Wednesday, September 16, 2015

Ferries First, Then Come The Bridges

Yesterday I had a chance to meet John Duffy, the former manager and planning director of Mat-su.  I asked him about his thoughts on the Knik Arm bridge and the ferry that has been a white elephant for the borough since building a ferry dock on the Anchorage side never happened.

His response was that the ferry was a good idea and the Knik Arm bridge is a bad idea.  But the comment he made that most caught my attention was that "there has never been a bridge built that wasn't preceded by a ferry."   He even volunteered to give me $100 if I could find one.

Did he have any backup evidence on this?  Is there a book on this?  An article?  Is there a way to find this on google without checking bridge by bridge?  He didn't know of any, but he said he just knew this because he worked in this area.  He did add that all the contractors who looked at building the Knik Arm bridge said that they needed a ferry to get supplies, employees, and inspectors across the gap while building the bridge, that they weren't going to do the five hour round-trip drive.  That made sense.

OK, I realize that while Duffy didn't initiate this project, he did inherit it and promoted it for a while. I'd never heard before that bridges don't get built unless there are ferries first.  If this is true, what does it suggest about the future of the Knik Arm bridge?  Duffy's role might give him an incentive to make it look like a good deal, but it also gives him some inside knowledge.  And, as I said, the idea that bridges don't get built unless there are ferries first is new to me, and I suspect to others.   Of the many projects in Alaska that haven't worked out, this one had acquired a pretty pricey boat for nothing and merely needed a port on each end - a minor task compared to, say the Knik Arm bridge project.  If people had supported it strongly, it could have easily happened.  The question is why, really, did the support evaporate?  (I don't have the answer today, but it's something we should be asking.)

But I'm am going to offer what I've found about the idea that bridges are always preceded by ferries.


Googling The Link Between Bridges And Ferries

So I started googling.  Things like 'bridges preceded by ferries,"  which got a number of articles about specific bridges in the US.  But I wanted a larger selection.  So I looked up "10 biggest bridges in the world."  That got me lots of the ad-laden list sites.  So I opted for Wikipedia which gave a list of countries and lists of bridges in those countries.  But they tended to only talk about the bridge and not what preceded the bridge.

I changed my strategy a bit.  Once I got a bridge name, I googled for the river plus crossing with ferries.  This got ferries for every bridge I looked up.  I've got those below.  Of the 15 or so bridges I looked up, I didn't find one that wasn't preceded by ferries.  That's a small sample size, but I looked at bridges in different parts of the world, old ones, new ones, big ones and small ones.  I also have examples of bridges crossing different bodies of water - mostly rivers, but also bays, lakes, fjords, and canals. 

A ways into my search, I did find a general statement about bridges and ferries (and fords.)

From an 1898 book titled Science and Industry, Vol II
"Barring these disadvantages, fords and ferries are adequate for the needs of a thinly settled community;  but, as population and traffic increase, there arises a demand for a safe and certain crossing of streams, whatever the state of weather and water.
This demand always precedes the bridge-building period."


Why Does This Matter?

Why am I making such a big deal about this?  We've got a well paid commission that is working to set up the Knik Arm bridge.  Many people think there is no need for such a bridge.  The Mat-su Borough attempted to develop a ferry at the same location.  They got a great deal on an experimental ship built by the US military and they built a ferry terminal on the Mat-su side.  But they couldn't get Anchorage to build a site on the Anchorage side.

Mat-su finally gave up and put the ferry up for sale.

I had assumed the Anchorage side didn't want the ferry because they were pushing the bridge and didn't want the competition.  But the point Duffy was making was that you need a ferry service to demonstrate the need before you build a bridge.  His point was that every bridge over water was preceded by a ferry.  The Science and Industry text says that outright, but it's an old text.  Below is a list of 15 bridges around the world.  Every one I looked up was preceded by ferries.

Not only are ferries, apparently, important as a first sampling test of the need for a bridge, but Duffy points out that to build a bridge, you need ferries to cross the body of water to take materials, employees, and inspectors.


15 Bridges That Were Preceded By Ferries

1.  SFChronicle:
"Ferries on the San Francisco Bay predate cable cars in the city by nearly 50 years, starting with John Reed, who ran a sailboat from Sausalito to San Francisco in 1826. His business didn’t last long. The American Indians, who paddled across the bay, were faster and much more reliable.
Regular ferry service started in 1851, and the popularity exploded in 1907, when several ferry companies consolidated into Northwestern Pacific (taken over by Southern Pacific in 1928). Southern Pacific’s 43 boats in 1930 were reportedly the largest ferryboat fleet at the time in the world.
The local ferry companies aggressively fought the construction of the Golden Gate Bridge and Bay Bridge, and they were financially smart to do so. The popular bridges mortally wounded the ferry business, and the final transbay ferry journey of the era was completed in 1958."

