Armchair Journalism

We're #10

2011-11-05T06:29:48Z

The Forbes magazine list of dirtiest cities, with respect to air polution, is out and Sacramento is #10, with 6 other CA cities in the top 10.

Here's the list with comments taken directly from the source material (including an unfortunately worded remark about San Diego) - more details can be found here.

#10 Sacramento-Arden-Arcade-Yuba City, CA-NV

A little better than Bakersfield and Fresno, but Sacramento still suffers stagnant air stuck in the San Joaquin Valley.

#9 San Diego-Carlsbad-San Marcos, CA

There's no dirty coal plants here, and you'd think the ocean breeze would keep the air clean, but San Diego has a big port and busy highways that lead to and from Mexico.

#8 Phoenix-Mesa-Glendale, AZ

Heat plus cars equals ozone. Epic dust storms also regularly engulf Phoenix.

#7 Birmingham-Hoover-Cullman, AL

Pollution levels have improved a lot, but Birmingham suffers from being located in a valley that tends to trap stagnant summer air. Two interstate highways don't help either.

#6 Modesto, CA

Home to E&J Gallo Winery, which also operates the largest wine bottle manufacturing plant in the world.

#5 Pittsburgh-New Castle, PA

This old steel town is a new boom town for natural gas drilling, and downwind of coal-fired power plants in Ohio and West Virigina.

#4 Fresno-Madera, CA

San Joaquin Valley air might be getting better; last August, for the first time in recorded history, Fresno had no days with unhealthy ozone levels.

#3 Visalia-Porterville, CA

Proximity to the giant trees of Sequoia National Park isn't enough to clean Visalia's smoggy San Joaquin Valley air.

#2 Los Angeles-Long Beach-Riverside, CA

Millions of cars, a huge port in Long Beach, busy airports -- at least L.A.'s smog is better than it used to be.

#1 Bakersfield-Delano, CA

Hot, dusty and surrounded by California's biggest oil fields, Bakersfield has all the ingredients for the worst air in the nation.

Disclosure: Armchair journalism at its laziest.

Slow news day

2011-09-25T07:15:51Z

But you can always count on craigslist for a chuckle.

Nothing else to see here, move along....

Opinion: Voluntary Foreclosure

2011-03-01T07:03:20Z

The subject of mortgage foreclosures is obviously one that has received a great deal of attention in both the media and in private conversations. The economy has tanked and people who are struggling financially are clearly going to have problems paying their mortgage. And many of us have seen friends, acquaintances, or family members granted loans that were never sustainable, based on poor or non-existent reviews of circumstances.

But what of the rest of us?

I have a mortgage that I can comfortably afford to make payments on. But I’m surrounded by foreclosed properties and loans that are being adjusted to make them more affordable. I bought my house eight years ago for a total price of approximately $168k. I currently owe approximately $103k. There’s a house close to me being sold for $34k and several in the $50-60k range. There are similarly sized condominiums in the same range.

The industry seems to be banking (pun intended) on homeowners who can afford their payments feeling honor-bound to do so. We made an agreement, we took a gamble, and the value of our homes have fallen. In theory, nobody owes us anything anymore than we would feel like we owed the lenders money if fortune had swung the other way.

Except for one thing: Many of the loans that have failed, and which have caused foreclosures and helped drive down home values, should never have been written. The system is counting on homeowners acting in a more honorable and conscientious fashion than the manner in which the industry acted towards homeowners.

Everything I was taught as a kid about honoring commitments and being honest would suggest that I should stay in my home and make payments into a financial void. But everything I have learned since about mathematics, finances, and common sense suggests I should walk (or run) away from the loan and default on it as fast as humanly possible. Even the ruined credit rating isn’t that much of a hardship if one has good cash flow.

But if I jump from my sinking house, I add to the overall problem, adding another vacant property to the existing glut. And so there’s another layer of guilt contributing to the pressure to conform with respect to my conforming loan. If I had made a bad decision or taken on too much debt or a massive balloon payment, somebody would probably be offering to help, but I apparently made the flawed choice to live within my means.

