Source:
http://news.advocate.com/post/15571734525/gayest-cities-in-america-2012
15. Denver
Denver is simultaneously outdoorsy and a rapidly growing metropolis, and its attitude is exceptionally laid-back and gay-friendly. (Screw the antigay zealots in nearby Colorado Springs.) A day spent skiing, fishing, hunting, or camping with the fit locals can lead to an evening dining, clubbing, or camping of another sort. Much of the sporting and social scene is devoted to the ladies of Denver; witness the Capitol Hill neighborhood, girl-watching at There Urban Whiskey Bar (ThereDenver.com), a nosh at Racine’s (RacinesRestaurant.com), and dancing at Charlie’s (CharliesDenver.com).
14. Long Beach, Calif.
How gay is Long Beach? Its pride celebration is one of the country’s biggest, and the Long Beach Pride float seems to make its way to every other Pride event within 500 miles! There are a ton of gay and lesbian bars, restaurants, a big boat suitably named the Queen Mary (QueenMary.com; it’s also haunted, and a hotel). The sunny, welcoming city provides a more relaxed alternative to nearby Los Angeles.
13. Austin
No amount of backwoodsiness from previous and current statehouse residents George W. Bush or Rick Perry can taint the cosmopolitan, countercultural, and friendly nature of this capital city. Bands, barhopping, and barbecue feature prominently here, for queers and others. The lesbian-owned Hotel San José (SanJoseHotel.com) is a minimalist oasis; no fewer than 16 bars offer libations for LGBTs; and Splash Days (au naturel sunbathing and parties over Labor Day), the Austin City Limits Music Festival (late September), and March’s South by Southwest (SXSW) film and music festival keep Austin suitably weird — and gay.
12. Portland, Ore.
Bisexual Sleater-Kinney alum Carrie Brownstein has fun on Portlandia (“Put a bird on it!”) playing with the rep of the city’s hipster, hyper-locavore, hyper-literate, boycott-ready, feminist, fleece-clad denizens. But there’s other fun to be had here too. Visit the arty Pearl and Alberta districts; stay at the Ace Hotel; read at the country’s largest indie bookstore, Powell’s; drink at the Silverado (SilveradoPDX.com) and Red Cap Garage/Boxxes (Boxxes.com); tune in to Out Loud (KBOO.fm/OutLoud), and party at Crush (CrushBar.com), popular with men and women. Oh, then there’s all that nature stuff!
11. Little Rock, Ark.
The River Market District is the main gay area, and many businesses that don’t advertise as specifically LGBT are friendly and open. The compact city has Backstreet (1021 Jessie Rd.) and U.B.U. (TheAquarium.bizland.com) for the over-18 crowd, and those of legal drinking age can check out SixTen Center Street Bar, TraX, Miss Kitty’s/Saloon (all three at TraxNLR.com). But not all LGBT life happens in a bar: According to GayChurch.org, nine of the city’s churches advertise as LGBT-friendly. Amen!
10. Grand Rapids, Mich.
The heart of western Michigan LGBT life is in Grand Rapids, with dancing, drinking, and bingo at the Apartment (ApartmentLounge.net), which has been in operation for over three decades; karaoke at Diversions video bar (DiversionsNightclub.com), and drag shows and go-go boys at Rumors (RumorsNightclub.net). The city boasts one of the Midwest’s best LGBT country line-dancing scenes, with the Grand River Renegades (GrandRiverRenegades.com) offering anyone a dance card on Sundays at Rumors.
9. Atlanta
We won’t fault you for trying to forget Real Housewife Kim Zolciak’s dip into the lesbian pool — but don’t blame Atlanta if everyone there wants to sample the fun LGBTs have all over town. Lesbian businesses thrive in East Atlanta, and gay clubs go off in Mechanicsville. People coming to Atlanta like to party, and the GayTL delivers with Black Gay Pride in September and Atlanta Pride in October, and the black gay clubs’ second-busiest weekend of the year surrounds the observance of Martin Luther King Jr.’s birthday in January. Holla!
8. Knoxville, Tenn.
The state’s legislature has been an unmitigated disaster for our rights, making a law to prevent cities from adopting LGBT-inclusive antidiscrimination ordinances (although, happily, the ridiculous “don’t say ‘gay’” bill is dead for now). Nevertheless, Knoxville has defiantly produced a robust gay scene, including the University of Tennessee’s Commission for LGBT People; a welcoming spot for queer, trans, and other marginalized teens at Spectrum Café (SpectrumCafe.org); gay-affirming churches; and thriving nightlife.
7. St. Paul and Minneapolis
It’s technically two cities, but oh, what fun there is to be had here. The region is a draw for upper Midwestern LGBTs, and Minneapolis topped this list in 2011 for so many reasons. These two cities can’t get enough of each other: There’s the Twin Cities Gay Men’s Chorus (TCGMC.org), Twin Cities Pride (the 40th annual is June 23-24), and even Quorum: The Twin Cities GLBT and Allied Business Community. Sheesh, just get domestic-partnered already!
6. Ann Arbor, Mich.
You don’t have to be big to have it going on, as this sixth largest city in Michigan does. The area has one of the few clubs in Michigan catering to dykes: Stiletto’s (technically in nearby Inkster) draws in every lesbian in Detroit. But talk about a taste for drama! Just ask U. of M.’s first out student body prez, Chris Armstrong, the target of a smear campaign by nutso assistant attorney general Andrew Shirvell. We raised a glass at Aut Bar (AutBar.com) when the kook got the boot.
5. Seattle
When Forbes named Seattle the most miserable sports city in the nation, many of us felt a twinge of empathy. No matter; there’s heaps of other stuff to keep us busy, including tons of locavore and cosmopolitan cuisine, funky bars in a robust LGBT scene, Dan Savage, and hookups — or at least the search for them. TheStir.com noted that Seattle ranks among the top cities for residents who list “casual sex” as the type of relationship they’re seeking.
4. Fort Lauderdale, Fla.
Booting spring breakers from its shores may have not boosted Jagermeister sales, but it sure has classed up the joint. Add to that a mass exodus from Miami, where a real estate boom priced out many gay clubs (then the boom busted), and you have the recipe for a rising homo mecca in South Florida. The area is teeming with gay bars and restaurants, and a ton of guesthouses and spas that run the gamut from mild to spicy. Lesbians are finally starting to move to Fort Lauderdale too, though most girl bars, like New Moon (NewMoonBar.com), are in nearby Wilton Manors.
3. Cambridge, Mass.
The home of Harvard University likes a smarty-pants, including the nation’s first African-American lesbian mayor, E. Denise Simmons. Though her reign ended in 2009, she is currently in her sixth term on the City Council, which enacted antidiscrimination protections for transgender people in 1997. The town’s Paradise bar (ParadiseCambridge.com) is billed as New England’s only gay club with hot male dancers six nights a week — hey, everyone needs a night off — and the town is right next to a little hamlet named Boston, where allegedly LGBT stuff sometimes happens too.
2. Orlando, Fla.
Besides hosting Gay Days at Disney World, where 50,000 LGBT folks and their kids dressed in red T-shirts invade the theme park the first Saturday in June (and spend $100 million in town), Orlando has more gay softball teams than you can shake a Louisville Slugger at. And residents just got domestic-partnership protections. For non-Mickeyphiles, there’s oodles of homo content each year at the annual Orlando International Fringe Theater Festival (OrlandoFringe.org).
1. Salt Lake City
While those unfamiliar with the Beehive State are likely to conjure images of the Mormon Tabernacle Choir, far-less-oppressive-than-it-used-to-be Salt Lake City has earned its queer cred. There are more than a half-dozen hot spots for men and women, including the eco-friendly nightclub Jam (JamSLC.com), though the sustainable bamboo flooring is perhaps less of a draw than the packed dance floor. The Coffee Garden (878 South 900 East) is a gathering spot for those looking for a caffeine fix, the Sundance Film Festival brings LGBT film buffs to screenings downtown, and lesbian-owned Meditrina (MeditrinaSLC.com) is a true wine bar — yes, you can get a drink in this town.
Showing posts with label Seattle. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Seattle. Show all posts
Monday, January 30, 2012
Monday, May 31, 2010
The Path to Recovery
http://www.theatlantic.com/special-report/the-future-of-the-city/archive/2010/05/the-path-to-recovery/56393/
The Path to Recovery
May 7 2010
Richard Florida
Economic peaks and valleys are part of the life cycle of any society. They can be difficult, sometimes horribly painful, but just as trees shed their leaves in the fall to make room for the new growth of spring, economies reset themselves. Times of crisis reveal what is and isn't working. These are the times when obsolete and dysfunctional systems and practices collapse or fall by the wayside. They are the times when the seeds of innovation and invention, of creativity and entrepreneurship, burst into full flower, enabling recovery by remaking both the economy and society. Major periods of economic transformation, such as the Great Depression or the Long Depression of the 1870s before it, unfold over long stretches of time, like motion pictures rather than snapshots. Likewise, the path to recovery can be long and twisted--the better part of three decades in the case of those two previous crises. Seen in the greater context of history, economic crises inevitably give rise to critical periods in which an economy is remade in ways that allow it to recover and begin growing again. These are periods I call Great Resets.
We're still very early on in the current economic Reset, so it's difficult to fully grasp how it will ultimately play out. But we can all sense that our way of life is changing and our economic landscape is too. This emerging new way of life will be less oriented around cars, houses, and suburbs. We'll be spending relatively less on the things that defined the old way of life. We'll have to, if we expect to have money left over to sustain the new industries that will emerge in the Great Reset and usher in an age of renewed prosperity. Before we can nurture the new industries of the future, develop new forms of health care and biotechnologies, or even explore new forms of education or more experiential forms of entertainment and recreation, we first have to free up capital by producing the goods of the old industrial order more cheaply and efficiently.
We've reached the limits of what George W. Bush used to call the "ownership society." Owning your own home made sense when people could hope to hold a job for most or all of their lives. But in an economy that revolves around mobility and flexibility, a house that can't be sold becomes an economic trap, preventing people from moving freely to economic opportunity. Not only has that piece of the American Dream grown dark, but it's also clear that financial excess in the housing sector was one of the central causes of the economic crisis. Housing sucked up far too much of the nation's and the world's capital, and too many people--already overextended by the purchase of outsized houses--used those homes like virtual ATMs to finance carefree consumption. Every Great Reset has seen our system of housing change, and this one is no different. The rate of home ownership has been on the decline for some time now. Many of those who still choose to buy homes will choose smaller ones, while many more will opt for rental housing.
Our new way of life is likely to depend a whole lot less on the car. In October 2009, The New York Times reported, "The recession and a growing awareness of the environment are causing many people to reassess their automobile ownership. After more than a century in which an automobile represented the American dream, car enthusiasm may no longer be a part of Americans' DNA." Car culture no longer exerts the powerful pull it once did. More and more families are deciding to share cars, and young people are putting off buying them and using public transit, bikes, their feet or Zipcars (membership-based, easy-access short-term car rentals) instead. It's not just that oil and gas have become expensive, it's that traffic and gridlock have become a deadweight time cost on us and our economy.
One constant in the history of capitalism is the ever-more-intensive use of land, as mercantile towns replaced agricultural villages, major industrial cities replaced those towns, and massive complexes of suburbs, exurbs, and edge cites expanded the boundaries of those cities. The change we are living through is much more than a movement from suburbs to denser urban communities. What we are seeing is the rise of a new, bigger, and denser economic landscape than ever before--the rise of vast megaregions such as the corridors stretching from Boston to New York and Washington, D.C., around greater London, and from Shanghai to Beijing. These concentrations of population, which encompass several cities and their surrounding suburban rings, have grown swiftly in recent years.
The largest megaregion in North America is the great "Bos-Wash" corridor, initially identified by the geographer Jean Gottmann. Strecthing down the East Coast, it includes Boston, New York, Philadelphia, Baltimore, and Washington, D.C., and is home to more than 50 million people while producing more than $2 trillion in economic activity. Its economic output is greater than that of either the United Kingdom or France and more than double that of India or Canada. The second biggest, which Gottman dubbed "Chi-Pitts," covers more than 100,000 square miles and is home to 46 million people, producing $1.6 trillion in economic output. Other megaregions in North America include:
•Char-lanta: Atlanta, Charlotte, and Raleigh-Durham, 22 million people
•So-Cal: Around Los Angeles, 21 million people
•Tor-Mon-tawa: 22 million people
•Nor-Cal: Around San Francisco, 12.8 million people
•So-Flo: Miami, Orlando, and Tampa, 15 million people
•Dal-Austin: Dallas and Austin, 10 million people
•Hou-Orleans: Houston and New Orleans, 9.7 million people
•Cascadia: Seattle, Portland, and Vancouver, 9 million people
•Pho-Tus: Phoenix and Tucson, 4.7 million people
•Den-Bo: Denver and Boulder, 3.7 million people
Around the world, London, Amsterdam, Tokyo, Shanghai, and Mumbai are hubs of giant megaregions. Each of these is a financial and commercial center with tens of millions of people and hundreds of billions of dollars in output.
These megaregions, not nations, really power the global economy. Taken together, the world's 40 largest megaregions account for two-thirds of all global economic activity and 85 percent of the world's technological innovation while housing just 18 percent of its population. Megaregions are the strategic power centers of the economy, housing 85 percent of all corporate headquarters in the United States and Canada.
Though many analysts have predicted that the importance of cities--and that of location--would fade with globalization, the reality is that cities and megaregions have become more important economically than ever before. Even as globalization has spread factories, businesses, and laboratories to places such as India, China, Brazil, and beyond, these activities are being concentrated in the megaregions of those countries. Contrary to the notion that the world is flat, the most successful megaregions, in fact, are becoming economically stronger and spikier, not flatter.
Megaregions are to our time what suburbanization was to the postwar era. They provide the seeds of a new spatial fix. They expand and intensify our use of land and space the way that the industrial city did during the First Reset and suburbia did in the Second. As people pour into the world's great megaregions, inner cities and close-in suburbs are being reclaimed and rebuilt. Older suburbs, especially those on transit routes, are being reorganized and rebuilt into denser communities offering more condos and town houses as well as single-family homes. Suburban malls and office complexes are being retrofitted and turned into walkable areas with a mixture of housing, shops, and restaurants and in some cases even new parks. Subways and rail transit are being expanded as highways clog.
The location decisions made by new college grads have interested me for years. Their choices involve evaluating not just the company they'll work for but the labor market it's located in and what the surrounding area has to offer. Because they are both highly skilled and highly mobile--three to five times as likely to move than, say, a 45-year-old--the decisions they make about where to live are likely to leave a lasting imprint on our economic geography.
