#according to google a town needs to have a local government. which we also do not have

[etchif]

PAUSE..... you live in a little village?🌲🌲🌲🌲 🦔🐿🐏🏡☀🌲🌲🌲🌲❓❓❓❓❓❓ Are there any gnomes there

Yeah it's right by a forest too every time I go outside I have to be careful. lest those gnomes get me

[phroyd]

Every year, I look for important themes in sustainability that will have lasting impact on society, from glaring evidence of global megatrends to inspiring stories of corporate action. The year 2018 brought extreme change — in weather and environmental ecosystems, in political winds and power, and in the expectations of business. It also brought incredible clarity about the scale of our challenges and opportunities.

So let’s start with the big picture before moving to some corporate success stories.

The world’s scientists sound a final alarm on climate

We have about 12 years left. That’s the clear message from a monumental studyfrom the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). To avoid some of the most devastating impacts of climate change, the world must slash carbon emissions by 45% by 2030, and completely decarbonize by 2050 (while, in the meantime, emissions are still rising).

The IPCC looked at the difference between the world “only” warming two degrees Celsius (3.8°F) — the agreed upon goal at global climate summits in Copenhagen and Paris — or holding warming to just 1.5 degrees. Even the latter, they say, will require a monumental effort “unprecedented in terms of scale.” We face serious problems either way, but every half degree matters a great deal in human, planetary, and economic losses.

It wasn’t just the IPCC that told a stark story. Thirteen U.S. government agencies issued the U.S. National Climate Assessment, which concluded that climate change could knock at least 10% off of GDP. Other studies tell us that sea level rise is going to be worse than we thought, Antarctica is melting three times faster than a decade ago, and Greenland is losing ice quickly as well. If both those ice sheets go, sea level rise could reach 200-plus feet, resulting in utter devastation, including the loss of the entire Atlantic seaboard (Boston, New York, D.C., etc.), all of Florida, London, Stockholm, Denmark, Uruguay and Paraguay, and land now inhabited by more than 1 billion Asians.

All of this suggests that business must dramatically change how it operates: companies will need to push well past their comfort zones from areas like politics and policy to engaging consumers to how they make investment decisions.

Entire towns are wiped off the map by extreme weather

This year the weather devastation around the world got, in the words of one colleague, “biblical.” The town of Paradise, California, was effectively eliminated by wildfires (that, yes, are made worse by climate change), killing at least 85 people. Most houses in Mexico Beach, Florida, were destroyed by Hurricane Michael. Unprecedented rains and damage from Hurricane Florence slammed North Carolina and temporarily turned a major highway into a river. Typhoon Mangkhut ravagedthe Philippines and parts of China, killing dozens of people. Incredible heat blanketed four continents this summer, with records falling across Europe and Asia. Venezuela’s last glacier is disappearing. Finally, Capetown, South Africa, is essentially out of water due in part to drought — the city nearly shut off all the taps this year, but has held off “Day Zero” through ongoing restrictions and aggressive citizen action.

The consequences of these extremes are not theoretical. What is the economic cost to an area with no water, or one that’s under water, or burned to the ground? In the U.S. alone, it was $306 billion in 2017, shattering records.

Coral is dying, insects are disappearing, and the fate of major ecosystems looks dim

The world’s top coral expert confirms that at 2 degrees of warming, all coral will die. This will destroy a critical part of an ocean system that provides protein to hundreds of millions of people, helps blunt coastal storm surges, and supports the livelihoods of people working in fishing and tourism.

And it’s not just coral: there’s the death of pacific kelp forests, radical declines in insect populations, and continuing population drops in all mammals and bees.

How does this all connect to business? For some sectors, it’s obvious: the food and agriculture industry will have trouble feeding us without pollinators, and tourism takes a big hit without coral and other wildlife. But more broadly, society will not thrive in a world where entire pillars of planetary support are collapsing. And if society can’t thrive, neither can business.

The U.S. environmental protection system continues being dismantled … from within

The EPA and Department of Interior are reversing years of protections for air, water, and land. In 2018, the Trump administration has opened up offshore waters and rolled back safety rules for drilling, greatly weakened the voice of science in policy, reduced focus on children’s health, and moved to make it easier to build dirty coal plants.

The big question now is whether businesses will push back and go down a cleaner path on their own. It’s easy to see why multinationals might as they face pressure from sub-national regions — California Gov. Jerry Brown held a Global Climate Action Summit which produced many aggressive climate goals from cities and state, for example. Gov. Brown also signed aggressive new laws committing to carbon-free electricity statewide by 2045 and requiring solar on all new homes. So even if U.S. action sputters, governors and mayors who influence local and regional business conditions will be pushing the clean economy and pro-climate agendas.

In pointed contrast to the U.S., the EU backed a proposal to strike no new trade deals with countries not in the Paris climate accord (i.e., only the U.S.), France will shut coal plants by 2021, India just cancelled plans for big coal plants, and China banned 500 inefficient models of cars.

A prominent leader retires, but new leaders step up

For nearly a decade, no business leader has done more to bring sustainability into the business mainstream than Paul Polman, Unilever’s outgoing CEO (Full disclosure: I’ve worked with Unilever). His depth of understanding of our biggest global, social, and environmental challenges, and his commitment to use business as a way to tackle them, has been unparalleled. But it wasn’t just talk. The company also grew throughout Polman’s tenure and the stock outperformed peers and the FTSE index. Luckily, there are other corporate leaders who are stepping up, including Danone’s Emmanuel Faber (see below for more).

But climate isn’t the only area where we’re seeing bold stances. Societal issues more broadly made headlines, too. The New York Times declared 2018 year that “CEO activism has become the new normal,” with prominent voices like Salesforce’s Marc Benioff leading the way. Other notable moments include Nike making Colin Kaepernick — the man who led NFL player protests about police violence against African Americans — the face of its 30th anniversary “Just Do It” campaign (sales rose quickly). Under pressure from survivors of school mass shootings, Dick’s Sporting Goods stopped selling assault weapons, and other companies cut ties to the powerful National Rifle Association. Kroger celebrated a year of its “End Hunger” initiative. Unilever threatened to pull its substantial ad dollars from Facebook and Google if they didn’t police “fake news and toxic content.” One hundred U.S. CEOs urged action on controversial immigration issues. And more than 100 U.S. companies gave employees time off to vote.

Danone North America becomes the world’s largest B Corporation

A “B Corp” certification requires answering an intensive set of questions on environmental, social, and governance issues. But most importantly, it commits a company to create value for all stakeholders (customers, employees, communities, and so on), not just shareholders.

French consumer products giant Danone has now put 30% of its brands and businesses through the certification process and says that “companies are fundamentally challenged as to whose interests they really serve.” Becoming a B Corp is arguably is a direct statement about whose interests it values most, and it’s and fascinating frontal attack on the dominance of shareholder capitalism.

More investors are viewing climate and sustainability as core value issues

Something is shifting in finance. Vanguard wants CEOs to be a force for good. Mark Carney, Governor of the Bank of England, said that “70% of [UK] banks, who normally have a shorter horizon, are viewing climate as a financial risk—not a CSR one.” Larry Fink, CEO of Blackrock, the world’s largest asset owner, encouraged longer-term thinking about environmental, social, and governance issues in a strongly-worded letter to large-company CEOs.

Anecdotally, I’ve talked to leaders at big banks who are now thinking differently about purpose and systemic risk. And in a quieter move, a major real estate investor in Miami began pulling money out of coastal assets to avoid risk of sea level rise. Watch this space.

The clean technology explosion continues and accelerates

Three big clean tech themes wowed me this year.

1) Renewables keep getting cheaper. According to Lazard’s annual analysis of the cost of building new power plants, renewables are now the cheapest. And another global analysis showed that new wind and solar are cheaper than one-third of the coal already on the grid — and will be cheaper than 96% of existing plants by 2030.

2) Corporate buying of clean energy keeps rising. By the end of just the first half of 2018, businesses bought more clean energy than they did in 2017. Companies like Owens Corning (disclosure: a client of mine) are buying enough green energy to pitch their products as cleanly manufactured (which they started doing in late 2017).

3) Electric vehicle sales are exploding, and it’s not just small vehicles: even container ships are going electric. UPS bought its first EV delivery vehicles at price parity to combustion engines, and China is adding nearly 10,000 electric buses to the roads — equal to the size of London’s entire bus fleet – every five weeks.

China rejects the world’s trash

For years, the U.S. had a great deal: When container ships arrived from China with goods, we sent them back filled with our recyclable paper and glass. But starting January 1, 2018, China stopped accepting our trash. The ripples of this move are unpredictable and still moving through the system, but in some regions, materials piled up and prices for recycled content plummeted. In a business world trying to go “circular” (i.e., find a use for everything and eliminate waste), it was a wake-up call about how much waste we still produce.

The battle against single-use plastic heats up, starting (somewhat oddly) with straws

Sometimes weird things hit a tipping point. For a combination of reasons, including a viral video showing a turtle with a straw stuck in its nose, companies waged war on straws this year. Marriott, McDonald’s, Starbucks, Burger King, and the city of Seattle, among others, all banned or are phasing out straws. It was a very small part of a larger conversation about “single-use plastics,” most notably plastic bags, which IKEA and Taiwan are banning as well.

Raising the bar for suppliers

The greening of the supply chain is a perennial story, but there are some noteworthy recent actions. Apple created a $300 million fund to help suppliers in China build more solar, and also partnered with Alcoa and Rio Tinto to develop a better smelting process to make carbon-free aluminum. On the labor side of the supply chain equation, PepsiCo and Nestle cut ties with a palm oil supplier over human rights abuses and Coca-Cola said it would work with the U.S. State Department to use blockchain to fight forced labor.

Meatless options grow plentiful

Given the way most cattle is currently raised, one of the most effective things an individual can do to reduce her carbon footprint is eat less meat. The options to do so are growing, and the rise of products made from non-animal proteins has been remarkable. The Impossible Burger, Beyond Meat, and other brands have made believers out of skeptics (they taste great) and are, as the Wall Street Journal put it, “overrunning grocery meat cases.” In another fascinating move, tech company WeWork went meat-free in its offices and even stopped reimbursing employees on business trips for meat meals.

What comes next…

I’m sure I missed many stories, especially globally (my view is from the U.S.). Predictions are hard, but I’m safe in assuming 2019 will be a bumpy ride again. Ultimately, today’s global political situation is, at best, unpredictable. Brazil now has a strongman-style leader who talks about cutting down the Amazon, but the U.S. just swung its House of Representatives back the other way, giving power to Democrats who want more focus on climate change, inequality, and other sustainability agenda items. No matter what happens politically, it seems clear that companies will continue to feel pressure, internally and externally, to do more on social and environmental issues. While the problems face we are extremely serious, I remain optimistic that companies will be doing more in 2019 than ever before.

[ryankarloramos-blog]

Barangay Poblacion - A historical but a hazardous “national treasure”

Hazard: Gas stations beside residencesWe all know that gasoline fuels fires and cause possible explosions. With these right next to residences, people, including us are very vulnerable to these situations. These gas station should have been built a bit farther away from residences and a shoe supply warehouse.Biñan is one of the most historical places in the Philippines, specifically in my local barangay, barangay Poblacion. Not just the town center of Binan can be found in Barangay Poblacion, but also some old Spanish houses including the house of the parents of Jose Rizal, the Alberto house. In addition to that, this is also the barangay where J. Rizal had his first formal schooling.

Map of Biñan (Taken from: Google Maps)

Wrecked Alberto house due to a typhoon  (Taken from: Wikipedia, unknown photographer; photo taken in October 22, 2012)

Restored Alberto House (present day)

The street sign leading to the school of Rizal

School of Rizal, restored

According to Philippine Statistics Authority, Biñan has a population of 333,028 as of September 30, 2019. As the heart of the city, I think that these problems should be addressed as soon as possible, not just for aesthetic purposes but most especially, for safety.

Interview with Kap. Lloyd Castelltort

My interview with Kap. Lloyd was on December 21, 2019. He pointed out that the most disaster to be anticipated always is the flooding, because our area is situated next to a river, and it is prone to what will be mentioned later. The former design of the river was not that good. Because the wall near the dam has a “hole”. And the countermeasure done was the riverwalk, which will also be mentioned later. As of today, with the riverwalk completed, the reason why there are still flooding is because the depth of the river is not that good, and the trash that backflows from the canals. A proposal was made for this. Manholes that would automatically close to prevent these backflows, but takes in water from the outside. Also the excavation/dredging of the river was already started, and a Chinese contact of theirs donated a barge to help dredge the river. He said that a few years back, the barangay next to us would immediately flood up with just a little rain, but improvements have been observed since the start of the dredging.

The barangay would know that if there is an incoming calamity, they would know it from the social media. But their primary source is from the office of the mayor also known as their command center or C3. They are the ones to monitor and respond to typhoons or earthquakes. The command center disseminates the information across the 24 barangays in Biñan and give orders to the barangay officials and tell them what to do. The city also has its own radio station, Radyo Biñan, also from the command center. They provide updates that concerns the city. The command center, as told by Kap. Lloyd, have radars so the barangays depend on them for information and orders. Roughly two years ago, there was a massive fire in our barangay, almost reached us. The command center was the one who sent  firetrucks and firefighters to fend off the fire. They also have rescue vehicles whenever there are typhoons, earthquakes, etc.

Ever since, the main problem of our barangay was flooding, because as mentioned earlier, we are situated next to the river. Therefore, the houses literally right next to the river are the most affected/vulnerable ones. The evacuation center is plaza’s covered court. The medical kits, disaster tools, and radios to contact CSWD and the command center is located in the office of the covered court. The command center and other barangays send teams to help organize the people in the evacuation center, if ever the case arises. They help give medical attention, food, and other services like the transportation using the rescue vehicles.

The disasters would not really affect the lifestyle and jobs of the people, because as said by Kap. Lloyd, most of the people are working and selling in the public market, wherein the typhoon and flood would not greatly affect them. The only problem is that their houses, when destroyed by typhoons, are the only ones affected and not their jobs and lifestyles.

The preparations being done by the barangay are public address, wherein there are sirens in main streets and a counselor would alert and advise people to ready up their things for incoming floods and other calamities.

Community Walk

In the walk, we travelled the main street of the barangay leading to the town center. We encountered several hazards.

The main street

These identifiable hazards around barangay Poblacion include the following:

Bombardment of tricycles in the main street/town center

Two gas stations beside residences

Low depth of the sub-basin/river

Waste disposal problems

1. Hazard: Bombardment of tricycles and vegetables and fruit dealers in the main street/town center

The ever-growing number of tricycles in Biñan are causing not just traffic, but also undisciplined and unruly streets that can potentially lead impatient drivers into road rages. Also, what if there was an emergency and an ambulance needs to swiftly get through due to an emergency? These tricycles would be an obstruction to traffic and might even be the cause of the death of patient. In the picture shown below, during nighttime is the worst. Plastic bags and carts of vegetables are just scattered  on the ground, and even worse, there are vehicles parked at the round-about wherein it should really be easily passable. They are even parked right in front of the no parking sign.

Possible solution: In an article from Politiko South Luzon (2019), former city mayor of Biñan, now the congresswoman of the lone district of Biñan, Hon. Marlyn “Len” B. Alonte, purchased last August 2019, forty new e-trikes to help reduce the air pollution in the town. The recipients of these newly purchased e-tikes are the Biñan police and the Biñan City Culture, History, Arts and Tourism Office. They should also limit the numbers of tricycles in a single toda because it is simply getting out of hand. Also, reinforce the streets with police or local government units that should apprehend these violators.

Hon. Marlyn Alonte and vice mayor Gel alonte with a representative alongside the newly purchased e-trike (taken from: South Luzon Politics)

2. Hazard: Gas stations beside residences

We all know that gasoline fuels fires and cause possible explosions. With these right next to residences, people, including us are very vulnerable to these situations. These gas station should have been built a bit farther away from residences and a shoe supply warehouse.

Possible solution: Kap. Lloyd mentioned that these gas stations, as well as other gas stations, have emergency shut-off valve whenever there are incidents that involve fires and other malfunctions. He also said that these incidents would not just arise from nothing , but from intended acts like arson in these gas stations. It is not always alright to just rely on these emergency shut-off valves, but we should also be prepared whenever there comes a time that unwanted events would occur. These automatic shut-off valves will be automatically activated when the sensors within the gas stations sensed/detected an increase in thermal activity or smoke.

3. Hazard: Low depth of the river depth/excavation

The Biñan sub-basin/river extends from the southern part of Metro Manila all the way to Tagaytay, Cavite. The depth of the part where Brgy. Poblacion is covered by this river is not that deep. This was one of the culprits that made the city flooded during typhoons and low pressure areas. Some improper waste disposal also contributes to the flooding of the town.

