Pension Funds: One Of The Many Causes Of Housing Shortages, Homelessness

 I started a long post trying to show that homelessness isn't a local issue.  Well, sure, the impact is local, but the main causes are outside the control of local politicians.  While that post sits around (maybe forever) waiting for me to make it perfect, an article in Sunday's LA Times gives a great example of how greed and uncontrolled capitalism set up a structure that makes many ordinary folks with money in pension funds unwitting accomplices to the high cost of housing.  From the LA Times:

"At the Shady Lane Apartments in the suburbs east of San Diego, the carpet could be worn, the appliances old. But with some of the cheaper rents around, the complex was a relatively affordable home for an increasingly priced-out working class.

Then, in 2021, the nonprofit that owned the 112-unit property sold it. In less than three years, the new owners raised rent for vacant units 21 percentage points more than landlords in nearby neighborhoods, according to data from a real estate research firm. On average, available homes at the complex went from less expensive than the surrounding area to more expensive.

Existing tenants saw change too. Rubin Flournoy, a supervisor at a city water treatment plant, said he’s seen his rent climb roughly twice as much annually since the sale. What he didn’t know was that the new owners had a surprising funding source: people like himself.

The El Cajon complex had been sold, according to research firm CoStar and commercial loan reports, to a giant real estate investment fund managed by the private equity firm Blackstone. Investors in the fund include the California State Teachers’ Retirement System and other public pension funds across the country.

There's the bind.  Pension and other such funds, like the Alaska Permanent Fund, are supposed to be invested to increase the value of the fund.  For pension funds, the purpose is to be able to pay pensions once people retire.  An important goal.

But few fund managers worry too much about the social and environmental impacts of the funds they invest in.  Some have started to pay attention to these issues - generally called ESG (Environmental, Social, Governance).    Republican legislators have started introducing legislation demanding punishing companies that use ESG criteria in investing.   [This is a Forbes article and I assumed I'd be blocked.  They said it was 1 of 4 free articles.  Clear out your cache regularly]  It seems Republicans are against regulations except when they aren't.  

Now, this was a short and easy post to write (and I hope to read).  Store it in that part of your brain that monitors housing and homelessness issues.  And the negative side effects of unregulated (or loosely regulated) capitalism.  

Also check on the funds your money (personal or pension or Permanent Fund, etc.) is invested in.  

I did look at the Alaska Permanent Fund Investments and the Alaska Teachers Retirement Fund (2021), but I couldn't find Blackstone.  But such funds could be hidden somewhere I didn't know to look.  I did find that Blackstone bought the Alaska Permanent Fund's infrastructure portfolio for $1 billion.   I didn't go much beyond the headline because of a paywall. (Giving them my email address is a kind of paywall to me.)

Panhandling, Inflation, Clouds

 Despite three different topics in the title, this isn't going to be a long post.

1.  It's ok for firefighters, but not for the hungry

Lake Otis and Tudor is one of the busiest intersections in the city.  I also have to get across it on a couple of my regular bike rides.  

Two weeks ago it was crawling with firefighters raising money for charity.  Though collecting money in Firefighters' boots seems a little gross.  They didn't look like new, unused boots.  

That's an admirable activity.  But they were doing it standing in the intersection.  Some in the middle, others between the right turn lanes and the through traffic lanes.  

Photo by ADN photographer Marc Lester

Eighteen months ago, signs like this caused a stir in Anchorage.  

The ADN article tells us:

"The municipality spent more than $8,000 to post anti-panhandling signs at dozens of Anchorage’s busiest intersections in December — but the city law cited on the sign was found unconstitutional by a state court years ago."

"Corey Young, a spokesman for Mayor Dave Bronson, said the signs are meant to 'keep pedestrians away from dangerous situations in the roadway.'” 

It appears from the article that this was done by the mayor's office without consulting affected  departments like the Police Department.  I don't think anyone disputes the idea that there's an element of danger involved in walking the lines of cars at busy intersections, but the courts had said it couldn't be prohibited. 

If the mayor's office thinks this is dangerous, why are they letting the Fire Department do this?  Did the mayor's office even know the Fire Department was doing this?  

Or maybe we should ask if the original signs were an attempt to make those experiencing homelessness less visible to the general public, and danger wasn't the real issue.  

2.  Who's responsible for inflation

I like seaweed.  I don't eat it everyday, but I do now and then.  Last week I went to the Korean grocery story on Fireweed and Eagle to get some more seaweed.  Here's last year's empty package.

And the new one I got last week.  

The weight and number of servings are both the same.  It's at least a year since I bought the first package of seaweed there.  But the price of both is still the same!  

While national chain groceries have been rapidly raising their prices, this local Korean grocery is charging the same amount as they did a year ago - $9.99.  A similar product at Carr's, for instance, is advertised:

This is a total of .92 ounces for $8.99.   The Korean store seaweed is 65 servings at .07 ounces per serving, or 4.55 ounces!  One is $9.77 per ounce  and the other is $2.20 per ounce.

But my point isn't that you can get seaweed much cheaper at the local Korean grocery than at the chain store.  

