We're Number 2, 4, and 8

Foster City has made another distinguished list. Our little town of 30,000 (0.1% of California's population) has three of the ten most polluted beaches in California:

(Source: Heal the Bay)

But Foster City is not as bad as it used to be: [bold added]

Erckenbrack Park in Foster City in San Mateo County was the second most polluted beach in California based on the levels of harmful bacteria in the ocean, the report said. Nearby Gull Park in Foster City was the fourth most polluted, with neighboring Marlin Park in Foster City as the eighth most polluted.

While that’s not a great showing for San Mateo County, this was actually an improvement for the county, which had six beaches included in the top 10 in 2020.

To be fair, Foster City's pollution doesn't stem from the usual culprits. The city spends millions annually on a well-maintained sewage treatment system, and there's virtually no agricultural or industrial runoff. The lagoons were designed to provide a buffer against storm water flooding from the Peninsula hills:

The Foster City Lagoon, as a drainage detention basin, is designed to successfully withstand a storm of 100-year return frequency or a storm of such severity that it is likely to occur only once each century. The lagoon therefore provides maximum drainage security for Foster City. Stormwater collected throughout the City flows to the Foster City Lagoon. All storm water enters the storm drain system through curb inlets and catch basins and drains into the lagoon from which it is pumped into the bay.

Because storms have been lacking for the past several years, the lagoons have been stagnating. And the fact that the waterfowl like it here just adds to the problem....

Lucky Come Hawaii

It's a good time to be in Hawaii, which sounds inane because as my Mainland friends say, it's always a good time to be in Hawaii. But look what's happening back in Northern California.

Lava Fire at Weed, CA, 10 mi. from Mr. Shasta (Chron)

California's burning again. Lava Fire explodes to more than 13,000 acres

The Lava Fire, ravaging through steep and rugged terrain near Mount Shasta and Lake Shastina in Siskiyou County, tripled in size over the last 12 hours and was burning across 13,300 acres as of Tuesday morning.

Wind gusts as high as 50 mph contributed to the wildfire’s spread Monday to the east and southeast toward Mount Shasta, said Michelle Carbonaro, spokesperson for the inter-agency team managing the fire.

Lake Shastina is 300 miles from the Peninsula, but the high winds will not only make the fire difficult to control but will degrade the air quality throughout the region. Those of us with respiratory problems will have to stay indoors and run the filters.

Assault and robbery reached their lows in August
and October, respectively, and are nearly back
to their 2019 levels. (Chronicle graph)

Violent crime is coming back: San Francisco crime is starting to look more like it did before the pandemic

The violent crimes we analyzed, robbery and assault, declined for the first six months or so of the pandemic, until COVID-19 cases began surging nationwide in late October. Both robberies and assaults spiked through late February, though robberies remained below 2019 levels for every month except February 2021, when they reached 11% above where they were pre-pandemic.

As of May 2021, both types of violent crime are hovering slightly below pre-pandemic levels, but above their pandemic-era lows.

Going backwards (2019 Chronicle pic)

Burglaries may be down overall, but not for tourists. Car break-ins are up as tourism returns to San Francisco [bold added]

The reopening of San Francisco’s restaurants, hotels and entertainment venues and the gradual return of visitors to the city has swiftly collided with a sharp rise in smash-and-grab thefts from cars in tourist-heavy parts of the city, according to city data.

It's only property, declare the people who run the City and State governments, as they divert funds from the police to social services. Florida smash-and-grab victim Kinga Sojka advises:

"Just don’t take valuable stuff with you. Take as little as possible and nothing of big value — no laptops, no jewelry — don’t bring it at all and if you do bring it, even a passport or car keys, carry it with you. Don’t leave it in your car.”

And don't forget about the Hayward and San Andreas faults. The good news: the quake was only 3.9 on the Richter scale. The bad news: the epicenter was 20 miles from Foster City. 3.9 quake felt in the Bay Area, epicenter near San Leandro

Lucky I come Hawaii.

From the McCully Bridge

The Ala Wai on Sunday evening.

From the McCully Bridge one can see almost the entire length of the Ala Wai Canal. The Waikiki highrises partially obscure the view of Diamond Head. Absentee owners and renters have stayed away the past year, and there are high hopes of them returning soon.

However, the Waikiki they'll be returning to is a shadow of its bustling self. Open positions in restaurants, hotels, and night clubs are unfilled. Visitors may just have to see Honolulu the way I do, with a cellphone, a good pair of walking shoes, and a willingness to explore places off the beaten path.

The Ala Wai on Monday morning.

Transitioning to Normal

The ticket counter line was back to normal

It had been 502 days since my last trip to the Islands.

Except for the COVID-19 test that had to be taken less than 72 hours--and the results received--before departure, the uploading of the results to the Hawaii travel site, the transmission of a QR code from Hawaii that verified the receipt and permitted the visitor to disembark, it was a typical trip.