Taken from: Hydrologic Atlas of the 24 Sub-basins of Laguna de Bay 2012 by the Laguna Lake Development Agency (LLDA)

Taken from: Hydrologic Atlas of the 24 Sub-basins of Laguna de Bay 2012 by the Laguna Lake Development Agency (LLDA)

Taken from: Hydrologic Atlas of the 24 Sub-basins of Laguna de Bay 2012 by the Laguna Lake Development Agency (LLDA)

Possible solution: The former design of the Biñan river was flawed wherein the end-part of the wall that prevents the water from the dam to enter the river was not “complete”. Therefore, whenever they release water from that dam, it would flow to the Biñan river causing floods. Kap. Lloyd mentioned that it the deepening of this river from end-to-end (exclusive in Biñan river). There are two purposes of this riverwalk, one is for flood control, and the other is for recreational activities of the people.

Proper waste disposal must be strictly implemented not just in our city, but also in the whole country as well as the rest of the world. Because this is one of the easiest ways to reduce disasters due to flooding, but it is somehow being neglected by other people. Therefore, most people suffer from the irresponsible acts of the many.

Biñan riverwalk and depth of the river, present day (Taken from: Politiko South Luzon)

I hope that these mentioned hazards will be addressed as soon as possible to protect its people and to preserve the national treasures and legacies left behind by our ancestors. Being equipped with proper knowledge on disaster risk reduction and disciplining ourselves to simply obeying traffic rules to waste disposal will have great impact on our country.

Photo with Kap. Lloy Castelltort

Photos without references were taken by the author of this article

References:

https://psa.gov.ph/classification/psgc/?q=psgc/barangays/043403000

https://southluzon.politics.com.ph/2019/08/04/len-alonte-gets-e-trikes-from-doe-for-binan/

Google maps

https://southluzon.politics.com.ph/2018/12/28/hi-tech-2-km-walkway-across-binan-river-opens-to-public/

[eyesopen2019]

Roadtrip continued

Clearwater is a small community surrounded by waterfalls and canyons with lots of hiking and biking. The next day we spent the morning hiking to a couple of waterfalls.  We drove into Wells Gray Provincial Park and walked a short distance and ended up at the top of a waterfall overlooking a huge canyon and cliffs.  The next one was a longer hike to the base of a waterfall. It was meant to be a 20 minute or 2km walk but ended up being closer to 6km in total which took quite a while. The falls were fairly big and Kai and Leon tried to climb behind it as the lady at the tourist office said you could, but they couldn’t find the path. We were on the lookout for bears along the path but we didn’t see any.  We did have a few complaints from Aiden and Lani along the way due to the distance and it was a bit of a mission to get them home….

The drive from Clearwater to Whistler via Lillooet was absolutely amazing.  Hung and I really enjoyed the drive along the winding mountain roads with the sheer drops to the canyon below with streams and rapids at the base.  I did most of the driving that day and had to sneek lots of peeks over the edge.  The kids ‘mostly’ sat quietly in the back, playing games or watching movies on their devices.  For I think the first time ever I heard Aiden say several times that he thought the scenery outside was amazing and beautiful.

We got tired about 6ish and didn’t think we’d make it to Whistler so we stopped in a tourist office carpark to sleep the night.  We left early in the morning and parked in the Nairn Falls Provincial Park carpark for breakfast with a forest view.  Aiden and Kai had a sleep in while the rest of us hiked the couple of kms out to Nairn falls.  It was beautiful early in the morning and a perfect way to start the day.  The falls were very powerful and we had a chat about hydroelectric power and how it is made.

We headed onto Whistler and spent the day walking around town.  I thought it was a fairly boring and typical tourist ski town.  Most of the skiing was finished although the slopes were still open.  We headed to our RV park early in the afternoon, where Leon and Lani went for a bit of a hike through the woods and then got Hung and I to follow.  Aiden and Kai hooked up to the wifi which was meant to be great according to reviews on google.  We all had a bit of a relaxing afternoon hanging around and after dinner we started a fire.  Usually Hung is very conservative with our firewood and only wants us to make a small fire but our neighbouring campsite had left behind a big pile of firewood when they left, and Hung was napping, so we took the opportunity to throw the logs on the fire and get nice and warm!  Leon, Lani and Aiden practised roasting their marshmallows and we enjoyed sitting and chatting by the fire for several hours.

The next day we drove to Squamish and spent the afternoon rafting down the Cheakamus River.  We suited up in our wetsuits, booties and helmets and jumped on the bus for the short drive to the river.  It was the first time any of us have been whitewater rafting and we had a great time.  The rapids were a grade 2 and were fairly gentle although they did speed up in a couple of places.  Maybe next time Aiden and Kai can go on their own to some faster and bigger ones.  The day was overcast and a bit windy but we all had on wetsuits and did a bit of paddling which kept us warm.  We stopped halfway down the river for an afternoon tea on the riverbank of delicious homemade hummus, carrots, bananas, potato chips and chocolate brownies.  Leon needed to pee so had to duck into the bushes and take off his wetsuit for a quick visit to the bushes.  Poor Kai had all the bad luck – getting hit in the head by our guides oar and then falling in when our raft ran over a massive rock and stopped mid-air sending him tumbling over the side into the freezing water.  He luckily didn’t hurt himself and it was very funny to watch!  Our guide was very chatty and friendly and suggested we travel to Vancouver Island via the Horseshoe Bay ferry to Nanaimo which we decided to do.  He also recommended a local Mexican place called Mags for us to have dinner, which we did. After our Mexican we pulled up just outside Squamish at a lovely campsite at the base of The Chief, a huge sheer rockface.  We were all tired after rafting and were in bed for an early night.  We left early the next morning and stopped for a walk to the Shannon Falls at the base of The Chief.  We then drove on towards Horseshoe Bay in North Vancouver to try to get on ferry to Nanaimo.  We got on one fairly easily and enjoyed the 90min ferry ride to the island.  When we arrived, we found a RV park on outskirts of Nanaimo surrounded by forested areas overlooking the bay.  We cooked dinner and Leon lit a fire with sticks he and Lani had collected.  In Nanaimo, Aiden enjoyed day out shopping in town, and added to his growing collection of nose rings, but the rest of us thought the town was grotty and not very interesting.

So far on our trip in the RV we have driven through so many areas with beautiful lakes, rivers and streams. It has made Hung really miss his kayaking and fishing which at home is his time out alone to refresh and get some exercise.  On our drive from Nanaimo to Victoria we stopped at Duncan and he bought himself a fishing rod and some lures while Leon and Lani bought more marshmallows to roast in our campfire.  

We arrived in Victoria on Saturday 4th May and our RV park was right on the harbour looking out towards the city.  It was quite expensive ($87/night) but it was really new and was very clean with fantastic facilities including a clubhouse overlooking the water with comfy couches and a TV.  It felt like a home away from home.  Kai and I walked the 3km along the harbour into the city and had dinner at Earls while Hung went fishing with Leon and Lani and Aiden went for a wander around our local area.  Kai and I caught one of the cute little ferries home across the harbour to our RV. The next day, Lani and I had a lovely ‘girls day out’ together.  The city is centred around Government Street and has lots of interesting little shops to explore.  Parts of the town were filled with smoke as a large building had caught fire in the early hours of the morning and burnt to the ground.  We wandered around town having coffee, ice cream and lunch out on our own.  We were able to both get our hair washed and a haircut which felt wonderful.  On the way home we walked to Fisherman’s Wharf and had fish and chips for dinner and Lani had another ice cream.  Leon spent a few hours out with Hung and found himself a special treasure for $4 at the thrift store – a puppet he named King Cody, which is providing many hours of entertainment.  

Aiden had a day out and met up with a friend of someone he knows from home.  He explored downtown area and spent his emergency money given to him for ‘emergencies’ – i.e. not shopping.  He came home with a floral shirt and a yellow polo shirt which he thought he needed to add more colour to his wardrobe.  He also came home with a ‘temporary necklace’ which he can tell you more about when you see him.

[mentorlocksmith1-blog]

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[shirlleycoyle]

Rural Transit Agencies Are Keeping People Alive

A few days after Jeanne McMillin started working as a dispatcher for Little Dixie Transit in the small southeastern Oklahoma town of Hugo nearly 20 years ago, she got a call from someone she described as “a little lady.”

Unbeknownst to McMillin, this lady had been a long-time rider. But McMillin was having a hard time getting all her information down. There were three different phones, two-way radios blaring constantly, and lots of activity in the office of people coming and going. It was all so much more chaotic than she expected when she took the job at the rural public transit agency. So McMillin asked the lady two or three times for her origin and destination, just to make sure she got it right.

“She kind of laughed,” McMillin recalled, “and said, ‘honey, are you new?’” McMillin chuckled at the recollection and the good-natured way the woman responded to her difficulties adjusting to the new job. “She could just tell.”

Little DIxie Transit is a public transportation agency, like New York City Transit or the LA Metro. But the similarities end there. It doesn’t have billions of dollars to spend every year or a staff of tens of thousands to serve those riders. In 2018, Little Dixie Transit had a $2 million budget and a staff of about two dozen. Rather than moving millions of people a day, they move hundreds. And when someone has somewhere to go, they call the landline and talk to someone like McMillin.

McMillin says you can learn an awful lot about a person simply by knowing where they’re going, something that Google, Apple, and countless tech companies have since discovered. A person’s travel habits are intimate, revealing details. Of course, McMillin wasn’t out to profit off that information. But it meant riders became much more than riders to her.

When that “little lady” would call, she’d tell McMillin she needed to go to Walmart or get her hair done. They’d chat about what they were making for dinner, when the lady’s children were coming to visit, and when something around the house broke that needed fixing.

“It became personal because you knew this person, her life, her activities, what she liked to do,” McMillin said. “You always thought she was going to be there, because she had always been there.” And Little Dixie Transit was always there for her, too.

*

The coronavirus crisis has had a powerful revealing effect on all aspects of American life. Most poignantly, it has shown us what is essential to our health and well-being. In big cities, public transportation systems that get essential workers where they need to go have received deserved recognition for their critical role in managing the crisis.

But the transit agencies across the country that serve rural populations have been less recognized. In large part, this is because many people don’t even know there’s such a thing as a rural transit agency. When most people think of public transit they think of trains and buses in dense urban areas. And when they think of rural areas, they picture people in cars driving everywhere.

But these services, which typically use smaller vans that seat a maximum of 14 people, are just as critical. They may serve fewer people, but are vital lifelines for the people who rely on them. Without these rural transit agencies, old folks would have to permanently leave their homes, the sick would routinely miss medical appointments, and some people would be stranded far from grocery stores and social events.

Motherboard spoke to four administrators of rural transit agencies and two statewide directors about the role they play in their communities for this article, and all of them stressed the underappreciated aspect of their services.

“We’re not a big urban system,” said Melissa Fesler of First Capital Trolley in Guthrie, Oklahoma. “We may not impact as many lives, but we do impact the lives of those we serve.”

In 2018, America’s 1,280 rural transit agencies made more than 125 million combined trips, according to data compiled by the American Public Transportation Association. The data doesn’t break down the purposes of those trips, but the rural transit employees Motherboard spoke to said they serve a variety of purposes. Some of their riders don’t own cars either for financial or health reasons. Others are on dialysis or receiving chemotherapy that require regular trips to health centers far from their homes and don’t have anyone else to provide that transportation. A significant portion of rural transit ridership tends to be elderly, allowing those customers to live in their homes longer than they otherwise could. Many rural agencies partner with drug courts to take people with suspended licenses to their appearances. Others bring children to school or activities while their parents are at work. Basically, if you cannot drive yourself for whatever reason, rural transit fills the gaps.

Rural transit’s proponents believe it is not merely a vital lifeline in times of crisis, but a key component to any recovery. “I always say there’s two reasons people ride the bus,” said executive director of Oklahoma Transit Association Mark Nestlen, “to make money and to spend money.” Even if that’s not strictly true, it’s a decent rule-of-thumb. For that reason, Nestlen calls transit “an economic development program that happens to have quality of life benefits.”

It’s important to not put too much stock in economic impact analyses, as they’re often little more than glorified guesswork. That being said, a host of studies have consistently found public transit in both rural and urban areas pays for itself by creating jobs, saving people money, improving health care access and outcomes, and saving lives. While the exact dollar benefits range greatly, studies consistently find rural transit is worth the money.

But these rural transit experts also said recent events have underscored how federal rules and funding formulas make it difficult to provide better or expanded service to those who need it. As a result, some are worried about what the future will bring.

“I’ve never experienced anything like what we have gone through in the last couple of months in almost 20 years of doing this work,” McMillin said, “and I’m very concerned about where we’re going to be at when we come out the other side.”

*

Like their urban counterparts, many rural transit agencies didn’t shut down when their respective states issued stay-at-home orders. The managers I spoke to all recounted similar thought processes, ones reminiscent of the mutual aid networks that have sprung up around the country. They asked themselves how they can still serve their communities even if it means adhering to social distancing and putting their community first, personal finances second.

Because many of their riders use the service to get to grocery stores, several rural agencies Motherboard spoke to quickly pivoted to grocery and meal delivery. Kari Ruse, transit manager at the Nebraska Department of Transportation, said many of the rural agencies in her state are now de facto grocery delivery services, free of charge.

So too is Goose Creek Transit in Sheridan, Wyoming, which primarily serves the town’s elderly population and whose goal, according to manager Steve Ainslie, is to enable seniors to live in their homes for as long as possible. Normally, that means bringing seniors to and from the senior center, but with social distancing rules in place, Goose Creek Transit has become their go-to Walmart delivery service. Ainslie decided to waive the $2.50 fare because “it just didn’t seem like the right idea to ask” for that money.

Not only did many rural transit agencies stay open, but they are also facing expenses and various inefficiencies that are pushing their budgets. Most obviously, they had to buy personal protective equipment for their drivers—many of whom are themselves senior citizens supplementing retirement income—and gallons upon gallons of hand sanitizer and other cleaning supplies, expenses they either didn’t have before the outbreak or were much lower prior to the crisis. Fesler of First Capital Transit told Motherboard she’s been spending $80 per gallon of hand sanitizer, not to mention sanitizing all 60 vehicles between each passenger.

Image: Oklahoma Transit Association

Some rural transit agencies have it better than big city agencies that typically move millions of people, at least financially speaking. Although agencies big and small have seen ridership plummet, the CARES Act, which provided $25 billion for public transportation, will cover agency shortfalls in the 10 largest transit regions for an average of 5.4 to 8.3 months, according to an analysis by the non-profit think tank TransitCenter. For the rest of the country’s transit systems, CARES Act funding will last an average of 12.6 to 20.8 months.

This is because the CARES Act uses the same federal funding formulas as the feds do in normal times to divvy up that $25 billion, which, as Ben Fried of TransitCenter told Motherboard, “shortchange transit agencies in large cities, distributing less money relative to their share of national ridership.”

However, TransitCenter notes these are just averages, and some rural agencies are in just as dire funding straits as big city agencies due to the vagaries of these broad formulas.

In order to receive money from the feds, rural transit agencies have to scrounge up some cash on their own. For operating expenses, agencies have to match the federal contribution dollar for dollar, while administrative and capital expenses are one local dollar for every four federal ones (the CARES Act money doesn’t require a local match).

Some rural agencies get that local match from city or state tax revenues. Others raise the money on their own by providing contract services for non-emergency medical transportation, drug courts, and other local government agencies for their transportation needs.

This is a cumbersome, inexact process that works better for some rural agencies than others during normal times. Because the CARES Act uses the same basic formulas, the coronavirus crisis has therefore only exacerbated those differences, meaning those who normally struggle to put together local match funding are in even worse shape during the crisis.

First, those federal funds for rural transit agencies—which amounted to $740 million for rural transit agencies this fiscal year before the CARES Act stimulus—are appropriated based on performance metrics. The two most important metrics are how many trips the agencies provide and how many miles the vehicles travel while picking up and dropping off riders. Both of those statistics have plummeted nationwide in recent weeks.

Plus, agencies that used to transport multiple passengers at a time have changed their policies to enable social distancing. Now, they have either severely limited vehicle capacity or stopped taking multiple passengers entirely. This adds vehicle miles travelled—and the related fuel and maintenance expenses—while providing service for fewer people, making their operations appear less efficient, which hurts their federal outlay.

On top of that, those same performance measures are the ones transit administrators show to local politicians to demonstrate they’re providing a valuable service to the community. This helps justify the local match funding so they can in turn receive the federal funds. But, with tax revenues plummeting, will local or state governments continue providing that funding, especially if rural transit agency’s metrics look so bad on paper?

Even the agencies that raise their own matching funds are worried. Little Dixie Transit, for example, gets most of its matching funds through non-emergency medical transportation contracts that pay for Medicaid patients to get to their doctor’s appointments. In rural areas, those trips can take hours each way. Dialysis and chemotherapy patients are still going to their appointments because they’re medically necessary, but McMillin estimates about 75 percent of non-emergency medical trips have been cancelled. As of the end of April, she has no idea how she will make up for that lost revenue.

