The new homeless in my hometown
My hometown of Oroville, California is not a wealthy town. This is ironic given that it was the wealthiest town in Butte County in the 19th century and was thus granted the county seat. While a wise choice at the time, it has since led to a large amount of people living in the area on government assistance as by living in the town, they are close to the administrative offices of said assistance and overall, the cost of living is less than the majority of California.
The old town from the Gold Rush period in the mid 1800's is charming and the town overall could easily be a delightful place someday with sufficient planning. This of course has not arrived as not one, but two American Indian casinos opened in town several years ago. While there are the occasional big winners here and there who have their picture taken with the new 4x4 truck they bought with the money and then shown in the local paper, the casinos have been a drain on the town. Those who drive to them to try and win their rent money with their food money are often seen walking back in to the downtown area.
While this is bad, it's not as bad the current economy. No one really believes me, but I keep telling them that I was never confronted with homeless people until I moved to San Francisco. Sure, there were some around, but they would literally hide out in the woods at various camps. Sometimes they lived under bridges or in other odd and slightly mythological places. In a word, they were out of sight.
In see the town for the first time since last May, I'm quite terrified at what has happened. I see homeless everywhere. Some of them look spun out or drunk, but many just look like normal folks, down on the luck, beat up by their monetary state, and out on the streets. This is sobering. I've never seen this before in the three plus decades Oroville and I have had a relationship.
About the only think I can point a finger at is the economy. It's a lot deeper and worse than anyone wants to admit. I've seen three economic downturns in San Francisco and it generally looks unchanged, but seeing a change like this in my home town is a glaring sign that while maybe we've hit bottom, we still have yet to admit it and until we do that, we're just doing to see the sides of a very deep hole for awhile.
15 01 2010 0 comments
Tags: california, economy, oroville
That pretty much sums up the times
I admit it. I play the lottery. Yeah, it's stupid. Yeah, it's a waste of two dollars a week. Yeah, I could spend that $104 on one really nice dinner a year. But, it's something I've done on and off for the last 15 years and as far as dumb vices go, I rate it pretty low. Plus, I'm a sucker for the "what if..." factor that they prey upon all us suckers with.
Lately, as the economy is truly way deep down, stuck up on the second bend of the crapper, it appears that I'm not the only person getting a hit of Lottocaine twice a week. Right after the draw, they post the numbers on the website. This in turn means that you see the image below for about two hours after the draw. There really isn't anything wrong with the website except for the fact that a couple million people are hitting it at once. Obviously, "what if..." has devolved in to "dammit please..." these days. Not a good sign. Not at all.
17 09 2009 0 comments
Tags: economy, errors, stupidity, us america
Closures abound in San Francisco town
Apparently 2009 will be remember as the Year of the Vacancy in San Francisco. One after another, old establishments are closing shop quite quickly. Some I've welcomed the demise of such as Postrio which was about 19 years late in closing its 1980's attitude. But just today, I read that the Carnelian Room is closing. I never ate there. I had maybe one or two drinks there. But what I did have there was a constant go-to spot to bring guests from out of town to admire the view. From 52 floors above the ground, you could see an amazing sweep of the city. At the end of the year, that will be gone. Well, the floor will still be there, but who knows if you'll be able to just pop up and see it. I think not and for that I, and all my future guests, will be sad.
But more importantly than views is that fact that when walking up through North Beach today, I found that Coit Liquors closed. This truly is sad news (that apparently happened a few months back) as they were one of my favorite wine shops in the city. They had a good selection and I liked pretty much anything I bought there. Naturally there are many other good wine shops in San Francisco (like biondivino and Ferry Plaza), but I liked them. This is a sad day for booze.
It's hard not to be a bit down about all this because it's not like these places are closing due to the owners getting tired of running them or someone else buying the place. No, it's the common thread of the economy and it's at this point that I say to all those who have been saying it, yes it is not like the 2000 recession. A lot of places closed then as well, but they were mostly fluff leftover from the dot-com excess. These are regular businesses who weathered that storm and seemed to be fine. Apparently there were a lot of spots left for the trimming. I just dread that only the Walmarts and Bestbuys will make it through this. All I can say is that if you have the means, support your local stores. They know you and need you now.
04 09 2009 0 comments
Tags: economy, san francisco
Why that job may be hard to find
It's always easy to blame the "tough times", but in reality yeah, things are kind of tough. See below and watch the whole animation from 2004 here.