(Also, I had to bring the vaccination card that was required for entrance to some facilities.)

Going up to the departure counter, I was handed an orange wristband that obviated the need to show the QR code in Honolulu.

Although it seemed to your humble blogger that the wristband provided little security--I've seen wristbands for meals that were harder to duplicate--I had been so bemused by all the shifting requirements that I just went with the flow as did everyone else. ("Theirs not to reason why, Theirs but to do and die.")

The flight was uneventful, as was picking up the baggage and getting a ride from my brother to the family homestead. I had the place to myself, along with more furniture, supplies, equipment, boxes, and clothes from Mom's move last July when she changed assisted living facilities.

But I didn't mind the clutter. It reminded me of my childhood, when seven people lived here.

I was grateful that our extended family, unlike others that I knew, had made it through the pandemic unscathed.

Although I often rationalize not going to Sunday services while "on vacation", I went to the church where I was baptized during the Eisenhower Administration. The Senior Warden greeted me--we went to kindergarten Sunday School together--as did the lady minister who's been the rector for eight years and is a relative newcomer.

I was home.

San Francisco Walgreens: an Unusual Sight

Walgreens on Ocean Ave.

Shoplifting at Walgreens has reached epidemic levels in San Francisco.

A recent video of a man filling a garbage bag while riding a bicycle through the store has gone viral. (He was captured Wednesday.)

Last October we noted how Walgreens had shuttered seven stores in San Francisco. The total is now 17.

This week, while strolling along Ocean Avenue in SF, I came across an unusual sight: an operating Walgreens without broken windows and a neat, undamaged interior.

There wasn't a security guard in sight, not that he would have done much good.

I snapped a couple of pictures to chronicle the existence of a San Francisco Walgreens before it went the way of the dodo bird.

Hawaii Letters of Transit

Gov. Ige: bet he's a Casablanca fan

Yesterday I recounted how my COVID-19 letters of transit were in order for my trip to Hawaii.

In 13 days the effort will no longer be necessary. According to the Star Advertiser: [bold added]

Fully vaccinated U.S. travelers flying domestically — including island residents returning home — will be allowed to bypass Hawaii’s quarantine and pre-travel restrictions, as long as they upload their vaccination records to the state’s Safe Travels website and arrive with a hard copy of their vaccination records. All current travel restrictions will remain in place until July 8, [Gov. David] Ige said.

I take that back. Instead of a hard copy of a negative COVID-19 test, we must carry around our vaccination card.

We still need letters of transit, just different ones.

Passing the Test

I arrived 10 minutes early at the San Mateo CVS for my appointment. CVS, Walgreens, and Costco were acceptable vendors to screen travelers to Hawaii for the coronavirus.

There was a line of cars building up behind me, so I offered to drive off to the side, swab my nose, and drop the package into the receptacle. The young man behind the drive-through window insisted that I stay so that he could guide me through the process. I’m glad he did, because there were plastic packages and documents to mess around with. Also, sticking the Q-Tip up my nose wasn’t pleasant, and I could see why someone needed to watch patients to make sure they were digging deep, both literally and metaphorically.

The results were sent via email this morning, less than a 24-hour turnaround. The final step was to create an account on the Hawaii Safe Travels website and upload the pdf file (screenshots not acceptable). I will also carry a hard copy with me, as Hawaii requests.

I followed all the instructions, and I am confident that nothing could go wrong.

Apple v. Epic Games: Giving the Side Eye to Sideloading

Tim Apple wants to protect the walled garden (WSJ)

Think of all the words that are prefixed with "side"---sidewinder, sidesaddle, sideeye, sideswiped, sideways---many have a negative connotation. Added to the list is sideloading: [bold added]

Apple’s defense of its mobile operating system, or iOS, comes ahead of an expected debate Wednesday in the House Judiciary Committee on a package of bills aimed at reining in the nation’s largest tech companies.

Provisions in one of the bills, known as the American Innovation and Choice Online Act, could effectively give Apple’s customers broader control over which apps to download on their devices. It could prohibit Apple from continuing to block a practice known as sideloading, in which users install apps directly onto their iPhones without having to go through the company’s App Store. In Europe, the Digital Markets Act was introduced in December and is making its way through the legislative process. It too includes provisions to open the door to sideloading.

One of the reasons we are loyal Apple subscribers is because of the company's privacy protections. As is happening increasingly, we are loading apps from health-care providers onto the phones (with COVID testing and vaccinations we are almost forced to use them for travel and work). These apps contain personal information that could very easily be used for identity theft.

Anything that erodes these protections is anathema, and for Congress to force Apple or any company to do so for the sake of a game company's profits is crazy, stupid, reprehensible, outrageous, and...not surprising.

A Happy Result

After my opthalmologist retired from practice, I had not had an eye exam for four years, until yesterday.