*

In keeping with the vagaries of federal funding formulas, some agencies are more worried about the future than others. Ruse, for example, thinks the $27 million Nebraska got through the CARES Act will help see Nebraska’s transit agencies through the difficult months ahead. Others are hoping this crisis spurs more fundamental changes in how rural transit is funded so they aren’t scrounging for dollars every year to get that federal match.

Depending on the specifics, this would likely be a great development, Nestlen believes.

“Congress never sat down at the table and said ‘let’s develop a rural transit program. What should it look like?’ They sat down at a table and said here’s the urban transit program…we’re going to have everything be the same and just put it in rural," he said. "When you do that, you’re going to put a square peg into a round hole.”

It is to their credit that the rural transit agencies do not operate like square pegs in round holes. To a person, the people interviewed for this article were proud to be serving their communities in these difficult times. Some said it reminded them why they got into this line of work to begin with. Fesler had a driver thank her for assigning her to deliver meals to seniors, because she was just grateful to be making a difference at a time where so many of us feel so isolated and powerless, the exact opposite of what a good transit system does for its passengers.

One of the people who has been reminded what she got into this line of work lately is McMillin. Seven or eight years into her tenure at Little Dixie Transit, the “little lady” who welcomed her to the new job passed away. McMillin and a half-dozen other Little Dixie Transit employees went to her funeral. After all, they spoke to her almost every day for years. They knew which days she would be calling and which days she wouldn't. It was those kinds of experiences that got McMillin hooked to the job, helping people one at a time. Never before, she said, has that been more important.

“I can’t tell you,” she added almost as an afterthought, “how many people we transport where we will be the only people they see any given day.”

Rural Transit Agencies Are Keeping People Alive syndicated from https://triviaqaweb.wordpress.com/feed/

[mbatradingacademy]

How To Start Your Own Bitcoin Exchange Business?

Cryptocurrencies have been the hot talk of the town. Blockchain has been certainly the most crucial technology for the trader’s out there. Popular cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoins, Altcoins are experiencing great emendations to keep ahead of the competition.

So if you are an investor who is ready to kick-start the Bitcoin Exchange Business, the next 7 minutes will give you a complete guide on them!

How much does a website cost per month?

If your query is to start your own website, then it can also be certainly done! Before we discuss the cost for the website, let us primarily know the steps involved to start a Bitcoin Exchange website! There are a total of ten steps that will ensure a high-quality business! If your query is How much does it cost to develop a Bitcoin Exchange website, you will probably find the answer here!

Here are they:

Have a clear perception of where you want to initiate your business.

Obtain a proper legal counsel to make sure licensing requirements are met.

Acquire funding for ventures.

Find the best technology solution, providers.

Get connected to your exchange with others for enhanced liquidity.

Partner with the payment processor.

Implement the best security procedures.

Make the site live through Beta Testing.

Initiate marketing strategies to promote the site.

Give importance to Customer Support.

Maintain a legal team for online compliance.

To make a clear picture, we will go in-depth into the strategies!

Have a clear perception of where you want to initiate your business.

When you are in a plan of getting started with the business, you need to know where the origin will be. Whether you want to operate globally or confine yourself to a particular region or a country!

Usually, you need to get the necessary licensing and approvals for your company to sparking off the business. Laws may generally vary from place to place. Thus, consult with a legal expert on the same regarding the licensing, compliance with the local laws and regulations.

Obtain a proper legal counsel to make sure licensing requirements are met.

So what are the requirements you need to consider? Get to know the regulations for the specific country to trade your business.

Moreover, proper licensing is needed to obtain in all jurisdictions in which the company plans to operate. In most of the places, cryptocurrency exchanges operate without significant oversight since both the government and regulations have not caught up with the technology!

Acquire funding for ventures.

Before setting off the project, you should know the approximate cost of the website involved in the business. For instance, to develop a crypto exchange business you will require barely an amount of around $135,000. This includes the cost of technology, hosting, legal counsel, government registration, etc.

One major mistake that startups do is denying to plan for the future! Therefore it is crucial that you get to know the future plans and how it will be in upcoming years!

Find the best technology solution, providers.

There are a plethora of startups who basically provide custom crypto exchange websites, which will result in reaped profits for your business! Well, this should actually include a lot of potential factors in the industry such as ongoing fees, commission structures, license fees, etc. Build your own bitcoin exchange business website with desirable expertise in Bitcoin Exchange Business will leverage top-notch results.

Get connected to your exchange with others for enhanced liquidity.

The linchpin for a successful exchange website is liquidity. Without an order book and trading activity, potential customers will view it as a new challenge resulting in distrust! In order to elude these issues, you can launch dummy accounts within the newly created exchange. Thus, we can connect to your exchange to the network of existing exchanges which can indeed increase the liquidity! Never forget, the larger is the network of exchanges, the lesser will be the liquidity factor!

Partner with the payment processor.

Not all payment processors are equal. Moreover, the fee structure will vary from company to company. To be competitive with other exchanges, you need to be at a lower rate. Some processors require hidden fees to their contracts, therefore know everything before signing up!

Yet other differences between the processor includes settlement time and compliance with PCI DSS, which are the set of practices to ensure cybersecurity. Make sure the payment processor is compliant with PCI for high-end security.

Implement the best security procedures.

Bitcoin Exchanges which are built with development companies are considered to be the most secure in the world with encrypted databases. Other security practices include two-factor authentication and many more factors to leverage and experience the best security in the world!

Make the site live through Beta Testing.

Now you have a built exchange website. You have set up a contract with payment processing, and you have taken great pains to ensure the site goes with regulations and laws. The next thing is to go live and test its full range of capabilities via Beta Testing.

Initiate marketing strategies to promote the site.

Whatever the business it may be, the crucial thing to get potential customers is through Marketing the product. You can connect with heading players such as Crypto news, Coindesk, Cointelegraph, etc. Moreover, it is crucial to copiously plan your marketing activities, along with their costs. Generally, exchanges do not include a marketing budget, instead of focusing on cost-effective social media until you reach a bunch of traders around.

Give importance to Customer Support.

Since Customer Support is the final stage in the Bitcoin Exchange Business, the ability to shine will result in long-term success. Those dealing with the customers must be attentive and satisfactory to resolve customer complaints and issues. Customers who are responded in a timely manner will remain responsible, thereby trusting your product!

Maintain a legal team for online compliance.

When it comes to laws and regulation, one should always maintain a legal team to keep track of your business. Moreover, Cryptocurrency laws are rapidly evolving around globally, thus it is important to hire a full-time in-house compliance team. This can help you in keeping your exchange legal across the countries you are trading!

When it comes to Website development cost in India it primarily depends on the type of features you require! To have a rough figure, there are certain costs that will depend on the complexity of the website pertaining to general criteria i.e not only Bitcoin Exchange Business Website but also others!

Small Business Website

If you require a small business website with little customizations, it will take around $2000 to $8000 and usually less than 20pages.

Medium-sized Business Website

Mostly for commercial pages around 75 pages, with CMS enabled can rate around $10,000 to $25,000.

E-Commerce Website

These are the more common website which clientele are in need of! Users can browse and purchase products with the payment gateway integrated. Upfront will be around $5000 to $40,000.

Large Business Website

A website encompassing more than 100 pages, with high-end features included will rate around $25,000 to $40,000. However, in accordance with the complexity, the cost of a website will vary.

Key Expenses that you will come across.

Traders will be circled with a plethora of questions surrounding such as How much does it cost to hire someone to build a Website and much more!

But the primary thing is to identify the basic expenses which you will encounter!

Here are a few you need to take into account:

Domain Name

The reason why you need is, this is the URL that people would be typing in the browser while searching. The rate will be primarily around $10 and $20 but for premium accounts, it will be around $200 and $300.

SSL Certificate

Representing Secure Socket Layer will help you identify sensitive information such as credit card data and other personal information.

This certificate becomes mandatory if you run an E-commerce site. The cost will range from $10 to $1000 for a month.

Website Hosting

Domain purchase is just like acquiring land where you will have an address but will require other stuff which is needed for the land. In this instance, web hosting is your land and web content is your stuff! Coming to the cost, most of the web hosting companies offer plans from $10 to a higher extent of $99 for a month! These three are the mandatory factors that you will require while building a website pertaining to any domain!

Added to the list, here are yet other strategies which aren’t mandatory but depend on the project for the website!

Content Management System

A CMS is what you use to display text, articles, videos, etc. Though it is not a mandatory one, having one will save your time, and make your website an efficient one! Depending on the CMS you choose, the cost will be!

Web Design Expenses

To make your website more attractive, you need to do proper designing.

Full Redesign or new design

If you are launching a website or redesign an existing website, you need to spend a desirable amount of money! The cost ranges from $1000 to $20,000 depending on the complexity of the system.

Theme Design

One of the CMS such as Wordpress offers the theme in accordance with your expectations. The upfront will be around $10 and $100.

Responsive Web Design

In 2015, Google began favoring website which is mobile-friendly. These responsive websites can detect which platform which is being used on. The cost is around $2000 depending on the design.

What are the features which will be embedded in Bitcoin Exchange Business?

When it comes to Security, these are a few features:

Two Factor Authentication

Know Your Customers

Google Recaptcha

Mail ID Encryption

XSS Clean

Device-based tracking

IP based tracking

Enabled with Debug mode

The same thing, when it comes to functionality features, it includes:

Feasible Trading Pairs

Bitcoin Wallet

Optimized buy or sell systems

Advanced Control Panel

Efficient Matching Algorithm

While hiring the right developer or a team, here are the strategies you need to consider:

What services do they offer?

Do they work on templates or custom designed websites?

How will the web project be managed?

What is the typical turnaround time for the project?

What are the sample sites developed by the company?

Have these companies see a return on investment on their websites?

How qualified is the team?

When can they start?

If you find the answers satisfactory to these questions, you can hire them undoubtedly!

Ready to start your own Bitcoin Exchange Business website?

If you are ready to go ahead and start your business website, you can seek startups around which are here to help you instantly! With rich experience, we have delivered flawless websites that have impacted great benefits and profits to clients around the globe! If you need one, contact us right away!

[weeklyreviewer]

Japan’s Would-Be Silicon Valley Wants You

Masashi Tomita, who leads municipal efforts to attract tech startups to Fukuoka, Japan, is laugh-out-loud tipsy. The laughter is a clue, but so is the empty mug of Mega Jim Beam Highball, his third. We leave the bar and roam the streets for shime, or drunk food, hunkering our hankering at a solo yaki-ramen cart in the posh Tenjin district. Clinking glasses of plum liquor, I ask what I think is a cheery question: “Why can’t all of Japan be this fun?” He looks crestfallen, not insulted but embarrassed.

The Japanese call it nazonazo, a mystery upon a mystery, a riddle: Why is Japan — a 130-million-strong G7 nation with the world’s third-largest nominal GDP, bullet trains, robotics, a space program, and tech renown — such a dud in the startup world?

For all its business and engineering prowess, Japan has just one unicorn, or privately-owned, venture-backed tech company worth at least $1 billion, according to CB Insights. For the record, that company is artificial intelligence startup Preferred Networks.

But despite behemoth native power players including Honda, Mitsubishi, Nintendo, SoftBank, Sony, and Toyota, its corporate salaryman circles are full of squares, by design. Nearly every member of the Japanese workforce is a de facto senior vice president of rules and regulations. Japan’s national sport is protocol. In June, the country’s largest initial public offering of the year raised ¥33.8 billion ($315 million) and shares soared 21% on the first day of trading. What was all the fuss? It was Sansan, a tedious business card management app and sales-lead generator.

But what if the lack of Silicon Valley-style disruption is a cultural asset? Consider the Japanese art of kintsugi, in which broken pottery is repaired by filling the hibi, or cracks, with gold. What if “move fast and break things” — the early Facebook motto adopted by brogrammers everywhere — isn’t lost in translation as much as it’s discarded in translation? Why break when you can beautify?

Cue the startup incubator

Cue Fukuoka Growth Next, the country’s largest startup accelerator, which debuted in 2017, refurbished this May, and in August launches a nearly half-billion yen internal venture capital fund, FGN ABBALab, that will double investment in the next year. The fund is bankrolled in part by Mistletoe, owned by Taizo Son, the brother of SoftBank CEO Masayoshi Son.

Backed by 22 companies, including Fujitsu, Ricoh, and Seiko, FGN joins other global tech hubs in the hopes of becoming its nation’s, um, Silicon Hibi. On site, in a converted three-story elementary school built in 1929, there are no foosball tables or vintage arcade games like in Silicon Valley. The whimsy comes from within.

Fukuoka Growth Next startup accelerator in Fukuoka, Japan.

“This city has been accepting different cultures for 2,000 years. And 100 years ago Toyota was a concept of entrepreneurial spirit—it is within us,” says Tomita. “We got organized after the war, but uniform—same, same, same—salarymen. It’s time to take our neckties off.”

Fukuoka, on the west coast of Kyushu, Japan’s southernmost big island — a five-hour bullet train ride from Tokyo — is preternaturally suited to the task. Amid Japan’s infamously aging population, Fukuoka’s 1.6 million residents comprise the nation’s youngest city. That includes 80,000 students across 19 universities (a 120-member student club at Kyushu University runs an office at FGN).

The exquisitely Instagrammable Kawachi Wisteria Garden nearby and Nokonoshima Flower Island, surf town of Itoshima, and wine country across Kyushu, famed for its hot spring spa towns, give Fukuoka a distinctly California vibe — as does its diversity.

Large populations of American, Chinese, Filipino, Indian, Indonesian, Korean, Nepalese, Portuguese, Thai, and Vietnamese immigrants were bolstered by relaxed labor laws in March. The Fukuoka Asian Art Museum, which has collections from 22 countries, bills itself as “the only museum in the world that systematically collects and exhibits Asian modern and contemporary art.”

The port town is the cruise ship capital of Japan, not including the ferries that jet to and from nearby Busan, in South Korea. And Seoul, Shanghai, and Tokyo are just two hours away by plane.

The world is at its fingertips. The city’s unofficial mantra is samiyasui (easy living).

The force behind the tech push

Fukuoka, Japan

Its youngest-ever mayor, Soichiro Takashima, a television news anchor elected in 2010 at 36, returned from a trip to Seattle intent on remaking Fukuoka in its image. In 2014, he convinced the federal government to declare Fukuoka a National Strategic Special Zone. FGN opened three years later, in tandem with a startup visa specifically designed to lure foreign entrepreneurs. The mayor still drops into FGN almost weekly.

Future prospects are buoyed by Fukuoka Smart East, a 124-acre smart city campus in Hakozaki district that will be a playground (and showroom) for Internet-of-things prototypes and hydrogen power, with its own accelerator division within FGN. In June, a smart city incubation program launched. But that kind of thinking has already begun: in January, Line, Japan’s largest social network — with 78 million users — tested a digital wallet in Fukuoka.

Yuichiro Uchida, FGN’s executive director, throws his arms into a human emoticon: ¯(ツ)/¯. “There’s just less pressure here,” he says. “That leaves more room for creativity and inspiration.” His bemused grin radiates “duh.” He continues: “Tokyo aims for the U.S. or London for status. But our proximity to Asia — Korea, Taiwan, Hong Kong, Singapore — is our strength. I’d rather be big in Asia than big in New York or San Francisco.”

To keep stress low, FGN offers free consultations to startups on, say, accounting, copyright, or intellectual property (what Tomita calls “startup defense”). Uchida talks about the smart city project as a “grand vision,” a physical, infrastructural white paper.

When we meet, Uchida is dressed down in a t-shirt. A rugby star in school, he’s now 43, but retains a boyish breeziness. In contrast, his entrepreneurial radar is mature and specific: the drone startups of Bordeaux and its Darwin station, the design scene in Copenhagen, tax structures in Singapore, and the European Union’s de facto IT bureau in Tallinn, Estonia. I ask him what’s better than creating — what is the entrepreneurial equivalent of omotenashi, Japan’s hyper-hospitality? — and his answer is kyoso: co-creating.

His is a train of thought born of wabisabi, the Japanese notion that imperfection is often better than perfection. As Tomita puts it: “I value diversity. You can’t embrace diversity and expect perfection.”

At its debut, FGN’s initial goal was for its tenants to raise ¥500 million ($4.6 million) by December 2018, but they instead raised ¥8.2 billion ($75.9 million). Amid the Japanese economy’s Abenomics, the fiscal reforms of Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, FGN offers a radical oasis of wabisabinomics. As opposed to existing for the sake of getting on Google’s radar (and the acquisition bounty that comes with it) FGN’s startups seem genuinely, refreshingly focused on their users in a way that prioritizes purpose and risk over buzz and security, harkening to the era when Silicon Valley was defined more by garage-built moxie than IPO bluster.