If I move out and stop paying the mortgage, I doubt the bank could get an appraisal of much more than 50k. And with the house in its current condition, needing a little tender loving care from a somewhat more conscientious homeowner, it would probably be significantly less, further driving down local prices. After all, when you walk away, you’re far less likely to spruce things up than when you’re selling.
So what’s the solution?

Banks and lenders write off bad debt all the time, and take losses by selling off foreclosed homes in down markets. But why do so? Why wait for somebody to choose to move out and incur that kind of loss and that kind of logistic hardship, of having yet another home to sell in an already down market?

I called my lender today, offering to make a deal – to negotiate a payoff closer to market value. I was told about a program that would have reduced my interest rate if I was struggling to pay. I doubt I would have qualified. I was told there was nobody able to discuss any other possibilities with regard to adjusting or closing out the account. I have emailed them today also, asking if I could buy my own house from them for what it’s currently worth, in cash, and avoid a voluntary foreclosure. I’m not holding my breath.

From what I have read, California is a no-fault state for loans of this nature. The only thing tying us to our homes is a sense of duty instilled at a young age. But it’s a duty we are expected to uphold in honoring contracts with lenders who didn’t do their own duty, who made countless unsustainable loans and, apparently, who didn’t even keep all of the paperwork that documents those loans.

And so I’m deciding whether to be the good kid I was taught to be, or the self-preservationist adult the world seems to reward. It seems like a fight the good kids are going to lose.

Which side are you on?

Sacramento 9th dirtiest city

2010-11-19T06:37:49Z

In April 2009, I summarized a story from Forbes that listed Sacramento as America's 6th dirtiest city for air polution, primarily ozone. We were also ranked sixth in short-term particle pollution.

That brief story can be found here.

The latest list still has us at sixth for short-term particle pollution, but Sacramento has dropped to 9th dirtiest overall. Meanwhile, California has gone from having 6 cities in the list to having 7/10 of the dirtiest cities, including the top 5.

The ten dirtiest (in terms of air quality) cities in America, according to the American Lung Association and as reported by Forbes:

1: Bakersfield, Calif.
2: Los Angeles - Long Beach - Riverside, Calif.
3: Fresno - Madera, Calif.
4: Visalia - Porterville, Calif.
5: Hanford - Corcoran, Calif.
6: Phoenix - mesa - Scottsdale, Ariz,
7: Birmingham - Hoover - Cullman, Ala.
8: Modesto, Calif.
9: Sacramento - Arden-Arcade - Yuba City, Calif.
10: Pittsburgh - New castle, Penn.

The online story link is here.

2,500 sq.ft. Playground to be Constructed by Volunteers

2010-11-08T21:20:20Z

THE HOME DEPOT, KaBOOM! AND ASPIRE PUBLIC SCHOOLS JOIN FORCES TO BUILD A NEW PLAYGROUND ON VETERAN’S DAY

WHAT: More than 200 volunteers from The Home Depot, Aspire Public Schools, and organizers from the nonprofit organization KaBOOM! will join together to build a state-of-the-art, 2,500 square foot playground in one day. The playground will provide a safe, fun environment for the children in the community. The playground will also celebrate Veteran’s Day as veterans from the area will assist in the building of the playground.

When a former private high school on El Camino Avenue in Sacramento closed, the Aspire Public Schools organization purchased the 9 acre campus and opened Alexander Twilight College Prep Academy, one of the newest charter schools in the region. As a former High School only, the campus lacks playground equipment for the younger children, which will be remedied thanks to this project.

The playground is funded through a $65,000 grant from The Home Depot Foundation and the parents and community volunteers from Aspire Schools/Alexander Twilight College Prep Academy also raised $7,500 to support the playground construction. As a founding partner of KaBOOM!, The Home Depot provides financial support, materials and numerous volunteers for playground projects across North America as part of its ongoing commitment to give back to the communities its stores serve. As official Sustainability Partners, The Home Depot and KaBOOM! work to make sure each playground project is as environmentally friendly as possible as well as educating children and communities about this important issue. For this project, all materials will be recycled and any unused materials remaining after the completion of the build will be donated to other organizations.

