Stop Exporting Jobs....to Texas

GAF shingles

We first became aware of solar shingles (not solar panels) when we visited a Tesla showroom in 2017.

Tesla’s basic premise is to make solar ownership more attractive and affordable by eliminating the need to install both a roof and solar panels. Tesla says it will manage the entire process of solar roof installation, including removal of existing roofs, design, permits, installation, and maintenance. The company estimates that each installation will take about a week.

We will seriously consider installing solar shingles when it comes time to replace our 30-year-old roof. Tesla isn't the only vendor, of course, which is why it's disappointing that one of its competitors is moving its headquarters from San Jose to Texas.

GAF Energy, which sells solar panels embedded in roof shingles, will shut down its San Jose headquarters on Dec. 13, it announced in a Thursday WARN document, filed with California officials. The company uses the facility for researching, developing and manufacturing its solar shingles — a whole green energy factory at San Jose’s southeastern corner, operational since 2021. But now, GAF Energy will lay off local workers and shift its official headquarters to Georgetown, Texas...

Compared with California, Texas is building housing at a rapid rate, potentially making the state a more appealing market for a solar provider like GAF Energy that aims to grab customers as they’re adding or replacing a roof. A Realtor.com report from February — published alongside that company’s move to Texas — said the Lone Star State accounted for 15% of the country’s new house permits in 2024.

California's exodus of large companies (Tesla, Oracle, HP) gets the publicity, but the loss of hundreds of smaller businesses is damaging, especially since smaller companies are the engines of future growth.

It's discouraging that we will have to buy a newish technology from a company in Texas instead of from the state that invented it.

Mercury News: Cancelling my Subscription

After the sign-up teaser rate, payments are markedly higher

Last year we signed up for the San Jose Mercury News electronic-only subscription at the $14 per month discounted rate. When it raised the price in December, we acquiesced to $28/mo., which seemed right-priced because the San Francisco Chronicle ($34/mo.) and Wall Street Journal ($39/mo.) both of which in my opinion had more content, superior reporting, higher quality, and better writing.

In June the Mercury News billed my credit card a fee of $47, which I thought was so out of line from the previous month's $28 that it must have been a mistake or included some non-recurring charges. In July the Mercury News charged $49.

I called customer service to cancel the subscription. I did ask the representative if the Merc had erred by thinking that I had a print subscription. No, she knew I was e- only. I explained that I was upset at their billing practices. She offered to lower the price to $14 per month. How long would that rate be good for? She evaded an answer. She threw out an offer of $4 per month when I didn't budge. At that point there was no price--even zero--at which I would continue to do business.

The CSR said that my subscription will end on July 25th and billing will cease. We'll see; trust is easily lost and difficult to restore.

Would You Keep Paul McCartney Waiting?

CNBC's Jim Cramer was bantering with fellow stock market commentator David Faber when Jensen Huang (shown in background) arrived nearly half an hour early for an interview with Cramer.

Jensen Huang and Elon Musk are the rock-starrish two most famous businessmen on the planet (the difference is that they're mobbed by nerdy guys instead of women).

Others who used to hold that lofty position, like Bill Gates and Jeff Bezos, have reduced their roles in the companies that made them centi-billionaires.

It's a sign of Jensen Huang's humility that he patiently waited for Jim Cramer to finish his segment, although Jensen is even busier than normal at this week's Nvidia GTC (GPU Technology Conference) in San Jose.

This blogger's question to Mr. Cramer: would you keep Paul McCartney waiting?

Property Crime: the Zeitgeist is Changing

There have been two "home invasion" robberies in Foster City in the past five years. Before 2019 your humble blogger remembers that there was another one, the victims being an Asian family. Asians are reputed to keep above-average amounts of cash, jewelry, gold and other valuables in their homes.

When home invasions were first reported decades ago, both perpetrators and victims were of Asian descent, especially since the youthful criminal gangs knew which houses to hit. The knowledge that Asian homes are ripe targets has spread to crime rings of other ethnicities.