Sakiko Taniguchi developed Nyans, a social network for cat lovers, at FGN. “There’s no word for salarywoman but there doesn’t need to be when you’re family. Here I have drinks with the mayor,” she says. “In Tokyo, I can’t think of anything other than work. I’m more than that. My company would be possible in Tokyo — I expanded there in February — but there I wouldn’t be able to run the company the way I want. Fukuoka gives me what I want and how I want it.”

Early success

She hopes to follow FGN’s successful alumni: Alterbooth, a cloud integrator, raised ¥100M ($922K) in June; Authentic Japan, an SOS app that sends rescue drones to users, became mandatory at a major ski resort in April; and Skydisc, an air quality startup with both agricultural and home/office applications, was called a “future unicorn” by Nikkei news service. In all, FGN’s 293 total companies, 21 are established players like local banks and Yahoo, while the remaining 272 startups have pulled in $82 million and lured entrepreneurs from nine countries.

FGN member Kenji Umeki frequents FGN’s ironically named bar, Awa (Bubble), a satellite of a spot popular among techies in Tokyo’s Roppongi district. Umeki named his human resources startup, You Make It, as a pun on his name. His users include Bangladeshi, Chinese, and Vietnamese workers. “Honestly, I have a Vietnamese friend and I just wanted to help him,” he says. “I want that to be a good enough reason for a business proposal.”

Strolling the bank of the curly Nakagawa River, a ¥1-a-day shared-economy umbrella in his hand, Kazuya Shidahara, FGN’s head of engineering events, sits me down with some FGN leaders among Fukuoka’s other great startups: the yatai, the here-and-gone nightly food carts selling ramen, mentaiko, and yakitori. I ask the group what would happen if one of the ramen stands were so successful that it opened locations all over the world like McDonalds or Starbucks. “Like Gong Cha?” asks Shidahara, referring to the Taiwanese bubble tea chain. “Do you know people wait up to three hours there? For what? A tea and an Instagram upload? It’s a trap, a prison. Maybe that’s why they’re called chains.” His words are scalability heresy, but they also call out a Silicon Valley contradiction: its dueling ambitions of ubiquity and unique experience.

Perhaps FGN’s roundabout unorthodoxy can solve a riddle that has been plaguing San Francisco, too — especially the toxic tumult at Facebook, Google, and Uber — while paradoxically paying tribute to an ancient Japanese tradition: Fukuoka is primed to be a beacon of entrepreneurial bushido, the samurai code, helping restore honor and morality to tech (cough, Theranos, that once-celebrated Silicon Valley blood-testing startup that ultimately imploded). Now would be a good time to practice bowing.

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[howlifes-blog]

The rise of India sharing bicycles: Is the East not bright?

In 2015, with the eye-catching small yellow car emerging from Peking University campus, the concept of shared bicycles was quickly popularized. Players took the lead and huge investments continued to flow in. They were in the same name as high-speed rail, mobile payment and online shopping.from "New Four Great Inventions"from . The craze is coming faster and going faster. This year, sharing bicycles entered a cold winter. April,from Mobai bicycles committed to the US group; the small yellow car ofo also lost, the crisisfrom : The overseas business has been fully contracted, and a variety of radical monetization methods have been introduced: the public number pushes the advertisement, binds the user's deposit with the wealth management product, and delays the refund period of the deposit. Last year, I also shared a lot of money to share the bicycle, and it was cool in the blink of an eye. Sharing bicycles to the sea is blocked, and infrastructure and policy specifications are two major obstacles that cannot be ignored. In addition to China, it is difficult to find a market large enough to support the profit model of shared bicycles. But Indian entrepreneurs seem to have different ideas.from Since 2017, there have been nearly a decade of shared bicycle companies, and they have received financing. Yulu, Bangalore raised funds from investors such as Blume Ventures, and was supported by Flipkart co-founder Binny Bansal and Google's former vice president Amit Singhal; another company, Bounce, received $15.2 million from investors such as Sequoia India. Funding; Mobycy, based in Gurgaon, also raised $500,000 in seed funding last December. India’s shared cycling market is thriving. Financing boom Amit Gupta is the co-founder of India's first unicorn Inmobi. When he started his tenth career as a president-level position, he chose to rush,from Founded another company, Yulu bicyclefrom . Near the Bangalore MRT station and the CBD, bright blue Yulu bikes can be found everywhere. Amit told Zhixiang.com to do shared bicycles.from "Indirect pollution reduction"from . He was born and raised in the small town of Kanpur in northern India. In June this year, he was stamped by the World Health Organization as the "world's most polluted city". He talked about his hometown and he was very excited. Yulu bicycles charge only 10 rupees in the first half hourfrom from After that, you will receive 5 rupees per half hour. The user downloads the Yulu application code to drive, and after the end of the ride, the car needs to be parked in the parking area closest to the destination. Industry insiders estimate that India's shared bicycle market is currently worth $1.2 billion.from In addition to Yulu, the main players are Pedl, Mobycy, Bounce and the Mobike from China. "The industry is promising and profitable, and the success of Ola and Uber proves that transportation is likely to move in tandem with mobile phones," said Sajith Pai, an investor at Blume Ventures. The player who recently entered isfrom Bounce from the scooter sharingfrom . In June, ofo withdrew from the Indian market and Bounce recently announced the acquisition of its assets in India. Prior to the acquisition, Bounce launched 500 scooters in Bangalore. "The last mile traffic from the bus or subway station to the office and home is very troublesome, and there aren't any tricycles or taxis that are willing to travel so short distances." Bounce co-founder Vivekananda HR told Zhixiang.com. "The bike we acquired from ofo will also join the pilot." He said that Bounce's application will support the use of bicycles within 45 to 60 days. Indian entrepreneurs inherit from Chinese companies, not only the legacy left by the defeat, but also the foresight of operational management lessons. In Pune and Bangalore, the small blue car Yulu and the small green car Pedl can be seen everywhere. In the beginning, the user can park the car anywhere, even in the middle of the road, causing traffic disorder. Yulu had to send a team to carry the bicycle and park it in the right place. As a result, the cost was too high to sustain, and Yulu learned the lesson and began to work with Pedl to work with the local government to plan the designated parking area. In Bangalore, there are now 500 parking lots, with more than 1,000 in all four cities. Tangled user experience But some problems cannot be solved by "inheritance".from Such as technical and operational errorsfrom . in India,from The user experience of shared bicycles still needs improvementfrom . The personal experience of Zhixiang.com reporters and other users have found that it is not uncommon to include brake failure, smart lock failure, tire leakage, etc., and the parking area is not dense enough. Sometimes users even need to lock the car. Walk another kilometer to the destination. Vivek Kumar is a 22-year-old software engineer who recently moved from Delhi to Bangalore. When he first arrived in Bangalore, he was riding a shared bicycle to take an interview in the city. On the way to the interview, he found that the bicycle chain was broken, which was very embarrassing: he had to park the car to the designated parking area first, otherwise the software would always charge. "I had to push the car to the Pedl stop 500 meters away and spent a lot of time locking the bad car." Kumar told Zhixiang.com. But in fact, Yulu and Pedl also have a dedicated person who maintains the bicycle and maintains it every four days to keep the bicycle in good working order. But Amit said that when the company enters an area, the maintenance situation will be less stable, "because the local business is not yet fully stable." "In those old areas, you will find that our bicycles are in good condition and most of them are working very well. Recently we have deployed near the Electronic City, where a large number of large IT companies such as Infosys, Wipro, etc. are gathered. We need four It takes six weeks to complete the layout," Amit said. But compared to China,from India’s transportation infrastructure is generally backward, which also buried a dark mine for shared bicycles.from . In India, there are few cities that have bicycle lanes; unlike China, cycling has developed into a healthy, avant-garde lifestyle, and Indian bicycles are often seen as commuters. "We entered the shared bicycle industry because we wanted to be a multi-channel travel platform. Urban transport has always been a challenge for both the government and citizens. We hope to solve this problem on a large scale and help improve infrastructure." Rakshak N, head of Pedl's operations growth department, said.

According to Gupta, Yulu has 6,000 bicycles in four cities, while Rakshak says Pedl has 15,000 bicycles in eight cities. Recently, Yulu landed in Mumbai and Bhubaneshwar. The two companies use an average of four to five times per bicycle per day. New model of government-enterprise cooperation The rapid rise of shared bicycles in China,from Driven by startups and capitalfrom After the government's shared bicycle industry was fully blossomed, the government proposed the regulations in a targeted manner. Sharing bicycles to stop and block traffic, scrapping cars affecting the city's polluted environmentfrom It has caused dissatisfaction among the citizens. Many cities have successively issued "no-going orders" to try to limit the endless growth of shared bicycles. But in India, the government is one of the promoters behind it. On November 26th, the chief minister of Orissa, Naveen Patnaik, unveiled the MO bike and encouraged city residents to use shared bicycles in Bhubaneswar. The Orissa government has partnered with Yulu, Yaana Ventures and Hexi Capital to launch a total of 2,000 bicycles. The program is a public bicycle sharing last year in cities such as Mysore, Pune and Chandigarh.from from Part of the plan, which is dedicated to infrastructure construction, including the use of GPS docking and bicycle lanes. Several investors told Zhixiang.com that once the government’s encouragement slows down,from Infrastructure, cycling conditions, parking area and income modelfrom Will determine the fate of these startups. Amit has visited China many times in the past decade. He said that although many Chinese cities have dedicated bicycle lanes, bicycles are not a popular way of travel until the ono and Mobai. "In India, road conditions are a threat, but not a hindrance. There is no doubt that we certainly hope to have a sound infrastructure, but we do not want it to be an excuse for standing still, and the government will start after seeing actual demand. Improve the infrastructure," Amit said. Both Rakshak and Amit also said that they will continue to work with local government agencies to make the PBS system truly a seamless link to travel. " Local government agencies are actively asking us questions about user feedback, user base, etc. Although the penetration rate is already high, it has not yet reached the level expected by the company or the government. The government also wants to improve the infrastructure, but considering the bureaucratic delays in India The style is rampant, it still takes time," Rakshak said. This statement is true. The PBS project in Karnataka was named after the bicycle ringing "Trin Trin", but the shared bicycle service was postponed in Bangalore because the originally planned 125 km bicycle lane was put on hold due to funding problems. "I think that as a means of transportation, bicycles are not applicable over 500. It is ok in Bangalore, and its climate is the most pleasant in the country. But if it is like Mumbai or Delhi, it is either too cold or too hot. It's hard to ride for more than 15 minutes." Rahul Chowdhri of Stellaris Venture Partners told Zhixiang.com, therefore, Stellaris chose to invest in the shared scooter company Vogo. Vouncekananda, co-founder of Bounce, also expressed similar concerns. "In the end,from The situation may be different in different citiesfrom . But only time will tell how much we can do this business,from from We still believe that the market space for scooters will be even greater. " He says. In addition to cooperating with the local government to build a “smart city”, many shared bicycle companies also provide services in cities with more tourists such as Varanasi. Swinging profit model The failure of China to share bicycles, to a certain extent, has not been able to come up with a sufficiently profitable model because of the independently operated bicycle companies. Shared bicycles are a heavy asset business.from Yulu and Pedl each priced at 10,000 rupees per bicyclefrom from And 13,000from from rupee. Yulu has 10,000 bicyclesfrom from And Pedl has 15,000 cars. Damage to the bicycle is also a big problem. " Generally speaking, when we land in a new city, we will provide the old car first, so that even if it is destroyed, it will not lose too much money. This is a business strategy," Amit said. But this is still not enough to support a profitable model that is still working, and the founders are still groping. "The current challenge is that we can't borrow these assets as collateral. This is a capital-intensive business. If Pedl is seen as an independent business, then we may not be able to pay for it for a while. But we are a family. Multi-channel service companies, we want to promote our other businesses to users," Rakshak said. "We will then promote our other products, such as autonomous vehicles and Zap membership programs to Pedl users," Rakshak said. This is exactly the same as the intention of the US group to acquire Moby. Because of Mobei's huge offline traffic advantage, the US Mission does not hesitate to bear its losses, to drain to core business such as takeaways and hotels. According to the US IPO document, the deficit of the Mobike bicycle in April alone reached 480 million yuan. Can Indian startups take a different approach? Amit is full of confidence, he thinksfrom Advertising can be a stable source of incomefrom Related plans are already in full swing. "We intend to advertise at the same time in the bicycle, mobile software and parking areas," Amit said. He said Yulu is already negotiating with advertisers, and once the user base reaches a certain size, Yulu may start advertising in the next fiscal year. "The value of the last mile transportation solution is incalculable, and time will tell us how to make money." He added. Source: Titanium Media All articles on this site are shared by users. If you want to see more, please go to howlifes Read the full article

[sh3vchenkodmitr-blog]

6 -min. read

Empowerment is one of those terms – like mindfulness, millennial and self-care – with nuances of meaning that become lost through overuse. In relation to travel, there are a myriad ways in which exploring new places can empower. Just Google it: fly abroad in search of fulfilment and return home with a new skill; grow in strength and independence by embarking on a solo journey; empower others by travelling to support those less fortunate than you.

Yagazie Emezi for Tastemakers – courtesy of Tastemakers Africa

“The importance of domestic travel – of exploring your own country – should not be overlooked. From supporting local economies to understanding your heritage, empowerment is intertwined with a strong sense of where you’re from”

Much of the narrative around empowerment and travel focuses on engaging with the unfamiliar, on proving oneself capable in a region that’s far from home. But the importance of domestic travel – of exploring your own country – should not be overlooked. From supporting local economies to understanding your heritage, empowerment is intertwined with a strong sense of where you’re from.

The notion is especially pertinent in relation to travel across the African continent. According to a report conducted by Euromonitor, Africans have historically viewed travel as a non-essential luxury reserved for a wealthy few (who often opt for destinations like London, Paris and Dubai). As a result, there is no widespread culture of saving for holidays, and travel is traditionally reserved for occasions like weddings and funerals. As such, the African travel industry is largely defined by persuading outsiders to come in, rather than encouraging Africans to explore their own surroundings.

Photo is courtesy of Tastemakers Africa

Things are steadily changing, as young generations and growing middle classes are increasingly travelling within their own countries and continent. Governments and corporations are beginning to take note, but there is still much work to be done.

One of the reasons for the increase in domestic travel across Africa (up eight per cent in 2017) is the cultural clout that the continent holds on the international stage. Last year alone, the Nigerian rapper Wizkid collaborated with Drake; the Zeitz MOCAA museum opened up to exhibit contemporary African art in Cape Town; and South African photographer Trevor Sturman shot New York Fashion Week. These events all helped to expand the global narrative of what the continent has to offer beyond the one-dimensional safari trail. In turn, this shift is seeing Africans take greater pride in where they’re from.

Photo is courtesy of Tastemakers Africa

Cherae Robinson, founder and CEO of experience-led travel platform Tastemakers Africa, says: “From a cultural inflection point Africa is on people’s minds, especially for trend-watchers and culture creators. I think that’s beginning to trickle down into a genuine curiosity about the places in which these creative forces are happening, and also a general perception of how Africans see themselves”.

This is a positive shift, but if domestic travel across the African continent is inspired by international acclaim, are we not still viewing Africa from within a western framework? It’s all very well to credit breakthrough individuals for pushing perceptions forward, but sustainable change needs to happen from the top down.

On a large scale, there’s a need for governments to commit to reducing taxes and costly visa programmes, as much of domestic and regional travel is still prohibited by high airfares (it can cost about £650 to travel from Accra to Dakar; you could spend the same amount or less going to Paris). Robinson says: “I would like to see airlines work together on policies that reduce taxes on landing in African airspaces – a lot of policies were formed during colonialism, when African travel routes were designed to take people and goods out (not to move people around).”

There are also issues with marketing travel to African residents. Traditionally the travel industry has targeted foreign travellers, putting little investment into intra-

Photo is courtesy of Tastemakers Africa

continental campaigns. One Ghanaian traveller tells me: “The moment you hear “Paris” it evokes a feeling of what the experience will be like – love, architecture, great food and so on. Meanwhile, Dakar is beautiful, chock-full of history, art and traditions; yet unless you’re from Dakar or an avid traveller and explorer you don’t know this.”

The Kenyan government is leading the change here, with President Uhuru Kenyatta stating that the country should not rely on foreign markets to boost the tourism sector, and that domestic travel is more sustainable. In 2016, the government allowed corporations to pay holiday expenses for their staff who chose to spend their annual leave holidaying in Kenya, which could then be deducted from taxes. It was estimated that this measure would result in over 300,000 additional Kenyan guests in Kenyan hotels nationwide.