WHERE: Alexander Twilight College Prep Academy ● 2360 El Camino Avenue ● Sacramento

WHEN: Thursday, November 11

8:30 a.m. to 9:00 a.m. Project Kick-Off
9:30 a.m. to 1:00 p.m. Best visuals of playground construction
1:00 p.m. to 2:30 p.m. Final construction phase and adjustments
2:30 p.m. to 3:00 p.m. “Board-Cutting" closing ceremony
(Note: All times approximate)

INFO: About The Home Depot Foundation
Created in 2002, The Home Depot Foundation supports nonprofit organizations dedicated to creating and preserving healthy, affordable homes as the cornerstone of sustainable communities. The Foundation’s goal is for all families to have the opportunity to live in healthy, efficient homes they can afford over the long-term; to have access to safe, vibrant parks and greenspaces; and to receive the economic, social and environmental benefits of living in a sustainable community. Since its formation, The Home Depot Foundation has granted $190 million to nonprofit organizations and supported the development of more than 95,000 homes, planted more than 1.2 million trees, and built or refurbished more than 1875 playgrounds, parks and greenspaces. For more information, visit www.homedepotfoundation.org and follow us on Twitter homedepotfdn.

About KaBOOM!
Headquartered in Washington, D.C., KaBOOM! is a national non-profit organization dedicated to saving play. Through community building, the organization is focused on giving every child in America a great place to play within walking distance. Since 1996, KaBOOM! has used its innovative community-build model to bring together business and community interests to construct more than 1,900 new playgrounds, skate parks, sports fields and ice rinks across North America. KaBOOM! also offers a variety of resources, including an online community, free online trainings, grants, publications and the KaBOOM! National Campaign for Play, which includes Playful City USA and Playmakers – a national network of individual advocates for play. KaBOOM! also has offices in Chicago and San Mateo, Calif. For more information, visit www.kaboom.org.

Disclosure: This is content from a press release, not authored by Tony Sheppard - but it seemed to be of relevant local interest.

500 Needed for Galleria cleanup

2010-10-24T00:41:58Z

A local company will take resumes on Sunday and Monday to find cleanup workers.

Details here.

Dining Out Options: Good Friends

2010-07-16T09:35:53Z

by Tony Sheppard
Originally Published in Capitol Weekly

This may be the least comprehensive restaurant review ever. So don’t be surprised if I go off on a tangent or two.

Good Friends is located in South Natomas, in a small shopping plaza on the south-east corner of the I5 and West El Camino intersection. The location is close to several housing complexes and also the campuses of the University of Phoenix and the Art Institute of Sacramento. It’s a faculty favorite for the Arts Institute and, given that the Capital Film Arts Alliance meets there, also for some of the filmmaking community. For that reason, I’ve eaten there multiple times in the last couple of years, but I’ve never actually read the menu. Hence, the limited review content.

However, there’s a good reason to skip all but the back page of the menu – that’s where the combination meals are described. They’re enough of a good deal, that if you’re looking for a hearty meal and not jonesing for something too specific, that’s what to order. I’m fairly sure that the rest of the menu is quite comprehensive, given that there are several other panels in the brochure-style document, but I have no idea what’s actually in them. There’s also a lengthy sushi menu that gets placed on the table – but I haven’t read that either, for two reasons: It’s not the back page of the regular menu, and it’s sushi (*shudder*).

The combination meals have an extensive list of primary dishes to choose from and lunch also includes fried rice, chow mein, an eggroll, the appetizer of the day, and a choice of egg-drop or extremely hot and sour soup. All of this for $6.95-$7.25–it’s a lot of food. But the dinner combination is even more voluminous, as the daily appetizer disappears in favor of a full extra order of sweet and sour pork – all for approximately $9.95. It’s essentially enough for two meals in one. I have both shared a combination dinner with a friend on occasion, and taken half home on other occasions. It’s actually too much for me to eat before a discussion-based meeting as I end up feeling close to that post-Thanksgiving, loosened clothing, basking in a recliner like a beached, overfed-whale-state.