Before the Bridges: When ferry boats plied the river - See more at: http://www.wnypapers.com/news/article/featured/2015/02/21/119687/before-the-bridges-when-ferry-boats-plied-the-river#sthash.64ZHPgcL.dpuf
Before the Bridges: When ferry boats plied the river - See more at: http://www.wnypapers.com/news/article/featured/2015/02/21/119687/before-the-bridges-when-ferry-boats-plied-the-river#sthash.64ZHPgcL.dpuf
2.   Niagra Wheatfield Tribune    Grand Island, Niagra Falls NY
The push for Island bridges
Grand Island was purchased from the Senecas in 1815. Forests of oak trees drew settlers for the Island's valuable lumber. Farms then flourished and the Island became a popular summer resort with sprawling, gracious estates, private clubs and summer homes. It officially became a town in 1852. Two ferries provided transportation to and from the Island before the bridges were built. One launched from the former Bedell House in Ferry Village and the other from the site of the current Byblos Niagara Resort & Spa.
Luther's grandfather, Henry Long, went to Washington, D.C., in 1898 to make a case for bridge construction, but he died in 1925 without seeing his dream come true. A decade later, Island schoolchildren were bused to the South Grand Island Bridge for its grand opening, where noted urban planner Robert Moses and other dignitaries joined in the celebration in 1935. Grand Island Boulevard, then called the Express Highway, had been built in 1933-34, Luther said, to connect the two bridges. The Congregational Church was torn down to make room for the highway to come through. "The second set of bridges didn't come 'til the 1960s," she explained. "But there certainly wasn't the flow of traffic that we have now."
- See more at: http://www.wnypapers.com/news/article/featured/2015/02/21/119687/before-the-bridges-when-ferry-boats-plied-the-river#sthash.64ZHPgcL.dpuf
"The push for Island bridges

Grand Island was purchased from the Senecas in 1815. Forests of oak trees drew settlers for the Island's valuable lumber. Farms then flourished and the Island became a popular summer resort with sprawling, gracious estates, private clubs and summer homes. It officially became a town in 1852. Two ferries provided transportation to and from the Island before the bridges were built. One launched from the former Bedell House in Ferry Village and the other from the site of the current Byblos Niagara Resort & Spa.

Luther's grandfather, Henry Long, went to Washington, D.C., in 1898 to make a case for bridge construction, but he died in 1925 without seeing his dream come true. A decade later, Island schoolchildren were bused to the South Grand Island Bridge for its grand opening, where noted urban planner Robert Moses and other dignitaries joined in the celebration in 1935. Grand Island Boulevard, then called the Express Highway, had been built in 1933-34, Luther said, to connect the two bridges. The Congregational Church was torn down to make room for the highway to come through. "The second set of bridges didn't come 'til the 1960s," she explained. 'But there certainly wasn't the flow of traffic that we have now.'"
3.  Duluth 
1906 – 1910: Working Out the Bugs
In March McGilvray reported that the bridge had run perfectly since February 6, handling two hundred to three hundred teams of horses and thirty thousand people a day. He estimated the cost of operating the bridge, including the $4,000 in interest on the bond, at $10,578.31. It may not have been as big a savings from the ferry operation as anticipated, but McGilvray’s spin on the numbers illustrates the bargain that was the bridge: it cost the city “one-fifth of one cent per passenger for operation, maintenance, interest, and power.” He closed his report with a request for the city to install a telephone in the ferry car so its operator could call for help should the car break down in the middle of the canal. It was not granted.
4.  Idaho government webstie talks about ferries in Idaho
In the late1800’s there were hundreds of ferries operating throughout the state, but by the early 1900’s the business began to disappear.  With the population growing, it made sense to build bridges across the most traveled routes.  Once a bridge spanned the river, there was no need to have a ferry.
5.  Columbia River Bridge at Astoria, Oregon:
“The Columbia River span ended the last operating ferry service along the Oregon Coast Highway. The use of ferries at the mouth of the Columbia River began in 1840 when Solomon Smith, Astoria’s first schoolteacher, lashed two canoes together and carried passengers and cargo across the river.3 Ferries intermittently served the area into the beginning of the twentieth century. When the Columbia River Highway (US 30) opened a direct overland link between Portland and Astoria in 1915, automobile traffic through Astoria rose, creating pressure for more dependable ferry service. Seeing opportunity, Captain Fritz Elfving established the first commercial auto ferry service in 1921, when the Tourist I made her maiden voyage. For forty years ferries kept the traffic moving, but there were some drawbacks. For one thing, they were slow. In good weather the 4.5-mile trip took half an hour. Since the boats could hold only a limited number of vehicles, motorists often endured long waits in heavy traffic.”
6.  Chesapeake Bay.
Were there any Chesapeake Bay car ferries?
Why yes, there were once a number of ferries that crossed the Chesapeake, and they transported automobiles and trucks from one side to the other. They were quite popular for a time, actually.
As an example, the Virginia Ferry Corporation operated ferries that crossed the mouth of the Chesapeake Bay. They departed from Little Creek (on the border between Norfolk and Virginia Beach) on the western shore to Cape Charles and Kiptopeke Beach on the Virginia Eastern Shore. The heyday for this corporation wasn’t very long. It ran ferries in the years after World War II and into the 1960’s according to the Chesapeake Bay Ferries website.
A much longer ferry tradition existed further up the bay in Maryland. Ferries existed between Annapolis and Kent Island as early as the nineteenth century. They were probably carrying automobiles by the 1920’s or 1930’s according to the Roads to the Future’s Chesapeake Bay Bridge History. Several lines and operators existed between the Maryland Eastern Shore and the larger portion of the state. These included the Claiborne-Annapolis Ferry operated by a private company and the Sandy Point-Matapeake Ferry operated by the State of Maryland
Why aren’t there any Chesapeake Bay car ferries?
That’s another question I often see in my query logs. The answer is simple: Bridges. The Chesapeake Bay Bridge Tunnel opened in 1964, connecting the two shores of Virginia with an innovative combination of bridge and tunnel segments. Maryland also connected its shores with the Chesapeake Bay Bridge in 1952. They weren’t too original with the names, though. This one is just a bridge, no tunnel, as the name clearly states.
The ferries disappeared soon thereafter at both locations. They simply couldn’t compete with the bridges. It might take an hour or two to cross the Chesapeake Bay using a ferry after figuring in waiting, loading, sailing and unloading. It took just a few minutes to drive across a bridge, and travelers didn’t have to worry about sailing times either. Ironically the traffic on the Chesapeake Bay Bridge can get so bad on summer weekends that a ferry is starting to sound pretty attractive again.

