Early on a Sunday Morning

After running an errand, I stopped by Starbucks at 5:30. I was happy that they were open early on a Sunday morning, though with no other customers but me I wondered about their business savvy.

Two baristas were busily wiping the surfaces and tuning up sundry machines.

My order, a "black eye" (large coffee with two shots of espresso), was ready. "Good morning," I said, "Thank you."

The parking lot was deserted except for my 17-year-old Camry. As I departed, another customer arrived. He seemed to be in a hurry. Golfer? Fisherman? Work? The old reasons for rushing about haven't applied for nearly a year.

When it's quiet, dark, and lonely, being with strangers is better than just ourselves.

Edward Hopper, Nighthawks (1942), Art Institute of Chicago

The Machinery is Working

The big trucks have been in our six-house courtyard all week. The men have been jackhammering, digging, and sucking up mud, sand, and gravel.

On Wednesday I went over to the supervisor to ask about the project. The storm drain at the end of the cul-de-sac wasn't draining, and water was accumulating.

The problem wasn't the usual clogging of debris; it was poor design of the grade, which erosion had made worse.

The rains of early February prompted the City, finally, to rectify the problem. The crew laid pipe at a sufficient angle to ensure draining, then connected it to a line to the Bay that they knew was working properly.

They sealed the opening and coned off the area to let the asphalt cure.

Yesterday, county vector control inspected the exterior of all our houses to make sure that there was no standing water where mosquitoes could breed.

Governments at all levels have been under a lot of criticism, but our little community of Foster City seems to be working just fine.

White Supremacy Math

NY Times: Capitol Riot Costs Will Exceed $30 Million, Official Tells Congress

The architect of the Capitol and other officials told lawmakers that the physical and psychological toll of the Jan. 6 riot — including damaged artifacts and staff trauma — will be extensive.

Wow, that's horrible.

Axios on last summer's riots: Exclusive: $1 billion-plus riot damage is most expensive in insurance history [bold added]

The protests that took place in 140 U.S. cities this spring were mostly peaceful, but the arson, vandalism and looting that did occur will result in at least $1 billion to $2 billion of paid insurance claims — eclipsing the record set in Los Angeles in 1992 after the acquittal of the police officers who brutalized Rodney King.

The summer riots caused 33 to 67 times the damage of January 6th, but pointing this out is probably white supremacy math.

This Retailer Was Something Special

Palo Alto Fry's, 2003: when you couldn't find parking

My first visit to Fry's Supermarkets was in Fremont in 1976, when we bought our first home in the then-sleepy East Bay town at the BART terminus. Fry's had an aisle devoted to electronics parts, an unusual feature in an era when grocery stores only offered food and household items.

Over the next few years Fry's found its niche in the tech-happy Bay Area and switched out of the cutthroat supermarket business.

Fry's Electronics became a fixture in Silicon Valley. There are hundreds of stories about engineers running down to the local store to pick up a crucial part for research that couldn't wait.

Fry’s Electronics was a mainstay for electronics experimenters from the 1980s through at least 2018 and one of the “must see” locations during visits to the Bay Area of California. They supplied many of the electronic parts, computers, tools, test equipment and accessories needed by Silicon Valley startups and other geeks living in the area.

Even your humble blogger, no tech whiz, kept his old equipment alive by going to Fry's for an old part; sometimes I would find something on a nearby shelf that might work better. I kept my 2009 MacBook alive by swapping out the hard drive in 2012 and again in 2014.

But Fry's, like many retailers, couldn't survive the trend towards online sales. Today the company announced the closure of all its stores.

After nearly 36 years in business as the one-stop-shop and online resource for high-tech professionals across nine states and 31 stores, Fry’s Electronics, Inc. (“Fry’s” or “Company”), has made the difficult decision to shut down its operations and close its business permanently as a result of changes in the retail industry and the challenges posed by the Covid-19 pandemic. The Company will implement the shut down through an orderly wind down process that it believes will be in the best interests of the Company, its creditors, and other stakeholders.