Some of the stash recovered (SJ police/Mercury News)

Headline: San Jose--Police arrest three suspects who allegedly stole $1 million in jewelry, cash from Asian families in South Bay.[bold added]

Authorities on Wednesday announced a joint law-enforcement operation that netted the arrests of three suspects who together allegedly stole about $1 million worth of jewelry, designer purses and cash by targeting Asian families living in the South Bay.

The three men struck homes in San Jose, Cupertino, Saratoga, Campbell and Mountain View starting in June 2024, stealing at least 700 items across nearly 80 separate burglaries, San Jose police Chief Paul Joseph said at a news conference. Officials expect the number of robberies associated with this burglary ring to increase as they connect unsolved cases to the suspects...

The three suspects were identified as 25-year-old Alberto Ibarra Vallejo, 28-year-old Gonzalo Valencia Ramos and 46-year-old Jaime Martinez Arroyo. They were arrested Jan. 16 by SJPD officers with the assistance of the Stockton Police SWAT Team, Joseph said; the suspects are residents of Stockton, Hayward and French Camp, he added.

In the arrest operation, authorities uncovered evidence, including hundreds of jewelry pieces, foreign currency, family heirlooms, luxury watches and purses, Joseph said. They also found five firearms, Joseph said, adding that at least three were confirmed to have been stolen...

Santa Clara County District Attorney Jeff Rosen said that his office is pursuing the “most serious criminal charges” for the three suspects, adding that they are already facing 72 felony counts of burglary. Rosen dropped the thick complaint packet on the podium with a thud to illustrate “the weight and the seriousness of the crimes that these individuals committed,” he said.

Authorities also said they will seek hate crime enhancements for the suspects’ sentencing because they targeted AAPI communities...

Jail records showed all three suspects in custody Thursday on a no-bail status, with a court date set for Feb. 3.

The suspects are charged with 72 felony counts and have been held without bail. They may also be charged with a hate crime because the victims are Asian while they are not.

Note that there have been no reports of injuries, yet the suspects have had the book (so heavy that it lands with a "thud"!) thrown at them for property crimes. The woke doctrine that property is unimportant appears to be repudiated. I wonder what (or who) has changed the zeitgeist?

The Chickens are Going Elsewhere to Roost

Intuit HQ in Mountain View (Mercury photo)

Despite economic strength in the rest of the country Bay Area tech layoffs continue. IBM, Cisco, and Advantest announced that a combined 1,000 jobs will be "permanently" eliminated by the end of November.

Added to the 384 positions extinguished at Intuit's Mountain View HQ in July, over 45,000 jobs have been lost in the Bay Area since 2022.

None of the aforementioned companies are in trouble. In fact, all their stocks are trading near the high for the year.

Udemy looks like it was a nice place to work (Chron)

San Francisco-based Udemy is more explicit about the reasons it is cutting Bay Area jobs: [bold added]

Udemy, the world’s largest online learning marketplace, announced plans to lay off 280 employees, representing approximately 20% of its global workforce. The company said it intends to rehire about half of these positions in locations with lower operational costs.

The restructuring is expected to incur costs ranging from $16 million to $19 million, mainly in severance payments, and will span from the third fiscal quarter of 2024 to the first quarter of 2025. Udemy aims to complete the restructuring by March 31.

Udemy is a relatively small company with 1,443 employees at the end of 2023. Earlier this week we posted about how California's inhospitable business environment (taxes, regulatory inefficiencies, anti-business Progressive attitudes) caused Elon Musk to move his multi-billion dollar enterprises to Texas.

California's heavy hand applies to small businesses as well.

A Smashing Taste

(WSJ gif)

Like most red-blooded Americans, I enjoy a thick, juicy hamburger--preferably medium rare--but occasionally I hanker for a burger that is "smashed." Apparently, so do a growing number of Americans. [bold added]

Today’s burger fans are snubbing the sky-high steakhouse hamburger for thinner, easier-to-bite alternatives.

Some fast-food chains and diners have long served smash-style burgers—Shake Shack and, yes, Smashburger among them. But higher-end restaurants have started posting smashed-down patties on social media to draw in crowds in recent years.