Similarly, Namibia Wildlife Resorts promote the NamLeisure card, which offers Namibian nationals a 50 per cent discount on accommodation and tours within Namibia. Meanwhile, in South Africa the tourism board launched a national campaign called in 2016, which encouraged nationals to get out and enjoy their own land.

Photo by Wilderness Safaris

Steps are being taken to engage domestic and regional travellers by corporations, too. Radisson Blu is tapping into the widening market for staycations in places like Lagos and Joburg, where there’s a sizeable middle class, hosting events that engage with local artists and musicians. Meanwhile, Wilderness Safaris promote African Residents rates, as well as a Members Club where they offer last-minute empty rooms for more affordable prices. Chief Sales Officer Dave Bennett says: “There is a perception that African-based safari companies tend to chase international business at the expense of locals who cannot then afford to appreciate the wildlife hotspots of the African continent. We have found that the broader based participation of the local stakeholders plays an important role in our conservation and sustainability goals.”

As much as governments and corporations support domestic and regional travel across the African continent, it is at grassroots level that the shift has taken root in creative ways. Cherae Robinson recently pivoted the model for Tastemakers Africa towards an on-demand experience platform, which connects travellers with creative locals: you can go shopping with a Ghanaian designer in Accra; sift through a market in Joburg with a local artist; go clubbing with a musician in Lagos. Cherae predicts that 30 per cent of her custom will be driven by domestic and regional travellers and has made use of Instagram to spread the word. She says: “Social media has had a big role to play in inspiring a genuine appreciation of home beyond what the west says about it”. Tags like championed by author Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, are helping to drive the movement forward.

One of the creatives associated with Robinson’s platform is a Ghanaian actress called

Maame Adjei from Girl Going Places – by Jonelle Boafo

Maame Adjei. She has her own travel show called Girl Going Places (as well as her own tag which aims to encourage Africans to travel their own countries. Maame is adamant that knowing where you’re from is fundamental to progress: “Five years ago I knew nothing about my country besides the capital of Accra, and even that view was very narrow. After exploring Ghana from top to bottom, I found that knowing your own space is so intrinsically tied to your self-esteem. It might sound ridiculous, but it’s so important to know the good, bad and ugly traits of the things you love. Once you do you get a renewed confidence and trust in them.””

“No one can tell me anything about my country that I don’t already know. There’s power in that”

– Maame Adjei, Girl Going Places

Historically, the African travel industry has been focused on persuading outsiders to come in. But it is through encouraging and implementing domestic and regional travel for African residents that the industry can support real empowerment – that is, a more nuanced portrait of the continent for international visitors, and a deeper understanding of heritage for residents. “No one can tell me anything about my country that I don’t already know, says Maame Adjei. “There’s power in that.”

[This article was published in Beyond: Empowered, We Are Africa’s print magazine, in May 2018.]

KATE HAMILTON The former Editor-in-Chief of SUITCASE Magazine, Kate is a freelance journalist who has written for titles including The Guardian, Wallpaper*, Stylist, ES Mag and Refinery29. She is based in London and always travels with books and an excessive amount of stationery.

The post TRAVEL TO FIND YOURSELF appeared first on We Are Africa.

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Multifamily Trends in NYC, New Jersey: Similarities and Differences

Jeff Sica, CIO, Circle Squared Alternative Investments. Image courtesy of Circle Squared Alternative Investments

New rent-control regulations in New York City have impacted the market’s multifamily sector and put off certain investors. “Because of this, buildings with rent-stabilized units will be valued lower and will ultimately weaken the city’s tax base,” Jeff Sica, CIO of Circle Squared Alternative Investments, told Multi-Housing News. On the other hand, New Jersey continues to be a desirable area for multifamily investors due to its proximity to two of the country’s largest employment centers, according to Sica.

In the interview below, he weighs in on how residents’ needs are bound to change after the pandemic and what developers can do to meet their demands. Sica also shares how COVID-19 has impacted the company and its projects, as well as his view on how the multifamily market is expected to recover once the crisis passes.

READ ALSO: Why Waterfront Micro-Neighborhoods Are so Popular

What makes the New York and New Jersey areas favorable multifamily investment opportunities?

Sica: We are not as enthusiastic about the New York City multifamily market, but we remain fully committed to the Northern/Central New Jersey market. The passing of rent regulations in the Housing Stability and Tenant Protection Act of 2019 has made New York City multifamily less desirable at this time and we believe this has and will continue to drive interest into the Northern New Jersey market, which will increase competition as well as investment.

We feel strongly that Northern New Jersey will remain an attractive residential location as the high rental rates in New York City and the surrounding boroughs continue to drive residents to New Jersey’s communities. The Hudson River Waterfront continues to attract relocations of tech, financial and consumer products firms. With two of the country’s largest employment centers within a short commute, demand for Northern New Jersey multifamily will continue to be strong.

Tell us about your company’s recent projects and why these stand out. 

Sica: NJCU West Campus is a 21-acre redevelopment that, when complete, will consist of four multifamily buildings, a campus dorm, a performing arts center and a grocery-anchored shopping center. This project represents a successful public-private Partnership, which will bring approximately $1.4 million annually in revenue to the school. The first project, The Rivet, in which we partnered with The Hampshire Cos. and the Claremont Co., received the 2018 Excellence Award from ULI Northern New Jersey and the project itself is one that we believe has set the stage for a whole new market in Jersey City on the West Side.

The Rivet. Image courtesy of Circle Squared Alternative Investments

What are three trends that define multifamily development/redevelopment today in the New York-New Jersey region?

Sica: I believe that the COVID-19 pandemic has accelerated some trends in the multifamily market domestically but especially in Northern New Jersey. I think renters will be forever changed by this experience and amenity packages will become a larger driver in their rental decisions. There will be a rush from developers to deliver the most robust amenity package in order to differentiate themselves from competition.

Additionally, I believe that development will begin to include more smart home features such as automated parcel delivery lockers and keyless entry, as well as being connected through Alexa or Google Home. Lastly, I anticipate that we will see heightened demand for bigger apartments. After spending months holed up in a small apartment, I believe that larger units will look increasingly more attractive, especially to young families.

How do you see the New York and New Jersey areas transforming in the future? 

Sica: The New York City market will continue to battle rent control laws, which limit rent increases after owners make major improvements, even after units become vacant and the rents have not been raised for years. We believe these new rent regulations will cap expected revenue gains through the life of a property and will force developers to rethink their investment.

New Jersey and areas like Westchester County, N.Y., will remain an attractive place to live and, in turn, a great place to own multifamily. We believe Class A buildings with robust amenities and accessible rents will continue to be in demand. The live-work-play concept will be prominent in future development in these areas, and communities that on the far end of train lines from major cities will begin to see substantial growth and investment. Our goals continue to be to provide high quality, sustainable properties that meet the needs of our tenants and the communities we invest in. We will continue to search for properties in communities that we believe to be ascending.

Why are transit hub developments in high demand in the area?

Sica: Transit-oriented development has been the flavor of Northern New Jersey multi-development for some time now and for good reason. With demographic trends shifting more and more to demand for walkable cities and the proliferation of ride-sharing services, fewer people are owning cars and are looking for communities with multiple commuter options to major employment centers. Communities that offer shopping and dining in a downtown, walkable setting will continue to thrive. These are the most desirable development sites for good reason and the competition continues to increase, which makes strong opportunities harder to uncover.

An example of a transit hub development for us is our Project City Line in Bayonne. Bayonne offers exceptional access to the Hudson Light Rail System and will soon offer direct ferry access to New York City. Bayonne, unlike some of its Hudson County Waterfront neighbors, is still an attainable, cost-effective place to live, with tremendous walkability in a town with a strong sense of community. We believe that with a forward-thinking city government, Bayonne is poised for massive growth over the next 5 to 10 years.

What are your plans regarding transit-oriented development?

Sica: We are always seeking to uncover the right opportunities in markets like Montclair, Morristown, Summit, Jersey City and the Greater Hudson County, but demand and competition for these sites continues to be robust. We have begun to find some niche deals in communities that share many of these same characteristics but are a little further down a train line. These properties will offer residents greater value, which is a segment often overlooked in the Class A transit-oriented market in Northern New Jersey. A lot of these towns are just starting to see revitalization and the best is yet to come.

How has COVID-19 impacted your projects?

Sica: With all our projects, we are abiding by the guidance provided in the governor’s halt of all nonessential construction. Depending on where we are with a specific project in the development process, we have been affected differently. The toughest aspects for us have been regarding municipal shutdowns, staff shortages, increased workloads and budget restraints. Because of the current state, it has been increasingly difficult to get inspections or complete permitting.

The first few weeks of COVID-19 also saw a dramatic decrease in planning board/approval meetings. Some are now being done virtually, but missed meetings have pushed some deadlines back. Moving forward, any delays in elections could also have an impact on projects in the queue for approval, pushing back a lot of people’s expected timelines.

What measures are you taking to handle coronavirus-related business challenges?

Sica: From a business standpoint, we have policies and procedures in place to work remotely and we are perfectly set up to execute virtually. We are constantly working with our partners to monitor our tenant base and ensure we are meeting their needs. We have a team of accountants and lawyers that we are in constant contact with to ensure our projects are evaluating options from any new state or local laws, as well as review any potential federal stimulus packages that might affect our projects. Additionally, we are looking into new and innovative ways to show our apartments, i.e., virtual tours.

How do you expect the multifamily market to recover following the crisis?

Sica: The multifamily market, especially in this area, has always been one of the first sectors to recover from an economic downturn. During the Great Recession, multifamily rents were more resilient than those of office, industrial and retail. Multifamily rents have outperformed those of the other major property sectors during and after the Great Recession in multiple ways. The sector experienced the lowest level of rent decline, the fastest recovery to pre-recession peaks and the longest post-recession period of rent growth.

While the COVID-19 outbreak is very different from the last few recessions, we are seeing, anecdotally, that people now have even stronger respect and appreciation for having a nice place to live. Unemployment levels remain an uncertainty, but, for properties located around major employment centers within transit hubs, we believe these projects should fair better as we enter recovery.  Also, we believe this crisis and economic downturn will have lasting negative effects on the already record-low levels of homeownership.

Original Source of Article

[delicatelysublimeforester]

April 30

Did you think it was easy being green for Earth Month?  Can you continue with climate action for all of 2020?  Besides being the 50th anniversary of Earth Day, 2020 is also United Nations Decade on Biodiversity 2011-2020.  This proclamation was made for “raising awareness of the value of biodiversity amongst the general public, and developing a broad consensus across society for the actions needed by individuals and communities.”UN Decade Biodiversity  “The Strategic Plan was created by the United Nations. Its mission is to “take effective and urgent action to halt the loss of biodiversity in order to ensure that by 2020 ecosystems are resilient and continue to provide essential services, thereby securing the planet’s variety of life, and contributing to human well-being, and poverty eradication.” UN Strategic Plan for Biodiversity

Take action for biodiversity locally.  For a second activity today; how  many smaller words or anagrams can be made from biodiversity?

Small Yellow Lady’s Slipper – Cypripedium parviflorum Courtesy Judy Gallagher cc2-0

Grasshopper_Sparrow CC2.0 dominic sheronY

American golden plover (Pluvialis dominica) sighted at Richard St. Barbe Baker spring 2019

Bumblebee on rose

The 1969 Santa Barbara oil spill became the driver for change, and provided the impetus for founding Earth Day in 1970.   80,000 to 100,000 barrels (13,000 to 16,000 m3) of crude oil spilled into the Santa Barbara Channel. Following this, the United States Environmental Protection Agency was created and the Clean Air, Clean Water and Endangered Species Acts were passed.

Across Canada, “in a single decade, federal and provincial governments established ministries or departments of the environment, environmental protection Acts and environmental assessment legislation….the intergovernmental Committee on the Status of Endangered Wildlife in Canada (COSEWIC) began to define a national list of species at risk. ” Canadian Encyclopedia  The Canadian Nature Federation grew out of the Audubon Society of Canada.“Canadian Encyclopedia   “Recognizing the need for better environmental management, the federal government passed the Canada Water Act in 1970 and created the Department of the Environment in 1971, entrusting the Inland Waters Directorate with providing national leadership for freshwater management.”Environment and Climate Change

The Saskatoon Afforestation Areas, the City of Saskatoon’s tree nurseries, were planted in 1972-1973 as part of the Green Survival Campaign in the war against ecology abuse the afforestation area exhibits an important interchange of human values, over a span of time on developments in town-planning, and architectural landscape design program aimed at improving the future environment of the city;

George Genereux Urban Regional Park and Richard St. Barbe Baker Afforestation Area are the only places of their kind which have survived to this day from the original Green Survival afforestation project.  They are afforestation areas ‘preserved in perpetuity’ based on the Green Survival Strategy which are excellent examples of the horticulture phase in the history of Saskatoon, and North America.

Take action for biodiversity at the Saskatoon Afforestation Areas.

The Green Survival Program ’Green Survival’ was an award-winning program for improving the environment, more beauty to see, and conservation of land from erosion with plantings of trees and shrubs in the fight against environmental deterioration and focusses attention on the important role that plant life plays in a healthful environment.

Climate change is a terrible problem, and it absolutely needs to be solved. It deserves to be a huge priority. Bill Gates

Kathy Cronkite of the Saskatoon Star Phoenix wrote the “Green Survival War against ecology abuse.  This concrete and asphalt jungle, filthy air and cold, stark, angular outlines devoid of greenery, are the characteristics of the modern metropolis.  But man is instinctively against this type of life and often retreats to the country to enjoy fresh, clean air and green landscape as far as the eyes can see.  …Saskatoon’s parks and recreation board has preserved the areas of Beaver Creek and Cranberry Flats and the rifle range as open space to be enjoyed by Saskatoonians in pursuit of passive recreation such as picnics.  It [parks and rec] has also ventured into a massive project of planting 200,000 trees for local parks, on 600 acres of land south of Diefenbaker Park and south of the CNR station [Richard St. Barbe Baker Afforestation Area].

The Green Survival Campaign spread across North America in 1972 and 1973.  “A ‘Survival’ Message Green Survival has a message.  It is simply that “each individual can have a positive, meaningful effect on the quality of life by planting trees and other living plants.” The appeal of this simple message has spread across the nation, and beyond, to Canada, England, Holland and Germany.

“We are the first generation to feel the sting of climate change, and we are the last generation that can do something about it.” — Jay Inslee

“‘Green Survival’ Time.  In France and in Canada’s French-speaking Quebec Province they say, “L’air pur… par la verdure.” In Germany they say, “Grun ist leben.” In some half-dozen countries, they express the message in their own language and here, all across the United States, it is said this way: “Green Survival. It’s something you do.” The term “Green Survival” is being seen in relation to almost any of nature’s growing gifts of plants and trees and shrubs. While communities have adopted programs to receive national recognition as ‘Green Survival Cities.’

“Green Survival  …the battle tends to center around water and air pollution,” said Mr. Kay. “One of the most important parts of our environment has been largely overlooked – the land itself. And it is here that the individual can serve a profound role in improving the world around us.” According to the Green Survival publication, steady progress is being made toward more abundant use of plant material in urban renewal, and toward providing more open space in the center cities of America. It reports that shopping malls are “Including landscaping in their designs and highway planting is becoming more and more apparent. Industry, too, has come to grips with the necessity of pleasing surroundings -both for employee satisfaction and neighborhood good-will, the booklet states. Copies of “Green Survival and the Environmental Crisis”, explaining the role of plant material and the individual in environmental quality …Joining in an all-out national campaign to stimulate individual action in the fight against environmental deterioration” (Free Press, 1970)

Today is Thursday April 30, and celebrating Earth Month. This year’s Earth Day 2020 theme is Climate Action.

  “The world will not be destroyed by those who do evil, but by those who watch them without doing anything.” — Albert Einstein

Facebook Event page

Canada Helps

For directions as to how to drive to “George Genereux” Urban Regional Park

For directions on how to drive to Richard St. Barbe Baker Afforestation Area

For more information:

Blairmore Sector Plan Report; planning for the Richard St. Barbe Baker Afforestation Area,  George Genereux Urban Regional Park and West Swale and areas around them inside of Saskatoon city limits

P4G Saskatoon North Partnership for Growth The P4G consists of the Cities of Saskatoon, Warman, and Martensville, the Town of Osler and the Rural Municipality of Corman Park; planning for areas around the afforestation area and West Swale outside of Saskatoon city limits

Richard St. Barbe Baker Afforestation Area is located in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, Canada north of Cedar Villa Road, within city limits, in the furthest south west area of the city. 52° 06′ 106° 45′ Addresses: Part SE 23-36-6 – Afforestation Area – 241 Township Road 362-A Part SW 23-36-6 – SW Off-Leash Recreation Area (Richard St. Barbe Baker Afforestation Area ) – 355 Township Road 362-A S ½ 22-36-6 Richard St. Barbe Baker Afforestation Area (West of SW OLRA) – 467 Township Road 362-A NE 21-36-6 “George Genereux” Afforestation Area – 133 Range Road 3063 Wikimapia Map: type in Richard St. Barbe Baker Afforestation Area Google Maps South West Off Leash area location pin at parking lot Web page: https://stbarbebaker.wordpress.com Where is the Richard St. Barbe Baker Afforestation Area? with map Where is the George Genereux Urban Regional Park (Afforestation Area)? with map

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Facebook Group Page: Users of the George Genereux Urban Regional Park

Facebook: StBarbeBaker

Facebook group page : Users of the St Barbe Baker Afforestation Area

Facebook: South West OLRA

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Twitter: StBarbeBaker

You Tube Richard St. Barbe Baker Afforestation Area

You Tube George Genereux Urban Regional Park

Please help protect / enhance /commemorate your afforestation areas, please contact the Friends of the Saskatoon Afforestation Areas Inc. (e-mail / e-transfers)

Canada Helps

1./ Learn.