To get at the factors that attract and keep young Gen Y members, those born between the years 1979 and 1990, in certain places, my colleague Charlotta Mellander and I analyzed the results of a Gallup survey of some 28,000 Americans. Jobs are clearly important. Gen Y members ranked the availability of jobs second when asked what would keep them in their current location and fourth in terms of their overall satisfaction with their community. From this perspective, big cities make sense for them, as they offer more robust labor markets with more and better job opportunities in a wide number of fields. In an age in which corporate commitment has dwindled, job tenure has grown far shorter, and people switch jobs with much greater frequency, career success involves a great deal more than simply finding the right first job. In these highly mobile and economically tumultuous times, career success for young people depends on locating themselves in a thick labor market that offers diverse and abundant job opportunities. Picking an economically vibrant location is an important hedge against economic uncertainty and the risk of layoff.
But remember that jobs were not the highest-ranked factor. Across the board, the survey respondents said that the ability to meet people and make friends was of paramount importance. These young people intuitively understand what economic sociologists have documented: that vibrant social networks are key to landing jobs, moving forward in your career, and securing personal happiness. They not only desire a thick labor market but also seek what I have come to call a thick mating market, where they can meet new people, go out on dates, and eventually find a life partner. And whereas older Americans see high-quality schools and safe streets for their children as key, Gen Y understandably ranks the availability of outstanding colleges and universities higher. Many are likely to go back to graduate school and want to have good programs nearby. For all these reasons, big cities at the heart of megaregions top the list of their choices.
The auto-dependent transportation system has reached its limit in most major cities and megaregions. Commuting by car is among the least efficient of all our activities--not to mention among the least enjoyable, according to detailed research by the Nobel Prize-winning economist Daniel Kahneman and his colleagues. Though one might think that the crisis would have reduced traffic (high unemployment means fewer workers traveling to and from work), the opposite has been true. Average commutes have lengthened, and congestion has gotten worse, if anything. The average commute rose in 2008 to 25.5 minutes, "erasing years of decreases to stand at the level of 2000, as people had to leave home earlier in the morning to pick up friends for their ride to work or to catch a bus or subway train," according to the U.S. Census Bureau, which collects the figures. And those are average figures. Commutes are far longer in the big West Coast cities of Los Angeles and San Francisco and the East Coast cities of New York, Philadelphia, Baltimore, and D.C. In many of these cities, gridlock has become the norm, not just at rush hour but all day, every day.
Just about the only remedy for traffic congestion anyone ever suggests is building more roads and highways, which of course only makes the problem worse. New roads generate higher levels of "induced traffic," that is, new roads just invite drivers to drive more and lure people who take mass transit back to their cars. Eventually, we end up with more clogged roads rather than a long-term improvement in traffic flow
More and more people are choosing to take the subway, train, or bus or even walk or bike to work and go about their daily business--providing they live in an environment that allows for such choices. In Manhattan, 82 percent of workers get to work by public transit or bicycle or on foot. That's ten times the rate for Americans in general, eight times the rate for workers in Los Angeles County, and 16 times the rate for residents of metropolitan Atlanta. The New York City subway is a remarkably effective technology for moving masses of people around quickly and efficiently. Between 8 and 9 in the morning on a typical workday, more than 385,000 people use its subway system to commute into the central business district.
New York is not the only place where this kind of change in commuting and local traffic patterns is occurring. In Washington, D.C., 57 percent of commuters get to work by means other than driving a car--more than a third take public transit, 12 percent walk to work, and 2 percent ride their bikes; just four in ten drive to work alone. In Boston and San Francisco, roughly half of workers get to work without their cars--roughly a third of commuters take transit, and 10 to 15 percent walk to work. In Philadelphia, 41 percent commute without cars and 27 percent take transit.
These numbers may seem like a drop in the bucket. But 60 percent of Americans surveyed in 2005 said they want to live in walkable communities with shops, restaurants, movie theaters, schools, and churches nearby. We're already seeing the shift as increasing numbers of people move to walkable communities closer to where they work. That will clearly expand in coming decades.
For the time being, most Americans remain behind the wheel. Today, more than three-quarters of Americans drive to work alone. They have no other choice. There are, however, other things we can do to ease congestion and take more cars off the road. Employers can offer more flexible schedules and the ability to work from home or telecommute. But as we've already seen, in many cities traffic is not just a rush-hour problem. The only alternative left is to price the roads. We pay for everything else: we pay to take the subway, ride the bus, or take the train, we pay to drive through the Lincoln and Holland Tunnels or over the George Washington Bridge. Why should the roads be essentially free? If we want to make traffic better, we have little choice other than to make people pay for the roads they drive on.
Richard Florida is director of the Martin Prosperity Institute at the University of Toronto. Adapted from THE GREAT RESET: How New Ways of Living and Working Drive Post-Crash Prosperity by Richard Florida. Copyright 2010 by Richard Florida. Reprinted by arrangement with Harper, an imprint of HarperCollins Publishers.
The Path to Recovery
May 7 2010
Richard Florida
Economic peaks and valleys are part of the life cycle of any society. They can be difficult, sometimes horribly painful, but just as trees shed their leaves in the fall to make room for the new growth of spring, economies reset themselves. Times of crisis reveal what is and isn't working. These are the times when obsolete and dysfunctional systems and practices collapse or fall by the wayside. They are the times when the seeds of innovation and invention, of creativity and entrepreneurship, burst into full flower, enabling recovery by remaking both the economy and society. Major periods of economic transformation, such as the Great Depression or the Long Depression of the 1870s before it, unfold over long stretches of time, like motion pictures rather than snapshots. Likewise, the path to recovery can be long and twisted--the better part of three decades in the case of those two previous crises. Seen in the greater context of history, economic crises inevitably give rise to critical periods in which an economy is remade in ways that allow it to recover and begin growing again. These are periods I call Great Resets.
We're still very early on in the current economic Reset, so it's difficult to fully grasp how it will ultimately play out. But we can all sense that our way of life is changing and our economic landscape is too. This emerging new way of life will be less oriented around cars, houses, and suburbs. We'll be spending relatively less on the things that defined the old way of life. We'll have to, if we expect to have money left over to sustain the new industries that will emerge in the Great Reset and usher in an age of renewed prosperity. Before we can nurture the new industries of the future, develop new forms of health care and biotechnologies, or even explore new forms of education or more experiential forms of entertainment and recreation, we first have to free up capital by producing the goods of the old industrial order more cheaply and efficiently.
We've reached the limits of what George W. Bush used to call the "ownership society." Owning your own home made sense when people could hope to hold a job for most or all of their lives. But in an economy that revolves around mobility and flexibility, a house that can't be sold becomes an economic trap, preventing people from moving freely to economic opportunity. Not only has that piece of the American Dream grown dark, but it's also clear that financial excess in the housing sector was one of the central causes of the economic crisis. Housing sucked up far too much of the nation's and the world's capital, and too many people--already overextended by the purchase of outsized houses--used those homes like virtual ATMs to finance carefree consumption. Every Great Reset has seen our system of housing change, and this one is no different. The rate of home ownership has been on the decline for some time now. Many of those who still choose to buy homes will choose smaller ones, while many more will opt for rental housing.
Our new way of life is likely to depend a whole lot less on the car. In October 2009, The New York Times reported, "The recession and a growing awareness of the environment are causing many people to reassess their automobile ownership. After more than a century in which an automobile represented the American dream, car enthusiasm may no longer be a part of Americans' DNA." Car culture no longer exerts the powerful pull it once did. More and more families are deciding to share cars, and young people are putting off buying them and using public transit, bikes, their feet or Zipcars (membership-based, easy-access short-term car rentals) instead. It's not just that oil and gas have become expensive, it's that traffic and gridlock have become a deadweight time cost on us and our economy.
One constant in the history of capitalism is the ever-more-intensive use of land, as mercantile towns replaced agricultural villages, major industrial cities replaced those towns, and massive complexes of suburbs, exurbs, and edge cites expanded the boundaries of those cities. The change we are living through is much more than a movement from suburbs to denser urban communities. What we are seeing is the rise of a new, bigger, and denser economic landscape than ever before--the rise of vast megaregions such as the corridors stretching from Boston to New York and Washington, D.C., around greater London, and from Shanghai to Beijing. These concentrations of population, which encompass several cities and their surrounding suburban rings, have grown swiftly in recent years.
The largest megaregion in North America is the great "Bos-Wash" corridor, initially identified by the geographer Jean Gottmann. Strecthing down the East Coast, it includes Boston, New York, Philadelphia, Baltimore, and Washington, D.C., and is home to more than 50 million people while producing more than $2 trillion in economic activity. Its economic output is greater than that of either the United Kingdom or France and more than double that of India or Canada. The second biggest, which Gottman dubbed "Chi-Pitts," covers more than 100,000 square miles and is home to 46 million people, producing $1.6 trillion in economic output. Other megaregions in North America include:
•Char-lanta: Atlanta, Charlotte, and Raleigh-Durham, 22 million people
•So-Cal: Around Los Angeles, 21 million people
•Tor-Mon-tawa: 22 million people
•Nor-Cal: Around San Francisco, 12.8 million people
•So-Flo: Miami, Orlando, and Tampa, 15 million people
•Dal-Austin: Dallas and Austin, 10 million people
•Hou-Orleans: Houston and New Orleans, 9.7 million people
•Cascadia: Seattle, Portland, and Vancouver, 9 million people
•Pho-Tus: Phoenix and Tucson, 4.7 million people
•Den-Bo: Denver and Boulder, 3.7 million people
Around the world, London, Amsterdam, Tokyo, Shanghai, and Mumbai are hubs of giant megaregions. Each of these is a financial and commercial center with tens of millions of people and hundreds of billions of dollars in output.
These megaregions, not nations, really power the global economy. Taken together, the world's 40 largest megaregions account for two-thirds of all global economic activity and 85 percent of the world's technological innovation while housing just 18 percent of its population. Megaregions are the strategic power centers of the economy, housing 85 percent of all corporate headquarters in the United States and Canada.
Though many analysts have predicted that the importance of cities--and that of location--would fade with globalization, the reality is that cities and megaregions have become more important economically than ever before. Even as globalization has spread factories, businesses, and laboratories to places such as India, China, Brazil, and beyond, these activities are being concentrated in the megaregions of those countries. Contrary to the notion that the world is flat, the most successful megaregions, in fact, are becoming economically stronger and spikier, not flatter.
Megaregions are to our time what suburbanization was to the postwar era. They provide the seeds of a new spatial fix. They expand and intensify our use of land and space the way that the industrial city did during the First Reset and suburbia did in the Second. As people pour into the world's great megaregions, inner cities and close-in suburbs are being reclaimed and rebuilt. Older suburbs, especially those on transit routes, are being reorganized and rebuilt into denser communities offering more condos and town houses as well as single-family homes. Suburban malls and office complexes are being retrofitted and turned into walkable areas with a mixture of housing, shops, and restaurants and in some cases even new parks. Subways and rail transit are being expanded as highways clog.
The location decisions made by new college grads have interested me for years. Their choices involve evaluating not just the company they'll work for but the labor market it's located in and what the surrounding area has to offer. Because they are both highly skilled and highly mobile--three to five times as likely to move than, say, a 45-year-old--the decisions they make about where to live are likely to leave a lasting imprint on our economic geography.
To get at the factors that attract and keep young Gen Y members, those born between the years 1979 and 1990, in certain places, my colleague Charlotta Mellander and I analyzed the results of a Gallup survey of some 28,000 Americans. Jobs are clearly important. Gen Y members ranked the availability of jobs second when asked what would keep them in their current location and fourth in terms of their overall satisfaction with their community. From this perspective, big cities make sense for them, as they offer more robust labor markets with more and better job opportunities in a wide number of fields. In an age in which corporate commitment has dwindled, job tenure has grown far shorter, and people switch jobs with much greater frequency, career success involves a great deal more than simply finding the right first job. In these highly mobile and economically tumultuous times, career success for young people depends on locating themselves in a thick labor market that offers diverse and abundant job opportunities. Picking an economically vibrant location is an important hedge against economic uncertainty and the risk of layoff.
But remember that jobs were not the highest-ranked factor. Across the board, the survey respondents said that the ability to meet people and make friends was of paramount importance. These young people intuitively understand what economic sociologists have documented: that vibrant social networks are key to landing jobs, moving forward in your career, and securing personal happiness. They not only desire a thick labor market but also seek what I have come to call a thick mating market, where they can meet new people, go out on dates, and eventually find a life partner. And whereas older Americans see high-quality schools and safe streets for their children as key, Gen Y understandably ranks the availability of outstanding colleges and universities higher. Many are likely to go back to graduate school and want to have good programs nearby. For all these reasons, big cities at the heart of megaregions top the list of their choices.
The auto-dependent transportation system has reached its limit in most major cities and megaregions. Commuting by car is among the least efficient of all our activities--not to mention among the least enjoyable, according to detailed research by the Nobel Prize-winning economist Daniel Kahneman and his colleagues. Though one might think that the crisis would have reduced traffic (high unemployment means fewer workers traveling to and from work), the opposite has been true. Average commutes have lengthened, and congestion has gotten worse, if anything. The average commute rose in 2008 to 25.5 minutes, "erasing years of decreases to stand at the level of 2000, as people had to leave home earlier in the morning to pick up friends for their ride to work or to catch a bus or subway train," according to the U.S. Census Bureau, which collects the figures. And those are average figures. Commutes are far longer in the big West Coast cities of Los Angeles and San Francisco and the East Coast cities of New York, Philadelphia, Baltimore, and D.C. In many of these cities, gridlock has become the norm, not just at rush hour but all day, every day.
Just about the only remedy for traffic congestion anyone ever suggests is building more roads and highways, which of course only makes the problem worse. New roads generate higher levels of "induced traffic," that is, new roads just invite drivers to drive more and lure people who take mass transit back to their cars. Eventually, we end up with more clogged roads rather than a long-term improvement in traffic flow
More and more people are choosing to take the subway, train, or bus or even walk or bike to work and go about their daily business--providing they live in an environment that allows for such choices. In Manhattan, 82 percent of workers get to work by public transit or bicycle or on foot. That's ten times the rate for Americans in general, eight times the rate for workers in Los Angeles County, and 16 times the rate for residents of metropolitan Atlanta. The New York City subway is a remarkably effective technology for moving masses of people around quickly and efficiently. Between 8 and 9 in the morning on a typical workday, more than 385,000 people use its subway system to commute into the central business district.
New York is not the only place where this kind of change in commuting and local traffic patterns is occurring. In Washington, D.C., 57 percent of commuters get to work by means other than driving a car--more than a third take public transit, 12 percent walk to work, and 2 percent ride their bikes; just four in ten drive to work alone. In Boston and San Francisco, roughly half of workers get to work without their cars--roughly a third of commuters take transit, and 10 to 15 percent walk to work. In Philadelphia, 41 percent commute without cars and 27 percent take transit.
These numbers may seem like a drop in the bucket. But 60 percent of Americans surveyed in 2005 said they want to live in walkable communities with shops, restaurants, movie theaters, schools, and churches nearby. We're already seeing the shift as increasing numbers of people move to walkable communities closer to where they work. That will clearly expand in coming decades.