Consumers brave lines or show up to one-off smash-burger pop-ups. Gone are the traditional lettuce and tomato, with grilled onions taking their place. Devotees love the seared sides, textured edges, simple toppings and manageable portions...

A smash burger is pressed down on a griddle until it is thin, while a plump burger is seared and cooked through more gently. Single patties use less meat than a traditional burger, but smash burgers are often served as doubles, with four crispy sides.

Smashed burgers are a good change of pace. The seared taste is spread throughout because of the larger surface that touches the grill; they all turn out medium or well done, and the benefit in texture makes up for the loss of the medium-rare or rare option.

The closest Smashburger locations for us Peninsulans are in San Jose, which is too far for a retiree to make a special trip. So I only go there 2-3 times a year, a good thing for my waistline.

Nvidia: Grand Slam Origins

Denny’s CEO Kelli Valade and Nvidia’s Jensen Huang
at the Denny’s where Nvidia took shape. (WSJ photo)

In Silicon Valley, when young inventors need to build a prototype, they use their parents' garage.

When developing designs and business plans, a tolerant restaurant or coffee shop is the setting de rigueur.

And so it was that Nvidia, the newest entry in the trillion-dollar-market-value club, commemorated its founding 30 years ago at a Denny's restaurant in San Jose:

Last week, a San Jose Denny’s officially became a part of Silicon Valley lore.

The world’s tech capital is crawling with iconic names like Apple and Hewlett Packard that were founded in someone’s garage. Now the chain diner is officially credited as the birthplace of Nvidia, the chip company at the heart of the artificial intelligence revolution. With local news cameras in tow, Nvidia Chief Executive and co-founder Jensen Huang met Denny’s CEO Kelli Valade to unveil a plaque marking the booth where he and his co-founders sketched out the idea for the company back in 1993.

Denny's was more than the place where Jensen Huang came up with the idea for Nvidia:

As a young man, he worked at Denny's in San Jose.

"Oh, yeah, I was a dishwasher, I was a busboy, I was a waiter,” he said.

While on welfare J,K. Rowling wrote the first several Harry Potter books in Edinburgh cafés.

“It’s no secret that the best place to write, in my opinion, is in a café. You don’t have to make your own coffee, you don’t have to feel like you’re in solitary confinement and if you have writers block, you can get up and walk to the next café while giving your batteries time to recharge and brain time to think. The best writing café is crowded enough to allow you blend in, but not too crowded that you have to share a table with someone else.”

Ever since retirement I've been spending a lot of time at diners and coffee shops, waiting for inspiration to strike. And yet the $millions haven't rolled in....

No Good Deed

First Church of Christ Scientist in June (Merc photo)

No longer used as a house of worship in San Jose, the 1905 Christian Science church was sold to China-based developer Z&L Properties in 2014. Z&L proposed to restore the structure and build adjacent high-rise housing. The project stalled, and the landmark was covered with tarpaulin.

Nine years later, the tarp was in tatters, and exposure was ruining the building, which has been called "the worst blight in the city."

Attempts to force a sale or even to have San Jose seize the property will take many months, if not years; Zhang Li, the head of Z&L, is under house arrest in London and has been accused of bribery and fraud on another project in San Francisco.

Patching the church after the tarp was removed

Jim Salata, whose construction company had worked on the property years earlier, had seen enough. He had his company remove the tarp, repair the roof, and board up the windows.

So Salata, who had done some work with Z&L inside the church and knew the combination for the gate lock, orchestrated the removal in late August of the tarp, scaffolding, debris, plastic contamination, cooking equipment and a generator. He and his crews cleared away fire hazards such as dry vegetation, made repairs to the roof and boarded up broken windows.

“Somebody had to do something about this,” Salata said. “The city of San Jose has allowed Z&L to let this property become blighted for years. Nobody from the city has called. Nobody from code enforcement has called. Nobody from the city is asking for advice about the next steps.”

Jim Salata and his company likely won't receive a nickel for their work. However, city officials are thinking about compensation. [bold added]

Officials may impose a fine on a construction executive whose crews removed an unsightly, tattered tarp that had covered a historic downtown San Jose church that’s fallen into disrepair...