It’s a friendly little place, with these huge meals coming out of a small facility, occupying just one, narrow plaza storefront. If you go there with a regular, you’ll witness people being greeted by name and a strong sense that people keep coming back, time and time again.

And speaking of names, although Good Friends does seem quite fitting, it also breaks all of the Chinese restaurant naming ground rules. Somewhere out there, a man with the Chinese restaurant naming chart is weeping over one list full of panda, jade, dragon, and bamboo, and another list full of palace, garden, house, pagoda, and delights. There’s some irony in the idea that Chinese restaurants can be named by making one selection from Column A and one selection from Column B. Or the combo name that doubles them up – try for example the Dragon House of Panda Delights.

That said, check out Good Friends and try a combo meal - or perhaps even read the rest of the menu. Not that there’s really any need.

Good Friends
2600 Gateway Oaks Dr
Sacramento, CA 95833
(916) 568-5100
www.goodfriendssacramento.com

Photo: Combination dinner with mixed vegetables and a separate plate of sweet and sour pork (included)

Dining Out Options: IKEA

2010-07-10T20:46:57Z

By Tony Sheppard
Originally Published in Capitol Weekly

If shopping for a new Beddinge Murbo and a companion Glasört Kulle or maybe a couple of Pjätteryds makes you a tad peckish, fear not for IKEA will feed you just as happily as they’ll load you up with flat-packed Aspelunds and Trondheims.

The restaurant at IKEA is a simple, bright and airy cafeteria with limited, but also pleasant and cheap choices. The signature product is the Swedish meatball, served in a light creamy gravy and generally accompanied by the Swedish “go to” utility item, the lingonberry preserve. These lingonberries double as a relish or a jam, and also appear in a syrup that makes such a tasty drink you might inadvertently sue KoolAid for negligence. Nestled between the meatballs and mashed potatoes in preserve form, they make Reagan-era claims of ketchup as a vegetable seem even more overly desperate.

Alongside healthy salmon dishes and chicken alfredo are kid-friendly choices such as French fries, pasta with a simple marinara sauce, and appealingly multi- colored veggies. And one of the best deals around is the kids meal at only $2.49 for three small menu items, and no age check. It makes for a great light lunch as long as you don’t mind eating out of brightly hued plastic containers. I recently had the pasta, veggies, lingonberry drink, and a slice of almost cake for just over $4. That almond cake is a neat extra at just $1.29, rather than the $8 dessert options that require a team to eat them at so many restaurants these days.

Each IKEA store has menu specials that can be checked online. At West Sacramento, the 15 meatball special drops from $4.99 to an even more special $2.49 on Tuesdays. And Wednesdays are rib days, with a half rack of baby backs for $7.99, complete with cornbread and fries.

But perhaps my favorite treat, for the rare times that I’m out of the house in the morning hours, is the IKEA breakfast. The regular breakfast of eggs, bacon, potatoes, and French toast sticks is just $1.99. However, for only 99c, you can skip the French toast and still get a decent plate of food that makes Denny’s look like wanton extravagance. Best of all, nobody looks down on you when you each order two of the 99c plates.

If you take a liking to Swedish grub, you can also buy items to take home, downstairs in the supremely awkwardly positioned market area. It’s best to have somebody run over there and grab a few things while you’re waiting for the regular registers* or you’ll find yourself past the point of paying and either having to line up again or needing to pay for your food products at the downstairs snack bar (which has even cheaper food than the restaurant). And it’s also good to know in advance that IKEA will charge you for a plastic bag – so bring your own.

*I can’t remember the last time I saw a person actually operating a register – so be ready for the self-check option.

The IKEA restaurant opens 30 minutes before the store opens and, you guessed it, closes 30 minutes before the store closes. The West Sacramento store is open from 10am-8pm, 362 days a year. It’s closed on Thanksgiving and Christmas and closes one hour early on July 4th. And take note, the salad dressing is over by the drinks and ketchup, not near the salad.

