adventures with my baby: at long last

C found her feet in Mallorca,
 

learned to roll over in Poitou,
 

(1)
and outgrew all her clothes in Switzerland.
 

What an adventure! We’ve been home now for some time, but it’s been madness, I tell you, madness, and I’m just getting to finishing up our story now.

After Switzerland, we returned to the dirty, delicious bicycle city that Paris is now. I noticed more people on their own bikes (as opposed to Velib, the City's bike share system)
 

more children on bikes,
 

and a lot of helmets.
 

Parisiens didn’t used to wear helmets because it would mess up their hair. Now, I guess athleticism is in style, for one thing, and for another, they’ve discovered Nutcase (I'll dig up a photo but can't put my fingers on one now).

My Parisiens have always walked for exercise. But now the city is filled with wayfinding signage, a campaign to promote walking for health. Of course, it’s French; so, it’s beautiful.
 

 

Another difference I noticed this time is more English being spoken. Not only that, but a lot of graffiti was in English too. J pointed out that a lot of the graffiti she’s seen appeared to be a string of English words that made no sense. But what’s changed? G burned me a CD of French musicians singing in English, another new phenomenon. They used to sound silly, my friends claimed, and now they sound good. The Euro? Economic collapse? C, of course, continues to prefer bad music. Alas!

Paris real estate prices have gone the way of San Francisco's. Theory or fact: people want to put their money in something concrete because the stock market is unreliable. Tina told me that their apartment had appreciated like 50% in the 6 months since they bought it (exact number not available).

Flight home, I watched No Strings Attached which I had kinda wanted to see (I love bad romantic comedy), but I found it to be completely charmless. Also, the main characters’ first hookup is not realistic because of a basic bad breath issue. It’s as if the writers/directors had never known anyone who had an all-night bender. It makes people’s breath stink (duh!), which makes other people not want to have sex with them. (Double duh!)

(1) This photo was actually shot in Paris.

Solving Caltrain's financial problems

My job responsibilities include keeping up on the news. I was just reading this article on Caltrain's financial crisis, and the numbers at the end inspired me to pull out my calculator.

CALTRAIN NUMBERS
$2.3 million: deficit
35,000: daily riders

My calculation: $2,300,000/200 commute days per year (a conservative estimate)/35,000 daily passengers (or do they mean trips? I bet they mean trips.) = $0.33 (the amount they would have to raise fares per ticket (or possibly per passenger which means it's only half as much) to cover the deficit

BTW, demand for transportation is relatively inelastic. This means that people won't stop riding very quickly as the fare increases.

I don't know about you, but $0.33/day isn't a lot of money to me. Heck, raise the fares $0.50/day just to be on the safe side. Just accompany it with better service like more space for bikes and bullet trains on the weekend and even in the middle of the day.

how to be happy (vs. money)

NYT: "If the relationship between money and well-being is complicated, the correspondence between personal relationships and happiness is not. The daily activities most associated with happiness are sex, socializing after work and having dinner with others. The daily activity most injurious to happiness is commuting. According to one study, joining a group that meets even just once a month produces the same happiness gain as doubling your income. According to another, being married produces a psychic gain equivalent to more than $100,000 a year."

Thanks, Cheryl.

Muni's hurting.

The bumper on this vehicle is truncated and tied on with a rope. While I applaud the maintenance workers' ingenuity, I am none-the-less very concerned about the lack of a longer-term solution.

Camera Quest

I take a lot of photos, and people pay me for them sometimes. While I more than break even, I don't do it for the money. I've been using the same Sony point-and-shoot for 4+ years now. It works great most of the time, but given what a big part of my life taking pictures is, I realized that my talent deserves a better camera.

Decision making has never been my strong suit ...especially when hundreds of dollars are involved. I did several internet searches on SLR reviews and rankings. When I was in Art school (college) and High School, I had a mid-level Pentax, and over the years, my family gave me several lenses and other accessories for it. So, I have probably thousands of dollars worth of additional stuff even tho my camera body is deeply obsolete (and broken for that matter). I liked the idea of sticking with Pentax also bc it isn't one of the lead manufacturers (like Cannon for example). G suggested I read reviews on dpreview.com, and they didn't change my mind.

dpreview asks readers to buy cameras from the companies listed on their site to support the neutrality of their reviews. I placed an order with one of them ($900). The next day, I got several calls from them. First, they couldn't validate my credit card. Next, they no longer had the camera in stock, and I should buy a different one instead (sales pitch prepared). I didn't want to do that.