For the time being, most Americans remain behind the wheel. Today, more than three-quarters of Americans drive to work alone. They have no other choice. There are, however, other things we can do to ease congestion and take more cars off the road. Employers can offer more flexible schedules and the ability to work from home or telecommute. But as we've already seen, in many cities traffic is not just a rush-hour problem. The only alternative left is to price the roads. We pay for everything else: we pay to take the subway, ride the bus, or take the train, we pay to drive through the Lincoln and Holland Tunnels or over the George Washington Bridge. Why should the roads be essentially free? If we want to make traffic better, we have little choice other than to make people pay for the roads they drive on.
Richard Florida is director of the Martin Prosperity Institute at the University of Toronto. Adapted from THE GREAT RESET: How New Ways of Living and Working Drive Post-Crash Prosperity by Richard Florida. Copyright 2010 by Richard Florida. Reprinted by arrangement with Harper, an imprint of HarperCollins Publishers.
Friday, December 4, 2009
WTO STILL PARTIES LIKE IT'S 1999
on 10th Anniversary of the Battle in Seattle
Bankers' scheme to re-open finance casino worldwide
by Greg Palast for Air America's Ring of Fire
GENEVA — Apparently, one meltdown isn't enough for the World Trade Organization. They meet today in Geneva on the tenth anniversary of the "Battle in Seattle," the first mass protest against globalization.
In a special investigation for Air America's Ring of Fire, I recently gained access to several documents from inside the file cabinets of the WTO, the World Bank and other centers of globalization.
According to one marked "Ensure This Text Is Not Made Publicly Available," the big banks, via official trade negotiators, are secretly demanding that emerging nations, starting with Brazil, open their markets to trading in derivatives, credit default swaps and other exotic—and toxic—financial products.
It's not enough that they have brought the US and Europe to their financial knees. Now banks, under the guise of the WTO's free trade treaty, want to expand the casino to the new big emerging powers with their trillion-greenback reserves. A derivatives crash in those markets could easily trigger a financial China Syndrome—a second meltdown from New York to Beijing to Brasília.
Here in Geneva, at the grand compound on the shore of Lake Geneva, I confronted the Director-General of the World Trade Organization, Pascal Lamy, about the secret demands of the world's biggest financiers. I asked how, after the disaster in the US economy in 2008, the prime movers of the globe's economy would go along with the world's largest banks to start up still more gambling operations in Brazil and India?
Lamy insisted that, "Trade is not the problem. The problem is whether what you trade is regulated or not."
The WTO chief did however admit that, were a nation to attempt to shutter any particular bank's trading desk, that nation would have to pay a hefty penalty under WTO rules. "There's a price to pay to claw back," said Lamy, himself a banker. (Lamy was Director-General of French giant Crédit Lyonnais.)
The exposure of the secret demand on Brazil to allow banks to go double or nothing on a second crisis runs counter to the public position of US and European governments. Paul Volker, President Obama's advisor on preventing another crisis, has called for re-regulating banks, and in particular, barring commercial banks from trading in derivatives and other risky financial instruments.
This contradiction between public position and private lobby for the banks infuriates Martin Khor, Geneva-based trade advisor to Brazil and 50 other emerging nations. Khor, known as the intellectual leader of the Seattle anti-WTO protests of 1999, told Air America, "If I were Mr. Obama or (British Prime Minister) Brown, I would tell my financial services organization, please lay off the developing countries; let's get our own act together."
But apparently, the banks and global-crats at the WTO want to party like it's 1999.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
This report was funded by the Palast Investigative Fund, a 501c3 charitable trust and Ring of Fire.
The Fund is offering Greg Palast's investigative reports on DVD and his bestselling books, signed by the reporter, for the holidays at: www.gregpalast.com/store
Hear the "Ring of Fire" podcast with Mike Papantonio and Greg Palast.
Special thanks to Public Citizen's GATS Watch and Oliver Shykles.
***********************
HOLIDAY Special: Support the work of the Palast Investigative Fund by making a donation today: www.gregpalast.com/store We are now offering Palast's investigative reports on DVD and his bestselling books—personally signed by the reporter—in time for the holidays:
http://www.gregpalast.com/store
Bankers' scheme to re-open finance casino worldwide
by Greg Palast for Air America's Ring of Fire
GENEVA — Apparently, one meltdown isn't enough for the World Trade Organization. They meet today in Geneva on the tenth anniversary of the "Battle in Seattle," the first mass protest against globalization.
In a special investigation for Air America's Ring of Fire, I recently gained access to several documents from inside the file cabinets of the WTO, the World Bank and other centers of globalization.
According to one marked "Ensure This Text Is Not Made Publicly Available," the big banks, via official trade negotiators, are secretly demanding that emerging nations, starting with Brazil, open their markets to trading in derivatives, credit default swaps and other exotic—and toxic—financial products.
It's not enough that they have brought the US and Europe to their financial knees. Now banks, under the guise of the WTO's free trade treaty, want to expand the casino to the new big emerging powers with their trillion-greenback reserves. A derivatives crash in those markets could easily trigger a financial China Syndrome—a second meltdown from New York to Beijing to Brasília.
Here in Geneva, at the grand compound on the shore of Lake Geneva, I confronted the Director-General of the World Trade Organization, Pascal Lamy, about the secret demands of the world's biggest financiers. I asked how, after the disaster in the US economy in 2008, the prime movers of the globe's economy would go along with the world's largest banks to start up still more gambling operations in Brazil and India?
Lamy insisted that, "Trade is not the problem. The problem is whether what you trade is regulated or not."
The WTO chief did however admit that, were a nation to attempt to shutter any particular bank's trading desk, that nation would have to pay a hefty penalty under WTO rules. "There's a price to pay to claw back," said Lamy, himself a banker. (Lamy was Director-General of French giant Crédit Lyonnais.)
The exposure of the secret demand on Brazil to allow banks to go double or nothing on a second crisis runs counter to the public position of US and European governments. Paul Volker, President Obama's advisor on preventing another crisis, has called for re-regulating banks, and in particular, barring commercial banks from trading in derivatives and other risky financial instruments.
This contradiction between public position and private lobby for the banks infuriates Martin Khor, Geneva-based trade advisor to Brazil and 50 other emerging nations. Khor, known as the intellectual leader of the Seattle anti-WTO protests of 1999, told Air America, "If I were Mr. Obama or (British Prime Minister) Brown, I would tell my financial services organization, please lay off the developing countries; let's get our own act together."
But apparently, the banks and global-crats at the WTO want to party like it's 1999.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
This report was funded by the Palast Investigative Fund, a 501c3 charitable trust and Ring of Fire.
The Fund is offering Greg Palast's investigative reports on DVD and his bestselling books, signed by the reporter, for the holidays at: www.gregpalast.com/store
Hear the "Ring of Fire" podcast with Mike Papantonio and Greg Palast.
Special thanks to Public Citizen's GATS Watch and Oliver Shykles.
***********************
HOLIDAY Special: Support the work of the Palast Investigative Fund by making a donation today: www.gregpalast.com/store We are now offering Palast's investigative reports on DVD and his bestselling books—personally signed by the reporter—in time for the holidays:
http://www.gregpalast.com/store
Friday, August 7, 2009
FeedBack: A fun trip to Seattle's Lebowski Fest
Thursday, July 30, 2009
Great photos of what looks like a great event. Hope everyone enjoyed their white russians responsibly. Now, when you get a second, check out this short video:
http://www.ahamoment.com/pg/moments/view/4952
About how Lebowski fests all started. (Spoiler: a guy in Louisville had an ”aha moment”).
Thanks,
jack@ahamoment.com
Great photos of what looks like a great event. Hope everyone enjoyed their white russians responsibly. Now, when you get a second, check out this short video:
http://www.ahamoment.com/pg/moments/view/4952
About how Lebowski fests all started. (Spoiler: a guy in Louisville had an ”aha moment”).
Thanks,
jack@ahamoment.com
Wednesday, June 17, 2009
Giants' Johnson wins No. 300
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2009/06/04/SPQK181507.DTL
Giants' Johnson wins No. 300
Henry Schulman, Chronicle Staff Writer
Friday, June 5, 2009
Washington -- As Randy Johnson hugged his teammates and family in a cool late-spring drizzle, he understood he was relishing a feeling that only 23 other men in baseball have enjoyed. Many of those pitchers, some he knows personally, some just regal names in the lore of the game, were on his mind as he celebrated his 300th win Thursday night.
As difficult as this careerlong accomplishment was, Johnson said, others accomplished so much more. With age comes the perspective that while he resides in baseball's highest aerie, he does not live there alone.
"It sounds funny," Johnson said after his 300th win came in a 5-1 victory against the Washington Nationals in the first game of a doubleheader, "but I've played 21, 22 years. I'm 45 and I've come upon 300 wins and I'm thinking, 'I only have 211 more to catch Cy Young.' "
The Big Unit was raised in Livermore, cut his teeth as a Montreal Expo, became a star as a Seattle Mariner and won a championship as an Arizona Diamondback. All of that, though, was relegated to the musty pages of a history book when he wrote a defining chapter at Nationals Park and joined the 300-win club as its sixth left-hander.
Johnson pitched six dominating innings before leaving with a bruised shoulder caused when he hit the turf to grab a ball and fling it to first baseman Travis Ishikawa for the first out of the sixth inning - "my senior moment when I thought I was only 25," Johnson joked. Manager Bruce Bochy said Johnson is not expected to miss a start.
The Unit retreated to the clubhouse to watch Brandon Medders, Jeremy Affeldt and Brian Wilson get through the seventh and eighth innings then returned to the dugout to watch Wilson finish the ninth.
The game was far more tense than the final score. The Giants led 2-1 until they added three runs in the ninth inning, on a two-run double by Randy Winn and a Pablo Sandoval sacrifice fly.
Lisa Johnson surely spoke for her husband in the dugout and Giants fans the world over when she said, "It was a little scary for a while. I liked having those extra few runs."
Johnson became the first pitcher since Tom Seaver in 1985 to earn his 300th win on his first try. He also became the second-oldest pitcher to win 300, at 45 years and 267 days. Phil Niekro was the oldest at 46 years, 188 days.
The milestone occurred in front of a few thousand fans in a chilly gloom between storms, with a large contingent of ticket holders behind the visiting dugout rising and cheering for every positive Giants development. They included Johnson's wife and daughters Samantha, Willow and Lexi. His 13-year-old son, Tanner, served as a batboy and seemed more nervous than Dad during the ninth.
Randy Johnson sat stoically in the dugout, cracking a smile only when some fans started chanting his name, as Tanner nearly pulverized the baseball he was holding.
When Wilson struck out Wil Nieves to end it, Johnson emerged from the dugout and hugged his teammates in the handshake line. He seemed emotional as he hugged his children and tipped his cap to the sparse crowd before heading into the clubhouse, where the celebration was muted for obvious reasons.
"We're in a doubleheader right now," Bochy said. "It's hard to toast him when there's another game to play. We'll get to that point soon enough."
So Johnson munched on some pizza before walking into a news conference. Catcher Bengie Molina had handed him the ball from the final out, and Johnson handed it to his wife in the front row before he tried to describe his feelings.
He thanked the hundreds of teammates who helped him win each of those 300 games, acknowledged that this was special in light of the back injuries that nearly derailed his career and expressed relief that he did not prolong the wait.
"Some of the guys in the locker room have seen a lot in the last few years with Barry (Bonds') accomplishments and this accomplishment," he said. "I think I'm happy that it happened early enough. Like I said all along, I'm not here just to win five games. I'm here to help turn this team around."
Nobody can accuse Johnson of backing into his 300th win. He took a no-hitter into the fifth inning and left after allowing one unearned run on two hits with 78 pitches thrown.
Then, he needed a controversial call from home-plate umpire Tim Timmons to preserve the win.
The Giants still led 2-1 in the eighth inning. With the bases loaded and two outs, Timmons called strike three on a 3-2 Wilson fastball to Adam Dunn on a pitch that looked low. Ball four would have tied the game and given the Unit a no-decision.
"You really don't want to see a 300th win lost on a walk," Wilson said. "Nor did I want to see it."
Dunn argued with Timmons over the pitch, but Wilson, smiling, said, "I liked it. It worked out. I pretty much just wanted to throw it down the middle and see what he could do with it."
The Giants then scored their three precious insurance runs, and Wilson struck out the side in the ninth for his 13th save. He has saved all five of Johnson's wins this year.
Johnson's teammates presented him a 2-0 lead in the first inning when Fred Lewis singled, Ishikawa shot a double past first base, Juan Uribe grounded out to score Lewis and, with two outs, Emmanuel Burriss lined an 0-2 pitch from Jordan Zimmermann up the middle for a single.
Burriss and Aaron Rowand contributed excellent defensive plays, and the Johnson made a nice play of his own as he hurt his shoulder in the sixth inning. He knocked down Anderson Hernandez's leadoff grounder, chased the ball as it rolled to the right side and made a barehanded flip to Ishikawa as his 6-foot-10 body hit the turf.
Alberto Gonzalez, the next hitter, reached on an error by Edgar Renteria, who gloved a routine grounder and threw a slider to Ishikawa at first. The error was costly, as Nick Johnson then doubled to the gap in right-center and Gonzalez scored.
But the Unit preserved his 2-1 lead by retiring Ryan Zimmerman and Dunn, his last hitter on his momentous night.
"It just goes to show you what these great athletes are capable of doing when they put their mind to it," Bochy said. "He set his mind on 300 wins - I don't know when - and he did it."
Giants' Johnson wins No. 300
Henry Schulman, Chronicle Staff Writer
Friday, June 5, 2009
Washington -- As Randy Johnson hugged his teammates and family in a cool late-spring drizzle, he understood he was relishing a feeling that only 23 other men in baseball have enjoyed. Many of those pitchers, some he knows personally, some just regal names in the lore of the game, were on his mind as he celebrated his 300th win Thursday night.
As difficult as this careerlong accomplishment was, Johnson said, others accomplished so much more. With age comes the perspective that while he resides in baseball's highest aerie, he does not live there alone.
"It sounds funny," Johnson said after his 300th win came in a 5-1 victory against the Washington Nationals in the first game of a doubleheader, "but I've played 21, 22 years. I'm 45 and I've come upon 300 wins and I'm thinking, 'I only have 211 more to catch Cy Young.' "
The Big Unit was raised in Livermore, cut his teeth as a Montreal Expo, became a star as a Seattle Mariner and won a championship as an Arizona Diamondback. All of that, though, was relegated to the musty pages of a history book when he wrote a defining chapter at Nationals Park and joined the 300-win club as its sixth left-hander.