The Company ceased regular operations and began the wind-down process on February 24, 2021.

Fry's fell victim not only to Amazon but also to the shrinking of its customer base. There are fewer people who have the knowledge, motivation, and courage to work on hardware---either as fixers or inventors--with only speciailzed tools, a soldering iron, and an oscilloscope. A bygone store for a bygone era.

Twilight of the Mom-and-Pop Landlord

Landlord Rian de Laat, left, and tenant Ollie Aldama (Time)

Time has been covering the eviction crisis from multiple angles, including the plight of small landlords. [bold added]

More than 70% of properties with four or fewer rental units aren’t owned by fat cats at all, according to the National Association of Realtors, but rather people like [Rian] de Laat: mom-and-pop landlords who often live nearby; manage the property themselves; and rely on the rental income to pay their own mortgages, health care bills and monthly expenses.

Almost half the nearly 49 million rental units in the U.S. are owned by individuals, who tend to offer more affordable housing in their communities than the billion-dollar conglomerates that build high-rises with marble counters and rooftop pools.

These small landlords are shouldering a huge burden during the pandemic. For many, it’s increasingly untenable. De Laat, who has since found a good new job working in gene therapy for a pharmaceutical company, is on better financial footing now. She remains “morally opposed to putting people out if they can’t pay, especially under these circumstances,” she says, but notes that “every bit” of the extra income she’s making goes toward paying for [tenant Ollie] Aldama’s housing. “It’s not sustainable,” she says. “But I also don’t see a means for them ever to be able to work on paying stuff back.”

This condo is vacant until evictions become legal again.

We've been writing about the looming eviction tidal wave since June. The repeated extensions of the eviction moratorium have caused mom-and-pop landlords to get deeper into the hole because they have been prevented from getting a new tenant who will cover more of their expenses.

When the bank, the local government (delinquent taxes), or the homeowners' association (unpaid dues) eventually seizes the property, the fruits of the eviction policy will be the ruination of some small landlords just so that tenants can live a few months longer in a place they can't afford.

The increased business and legal risk in real estate rental will cause a reduction in the supply of housing. No, it's not the opinion of your humble blogger, it's what's going on in the market.

Alex Brendon, who owns an investment property in the Seattle area, is among a growing group of small landlords considering getting out of the rental game altogether. After losing his own job in July and struggling to support two toddlers, Brendon was unable to evict his tenant, even though that tenant had stopped paying rent three months before COVID-19 began spreading rapidly in the U.S. After 10 months–and more than $18,000 in unpaid rent–Brendon took back ownership of his unit by moving into it himself.

Like small retailers, small landlords have been devastated by a government that has removed their legal protections. When after a few years people wonder why they have to rent an apartment or buy groceries from a big corporation, progressives will say it's a result of capitalist "greed", but we know who changed the rules to force small businesspeople or landlords out of the marketplace.

Another High Income Taxpayer Flees San Francisco

"The apartment is on the top floor of a boutique
building in the city’s SOMA neighborhood." (WSJ)

The deal is in escrow for Kamala Harris to sell her San Francisco condo:

The property had been on the market for just over a week asking $799,000, according to listings website Zillow. Listing agent Anne Herrera of Sotheby’s International Realty confirmed that the property was in contract but didn’t comment further.

The apartment, on the top floor of a boutique building in the city’s SOMA neighborhood, is about 1,069 square feet spread over two levels, the listing shows. There is a main floor living and dining space with high-ceilings, a home office alcove and a small outdoor space as well as a loft level with a bedroom, a bathroom and a walk-in closet.

Ms. Harris bought the apartment for $489,000 in 2004, records show, the year she began serving as California’s first Black district attorney. The unit is about a mile’s walk from the San Francisco Superior Court House.

The Vice President and Second Gentleman Doug Emhof have the condo in San Francisco, a condo in Washington, and a home in Brentwood.