IKEA, West Sacramento
700 IKEA Court
West Sacramento, CA 95605
916-371-4532

Other store locations, opening hours, meal deals, and impossible to pronounce or spell furniture solutions can be found online at www.ikea-usa.com.

Photos:

1) Two 99c breakfasts (for one).

2) A kid's meal, chicken alfredo, and two slices of almond cake (for two).

Compromise media shield law seems likely

2009-10-31T02:25:03Z

According to the Associated Press, agreement has been reached between senate, white house, and press representatives on a new version of a media shield law "to protect reporters from being forced to disclose their confidential sources in federal court."

In brief, it would allow the government to seek a source's identity in instances of security leaks with national security implications, the burden would be on the journalist to justify non-disclosure of source identity in criminal cases, and the burden would be on the state to justify disclosure in non-criminal cases.

Of interest to Sacramento Press readers and writers, "The revised bill would also extend protections for freelance or citizen journalists by defining a journalist by the nature of activity engaged in rather than by the organization that employs the reporter."

Full story: Yahoo News

Sacramento ranked sixth worst for ozone

2009-04-30T09:29:50Z

Sacramento has been rated the sixth worst metropolitan statistical area for ozone pollution by the American Lung Association, as reported by Forbes.com – and other central valley communities are even worse.

Here’s the top 10 (or bottom 10 depending on your perspective):

1. Los Angeles-Long Beach-Riverside, CA
2. Bakersfield, CA
3. Visalia-Porterville, CA
4. Fresno-Madera, CA
5. Houston-Baytown-Huntsville, TX
6. Sacramento-Arden-Arcade-Yuba City, CA
7. Dallas-Fort Worth, TX
8. Charlotte-Gastonia-Salisbury, NC/SC
9. Phoenix-Mesa-Scottsdale, AZ
10. El Centro, CA

Sacramento also ranks 7th for short-term particle pollution, but is not listed in the worst 25 areas for year-round particle pollution.

Full article: link

Stockton is fifth most dangerous city in the US according to Forbes

2009-04-24T23:22:02Z

According to Forbes, and as reported by Yahoo! (and as read and repeated somewhat lazily by me from my armchair) Stockton is the fifth most dangerous city* as measured in terms of violent crimes per capita.

Top 5:

Detroit - 1,220 violent crimes per 100,000 people

Memphis - 1,218

Miami - 998

Las Vegas - 887

Stockton - 885

From the article:

"Stockton is a major transit point along the I-5 corridor on the way to Seattle and Vancouver," says [Megan Wolfram, an analyst at iJet Intelligent Risk Systems, a Maryland-based risk-assessment firm]. "A lot of it is similar to crime happening in the Southwest. For the most part, it's drug gang on drug gang."

And the methods:

*"To determine our list, we used violent crime statistics from the FBI's latest uniform crime report, issued in 2008. The violent crime category is composed of four offenses: murder and non-negligent manslaughter, forcible rape, robbery and aggravated assault. We evaluated U.S. metropolitan statistical areas--geographic entities defined by the U.S. Office of Management and Budget for use by federal agencies in collecting, tabulating and publishing federal statistics--with more than 500,000 residents."

Full story link.

Fire Alarm Empties Theater

2009-04-15T06:22:23Z

Audiences at the Century Downtown Plaza 7 theater were required to leave the building tonight when a fire alarm went off at approximately 9pm. Among the affected were the lucky (until that moment) viewers of a word of mouth screening of the upcoming release “State of Play” – including many members of the local media for whom it doubled as a press screening (myself included).

After audiences vacated the theater, the alarm was silenced and the (now diminished) crowd returned. However, there appeared to be a problem with the system as the strobe lights remained on and the alarm sounded again (with little to no response from the now jaded audience). Despite the presence of the fire department, it was announced that the alarm could not be reset and the screenings were ultimately canceled.

Watch the local press for “State of Play” reviews this week and don’t be surprised by comments about incendiary plot developments, mass audience walk-outs, or the alarming ending. In fairness, the movie was pretty good up until that point - but the highlight was the observation, by a popular onscreen local reporter, that it’s illegal to scream “theater” in a crowded fireplace.