It's really about inflation.  We know prices have gone up rapidly in the chain store groceries.  But on this item, the Korean grocery has kept the price the same for over a year.  No blaming inflation to raise the price, and adding further to inflation.  [But it's true that I don't know how much the Gimme packages were selling for a year ago.  It's possible that no one increased the price of seaweed.]

3.  Clouds

Anchorage has been having weather this month.  By that I mean wind and rain and sun all fighting it out.  I put up some cloud pictures two weeks ago.  Here are from one this week's bike rides.

Same corner as top pic but with little traffic and no fire department panhandlers. 

Taku Lake

4.  Biking.  And since I've mentioned bike rides, I reached my 1000 km goal for the summer (since April) and then got to 1100.  Getting most of my rides done on the local bike trails and getting regular views of places like Taku Lake make the riding a pleasure.  For lots of folks 600 miles is not that much, but it's kept me out exercising regularly all summer.  

AirDrop Is Back - Demolished Housing, New Trail. Abandoned Kayak, Skateboard Park [UPDATED]

 Some time back, not too long ago, my Air Drop stopped working between my phone and my MacBook.  I checked online but couldn't make it work.  I'd get the Blu Tooth connected both ways, but the airdrop wouldn't happen.

So lots of pics on my phone just stayed there.  I tried other work arounds.  When I plugged my phone into my computer I got a screen that wanted to download everything from my computer to my phone and there was no way I could get rid of it other than just unplugging.  

Frustrated, today I tried again.  But this time instead of searching for Blu Tooth solutions, I looked for AirDrop solutions.  I got this HelpDeskGeek page with a whole table of contents of approaches.  Quickly I found a good prospect - Open Finder on Mac.  Then Set Air Drop To Open To Anyone.  

That was the magic trick.  Somehow it had gotten switched to Open To No One.  I'm back in business and can now post some pictures here.

But there's a large backload of things I passed on - Juneteenth Festival, Gay Pride March and Festival, and a bunch of other things.  

I'm just going to focus mostly on some pics from (mainly) yesterday's bike ride to highlight changes going on.  

This first pic is from June 4th.  A new homeless camp showed up on the 'off-ramp' from the Campbell Creek bike trail to Dowling.  

About a week ago, it had been reduced to this:

    

And yesterday, it looked like this:

Yesterday's turnaround point was the AARP fitness spot just south of Taku Lake.  

There's construction going on down the trail there (toward Dimond).  Someone recently told me they're building a skateboard park.  

Also heading out yesterday, I noticed someone kayaking in the creek, but there were trees around and I didn't see too much, except it was a red kayak.  On my way back, the kayak was blocking the bike trail.  

Didn't look good.  Nobody was around. But I figure if they got the kayak out, the people got out too, but not sure why they left their stuff there.  That's an old restaurant in the background that they've been slowly working on, including adding landscaping.  It says Creekside something on the other side.   Behind me is Peanut Farm and Arctic Roadrunner.  

Meanwhile, just down the block from our house, I discovered at the beginning of the ride that an old house was demolished.  It's been there at least since the 70s.  It was there two days ago, but this is all that was left yesterday:

The tape says something about asbestos.  It was on a double lot.  Presumably Anchorage will get some new housing.  A single family house?  A duplex?  Two houses?  Stand by.  

Other changes.  I noticed a bike headed up the hill near the forestation at Campbell Airstrip Road at Tudor a week ago.  I decided to see what was there.  It's a wide new gravel path that goes up, south of Tudor.  It starts not too far from Tudor but gets further into the woods.  Then there's a long downhill to this long bridge across what I'm guessing is sometimes wetlands.  

[UPDATED July 16, 2023:   It's called the Chugach Foothills Connector.  Steve Johnson left comment with this link to a Muni page describing the project and the ribbon cutting will take place July 23,2023 at the bridge in the picture below:

"The event will take place on July 26th, 2023 from 4pm to 5pm. If you are driving to the event parking is available at the Benny Benson School's Parking Lot. The rib​bon cutting will take place on the boardwalk in the center of the trail.​"

Thanks, Steve] 

Past the bridge, with some bear poop to remind me this wasn't a place a lot of people went before this trail was put in.  

Then it veers back toward Tudor and the power line right way.  It ends where that power line is.  There's a small path that continues.  And the new trail turns left into a housing area just past where Tudor curves into Muldoon.   There's a big sign that says Neeson Construction is doing this project, but all the paper work was about Alaska employee rights, not anything about this trail and whether it will stay gravel or eventually get paved.   I came out onto Muldoon at Regal Mountain Drive.

And yesterday I got my summer (starting April) biking total up to 603 km.  60% of my target of 1000 again this summer.  