7.   From Gulflive, the bridge at Fort Bayou, Mississippi:

Older generations know not to take for granted some of our modern bridges, especially the four-laned ones. In generations past folks often had to rely on ferries to cross bodies of water.
One of the earliest exits out of Ocean Springs was north on Washington Avenue across Fort Bayou. Franco's Ferry came to be operated there by 1875.

Quoting from a book by Chris Wiggins the article continues:
"Ferries came in all sizes and descriptions," wrote Wiggins. "For crossings on smaller bodies of water, a rope or cable ran from one bank to the other. "The ferry guided along this and was pulled by cranking on a winch. For larger crossings a ferry could be propelled by a boat and motor attached to the ferry and no permanently moored cable was required. This was the case across the Pascagoula River, from Gautier to Pascagoula.
"The ferry was operated under a license issued by the county, and public documents provide a record of the rates. In 1893 the fare was: one man on foot $.05, man and horse $.10, man and horse and cart $.15, each driven horse or cow $.02. Interestingly, when the first bridge was completed to replace the ferry in 1901 rates dropped for humans. A man on foot now cost only $.01, but herded animals didn't get a break."
Wiggins noted that the first Fort Bayou Bridge was worn out by 1929 and a new one was constructed. It, like the first one, opened and closed with a swinging span. In 1985, the third and now existing bridge was built. It opens with a draw-bridge (lifting) mechanism, a faster apparatus."

8.  Lake Washington (Seattle Times):
"IN 1939, THE COUNTRYSIDE EAST OF LAKE WASHINGTON WAS FOCUSED on the little market city of Kirkland. In town, chicken ranchers and dairy farmers could buy seed and feed, get a tooth pulled, and stock up on groceries. Every hour, the lake ferry's arrival pulsed trucks, cars and foot passengers through town. But five minutes outside of Kirkland, the Eastside grew sleepy, almost primitive, dotted with worn farmhouses along muddy lanes. The King County Housing Authority worried about rural poverty on the Eastside -- ramshackle houses and poor sanitation.
    To the south, Bellevue was not really a town at all in 1939. "There was no 'there,' there," joked locals, thinking of the handful of stores along Main Street and the endless fields of berries and vegetables. Bellevue was a sprawling, unincorporated district best known for its Strawberry Festival. Along the lakeshore, there were a few elegant homes amid the rustic summer cottages of Medina and the Points -- the Gold Coast of the future.
    But from Bothell to Renton, lake to mountains, the Eastside dozed on gentle country time.
   As the 1940s began, two events awakened east King County to different futures: construction of the first bridge to span Lake Washington and dramatic industrialization of the Houghton lakeshore, in what is now south Kirkland. The revitalized Lake Washington Shipyards would skyrocket on the wartime homefront, only to sputter and fade. But the bridge would turn the Eastside toward a suburban future, and pulled the momentum of growth south from Kirkland to Bellevue."

9.  Istanbul - crossing the Bosporous, from Wikipedia:
Boats have traversed the waters of the Bosphorus for millennia and until the opening of the first Bosphorus bridge in 1973, were the only mode of transport between the European and Asian halves of Istanbul. They continue to serve as a key public transport link for many thousands of commuters, tourists and vehicles per day.

10.  Khabarovsk, crossing Amur River, from Wikipedia
In 1916, Khabarovsk Bridge across the Amur was completed, allowing Trans-Siberian trains to cross the river without using ferries (or temporary rail tracks over the frozen river in winter).
11.  Panama Canal -  Bridge of the Americas, from Wikipedia
"From the beginning of the French project to construct a canal, it was recognised that the cities of Colón and Panamá would be split from the rest of the republic by the new canal. This was an issue even during construction, when barges were used to ferry construction workers across the canal.
After the canal opened, the increasing number of cars, and the construction of a new road leading to Chiriquí, in the west of Panama, increased the need for some kind of crossing. The Panama Canal Mechanical Division addressed this in August 1931, with the commissioning of two new ferries, the Presidente Amador and President Washington.[2] This service was expanded in August 1940, with additional barges mainly serving the military.
On June 3, 1942, a road/rail swing bridge was inaugurated at the Miraflores locks; although only usable when no ships were passing, this provided some relief for traffic wishing to cross the canal. Still, it was clear that a more substantial solution would be required. To meet the growing needs of vehicle traffic, another ferry, the Presidente Porras, was added in November 1942.  [emphasis added]

The Bridge Project

View on Bridge of the Americas
The idea of a permanent bridge over the canal had been proposed as a major priority as early as 1923. Subsequent administrations of Panama pressed this issue with the United States, which controlled the Canal Zone; and in 1955, the Remón-Eisenhower treaty committed the United States to building a bridge.
.  .  .
The inauguration of the bridge took place on October 12, 1962, with great ceremony.

12.  The London Bridge:
"Until Medieval times, the only way to cross the Thames from London on the north bank to the southern suburb of Southwark was by ferry or a rickety wooden bridge. In 1176 all that changed. After successive wooden bridges were destroyed by fire, Henry II commissioned the building of a permanent stone crossing. It took 33 years to complete and was to last – give or take repairs and remodelling – more than 600 years."
I kept looking for different bridges to see if I could find ones that didn't have ferry service first. I looked up bridges built after 2000 to see if new bridges were different.

13.  I found a bridge in Fort Lauderdale, Florida - the 17th Street Bridge - and the history didn't talk about a ferry, but when I looked up "Broward County ferries" I found this
"The fort was later moved to Tarpon Bend, and then to the barrier island near present-day Bahia Mar. A trading post established in the 1890s by Frank Stranahan (1864-1929) at a ferry crossing of the New River became the nucleus of the city of Fort Lauderdale.[3]"
 I don't know that that specific bridge in Fort Lauderdale had a ferry first, but crossing the New River was first done by ferry.   I don't think this bridge will get me Duffy's $100.