The Redwood City Costco's optometrist-in-residence runs an efficient operation in a compact space. The various machines are placed on one table, and the patient moves down the line for the various tests plus photographs of the retina.

When the doctor went over the findings, they were better than expected. The cataracts had grown, but the corrected vision will still be good enough to pass the DMV test. There's no urgency in having cataract surgery.

In addition to eyeglasses she will prescribe hard contact lenses, which cost $80 apiece and were much cheaper than the $600 per year for soft lenses.

I expressed surprise about the contact-lens recommendation: Costco sells three different kinds of soft-lens solutions and none for hard lenses, which I assumed were passé for medical reasons.

She said that few people select the latter because of the time it takes to adapt to the irritation, and Costco only sells items that move. However, since I was acclimated 40 years ago there's no reason to go soft. Besides, soft lenses are bad for the environment.

From the start of the exam to the ordering of the glasses and lenses only an hour had elapsed. There's no surgery required now--as well as no glaucoma or macular degeneration--and I'll soon see better.

Once in a while a medical visit yields a happy result.

Managing Risk When The Odds Are in Your Favor

Even he is not always right (Apple Insider photo)

In my novice investor days I would always bet too much on a story stock. Usually that stock would already have been bid up, and I was one of the last suckers buyers before the fall.

But even when I became a decent stock picker I still tended to put too much in one basket. Even the best investors in the world don't hit it out of the park 10 out of 10 times; experience has taught them how to manage portfolio risk even though they're right more often than not.

The WSJ has a simple baseball simulation game in which the player wins 57% of the time and gets paid 1 for 1; if it were a true game he would have to bet nearly $3 to win $2. He has a $100 stake, and there are 10 rounds of bets. What is the strategy? (Test yourself by clicking the link above.)

Father's Day, 2021

Prof. Tannen and her late father, 97, in 2006

This is the second Father's Day without my father.

Linguistics professor and best-selling author Deborah Tannen shares advice about how to discover more about a father's life after he has passed away.

Many people go through their parents’ things when they die, and they find documents, notes, letters, memorabilia. If you’re interested, don’t pass up that opportunity.

Talk to people who knew him, such as a friend or sibling. Ask what he was like when he was young. You could also read about the place and time your father grew up in. Many fathers have been through wars or historical events.

And talk to your own siblings, to get their views of him. A father who has more than one child will be a different father to each of them.

My mother, brothers, and I have done more communicating in the last two years than in the past 20. There's usually an administrative or medical issue to discuss, but sometimes people just want to see each other over FaceTime or Zoom. Often there's a story about Dad that is new to the rest of us. We chuckle, and the recollections comfort.

Happy Father's Day!

This Project is Not Underwater

Foster City levee construction (SF Chronicle image)

Whether or not we agreed with the premise that global warming will endanger coastal cities, we didn't really have a choice in voting for a $90 million levee to be built.

In 2014 FEMA warned that Foster City would be in a flood zone if it didn't build a new levee that would protect it from a 100-year flood. Prior to this Foster City was classified as not being in a flood zone.

Property owners faced a decision in 2017: vote for the levee and pay an additional $279 per year in property tax, or pay flood insurance premiums of at least $2,000 per year.

(Those who didn't have a mortgage would not have been forced to purchase coverage, but these owners were relatively few.)

Your humble blogger resented the obvious nudge--let's call it a shove--but voted for Measure P anyway.

So far the project criteria are being met:

The steel is thick enough to resist not only earthquakes and strong storms — and the pressure of the 100,000 cubic yards of new soil that will be packed in behind the interlocked plates — but to support an addition when and if there’s a need to go higher.

It's been decided, so we may as well look on the bright side: property values may be boosted because buyers will believe that living in Foster City is marginally safer than elsewhere along the Bay; also, construction projects like these never get cheaper; and if sea levels do rise (I give it no more than a 10% chance in my lifetime) then it will have been worth the expense.

Beating the Heat

In Foster City the thermometer hit 97 °F, but we were lucky. Inland it was 110 °F:

Our solution: one cool bedroom

Temperatures soared above 100 degrees across the Bay Area on Thursday — with Fairfield peaking at 110 — as the sweaty and sweltering sought ways to stay cool, plunging in pools and swarming to the coast for a cool breeze...

Fairfield appeared to be the hottest place in the Bay Area, reaching 110 at Travis Air Force Base, according to the National Weather Service. Concord and Livermore followed with 107 degrees.

Records were broken in San Rafael, which hit 103; Santa Rosa, 104; Kentfield, 103; Redwood City, 102; and Gilroy at 106. Santa Rosa broke a record set for the same day in 1922, when it hit 101.

Out with the old. Luckily it
was appliance pickup week.

In a rare display of forward thinking, I spent last Saturday installing a window air conditioner and disposing of a portable A/C that had stopped working. We have one cool bedroom to which family members can retire if they can't take the heat.