[UPDATE July 16, 2023  below is the map of the project:

For sharper version visit the Muni website

John Martin Shot To Death

https://www.adn.com/alaska-news/crime-courts/2023/06/19/shooting-of-man-sleeping-in-south-anchorage-parking-lot-was-unprovoked-attack-prosecutor-says/

Back in 2012 I posted about John Martin's city hall protest 

over homelessness

.   The post included a 

video that is no longer working (it was on Viddler and they cut my account long ago.  Though they did send me the files for my videos.  I redid some on YouTube, but not all of them.  Not sure where that file is anymore.  I mention this simply because this is a danger in an age when people store the photos, videos, and data outside of their control.)  In the video I talked to John and then Mayor Sullivan comes across the street and gives John a cup of coffee and they chat a bit.  

A previous post shows him at the Assembly and I did a brief video at the break. (It too was on Viddler and doesn't seem to be working, though it flashed an image of John just before turning black.  Somewhere I probably have these on a sound card.  When Mac upgraded they switched out of the old iMovie and so those original files are available either.  Beware how you backup your stuff.)

I'd been walking from the bus station to the Redistricting Board meeting and showed up at just the right time.  

I don't know much about John.  He did later attempt to cross the Bering Sea to Russia.  He was a committed advocate for the poor and homeless.  He saw the world from a slightly different angle than most people.  

I don't know why he was shot.  I don't know if he was the target or he was just randomly shot.  I just know we've lost a unique and sensitive member of our community to gun violence.  

My Thoughts On Pro Publica And ADN Summary Of The Bronson Corruption

[NOTE:  This post highlights the ProPublica/ADN report on the Bronson administration.  I've added my own reactions in blue.]

For those in a hurry, summary of  points I make:

1.  Baker, as a private contractor, was NOT a client of the Municipal Attorney and thus the attorney saying he can't discuss the case because of that is incorrect.  And if he was a client of the attorney, then t was more inappropriate as part of the Mayor's team to approach the Attorney.

2.  Assembly should make it illegal for the administration to remove the indemnity clause in contracts without Assembly approval, regardless the value of the contract.  

3.  Media have to do a better job of getting past the facades of politicians (and others in power) to get the public the real scoop on who these people are and what they do.  Local media need to give reporters focused beats and incentives to stay on them to develop reliable contacts who will give them tips.  

Image from the ProPublica/ADN article

ProPublica and the ADN published a long article that pulled together many of the events that have happened in the Dave Bronson administration.  It's worth reading. 

It didn't cover all details, but focused on Larry Baker and the conflicts he had over the Golden Lion because he and other Bronson owners lived nearby.  I hadn't heard about the DOTPF memo being mischaracterized to make it look like the state would demolish the Golden Lion.  It discuss Baker's younger partner Brandon Spoerhase and his attempts to get the Muni Attorney to drop all charges against Spoerhase for violating a restraining order against a woman working in the Mayor's office.  

The article mentions that the mayor did not hire Baker as a Muni employee, but skirted the need for Assembly approval by hiring him as a contractor with three contracts at $29,500 - just below the $30,000 threshold that would require Assembly approval.  The contracts also gave Baker immunity from prosecution, meaning the Municipality would be on the hook for problems he caused.  

They asked then Municipal Attorney Peter Bergt about Baker's interference:

"Bergt declined to say whether Baker pressured him to drop or reduce the city charges against Spoerhase, citing concerns that he could break legal rules protecting confidential communications between attorneys and clients. . .

 “I took very seriously my ethical obligation to my client — the Municipality of Anchorage — and always acted in its best interest.”

My thought is that if Baker as a private contractor, the he wasn't Bergt's client.  The Muni, not a contractor is the client.  So there shouldn't be any attorney client privilege here.  [Of course I'm not an attorney so I'm sure some or even most lawyers might say I'm wrong. ]

[OK.  I've spoken to an attorney friend who first said that Baker, as a private citizen, has the right to contact the Municipal Attorney and try to point out legal reasons why he charges should be dropped.  But, I asked, he's the Mayor's policy advisor, so there's a conflict of interest.  In that case there may be an ethical problem, but probably not a legal one.  Then I went on to read the quotes above.  Then my attorney jumped and said, that as a private contractor coming in to discuss his business partner's charges, he's absolutely NOT a client of the Municipal Attorney.  And if the Attorney thinks he is his client, then there are bigger barriers to him interfering with this case.]

But I would also recommend that the Assembly pass a law that says a contractor cannot have the indemnity clause removed without approval from the Assembly, regardless the dollar amount of the contract..  

The article also quotes Assembly member Quinn-Davis (who also acted as temporary Mayor) about Baker and she responded.  

“Unlike Bronson, he knows he needs to get along with people and relationships matter,” said Assembly member Austin Quinn-Davidson, who filled in as mayor for several months after Berkowitz resigned.

“I like him,” she said of Baker. “I think he relies on that, which is smart. People sort of trusting him or liking him as a person to get things done.”

Getting along with people is a very useful skill.  My thought is how many people use this skill to mask some not so nice behavior as Baker did?  How many people in positions of power do dastardly deeds protected by a nice guy image?  Or other images that suggest competence - clothing, education, purported experience.  This is a call to media and political opponents to do a better job learning and then alerting the world about important background information about the people running for office and serving as corporate executives.  George Santos is only the most egregious example of the media not doing their job in this area.  Except for the North Shore Leader. which wasn't able to get the story a wider audience.  