“I know Jim Salata means well, but a crime is a crime,” said San Jose City Councilmember Omar Torres, whose district covers most of downtown San Jose. “We were told by city staff that Salata trespassed.”

Thus it was and ever shall be: no good deed goes unpunished.

There's Still Plenty of Dough in Silicon Valley

One-hundred-twenty-five dollars and 90 cents?
If it was $125 per pound I might have bought some.

After last year's opening crowds had checked out its price-to-value proposition, I wasn't optimistic about Eataly's long-term chances.

That is why I didn't go into marketing: nine months later it was still going strong.

On Sunday afternoon we ordered sandwiches, pizza slices, and desserts from the first-floor vendors and shopped for imported foodstuffs on the third floor.

All told, we got out of there having spent less than $200, and no, we didn't buy any Wagyu beef.

[Update - 10PM: Valley Fair in San Jose adds merchants, hits record sales and visits]

Westfield Valley Fair in San Jose has begun to attract visitors and retail activity at levels that top the big shopping mall’s activity even prior to the outbreak of the coronavirus.

After the opening of the popular Eataly Italian food hall, the retail complex is preparing for the opening of other high-profile merchants.

Makes Sense, Within Limits

In Foster City this intersection next to an
elementary school forbids right on red
at a specific time on weekdays.

At crowded intersections making a right turn on a red light is sometimes prohibited, but at least 50 cities have banned all right-turns-on-red within city limits. From the San Jose Mercury News:

Washington, D.C. just passed its Safer Streets Amendment Act, which will ban all right-hand turns on red by 2025. Part of the Vision Zero initiative, it was adopted by 50 other cities, including Austin, Texas, Lansing, Michigan, Philadelphia, Portland, Oregon, and Savannah, Georgia.

Has there been talk of this in the Bay Area?

A: Right turns are prohibited on red lights at several intersections in San Jose, usually to improve safety for bicyclists in locations where protected bike lanes lead to an intersection, or when poor visibility makes right turns unsafe.

San Jose data do not suggest right turns are a frequent cause of fatal or severe crashes. The top known cause of such tragedies is speeding, which caused 21% of severe crashes between 2017 and 2021. The next most frequent causes of severe injury crashes during this period were red-light running and unsafe turning movements, at 7% each.

...the city is also tightening right turns at many locations by using temporary or permanent “bulb outs” at corners. Bulb outs make drivers slow down when turning and give pedestrians increased visibility and shortened crossing distances.

I've seen drivers turn aggressively on red into oncoming traffic and even when there are pedestrians in the crosswalk, and these drivers should have the book thrown at them.

But even a well-intentioned driver must now deal with bicycles and scooters who come up behind them in the bike lane, then switch to the crosswalk to take advantage of the "walk" sign. The multiplicity of parties who can enter the interesection under different rules makes for confusion. Changing the law at specific locations is reasonable, but marking the whole city as no-right-on-red strikes me as more a product of anti-car ideology than common sense.

On the Edge

The 3.1 aftershock was reported 5 minutes later.

The preoccupations of the day were set aside on 11:42 a.m. when the house rocked briefly but noticeably. Nothing fell, and the TV stayed on.

The initial jolt is usually the worst, followed by one or two aftershocks, but occasionally the first quake is a precursor to a bigger one. Nerves were calmed when a smaller 3.1 aftershock followed the 5.1 quake five minutes later, and all was quiet thereafter.

The San Jose earthquake (by the way, the Earthquakes are San Jose's soccer team) was produced by the Calaveras fault in the East Bay. Scientists tell us that there's less than a 1% probability of a bigger quake in the coming week.

For about 15 minutes just before noon there was a chance that our lives would be completely upended. The odds were high that the worst wouldn't happen, but the possibility existed.

Over the past several years I have had friends and relatives whose priorities changed instantaneously for health reasons. They were unprepared for such disruption, and today's earthquake reminded us that disruption can come from a direction that's not foremost in our mind.

San José Civic Plaza

The Rotunda

Though we've gone to downtown San Jose for trade shows, traveling exhibits, and civil ceremonies, we had never visited City Hall.