(Our central air conditioning coolant had leaked out in the 1990's, and I've been too cheap environmentally conscious to spend thousands of dollars just to cool off the entire house for a couple of weeks each year.)

The temps will drop back to the 70's next week. Meanwhile, I'll be drinking lots of ice water.

STEM + A

(Graphic from poetsandquants)

Your humble blogger has always been in awe of the STEM (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) professions. The feeling started in college; the classmates who majored in these courses were very smart and, frankly, worked harder than I did. They didn't necessarily become scientists or engineers; many became doctors, which requires lots of STEM.

Sufficient aptitude in math and statistics enabled me to enter the fields of accounting and business finance and, as they say, put food on the table. But I never thought that accountancy was as technically demanding as engineering, biochemistry, or computer programming.

However, some politicians do. The House of Representatives bill HR 3855 proposes [bold added]

To amend the Student Support and Academic Enrichment Grant program to promote career awareness in accounting as part of a well-rounded STEM educational experience.117th Congress (2021-2022)

(Image from Mindy Barker Assoc.)

Ever since STEM was identified as a national priority in the early 2000's, STEM education funding has steadily increased regardless of which party controls the White House or Congress.

It's great that accounting has been accorded some respect and that accounting education may soon be eligible for Federal support. There is an acute shortage of accountants relative to open positions.

Respect the green eyeshade!

High-Speed Rail: Staying Alive

2021: HSR construction in Fresno

We thought the multi-billion dollar High-Speed Rail (HSR) project was a bad idea in 2012 (wouldn't work, lousy project design, $billions of easily foreseeable cost overruns, less efficient than already cheap SF-LA flights).

We thought it was effectively killed when Governor Newsom drastically scaled back the project in 2019. However, a state agency kept HSR alive in 2020 despite bipartisan efforts to kill it.

The change in Administrations in Washington rewarded the bureaucrats' stalling:

California will receive $929 million in grant funding toward its high-speed rail project — funding that former President Donald Trump had previously canceled in 2019 — under a deal announced by Gov. Gavin Newsom’s office late Thursday night.

Americans are divided over policy matters, such as where to spend government funds. But they're close to unanimous against spending money on things that will never work.

The Las Vegas Review Journal: [bold added]

In the early aughts, the state’s political class bamboozled voters into approving a high-speed rail project intended to ultimately connect Los Angeles with San Francisco. Construction was supposed to be completed early this decade, and residents were assured that the shiny new “clean energy” train could be theirs for the low, low price of $30 billion. Instead, the project is more than a decade behind schedule and is now projected to cost $100 billion … and counting. Officials now hope they can complete a 171-mile stretch between Bakersfield and Merced by the end of the decade...

The Golden State bullet train is already an environmental nightmare, and there’s absolutely no evidence it can — if it’s ever actually in operation — compete with air travel in terms of time or price. President Joe Biden might as well have held a Rose Garden photo-op while chin-flicking taxpayers and taking a blowtorch to a $1 billion pile of cash. That would have been more honest than propagating the fiction that the California high-speed rail debacle is vital to saving the planet.

Like a monster in a lucrative horror movie franchise, HSR keeps coming back after you thought it was dead.

Flag Day + 1

Long may they wave

At City Hall the flagpole has gotten a bit crowded.

The Stars and Stripes, the Rainbow Flag (it's Pride Month), and the light blue Foster City flag all flapped proudly in the breeze.

The California flag was tangled in the crossbar, unable to handle the atmospheric winds that pull it in all directions.

Speaking of crosscurrents, today California is officially re-opening: [bold added]

On June 15, California will generally align with the CDC’s mask recommendations, which means that if you’re fully vaccinated you don’t have to wear a mask in almost all settings, including shopping, going to a bar, working out at the gym or attending church services.

There are a few exceptions, such as health care settings and public transportation, including airports and transit stations.

If you are unvaccinated or partially vaccinated, masks are still required indoors, and outdoors when 6 feet social distancing cannot be maintained. California will mostly rely on the honor system to enforce masking rules.

Comment 1: Honor system? I thought that went out of style half a century ago. Well, I'll put my skepticism aside and be open minded about whether that will work. Frankly, I think the danger will come from those who, lacking trust in others, will demand to see vaccination cards when they have no right to do so. I hope I'm wrong.

Comment 2: I'll still wear a mask pulled down over my chin. When I see a masked person approach, I'll pull it up out of courtesy. I often see masked parents out and about with their children, most of whom are not vaccinated. And I do believe that the risk is vanishingly small to children contracting COVID-19 when outdoors, and even if that does happen, the severity is much less. Nevertheless, parents' ability to assess risks is very poor when it comes to their children.

Be kind, even though you don't have to be--that's another meaning of the Flag.

Flag Day, 2021

Happy Flag Day!