14.  I looked for African bridges and found the Mkapa Bridge between Tanzania and Mozambique.
After a lot of poking around I found this (not quite grammatical) evidence that it was preceded by ferries:
"El Nino resulted in a severe flood in 1998 causing considerable loss of life and property
and use of   government rescue helicopters. The Tanzania Essential Health Intervention
Project (TEHIP) as did construction of a tarmac road from Ikwiriri to Mkapa Bridge
which imporvied [sic] the economy of Ikwriri and saved lives and property, the bridge had severe consequences for businesses and livelihoods dependent on the old ferry service." [emphasis added]

15.  Here's a bridge I randomly picked from the Wikipedia list of bridges in Norway:
"Ship services in Nordhordland started in 1866, and in 1923 the first car was purchased.[5] A car ferry service between Isdalstø in Lindås and Steinestø in Åsane on the mainland was established on 7 July 1936.[6] A plan was launched whereby all traffic from Nordhordland would be collected in one place and transported across Salhusfjorden to Åsane. By moving the ferry quay from Isdalstø to Knarvik, the length of the ferry service could be reduced. However, the fares would be kept the same and the extra revenue used to finance a bridge from Flatøy to Lindås.[7] This allowed the Alversund Bridge to open in 1958, and the ferry service from Flatøy and Meland to move to Knarvik."

Some Possible Exceptions

Finding a bridge that wasn't preceded by a ferry is a little like looking for the black swan.  Not finding one doesn't prove they don't exist and there are too many bridges in the world for me to check them all.

There may, however, be some categories of bridges that were not preceded by ferries.  I was looking at a bridge over a man-made lake (caused by building a dam) in Malaysia.  While I can find evidence that there are ferries on the lake, they appear to be more for tourists than traffic.  But I haven't been able to find out how people crossed the river that got dammed before the dam. Probably by ferry in the beginning.  But so far haven't been able to document that.  The river that was damned was the second longest in Malaysia.  But there was a river there before the lake and there was a road. And the road had to cross the river.  Maybe an old bridge and before that a ferry?  Needs more research. 

I also checked on the bridge over the River Kwai in Thailand.  I can't find any real evidence that there was or wasn't a ferry over the river.  But it's possible this part of this river had no ferry.  Since it was used by the Japanese to make a shorter route from Thailand to Burma, they weren't serving local travelers, and weren't concerned about traffic over the bridge, or about the cost of the bridge.

The second case is not a model one would use to justify a bridge without having a ferry first.  The cost of the whole railroad (including this bridge)  in human lives and suffering  resulted in 
"111 Japanese and Koreans. . . tried for war crimes because of their brutalization of POWs during the construction of the railway. 32 were sentenced to death.[3]"[Wikipedia]

I imagine there might be some bridges built out there that didn't have ferries first.  But I'm guessing those bridges were built not to meet the needs of the local folks but of some others who would be advantaged by the bridge.  Like the Japanese railroad bridges in Thailand in WW II.   And I'm guessing like the Knik Arm bridge here in Anchorage.

Tuesday, September 15, 2015

Goodbye Ruth Marx - May 26, 1913 - September 1, 2015

We met Ruth Marx two and a half years ago when she was walking down the street with her walker and we had the baby stroller and there wasn't enough room to pass.  So I went ahead to negotiate and so I met one remarkable woman.  We talked and when she told me she was going to be 100 years old in a few months, I couldn't believe it.  Here's the video I made then.

Watch it, it will make you smile.



My granddaughter had just been born in 2013 and Mrs. Marx had been born 100 years earlier in 1913. So when we were here to visit Z we would try to get in a visit Ruth Marx too. Every visit was delightful because of her sunny and enthusiastic disposition. So a week ago after dinner, Z and I walked down to the nursing home where Mrs. Marx lived.


There was a piano player and a group of folks singing along in the lobby. I found someone from the nursing home and said we'd like to visit Mrs. Marx. She looked at me solemnly,
"Did the family tell you?"
"Tell me?"
"Mrs. Marx passed away September 1."

What sad news. But she was 102, and fitter than my mom was at 93. And what great luck we had to get to know her during her last two years of life. Knowing her only during her second century of life, I can only imagine what a wonderful and bubbly woman she must have been in her first century.

Z was disappointed and I wasn't quite sure how much she understood. Although she's only two and a half, she is talking away. I reminded her that she had been in Los Angeles when her great grandmother passed away in July, and now Ruth Marx had passed away too. When we got back home, she ran to her mother to tell her, "Mrs. Marx passed away."

I emailed Mrs. Marx's son before posting anything.  He had sent me some biographical information on Mrs. Marx when we had first met and I wanted his permission before posting it.  He just sent me some additional information and I'll add some of that as well.

Here's from the most recent email:
The Bluebird on Her and Our Shoulder: 
Ruth Ungar Marx 1913-2015 

Better pass boldly into that other world,
in the full glory of some passion,
than fade and wither dismally with age.

    James Joyce’s words perfectly capture the vibrant essence of Ruth Henrietta (Ungar) Marx who passed away Tuesday, Sept. 1, at age 102 on Bainbridge Island. A week before she died, sitting outside by the flowers she loved she said, “I want to start doing my book reviews. I so love them.” Several days later she sat up from lying in bed and said “what a beautiful day, let’s go for a walk.” Then as we prepared to go, she laid back down and said, “I am tired, let’s go later”. The night she died we sat with her and read
some poems. She was barely conscious when we kissed her goodbye and squeezed her hand, but she squeezed it back. She wanted to burn out, not rust out (well into her nineties she bought two new bathing suits). [Update 1045pm:  I forgot to mention, this photo was taken when she was 99.]