The buildings were closed last Saturday, and no amount of pleading from a harmless-looking three-generational family, including two small kids, would get us in.

What we could see was impressive--a spacious plaza, office towers, a 110-ft. glass rotunda, and outdoor sculpture. Our nephew, who had started working there in August, promised to give us a tour if we would visit him on a weekday.

However, we weren't impressed by some of the run-down properties a block away from Civic Plaza.

Waterscape has been shut off

Development has been set back because of the coronavirus.

sales taxes in downtown San Jose have plunged 38.5% below their pre-COVID levels, [SJ Director of Development Nanci] Klein said.

“There are areas of the downtown that are really struggling,” Klein said Wednesday during the meeting.

Despite the gloomy statistics, there are hopeful signs of not just recovery but growth. San Jose's shopping malls--admittedly not close to City Hall--are booming. And then there's Google:

Google has proposed the development of a new neighborhood consisting of office buildings, homes, shops, restaurants, entertainment hubs, cultural loops and open spaces where Google could employ up to 25,000 people.

The Downtown West transit village, which would be developed in phases over a period of years, is deemed to be a game changer for San Jose.

Although San Jose suffers from the same homelessness and crime problems as the famous city to the north, San Jose has much less red tape, more can-doism, and more tech-infused energy than San Francisco. If they were stocks, I'd rather put my money on San Jose.

Eataly, San Jose

In case you didn't know the cuisine that Eataly serves

Chronicle food writers have been effusive about Eataly, which just opened its ninth U.S. food hall in San Jose.

it’s Italian food heaven, and it’s finally here. The epic, three-story Italian food hall’s first Bay Area location opens at the Westfield Valley Fair mall in San Jose at 5 p.m. on June 16. If the yearslong anticipation is any indication, there will likely be throngs of people waiting in line.

With two restaurants, a cafe, gelato shop, bakery, butcher, seafood counter and market stocked with thousands of imported Italian goods, there is no other food hall like it in Northern California.

I happened to be in the area on Monday and had to check it out. Eataly spans three floors at the Valley Fair mall, and the "throngs" were such that foot traffic had to enter at the ground floor and all other access points were exit-only.

It looks empty but the next reservation was Friday

There was an hour wait for take-out, and the sit-down restaurants were completely booked. We're just here to shop at the market, we told the man at the entrance. We hurried up to the second floor, which was all wine:

Shelves stocked with over 1,200 wine labels stretch to the ceiling inside Eataly’s wine shop on the second floor. Everything is imported from Italy, from small-production sparkling wine to Lambrusco and a wide selection of Barolo.

(Chron photo)

Bottles range from $20 all the way up to $1,000 for rare wines stored in a temperature-controlled room. There’s also a small selection of liquors — grappa, amaro, limoncello — and local beers.

On the top floor was the market, a wondrous display of Italian comestibles. Fresh meats, produce, breads, pasta and cheese were either made on the premises, imported from Italy, or sourced locally.

We didn't buy anything; the local Whole Foods' selection is much more limited but is enough to satisfy our untutored palate.

It's problematic whether Eataly is going to make it in the long run. The buzz is enough to make it a shopping and dining destination for several years, but Bay Area shoppers are fickle.

Sony's Metreon Center opened to great fanfare, as did Union Square's FAO Schwarz, over 20 years ago.

Since those halycon retail days the Metreon has been sold and resold, while FAO Schwarz declared bankruptcy and closed its store.

Commercial space, already costly in the Bay Area, is very expensive when companies like Sony, FAO Schwarz, and Eataly customize their spaces to attract upscale crowds.

The trick is having them come back over and over to buy their expensive wares.

We won't be in that group but do wish them well.

Bay Area Housing: Lease vs. Buy

The original owners bought this Foster City house for
under $200K in 1978. It sold for $3.3 MM in 2021.
And it needs work! (photo February 2022)

Using current data, the Chronicle reports on the results of rent vs. buy analysis for three cities in the Bay Area:

For the three largest Bay Area cities (San Jose, San Francisco and Oakland), these data points were factored in:

Median household income from the U.S. Census.