Johnson pitched six dominating innings before leaving with a bruised shoulder caused when he hit the turf to grab a ball and fling it to first baseman Travis Ishikawa for the first out of the sixth inning - "my senior moment when I thought I was only 25," Johnson joked. Manager Bruce Bochy said Johnson is not expected to miss a start.
The Unit retreated to the clubhouse to watch Brandon Medders, Jeremy Affeldt and Brian Wilson get through the seventh and eighth innings then returned to the dugout to watch Wilson finish the ninth.
The game was far more tense than the final score. The Giants led 2-1 until they added three runs in the ninth inning, on a two-run double by Randy Winn and a Pablo Sandoval sacrifice fly.
Lisa Johnson surely spoke for her husband in the dugout and Giants fans the world over when she said, "It was a little scary for a while. I liked having those extra few runs."
Johnson became the first pitcher since Tom Seaver in 1985 to earn his 300th win on his first try. He also became the second-oldest pitcher to win 300, at 45 years and 267 days. Phil Niekro was the oldest at 46 years, 188 days.
The milestone occurred in front of a few thousand fans in a chilly gloom between storms, with a large contingent of ticket holders behind the visiting dugout rising and cheering for every positive Giants development. They included Johnson's wife and daughters Samantha, Willow and Lexi. His 13-year-old son, Tanner, served as a batboy and seemed more nervous than Dad during the ninth.
Randy Johnson sat stoically in the dugout, cracking a smile only when some fans started chanting his name, as Tanner nearly pulverized the baseball he was holding.
When Wilson struck out Wil Nieves to end it, Johnson emerged from the dugout and hugged his teammates in the handshake line. He seemed emotional as he hugged his children and tipped his cap to the sparse crowd before heading into the clubhouse, where the celebration was muted for obvious reasons.
"We're in a doubleheader right now," Bochy said. "It's hard to toast him when there's another game to play. We'll get to that point soon enough."
So Johnson munched on some pizza before walking into a news conference. Catcher Bengie Molina had handed him the ball from the final out, and Johnson handed it to his wife in the front row before he tried to describe his feelings.
He thanked the hundreds of teammates who helped him win each of those 300 games, acknowledged that this was special in light of the back injuries that nearly derailed his career and expressed relief that he did not prolong the wait.
"Some of the guys in the locker room have seen a lot in the last few years with Barry (Bonds') accomplishments and this accomplishment," he said. "I think I'm happy that it happened early enough. Like I said all along, I'm not here just to win five games. I'm here to help turn this team around."
Nobody can accuse Johnson of backing into his 300th win. He took a no-hitter into the fifth inning and left after allowing one unearned run on two hits with 78 pitches thrown.
Then, he needed a controversial call from home-plate umpire Tim Timmons to preserve the win.
The Giants still led 2-1 in the eighth inning. With the bases loaded and two outs, Timmons called strike three on a 3-2 Wilson fastball to Adam Dunn on a pitch that looked low. Ball four would have tied the game and given the Unit a no-decision.
"You really don't want to see a 300th win lost on a walk," Wilson said. "Nor did I want to see it."
Dunn argued with Timmons over the pitch, but Wilson, smiling, said, "I liked it. It worked out. I pretty much just wanted to throw it down the middle and see what he could do with it."
The Giants then scored their three precious insurance runs, and Wilson struck out the side in the ninth for his 13th save. He has saved all five of Johnson's wins this year.
Johnson's teammates presented him a 2-0 lead in the first inning when Fred Lewis singled, Ishikawa shot a double past first base, Juan Uribe grounded out to score Lewis and, with two outs, Emmanuel Burriss lined an 0-2 pitch from Jordan Zimmermann up the middle for a single.
Burriss and Aaron Rowand contributed excellent defensive plays, and the Johnson made a nice play of his own as he hurt his shoulder in the sixth inning. He knocked down Anderson Hernandez's leadoff grounder, chased the ball as it rolled to the right side and made a barehanded flip to Ishikawa as his 6-foot-10 body hit the turf.
Alberto Gonzalez, the next hitter, reached on an error by Edgar Renteria, who gloved a routine grounder and threw a slider to Ishikawa at first. The error was costly, as Nick Johnson then doubled to the gap in right-center and Gonzalez scored.
But the Unit preserved his 2-1 lead by retiring Ryan Zimmerman and Dunn, his last hitter on his momentous night.
"It just goes to show you what these great athletes are capable of doing when they put their mind to it," Bochy said. "He set his mind on 300 wins - I don't know when - and he did it."
Monday, October 27, 2008
Biden’s chilling remarks at fundraiser
Robalini's Note: One additional quote from Biden at the event can be found below, and it is telling:
http://blogs.abcnews.com/politicalradar/2008/10/biden-to-suppor.html
"I probably shouldn't have said all this because it dawned on me that the press is here."
http://wsws.org/articles/2008/oct2008/bidn-o22.shtml
World Socialist Web Site
Biden’s chilling remarks at fundraiser
What “incredibly tough” foreign policy actions is Obama preparing?
By Patrick Martin
22 October 2008
In remarks made over the weekend in Seattle, Democratic vice presidential candidate Joseph Biden warned that Barack Obama, if elected president, would be compelled to take deeply unpopular actions in both domestic and foreign policy within months of taking office.
In closed-door gatherings with two audiences of Democratic Party insiders and fundraisers, Biden forecast a major international crisis in the first six months of an Obama administration.
He compared Obama to John F. Kennedy, the last senator to be elected president. "It will not be six months before the world tests Barack Obama like they did John Kennedy," Biden said. "The world is looking. We're about to elect a brilliant 47-year-old senator president of the United States of America. Watch. We're going to have an international crisis, a generated crisis, to test the mettle of this guy."
Biden mentioned the Middle East, Afghanistan, Pakistan, North Korea and Russia as potential points of conflict, but did not spell out the exact nature of such a crisis, observing, "I can give you at least four or five scenarios from where it might originate." He made it clear that Obama would respond forcefully: "They're going to want to test him. And they're going to find out this guy's got steel in his spine."
The most politically significant portion of Biden's remarks came when he admitted that the decisions of an Obama-Biden administration were likely to be deeply unpopular, and he called on the Democratic Party regulars to stand behind the new president even when public opinion turned against him.
"He's going to need help," Biden said. "He's going to need you—not financially to help him—we're going to need you to use your influence, your influence within the community, to stand with him. Because it's not going to be apparent initially, it's not going to be apparent that we're right."
He continued, "There are going to be a lot of you who want to go, ‘Whoa, wait a minute, yo, whoa, whoa, I don't know about that decision.' Because if you think the decision is sound when they're made, which I believe you will when they're made, they're not likely to be as popular as they are sound. Because if they're popular, they're probably not sound."
Here is the voice of a longtime representative of the financial aristocracy, voicing his contempt for public opinion—"if decisions are popular, they're probably not sound"—and warning his wealthy audience that the new Obama-Biden administration will have to defy public opinion to carry out its policies. Biden's language suggests that the ferocity of the new administration's response will shock not only public opinion, but even its own supporters.
In that context, one must point out Biden's suggestions that nuclear weapons might play a role in one or more of the potential crises. A nuclear-armed Korean Peninsula could lead to "Japan as a nuclear power," he said, which could push China into expanding its nuclear weaponry. The Pakistan-Afghanistan border is "crawling with Al Qaeda" and "Pakistan is already bristling with nuclear weapons, all of which can hit Israel." Biden also noted Iran's alleged drive to build a nuclear weapon.
Foreign policy journals and pundits linked to the Democratic Party have undoubtedly been discussing many such doomsday scenarios, and Biden's language suggests that the use of the US nuclear arsenal, the world's largest, is under consideration by those who are formulating the foreign and military policy of an Obama-Biden administration.
Biden himself has been one of the most hawkish on foreign policy among leading congressional Democrats, backing the invasion and occupation of Afghanistan and Iraq and advocating a US-led military intervention in Darfur. During the Democratic presidential primary campaign, he was the most vociferous of all the candidates in denouncing antiwar protest groups seeking a cutoff of funds for the war in Iraq.
Biden's expectation of widespread popular hostility to an Obama administration applies not only to foreign and military policy, but to domestic policy. He told the Seattle audience, "I promise you, you all are going to be sitting here a year from now going, ‘Oh my God, why are they there in the polls, why is the polling so down, why is this thing so tough?' We're going have to make some incredibly tough decisions in the first two years."
The Democratic candidate did not spell out the exact nature of these "incredibly tough decisions," other than to refer to the financial and economic crisis and two wars being bequeathed by the Bush administration to its successor.
In the wake of these blunt and ominous comments, there have been disingenuous attempts to explain them away from both parties.
Republican presidential candidate John McCain seized on the suggestion that foreign enemies might seek to test an inexperienced President Obama, citing his own military and foreign policy expertise going back more than 50 years. Right-wing pundits went further, suggesting, as one put it, that "Biden is forecasting inaction by Obama in the face of testing by a dictator."
This interpretation is preposterous, especially given Biden's own record as a fervent supporter of US military intervention. Obama's selection of the Delaware senator as his running mate was itself an effort to reassure the political establishment of his commitment to defend the interests of American imperialism by military force.
The Obama campaign sought to shrug off Biden's remarks as a mere historical generalization, triggered by the Obama-Kennedy analogy, not a prediction of impending crisis. A campaign spokesman said Biden was referring to Kennedy's confrontation with Soviet President Nikita Khrushchev in summit talks in Vienna, a few months after he took office—although these talks took place after a US military provocation—the invasion of Cuba by US-trained exiles who were defeated at the Bay of Pigs.
An Obama administration would not be an "innocent abroad," picked on by dictators out to "test the mettle" of a US president. American imperialism continues from administration to administration, Democratic or Republican. If elected, Obama will take office heading the world's largest military machine, engaged in violent provocations in dozens of countries, any of which could flare up unexpectedly, especially under the impact of the deepening world economic crisis.
Obama won the Democratic presidential nomination by presenting himself as the more consistent antiwar candidate, and the Democratic ticket in public pledges to end the war in Iraq and adopt a less militaristic stance. But behind closed doors, before select audiences of the financial and political elite, Biden has given a glimpse of the real perspective of the Democratic wing of American imperialism.
Tuesday, September 23, 2008
Is Washington Mutual the Next to Fall?
http://www.businessweek.com/bwdaily/dnflash/content/sep2008/db20080916_498821.htm
September 16, 2008
Is Washington Mutual the Next to Fall?
The Seattle-based S&L, much exposed by the housing bust, has seen its stock plummet. But a new CEO is working to shore up confidence
by Christopher Palmeri
Washington Mutual (WM), a company that once considered itself the Starbucks (SBUX) of banking, now has a stock price lower than that of a latte.
Shares of the Seattle company, the nation's largest savings and loan, fell 27% on Sept. 15, to $2 a share, following news that other struggling financial-services giants Lehman Brothers (LEH) and Merrill Lynch (MER) had succumbed to the mortgage meltdown. WaMu shares rose 16% on Sept. 16 to close at 2.32 as investors responded to rumors that banking giant JPMorgan Chase (JPM) may make an offer for the company.
The question on many investors' minds is whether WaMu is more like IndyMac, the big bank taken over by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. in July, or Wachovia (WB), a troubled institution that under new CEO Robert Steel appears to have won back some investor confidence.
The man in the spotlight at WaMu is Alan Fishman, a banking industry veteran who took the job as chief executive on Sept. 8. Fishman replaced Kerry Killinger, a 25-year veteran of the bank, who built WaMu from a small thrift to a national player in mortgages, only to see that business collapse with the housing bust. A WaMu failure could cost taxpayers some $24 billion, figures Richard Bove, an analyst with the brokerage firm Ladenburg Thalmann (LTS).
Pep Talk
In a 12-minute conference call with investors on Sept. 8, Fishman offered little in the way of new strategy, opting instead for just some words of inspiration for the troops. "I know I need to hit the ground running, and I'm prepared to do that," he said.
Run he did. In Fishman's first week on the job, WaMu announced it was cooperating with the federal Office of Thrift Supervision to provide more information about its operations and business plans. When credit rating agency Moody's (MCO) downgraded the bank to junk-bond status citing its limited financial flexibility, WaMu pre-announced its earnings for the third quarter in an effort to soothe investors. The bank noted that it had $50 billion in "liquidity" available and capital ratios "significantly above the levels of well-capitalized institutions."
Even so, Fishman has a tough road ahead. WaMu has $239 billion in real estate loans, according to analyst Bove. Some $53 billion of those are the dreaded adjustable-rate loans in which the payments are optional and losses are as high as 35%. In July, Bove put WaMu on a list of several dozen shaky institutions. He figured any bank with nonperforming loans greater than 40% of its reserves and equity was in trouble. WaMu's was right at that 40% threshold.
Bove's loss estimates are close to that of other analysts. Fred Cannon, a bank analyst at Keefe, Bruyette & Woods, put out a research note on Sept. 15 that estimated WaMu losses could hit $28 billion this year and next. If that were the case, the bank would need to raise a further $5 billion in capital, Cannon said.
Where that money would come from is uncertain. The bank has already raised some $10 billion in the past year, including $7.2 billion in April from a group of private equity investors led by TPG.
White Knight?
Many analysts feel Fishman's best bet is to find a merger partner, but there are fewer of those around these days. Bank of America's (BAC) acquisitive Chief Executive Kenneth Lewis said on Sept. 15 that he had no interest in WaMu. The most likely candidate remains JPMorgan Chase, which allegedly made a $8-per-share offer earlier this year. Says Nancy Bush, a banking industry analyst with her own firm, NAB Research: "They better hope somebody buys them fast."
Words of support came oddly enough from Moody's analysts after announcing their downgrade last week. David Fanger, a senior vice-president at the firm, said that WaMu, by its nature as a federally insured institution, had some capital-raising advantages over investment banks. Its two main sources of funding are consumer deposits, which are largely stable even in tough times, and loans from the Federal Home Loan Banks system. In the S&L crisis of the late 1980s and early '90s, financial institutions received similarly poor credit ratings and were able to survive. Some were later acquired by WaMu during its aggressive expansion over the past two decades.
WaMu has lately been luring retail depositors with interest rates on 13-month certificates of deposits offering 4.5%, at the very high end of the industry. The firm has some strong retail banking positions, including top market-share positions in Southern California, Miami, and Seattle. In his conference call on Sept. 8, Fishman dismissed a question about selling bank branches to raise money as "way early." He also said he didn't immediately foresee a need for the bank to raise additional capital. Said Fishman: "The opportunity to create a great national retail franchise has never been better."
Palmeri is a senior correspondent in BusinessWeek's Los Angeles bureau.
September 16, 2008
Is Washington Mutual the Next to Fall?
The Seattle-based S&L, much exposed by the housing bust, has seen its stock plummet. But a new CEO is working to shore up confidence
by Christopher Palmeri
Washington Mutual (WM), a company that once considered itself the Starbucks (SBUX) of banking, now has a stock price lower than that of a latte.