Here's from the bio written just prior to her moving to Bainbridge Island in 2013:

Ruth Ungar Marx was born in Cleveland in 1913.  Her family moved to Los Angeles in 1914 where her father was the distributor for Carlson speedometers and Majestic radios. Her father founded Ungar Electric Tools in the 1930s, a manufacturer of wood burning pencils and soldering irons. Ruth attended USC and UCLA. She enjoyed debate and tennis. In 1936 she married Donald Marx and they moved to Lemore, California where they ran a general goods store and had a farm. Missing her family and friends, they returned to Los Angeles in 1940. In Los Angeles they founded Hollywood Shell and Toy Co., manufacturers of hobbycraft shell
jewelry and copper, aluminum and leather embossing kits. She also worked as a sales representative for Ungar Electric Tools. Tired of the big city and smog, they moved to Palm Springs in 1957 and ran the retail Desert Garden Date Shop. Several years later they sold the store and became date and grapefruit farmers and moved farther east toward Palm Desert, California.
In Palm Springs Ruth founded the Desert Mental Health Association and Community Concerts and was active in UNICEF and other civic groups. In 1981 they retired and moved to Coronado, California where she has lived ever since. Don died in 1992 and her dear friend for a decade Mac, died in 2003.  In Coronado Ruth was very active founding opera, film, book and swimming exercise groups and volunteering for decades at the library. She continues to enjoy scrabble, bridge and reading. Her daughter Nicki --an artist and jewelry maker lives in Taos, New Mexico. Her grandson Ben lives in Phoenix with his wife Cori and their children  Julien and Simon. Her son Gary lives on the island, as do children and grandchildren Josh, Stacey, Sallie and Nate Marx. Ruth is an outgoing, upbeat person with a lively interest in the affairs of the world and other people.

Here's a bit more that her son sent, but if you watched the video, you'd figured much of this out already:
Ruth had a radiant, billion dollar smile. She was an outgoing, upbeat person and a masterful, extemporaneous, communicator with a lively interest in, and curiosity about, the affairs of the world and other people.  She was a uniquely vibrant force and her own person. She loved the spirit of the poem, “When I am an old woman I shall wear purple.”
 She was strong, resilient, direct and honest, but kindly in the form and content of what she expressed, supported by her quick sense of humor. She was very powerful, yet in a very soft and unpretentious, yet persevering way. She spoke gently, but with self-assurance.
For whatever the turn of fates she experienced or choices she made, she was a fundamentally cheerful person. Through word and deed, in a marvelous feedback loop, the happiness inside her effortlessly spread to others and their positive response to her further increased her happiness.  Ruth had the gift of joy, an optimistic lightness of being, a gentleness of spirit and a fathomless reservoir of kindness. She offered unconditional love and support to her family and friends. With her blithe spirit, unselfishness and absence of rancor, she was goodness personified. Her enthusiasm for life was infectious.

Monday, September 14, 2015

Fall


The birch leaves follow the rhythm of the seasons and the laws of gravity.




And termination dust on the Chugach are another sign that summer is ending.


Saturday, September 12, 2015

"It's easier to imagine the end of the world than to imagine the end of capitalism." [UPDATED]

Busy rainy day.

Biked over to UAA for the Citizens Climate Lobby meeting.  More on that later.  Really good talk by Jerry Taylor of the Libertarian Niskanen Center.  Also the Anchorage chapter got mentioned for commissioning the study of the impact on rural Alaska of a carbon fee with rebate done by ISER economist Steve Colt.  But I can only write so much in one post, so that will wait. 

Right after the meeting I got a ride to Arctic Valley for the Earth Care Jamboree.  Lots of thoughts and ideas, few of which will get into this post.



Libby Roderick kicked things off musically upstairs against the dramatic view of the fall colors on the slope behind her. 

She also led a workshop on Money.  She focused on the disconnect between what people say they believe - particularly on climate change - and how they spend and invest their money.  She frequently broke for the participants to talk in pairs about the themes.

The title quote comes from this workshop.  We

didn't spend any time on it, but for this post I looked it up and found the author to be Frederic Jameson and it pops up in reviews of post-apocalypse movies and books. lamenting the lack of imagination to develop post-capitalist worlds.  For example, in a Snowpiercer review:
"This film is great as a film. I am however tired of these premises in which humanity is deprived of some antagonistically outer threat, humans or world cause, that kills off everybody except a small population and let them return to a state of basic barbarian living. Another quote from Slavoj Zizek mirrors this appending doom: 
'this is what I fear; this is the true dilemma. When the big Other in the form of the state collapses, what we will have is a regression …to some kind of far more totalitarian … pre-state … form of the big Other. Or even to New Age consciousness. There they try to make the big Other exist, perhaps in the form of natural balance'”
There were lots of doors we peeked at in the workshop, but didn't go through as Libby raised money related questions:  people's emotional reactions to money;  the effects of their upbringing on how they think about money;  how people support or fight global warming by how they spend and invest their money;  why money, particularly one's own monetary situation, is rarely talked about with others.