The value of PE classes in junior colleges

2009-02-12T07:40:34Z

An article in the SacBee today discusses a Legislative Analysts’s suggestion that junior colleges either drop PE classes, or that the colleges be paid less to offer them than the level of state funding provided for classes that are deemed more academic in content. These are the one-unit classes that are offered in subjects such as golf, tennis, and bowling. The inference is that these classes are not worthwhile and don’t deserve to be subsidized at the same level as other classes.

This seems like an odd standard to apply. As the article points out, students wanting to graduate or transfer are typically required to have one of these classes. What the article doesn’t point out is that that requirement is set by the state that subsidizes that education, precisely because teams of experts have determined that these are in fact worthwhile. It’s not like they showed up by chance or accident.

Another distinction suggested is that these are simply classes for fun and not as valuable as the more academic and vocational classes taken elsewhere in a college career. But if you examine some of the other, more esoteric classes that students routinely take, it may very well be that golf, bowling, and tennis are more likely to be used in life, or even in a career path. Try telling Tiger Woods that golf isn’t vocational. One of the students referenced in the original article was taking bowling multiple times attempting to improve his game enough to compete in tournaments. I wonder if any of his other classes are preparing him for national competition. There may very well be as many students who will use golf, for example, in a business setting, as those who will use <insert subject of your choice here>. And there are many students taking other classes for fun, personal enrichment, or without a specific utilitarian end in mind, and they aren’t single-credit classes.

The article also compares the PE classes and their subsidy rate with fitness classes for senior citizens. One could easily ponder whether or not we would need to teach physical activities to seniors if we taught younger students such life-long activities as, say, golf, bowling, and tennis. Oh, right, we are – for a reason.

During the working years of an adult life, most people will engage in work and other obligated activities for about a third of their week (very rough fractions), sleep for another third, and engage in activities of their own choosing, if they’re lucky, the rest of the time. When they hit retirement, the proportions will shift suddenly. We spend a lot of time and money preparing students for the work portion and we spend a lot of time and money medicating people for sleep. What we tend to spend less on is teaching people how to ensure that the remainder of their lives are rewarding and meaningful. What the article doesn’t point out is that the one unit of PE is just one out of 39 units of general education associated with transferring colleges or 60 units of work associated with graduating from a junior college. That’s about 2% of the class time dedicated towards the leisure and recreation that will ultimately dominate an average lifespan.

And let’s not forget that these activities are also inherently vocational for a great many careers. Unless of course you think the following run themselves: municipal parks and recreation departments, after-school programs, physical education classes, boys and girls clubs, recreation programs for special needs populations, and (you probably know by now that I’m going to say this…) golf courses, bowling alleys, and tennis clubs, amongst the vast array of recreational programs and businesses that exist in our communities. In a state that relies so heavily on recreational activities and related tourism, it’s amazing to think these classes are considered superfluous.

The irony is that it’s exactly this kind of attitude that makes running businesses and agencies in the parks, recreation, tourism, and hospitality fields so difficult – people treat them as though they are disposable or unnecessary when they are often the things that add meaning and value to lives that are otherwise bleak and unfulfilling. Building an appreciation of these activities is not only valuable on an individual level but is beneficial at a societal level and the more active and confident people are in such pursuits, the less likely we are to throw ever larger amounts of money at public healthcare, problems such as obesity, and related diseases and conditions.

If the great fear is that students will simply repeat these classes, time after time, on the taxpayers’ dime, then cap the number of times they can be taken under state subsidy – we do that in other ways for other classes. Let them take three one-unit classes if they want to – a single three-unit class in any other topic, whether degree or vocation-related or not, wouldn’t even attract the attention of the bean counters. Indeed, one could take several classes in other subject areas or even repeat them without anybody questioning those choices. But if they’re going to start labeling which classes are inherently worthwhile and which aren’t, I think we’re going to have a much deeper discussion about a far wider range of subjects.