, I took the bus to the train & then before I knew it, when I got off the bus, the train has an escalator and two of the three were not working . So I went and waited at the elevator and there was a problem there too, so I always kind of gauge how my day is going to go by how my trip goes, it has not gone too good so far.

Ask a New Yorker: Harvey, It’s all uphill from here I hope. I understand you’re an accountant. That’s why were meeting. Let’s cut to the chase. What the !$!$ is happening to our economy?

Harvey: Well I was an economics major at NYU. I wasn’t an accounting major. I know something about the economy and something about what has caused all this. It seems like deregulation has been a big factor. I mean I have a client that bought a house as an investment two years ago when real estate was at its high. He paid $415,000, then he called me last week because he had to dispossess his tenants. They damaged the house and he has no money to fix it up, and he can’t make the mortgage payments. He says it’s worth half of what he paid. I kind of felt sorry for him. But ‘somebody’ said that its those kind of people that should rot in hell because they’re part of the big responsibility of what’s happened to the economy.

Ask a New Yorker: I don’t want anyone to rot in hell. The buyer definitely shares the responsibility and the lender?

Harvey: Well it’s the mortgage lenders that really deserve all the blame because they lend money to people that really don’t have the ability to pay it back, and they were counting on the increasing value of the real estate to just borrow more money. So it’s really the mortgage lenders and their whole system of providing loans to people who weren’t qualified for them.

Ask a New Yorker: Have you heard any good accountant jokes lately?

Harvey: No, if I thought about it maybe, but not at this point.

Ask a New Yorker: Where did you go to High School?

Harvey: I went to high school in Westchester County. I went to Mount Vernon High School. I graduated from New York University with a BS in Economics and I have an MBA in accounting at CW Post College. I also have a certification in Quick books.

Ask a New Yorker: Where do you live now and what’s the neighborhood like?

Harvey: Bayside is an upper middle class area. I live two blocks from a shopping center, I guess you might call it a mall. It’s probably a collection about 50 stores with a movie theater and anything else you could ever need. We are very centrally located. We are a few blocks from the Long Island railroad. So you can get into Penn Station in 25 minutes. We have an express bus on the corner. We have the highest rated school district in the city, school district 26. I’m two blocks from Bayside High school, where my youngest son is a senior. If you’re athletic enough or interested enough in health you can be at Bayside High School between 6-7 in the morning, which is the only time it’s open to the public.

Ask a New Yorker: You’re on fire…

Harvey: I’m a member of The American Institute of Certified Public Accountants. I’m a member New York State society of CPA’s. I’m a member of the National Conference of CPA’s Practitioners. I did form my own networking group, which we’re in the process of growing now.

Ask a New Yorker: I must say, you have a lot going on. What was New York like in the 70’s?

Harvey: Anything that was really the lowest of the low in the 70’s has been built up from the increased real estate values. Condos are on Atlantic Ave in Bushwick, where years ago you were afraid to even go there. That’s big change, that’s a positive. So you really can’t look backwards.

Ask a New Yorker: Do you have any pets?

Harvey: I don’t have any pets but when my son was in college he brought home this guinea pig because he was not allowed to have one in the dorm. So we now have a pet guinea pig although my son doesn’t live in the house anymore. So we are the guinea pig keepers.

Ask a New Yorker: I had all kinds of pets as a kid, even guinea pigs. Tex and Putunia. What’s your guinea pig’s name?

Harvey: Mario. My son thought he looked like the character the Nintendo game Mario.

Ask a New Yorker: What do you feed Mario?

Harvey: Timothy hay is what he eats, besides the regular food. I also have five fancy goldfish in a twenty gallon tank. We also did have a Springer Spaniel, but unfortunately she really liked to go through the garbage and that’s really what killed her. She took a turkey bone out of the garbage pail and choked on it. We took her to the vet. That was not a good experience. She was about 13 years old. Her name was Simka. I think we named her after one of the characters in the show Taxi, Latka’s wife, Simka

Ask a New Yorker: Thank you Harvey! Nice talking to you!

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