Old Glory has been revered through most of the nation's history, to such an extent that men have given their lives to see it raised on the battlefield. It's a symbol of America, tattered, resilient, and unique among nations. Everyone who is not descended from Native Americans or African slaves can trace their ancestry to someone who chose to be here.

On this day we celebrate choice, the freedom to choose what to do with our lives regardless of the circumstances of our birth, and to succeed or fail on our own merits. Of course, these are aspirations and frequently do not depict "reality." As the saying goes, unless we know where we are going, we will never get there.

Life is But a Stream

The youth minister's office is also the streaming hub.

After "attending" church for over a year via YouTube, I must confess that I like watching services from home:

I don't have to get dressed up.

I can eat and drink. Sipping a cuppa joe while listening to the sermon is both stimulating and relaxing, if that makes any sense.

I don't have to worry about decorum and can go to the bathroom without "holding it", if you know what I mean.

I can stand, wave my arms, and do stretching and breathing exercises. You can't do that in an Episcopal church; we're not Pentecostals!

All that said, I've been going to in-person services since they resumed three weeks ago. It seems almost a novelty to be with people and take Communion, but the largest benefit to me has been the re-imposition of mindfulness. The cellphone is off, and I must focus on what is going on in the moment.

Park Avenue Synagogue member Allan Ripp agrees:

During remote services the distractions are constant, like working from home. Only instead of zoning out on a client while putting on my socks, I miss the benediction for the state of Israel. There’s also the temptation to multitask—is it a sin to empty the dishwasher while singing the Aleinu? Or to google the parents of the bat mitzvah girl? Most diverting are on-screen glimpses into congregants’ homes. I’m joining the nice couple chanting Bar’chu, while squinting at the furnishings in their elegant living room. Is that the Hamptons?

Modern distractions are new, but the state of being distracted has been observed for centuries:

The idea of lapsed or divided attention at prayer has long occupied Jewish scholars. Rabbi Ethan Witkovsky of Park Avenue Synagogue explains—over Zoom, of course—machshavot zarot, which a 13th-century sage described as “spurious thoughts” that creep into worshipers’ heads. “Back then, it might have been the health of your ox that intruded, whereas today it could be your bank balance or an episode of ‘Game of Thrones,’ ” he says.

(I've never had to worry about the health of an ox, but the health of my car, that's another matter.)

The coronavirus has irrevocably changed the world of work, and, likewise the world of worship. Having another option on Sunday morning is much better than having no option at all. As the Gershwins might have said, live-streaming is here to stay.

Inflation: I Hope They Know What They're Doing

March, 2021: Brisket $3.69/lb

The headline story in Friday's WSJ comes as no surprise. On our weekly shopping trips we've been noticing substantial increases in the price of food, and it's a good thing that we don't drive much any more because Bay Area gas is almost $4 per gallon. As noted in an earlier post, we've been having flashbacks to the 1970's. [bold added]

The Labor Department said last month’s increase in the consumer-price index was the largest since August 2008, when the reading rose 5.4%. The core-price index, which excludes the often-volatile categories of food and energy, jumped 3.8% in May from the year before—the largest increase for that reading since June 1992.

May, 2021: Brisket $4.49/lb

Consumers are seeing higher prices for many of their purchases, particularly big-ticket items such as vehicles. Prices for used cars and trucks leapt 7.3% from the previous month, driving one-third of the rise in the overall index. The indexes for furniture, airline fares and apparel also rose sharply in May.

To be sure, a portion of these price hikes represents a springing back of demand from the lockdown economy of one year ago. A comparison with pre-COVID 2019 is less alarming:

June, 2021: Brisket $5.49/lb

The annual inflation measurements are being boosted by comparisons with figures from last year during pandemic-related lockdowns, when prices plummeted because of collapsing demand for many goods and services. This so-called base effect is expected to push up inflation readings significantly in May and June, dwindling into the fall.

Compared with two years ago, overall prices rose a more muted 2.5% in May.

Policy-makers are currently behaving as if the inflation spike is temporary.

Despite his fears, your humble blogger hasn't seen convincing evidence that they're mistaken. Like last year, when our worries were about a different subject, we're forced to trust that the experts know what they're doing. And it worked so well the last time....

Episcopal Leadership: Political Partisans to the Core

Bishop Budde: just another
partisan political hack?

(Note: although I did like some of his policies, I have never cast a vote for former President Trump in any election.)

One year ago, I expressed my disappointment at another Episcopal church official using a sad incident to take a partisan shot at President Trump.

Bishop Marianne Budde accused him of ordering "his officials" to use tear gas against protestors in Lafayette Park. Her outrage, even when transcribed on paper, is unmistakable: [bold added]

"Consider the context," Budde said. "After making a highly charged, emotional speech to the nation where he threatened military force, his officials cleared peaceful protests with tear gas and horses and walked on to the courtyard of St. John's Church and held up a Bible as if it were a prop or an extension of his military and authoritarian position, and stood in front of our building as if it were a backdrop for his agenda. That was the offense that I was speaking to."