IMHO, she should have held off the SF sale until she knew whether the movers should deliver the furniture to Blair House or the White House.

Urban Decline and Fall

From a Chronicle analysis of San Francisco out-migration

In a survey of demographic trends--specifically the exodus from cities--San Francisco is again number one:

For sheer lunacy, it is impossible to beat San Francisco, the pri­mary breeding ground for well-financed digital start-ups. The city continually places new taxes and burdens on tech firms, rejecting even their charity. The San Francisco Board of Supervisors recently voted ten to one to officially condemn Mark Zuckerberg for donating $75 million to a hospital. As observer Michael Solana suggests, activists now blame Zuckerberg and other oligarchs for having somehow “ex­tracted” their wealth from the terroir of San Francisco, and they deserve to be “demonized, scapegoated, and punitively targeted.” Of course, some tech firms are oligarchical and often socially insensitive, but scores of other communities, in Texas or elsewhere, are happy to welcome similar wealth “extraction.”

The old standard: people who didn't express gratitude had bad manners. The new standard: "condemn" gifts from the rich.

Hey, oligarchs, I know plenty of cities and people--including me--who will be happy to send you a thank-you note for amounts much less than $75 million.

I Went to a Fight Tahoe the Other Night and a Hockey Game Broke Out

Vegas and Colorado practiced on Saturday (Guardian photo)

Making Lemonade Dept:
The pandemic has afforded a unique opportunity for the National Hockey League to stage outdoor hockey games in venues that could not accommodate thousands of fans. This weekend the NHL scheduled two games at Lake Tahoe.

The Edgewood Tahoe Resort will become its own bubble. Only those credentialed will be permitted through the gates.

Everyone will be tested and adhere to strict protocols. Teams and staff members will not be permitted to leave the grounds during their stay...

The NHL will build everything needed for an NHL game but, by design, little else. It will create locker rooms that feel like wooden cabins; the players will shower at the hotel. The scoreboard will be retro.

While most of us want to go back to the way things were just before COVID-19, the coronavirus has reminded us that the back-to-basics life can be beautiful.

The Right Ideology

Cardinal Sarah (NPR/Getty)

The usual critics of the Catholic Church are silent about Pope Francis' removal of an African cardinal who has been touted as a candidate for the Papacy:

In accepting Cardinal [Robert] Sarah’s resignation, the pope has removed a subordinate out of step with his approach to liturgy, homosexuality and relations with the Muslim world. The cardinal is a hero to many conservative Catholics, some of whom see him as a future pontiff. He will still be able to vote in a conclave to elect a pope until he turns 80...

Pope Francis had signaled a new openness to gay people, played down teachings on sexual and medical ethics and made high-profile overtures to Muslim leaders. But Cardinal Sarah told a Vatican meeting of bishops on family issues in 2015 that the modern family faced “two unexpected threats, almost like two apocalyptic beasts, located on opposite poles: on the one hand, the idolatry of Western freedom; on the other, Islamic fundamentalism.”

“What Nazi-fascism and communism were in the 20th century, Western homosexual and abortion ideologies and Islamic fanaticism are today,” he said.

A Black man has been forced to resign for his outspokenness--on Black History Month, no less--but it's not racist if the Boss has the right ideology.

Note: Cardinal Sarah's last name is that of one of the few prominent women in the Bible, but woke observers, who are known for their hyper-sensitivity to any sign of racism or sexism, have been strangely silent.

San Francisco: Burglaries Are "Rampant"

Tourists to San Francisco are almost non-existent thanks to the pandemic (and homelessness and car smash-and-grabs and closed restaurants etc.), so the burglars have switched to breaking into stores.

Rampant burglaries plague San Francisco businesses, compounding the hurt of the pandemic

Across San Francisco, businesses are hiring armed security guards, pouring thousands into replacing shattered windows and even pulling up stakes amid a rash of commercial theft and vandalism.