Shares of the Seattle company, the nation's largest savings and loan, fell 27% on Sept. 15, to $2 a share, following news that other struggling financial-services giants Lehman Brothers (LEH) and Merrill Lynch (MER) had succumbed to the mortgage meltdown. WaMu shares rose 16% on Sept. 16 to close at 2.32 as investors responded to rumors that banking giant JPMorgan Chase (JPM) may make an offer for the company.
The question on many investors' minds is whether WaMu is more like IndyMac, the big bank taken over by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. in July, or Wachovia (WB), a troubled institution that under new CEO Robert Steel appears to have won back some investor confidence.
The man in the spotlight at WaMu is Alan Fishman, a banking industry veteran who took the job as chief executive on Sept. 8. Fishman replaced Kerry Killinger, a 25-year veteran of the bank, who built WaMu from a small thrift to a national player in mortgages, only to see that business collapse with the housing bust. A WaMu failure could cost taxpayers some $24 billion, figures Richard Bove, an analyst with the brokerage firm Ladenburg Thalmann (LTS).
Pep Talk
In a 12-minute conference call with investors on Sept. 8, Fishman offered little in the way of new strategy, opting instead for just some words of inspiration for the troops. "I know I need to hit the ground running, and I'm prepared to do that," he said.
Run he did. In Fishman's first week on the job, WaMu announced it was cooperating with the federal Office of Thrift Supervision to provide more information about its operations and business plans. When credit rating agency Moody's (MCO) downgraded the bank to junk-bond status citing its limited financial flexibility, WaMu pre-announced its earnings for the third quarter in an effort to soothe investors. The bank noted that it had $50 billion in "liquidity" available and capital ratios "significantly above the levels of well-capitalized institutions."
Even so, Fishman has a tough road ahead. WaMu has $239 billion in real estate loans, according to analyst Bove. Some $53 billion of those are the dreaded adjustable-rate loans in which the payments are optional and losses are as high as 35%. In July, Bove put WaMu on a list of several dozen shaky institutions. He figured any bank with nonperforming loans greater than 40% of its reserves and equity was in trouble. WaMu's was right at that 40% threshold.
Bove's loss estimates are close to that of other analysts. Fred Cannon, a bank analyst at Keefe, Bruyette & Woods, put out a research note on Sept. 15 that estimated WaMu losses could hit $28 billion this year and next. If that were the case, the bank would need to raise a further $5 billion in capital, Cannon said.
Where that money would come from is uncertain. The bank has already raised some $10 billion in the past year, including $7.2 billion in April from a group of private equity investors led by TPG.
White Knight?
Many analysts feel Fishman's best bet is to find a merger partner, but there are fewer of those around these days. Bank of America's (BAC) acquisitive Chief Executive Kenneth Lewis said on Sept. 15 that he had no interest in WaMu. The most likely candidate remains JPMorgan Chase, which allegedly made a $8-per-share offer earlier this year. Says Nancy Bush, a banking industry analyst with her own firm, NAB Research: "They better hope somebody buys them fast."
Words of support came oddly enough from Moody's analysts after announcing their downgrade last week. David Fanger, a senior vice-president at the firm, said that WaMu, by its nature as a federally insured institution, had some capital-raising advantages over investment banks. Its two main sources of funding are consumer deposits, which are largely stable even in tough times, and loans from the Federal Home Loan Banks system. In the S&L crisis of the late 1980s and early '90s, financial institutions received similarly poor credit ratings and were able to survive. Some were later acquired by WaMu during its aggressive expansion over the past two decades.
WaMu has lately been luring retail depositors with interest rates on 13-month certificates of deposits offering 4.5%, at the very high end of the industry. The firm has some strong retail banking positions, including top market-share positions in Southern California, Miami, and Seattle. In his conference call on Sept. 8, Fishman dismissed a question about selling bank branches to raise money as "way early." He also said he didn't immediately foresee a need for the bank to raise additional capital. Said Fishman: "The opportunity to create a great national retail franchise has never been better."
Palmeri is a senior correspondent in BusinessWeek's Los Angeles bureau.
Saturday, September 6, 2008
Oklahoma City's NBA team to be called Thunder
http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5jkN_0O4FG2ehgoJTTnwXt0WAbvfQD92VION81Oklahoma City's NBA team to be called Thunder
By JEFF LATZKE
9-3-8
OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) — Thunder can be heard from miles away, an early warning that a storm is about to arrive. So, perhaps it's only fitting that the name of Oklahoma City's NBA team didn't sneak up on anyone.
Six weeks after the name first surfaced, team officials officially announced Wednesday that the team formerly known as the Seattle SuperSonics would be known as the Oklahoma City Thunder.
"It's hard to keep a secret," team chairman Clay Bennett said after stepping to a podium on the ground floor of the downtown office building where the team is headquartered.
The announcement had long been anticipated, but everyone knew what was coming.
The local ABC affiliate reported in mid-July that Thunder had been chosen as the nickname. Then the NBA Web site listed NBA.com/thunder as a link to the Oklahoma City team's page. Then the Orlando Magic's site listed games against the Oklahoma City Thunder.
Even the logo and colors leaked out over the weekend. Then, prior to the 5 p.m. announcement, Thunder merchandise started showing up on the NBA's online store.
"I thought it was great fun. Maybe I have a warped sense of things," Bennett said. "I thought it was a lot of fun. I was disappointed in the image being released."
That left Bennett somewhat surprised that hundreds of people still showed up in the atrium of Leadership Square, watched from their office windows or leaned over a second-floor walkway to hear it for sure.
"My family talked about wanting to come down, and I said, `Well, I don't think it's that big a deal. Everybody seems to know the name already,'" Bennett said.
To unveil the logo, six children joined players Desmond Mason and Damien Wilkins to pull down a curtain as the AC/DC song "Thunderstruck" blared over the loudspeaker. What was revealed was a large blue banner with the logo in the middle, and splashes of yellow at the top and reddish-orange at the bottom.
Bennett said the light blue color coincides with the state flag to represent the inclusion of all Oklahomans, the yellow refers to the sun and the reddish-orange color to the sunset. With the University of Oklahoma featuring crimson as its primary color, and Oklahoma State using orange, Bennett said it was "not too red and not too orange."
Thunder is a fitting moniker for the Oklahoma City franchise, not only as a reference to powerful storms in the area known as Tornado Alley. The Oklahoma City-based 45th Infantry Division carries Thunderbirds as its nickname, and that's a reference to the state's American Indian heritage. Even one of Oklahoma native Garth Brooks' biggest hits was "The Thunder Rolls."
"There's just all kinds of good thunder images and thoughts, and the in-game experience of Thunder," Bennett said. "Just here was a good sense of how that evokes emotion. It's very powerful."
The team name had been the most evident — and talked about — element missing after Bennett announced July 2 that the SuperSonics would be moving to Oklahoma City through an agreement that will have him pay the city of Seattle up to $75 million to settle a lawsuit.
Bennett said the uniforms and mascot won't be unveiled for another few weeks, but T-shirts, basketballs and other Thunder merchandise went on sale immediately after the announcement.
"The guys in the jerseys, if they play, the jerseys are going to look real good," coach P.J. Carlesimo said.
While the team applied for trademarks to six names — the others were Wind, Barons, Marshalls, Energy and Bison — Bennett said the decision on the name had been made "quite some time" ago. He said the names on the trademark applications weren't finalists, and he wouldn't reveal what other names got serious consideration.
General manager Sam Presti told the crowd designing a logo "takes an immense amount of work, and it does take some time.
"Not that anyone was really paying attention to the amount of time it was taking," he quipped.
Team officials said they hope they can make the qualities of character, perseverance, selflessness, community and winning synonymous with Thunder.
"It's very unique," said Mason, a former Oklahoma State forward who the Thunder acquired in an offseason trade with Milwaukee. "It's going to take some time getting used to, just like Utah Jazz or Orlando Magic, but I think it's a great thing for the state and a great thing for the city."
Thursday, July 10, 2008
Lesbian kiss at Seattle ballpark
What guy would mind seeing this girl kissing?http://www.breitbart.com/article.php?id=D9142SUG1&show_article=1
Lesbian kiss at Seattle ballpark stirs up gay-friendly town
By MANUEL VALDES
Associated Press Writer
SEATTLE (AP) - Most of the time, a kiss is just a kiss in the stands at Seattle Mariners games. The crowd hardly even pays attention when fans smooch.
But then last week, a lesbian complained that an usher at Safeco Field asked her to stop kissing her date because it was making another fan uncomfortable.
The incident has exploded on local TV, on talk radio and in the blogosphere and has touched off a debate over public displays of affection in generally gay-friendly Seattle.
"Certain individuals have not yet caught up. Those people see a gay or lesbian couple and they stare or say something," said Josh Friedes of Equal Rights Washington. "This is one of the challenges of being gay. Everyday things can become sources of trauma."
As the Mariners played the Boston Red Sox on May 26, Sirbrina Guerrero and her date were approached in the third inning by an usher who told them their kissing was inappropriate, Guerrero said.
The usher, Guerrero said, told them he had received a complaint from a woman nearby who said that there were kids in the crowd of nearly 36,000 and that parents would have to explain why two women were kissing.
"I was really just shocked," Guerrero said. "Seattle is so gay- friendly. There was a couple like seven rows ahead making out. We were just showing affection."
On Thursday, after an internal investigation, the Mariners said in a news release that their seating staff had acted appropriately, and the couple was approached because of their behavior—which included "making out" and "groping" in the stands—and not their sexual orientation.
"We have a strict nondiscrimination policy at the Seattle Mariners and at Safeco Field, and when we do enforce the code of conduct it is based on behavior, not on the identity of those involved," Mariners spokeswoman Rebecca Hale said earlier this week.
In the release, the Mariners said the women were told they could continue to kiss, but that they had to "tone it down."
"The women refused to modify their behavior, began swearing at the seating hosts and complained that they were being singled out for their sexual orientation," the club said.
The code of conduct—announced before each game—specifically mentions public displays of affection that are "not appropriate in a public, family setting." Hale said those standards are based on what a "reasonable person" would find inappropriate.
Guerrero denied she and her date were groping each other, saying that along with eating garlic fries, they were giving each other brief kisses.
On Tuesday, Guerrero said a Mariners director of guest services had apologized to her. The team spokeswoman could not immediately confirm that.
After the story broke, the Mariners were blasted by the sex-advice columnist Dan Savage, who wrote about the incident on the blog of the Stranger, an alternative weekly paper.
"They go out of their way to say it's a quote-unquote family setting," Savage said. "As a gay season-ticket holder, we've never been quite sure what that means exactly. I constantly see people see making out. My son has noticed and asked, `Do they show the ballgame on women's foreheads?'"
Savage called for a "kiss-in" to protest against the Mariners.
Web sites have been swamped with blog postings for and against Guerrero and her date. And the story has people talking in Seattle.
"I would be uncomfortable" seeing public displays of affection between lesbians or gay men, said Jim Ridneour, a 54-year-old taxi driver. "I don't think it's right seeing women kissing in public. If I had my family there, I'd have to explain what's going on."
"It all depends on the degree," Mark Ackerman said as he waited for a hot dog outside Safeco Field before Wednesday's game. "Even for heterosexual couples."
Since the incident, Guerrero's job and her past have come under scrutiny. She works at a bar known for scantily clad women and was a contestant on the MTV reality show "A Shot at Love With Tila Tequila," in which women and men compete for the affection of a bisexual Internet celebrity.
"People are saying it's 15 more minutes for my career," Guerrero said of the ballpark furor, "but this is not making me look very good."
In 2007, an Oregon transit agency chief apologized after a lesbian teenager was kicked off a bus when a passenger complained about her kissing another girl.
Also in 2007, a gay rights group protested a Kansas City, Mo., restaurant they said ejected four women because two of them kissed, and a Texas state trooper was placed on probation in 2004 for telling two gay men who were kissing at the state Capitol that homosexual conduct was illegal in Texas.
"There's a double standard. That's the bottom line," said Pat Griffin, director of the It Takes a Team! Education Campaign, an initiative from the Women's Sports Foundation to eliminate homophobia in sports.
___
On the Net:
Seattle Mariners: http://seattle.mariners.mlb.com
Equal Rights Washington: http://www.equalrightswashington.org
Lesbian kiss at Seattle ballpark stirs up gay-friendly town
By MANUEL VALDES
Associated Press Writer
SEATTLE (AP) - Most of the time, a kiss is just a kiss in the stands at Seattle Mariners games. The crowd hardly even pays attention when fans smooch.
But then last week, a lesbian complained that an usher at Safeco Field asked her to stop kissing her date because it was making another fan uncomfortable.
The incident has exploded on local TV, on talk radio and in the blogosphere and has touched off a debate over public displays of affection in generally gay-friendly Seattle.
"Certain individuals have not yet caught up. Those people see a gay or lesbian couple and they stare or say something," said Josh Friedes of Equal Rights Washington. "This is one of the challenges of being gay. Everyday things can become sources of trauma."
As the Mariners played the Boston Red Sox on May 26, Sirbrina Guerrero and her date were approached in the third inning by an usher who told them their kissing was inappropriate, Guerrero said.
The usher, Guerrero said, told them he had received a complaint from a woman nearby who said that there were kids in the crowd of nearly 36,000 and that parents would have to explain why two women were kissing.
"I was really just shocked," Guerrero said. "Seattle is so gay- friendly. There was a couple like seven rows ahead making out. We were just showing affection."
On Thursday, after an internal investigation, the Mariners said in a news release that their seating staff had acted appropriately, and the couple was approached because of their behavior—which included "making out" and "groping" in the stands—and not their sexual orientation.
"We have a strict nondiscrimination policy at the Seattle Mariners and at Safeco Field, and when we do enforce the code of conduct it is based on behavior, not on the identity of those involved," Mariners spokeswoman Rebecca Hale said earlier this week.
In the release, the Mariners said the women were told they could continue to kiss, but that they had to "tone it down."
"The women refused to modify their behavior, began swearing at the seating hosts and complained that they were being singled out for their sexual orientation," the club said.
The code of conduct—announced before each game—specifically mentions public displays of affection that are "not appropriate in a public, family setting." Hale said those standards are based on what a "reasonable person" would find inappropriate.
Guerrero denied she and her date were groping each other, saying that along with eating garlic fries, they were giving each other brief kisses.
On Tuesday, Guerrero said a Mariners director of guest services had apologized to her. The team spokeswoman could not immediately confirm that.
After the story broke, the Mariners were blasted by the sex-advice columnist Dan Savage, who wrote about the incident on the blog of the Stranger, an alternative weekly paper.
"They go out of their way to say it's a quote-unquote family setting," Savage said. "As a gay season-ticket holder, we've never been quite sure what that means exactly. I constantly see people see making out. My son has noticed and asked, `Do they show the ballgame on women's foreheads?'"
Savage called for a "kiss-in" to protest against the Mariners.