While we have watched quite a bit of this play out over the last year and a half, we we lacked key details that were revealed by Amy Demoboski when she was fired and sent a nine page letter of accusations.  As a conservative Assembly member who moved over to serve as Bronson's city manager, she had the insider's view of what was happening and because she's an ideological ally of the mayor, her accusations have more weight.  

I mention this because I think 'nice' guys are protected by insiders generally not exposing them as Demboski has done.  

This means we really do need better ways to keep our officials accountable and keep government as transparent as possible.  When local reporters have long term assignments, they have time to build up networks of insiders who give them tips.  Let's hope we can get media outlets to keep reporters on beats long enough to develop these networks.  I'd like to thank ProPublica which is helping the ADN do more long term coverage of major issues.  

One of the issues the article doesn't cover is the crowd of abusive Assembly attendees who made anti-Semitic and anti-LGBTQ attacks in opposition to both COVID regulations and the Assembly's homeless actions.  They were loud and and worked to intimidate Assembly members and the public who did not support their politics.  These were basically stirred up and supported by the group of Geneva Woods neighbors - including Larry Baker - who were opposed to using the Golden Lion Hotel for an addiction center.  

AIFF2022: Dealing With Dad and Bering Family Reunion

 Watching movies from noon until 8pm leaves me a little spacey.  The wifi was working today in the auditorium at the museum, but there just wasn't much time between events.  There were lots of short films during the day. Please excuse mistakes, it's late but I want to get this up already.

I'm finding I am mentally resurrecting an old evaluation standard for films:  

1. There are films that are technically well made 
2. There are films that have something important to say or to contribute
3. Films that do both 1 and 2 well
4. Films that do neither
5. And most films fall somewhere in the continuum of both those factors

Dealing With Dad did both 1 and 2 well.  The film is technically good enough to easily fit in on Netflix or another streaming channel.  The acting and pacing are all high quality. Yet it's much more than a slick formula film. It's a poignant story told with love and humor. 

What does it contribute? The director Tom Huang said after the film that the story is adapted from his own family experience with a domineering immigrant father who works hard so his kids can have a better life.   After Dad gets laid off and goes into a deep depression, the two older kids fly home to try to deal with this only to find that Mom and the 30 year old younger brother still living at home find life much easier now that Dad just stays in bed all day watching television.  The family reunion reveals old tensions among the siblings.  The younger brothers accuse the older sister of being a lot like Dad.  The younger brother has a long time crush on a high school friend who just returned from the Peace Corps, but is afraid to ask her out until the older sister older sisters him into asking her out. (That was the one part that didn't ring true to me - she had been in three or four different countries.  And while a volunteer can sign up for a second tour of duty after completing one, it's not common, and the way it was described in the film, she seemed to move around from country to country as part of her assignment.) The mother has already set up the middle son, who's having marital problems, with a date.  While there are dynamics that may be more common in a Chinese American family, the story is really a universal one.  It moved along quickly moving from heavy drama to humor and back seamlessly.  The humor wasn't added on, it was just part of the relationship.  Often it was funny to the audience, but often not to the characters themselves.  I think it was easier to watch than The Last Birds of Passage, but Birds, probably had a much weightier story to tell.  

The other full length film was the documentary Bering, Family Reunion.  Bering followed Etta Tall, an Inupiaq woman from Little Diomede as she searched for her relatives from Big Diomede.  These are two islands a few miles apart, Little D in Alaska and Big D in Russia.  Before WWII people from the two islands visited each other frequently and there were many family relations across the two islands.  The Soviet Union, at the beginning of WW II removed the islanders to the mainland and maid Bid D into a military base.  When Gorbachev and Reagan opened the border between Alaska and the Soviet Union, some of the first to travel across the border were Inupiats going to visit their relatives they hadn't seen in many years.  We see how the plans were made, how a family company that arranges arctic travel got asked to look for relatives when in Russia, and slowly how the reunion eventually comes to be.  This film involves families who were cut off from each other by war and geopolitics.  It considers culture, language, and people's undying compulsion to find their families.  A little slow at points, the film nevertheless has very high significance, documenting this story, a story that has been repeated around the world as national governments ignore indigenous and minority people's needs.  

The first question in my mind was "How did a Mexican film maker come to make this story?"  It just seemed odd.  And it was the first question asked of the woman who'd carried a list of names to Russia with her when she went to the Russian far-east, who answered questions after the film. She was a friend of the film director Lourdes Grobet (who passed away in July 2022) who wanted to make this film.  You can learn more about her at the Festival Internacional de Cine de Morelia site where the film was show in October.

There were lots of shorts.  Some were well made.  Some told important stories. Some did both.  Some left me scratching my head.  I'll note a few that I reacted to most.

Queen Moorea had to be the most compelling, and one of the longest.  It told the story of a high school homecoming queen who was born with a genetic condition that made her different.  It wasn't clear to me exactly what her disability was (it was mentioned briefly I didn't catch it.)  The film was another with the theme of people who don't fit in.  Another audience member after the film said that people tend to categorize people with disabilities by the disability and that often keeps them from reaching their full potential.  This film portrayed Moorea was living up to her potential.  