It turns out that President Trump had nothing to do with clearing the park of protestors. Yes, he did use St. John's as a backdrop for a photo-op, but that was just a picture. He didn't set the Parish Hall on fire.

Mark Lee Greenblatt

Glenn Greenwald reports on the findings of Inspector General Mark Lee Greenblatt:

“the evidence we reviewed showed that the USPP cleared the park to allow a contractor to safely install anti-scale fencing in response to destruction of Federal property and injury to officers that occurred on May 30 and May 31.” Crucially, “the evidence established that relevant USPP officials had made those decisions and had begun implementing the operational plan several hours before they knew of a potential Presidential visit to the park, which occurred later that day."

Bishop Budde readily believed the false CNN, Washington Post, and NY Times reports that President Trump was responsible for tear-gassing (there was no tear gas, btw, but less harmful pepper spray) and made a partisan political speech.

Even if the false reports were true, the Bishop could have reflected upon the evil that men do to each other, the sin that is ingrained in the rioters as well as President Trump, and prayed for healing and reconciliation. She could have called for the better angels of our nature.

Instead she chose to cast all the blame upon the President, and she and St. John's rector dismissed the physical damage to the church in light of "the bigger concerns" of "systemic racism and police brutality."

We have seen this gullibility in Episcopal leadership before:

Episcopal leaders appear to be uncritical consumers of left-wing narratives. They are quick to issue proclamations without considering that there may be more to the story or even that the story is wrong. (Yes, your humble blogger is susceptible to confirmation bias, too, and makes a sincere effort to avoid snap judgments on fast-moving stories. I will wait to see if someone presents evidence to counter the Federalist counter-narrative.)

I witnessed the enthusiastic reception accorded to the widespread Ferguson narrative at the 2014 Diocesan Convention in San Francisco. Priest after priest rose to speak about racism and police brutality visited upon black Americans; some had gone to Ferguson to stand with groups outraged by the shooting of the allegedly innocent Michael Brown in 2014. Mainstream media publications, long after the fact but to their credit, debunked the entire "hands-up-don't-shoot" story. Too late for the priests to take it back, however, whose righteousness had been on proud display.

So quick to judge, so quick to agree with those who bear false witness.

To my priests to whom I look for moral authority, how about being very slow to condemn, and, if you must, only after much prayerful consideration and after you are sure of the facts?

Then, perhaps, when people see that you are able to place the eternal principles that you espouse above the evanescent issues of today, you will be trusted as a person of integrity, and your congregations may begin growing again.

Tempest in a Chamber Pot

The portable toilets have hand-washing stations (Chron)

The cost of solving the homeless problem ($75,000? $336,000?) seems astronomical when it's analyzed on a per-person basis, especially compared to the living expenses of the average person.

But it's not surprising when one considers the slow-as-molasses nature of government. Look at the dithering over portable toilets: [bold added]

The fight over toilets gets at the bigger question of how the city with the most expensive housing in the country should respond to the issues of visible homelessness and soiled sidewalks. Some argue providing amenities like toilets encourages sleeping on the streets if and when other options are available, while others say a place to relieve oneself is a basic human dignity required to keep the streets clean when affordable housing isn’t yet accessible.

The crux of the conflict: toilets encourage homeless camps, but they help keep streets less disgusting. Both arguments could be correct, so for heaven's sake, choose one or the other, envision the consequences and deal with those too. After all, you have $billions to, er, waste. (For the record, I'm in favor of keeping the toilets, even putting more out there.)

About the cost:

It costs from just over $100,000 to nearly $632,000 a year to staff and rent a toilet, depending on the kind of bathroom and how many hours it’s open a day.

On a monthly basis San Francisco spends $8,300 to $53,000. Here are the rental rates posted by a port-a-potty company.

VIP restroom for rent

$75-$100 per month for a Standard Portable Toilet with once a week service

$100-$125 per month for a Handicap Accessible Toilet

$50-$80 per weekend for a Special Event Unit

$700 - $1,800 per weekend for a VIP Luxury Trailer

Even allowing for continuous monitoring and cleaning, it's difficult to get to a toilet expense of $53,000 per month, but it's not surprising since the City is in charge.

Flashback: the Navy spent $600 on toilet seats in 1985 in what became a mini-scandal. (They were engineered for P3 Orion planes.) Ah, the good old days.

Making Lists and Getting Serious

I can point to a few recipes I've learned, some books I've read, and clutter I've cleared, but basically it's been an unproductive 15 months. During the pandemic it's easy to make excuses for not tackling projects that matter. Now's the time to make lists and get serious.

Yes, it's time to get the ducks in a row.

Homelessness: We Lacked Imagination

Under a San Francisco overhead freeway (UCSF)

Two months ago we were taken aback by the cost of San Francisco's homeless programs of $75,000 per person per year (a rough estimate).