Web sites have been swamped with blog postings for and against Guerrero and her date. And the story has people talking in Seattle.
"I would be uncomfortable" seeing public displays of affection between lesbians or gay men, said Jim Ridneour, a 54-year-old taxi driver. "I don't think it's right seeing women kissing in public. If I had my family there, I'd have to explain what's going on."
"It all depends on the degree," Mark Ackerman said as he waited for a hot dog outside Safeco Field before Wednesday's game. "Even for heterosexual couples."
Since the incident, Guerrero's job and her past have come under scrutiny. She works at a bar known for scantily clad women and was a contestant on the MTV reality show "A Shot at Love With Tila Tequila," in which women and men compete for the affection of a bisexual Internet celebrity.
"People are saying it's 15 more minutes for my career," Guerrero said of the ballpark furor, "but this is not making me look very good."
In 2007, an Oregon transit agency chief apologized after a lesbian teenager was kicked off a bus when a passenger complained about her kissing another girl.
Also in 2007, a gay rights group protested a Kansas City, Mo., restaurant they said ejected four women because two of them kissed, and a Texas state trooper was placed on probation in 2004 for telling two gay men who were kissing at the state Capitol that homosexual conduct was illegal in Texas.
"There's a double standard. That's the bottom line," said Pat Griffin, director of the It Takes a Team! Education Campaign, an initiative from the Women's Sports Foundation to eliminate homophobia in sports.
___
On the Net:
Seattle Mariners: http://seattle.mariners.mlb.com
Equal Rights Washington: http://www.equalrightswashington.org
Friday, March 28, 2008
D.B. Cooper's parachute possibly found
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080326/ap_on_re_us/db_cooper
D.B. Cooper's parachute possibly found
By GENE JOHNSON, Associated Press Writer
3-26-8
The FBI is analyzing a torn, tangled parachute found buried by children in southwest Washington to determine whether it might have been used by famed plane hijacker D.B. Cooper, the agency said Tuesday.
Children playing outside their home near Amboy found the chute's fabric sticking up from the ground in an area where their father had been grading a road, agent Larry Carr said. They pulled it out as far as they could, then cut the parachute's ropes with scissors.
The children had seen recent media coverage of the case — the FBI launched a publicity campaign last fall, hoping to generate tips to solve the 36-year-old mystery — and they urged their dad to call the agency.
"When we went to the public, the whole idea was that the public is going to bring the answers to us," Carr said. "This is exactly what we were hoping for."
A man identifying himself as Dan Cooper — later mistakenly but enduringly identified as D.B. Cooper — hijacked a Northwest Orient flight from Portland, Ore., to Seattle in November 1971, claiming he had a bomb.
When the plane landed at Seattle-Tacoma International Airport, he released the passengers in exchange for $200,000 and asked to be flown to Mexico. He apparently parachuted from the plane's back stairs somewhere near the Oregon border.
Agents doubt he survived because conditions were poor and the terrain was rough, but few signs of his fate have been found.
Carr spoke with the children's father, whom he declined to identify, early this month and learned the chute was white, the same color as Cooper's.
And when Carr overlaid the family's address onto a map investigators made in the early days of the investigation, he learned another encouraging fact: They lived right in Cooper's most probable landing zone, between Green and Bald mountains.
Carr hopped in his car and drove down. He dug around the property for about 45 minutes, unsuccessfully looking for a harness or other remains from the parachute, but the children weren't home, and the father wasn't sure exactly where they found it.
There are no obvious markings on the parachute to indicate whether it's the type Cooper used, a Navy Backpack 6 with a 26-foot canopy, Carr said. He's hoping a member of the public who has expertise in the parachutes will come forward and confirm whether it's the right kind before the FBI bothers to excavate the property. Barring that, the agency could turn to scientific analysis of the fabric.
"We've got to be pretty darn sure we're not wasting time and money here," he said.
If it is Cooper's parachute, that will solve one mystery — where he apparently landed — but it will raise another, Carr said.
In 1980, a family on a picnic found $5,880 of Cooper's money in a bag on a Columbia River beach, near Vancouver. Some investigators believed it might have been washed down to the beach by the Washougal River. But if Cooper landed near Amboy and stashed the money bag there, there's no way it could have naturally reached the Washougal.
"If this is D.B. Cooper's parachute, the money could not have arrived at its discovery location by natural means," Carr said. "That whole theory is out the window."
D.B. Cooper's parachute possibly found
By GENE JOHNSON, Associated Press Writer
3-26-8
The FBI is analyzing a torn, tangled parachute found buried by children in southwest Washington to determine whether it might have been used by famed plane hijacker D.B. Cooper, the agency said Tuesday.
Children playing outside their home near Amboy found the chute's fabric sticking up from the ground in an area where their father had been grading a road, agent Larry Carr said. They pulled it out as far as they could, then cut the parachute's ropes with scissors.
The children had seen recent media coverage of the case — the FBI launched a publicity campaign last fall, hoping to generate tips to solve the 36-year-old mystery — and they urged their dad to call the agency.
"When we went to the public, the whole idea was that the public is going to bring the answers to us," Carr said. "This is exactly what we were hoping for."
A man identifying himself as Dan Cooper — later mistakenly but enduringly identified as D.B. Cooper — hijacked a Northwest Orient flight from Portland, Ore., to Seattle in November 1971, claiming he had a bomb.
When the plane landed at Seattle-Tacoma International Airport, he released the passengers in exchange for $200,000 and asked to be flown to Mexico. He apparently parachuted from the plane's back stairs somewhere near the Oregon border.
Agents doubt he survived because conditions were poor and the terrain was rough, but few signs of his fate have been found.
Carr spoke with the children's father, whom he declined to identify, early this month and learned the chute was white, the same color as Cooper's.
And when Carr overlaid the family's address onto a map investigators made in the early days of the investigation, he learned another encouraging fact: They lived right in Cooper's most probable landing zone, between Green and Bald mountains.
Carr hopped in his car and drove down. He dug around the property for about 45 minutes, unsuccessfully looking for a harness or other remains from the parachute, but the children weren't home, and the father wasn't sure exactly where they found it.
There are no obvious markings on the parachute to indicate whether it's the type Cooper used, a Navy Backpack 6 with a 26-foot canopy, Carr said. He's hoping a member of the public who has expertise in the parachutes will come forward and confirm whether it's the right kind before the FBI bothers to excavate the property. Barring that, the agency could turn to scientific analysis of the fabric.
"We've got to be pretty darn sure we're not wasting time and money here," he said.
If it is Cooper's parachute, that will solve one mystery — where he apparently landed — but it will raise another, Carr said.
In 1980, a family on a picnic found $5,880 of Cooper's money in a bag on a Columbia River beach, near Vancouver. Some investigators believed it might have been washed down to the beach by the Washougal River. But if Cooper landed near Amboy and stashed the money bag there, there's no way it could have naturally reached the Washougal.
"If this is D.B. Cooper's parachute, the money could not have arrived at its discovery location by natural means," Carr said. "That whole theory is out the window."
Tuesday, March 11, 2008
Microsoft, Costco CEOs may keep Sonics in town
http://msn.foxsports.com/nba/story/7878668/Microsoft,-Costco-CEOs-may-help-keep-Sonics-in-town
Microsoft, Costco CEOs may help keep Sonics in town
Associated Press
Updated: March 6, 2008
In no way did developer Matt Griffin ever consider owning a professional sports franchise.
With the Seattle SuperSonics seemingly destined for Oklahoma City, Griffin and his big-name partners see no other option than to make a huge financial commitment in an attempt to save the Sonics and pro basketball in Seattle.
"Our interest is not necessarily in being an owner, but seeing a team here in Seattle and seeing KeyArena alive," Griffin said Thursday. "If there was a way to do it without having to own the team, that would be terrific. But these are the cards, (and) we have some generous people here in Seattle that are willing to do this."
Making a last-ditch effort to keep the team, the city of Seattle unveiled a $300 million KeyArena renovation plan on Thursday, along with the heavy hitters of local business who are willing to provide a significant financial stake.
Griffin and his three partners - Microsoft Corp. chief executive Steve Ballmer, Costco Wholesale Corp. president and CEO Jim Sinegal and wireless entrepreneur John Stanton - have agreed to contribute $150 million to the arena renovation, contingent on the group's ability to purchase the SuperSonics or another NBA franchise. Only recently did the group up its offer from about $75 million.
The group hopes to have a viable option for professional basketball in Seattle on the table when the NBA's board of governors meets next month to vote on SuperSonics owner Clay Bennett's application to relocate the franchise to Oklahoma City at the earliest possible date.
"This particular announcement, we think, is a game-changer," Seattle Mayor Greg Nickels said. "The fact that local investors are willing to step up with the first 50 percent of the money to get this job done, as well as the investment they're going to make in buying a team to begin with, changes the game."
While private investment would cover half the arena upgrades, the plan envisions that the city and state would split the other $150 million. Half would come from the city of Seattle, offset by lease agreements and taxes on the renovated arena.
The other $75 million would come from existing taxes already in place to pay off bonds on the construction of Safeco Field. Those bonds are scheduled to be paid off early, and the KeyArena plan would call for the taxes to remain in place through 2016, when they were set to expire.
The state legislature would have to approve a continuation of the taxes.
Microsoft, Costco CEOs may help keep Sonics in town
Associated Press
Updated: March 6, 2008
In no way did developer Matt Griffin ever consider owning a professional sports franchise.
With the Seattle SuperSonics seemingly destined for Oklahoma City, Griffin and his big-name partners see no other option than to make a huge financial commitment in an attempt to save the Sonics and pro basketball in Seattle.
"Our interest is not necessarily in being an owner, but seeing a team here in Seattle and seeing KeyArena alive," Griffin said Thursday. "If there was a way to do it without having to own the team, that would be terrific. But these are the cards, (and) we have some generous people here in Seattle that are willing to do this."
Making a last-ditch effort to keep the team, the city of Seattle unveiled a $300 million KeyArena renovation plan on Thursday, along with the heavy hitters of local business who are willing to provide a significant financial stake.
Griffin and his three partners - Microsoft Corp. chief executive Steve Ballmer, Costco Wholesale Corp. president and CEO Jim Sinegal and wireless entrepreneur John Stanton - have agreed to contribute $150 million to the arena renovation, contingent on the group's ability to purchase the SuperSonics or another NBA franchise. Only recently did the group up its offer from about $75 million.
The group hopes to have a viable option for professional basketball in Seattle on the table when the NBA's board of governors meets next month to vote on SuperSonics owner Clay Bennett's application to relocate the franchise to Oklahoma City at the earliest possible date.
"This particular announcement, we think, is a game-changer," Seattle Mayor Greg Nickels said. "The fact that local investors are willing to step up with the first 50 percent of the money to get this job done, as well as the investment they're going to make in buying a team to begin with, changes the game."
While private investment would cover half the arena upgrades, the plan envisions that the city and state would split the other $150 million. Half would come from the city of Seattle, offset by lease agreements and taxes on the renovated arena.
The other $75 million would come from existing taxes already in place to pay off bonds on the construction of Safeco Field. Those bonds are scheduled to be paid off early, and the KeyArena plan would call for the taxes to remain in place through 2016, when they were set to expire.
The state legislature would have to approve a continuation of the taxes.
Wednesday, February 27, 2008
Cooking Light names top 20 U.S. cities
http://www.cnn.com/2008/HEALTH/diet.fitness/02/20/cl.best.cities/index.html
Cooking Light names cities that best fit its philosophy
Story Highlights
Cooking Light magazine marks 20th anniversary by naming top 20 U.S. cities
15 criteria were grouped into categories--eat smart, be fit, live well
Seattle tops list with lots of fresh local foods, pedestrian-friendly streets
To celebrate our 20th year of publication, Cooking Light wanted to know what places best fit our philosophy to eat smart, be fit, and live well. Using statistics from such organizations as the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the U.S. Department of Agriculture, and the Zagat Survey, we ranked major metropolitan areas on 15 criteria. The result, we think, is a ranking of U.S. cities that best provide the resources people need to live healthful lives.
"Each city reflects the full spectrum of living well in its own unique way -- innovative restaurants and markets with nutritious local foods, abundant spaces for walking and other exercise, and a population that takes advantage of both," says senior editor Phillip Rhodes, who headed up the project. "It's great to know that so many people all over the country have the tools they need to eat smart, be fit, and live well," Rhodes says.
1. Seattle, Washington
An abundance of fresh local foods, walker-friendly streets, and inclusive attitudes helps make Seattle America's best city for healthy living.
2. Portland, Oregon
Life is good in our second-ranked city, thanks to its seemingly endless supply of outdoor activities, cutting-edge restaurants, and vibrant environmental consciousness.
3. Washington, D.C.
Our capital city sets an accommodating agenda with farm-fresh dining, diverse cultures, and ample opportunity for exploration on foot.
4. Minneapolis, Minnesota
In our fourth-ranked best city, lush parks and shimmering lakes provide a natural backdrop to a rich cultural landscape.
5. San Francisco, California
Our fifth-ranked city steps up with one of the world's most unforgettable settings--along with great cuisine and an energetic spirit.
6. Boston, Massachusetts
Strolling historic parks and swanning around the water are but two of the pastimes that make summer prime time to enjoy our sixth-ranked city.
7. Denver, Colorado
The Mile-High City ranked seventh on our list for an outdoorsy Western lifestyle that makes living well accessible and irresistible.
8. Milwaukee, Wisconsin
Our eighth-ranked city proves a worthy destination for food lovers, adventure seekers, and culture aficionados alike.
9. Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
In America's fifth-largest city, the historic past provides a backdrop for a present that's healthful and happening.
10. Tucson, Arizona
Tucson offers a taste of the authentic Southwest in a desert setting that's ideal for a warm winter getaway.
11. Baltimore, Maryland
Baltimore, it turns out, has lots of people who eat five or more servings of fruits and veggies a day--27 percent.
12. Colorado Springs, Colorado
Graced with bountiful trail systems, no wonder 91 percent of the city's population claims to be in good health.
13. Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
Skies, once dark with factory smoke, open above crystal-towered downtown Pittsburgh, bound on three sides by the rivers Monongahela, Allegheny, and Ohio.
14. St. Louis, Missouri
A love for local produce and healthful activities keeps this urban center well fed and on the move.
15. New York, New York
New Yorkers walk far more than most Americans, and they do it quickly. But they slow down for green markets--25 in Manhattan alone.
16. Atlanta, Georgia
Approximately 55,000 people gather on the Fourth of July at the Peachtree Road Race, the largest 10k in the world.
17. Austin, Texas
You can't swing a yoga mat in Austin without hitting a cool place to exercise--whether it's inside a gym or outdoors in a natural, spring-fed pool.
18. Chicago, Illinois
The city's environmentally friendly mentality is one of the reasons why it is home to the 2007 Cooking Light FitHouse.