Never Again Para Nadia - shows how the Jewish community in a Rhode Island prison town team up with the local Latino community to protest against immigrants being housed in a local prison.  To be clear, they are protesting that the prison is nearby, but that immigrants are being put into this private prisons for the financial gain of the prison owners and their shareholders.  The film documents the protest, a car driving through some protestors whose driver eventually gets acquitted.  It's an important record as far as it goes, but more statistics on the private prison and its profits and the numbers of immigrants housed in the prison.  

I liked Sunday With Monica - an interesting short story of a movie that left this viewer wanting to know more about.  I'm guessing this could be an early version of a future feature film.  The divorced father picks up his daughters from his ultra-orthodox Jewish ex-wife and takes them to meet his non-Jewish girlfriend who has horses and a riding rink.  One daughter is drawn to the horses and the other is thinking how Mom wouldn't approve.  

Gina is a brief portrait of a homeless woman in LA. We get to know this woman a little beyond what we might imagine of her if we just saw her on the street.  The Pastor who befriended Gina while handing out food to the homeless and eventually is impressed with Gina again reminds us not to judge people through our stereotypes, but to get to know them as people.  

Rain was a beautiful chocolate of a film - lots of beautiful animated images of rain and a little girl who plows through the puddles.  

And then there was Snowflakes another light animated film made for the Make A Wish Foundation, about a little girl with cancer just admitted into the hospital.  Another girl invites her to play but she's not in the mood, but does eventually get enticed.  It was all pretty innocuous, but I couldn't help being struck by the perfect faces - pretty lips, big eyes, and what appeared to me as lots of make-up. Someone connected to the film was there and answered questions.  My wife discouraged me from asking whether these perfect, make-upped images of very young little girls didn't perhaps send the wrong message.  So I didn't.  But someone else asked less directly about how the images of the little girls came about and we were told the animator determined that.  To be clear, their heads were shaved, but they were still model quality.  

Sorting Through All The Crazy

I was going to post some links to different posts I thought worth reading.  But the first one is probably more than enough.  

The real Joe Gerace   - Lex Treinen worked on the article that exposed Bronson's Anchorage Health Department head for adding non-existing  masters degrees to his resume and led to Gerace's resignation.  This link takes you to background on that piece - the work and revelations that led up to it.  It's good, open book, here's-how-I-got-this-information type journalism.  

"A few days later, I was in Fairbanks sitting on a beach. I called a former business associate of Gerace.

'I’m surprised Joe’s in charge of the homeless in Anchorage,” the man said, “I remember we used to drive down 3rd Avenue where the homeless shelters used to be. Joe would talk about taking out his rifle and shooting the people camped there.'”

After lengthy background investigation and some personal interactions earlier, Treinen finally calls Gerace to confront him with the evidence he's found of padded resumes.  While Treinen thought he might be hung up on, the interview lasts over an hour.  It seems like Gerace knows he's cornered and while he starts out putting up some resistance, it's just bravado. before he gives up.   He's almost begging Treinen to not be too harsh on him. 

I asked him about his guard service. He dodged. I pressed again, trying to nail down a detail, or at least an acknowledgement of dishonesty on his resume. He squirmed like a slippery salmon. Sometimes his words were too confusing to understand his answers. Sometimes he made excuses. But sometimes he acknowledged he’d lied, like when I asked him about the 5 combat deployments he listed on one of his resumes.

Me: Were you deployed in combat? 

Gerace: No. 

Me: You wrote on that Visit resume that you have five combat deployments.

Gerace: Did I write that? 

Me: You wrote that. Do you know why you would have written that?

Gerace: Can you show that to me? Does it say that? 

Me: Yes. On the Visit resume that was shared with me. 

Gerace: I don’t think I wrote that Lex. 

Then Treinen moves on to the masters degrees.  Here he just folds completely.  He knows his lies have caught up with him.  Perhaps a load has been taken off him as he confesses.

" I asked him about his MBA, which he said was from Henry Cogswell College. 

Me: We checked with them, and they said they don’t they didn’t offer a Masters of Business in the year that you got. How was it you could have got it?

Gerace: I don’t know. I don’t know. I can’t answer that question.

Me: You don’t know how you got a master’s degree? 

Gerace: Wait, wait, stop. I do. I went to the classes in Everett, Washington.

Me: Do you know why they would say that they don’t have any record of that in the state of Washington doesn’t have any record of that degree? 

Gerace: I don’t know, because I’d have to ask them because there was some when the school closed, there was some heavy confusion about how to even get our stuff.

He refused to say where he would have got his Masters in Physician Assistant Studies as well. I wound down the conversation an hour and a half into it and he promised to send me copies of his degrees before the end of the day. Still, it was surprisingly cordial. Several times he tried to elicit sympathy, talking about protecting his former partners from harm that might be caused by publishing this story, or talking about the decades of service for people he’d claimed. He told me a stroke he had last week had left him partially paralyzed on his left side, and he was having trouble concentrating. Finally, he half-heartedly begged for some sort of mercy. 