Last week SF Mayor London Breed proposed spending $1 billion to solve homelessness and doubling outlays to about $150,000 per year. We only half jokingly remarked that failure will make her come back for another $1 billion in 2023.

We lacked imagination. Headline: [bold added]

Bay Area homelessness could be solved with $11.8 billion, says new report

The Bay Area Council came to its estimate in a report released Thursday by calculating it would take $9.3 billion to create enough shelter and housing to put roofs over all 35,118 people now estimated to be homeless in the region’s nine counties — then $2.5 billion a year to maintain those roofs with services and staffing.

So let's do the division: $11,800,000,000 ➗ 35,118 = $336,010.

Given that level of expenditure, you could pick names out of the phone book who could come up with permanent solutions for much less, for instance, giving every homeless person a $10,000 cashier's check and a plane ticket anywhere at least a thousand miles from here. But that's not the point.

After decades of working I still remember the year when my salary hit $60,000. It was indeed cause for celebration.

Little did I know that all I had to do was pitch a tent on a Bay Area sidewalk, and I would be in line (ok, it hasn't been approved yet) to receive $336,000 in housing, goods, and services without being obliged to anyone.

Is this a great country or what?

Before You Can Simulate the Universe, You Have to Map It

Perlmutter is named after Berkeley Lab’s Nobel
Prize-winning astrophysicist Saul Perlmutter.(WSJ)

A powerful supercomputer will use artificial intelligence to map the universe in 3-D:

The real power of Perlmutter, Dr. Bailey said, will come into play as the data starts to build up and researchers begin creating maps to judge their progress. Processing a year’s worth of the data, for example, would take weeks with an existing supercomputer, Dr. Bailey said.

However, Perlmutter—which will be shared with other research teams working on other scientific projects—should be able to accomplish the task in a matter of days...

HPE says the NERSC computer has a peak AI performance, or speed, of almost four “AI exaflops,” which the company said would make the machine the fastest AI supercomputer to date. An AI exaflop is roughly mathematically equivalent to performing 250 petaflops per second, it said. A petaflop is 1,000 trillion, or one quadrillion, operations per second.

Today's smartphone is more powerful than all of NASA's computers used for the moon landing. Perlmutter will seem as primitive to data scientists 50 years from now as NASA's computers appear to us today.

Given the speed that computing power is progressing, we may soon have the power to populate this 3-D map of the universe with beings who think they are "conscious." Of course, that doesn't have to mean anything about our world.

Ordinary Time

In the liturgical calendar this is the Second Sunday after Pentecost, which means it's the green season:

the season after Pentecost can be considered ordinary time. It may be referred to as the "green season," because green is the usual liturgical color for this period of the church year.

The color green represents the growth of the church after Pentecost. There won't be a major event on the liturgical calendar until Advent, November 28th.

This period is also known as the season of Trinity, but I like another term, Ordinary Time. After an extra-ordinary year and a half, we deserve a breather.

Oyster Farming: Turning the Corner

In 2013, despite the entreaties of California Senators Feinstein and Boxer, the Obama Administration shut down the oyster farm in Drakes Bay (store pictured on right).

The oyster farm had been operating safely since the mid-20th century, but the Interior Department declined to grant a lease renewal.

One might well have thought that environmentalists would have wanted to showcase Drakes Bay Oyster Farm as an example of a "sustainable" enterprise that protects the environment while benefiting consumers, workers, and owners.

But the mask slipped. IMHO, progressives use kind words if they do not hold the dominant hand. When they were in a position to dictate Obama environmental policies, compromise fell by the wayside.

Perhaps they realized that overriding their political allies in Northern California was an over-reach, however, because there have been no signs that the oyster farms in Tomales Bay are on the chopping block.

2013: The Hog Island picnic area.

To shore up oyster farming the Marin Agricultural Land Trust granted a long-term easement to the Hog Island Oyster Company. Hog Island will use the easement for its land-based activities such as oyster holding tanks:

It’s the first easement involving aquaculture in the history of the land trust, which was established in 1980 and has set aside more than 54,000 acres of Marin County farmland from development...

The MALT easement designates 8 acres for mariculture, or shellfish farming activities, and leaves some acres alone because they are in riparian areas.

The Marin Agricultural Land Trust is a non-profit trust that

has protected more than 54,000 acres of Marin farmland, forever. MALT’s model of using conservation easements to prevent development has been replicated to save family farms all over the country.

MALT is opposed both to developers and environmentalists that seek to convert farmland to another purpose (or no purpose at all).

Plaudits to MALT for its support of Hog Island Oyster Co.; if that business is not environmentally acceptable, then no business is.

I'll Go Back Inside

After generations of protected status the ducks have lost all fear of humans. They sleep in large groups, not caring about our presence. In the photo above, the ducks wouldn't move when the two strollers approached on the path. Eventually the ladies walked around the dozing birds.