Typical two-bedroom home value from real estate listings site Zillow from February, 2022.

Estimate of two-bedroom apartment rent from Apartment List from February 2022...

We entered these values into a rent vs. buy calculator, adjusted home appreciation to 5%, set mortgage interest rate to 5.1%, which was the national average as of Sunday, and assumed a 20% down payment on a house.

In all three cities, it’s less costly to rent in the shorter term — no surprise, given the upfront costs necessary for homeownership. But the break-even point occurs at a different moment for the three cities, and later than the national average, especially in San Francisco.

The "break-even point", as defined in the NerdWallet model, is the number of years the prospective buyer would have to live in the home to make it worthwhile to own instead of rent it. The results, using the basic assumptions set forth above, were:

San Jose - 9 years;

Oakland - 11 years;

San Francisco - 26 years.

The NerdWallet model is fairly sophisticated because it takes into account the tax-deductibility of mortgage interest and property taxes, as well as the hypothetical capital gain from the sale of the home. However, I don't think (because we can't see under the hood) it includes the $10,000 SALT cap or the $750,000-mortgage-limit under the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017. The model results are indicators that purchasing is a better value in the East and South Bay, and not in San Francisco or the mid-Peninsula.

If you are thinking about buying a house, you should really use a customized analysis because individual circumstances are so different. And because a home is the largest purchase you are likely to make, you should take the time to build the model or get an accountant or financial analyst to build it for you.

Another unrealistic assumption in almost all lease vs. buy models is that the monthly savings from renting over ownership are assumed to be invested rather than spent. Speaking from personal experience, I know that very few renters have that discipline, and that the lifestyle of new homeowners is less luxurious than if they had continued to rent. The forced-savings aspect of home ownership is often underestimated.

Finally, most models haven't adapted to the newest trends in real-estate, e.g., the ability to live farther away from the office because of the increased possibility of remote work, the changes in the rental market because of corporate ownership and eviction moratoria, the trend towards lower-density housing, etc.

When decisions have so many variables, I'd talk to friends and relatives, play with the numbers, but finally go with my gut. Frankly, if I were 30 years younger, I'd strongly doubt that I would stay in the Bay Area for more than 10 years, and I definitely would not be a buyer.

Trappings of Luxury Not Needed

Gone are the snacks and sodas. The car display has been removed. The free shuttle service to the shopping center has been cancelled.

Lexus has pared back the appurtenances at the San Jose service facility.

Coffee and water were the only offerings. The lounge had a few circular tables, along with a dozen comfortable chairs, spaced far apart.

The place seemed half as busy as I remembered. Perhaps the brand is less popular, or perhaps Lexus customers have drastically cut back on their driving. We've only brought in the car twice in 2½ years; the original expectation in 2019 was for four service visits. The shop was done in two hours; if they're going to be this quick I don't need trappings of luxury.

Nothing's changed from last month's rumination about buying out the lease. At 8,000 miles in 28 months we've become the little old lady (not the one from Pasadena) who hardly takes the car out of the garage.

Maybe we'll end up like Bob Costas, who's driven his 14-year-old Lexus LS 460 only 50,000 miles:

Lexus makes good cars—they last a long time and have a classic design. If you spray it with a hose now and then, no one will know the difference between the 2021 and the 2007.

Spraying with a hose now and then---I wish it were as easy with these old bones.

The Meanness of an Urban Setting

The office is a mile from downtown San Jose.

My opthalmologist whom I liked very much, retired a few years ago, and the doctor who took over his practice seems to be competent.

However, lacking the personal connection with the new fellow, I find it hard to justify driving 30 miles to San Jose when there are other skilled opthalmologists nearby.

Our visit yesterday tipped the balance. We asked to use the restroom, and the receptionist told us to go to the Starbucks a mile away. At Starbucks the baristas said that the restrooms were not for customers (we offered to purchase something) but for employees only. They directed us to a Chipotle across the street, where we bought a burrito and used the facilities

A half an hour later we were back for the eye exam, which went as expected.

We don't blame the opthalmologist or Starbucks for the unhappy experience. The responsibility rests with COVID-19, public health regulations, and most significantly the homeless population that makes it difficult to find a restroom in an urban setting.