2./ Experience

3./ Do Something: ***

 “While the problem can sometimes seem overwhelming, we can turn things around — but we must move beyond climate talk to climate action.” — Ted Turner

“Preparing for climate change has to be a national priority backed by tens of billions in federal investment. Lives are on the line.” — Bill de Blasio

“I believed that God has lent us the Earth. It belongs as much to those who come after us as to us, and it ill behooves us by anything we do or neglect, to deprive them of benefits which are in our power to bequeath.” Richard St. Barbe Baker

we can turn things around April 30 Did you think it was easy being green for Earth Month?  Can you continue with climate action for all of 2020? 

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Things YOU Need to KNOW Right before Touring TO SINGAPORE Items YOU Should really KNOW Ahead of Touring TO SINGAPORE

The People’s Republic of China is an astounding nation, with an ancient background steeped in question and so many modern marvels to examine. This interesting and special country is the most populated region in the environment, as nicely as one particular of the biggest by land mass.

Numerous of the folks who reside below still abide by their conventional Chinese tradition, but the nation has often been at the forefront of innovation too, graduating far more science, technological innovation, engineering, and arithmetic students than any other state in the latest years.

You almost certainly currently know that China is the world’s longest continuous civilization, that its Great Wall is the major artifical composition on the world (but contrary to well known perception, is not seen from space), and the Silk Road is the oldest and longest trade route at any time even so, did you know that China is also dependable for the generation of our present day decimal and binary units, algebra, geometry, and the discovery of the human circulatory method?

Did you also know that 1.7 million pigs are eaten each day in China and that just one odd delicacy is ‘urine eggs’ which are eggs boiled for 24 hours in the urine of young boys? Neither did we! Below are ten much more remarkable facts about China that you probably did not know:

China has only a single time zone

In spite of being the third-greatest country in the globe by square mileage (China is nearly as vast as the US) and technically spanning 5 time zones, the whole state has operated less than a person single time zone because 1949, when ‘Beijing Typical Time’ was built official by the Communist Social gathering. That indicates when it is 6am in Beijing, it is also 6am across the other facet of the state – even even though the solar won’t rise for about 3 hours.

Most faculties, transportation solutions, and other Government providers in the westernmost location of Xinjiang obey Beijing time, even though quite a few nearby companies adhere to their have time. This suggests young children are going for walks to college by starlight, whilst afterwards, some locals are having caught up in hurry hour traffic… at 7pm!

Chinese new moms are intended to ‘sit’ for four weeks

You may have listened to that partners in China need to have to utilize for a ‘Family Arranging Certificate’ to have a little one, but did you know that after the birth, new mothers are usually intended to continue to be in confinement for a thirty day period?

This custom – named ‘Sitting the Month’ – entails the new mother resting in mattress for a month, not exposing herself to persons or any situations that may possibly result in strain, such as exertion, cold temperature, emotional strain, and ordinarily, even drinking water!

Being physically damp was imagined to pose a well being chance to the mom, as she may capture a chilly if she’s uncovered to these things as a result of bathing and hair washing. Luckily, averting h2o is a lot less often practiced these times, but moms (and in some cases fathers) nevertheless frequently participate.

The confinement is intended to give the mother relaxation and recuperate from the beginning, make sure equally her and her little one are not uncovered to unwanted threats, increase breastmilk output and improve the maternal bond.

Soccer was invented in China

The historic Chinese not only invented paper, gunpowder, printing and the compass, but they also invented the idea of soccer (or soccer, if you want). The game of ‘cuju’ – which usually means ‘kick the ball with foot’ – was frequently played during the Han Dynasty (206 BC-220 Advertisement). The attractiveness of cuju then distribute to neighboring countries and the rest is history!

You simply cannot accessibility western sites in China

Though China is unquestionably a charming nation with unsurpassed magnificence, fascinating heritage, and awesome individuals, the current Govt do not seriously want to dilute it all with western impact, so they have established a point out of large censorship, banning a lot of western web sites.

If you had been taking into consideration a pay a visit to to China, really do not be expecting to be in a position to search Google, Facebook, Twitter, Youtube or Reddit web-sites, just to identify a few – these have been blocked by what lots of have dubbed the ‘Great Firewall of China’.

The Federal government have even tried to block techniques for circumventing their firewall, including blocking the use of numerous VPNs. Luckily, it’s nonetheless actually simple to bypass this firewall making use of VPNs, but only if you know which ones nevertheless perform! If you want to know which VPNs to use to get by means of China’s firewall, take a look at vpnMentor’s article ‘9 Greatest (Still Working in 2019) VPNs for China – 3 Are No cost’ and enjoy some net independence in China.

The Chinese intensely censor their film field

There is no movie rating system in spot in China, but that doesn’t indicate it is a haven for 12-year-olds who want to observe grown ups only films. Films are censored for the exact explanations as the country’s net.

As a substitute of ratings, there is a 36-particular person committee who make certain nothing at all untoward or inappropriate helps make it by way of to Chinese audiences. When they discover anything too raunchy, violent, flamboyant or insulting to China, they merely slash the entire scene out of the film ahead of releasing it to the general public!

These cuts include the well known nude portray scene in Titanic becoming eliminated, a total minute of ‘Bohemian Rhapsody’ being lower thanks to a gentleman-on-guy kissing scene and drug use, as well as 13 minutes of ‘Men In Black 3’ staying eradicated mainly because it highlighted an alien disguised as a Chinese particular person. If you are in China and want to view any censored films, you can use just one of the VPNs mentioned in this article.

Chinese manners are a small unique

Quite a few international locations think burping following a meal displays that the food was scrumptious and is a indicator of excellent manners, whilst other nations around the world really do not blink an eye at spitting in the streets. There are also a lot of people who really don’t assume yawning large or grunting are rude – in China, all of these are completely acceptable whilst ingesting!

Even additional intriguing is the country’s absence of diaper use. Older babies and toddlers who are capable to use a potty never wear them. In its place, they dress in unique pants with a break up in the rear and when they need to go potty, they squat anywhere they experience like it and go. We don’t just imply outdoors both. It’s suitable for the youngest Chinese citizens to poop or pee anywhere they really feel the require to, within or out!

China is total of cavemen

Not genuinely, but near! Because of to inheritance, tradition and occasionally poverty and lack of inexpensive housing, an estimated 35 million Chinese persons stay in caves. The vast majority stay in the yellow, porous cliffs and hillsides of the Loess plateau in Shaanxi province. The Government has tried to shift them on but the extended-time period inhabitants love their cave households and refuse to budge.

The Chinese do actually eat canine meat and also invented the initial ice cream

Most men and women have listened to the rumor that Chinese men and women consume pet dogs and this is actually no rumor. In the town of Yulin for 1 day for every year, the inhabitants celebrate the summer season solstice by taking in pet dogs bred for this purpose. The pet dog meat is eaten as a tradition that began 4000 several years ago.

Another historic tradition that began all around the exact time is the milk-primarily based treats that the Chinese invented, designed with yaks milk and rice and cooled with saltpeter (potassium nitrate) and snow poured on the exterior of the containers. Sure, these were the very first milk-primarily based ice treats most similar to what we now think of today as ice cream.

The Chinese are masters of war

You may possibly imagine that substantial fuel and chemical weapons are a fairly modern-day invention, but the Chinese were essentially the first to poison people on a mass scale, with incendiary weapons staying reportedly applied as early as 200BC in accordance to Sunlight Tzu’s ‘Art of War’.

There ended up also reviews of arsenic fuel bombs being made use of by the Chinese as early as 1000BC and their war background is littered with comparable references and hundreds of recipes for weapons of mass destruction, like the supernatural -sounding ‘soul-searching fog’. They may have also been the 1st place to use covert spy functions, as they invented kites to acquire military intelligence about 3000 a long time in the past.

The Art of War is alone a bible of warfare tactics and many strategies from the ebook are nevertheless made use of currently. Although the Chinese have generally been ruthless to their enemies, they are not entirely war oriented – Shanghai was the only port in the world who were being accepting Jewish men and women without having visas in the course of the holocaust.

China has the World’s biggest military

The Chinese aren’t only masters of war traditionally, but they are also well-prepared for any potential beat. The People’s Liberation Army offers the greatest number of troopers on the earth, with a lot more than 2 million troopers. It also has the second major defense pressure price range and is almost regarded a military services superpower.

source http://cheaprtravels.com/things-you-need-to-know-right-before-touring-to-singapore-items-you-should-really-know-ahead-of-touring-to-singapore/

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Inside Backpage.com’s Vicious Battle With the Feds

In Michael Lacey’s younger and more vulnerable years, his father gave him this advice: “Whenever someone pokes a finger in your chest, you grab that finger and you break it off at the knuckle.” Lacey grew up in the 1950s as a bright, bookish boy. His father, a sailor turned enforcer for a New York construction union, had little use for his son’s intellectual gifts. If Lacey lost a fight at school, he says, his dad “came home and beat me again.” But the boy toughened up, and he carried the lessons he’d learned into adulthood. He became a newspaper editor and earned a reputation as a down-and-dirty First Amendment brawler. Early on in his career, he struck up a partnership with James Larkin, a publisher whose sensibilities matched his own. Together, they built the nation’s largest chain of alternative newsweeklies.

Lacey and Larkin were heroes to many—micks from the sticks who made a fortune thumbing their shanty-Irish snouts at authority. Their papers went after mayors and police chiefs, governors and senators, Walmart and the Church of Scientology. They provoked outrage with their business practices too, by setting up Backpage.com, a kind of red-light district for the internet. As attorney Don Moon, the pair’s longtime adviser, puts it: “Their brand was always ‘Fuck you. We don’t have friends. We have lawyers.’ ” That approach served them well for 45 years, right up until the morning Michael Lacey found himself staring into the barrel of a Glock.

A few minutes before 9 am on April 6, 2018, a fleet of unmarked vehicles with government plates rolled up in front of Lacey’s multimillion-dollar compound in Paradise Valley, a few miles outside of Phoenix. These weren’t the guests he’d been expecting. The 69-year-old divorced father of two had recently gotten remarried, and he was preparing to host a lavish party to celebrate his vows. Tents were pitched on his lawn; retired journalists and overworked lawyers were winging their way into town. FBI agents informed the groom that he was being arrested on charges of money laundering and facilitating prostitution. They cuffed him, then subdued the home’s other occupants, including Lacey’s 76-year-old mother-in-law, whom they ordered out of the shower at gunpoint.

For the next six hours, the lawmen tossed the compound looking for, among other things, “evidence of wealth.” They seized art, cash, computers, even the bride’s wedding ring. Meanwhile, at the Phoenix airport, federal marshals awaited a 747 inbound from London. When it touched down, the flight crew made an announcement: Police would be boarding, so passengers must stay put. “I wondered who they were there for,” recalls Larkin, then 68, who was seated beside his son in business class. “I quickly figured out it was me.” (The Department of Justice declined to comment on the arrests.)

Partygoers soon received a cryptic text message. Owing to “unforeseen circumstances,” it said, the wedding celebration had been “postponed.” A notice went up on Backpage, explaining that the website had been seized “as part of an enforcement action.” More than a few guests completed the journey to Phoenix anyway; reporters can’t resist a story, and Lacey had already paid for a block of rooms at the Hotel Camby. They gathered at various local watering holes, offering what one attendee describes as “toasts to the accused,” and pieced together a gripping narrative—a tale of free-speech crusaders crossed over to the dark side, dedicated news­hounds become digital pimps.

Backpage, the domain that brought the federal government down on Lacey and Larkin’s heads, wasn’t much to look at—a bare-bones interface wrapped in Facebooky blue, similar to Craigslist in both form and function. Its name alluded to the old days of print publishing, when classified ads, especially ads for topless bars, escort services, and other sexually oriented businesses filled the final pages of alt­-weeklies and provided much of their revenue. Visitors to the site were greeted with several columns of links, which directed them to listings for various metropolitan areas around the country. From there, they could reply to ads or write their own.

Many of the ads—for auto parts, part-time gigs, vacation rentals, and so on—were free to publish. But the lewd stuff, listed under the adult section, cost money. For as little as $2 a day, users could post in such categories as “body rubs” and “dom & fetish.” The site’s terms of use prohibited any content that could be considered “unlawful,” “harmful,” or “obscene.” To gain access to the adult section, all users had to do was click a link confirming they were 18 or older. Once inside, they saw an endless scroll of titles, some laden with innuendo (“Cum lay your hotdog on my bun for memorial day”), others more explicit (“Three holes anything goes $90”).

As in the print days, these adult ads reigned supreme. In 2011 they accounted for 15 percent of Backpage’s listings but generated more than 90 percent of its revenue. By the time the Feds pulled the plug on the site, it was operating in 97 countries and was valued at more than half a billion dollars. People called it the Google of commercial sex ads, a platform that dominated its market as thoroughly as Facebook dominated social networking or Amazon did online retail.

The government indictment that triggered Lacey and Larkin’s arrests, United States v. Lacey, et al., includes 17 “victim summaries”—stories of women who say they were sexually exploited through Backpage. Victim 5 first appeared in an ad on the platform when she was 14; her “customers” made her “perform sexual acts at gunpoint, choked her to the point of having seizures, and gang-raped her.” Victim 6 was stabbed to death. Victim 8’s uncle and his friends advertised her as “fetish friendly.” The indictment accuses Backpage of catering to sexual predators, of essentially helping pimps better reach their target audiences.

In the years before their arrest, Lacey and Larkin had successfully beat back charges like these in court. They took refuge not only in the First Amendment but also in Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act, Congress’ great gift to the internet. Passed in 1996, Section 230 largely immunized online platforms from liability for the user-­generated content they hosted. They were free to police offending material as they saw fit, without undue fear of prosecution by state or local authorities—as long as they didn’t create it themselves. America’s tech behemoths, from Twitter to Facebook, have often invoked Section 230 in court. The internet we have today wouldn’t exist without it. After all, you can’t build or sustain a giant network if you’re getting sued every time a user says or does something objectionable.

For a while, Lacey and Larkin’s strategy had worked: They’d won case after case, with the support of Big Tech and civil libertarians alike. But by the time the Feds descended on Paradise Valley that morning in the spring of 2018, the tide had turned. Many of their friends and allies had fled, spooked in part by too much bad press. The tech industry, which faced withering scrutiny over its role in the outcome of the 2016 presidential election, had thrown them under the bus. Their top lieutenant had flipped. And Congress had used them as an excuse to finally accomplish what it had been trying to do for more than 20 years—tear a hole in Section 230.

Maybe they should have seen it coming: The betrayals. The asset seizures. The changing zeitgeist. They were, to be sure, brazenly cashing in on the sex trade. But here’s the thing: Silicon Valley had better hope they win. United States v. Lacey is a dangerous case, with potential consequences far beyond the freedom of two aging antiauthoritarians.

A view from Paradise Valley, looking out onto Camelback Mountain.

Jesse Rieser

It’s a mid-November afternoon in 2018, and Mike Lacey and Jim Larkin are seated on either side of the 20-foot-long glass table that dominates Lacey’s living room. They’re clad in jeans, polos, and ankle monitors. A black charging cord snakes from a wall outlet to Lacey’s left foot, which emits an occasional beep.

Both men are out on million-dollar bonds, secured by real estate the government eventually hopes to own. The bulk of the charges against them fall under the Travel Act, a law designed by Robert F. Kennedy’s Justice Department to target organized crime. According to the indictment, Lacey, Larkin, and their underlings not only turned a blind eye to prostitution and child sexual abuse but, driven by greed, actively worked to abet it. Their case is set for January 2020. “El Chapo got to trial quicker,” Lacey quips.

I’ve worked for both sides in this showdown. In the late 1990s, I was a staff writer for the Dallas Observer, a weekly owned by Lacey and Larkin. Then, in 2001, I went to work for the Department of Justice as an assistant US attorney in Plano, Texas.