The ducks waddle about, leaving their organic matter everywhere. Neighbors with decks fronting the lagoon have to hose them off weekly; the same goes for cars that are parked outside.

Often we see plumps flying overhead...caution! I have learned from experience not to gaze upward with my mouth open. (Is that where the phrase "duck and cover" comes from?)

Speaking of sharing space with creatures who have the right of way, the kids are back in class. Within a couple of blocks of a school, drivers really must slow down, breathe deeply and exercise patience.

Making it worse, the new bike lanes have encouraged more children and adults to try bicycling. With some using the sidewalk, and with many riding the lanes both with and against traffic, drivers have to keep their head on a swivel.

The coronavirus is nearly over. Nevertheless, I'll go back inside.

Susie Q

On a Wednesday morning that started with a sweater and ended with a T-shirt, it was a good time to pressure-wash the boat.

The "Sue Sea Q" is a clever play on words by a boat-owner who may be a fan of a 1957 song, Susie Q, by Dale Hawkins or one of the numerous versions it inspired, such as those by the Stones, Creedence, and the Everly Brothers.

In the 1930's Suzie Q was a dance step popularized by a song quite different from Dale Hawkins'. It lives on as a popular dance move in modern salsa.

Finally Susie Q is the name of a 1996 G-rated ghost movie that ran on the Disney Channel. There doesn't seem to be a good reason for the title other than naming the lead character "Susan Quinn" and finding an excuse to refer to that old 30's or 50's number.

According to Wikipedia the name originated when the "audience misheard 'Syracuse' as 'Susie-Q.'"

Sometimes words and names, accidental or not, stick with you until you just have to write them on your boat.

San Gabriel Valley Warrior Woman

A 17-year-old Southern California girl pushed a bear off a wall to protect her dogs. She reacted from instinct--no dog owner foresees this possibility.

Someday the young lady will make a fierce mother who will protect her cubs (she said something similar to this in the interview)

SF Homelessness: More of the Same with a Lot More Money

(Examiner photo)

Just two months ago we did a quick-and-dirty estimate of the direct cost of homelessness on San Francisco's budget:

My calculator shows that $600,000,000 ➗ 8,000 = $75,000 per homeless person per year.

That number needs to be nearly doubled. Headline: Mayor Breed wants to add more than $1 billion to fighting homelessness in San Francisco over next two years

I won't bother quoting from the article. There's the usual blather about "investment" in this program or that, how San Francisco has messed up in the past but this time it really means to solve the problem, how the homeless will now be incentivized to behave, etc.

Two years from now, after doing the same thing only with (a lot) more money, the homeless will still be with us.

I'll see your $1 billion and raise you another.

The Gratitude is Overwhelming

Accounting equity is well-defined.
Woke "equity" is a muddled mess
and will never be attained.

In San Francisco a new guaranteed income program of $1,000 per month per person to help struggling artists has been beset by identity politics:[bold added]

City leaders say YBCA [Yerba Buena Center for the Arts], was chosen because it was best equipped to take on the pilot program, which was funded with $877,000 from the city’s Arts Impact Endowment, money that comes from the hotel tax, along with $60,000 of YBCA’s budget...

Curator, visual artist and organizer Rhiannon Evans MacFadyen...says an organization with expertise working with people of color should have been put in charge of the program, not YBCA.

Below are representative criticisms from "marginalized" groups' spokespersons: [bold added]

"I think it’s just the typical white savior cluelessness.”

“There is a history of inequity in arts funding, where communities of color are not trusted with the funds to do the work we know how to do really well.”

But because of historical and structural racism, she said, bigger but not necessarily better organizations are more trusted to administer programs dealing with racial equity.

“It’s a case of might makes right,” she said. “A large, white-led organization that doesn’t understand and outsources equity is rewarded for their sheer lack of expertise in equity and then leverages it to benefit their organization.”

The gratitude is overwhelming.

One of the reasons I like private charity is that there's far less fighting over the expenditures. If donors to a private foundation want to educate kids of a certain ethnicity or support artists from another, they have the freedom to do so without controversy.

But the art program in question is mostly funded from taxes, and as with any government program, there are complaints that

1) It's not enough;
2) The monies are benefiting the wrong people (the YBCA put in a "randomizer" element to avoid charges of favoritism, but they heard complaints about that, too);
3) The wrong groups are in charge of the money;
4) Only certain specialists can truly understand the plight of the intended recipients.

For nearly 20 years I've participated in various food and shelter programs in the Bay Area. The beneficiaries know that the volunteers are giving their own money and time and have never expressed resentment about our efforts, modest though they often are.

When government dispenses aid on a much grander scale, the result is often resentment and division, and yet there are calls for even more money to be spent in this manner. The voters keep electing people who say yes, so the voters must like the picture that has been painted.