The businesses in the suburbs are far more relaxed about these things, which is why we will be changing doctors.

Lousy Marketing

It's 7:30 a.m. on October 1st---Happy trick-or-treat-less October by the way--and, shortly after turning on the Mac, I clicked on a link to a San Jose Mercury News article.

The pop-up box said "You've reached your monthly article limit."

I was thinking about subscribing to the Merc instead of the Chronicle, but the blue pop-up tipped the scales. Forget about it.

Transportation: A Fantastic, Fossil-Fuel-Free Future

Because they know what's best for us, Bay Area central planners have been discouraging driving by means of high gas taxes, underfunded road repairs and road building, high parking fees, unique (i.e. high-priced) gasoline formulations, and shrunken driving lanes. If they want us to take mass transit, at least they're making trains more attractive, right?

Wrong: ‘I was scared for my safety’: Harassment, threats, violence follow women onto public transit

I often disembarked at Montgomery St. Station, 1988-2008

In August, Alliance for Girls released a report titled “Together, We Rise: The Lived Experiences of Girls of Color in Oakland, San Francisco and San Jose.” According to the report, girls in each city said they’d been harassed and stalked on public transportation.

“Girls know that this is an issue, and we ignore it until it’s too late,” said Emma Mayerson, the executive director of Alliance for Girls. “Public transportation is one of the greatest barriers to access services, to basic mobility, to economic empowerment.”

A 2019 report jointly released by four organizations, including the UC San Diego Center on Gender Equity and Health, found that 77% of women surveyed had been sexually harassed in a public space. Twenty-nine percent said it happened on public transportation.

BART logged 535 reports of sexual assault and lewd behavior on its BART Watch app this year through October. During the same period in 2018, there were 501 reports.

In Bay Area transportation there are fewer choices, higher prices, and low reliability. And with BART there's a bonus: sexual assault and lewd behavior with most of the victims being lower-income women of color.

It's too bad that some people are getting hurt on the way to a fantastic, fossil-fuel-free future.

Just Hanging Out is Costly

Food court coffee: one size, one bean, nearly $10 for 3.

My wife's sister and her husband were on one of their regular visits to San Jose and wanted to hang out at the shopping center, like the kids and other old people do. Off we went to Valley Fair, a large, renovated, upscale (Burberry, Cartier, Prada, etc.) mall in the heart of Silicon Valley.

We passed up the sit-down restaurants, which could easily run over a hundred bucks for four and went to the Food Court.

The ramen cost over $15, more than a restaurant in relatively low-brow San Mateo. The others spent equivalent amounts on salads, teriyaki chicken, and poke bowls.

After a couple of hours, I bought three regular, not fancy coffees for under $10. With apologies to Gershwin, in Silicon Valley it's

Summertime,
Where the livin' is stressful,
The traffic is stopping
And the prices are high...

California: The Government We Deserve

The Bay Area tops another list, one not to be proud of: [bold added]

In 2017 potholes closed Highway 101 by Palo Alto (NBC)

The Bay Area has the worst roads in the nation, according to a new report by TRIP, a Washington, D.C.-based transportation research group, that seeks to bolster a campaign by California transit officials to preserve the state’s recent gas tax hike.

Seventy-one percent of the streets in San Francisco, Oakland and nearby cities are dilapidated, and the average motorist loses $1,049 a year in repair costs from driving on the bumpy pavement, the report said. The San Jose area has the second-worst roads, with 64 percent in poor condition.

Last year California raised its State gas tax to the second highest in the nation (53.5 cents per gallon). Coupled with our unique, expensive gasoline formulation, California is neck-and-neck with Hawaii, which has to ship in its petroleum, for the country's most expensive gas.

In two weeks we'll vote on Proposition 6 , a measure that would repeal the gas-tax increase. Naturally all the powers that matter want to leave the taxes in place to fix the "worst roads in the nation", but the real question, of course, is how come we have paid so much and the results are so abysmal?

The one-party State says it's my way or the broken-down highway. We keep voting them in, so I guess we're getting the government we deserve.