Burglaries in San Francisco have spiked by 62% so far this year, rising from 691 reported incidents in 2020 to 1,123 as of mid-February. The break-ins have been particularly glaring in a city where overall crime is down by 31%, and San Francisco’s once most seemingly intractable crime — car break-ins — has plummeted by 52%...

Most of the burglaries in San Francisco are never solved. What police call the “clearance rate” — the percentage of arrests per reported crime — was 8.1% for burglaries this year to date, down from 14.5% by this time last year, according to police data.

As we've opined before, Progressive government proclaims the unimportance of property versus caring for people, and the surge in property crime was easily foreseeable. "Petty" theft ($950 or less) is a misdemeanor and on the police back-burner; "most...are never solved." Well, people may be the priority, but I don't see a lot of happy people in San Francisco.

The election is over, the winners safely installed, and negative information can't be used by Republicans. The Chronicle has now resumed reporting.

Surreal ID

For your mild amusement:

DMV Mistakenly Issues Driver’s License With Photo Of Woman Wearing Face Mask

Lesley Pilgrim received the ID in the mail with a greeting reading, “Congratulations, enclosed is your newly designed California driver license.”

“I knew the picture was not going to be good because license pictures are never good, but I did not expect the picture to be with my mask on,” Pilgrim said...

Lesley Pilgrim in real life

When it was her turn, the DMV employee took two photos, the first still wearing her mask, the second without it.

“I sign it and I then I go home, and unfortunately he had used my picture with my mask on, and that’s what showed up on my Real ID,” Pilgrim said.

Since the DMV took with- and without photos, one would think that they could just reissue her a correct Real ID, but they're making Ms. Pilgrim come in again.

Note 1: we drove to Roseville two years ago to get the Real ID because we anticipated doing a lot of traveling in late 2020 and beyond. Hah!

Note 2 - the DMV has more serious problems than using the wrong photo: Security breach at DMV contractor may have exposed personal information of millions of California drivers

He Left Me Laughing

1988 in Sacramento, where his career took off (WSJ)"His
on-air presence in Sacramento was a lot more comedic."

I started listening to Rush Limbaugh fairly late in his career, not so much for his political views but for the entertainment.

During the George W. Bush Administration late-night comedy, including Saturday Night Live, became tiresome, vicious, and single-note, bashing the President and his supporters at every turn. Indeed, some bits were funny, but going after Republicans and their families personally while ignoring the foibles of Democrats was a sea-change from the light-hearted, even-handed joshing of Johnny Carson, Jay Leno, and the younger David Letterman.

Those were the 21st century rules of comedy, I supposed, and when different politicians took over they would become the objects of mockery. However, when the Democrats swept Washington in 2008, powerless Republicans like Trent Lott and Sarah Palin continued to be the targets of scorn. Comedians refused to pick the Democrats' low-hanging fruit, such as President Obama's verbal miscues when he was off Teleprompter and Vice-President Biden's provable history of creepy behavior.

So I turned to Rush Limbaugh. His political commentary was interspersed with comic bits that you couldn't hear anywhere else; the refusal of the entertainment and media industries to "speak truth to power" when their guys were in charge only made him more popular.

Rush Limbaugh has been recognized by supporters and detractors alike as the founding father of conservative talk-radio. He spoke insightfully about politics, but it was his skill as an entertainer that made him unique. R.I.P.

Rincon Reflection

Stay outside the circle and you won't get wet

Not-appreciated-until-it's-gone-department:

The Rincon Annex at the foot of Mission has renovated its interior again. The restaurants are mostly gone, as is the "Rain Cloud" fountain in which water dropping 80 feet was engineered so precisely that the viewer didn't get splashed.

The complex includes a massive former post office at Mission and Spear streets that opened in 1940 and was conveniently located near the finger piers of the Embarcadero. By 1989 the piers were mostly gone and the Embarcadero was underneath a double-deck freeway. The back of the post office building was hollowed out to make room for a skylit atrium with cafes and shops around a central space where a fountain sent water descending gently 80 feet from a Plexiglass bowl perforated with 4,000 tiny holes.