'You’re gonna destroy my credibility all over I mean, I get you have to do it. Can you just not say that Joe’s not — fine, Lex, just do whatever you need to do,' he said."

Definitely worth reading for Anchorage folks. 

 My sense is that Bronson got elected because of two issues - the COVID mask requirements and the Golden Lion planned conversion to a drug rehabilitation facility.  The Kriner crowd supported him on the masks and a group of Geneva Woods NIMBY's supported him so he'd shut down the Golden Lion plans.  And that seems to be his basic agenda.  I'm sure there's also some national GOP help since they are so into local government control.  And censoring libraries is a big deal for them, which would explain our library director fiasco. 

Oh, yeah, he wants to buy a giant tent to put the homeless in.  The Assembly blocked that and it looks like Bronson might have pushed the homeless to the Centennial campground so he could argue there's no option left but going back to the tent idea.  So now we have to find the link between Bronson and the tent manufacturer.  I'm sure it's there, but it's just one more thing I haven't had the time to pursue.  

A Venice Beach Break

 Our outdoor thermometer read -10˚F (-23˚C).  That was not abnormal when we first moved to Anchorage in 1977, but it hasn't been that frequent in the last 10 or 20 years.  I know it sounds awful - especially to folks who have never experienced it, but the sky was crystal clear, the air still, and it's like being in another, amazing world.  As they say, there's no bad weather, just bad clothes.

In any case, we flew through Seattle and got to LAX Monday night.  LAX is still trying to be a world class airport.  But it still doesn't have rail service and you have to take a shuttle bus to get a taxi or Uber, etc.  It used to be a taxi to my mom's house was around $30.  That's why we often just took the bus.  Then came Uber and Lyft and we could get to the airport for about $19.  But when I opened the Uber app, prices ranged from $33, then a bunch between $56-$86, and then some that were $200 and up.  We decided on a taxi, which ended up $29.  (That's all without tip of course.)

Tuesday was the storm.  It rained on and off, but didn't seem to match the great storm predictions.  Or maybe we slept through it.  By the afternoon there was sun.  But it was in the high 40s, chilly for LA.

Yesterday it was in the 50s and J found the bike pump and I went off to see what the last two years have brought.  Things look pretty much the same.  The biggest difference was the fence along Penmar Golf Course.  (This is a public course that was a swamp when I was a kid and a great natural playground I spent many hours in.)

Well, of course the gold course has always had a fence.  But there's a dirt pathway along the outside which had been changing into a homeless camp.  It had campers parked there for a while, but last time there were also tents along the walkway. Here's a pic I posted January 2019:

Here's what it looked like yesterday:

There are houses across the street and having homeless folks camped out by your house without bathrooms can become old.  From the neighbors' perspective this is neighborhood improvement.  Not sure what the homeless who camped here think.  If they've been offered decent lodging, maybe they'd agree.  

From my perspective, the city has blocked off a beautiful walkway along the golf course that I used to jog along when I was still running.  The bike trail is still usable.  It's only an improvement in the sense that our society has deteriorated to the extent that there are so many homeless people that the city has to fence off their encampments to get them out of the neighbors' hair.  Having a social safety net like most European countries have would have been a better way to deal with this - that is make it so people have health care, including mental health care.  Have jobs that pay a living wage.  Support those losing jobs to cheaper labor overseas or automation.  Better education.  Child care for working families, etc.  Then this would still be a lovely walk way for the neighbors to enjoy without the extra fencing blocking it off.  

Our understandings of the world and of human behavior never worked all that well, but the Protestant work ethic - just work hard and you'll do well - is not an accurate description for most people.  Yes, there are examples of it working, but the homeless populations in the various US cities shows us that we need more complex theories.  

But I was headed for the beach on this nbikeride and so were you in this blog post.  

The next picture has me almost there - riding down the last block of Rose Avenue before getting to Venice Beach.  I love this view with the palm trees and the water off ahead of me.  I spent a lot of time at the beach here as a kid and later in life visiting my mom.  

But I got to the bike trail, which wasn't there anymore.  Truly, we must have slept through the worst of the storm.  The bike trail was completely covered with sand.  Mostly it was navigable by bke, but there were places I just had to get off and walk.  I did google to see if anyone has explained all the sand, but all the reports are from previous years - usually wind blowing sand.  But I've never seen it like this.  Was it high tides and wind?  (The moon was close to full.)  I did call a number on an LA City Venice Beach website, but the woman who answered said she had nothing to do with Venice Beach.  I've sent an email to an address on that page, but I'm not holding my breath.  

I got to the skateboard park which had a few skaters despite a sign saying it was closed for filming obligations.   

Folks were filming - tv show?  movie?  commercial?  - taking advantage of the dune like setting.  I'd note this wall of sand is usually there, courtesy of the City of Los Angeles.  Then I made my way a little further to Venice Pier where I got these pictures 

Santa Monica mountains in the background.