19. Las Vegas, Nevada
In our list, the city ranks third in restaurants rated "extraordinary to perfection" and third in nominations for James Beard awards.
20. Kansas City, Missouri
A recent study revealed Kansas City has the purest water of any major city in the country.
Cooking Light names cities that best fit its philosophy
Story Highlights
Cooking Light magazine marks 20th anniversary by naming top 20 U.S. cities
15 criteria were grouped into categories--eat smart, be fit, live well
Seattle tops list with lots of fresh local foods, pedestrian-friendly streets
To celebrate our 20th year of publication, Cooking Light wanted to know what places best fit our philosophy to eat smart, be fit, and live well. Using statistics from such organizations as the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the U.S. Department of Agriculture, and the Zagat Survey, we ranked major metropolitan areas on 15 criteria. The result, we think, is a ranking of U.S. cities that best provide the resources people need to live healthful lives.
"Each city reflects the full spectrum of living well in its own unique way -- innovative restaurants and markets with nutritious local foods, abundant spaces for walking and other exercise, and a population that takes advantage of both," says senior editor Phillip Rhodes, who headed up the project. "It's great to know that so many people all over the country have the tools they need to eat smart, be fit, and live well," Rhodes says.
1. Seattle, Washington
An abundance of fresh local foods, walker-friendly streets, and inclusive attitudes helps make Seattle America's best city for healthy living.
2. Portland, Oregon
Life is good in our second-ranked city, thanks to its seemingly endless supply of outdoor activities, cutting-edge restaurants, and vibrant environmental consciousness.
3. Washington, D.C.
Our capital city sets an accommodating agenda with farm-fresh dining, diverse cultures, and ample opportunity for exploration on foot.
4. Minneapolis, Minnesota
In our fourth-ranked best city, lush parks and shimmering lakes provide a natural backdrop to a rich cultural landscape.
5. San Francisco, California
Our fifth-ranked city steps up with one of the world's most unforgettable settings--along with great cuisine and an energetic spirit.
6. Boston, Massachusetts
Strolling historic parks and swanning around the water are but two of the pastimes that make summer prime time to enjoy our sixth-ranked city.
7. Denver, Colorado
The Mile-High City ranked seventh on our list for an outdoorsy Western lifestyle that makes living well accessible and irresistible.
8. Milwaukee, Wisconsin
Our eighth-ranked city proves a worthy destination for food lovers, adventure seekers, and culture aficionados alike.
9. Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
In America's fifth-largest city, the historic past provides a backdrop for a present that's healthful and happening.
10. Tucson, Arizona
Tucson offers a taste of the authentic Southwest in a desert setting that's ideal for a warm winter getaway.
11. Baltimore, Maryland
Baltimore, it turns out, has lots of people who eat five or more servings of fruits and veggies a day--27 percent.
12. Colorado Springs, Colorado
Graced with bountiful trail systems, no wonder 91 percent of the city's population claims to be in good health.
13. Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
Skies, once dark with factory smoke, open above crystal-towered downtown Pittsburgh, bound on three sides by the rivers Monongahela, Allegheny, and Ohio.
14. St. Louis, Missouri
A love for local produce and healthful activities keeps this urban center well fed and on the move.
15. New York, New York
New Yorkers walk far more than most Americans, and they do it quickly. But they slow down for green markets--25 in Manhattan alone.
16. Atlanta, Georgia
Approximately 55,000 people gather on the Fourth of July at the Peachtree Road Race, the largest 10k in the world.
17. Austin, Texas
You can't swing a yoga mat in Austin without hitting a cool place to exercise--whether it's inside a gym or outdoors in a natural, spring-fed pool.
18. Chicago, Illinois
The city's environmentally friendly mentality is one of the reasons why it is home to the 2007 Cooking Light FitHouse.
19. Las Vegas, Nevada
In our list, the city ranks third in restaurants rated "extraordinary to perfection" and third in nominations for James Beard awards.
20. Kansas City, Missouri
A recent study revealed Kansas City has the purest water of any major city in the country.
Monday, December 31, 2007
Most Literate U.S. Cities: Minneapolis and Seattle
http://www.livescience.com/health/071227-literate-cities.html
Most Literate U.S. Cities: Minneapolis and Seattle
Jeanna Bryner
Thu Dec 27, 2007
Residents of Minneapolis and Seattle are the most bookish and well-read, according to results from a new survey released today of the most literate American cities.
The survey focused on 69 U.S. cities with populations of 250,000 or above. Jack Miller of Central Connecticut State University chose six key indicators to rank literacy. These included newspaper circulation, number of bookstores, library resources, periodical publishing resources, educational attainment and Internet resources.
Overall, the top 10 most literate (and wired) cities included:
1—Minneapolis, Minn.
2—Seattle, Wash.
3—St. Paul, Minn.
4—Denver, Colo.
5—Washington, D.C.
6—St. Louis, Mo.
7—San Francisco, Calif.
8—Atlanta, Ga.
9—Pittsburgh, Pa.
10—Boston, Mass.
Minneapolis, Seattle, Pittsburgh, Denver and Washington, D.C., have made the top 10 every year since 2003, when the survey first launched.
Some cities that didn't make it to the overall top 10, however, did strut their stuff in one of the six key literacy indicators. For instance, while Newark, N.J., was the 49th most literate city overall, it shared the top spot for newspaper circulation with Washington, D.C.
Plano, Texas, ranking 51st on the overall most-literate-city list, came in second for educational attainment. The education ranking included two factors: the percentage of the city's adult population with a high school diploma or higher and those with a bachelor's degree or higher.
Cleveland, Ohio, scored the highest for library resources, with St. Louis coming in second. The library category was a measure of five variables, such as the number of library professional staff and total branch libraries relative to library patrons.
Atlanta and Boston took the lead spots in the Internet resources category.
The District of Columbia and St. Louis reported the most large magazine publishers and large journals. New York City, which ranked 28th on the overall list, came in third in the periodical publishing category.
Most Literate U.S. Cities: Minneapolis and Seattle
Jeanna Bryner
Thu Dec 27, 2007
Residents of Minneapolis and Seattle are the most bookish and well-read, according to results from a new survey released today of the most literate American cities.
The survey focused on 69 U.S. cities with populations of 250,000 or above. Jack Miller of Central Connecticut State University chose six key indicators to rank literacy. These included newspaper circulation, number of bookstores, library resources, periodical publishing resources, educational attainment and Internet resources.
Overall, the top 10 most literate (and wired) cities included:
1—Minneapolis, Minn.
2—Seattle, Wash.
3—St. Paul, Minn.
4—Denver, Colo.
5—Washington, D.C.
6—St. Louis, Mo.
7—San Francisco, Calif.
8—Atlanta, Ga.
9—Pittsburgh, Pa.
10—Boston, Mass.
Minneapolis, Seattle, Pittsburgh, Denver and Washington, D.C., have made the top 10 every year since 2003, when the survey first launched.
Some cities that didn't make it to the overall top 10, however, did strut their stuff in one of the six key literacy indicators. For instance, while Newark, N.J., was the 49th most literate city overall, it shared the top spot for newspaper circulation with Washington, D.C.
Plano, Texas, ranking 51st on the overall most-literate-city list, came in second for educational attainment. The education ranking included two factors: the percentage of the city's adult population with a high school diploma or higher and those with a bachelor's degree or higher.
Cleveland, Ohio, scored the highest for library resources, with St. Louis coming in second. The library category was a measure of five variables, such as the number of library professional staff and total branch libraries relative to library patrons.
Atlanta and Boston took the lead spots in the Internet resources category.
The District of Columbia and St. Louis reported the most large magazine publishers and large journals. New York City, which ranked 28th on the overall list, came in third in the periodical publishing category.
Friday, November 16, 2007
Congratulations Baltimore
http://www.tailgatingideas.com/2007/10/18/baltimore-top-tailgating-city/#more-43
Congratulations Baltimore
Baltimore, a city esteemed for its crab houses, Inner Harbor and home of one of the NFL’s most rugged defenses, now has another claim to fame: it’s the best football tailgating city in the United States. Runners-up were Denver, Houston, San Diego and Cincinnati. This ranking was funded and backed by DirecTV and KVH Industries, Inc. Both are companies that have a stake in encouraging more fans to go high-tech in their tailgating ventures. Which ones were ranked the worst by these “experts”? St. Louis, Detroit and Seattle all ranked at the bottom. See where your city ranked.
The main criteria in forming this ranking included stadium parking lots, overall tailgating environment, tailgating-fan enthusiasm and the sales of tailgating accessories like in-car live TV systems and mobile programming. Taking into account all these factors, these experts visited 31 NFL cities (both the Giants and the Jets share the same stadium) plus NFL-hopeful Los Angeles. Apparently it took this group of experts four years to compile all the information and to visit all of the cities to gather this information and make their rankings. With all the criteria considered, Baltimore came out on top.
Rounding out the top 10 were Miami (sixth), Tampa (seventh), Kansas City (eighth), Buffalo (ninth) and Philadelphia and Phoenix (tied for tenth). The complete 32-city ranking can be found at the bottom of this article. Other factors that would help a particular stadium and city’s “tailgating-friendliness” quotient included stadium parking lot sizes, fees, accessibility, hours of operation and special facilities and programs for tailgaters. Oh yeah, the sale of DirecTV’s NFL Sunday Ticket packages and TracVision mobile satellite TV systems for cars and RVs in 2006-2007 also played a role.
Baltimore’s top ranking is attributed to its high scores in all four categories while Tampa, Miami and Buffalo benefited from high tailgating expert ratings and superior stadium or parking facilities boosted Denver, Houston and Cincinnati. Ongoing construction of the Meadowlands Xanadu and Patriots Place projects limited the scores of New York and Boston, respectively, while parking or tailgating restrictions in Green Bay, Chicago, Detroit, and Seattle similarly affected their tailgating scores. In Los Angeles, the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum and Rose Bowl were used for evaluation.
Keep in mind that this “study” was funded by two large corporations that want to encourage the consumption of their products and programming. We’re not saying the results were skewed or are we questioning the integrity of the rankings but please know where the information is coming from. think your city and stadium should be ranked higher? Maybe you should get your fellow tailgaters to buy more portable satellite TV systems and subscribe to DirecTV. That may help your rankings. If you are unconcerned on how your city ranks, keep up that attitude and create your own tailgating style.
The following is a complete list of all 32 cities ranked most “tailgating-friendly” cities in the U.S. by KVH Industries, DirecTV and tailgating experts:
1. Baltimore
2. Denver
3. Houston
4. San Diego
5. Cincinnati
6. Miami
7. Tampa
8. Kansas City
9. Buffalo
10. Philadelphia (tied)
10. Phoenix (tied)
12. Washington, D.C.
13. Green Bay
14. Jacksonville
15. Oakland, CA
16. Indianapolis
17. Nashville
18. New York (tied)
18. Pittsburgh (tied)
18. Boston (tied)
21. San Francisco
22. Cleveland
23. Charlotte
24. Los Angeles
25. Minneapolis
26. Dallas
27. Chicago
28. Atlanta
29. New Orleans
30. St. Louis
31. Detroit
32. Seattle
Congratulations Baltimore
Baltimore, a city esteemed for its crab houses, Inner Harbor and home of one of the NFL’s most rugged defenses, now has another claim to fame: it’s the best football tailgating city in the United States. Runners-up were Denver, Houston, San Diego and Cincinnati. This ranking was funded and backed by DirecTV and KVH Industries, Inc. Both are companies that have a stake in encouraging more fans to go high-tech in their tailgating ventures. Which ones were ranked the worst by these “experts”? St. Louis, Detroit and Seattle all ranked at the bottom. See where your city ranked.
The main criteria in forming this ranking included stadium parking lots, overall tailgating environment, tailgating-fan enthusiasm and the sales of tailgating accessories like in-car live TV systems and mobile programming. Taking into account all these factors, these experts visited 31 NFL cities (both the Giants and the Jets share the same stadium) plus NFL-hopeful Los Angeles. Apparently it took this group of experts four years to compile all the information and to visit all of the cities to gather this information and make their rankings. With all the criteria considered, Baltimore came out on top.
Rounding out the top 10 were Miami (sixth), Tampa (seventh), Kansas City (eighth), Buffalo (ninth) and Philadelphia and Phoenix (tied for tenth). The complete 32-city ranking can be found at the bottom of this article. Other factors that would help a particular stadium and city’s “tailgating-friendliness” quotient included stadium parking lot sizes, fees, accessibility, hours of operation and special facilities and programs for tailgaters. Oh yeah, the sale of DirecTV’s NFL Sunday Ticket packages and TracVision mobile satellite TV systems for cars and RVs in 2006-2007 also played a role.
Baltimore’s top ranking is attributed to its high scores in all four categories while Tampa, Miami and Buffalo benefited from high tailgating expert ratings and superior stadium or parking facilities boosted Denver, Houston and Cincinnati. Ongoing construction of the Meadowlands Xanadu and Patriots Place projects limited the scores of New York and Boston, respectively, while parking or tailgating restrictions in Green Bay, Chicago, Detroit, and Seattle similarly affected their tailgating scores. In Los Angeles, the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum and Rose Bowl were used for evaluation.
Keep in mind that this “study” was funded by two large corporations that want to encourage the consumption of their products and programming. We’re not saying the results were skewed or are we questioning the integrity of the rankings but please know where the information is coming from. think your city and stadium should be ranked higher? Maybe you should get your fellow tailgaters to buy more portable satellite TV systems and subscribe to DirecTV. That may help your rankings. If you are unconcerned on how your city ranks, keep up that attitude and create your own tailgating style.
The following is a complete list of all 32 cities ranked most “tailgating-friendly” cities in the U.S. by KVH Industries, DirecTV and tailgating experts:
1. Baltimore
2. Denver
3. Houston
4. San Diego
5. Cincinnati
6. Miami
7. Tampa
8. Kansas City
9. Buffalo
10. Philadelphia (tied)
10. Phoenix (tied)
12. Washington, D.C.
13. Green Bay
14. Jacksonville
15. Oakland, CA
16. Indianapolis
17. Nashville
18. New York (tied)
18. Pittsburgh (tied)
18. Boston (tied)
21. San Francisco
22. Cleveland
23. Charlotte
24. Los Angeles
25. Minneapolis
26. Dallas
27. Chicago
28. Atlanta
29. New Orleans
30. St. Louis
31. Detroit
32. Seattle
Sunday, September 9, 2007
A Venti Mocha, in Russian at Last
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/09/06/business/worldbusiness/06cnd-sbux.html
September 6, 2007
A Venti Mocha, in Russian at Last
By ANDREW E. KRAMER
KHIMKI, Russia, Sept. 6 — With the hiss of an espresso machine and a note in Russian explaining the meaning of tall, grande and venti, Starbucks opened its first coffee shop in Russia today in a mall outside of Moscow.