So, I went on Yahoo! and Google shopping and found the camera much cheaper ($600) there. I placed an order with a company that got good ratings and had a good price on Y!shopping. The next day, I received several calls again. While the listing clearly included a battery, he said it didn't come with one -- would I like to add one to my order? Oh, and also, its an import and the menu is only in Chinese. Would I like to upgrade to a US-made model? At this point, I canceled the order. (G said that's easy to fix but I shouldn't support a shady business. He doesn't trust any electronics dealers in or near NYC.)

G found the camera I want on CL for $500 in South San Jose. I emailed the lady, and she emailed back. Of course, getting to SSJ is a drag. So, I asked if she ever came to NSJ. She was silent for a week, but when she did write back, it was to tell me vaguely where she lives which, it turns out, is near the Light Rail. (Have you ever noticed there are people out there who think they have bad luck but are really just incompetent? Her emails stressed that she was sick, had lost her job, other people wanting to buy the camera had flaked on her, etc. but then she couldn't just tell me where to come and get the camera.)

I'm going back to Europe shortly, and I really wanted a new camera before I go. So, G (again) found KEH, and online store for used camera equipment. Last week, I placed my order for a "like new" camera, lens, and memory card ($750). I did not receive any phone calls or emails from KEH, and no one (UPS) had a problem with delivery. It arrived today in its original box. I hope this story is finished now.

Public Finance

A long time ago, I read an article put out by SPUR on how bond initiatives are irresponsible fiscal policy. By paying for public projects with a bond, we are, in a way, paying 3 times. The government issues the bonds. The public buys the bonds. The government pays the bonds back to the public with interest. Essentially, it’s a transference of funds (in the form of interest) from the tax base to the people who can afford to buy bonds. Instead, the article argued, we should increase taxes and save for the investments we wish to make in the future, planning ahead. Sort of like when individuals save money for a retirement or a down payment on a house.

But the public doesn’t want to pay more taxes. They don’t trust the government, and they don’t want it to have any “savings”. Do people think that a balanced budget is just a sign that they’ve paid too much? I admit that this is a gross simplification with many imprecisions. It’s also the way our tax system functions.

In addition to bond measures, we have sales and other taxes to cover our many many capital and operating needs. We pay gas tax (which is regressive – poor people pay more than rich people, and not just in proportion to their income), out-of-state-drivers’-license-car-rental tax, and transit fare. From our tax base, we pay the interest of the bonds we’ve issued for the expenses we didn’t want to tax ourselves to save up for. For this reason, I am always reluctant to vote for any bond measure. But I have to admit to myself that this is our financial reality. Sometimes, if we want the parks maintained, we have to issue another bond.

Another thing we’ve been exploring recently is engaging the private sector in providing public infrastructure (esp. in Europe where taxes are higher). Private companies will help provide public services only do it if they can make some money. But maybe projects where there’s money to be made don’t belong in the public sector? These private companies, I learned today, are also at a disadvantage for acquiring debt to fund… anything. We issue so many government bonds, and the government is, by definition, more stable than 99.9999% of private companies. The public isn’t stupid. They know they should get a higher return on riskier privately-issued bonds. So, private companies have to make an even higher return on their partnerships on public projects.

It’s a little bit like robbing Peter to pay Paul. Money moves around. What bothers me is that every time money changes hands, everyone who touches it needs to make a profit. (Sometimes called an economy.) When public transit agencies lack operating funds and social services are being cut, does this system still make sense?

I used to get upset by any kind of waste: food, time, money, love, flowers, sunshine, gasoline…. I’ve come to accept waste as a necessary part of life. Food turns into soil and love into learning. Money goes from individuals to organizations and back again. The rich get richer; my people try to stay middle class; and we worry about the underdog. But if there’s no one to step on, how can we climb? (You know I don’t believe that of course.) I could make myself crazy like a puppy chasing its tale trying to figure this one out, but I’m too old and tired for that. Instead I try to do things that keep my soul from spoiling, being the very best person I know how to be. I hope that that will be enough.