[UPDATE March 21, 2019:  I notice that people get to this post frequently, but I had forgotten the details so I checked today and see that while I reference Frederic Jameson as the author, I don't really have the quote in here.  It's from an article, "Future City",  in New Left Review, 2003:  Here's the paragraph that includes this post's title:

"For it is the end of the world that is in question here; and that could be exhilarating if apocalypse were the only way of imagining that world’s disappearance (whether we have to do here with the bang or the whimper is not the interesting question). It is the old world that deserves the bile and the satire, this new one is merely its own self-effacement, and its slippage into what Dick called kipple or gubble, what LeGuin once described as the buildings ‘melting. They were getting soggy and shaky, like jello left out in the sun. The corners had already run down the sides, leaving great creamy smears.’ Someone once said that it is easier to imagine the end of the world than to imagine the end of capitalism. We can now revise that and witness the attempt to imagine capitalism by way of imagining the end of the world." (emphasis added)]


There was an interfaith panel that included:

Rev Dr. Curtis Karns
Yukon Presbyterians for Earth Care

David Bishop Mahaffey
Orthodox Church in America

Dr. Genmyo Zeekyk
Anchorage Zen Community

Prof. Doug Causey
Friends (Quakers)
University of Alaska Anchorage











I went to an afternoon workshop on activism.  It was called "Social Movements and Peaceful
 
Carson Chavana prepping for workshop
Resistance" hosted by Carson Chavana, who's been active fighting against the Chuitna coal mine, and The Rising Tide, Alaska chapter.  This was one of the groups that had people blockading Shell's   icebreaker MSV Fennica as it left Portland, Oregon on its way to drill in the Chukchi Sea.  I tend to be on the non-violent end of the continuum, but I found the workshop stimulating.  There were distinctions made between civil disobedience and activism. (I think the second term was activism, but due to my amazing magical powers I made their flier disappear was I walked from the couch to my desk. I'm still working on the part of this trick that makes it reappear.) Civil disobedience accepts the legitimacy of the government and challenges bad laws by breaking them and getting the judge or legislature to change the law.  Activists don't accept the legitimacy of the government, arguing they have been corrupted by the corporate paid lobbyists who have twisted the laws to favor their interests.  (I'm paraphrasing here.)
Kirby Spangler
Kirby Spangler, who's a member of
There was also a participatory exercise on defining violence and the morality of different actions.  Is breaking a window a form of violence and would you do it or not?  Is eating meat a form of violence and would you do it or not?  What about taking some parts from a bulldozer that is going to be used to destroy some structure?  These questions made us all reconsider distinctions in types of violence.  Is violence against property the same as violence against humans?  Is physical destruction different from disabling the bulldozer?  Are there times when violence is justified?  I think there was some agreement that one can't evaluate an action without some context.  Self-defense and defending human life were two examples that a lot of people used to justify violence.  While these are old debates, it was useful for me to revisit them and to see the variety of stances people had. 


Meanwhile, it kept raining most of the day, but the landscapes outside the building were spectacular as the clouds obscured the views here and then later there.  But always there were the fall colors of the tundra.


Friday, September 11, 2015

Getting Things Done Part 2: The Unexpected

We discovered that we had come home to a leaking water heater.   This fits yesterday's unexpected tasks.  Things that sneak up on you unexpectedly. 

The plumber came out and we're finally just going to toss the Amtrol (this is the 3rd or 4th one - after the first one exploded, they've given us new ones when we had problems) and go to a totally different company.  This water heater thing has been a multi-year failed attempt to get something done - get the shower water to not drop 10 degrees after two minutes in the shower.  One company cost us a ton of money as they tried this and that to fix it.  Whatever they did then led to the furnace shutting down on its own and not starting up again without help.  Eventually we got a new company and the guy fixed the furnace shutting down problem in 30 minutes.  But the hot water for the shower didn't get fixed.

The guy who came today, K, sounds like he knows what he's doing.  He's already diagnosed the shower problem and thinks he can fix it.  He pointed to a cold water pipe that starts adding water to the shower water.  He even tested it by having me turn on the bathtub water.  No hype.  Modest and straightforward.  Enough grey hairs to suggest he's got experience. 

But it will be an all day job and there wasn't enough time today to finish.  And we'd be out of hot water for the weekend.  So he's coming back Tuesday.  Meanwhile it's dripping - from the bolts on the bottom.  I'm hopeful. 

Meanwhile, another unexpected problem has been solved well.  Our internet speed was slow on tests so I called ACS and they tested it and agreed.  The solution was to get a new modem and a shorter telephone outlet cord.  So the new modem includes a router.  So we went from this:


to this:

This definitely simplifies our life by getting rid of all that stuff and replacing it with just this one small item and two cords.  And the speed is back up where it belongs.  This was very satisfying. 

These are two long term fixes - that is, you get them done right and you don't have to mess with them for a long time.  And I'm sure hoping our water heater blues are over. 

Thursday, September 10, 2015

Getting Things Done

We got back early this morning.  Alaska Airline's 20 minute baggage guarantee meant that we were home less than 30 minutes after we left the plane.  I remember days past when it took over an hour for suitcases to show up on the luggage carousel. 

Our house sitter left a beautifully clean house, all the plants thriving, and a beautiful offering of fresh vegetables.

I looked into the fridge to see what  I needed to put on the shopping list.  It was pretty empty.  A good time to go through and see what needed to be thrown out.   And as I did that I realized I needed to take everything out and do some cleaning. [No pictures, too embarrassing.]



 And I started sorting the mail.  



 And as I did that I was thinking of all the things we have to do while we're home - for here, with my mom's stuff, and just generally, to regroup after these two years of monthly trips to see my mom.  Getting back a rhythm for getting things done.  Not just the basics, but to move ahead.
 

I'd been thinking about a post on this idea already and this seemed like a good time to make a start.  It just seemed to me that there were things we do that have to be done over and over again.  And there are things we do that settle some issue and let us move on.  So here's a first stab at figuring that out.  Any suggestions warmly accepted.  