The two men have lived large, and it shows. Larkin is a burly former football player, 6 ’ 2 ” and easily 250 pounds, with cornflower eyes, chubby cheeks, and a ruddy complexion. Lacey’s mug reveals decades of sun and single-malt Scotch—the hooded lids, the sagging chin, the lines running like canyons down his face and into his neck. His spiky hair has thinned and grayed, but he still has the prominent schnoz, the ice-blue eyes, and the knuckles famously tattooed with “HOLD FAST.” (His father, who served in the Navy during World War II, had the same slogan inked across his fists.)

Their situation looks bleak. The government has seized all of Lacey’s financial accounts and most or all of Larkin’s. Prosecutors have already produced more than 10 million documents and have promised, or threatened, more to come. It will cost the defendants several million dollars just to buy the software they need to search the government’s files. For the time being, though, they’re still drinking well. When I arrive, Larkin has uncorked a bottle of Jack Quinn, a cabernet produced at his 3-acre vineyard in Napa. (Although Larkin has owned the place since before Backpage existed, the government has given notice that it intends to seize the vineyard, alleging that he used Backpage-derived funds for its maintenance.) Lacey, meanwhile, is still knocking back Macallan 21—although nowadays he stops to ask the price. At the Blue Hound bar in Phoenix, where we repaired for a later interview, it’s $120 per shot.

Lacey got his start in journalism in 1970, in the wake of the Kent State shootings, when he and a group of antiwar comrades at Arizona State University founded what would become the Phoenix New Times. In the beginning, he claims, he sold his blood to pay the bills. He met Larkin two years later—not long after Lacey’s father, the union enforcer, and his mother, an opera singer and registered nurse, were found frozen to death in a rented trailer in Oswego, New York. (“It was a murder-­suicide,” Lacey says. “They were drunk, and she turned on the gas.”)

The men connected immediately. Both were college dropouts, and both had suffered through difficult childhoods. Larkin’s mother died when he was 2, and he spent most of his youth in what he describes as a “Catholic ghetto.” In high school, he cofounded a student newspaper, The Big Press, then promptly got himself suspended for criticizing administrators. “I wanted to be in that business,” he says. Lacey brought him on as publisher.

In 1977, Lacey and Larkin staged a putsch. They wrested control of the New Times from Lacey’s cofounders and set about turning the fledgling broadsheet into an empire. Larkin worked out a lucrative revenue model, emphasizing classifieds and personals. (While a page of big retail ads might net $1,000, a page of classifieds, 100 ads at $25 a pop, could bring in $2,500.) Six years later, they began to expand. They bought up struggling weeklies in cities across the country—Denver, Houston, Miami—and transformed them into serious news organizations, hiring experienced, high-profile reporters and giving them resources to do the job.

“I didn’t get into this racket to be told what to publish,” Lacey growls. “By anybody.”

They believed there was an audience for in-depth, long-form investigative reporting. A month after 9/11, for instance, The New Times Broward-Palm Beach published an exposé on how lapses in federal immigration policy had allowed the hijackers to enter the country. In 2003, Westword got the scoop on a sexual assault scandal at the US Air Force Academy. In 2013, The Miami New Times ran a story on the steroid scandal in Major League Baseball, which ultimately resulted in the suspension of 14 players. Lacey once told an interviewer, “As a journalist, if you don’t get up in the morning and say ‘Fuck you’ to someone, why even do it?”

They tangled with shareholders, authorities, competitors, printers, and municipalities that tried to restrict their distribution. Lacey, who wrote numerous stories himself, was known to clock reporters and pummel press aides, usually when spirits were involved. (He estimates that he’s been arrested “10 or 11 times,” but “only three for writing.” The one criminal conviction on his record is for a misdemeanor DUI.) When violence didn’t settle things, Lacey and Larkin often moved matters to the courtroom. Litigation was their idea of fun, the continuation of hell-raising by other means. “I didn’t get into this racket to be told what to publish,” Lacey growls. “By anybody. If you don’t like it, don’t read it.”

Steve Suskin, their former in-house counsel, says they and their companies were sued 56 times between 1997 and 2012 alone. “We won them all,” Suskin recalls. They were successful in part because they recognized that litigation is a war of attrition, and they were willing to go the distance. Says Lacey: “You want to sue us, bring your lunch pail, ’cause we gonna be awhile.” In their most famous legal set-to, they successfully sued Joe Arpaio, Maricopa County’s notoriously anti-­immigrant sheriff, for false arrest, winning a $3.75 million settlement. In a final flip of the bird to Arpaio, they used the money to set up a nonprofit to defend the rights of undocumented immigrants and Latinx Americans.

Through it all, Larkin kept the money coming in, embracing each new fad in classified advertising. In 1989, for example, the New Times group launched its first adult section, appropriately dubbed Wildside. (The ads were moderated by sales staff to ensure no blatant sex-for-money propositions made it into print.) Racy ads fueled the company’s explosive growth; by 2001, Lacey and Larkin owned 11 papers, which raked in more than $100 million a year. But the good times didn’t last. Craigslist had begun expanding into cities outside the Bay Area, offering free ads in all categories except jobs and erotic services. Classified revenue tanked.

In 2003, Larkin was approached by Carl Ferrer, an ad salesman he’d hired away from a small paper in Louisiana and installed as classified ad director at the Dallas Observer. Ferrer, a short, slight man with a goatee and a perpetually worried look, proposed that they create an in-house version of Craigslist. Larkin put him in charge of building and running the website, which launched in 2004.

The following year, Lacey and Larkin won the prize they’d chased for years—The Village Voice, the grande dame of alt-­weeklies. When the New Times group merged with Village Voice Media, the two companies formed a 17-paper megachain valued at about $400 million, with an estimated $180 million in annual revenue. Lacey and Larkin’s timing could not have been worse. Between 2006 and 2012, according to the Pew Research Center, American news­papers lost half their advertising revenue. Backpage, however, grew steadily, even if it wasn’t nearly enough to offset the papers’ declining receipts.

Lacey and Larkin say they were advised by counsel that what Backpage was doing was 100 percent legal. They saw no distinction between advertising and editorial; it was all protected speech, all mission-critical. In 2008, they were honored by the Arizona chapter of the ACLU as Civil Libertarians of the Year. In his acceptance speech, Lacey decried “the gentrified instincts of soccer moms,” which led demagogues like Joe Arpaio to crack down on press freedom. He vowed that both he and Larkin would continue to oppose the “forces of offended decency” wherever they found them.

Today, they remain defiant. “I didn’t do anything wrong,” Lacey declares. “I didn’t do what they say. And if they think they’re gonna punk me, they got the wrong fucking guy.”

One of the great ironies of internet history is that the Communications Decency Act—a law conceived, as its name suggests, to rid the web of vice—actually ended up doing the opposite. It was proposed in 1995 by Senator J. James Exon, a Nebraska Democrat who’d watched with increasing alarm as “the worst, most vile, most perverse pornography” spread online. He was particularly concerned about what all this obscenity might do to the minds of America’s children, and went so far as to compile a “blue book” packed with X-rated screenshots. “This is a sample of what is available today free of charge,” he told his colleagues on the Senate floor when the CDA came up for debate. “Click, click, click on the computer, on the information superhighway.”

Although Exon repeatedly described the legislation as “narrow” and “streamlined,” the Department of Justice warned that its indecency provisions were unconstitutionally broad. Within a year and a half of the CDA’s passage, the Supreme Court agreed and struck those provisions down. Section 230, however, survived, offering a safe harbor to some of the same sites that Exon had hoped to bring down. The information superhighway began to look more perilous than ever.

In 2001 two academics at the University of Pennsylvania published a widely cited study in which they estimated that some 326,000 children were “at risk of commercial sexual exploitation.” Although the authors didn’t formally address what role the internet played, they asserted that “online sexual victimization of American children appears to have reached epidemic proportions.” By 2008, a new coalition of would-be regulators had emerged, led by the National Association of Attorneys General and the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, a nonprofit partly funded by the US government. Together, both behind the scenes and in the press, the two groups began pushing some of the internet’s major players to strengthen their safety protocols.

In response, Myspace, the web’s largest social media platform at the time, gave the boot to some 90,000 convicted sex offenders. Facebook, meanwhile, took steps to prevent underage users from sharing personal information with strangers. Craigslist started requiring that anyone who posted an ad in its Erotic Services section provide a verified phone number and pay a fee by credit card. It also hired attorneys to moderate ads.

For some officials, though, these changes weren’t enough. In early 2009, Thomas Dart, the sheriff of Cook County, Illinois, sued Craigslist for facilitating prostitution. “Missing children, runaways, abused women, and women trafficked in from foreign countries are routinely forced to have sex with strangers because they’re being pimped on Craigslist,” he said. “I could make arrests off Craigslist 24 hours a day, but to what end? I’m trying to go up the ladder.” That same spring, tabloids across the country were awash in headlines about the “Craigslist killer,” a young man in Boston who’d responded to a massage ad on the site, then murdered the woman who posted it.

A federal judge in Chicago quickly tossed Dart’s case, citing Section 230. But Craigslist eventually surrendered anyway. On the night of September 3, 2010, it quietly covered its Adult Services section with the word censored. Two weeks later, in testimony before Congress, Craigslist execs explained that they’d done their best to address their critics’ complaints; now, it seemed, they just wanted out of the headlines. They also warned that law enforcement was losing a valuable partner in the fight against trafficking. Yet Ernie Allen, the lanky Kentuckian who ran the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, saw this as a necessary step. “Some of this problem will migrate to other areas,” he said, “but frankly that’s progress.”

Allen’s prediction was right. In the wake of Craigslist’s capitulation, the sex trade did indeed shift to other sites. There were many to choose from—myRedBook, Naughty Reviews, Cityvibe, Rentboy—but Backpage was the chief beneficiary. Larkin sent around an email advising his employees to expect “a deluge” of adult ads and reminding them that, “like it or not,” such ads “are in our DNA.” Lacey says he remained focused, as always, on the editorial side—though he had “no problem” seeing the ads “take off like they did.” Ferrer, meanwhile, seemed only too happy to inherit Craigslist’s share of the adult market, even if that meant assuming its place in the crosshairs. “It is an opportunity for us,” he wrote in an email. “Also a time when we need to make sure our content is not illegal.”

Backpage was already getting into hot water. A girl in Missouri had sued the site in mid-September, alleging that she’d been pimped out at the age of 14 and that Backpage had willfully “failed to investigate for fear of what it would learn.” She claimed, without clear evidence, that the site’s operators “had a strong suspicion” she was underage. Ultimately, a federal magistrate dismissed her case. The situation was tragic, he said, but Backpage was protected under Section 230. The girl needed to sue her pimp.

On October 18, Backpage announced on its blog that it had retained Hemanshu Nigam, a former federal prosecutor who specialized in sex crimes and child abuse, to develop a “holistic” safety program. Nigam sat on the board of the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children and had done similar work for Myspace. In the months that followed, Nigam and his new clients met repeatedly with representatives from anti-trafficking organizations. They discussed changes to Backpage’s site architecture, moderation practices, and content policies. The organizations suggested, for instance, that users should be prevented from employing search terms such as “incest” or “Lolita,” since these might “indicate illegal activity.” Backpage moderators, meanwhile, should be on the lookout for “ads written from masculine perspective,” particularly if they employed the euphemism “new in town,” which “is often used by pimps who shuttle children to locations where they do not know anyone and cannot get help.”

“You want to sue us, bring your lunch pail, ’cause we gonna be awhile.”

By late January 2011, Backpage had implemented many of the recommendations: It had banned photographs with nudity, drawn up a list of “inappropriate terms,” beefed up its vetting process, and begun referring “ads containing possible minors” directly to Allen’s staff. Ferrer also worked closely with the authorities. According to a Justice Department memo from 2012, “unlike virtually every other website that is used for prostitution and sex trafficking, Backpage is remarkably responsive to law enforcement requests and often takes proactive steps to assist in investigations.” A later memo noted that “even Ernie Allen believed that Backpage was genuinely trying to rid its site of juvenile sex trafficking.”

Lacey and Larkin say they were more than willing to help crack down on child abuse. But the demands being made of them seemed increasingly unreasonable. Sex trafficking, defined as commercial sex involving coerced adults or anyone under 18, was one thing. Consensual sex work was quite another—and it wasn’t even illegal under federal law.

In March 2011, Lacey and Larkin flew to Virginia to meet with Allen. “To say that the meeting did not go well is an understatement,” Allen wrote later that day. After a full hour, he and Lacey “were still screaming at each other.” Allen demanded that Backpage do more to combat prostitution. Larkin said the site would enforce a “news­paper standard,” but Lacey added, “We are not Craigslist, and we aren’t going to succumb to pressure.” A Justice Department memo continues the story: “Allen responded that ‘At least you know what business you are in.’ ”

Lacey’s memories are no rosier. “Allen pulls out this shoddy U. Penn report”—the one from 2001—and “thumps the table with it,” he recalls. The report sent Lacey into orbit. “They love to inflate the numbers by talking about children ‘at risk’ of exploitation,” he says. Owing to the shadowy nature of sex trafficking, such numbers are notoriously hard to pin down: Experts at the Crimes Against Children Research Center have noted that “scientifically credible estimates do not exist,” and one of the Penn report’s authors told The Washington Post in 2015, “Clearly, a new, more current study is needed.”

Lacey thought he knew what business Allen was in too—fearmongering in the interest of fund-raising. He took the meeting as a finger in the chest. Within a few weeks, The Village Voice began to run articles examining the fishy data on child sex trafficking.

In April, Nigam suggested that, as a gesture of goodwill, Backpage should join the Demi and Ashton Foundation, a nonprofit created by actors Ashton Kutcher and Demi Moore. The foundation had recently run a series of PSAs under the slogan “Real men don’t buy girls,” featuring various Hollywood bigwigs. Lacey ignored Nigam’s suggestion. Instead, he instructed The Village Voice to publish an article titled “Real Men Get Their Facts Straight.”

Larkin, for his part, tried to make nice with the authorities—at least until he and Lacey could cash out. Backpage was causing too many headaches, and the papers were growing deader by the day. “Selling print sooner than later was the winning move,” Larkin explains. “The longer you waited, the dumber you were.” Initially it seemed that Backpage would be the easier business to unload. By September 2011, a private-equity firm focused on “out-of-favor industries” had agreed to buy it for $150 million. But the deal fell apart after the National Association of Attorneys General announced an investigation of Backpage. Larkin and Lacey were incensed. Section 230 provided that websites could be prosecuted only under federal criminal law, so they considered a state-level investigation extralegal. From that point on, both men were ready to go to the mattresses.

The following fall, Lacey and Larkin sold their beloved alt-weeklies to a group of their own editors for just over $32 million, about 8 percent of what the chain had been valued at in 2005. (Even this amount was later negotiated down, after the buyers defaulted.) In a farewell letter, Lacey wrote that they were leaving to carry on their jihad “over the First Amendment, free speech on the internet and Backpage.” Cynics pointed to the money; by 2011, Backpage was raking in more than $50 million a year, nearly as much as the newspapers that spawned it.

Whatever their mix of motives, Lacey and Larkin moved their cause to the courtroom. With Section 230 as their weapon, they won a series of civil suits and successfully challenged anti-Backpage laws in New Jersey, Tennessee, and Washington state. Many of the court opinions noted the First Amendment problems inherent in regulating internet content. “When freedom of speech hangs in the balance,” wrote the Tennessee judge, “the state may not use a butcher knife on a problem that requires a scalpel to fix.”

By this point, the nation’s attorneys general had had enough. As they saw it, Backpage and other internet platforms were using Section 230 as an excuse to duck their responsibilities to users. In July 2013, 49 of them signed a letter to Congress saying that the law needed an overhaul.

Lacey shows off his ankle monitor and knuckle tattoos.

Jesse Rieser

State attorneys general weren’t the only prosecutors itching to get in on the action. The Feds were too, but they had a problem: They couldn’t identify a viable crime. Prostitution wasn’t a federal offense, and they didn’t seem to think they could make sex-trafficking charges stick. Back in 2011, the Justice Department had quietly opened a grand jury investigation into Backpage in Washington state; according to an internal memo, prosecutors interviewed more than a dozen witnesses and subpoenaed more than 100,000 documents but ultimately decided that “a successful criminal prosecution of Backpage is unlikely.” They thought about trying to make a case under the Travel Act but, as they noted, that theory “had never been litigated in a similar context.” So they formulated another potential plan of attack. “Moving forward,” they wrote, the Justice Department should “take a hard look at bringing this case as a civil forfeiture case,” with its “lower standard of proof.” In this scenario, the government would seize a website operator’s assets and property, then force them to prove they weren’t implicated in criminal activity.

