Here’s the American Dream. If you can pull together $700,000 you can live large in a beautiful home like one of these. Three car garage. Great room. Massive kitchen. Formal dining room. Four or five bedrooms. Three or four baths. A front lawn. A swimming pool. An exclusive public school district. Privacy. A secure enclave … Continue reading A Thousand Hidden Subsidies
I was graciously invited to explore the home of The Cabin Dweller’s Textbook folks in the mountains of southern California. I was curious about the nuts and bolts of the mechanical systems at the cabin, particularly after a conversation I had in Detroit with civil engineer Chuck Marohn. It boiled down to a simple question. What’s really … Continue reading The Cabin Dwellers
In an average year the city of Los Angeles receives 13 billion gallons of water in the form of rain. (15 inches of annual rainfall x 503 square miles of city land is 13 billion gallons.) According to the LA Department of Public Works the city uses about 13 billion gallons of water each year. … Continue reading Drought Amid Plenty
I just spent a week in Los Angeles. Oy. What a massive schlep. I was in Pasadena interviewing a couple at their home (blog post to come) at two in the afternoon on Saturday. That went really well. Google I was invited to an event hosted by a prominent family in Irvine at six that … Continue reading Misadventures in Azusa
My last post described how a town in Georgia spent an enormous amount of public money on a new civic center and road expansions, but somehow managed to devalue nearby private property in the process. Here’s an example of a neighborhood in Nashville, Tennessee that took a different approach that cost a lot less and achieved … Continue reading A Better Way
Whenever I’m in a new town in a different part of the country I like to wander around on foot and by bicycle. It gives me a more intimate perspective than zipping by in a car at fifty miles an hour. And I enjoy interacting with the people I encounter along the way. Here’s a … Continue reading Values on Display
The overwhelming perception of poverty in America is one of inner city black and brown people living off public assistance. This deeply rooted narrative doesn’t necessarily have anything to do with the life experiences of the majority of the individuals in question. https://www.brookings.edu/ In recent decades poverty has migrated to suburbia. That shouldn’t be surprising … Continue reading Suburban Poverty
I was walking home from downtown San Francisco and passed through the South of Market neighborhood. The area is full of tech company offices like Twitter, Uber, and Airbnb. I saw this minivan advertising, “Low Cost Commuting” and “Ride Share” with the Enterprise Rent-A-Car logo and thought hmmmmm. . As I got closer to home … Continue reading The Future of Mobility
As a landlord I’ve long struggled with how to balance ethical and economic choices. In the aftermath of the 2008 financial crash I bought a sad little 1941 vintage fixer upper on a half acre in Sonoma County. I could never have afforded property in the wine country under normal circumstances, but 2008 wasn’t normal. … Continue reading The Not-So-Invisible Hand
Granola Shotgun 