Things we must and should do
  1.  Regular tasks  (you do them and they need to be done again)
    1. Things that you  do regularly (daily to weekly)
      1. brush teeth
      2. make dinner 
      3. take out trash
    2.  Things that you do regularly (monthly)
      1. pay bills
      2. clean the refrigerator
    3.  Things that you do regularly (annually)
      1. go on vacation
      2. clean the garage
      3. service the car 
  2.  Irregular Tasks  (you do them and they are taken care of for a long time)
    1. Remodel the kitchen
    2. Have a wedding or just a dinner party
    3. Find a new job
  3.  Unexpected Tasks (they happen and interrupt your routine)
    1. Breakdowns that need repairs - cars, machines, houses, computers, etc.
    2. Serious health emergency
    3.  Relationship change - death, breakup/divorce, infidelity, birth
  4.  Changes that move you to a better place
    1. I think this overlaps with #2 and probably #3, I need to figure these out more.
 
It seems for the regular tasks, it's best to find routines so these get done quickly without having to spend much time thinking about them.  The other tasks are often difficult because they are new and we don't know how to get started.  But nowadays anything can be figured out with google.  You can just get a list of steps for how to do pretty much anything.

The other thing I did along these lines was try to make a list of all the different areas of my life that need my attention.  It reminded me that I probably have too many different areas and I'll need to pull back in some and then set priorities in the remaining ones.  What's most important?  After spending a week with my granddaughter (I'm not allowed to post pictures here and telling you how smart and funny she is would sound like typically biased grandfatherly opinion) I'm reminded how important the family category is.

I know that when the number of things I want to do starts to exceed greatly what I actually get done, my mental well being suffers.  Writing everything down and figuring out how much time things will take and how much time there actually is tends to have a calming effect.  Usually I find out things aren't as overwhelming as they seem.  And I can prioritize what things are most important and what things can be abandoned, and that helps avoid all the time temptresses that urge me to do something totally off my list that won't get me where I want to go. 




OK, now I have to go do the shopping.  And I also have on my list to begin the sourdough starter that's critical to all the recipes in the new bread making book I got last month.  I know, this is not something I need to do, but making bread is so satisfying and fresh bread makes a great gift when you visit. 
 

Tuesday, September 08, 2015

Cutting 40% Of Legislative Research Office

Today's Alaska Dispatch News had a headline story about how the Alaska Legislature had cut its own research office by 40%.  There are a lot of questions to ask here.  Like, "WHY?!"

The obvious scapegoat is the budget shortfall.  But some things, in theory anyway, ought to have a higher priority.  And the ability to research before you make legislation would seem like one.  Just one stupid mistake because the legislature didn't have good research on a new bill, could wipe out whatever savings this makes. [I have to note that, yes, the price of oil dropped, cutting a big chunk of state revenues.  But we also have $50 billion in the Permanent Fund and monies in other reserve funds.  And our legislative majority have no interest in raising new revenue.  Their only interest seems to be cutting.]

But there are also questions about the efficiency of the agency and of the efficiency of how it is used by the legislature.  How many legislators use the office?  Are a few taxing its limits while others never use it?  How much does the average report cost?  How have the reports been used to help the legislature make good decisions?

I couldn't find any good tables that listed any of that information.  The best I could find was a list of reports with short summaries for the 2015 Fiscal Year.  (July 1, 2014 - June 30, 2015.)  To find out who requested the report, you have to click on each report.  Didn't have time for that today.  I did have time to post a copy of the list of summaries at SCRBD and below.

The overview divides the reports into 15 categories.
  • Commerce
  • Criminal & Civil Justice
  • Demographics
  • Education
  • Employment and Labor
  • Energy Production and Consumption
  • Environment
  • Government
  • Health Care
  • Natural Resources<
  • Property
  • Public Finance
  • Social Services
  • Transportation
  • Miscellaneous 
A lot of the reports are just one page, but good short reports take longer than longer reports.

Here are the research summaries themselves.



When I blogged the legislature in 2010, I spent a fair amount of time over at Legislative Affairs, getting reports. These folks are good and impartial. As much as some might think that in this fact-free political era, that legislators might not want a lot of facts interfering with their ideology. I doubt that's true of most legislators.

Earth Care Jamboree Includes Naked Mabel and Vinyl Floors

Someone asked if I'd post an announcement for the Earth Care Jamboree this Saturday.  I don't normally do requests, but I do post about events that might look interesting to my readers, events that I might attend myself.  And this seems like one.  And the Citizens Climate Lobby, a group I'm a member of, will have a table at the event. 

From what I can tell, there will be music, speakers, workshops, and lots of connections to make.

The main sponsor is the
"The Interfaith Earth Care Action Network (IECAN) [which] is a collaborative group of individuals representing faith communities across Southcentral Alaska, who saw a need to create a space where faith communities can come together to support and empower one another to speak out and take action on climate change."

[So how do you pronounce IECAN?  I.E. Can?]  [I'm trying to get this post up while my granddaughter is tugging on me to take her to the playground.  You know who's going to win this one.]



Here's a link to their blog which has all the details for Saturday.  But I'll give you a sneak preview of just a couple of the people who will be speaking:

Craig Fleener

Craig Fleener is Gwichyaa Zhee Gwich'in from Fort Yukon Alaska.  He serves as Arctic Policy Advisor to the Governor of Alaska.  Mr. Fleener served as a permanent participant on the Arctic Council and has participated in the work of several of the working groups of the Arctic Council. Mr. Fleener is a wildlife biologist with a specialty in moose management and human dimensions of wildlife and fisheries. 

Xavier Mason

Xavier Mason is a recent UAA graduate and commencement speaker. He is deeply involved in campus and community organizations: co-founder of Tau Kappa Epsilon Fraternity, CBPP Leadership Fellow, and candidate for Oxford's Rhode Scholarship and is currently awaiting designation from the World Economic Forum as a Global Shaper. Xavier will be speaking as the president of the NAACP Youth Council.
 