The opening sealed a victory for the company in a fight with a Russian trademark squatter who had barred Starbucks from coming to Russia for more than three years, just as a coffeehouse culture burst onto the scene here. Starbucks refused to pay the squatter and eventually prevailed in court.
Still, that dispute highlighted the challenges for Starbucks as the chain strives to expand outside the United States, a market that will eventually become saturated, making future growth at home more difficult. Starbucks intends to open 20,000 coffee shops overseas while operating about that number at home.
With the opening of the first Russian café, Starbucks, which is based in Seattle, now operates in 43 countries, said Carole Pucik, a Starbucks spokeswoman. The company plans to open a flagship Russian shop on Old Arbat Street, an iconic address in downtown Moscow, later this year. “We see lots of opportunity here,” Ms. Pucik said.
The menu of basic coffee drinks is the same as in the United States, and indeed everywhere in the world, Ms. Pucik said, while the sandwiches and baked goods are adapted for local tastes. The Russian shop, for example, offers a mushroom and cheese sandwich.
One thing that is different is the price of a cup of coffee. Hard as it may be to believe, the prices can actually be higher than in a typical Starbucks in the United States.
In Russia, the prices are a reflection of the oil-driven economic boom times here; a tall filter coffee costs 75 rubles, or about $2.92. The priciest item on the menu was a venti mocha, for 230 rubles, or about $8.98. For comparison, a venti mocha at Starbucks in New York costs $4.71.
Starbucks, meanwhile, is betting Russians will take to the carry-out coffee culture that bolsters sales in the Untied States but is all but unknown here. Russians typically sit down to drink hot beverages. Yet Starbucks officials say that may change as the pace of life picks up. “Moscow is a dynamic city,” Ms. Pucik said. “They will want a choice of taking their drink with them.” The company is offering its standard paper cups.
Starbucks first registered its trademark in Russia in 1997 but did not open any coffee shops here because of the economic crisis of 1998. Then in 2002, as the economy was picking up again, a former car alarm salesman and trademark squatter, Sergei A. Zuykov, filed a request with Russian authorities to cancel the chain’s trademark because it had not been used in commerce in Russia. He then registered Starbucks in the name of a Moscow company he represented as a lawyer.
Mr. Zuykov defended his claim to the brand for three years while asking Starbucks to pay $600,000 for him to abandon his registration, which the company declined to do.
He lost his case in November 2005 as Russia stepped up its bid for membership in the World Trade Organization and hewed closer to international standards in intellectual property right protection.
Still, in spite of this setback that allowed competitors a head start, Starbucks said it sees plenty of room for more coffee shops in Russia. Ms. Pucik, the spokeswoman, cited data from Euromonitor International, a market research company, showing Moscow has one coffeehouse for every 3,187 people. For comparison, New York has one for every 365 people and Paris one for every 126 people.
September 6, 2007
A Venti Mocha, in Russian at Last
By ANDREW E. KRAMER
KHIMKI, Russia, Sept. 6 — With the hiss of an espresso machine and a note in Russian explaining the meaning of tall, grande and venti, Starbucks opened its first coffee shop in Russia today in a mall outside of Moscow.
The opening sealed a victory for the company in a fight with a Russian trademark squatter who had barred Starbucks from coming to Russia for more than three years, just as a coffeehouse culture burst onto the scene here. Starbucks refused to pay the squatter and eventually prevailed in court.
Still, that dispute highlighted the challenges for Starbucks as the chain strives to expand outside the United States, a market that will eventually become saturated, making future growth at home more difficult. Starbucks intends to open 20,000 coffee shops overseas while operating about that number at home.
With the opening of the first Russian café, Starbucks, which is based in Seattle, now operates in 43 countries, said Carole Pucik, a Starbucks spokeswoman. The company plans to open a flagship Russian shop on Old Arbat Street, an iconic address in downtown Moscow, later this year. “We see lots of opportunity here,” Ms. Pucik said.
The menu of basic coffee drinks is the same as in the United States, and indeed everywhere in the world, Ms. Pucik said, while the sandwiches and baked goods are adapted for local tastes. The Russian shop, for example, offers a mushroom and cheese sandwich.
One thing that is different is the price of a cup of coffee. Hard as it may be to believe, the prices can actually be higher than in a typical Starbucks in the United States.
In Russia, the prices are a reflection of the oil-driven economic boom times here; a tall filter coffee costs 75 rubles, or about $2.92. The priciest item on the menu was a venti mocha, for 230 rubles, or about $8.98. For comparison, a venti mocha at Starbucks in New York costs $4.71.
Starbucks, meanwhile, is betting Russians will take to the carry-out coffee culture that bolsters sales in the Untied States but is all but unknown here. Russians typically sit down to drink hot beverages. Yet Starbucks officials say that may change as the pace of life picks up. “Moscow is a dynamic city,” Ms. Pucik said. “They will want a choice of taking their drink with them.” The company is offering its standard paper cups.
Starbucks first registered its trademark in Russia in 1997 but did not open any coffee shops here because of the economic crisis of 1998. Then in 2002, as the economy was picking up again, a former car alarm salesman and trademark squatter, Sergei A. Zuykov, filed a request with Russian authorities to cancel the chain’s trademark because it had not been used in commerce in Russia. He then registered Starbucks in the name of a Moscow company he represented as a lawyer.
Mr. Zuykov defended his claim to the brand for three years while asking Starbucks to pay $600,000 for him to abandon his registration, which the company declined to do.
He lost his case in November 2005 as Russia stepped up its bid for membership in the World Trade Organization and hewed closer to international standards in intellectual property right protection.
Still, in spite of this setback that allowed competitors a head start, Starbucks said it sees plenty of room for more coffee shops in Russia. Ms. Pucik, the spokeswoman, cited data from Euromonitor International, a market research company, showing Moscow has one coffeehouse for every 3,187 people. For comparison, New York has one for every 365 people and Paris one for every 126 people.
Monday, September 3, 2007
Get Ahead in a Starter City
http://finance.yahoo.com/real-estate/article/103429/Get-Ahead-in-a-Starter-City?mod=oneclick
Get Ahead in a Starter City
by Erin Burt
Thursday, August 30, 2007
It's nearly impossible to get ahead financially while living in certain metropolitan hotspots. Get your footing in an affordable location instead.
I just moved from Palo Alto, Calif., to Baltimore.
No, I'm not crazy. Just broke.
I lived three years in Palo Alto enjoying the beautiful weather, a pristine neighborhood and close proximity to family. But I soon realized that if I stayed, it would be nearly impossible to reach my financial goals. My husband Jeremy and I were spending nearly half of his take-home pay on rent, our grocery bill was eating us alive, and we couldn't afford to buy a house. We didn't have enough money at the end of the month to boost our retirement savings, start a college fund, pay down student loans or take a vacation that didn't include a stop on a friend's or relative's couch. So we decided to pack up and start over in a more affordable city.
You've heard of a starter home, a starter car, even a starter marriage (heaven forbid). The idea is to begin somewhere until you can afford to move on to something better. For young adults on their own, a starter city operates on the same principle. Starting out in a cheaper locale may be just the ticket to get your financial footing.
Cost of living
If you're struggling financially, your location may be the culprit. Start your independent life in such metropolitan hotspots as Boston, New York, San Francisco or Seattle and you could live like a pauper, struggling to find the money to pay down debt, begin investing, buy a home or start a family. The cost of living in San Francisco, for example, is 83% higher than the national average, according to Sperling's Best Places. New York is 65% above the average. In other words, the hype and romance surrounding these cities may not be worth the cost.
Begin life's journey off the beaten path, however, and you could live more comfortably and get your finances on track much easier. That's not to say you have to live in Mayberry. There are plenty of cities nationwide with a low cost of living, a booming job market and plenty of entertainment options. (We identify our favorites a little later and show you how to find a good match.)
And you don't have to make a long-term commitment, either. Three to five years may be all it takes to pay off your student loans, jump-start your savings and build the foundation to your career. Your starter city may even allow you to buy a home and build up equity, making it easier for you to buy a place in your dream location when you're ready to move. But be warned: You may enjoy the lifestyle of your starter city and the money you save so much that you may not want to leave.
It didn't take long for Jeremy and me to learn first-hand that the San Francisco Bay area wasn't the friendliest place for cash-strapped young adults trying to get ahead financially. The median home price, for example, is nearly $850,000. (The national median home price is $223,800.) A 20% down payment would cost $170,000. And even if we won the lottery and could actually scrape that money together, our monthly payment would still have been about $4,300 -- or $51,600 a year (considering a 30-year fixed-rate mortgage at 6.5%). And that doesn't include the cost of property taxes, insurance and other extras that come with homeownership.
Sure, with a higher cost of living comes a higher salary. But your extra pay may hardly keep pace with your expenses. For example, an entry-level accountant in San Francisco makes about $47,886 per year, according to the experts at Salary.com. In Austin, Texas, however, he'd make about $37,800 to start. That's 21% less than his West Coast counterpart. However, housing prices in Austin are about 79% lower than in San Fran, and the overall cost of living there is nearly half. So even on $10,000 less, his living costs are dramatically lower, enabling him to live much more comfortably.
Our favorite cities for young adults
Kiplinger's researched the best cities in the U.S. and came up with picks for different stages in life, from young singles to retirees. We looked at affordability, income growth, diversity and the so-called creative class -- how many scientists, engineers, architects, educators, writers, artists and entertainers call that place home. For singles, we also looked for places with plenty of things to do. For young families, we looked for low crime rates.
Our top five cities for young professionals:
Washington, D.C.
Denver
Austin, Tex.
Raleigh, N.C.
Lexington, Ky.
Our top five cities for young families:
Atlanta, Ga.
Minneapolis/St. Paul, Minn.
Des Moines, Iowa
Provo, Utah
Green Bay, Wis.
Make a plan
As for my husband and me, we don't plan on staying forever in Baltimore -- probably five years tops. We figure that's long enough to get our finances on the right track. In fact, we've been here only two months, and we've already boosted our savings with the money we're saving on rent -- and we just bought a house. So far, we're already on a better financial path and living a more comfortable lifestyle.
I know the decision to move may not be easy. Many young adults choose their address to be near friends and family, or because they received their dream job offer. I'm not saying that everyone should cut all ties and run. But if it makes sense for your personal situation, a short-term relocation could pay off big.
It boils down to this: You can choose to scrape by in certain metropolitan areas, or you can build a financial foundation in an affordable starter city. If you can help it, don't let your address stand between you and your goals.
Kiplinger Washington Editors, Inc.
Get Ahead in a Starter City
by Erin Burt
Thursday, August 30, 2007
It's nearly impossible to get ahead financially while living in certain metropolitan hotspots. Get your footing in an affordable location instead.
I just moved from Palo Alto, Calif., to Baltimore.
No, I'm not crazy. Just broke.
I lived three years in Palo Alto enjoying the beautiful weather, a pristine neighborhood and close proximity to family. But I soon realized that if I stayed, it would be nearly impossible to reach my financial goals. My husband Jeremy and I were spending nearly half of his take-home pay on rent, our grocery bill was eating us alive, and we couldn't afford to buy a house. We didn't have enough money at the end of the month to boost our retirement savings, start a college fund, pay down student loans or take a vacation that didn't include a stop on a friend's or relative's couch. So we decided to pack up and start over in a more affordable city.
You've heard of a starter home, a starter car, even a starter marriage (heaven forbid). The idea is to begin somewhere until you can afford to move on to something better. For young adults on their own, a starter city operates on the same principle. Starting out in a cheaper locale may be just the ticket to get your financial footing.
Cost of living
If you're struggling financially, your location may be the culprit. Start your independent life in such metropolitan hotspots as Boston, New York, San Francisco or Seattle and you could live like a pauper, struggling to find the money to pay down debt, begin investing, buy a home or start a family. The cost of living in San Francisco, for example, is 83% higher than the national average, according to Sperling's Best Places. New York is 65% above the average. In other words, the hype and romance surrounding these cities may not be worth the cost.
Begin life's journey off the beaten path, however, and you could live more comfortably and get your finances on track much easier. That's not to say you have to live in Mayberry. There are plenty of cities nationwide with a low cost of living, a booming job market and plenty of entertainment options. (We identify our favorites a little later and show you how to find a good match.)
And you don't have to make a long-term commitment, either. Three to five years may be all it takes to pay off your student loans, jump-start your savings and build the foundation to your career. Your starter city may even allow you to buy a home and build up equity, making it easier for you to buy a place in your dream location when you're ready to move. But be warned: You may enjoy the lifestyle of your starter city and the money you save so much that you may not want to leave.
It didn't take long for Jeremy and me to learn first-hand that the San Francisco Bay area wasn't the friendliest place for cash-strapped young adults trying to get ahead financially. The median home price, for example, is nearly $850,000. (The national median home price is $223,800.) A 20% down payment would cost $170,000. And even if we won the lottery and could actually scrape that money together, our monthly payment would still have been about $4,300 -- or $51,600 a year (considering a 30-year fixed-rate mortgage at 6.5%). And that doesn't include the cost of property taxes, insurance and other extras that come with homeownership.
Sure, with a higher cost of living comes a higher salary. But your extra pay may hardly keep pace with your expenses. For example, an entry-level accountant in San Francisco makes about $47,886 per year, according to the experts at Salary.com. In Austin, Texas, however, he'd make about $37,800 to start. That's 21% less than his West Coast counterpart. However, housing prices in Austin are about 79% lower than in San Fran, and the overall cost of living there is nearly half. So even on $10,000 less, his living costs are dramatically lower, enabling him to live much more comfortably.
Our favorite cities for young adults
Kiplinger's researched the best cities in the U.S. and came up with picks for different stages in life, from young singles to retirees. We looked at affordability, income growth, diversity and the so-called creative class -- how many scientists, engineers, architects, educators, writers, artists and entertainers call that place home. For singles, we also looked for places with plenty of things to do. For young families, we looked for low crime rates.
Our top five cities for young professionals:
Washington, D.C.
Denver
Austin, Tex.
Raleigh, N.C.
Lexington, Ky.
Our top five cities for young families:
Atlanta, Ga.
Minneapolis/St. Paul, Minn.
Des Moines, Iowa
Provo, Utah
Green Bay, Wis.
Make a plan
As for my husband and me, we don't plan on staying forever in Baltimore -- probably five years tops. We figure that's long enough to get our finances on the right track. In fact, we've been here only two months, and we've already boosted our savings with the money we're saving on rent -- and we just bought a house. So far, we're already on a better financial path and living a more comfortable lifestyle.
I know the decision to move may not be easy. Many young adults choose their address to be near friends and family, or because they received their dream job offer. I'm not saying that everyone should cut all ties and run. But if it makes sense for your personal situation, a short-term relocation could pay off big.
It boils down to this: You can choose to scrape by in certain metropolitan areas, or you can build a financial foundation in an affordable starter city. If you can help it, don't let your address stand between you and your goals.
Kiplinger Washington Editors, Inc.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
Posts