This isn't a high resolution photo, but if you look closely above the building, closer to the pole on the left, you can see what I think is Mt. Baldy with a good amount of snow.  I'd note, with the sandy bike trail, there were very few other bikers.  The pier was pretty empty and I didn't see anyone fishing in the choppy waters.  Nor were there any surfers below the pier.  That's a first for me.  

On the way back I just stayed on the pedestrian walk (that turns into the Venice Boardwalk) which had been cleared of sand.  I stopped at the Frank Gehry house (designed by the famous architect, not where he lives).  Here's a post with the Disney Concert Hall for a very different Geary construction.

Finally back to the Boardwalk - Venice's contribution to edgy kitsch.

And then I was back on my way home having enjoyed the beach, and pushing pedals.  

And yes, I've got links to all the redistricting legal challenges and I'm trying to figure out what I want to do with them.  Also so Tom Begich's press release about yesterday's Board meeting (also an email and I can't find a link) which I spent at Venice Beach.  Later.  

Turns Out Evictions Are More Complicated and Venal Than I Realized

 

This On the Media segment on Eviction is worth listening to.  The issue of housing segregation and evictions is not about how hard people work, but techniques designed to keep people unhoused.  

"It isn't as much about poverty as it is about extracting wealth from the poorest people."

Around 12:30 in the audio, Matt Desmond — Pulitzer Prize–winning author of Evicted: Poverty and Profit in the American City, and founder of the Eviction Lab at Princeton University - begins.  Be sure to listen to him.  

Some things I learned in this episode. 

• Rents in poor neighborhoods are not that much lower than rents in much nicer neighborhoods, but for poor people, especially people of color, they can't rent a place in those areas. 
• Landlords renting in poor neighborhoods have a higher profit margin than those in better neighborhoods
• All of this traces back to the great migration of Blacks from the South to the North.  
• Presence of children increases the odds of eviction.  

I recommend you listen while your doing some mindless task, like cleaning the bathroom, kneading bread, shredding old paperwork, etc.  

What I heard on the radio was apparently taken from several of the segments you can find them all at the link at the beginning of the post.  

Anchorage Assembly Have Mid-Day Work Session on Homeless Issues

 I went to the Assembly Homeless Public Hearing today.  There were about 40 people in the audience and about 25% were wearing masks most of the time.  

Let me  highlight what I took away from the meeting.  These were the three issues that seemed to be problems that were raised for the Assembly to try to resolve or at least understand.

• Measurement - HMIS (Homeless Management Information System)  - They've come a long way since I took the Olé 8 week homeless class.  To plan for the future they have to count the homeless.  They have to be able to identify the different kinds of homeless - those who have lost a job or had overwhelming medical expenses;  those who are working but don't earn enough; those who are chronically homeless, perhaps addicted or mentally ill or badly physically disabled.  Several people mentioned a man with no hands who is homeless.

Click on Image to Enlarge

Then there is the issue of tracking these individuals.  This chart tells us that most of the agencies dealing with the homeless are now inputing information.  But COVID meant HUD required additional data and the work of inputting it all is becoming a problem and all that additional info is making the system harder to use.  But they also said that Anchorage has been cited as the location with the most complete data base tracking of homeless.  

These aren't problems unique to this data base.  Competing interests for which data to include, how to integrate the data, and usefulness to end users are always problematic.  And the more you add the slower it all gets and harder to use.  

Again, click to enlarge

• Obstacles Homeless People Face Getting Service 
• One speaker mentioned that people get to her agency with complaints of not being helped by other agencies.  An Assembly members asked why the others couldn't help.  The answer was:  Different agencies have different grants which often restrict who they can serve - maybe women with children, youth, long term homeless, disabled.  Or they are funded to provide a specific service.  
• The data base is supposed to help coordinate these kinds of problems, but, as I understood it, it's easier to find programs than to track individuals as they use services of different programs
• Problems Getting Appropriated Funding To Service Providers
• The Assembly has appropriated monies for different agencies, but the process of actually getting the money to them is slowed down by federal requirements.  The slide below was put up in part response to this question, but I don't see that it addresses the issue in detail

A number of agency heads or high level employees answered questions from the Assembly.  

David Rittenberg is the Brother Frances Shelter Program Director

Jasmine Boyle is the Executive Director of the Anchorage Homeless Coalition.  When I took the homeless class we heard her name often and she was scheduled to talk to the class several times, but there were always crises that came up and I never got to see her before today.  

Lisa  Sauder is the Executive Director of Bean's Cafe.

[Sorry, I was sitting on the left and got only profiles.]

There were slides that showed numbers of homeless in recent years in summer and winter.  There were predictions of the numbers of beds needed this winter.  Most of the slides about how many homeless at the meeting are at this url.

But I left sort of scratching my head.  What was the goal of this meeting?  Was it for the Assembly to get information?  Most of this they should already have.  Was it a public education meeting?  There wasn't much public there.  (Maybe it was televised, I didn't check.)  For me the three bullet points above seemed to be the things the Assembly members found most helpful - the measurement issues, the obstacles to getting service, and the hold up of the appropriated money getting to the service agencies.  