That piece — “Rain Cloud” by Doug Hollis — was a popular sensation. But now it is gone, removed during the pandemic along with nearly all the retail spaces that drew workers on their lunch breaks. The basin into which water once fell has been replaced by flat terrazzo flooring.

One of my favorite pastimes was to walk over for lunch from the Embarcadero Center offices. The Rincon Annex had an upscale food court, where one had the choice of a dozen cuisines. From 2003:

About once a week I go to the Rincon Annex, the old San Francisco Post Office, for lunch. The interior has been lined with tile, and multi-ethnic restaurants abound. At the center is an atreum where water drops from the ceiling into a circular receptacle (I'm reminded of those Chinese restaurants where the waiter likes to show off by pouring tea from shoulder height into the cups on the table.)

Taking a leaf from Nordstrom's, there's a tuxedo- or gown-clad musician on a grand piano; the acoustics aren't the best, given the multiplicity of hard surfaces, the falling water, and the buzz of conversation. But let's put this in perspective--it's certainly better than the Post Office, which, by the way, has moved next door and has a stultifying gray interior.

I've become one of those geezers who liked San Francisco better in the old days.

Deferred Digestion

Clockwise from top left: seafood fried rice, beef
chow fun, chinese broccoli, hot and sour soup,
tomato beef chow mein Hong Kong style

On Valentine's Day we had Chinese takeout.

Friday was the Lunar New Year, and all the Chinese restaurants were closed. Except for reheated jai that was brought from Hawaii, we had had none of the traditional dishes. So the noodles were deferred to Sunday.

It's been the kind of year, unexpectedly, where we are continually falling behind. Today we'll be grilling the steaks that we would have had on Valentine's Day.

Pancakes on Shrove Tuesday will have to wait until next year (!) when things get back to normal.

(WSJ illustration)

Update - 2/16/21: My Covid Valentine: Couch, Takeout, Movie

Couples are digging deep this year to find Valentine’s date-night ideas with restaurants and cinemas closed—and working hard to summon romantic feelings about people they have slurped soup and folded laundry next to for the last 11 months.

Trump's Gone, So Now We Can Talk About This

"I support BLM" or "Please don't trash my business" ?
Embrace the power of "and." (Chron, Oakland Chinatown)

Beginning last year, attacks on Asians and Asian-Americans have been attributed to President Trump and his supporters' use of terms like the "Chinese virus" and "Wuhan flu." Because of the widespread media stereotype that Trump supporters are white nationalists and white supremacists, one could easily believe that we were talking only about white-on-Asian crime. But one would be wrong.

Chronicle columnist Justin Phillips, an African-American, writes about the "suffering" of Asians who have been attacked by black Americans:

The reality is horrifying. More than 30 violent crimes have befallen Bay Area residents of Asian descent this year. This is a community that has long felt unseen and ignored. A handful of these terrible incidents have turned into viral videos, all with Black aggressors.

The "reality" is one where Asians fear attacks from blacks more than from whites:

“There are people who jump to the conclusion that because a Black person did (the crime), then all Black people must hate Asian people. That’s such a slippery slope that I just don’t condone,” [State Assembly member Alex Lee, D-San Jose] said. “It is completely valid for people to feel upset ... to feel afraid and that is OK. But I believe from what I’ve seen that what’s happening are symptoms of larger issues.”

...But the dread is still there. It flickers with every email that asks me to explain why all Black people are targeting all Asian people, or claiming that the region is only dangerous because of the crimes committed by people who look like me.

I am glad that Justin Phillips is trying to dispel stereotypes about both Asians and blacks. Now that Donald Trump is out of Washington, we are no longer frozen into blaming him for everything that's gone wrong and can now start working on these problems.