31 05 2009 0 comments
Tags: economy, us america
Sad Goodbyes, Polk-A-Dot. Good Riddance Circuit City.
I'm a big fan of local businesses. Sure, they may cost more than the big, national ones, but the service is usually always better, the profits stay local, and there is accountability in ownership. For this reason, I was sad to see that Polk-A-Dot (on Polk Street of course) closed. Also, for this reason, I was happy to see Circuit City completely close.
In regards to Circuit City, it was as joyous a moment as seeing Bush leave office, to see this horrid store shut down. Their customer service was always horrible. The "salespeople" were only friendly and helpful insofar as it drove their commissions. They were always harassing in their approach and unapologetic in their lack of knowledge about everything in the store. Above and beyond this, Circuit City had pretty bad prices. Sure, there were the loss leaders, but then there was everything else. I always rued the day that I had forgotten to order printer ink, needed to print something really bad, and had to go and buy from them, since printer ink had not commission. Overall, they're bad, which is the reason that they closed. Sure, they can try and blame the economy, but in reality, they were a poorly run operation that deserved to close; much like the American automakers, who were unfortunately bailed out again.
The glee of CC closing is short lived though as the economic factors that contributed to its demise are the same ones that are rending apart the neighborhoods in San Francisco. Honestly, it's quite scary to see space upon space go empty. Naturally, in the next six months a good number of these will fill in, but at the same time, this money shift is tearing things apart. Polk-A-Dot is one such victim. While it was more #1 Fan who bought the occasional thing there than me, I appreciate the shop. They carried unique items that weren't mass produced in China. They sold the work of local artists and most importantly, the shop was owned by folks who lived here and cared about the neighborhood they were in and what they did.
We'll have to just wait and see how all of this plays out. San Francisco in the coming years is going to be faced with tough challenges to stay unique. Large conglomerates are constantly wanting to come in and set up shop in the town. Thankfully this has been resisted to a large degree as I don't really give as damn about being able to shop at the same exact stores in whatever world city I'm in. But, a new generation is rising that doesn't care about such things as much. I watched Chico, CA go the way of the chain store. I only hope that I don't see the same thing happen with San Francisco.
Well, they're all cleared out and gone now with a sign that says, "Don't blame it on the economy, blame it on ourselves." which is a welcome thing to say as I'm getting really sick of everyone using these "tough times" as an excuse for everything from why there are no jobs to why it's a pain to wash the laundry.
24 01 2009
0 comments
Tags: better buying, economy, san francisco
Real Estate Creating Economic Questions
For those living in the US and specifically in coastal states, we all know how the real estate market has gotten so out of control lately. As you can see in this bit from San Francisco magazine which was written at the end of 2003, the market has been hot for quite some time. But as you can also see in this bit from the SF Chronicle, the market has cooled a great deal in recent months. Notice that it hasn't died, just cooled. Somehow prices continue to increase.
Just today though, I came across a BBC article about the possibility of a Spanish property crash looming on the horizon. They've had a good run for some time there, but the parallels between it and the American (specifically, Californian) market are rather scary. It definitely seems poised to go and I think that the fact that most of the economic growth seems to be centered around the growth in property, it's going to be bad. Unfortunately for the US, we're in nearly the exact same boat with what I've heard to be around 3/5 of the recent growth in the economy based on real estate. But of course, no one wants to talk about that.
While it's easy to draw theoretical conclusions from this and shrug it off as out of our hands, I can't quite shake it. I suppose it's because I had family visiting from Bend, Oregon last week who said that the situation there was a lot like San Francisco with all these people who seemed to suddenly have money out of thin air. In reality they all have money from selling their places in California and moving up to Oregon where the market is slightly cheaper. Sure, there is something of a cushion, but people forget that money runs out and things change. So many folks have bought with these damnable adjustable rate mortgages and are about to get spanked badly with any slight downturn in the economy.
But, back to the BBC article and the fact that they make one very good point in that people only need so many houses. This is a finite market with a saturation point that it seems we are quickly approaching, or maybe we've hit it already and no one really wants to talk about it, because honestly, it's a serious bummer. I guess for myself personally, it's good that I didn't buy property and more importantly didn't buy speculation property to flip as so many have here. Obviously, time will only tell with this, but maybe while in Europe, will be a good time to buy there? I can't tell you how badly I'd love to say an emphatic yes, but know better.