But the critical issues - what's going to happen when the federal funds to keep Sullivan Arena open as a homeless shelter end in August? - well I didn't see much progress toward answering that question.  

AIFF2020: Dinner In America: A Movie I Shouldn't Have Liked, But I Did

 I'm falling way behind here.  I'm pretty much picking pictures based on the photo, title, and description.  Here are some I think are worth watching.

Narrative Features

I really didn't expect to like Dinner in America   It starts off in an institutional dining room.  Someone throws up on his tray of food.  I almost stopped it right there.  But I didn't and we get to follow an out of control drug dealer (no, that's just one of his personas) have family dinner in three different homes, do a lot of crazy shit (sorry, that's the best description), and win over both of us.  This is a good movie.  Filmed in Michigan.  

Small Town Wisconsin was filmed in Wisconsin.  We even get a tour of Milwaukee.  Another main character who does lots of things that don't endear him to the others characters or the audience.  A little past midpoint we discussed abandoning the film.  We didn't.  It would have been a mistake.  

Foster Boy - This is more Hollywood than film festival.  It has two well known (there may have been others) actors - Matthew Modine and Louis Gossett Jr. - and  Shaquille O’Neal is the executive producer.  This is a court room drama.  A rich, conservative corporate attorney is assigned, against his will, a pro bono case of a 19 prisoner who is suing the foster care corporation that placed him in about a dozen homes.  A compelling film with appealing heroes and appropriately nasty villains.  

Of the three, I'd say Foster Boy had a number of loose ends - where I couldn't quite believe a) the lead attorney didn't get suspicious faster about his son's cancelled trip or b) all the dirty tricks that happened over Thanksgiving weekend.  I attribute b) to squeezing events that happened over a longer period of time into a couple days to fit the condensed time line of the movie.  The film said it was a fictionalized account of a true story.

Shorts  I think are worth watching:

Masel Tov Cocktail - I've already written about this, but I'm including it again just in case you missed my earlier mention.  At this point, this is my favorite film of the festival.  This was a tricky project and it all fit together wonderfully.  It couldn't have been told as well in any other format than film.  

 Cake Day - A good story told economically and movingly.  

Woman Under the Tree  - Maybe a bit longer than necessary, but it's a well told tale of a homeless woman.  

The Marker - Like Cake Day, a good story told well.  

Happy (Short) Films -  I've added this category because this festival is heavy with issue films.  Here are two shorts, particularly Pathfinder, that present the beauty and wonder of the natural world.  

 Pathfinder - A small group of adventurers put up a slack line high up among snow peaks in Norway with Northern Lights in the background.  Pure joy.

Sky Aelans - Also up in the mountains, the people of the Solomon Islands are protecting the mountain environment.  The camera shares some of the wonders up there worth their care.  

I still have lots of movies to see.  There appears to be a lot worth watching.  More later.  

Mystery Spots, Floating Bear, Changing Neighborhoods

The two year old mirror in the back bathroom at my mom's house had developed dark round spots here and there.  A mystery.  And a project.  I loosened the brackets that were holding it up, only to discover there was glue involved too.  Youtube showed me how to remove a mirror with glue.  Fortunately I followed the advice and taped it well because it did break into pieces.  Someone else gave me advice to wear long sleeves.

When I got the mirror off, I found out the source of the mystery spots.  All the spots were where the glue was on the back of the mirror.

Another youtube showed me how to glue a new mirror up.  I needed mirror adhesive.

On the way to the hardware store, I passed this new (to me) mural.  It's much easier to stop and take a picture when you're on your bike.

@TJN3FF did this great bear mural - though it looks more like an otter pose than a bear pose.  If you go to his instagram page you'll see at least one more that I've posted in the past.

While I was at the hardware store, some clouds came over and there were even scattered raindrops. We have drizzle (it wasn't), shower, rain, downpour (none of them), but we don't have a word I know of for 10-15 raindrops per square meter per minute.

I'd notice this boxy modern new house going up on the way.  I was particularly struck by the steps to the roof.  I thought they looked very cool, but I know they're going to get a railing before long, and that's probably a good idea.





But on the way back I was thinking about the way this neighborhood is changing.  Up on this small hill, the houses tend to be bigger than the bungalows in the flatter area, but this one is still bigger and a stark contrast in style.  Here are a couple of the neighboring houses:

This is within a mile of my mom's house, but a totally different neighborhood

Back in 2007 I posted some pictures of some of the original subdivision houses in my mom's neighborhood along with some of the newer, much larger ones that have replaced the originals.

In the 12 years or so since I did the 2007 post, Google and other high tech companies have moved in between these neighborhoods and the beach.  So there are lots of affluent young tech folks buying up old houses, demolishing them, and building much bigger ones.  And there are also developers doing the same and then putting them up for sale.  

I grew up in a three bedroom, one and a half bath house - a family of four.  It seemed plenty big at the time, but it's only about 1200 square feet.  And not cleverly designed to use the space to its fullest.  

And I'd note there was a tent encampment along the sidewalk by the post office near the hardware store.  That hadn't been there last time.