Doug Causey

Doug Causey is Professor of Biological Sciences, Director of the Applied Environmental Research Center, and Senior Advisor to the Chancellor on Arctic Policy at the University of Alaska Anchorage. He arrived to UAA in June 2005 from Harvard University where he was Senior Biologist at the Museum of Comparative Zoology and Senior Fellow of the JF Kennedy School of Government.  Previous to that, he served as Program Director at the National Science Foundation’s Office of Polar Programs.  An ecologist and evolutionary biologist by training, he has authored over one hundred fifty publications on topics as diverse as the biology of Arctic marine birds, Arctic Climate Change, and the ecology of Alaskan bats.  His research focuses on the dynamics of Arctic ecosystems and climate change, and he has published extensively on policy issues related to the Arctic environment, environmental security, and the resilience of High Arctic communities.

 Climate change seems like an impossible cause to make a difference on, but I've found with Citizens Climate Lobby that individuals can make a difference on climate change.  I'm sure that at this jamboree you'll be able to find lots of ways you can make small contributions to making the planet a better place.  And even though your contribution is small, combined with lots of other small contributions, it will make a big difference.

OK, you get the point.  Arctic Valley, starting at 11am on Saturday, September 12.  I've got a date at the playground waiting right now. 

Sunday, September 06, 2015

"Our Representatives Are Still Helping Other Customers, Please Continue To Hold"

After waiting two hours to talk to someone who said she couldn't help me and then transferred me to another line where I've been waiting for over an hour, I started thinking that maybe the IRS needs to contract with an Indian call center.

Among the anti-tax, anti-government crowd are those business people who know that if they starve government, then there will be less enforcement of the rules and they can get away with more sketchy business and safety practices.  They'll hire lawyers who will concoct complicated legal responses that exhaust the thinning staff of the IRS and other agencies.

Meanwhile, law-abiding citizens have to wait for hours (literally) to talk to someone who might possibly be able to figure out how to get their organization to put the pieces together so that they'll stop sending me letters incorrectly saying I owe them money.

Here's the problem.

We hired a caregiver to take care of my mom when she could no longer walk and take care of herself.

We hired a national payroll firm to take care of calculating the taxes and paying them to the state and the federal governments.

So the company sent in the withheld federal taxes.

My mom's accountant sent in her income tax return, which included those withheld taxes as the payroll company said should be done. 

The IRS has not been able to connect the money they got from the payroll company to the tax return they got from the accountant. [As I learned from the guy I eventually talked to, the personal side of the IRS is separate and doesn't communicate well with the business side.]

My mother is getting letters saying that her personal returns owe X thousand dollars.
She's also getting letters saying that they have received X thousand dollars but there is no tax return.

The two parts of the IRS aren't talking to each other.

Despite the fact that

1.  The accountant has sent them letters documenting the connection between my mother's social security number and the Employer ID number and that the payments were made and the returns filed.
2.  I talked at length to an agent back in March or April and he clearly understood the issue and took extensive notes for the file.  He talked to my mom to get me power of attorney for the 2014 returns and told me what form to fill out for the 2015 return, which I did.

I sent the two new letters that were awaiting me at my mom's in LA last week to the accountant so he could respond to them.  But he also suggested I try to call them as well.  I had tried to call already, before talking to the accountant, but the recording I got then said they were too busy and to call again the next day.  It's more than the next day and the first number I called said to call later.  The next number (there's one number on the letter saying my mom owes X dollars and another number on the letter that says they have the money, but my mom needs to file a return) put me on hold for two hours before someone answered.  How many people can sit by the phone for two hours?  I at least could put it on speaker phone and do other work and my wife was around to take care of our grand daughter whom we're taking care of this week.

This agent was less than helpful or understanding.  She never even took my mom's name or social security number.  She just decided I needed to talk to the business side and said, "I'll transfer you."  Then I got told by a recording that the wait would be over 60 minutes.

[I've been writing this as this was unfolding, so I typed the next part 90 minutes later.]

But the man who eventually answered, about 90 minutes later, quickly grasped what I was saying and outlined how to fix it.  The tax deductions for the caregiver, despite what the payroll company said and despite what the accountant did, should not have been reported on my mom's personal tax return, but should have been file on a 941.  I wrote down what I understood and he said that was basically it.  He agreed it was unfortunate that it took so long for the IRS to answer the phone.  And it was too bad I couldn't have the accountant on the line too so he could answer the technical questions I didn't know and could ask things I didn't know to ask.  But he won't tie up his phone for two hours on hold.  He also agreed that the two sides of the IRS - business and personal - don't seem to talk to each other better.

So I have a tentative solution now which includes amending my mom's 2014 tax return - ugh.  
If we funded the IRS properly, it wouldn't take so long to answer the phone.  If they answered the phone, people wouldn't get so frustrated and could solve their problems before lots of penalties and interest fees pile up.  But this also make people angry at the IRS so they are amenable to the anti-government folks arguments, vote for simplistic anti-tax politicians, and make things even worse.  And the big polluters and tax dodgers get away with their shenanigans because the government doesn't have enough staff to handle their cases.  We see that with schools too - the campaigns to trash the public schools, cut their budgets.  This makes schools more crowded and parents more pissed off about schools.

On the positive side is that the man I talked to actually stayed in the office until 6pm his time on the Friday of a three day weekend to be sure he understood what I was explaining, to look up the returns and find that indeed the money was where I said, and to listen to me reread my notes.

Now I have to send my notes to the accountant who is going to say, I'm sure, we did some of the things already and that what he did was perfectly legit.   Grrrrrr.  We'll see.

[Reposted because of Feedburner issues.]