In June 2014 the Justice Department put this plan into action. It seized myRedBook and demanded that the site’s owner, Eric “Red” Omuro, forfeit $5 million in cash and property. The following summer, the Department of Homeland Security launched a similar raid against “the nation’s largest online male-escort service,” Rentboy, and its owner, Jeffrey Hurant. Both men pleaded guilty to violations of the Travel Act in exchange for lighter sentences and lesser fines. The forfeiture approach seemed to be working.

Meanwhile, Backpage opponents were finding sympathetic ears on Capitol Hill. In April 2015, Senator Rob Portman, a Republican from Ohio and the chair of the Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations, fired off the following tweet: “backpage essentially sells human beings. It’s horrible, and I’m going after them.”

That same month, Lacey and Larkin finally located a serious buyer for Backpage: Carl Ferrer. He agreed to pay just under $603 million for the platform—four times what they’d been offered in 2011.

Portman’s subcommittee soon issued a series of subpoenas, seeking internal documents that would reveal Backpage’s moderation practices. The site fought back, but in September 2016 the US Supreme Court ruled that it had to fork over more than 1 million internal emails and other records. Every dubious decision, every bit of chatter and commentary, every lame joke between Backpage employees and managers, was about to come spilling out.

On January 8, 2017, the Senate subcommittee released its final report, titled “Backpage.com’s Knowing Facilitation of Online Sex Trafficking.” It pushed the theory that Lacey, Larkin, Ferrer, and their employees had invalidated their liability protections under Section 230: Rather than removing illegal and obscene content, the Senate said, Backpage had helped develop it, using clever moderation practices to “sanitize the content” and conceal it from the eyes of the law—all in the name of earning a few extra dollars. This, the subcommittee implied, put Backpage in the position of a content creator, not a mere content host.

Most courts had been rejecting the same argument for six years, but now Portman and his colleagues had what they considered incontrovertible evidence. Much of it was contained in the report’s 840-page appendix, which included highlights from the emails and other documents that the site had been ordered to produce.

The report outlined three major steps in Backpage’s road to perdition. In the early days of the site, most ads for commercial sex were deleted outright. By early 2009, however, Ferrer had begun to instruct his employees to manually remove any obscene photos and “forbidden words,” then post the ad anyway. In an email, he wrote that he considered this the more “consumer friendly” approach, because it would avoid “pissing off a lot of users who will migrate elsewhere.” But the true goal, according to the Senate, was to give those ads “a veneer of lawfulness.” One former Backpage moderator, identified in the report as Employee C, testified that she saw her role as “putting lipstick on a pig, because when it came down to it, it was what the business was about.”

By late 2010, Backpage had developed an automated filter called Strip Term From Ad. It was tuned to remove problematic words (“lolita,” “rape,” “fresh,” “little girl”) before any human moderator had seen the ad. Because the original language wasn’t saved on Backpage’s servers, the Senate complained, there would be no real record of the offending content—nothing to send to law enforcement. “Of course,” the subcommittee wrote, “the Strip Term From Ad filter changed nothing about the real age of the person being sold for sex or the real nature of the advertised transaction.”

Perhaps that’s why, in mid-2012, Backpage instituted a kind of hybrid process, automatically editing some ads while automatically banning others, depending on the terms used. But the Senate saw chicanery here, too. Ferrer complained that the auto-bans were causing confusion among users; if they submitted an ad that contained a banned term, they had no way of knowing why it had been rejected. And so Backpage rolled out an alert feature, which informed users which specific term was to blame. In the Senate’s eyes, it was “coaching its customers on how to post ‘clean’ ads for illegal transactions.”

The appendix was full of what appeared to be smoking guns. In late 2010, for instance, Backpage’s operations manager, Andrew Padilla, castigated one of his employees for putting a note on a user’s account suggesting she was a prostitute. “Leaving notes on our site that imply that we’re aware of prostitution, or in any position to define it, is enough to lose your job over,” Padilla wrote. “If you need a definition of ‘prostitution,’ get a dictionary.” The following summer, four months after the ill-fated meeting with Ernie Allen, Larkin cautioned Ferrer against publicizing Backpage’s moderation practices. “We need to stay away from the very idea of ‘editing’ the posts, as you know,” he wrote in an email.

On the night the Senate report was released, Backpage finally shut down its adult section. It was, of course, far too late to stave off what was coming. The next morning, Lacey, Larkin, Ferrer, and two other Backpage executives appeared in Room 342 of the Senate’s Dirksen Building for a grilling by Portman and his colleagues. It was a carefully choreographed bit of political theater. The Backpage witnesses took the Fifth, as senators knew they must; thanks to a pending case in California, they had no choice. Portman denounced them for refusing to “come clean.”

Within six months of the hearing, at least eight new civil lawsuits were filed against Backpage. The Section 230 defense now worked only intermittently, as courts increasingly read in exceptions. The site’s operators began preparing for a rumble with the Feds. Backpage handed out fat legal retainers, as key employees lawyered up. Lacey and Larkin started segregating cash; funds from the sale of Backpage went into one set of accounts, while proceeds from the newspaper sale went into another. Ferrer bought a brand-new Texas McMansion, put it in his wife’s name, and poured hundreds of thousands of dollars into renovations.

Still, Lacey and Larkin largely shrugged off the Senate’s report. “We didn’t go out and try to disprove it,” recalls an attorney who worked on the matter. “It’s not like there isn’t plenty to say. But to try to rebut 50 pages of allegations in the press? That’s fighting a losing battle.” The lawyer added: “It was a hit piece. It was intended to be a hit piece. What are you going to do?”

In August 2017, Portman launched another attack against Backpage. With a bipartisan group of 20 senators, including Connecticut’s Richard Blumenthal, he introduced the Stop Enabling Sex Traffickers Act, or Sesta. Later, in an op-ed for WIRED, Portman laid out the bill’s key features: It would remove Section 230’s “unintended liability protections for websites that knowingly facilitate online sex trafficking” and “allow state and local law enforcement to prosecute” those sites. Just as J. James Exon, the sponsor of the Communications Decency Act, had done two decades earlier, the senators deflected concerns about constitutional overreach. Portman described Sesta as “narrowly crafted”; Blumenthal called it “narrowly tailored.”

Silicon Valley disagreed. On the day Sesta was introduced, the Internet Association—an industry consortium that represents Airbnb, Facebook, Google, Twitter, and more than three dozen other tech companies—released a statement calling the bill “overly broad.” While it was important to pursue “rogue operators like Backpage.com,” the association said, Sesta was more butcher knife than scalpel; it would create “a new wave of frivolous and unpredictable actions against legitimate companies.” In a letter to the Senate, a coalition of human rights and civil liberties organizations warned that the result of all this litigation would be “increased censorship across the web.” Platforms that had once sought to encourage free speech through light moderation would now take an iron-fisted approach. According to the Electronic Frontier Foundation, the chilling effect would be particularly damaging to sites like Wikipedia, which “don’t have the massive budgets to defend themselves that Facebook and Twitter do.”

But Big Tech and its allies were no longer really in a position to complain. On Halloween, Congress hauled in executives from Facebook, Google, and Twitter. Legislators wanted to know why the platforms had failed to stem the tide of fake news and misinformation in the run-up to the 2016 presidential election, why they’d sold political ad space to Russian nationals, why they were supposedly muzzling conservative voices. Pundits opined that the web was all grown up now; many questioned why platforms still needed Section 230’s protection.

Several days after the Capitol Hill perp walk, the Internet Association suddenly reversed course. It came out in favor of a lightly modified version of Sesta, which by now had been combined with an equally clumsily named House bill, the Allow States and Victims to Fight Online Sex Trafficking Act, or Fosta. It was hard not to see the association’s move as a cynical act of political pandering. As Winston Churchill once said, “Each one hopes that if he feeds the crocodile enough, the crocodile will eat him last.”

The Fosta-Sesta law is already panning out as its detractors feared. Once Trump signed it into law, platforms rushed to self-censor; nobody wanted to be Backpaged.

By the spring of 2018, things had gotten even worse for Big Tech. That March, news of the Cambridge Analytica scandal broke, seeming to confirm the public’s worst suspicions. Four days later, Congress passed Fosta-Sesta. The law amends Section 230 to allow states and civil plaintiffs to go after websites that “promote and facilitate prostitution” or “knowingly benefit from participation in a venture that engages in sex trafficking.” Senator Ron Wyden of Oregon, one of the original authors of Section 230 and a longtime tech industry ally, warned that further measures could be in the offing if “technology companies do not wake up to their responsibilities … to better protect the public.”

In spite of the protests of free speech advocates, more than 100 organizations had come out in favor of the law—Truckers Against Trafficking, Girls With Grit, the Christian Action League of Minnesota. Seth Meyers and Ivanka Trump touted it too. But sex workers and their allies were bitterly opposed. The American Association of Sexuality Educators, Counselors, and Therapists noted that Fosta-Sesta contained “a sweeping and unproductive conflation of sex trafficking and consensual sex work.” The association further argued—just as Craigslist had when it shuttered its adult section in 2010—that, in forcing sites like Backpage to remove or censor their content, the law would merely drive predators into even darker corners of the internet. Their crimes would be harder to spot and investigate, and many sex workers would be forced “to pursue far riskier and more exploitative forms of labor” on the streets.

Two weeks after Fosta-Sesta passed, Carl Ferrer appeared in a closed federal courtroom in Phoenix. He pleaded guilty to conspiracy to facilitate prostitution and launder money, surrendered Backpage and its assets, and promised to cooperate with federal authorities. (Ferrer’s plea forbids him to talk to the press. “I’m not trying to avoid you,” he told me at a recent court appearance. “I just have to say no comment.”) A day later, the Feds nailed Lacey and Larkin in Phoenix, charging them and five other Backpagers under long-­existing criminal statutes. As many legal experts pointed out, the move suggested that the government never needed Fosta-Sesta to prosecute the pair; President Donald Trump had yet to even sign it into law. Lacey and Larkin never seemed to seriously consider that Ferrer might flip. Other insiders certainly did. “I think he just chickened out,” offers an attorney who worked with Ferrer for almost 20 years and spoke to me on condition of anonymity. The lawyer points out that Ferrer never shared Lacey’s and Larkin’s disdain for cops. “That’s an awful lot of pressure to put on a skinny white guy,” he continues. “And Jim was never all that nice to him.”

Though it is still relatively early, the broad outlines of each side’s strategy are clear. If this case reaches a jury, the government will likely argue that the end justifies the means—that sex trafficking and prostitution generally are so abhorrent that the government had to do away with Backpage, protected speech and all. They will employ what trial lawyers call “reptile theory,” tapping into the jury’s primitive instincts, arguing that Backpage constituted a public danger and that convicting the defendants will make the community safer. They will tell the grisly tales set forth in the indictment’s 17 victim summaries. They will depict Lacey and Larkin as calculating profiteers, outlaws who refused to honor the reasonable requests of law enforcement because they might make a few mil less. They will hope the defendants’ seeming indifference to the plight of trafficking victims inspires the jury to overlook holes in the prosecution’s case.

The defense strategy is equally clear. Lacey and Larkin will offer high-minded arguments in defense of what the public regards as low-value speech. They will challenge government experts who claim they can look at a sample of Backpage ads and know beyond doubt that they proposed illegal transactions. It’s unclear how effective a witness Ferrer will be; over the past decade, he has given numerous sworn statements in Backpage litigation that contradict assertions in his plea. To the extent that Ferrer has anything damaging to offer, the defense will likely argue he was acting on his own. “We had lawyers telling us how to do this,” Lacey says. “The only way this was going to blow up was if Carl was doing something he shouldn’t have.”

Backpage cofounder James Larkin.

Jesse Rieser

Backpage cofounder Michael Lacey.

Jesse Rieser

Fosta-Sesta is already panning out as its detractors feared. Once Trump signed it into law, platforms rushed to self-censor; nobody wanted to be Backpaged. Cityvibe shut down altogether. Reddit banned numerous communities, including r/escorts and r/SugarDaddy. Google reportedly began purging its users’ cloud accounts of sexually explicit material. Cloudflare, one of the largest cybersecurity and website performance companies in the world, terminated service to Switter, a social media platform on which sex workers connected with each other and vetted their clients. Cloudflare is known for its commitment to free speech, but it was compelled to enforce what its general counsel called, in an interview with Vice, “a very bad law and a very dangerous precedent.”

The endless game of whack-a-mole continues. A month after Fosta-Sesta passed, ads for commercial sex had plummeted 82 percent, according to TellFinder, a data analytics tool originally built by the Defense Department. Within another four months, though, the numbers had rebounded to 75 percent of their previous daily volume. New sites popped up, seeking to fill the void left by Backpage, just as Backpage had done with Craigslist. One of them was called Bedpage.

Still, the Justice Department remains committed to taking the Backpage defendants down. Its plan seems to be to force them to plead, à la Rentboy and myRedBook. Since March 2018, federal prosecutors have seized more than $100 million in cash, real estate, and other assets from Lacey and Larkin. The strategy is simple: No money? No lawyers. QED.

The asset freezes raise all kinds of thorny constitutional questions. Generally speaking, federal prosecutors are permitted to freeze a defendant’s assets based on probable cause alone, even before the defendant has a chance to challenge the government’s case in court. But regular forfeiture rules do not apply in cases involving forums for speech—newspapers, films, books, magazines, websites. The US Supreme Court has decreed that when the government seizes these expressive materials, or the proceeds derived from them, it must immediately hold an evidentiary hearing to determine whether the seizure is valid.

But the Backpage defendants have a problem: So far, they can’t get a court to hear their claims. Since last summer, the Justice Department appears to have been playing a clever shell game. They’ve brought cases against the Backpage defendants in two federal districts—civil seizures in Los Angeles, criminal matters in Phoenix—and they’re making the defendants spend what money they have left chasing Uncle Sam from place to place. So far, judges in both districts have agreed with the government’s suggestion that they should defer to each other, effectively denying the defendants a forum to challenge the asset freezes. The US Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit will hear arguments in the case in July.

“The abuse on these platforms does not stop at sex trafficking,” the association of Attorneys General wrote.

Paul Watler, a media law specialist at Jackson Walker LLP in Dallas, is troubled by the seizure tactic. “It’s an end run around the First Amendment,” he says. The big question remaining, according to Eric Goldman, a professor at Santa Clara University School of Law, is whether federal prosecutors will use this strategy to crack down on other platforms in the future. “Is this the leading edge or a one-off?” he asks. “I still don’t know the answer to that. But they’re coming for us, one way or another.” Even if Fosta-Sesta is one day ruled unconstitutional, as many legal scholars expect, government officials have shown that they’re willing to subvert Section 230 in other ways. If Lacey and Larkin lose—if the asset seizures stand and the Travel Act charges stick—prosecutors will have a valuable new weapon to wield against Silicon Valley. Personal wealth will be no deterrent.

Meanwhile, the National Association of Attorneys General is on the warpath once again. On May 23, 2019, the group sent a letter to a handful of congressional leaders urging further cutbacks to Section 230. “The abuse on these platforms does not stop at sex trafficking,” they wrote. “Stories of online black market opioid sales, ID theft, deep fakes, election meddling, and foreign intrusion are now ubiquitous.” They recommended that Section 230 be amended to allow a wide variety of state-level criminal prosecutions.

Lacey and Larkin remain convinced that the furor over sex ads is a moral panic, irrational and hysterical, cynically stoked by politicians and law enforcement. And they’re not about to surrender. They know they’re not the world’s most sympathetic defendants—rich (or formerly rich) white men accused of, at the very least, morally questionable business decisions, fighting for their right to hire the best lawyers money can buy.

Yet they can still seem oddly tone-deaf, even a touch naive. In April, a federal judge shot down Lacey’s request to have his ankle monitor removed in order to swim during a Hawaiian vacation. (In pleadings, Lacey’s lawyers explained he had use-’em-or-lose-’em flyer miles.) Prosecutors called Lacey a flight risk, and the resulting headlines were predictably brutal. Lacey responds with incredulity: “The idea that I would run—are you kidding? I’m taking the first flight to confront you.”

Christine Biederman is a lawyer and investigative reporter based in Dallas. She is working on a book about Backpage.com.

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[tripstations]

Forget white bloggers from Poland. How much do Pakistanis know about domestic tourism? – Prism

We don’t need to teach foreigners about Pakistan half as urgently as we need to educate Pakistanis themselves.

There has been much talk about the future of Pakistani tourism. The Pakistan Tourism Summit was held in April, criticised by many as being too exclusive and biased towards Western media and influencers.

In response, there was a brilliant video by Alex of Lost with Purpose, in which she highlighted the three main problems when we portray a solely positive media coverage of travelling in the country. She talked about restrictions on free movement, lack of representation for Pakistani travellers and the potential for serious cultural clashes between unaware tourists and the people here.

The gora complex that Alex mentioned in her video is undoubtedly a real issue. There is no question that the perspectives of travellers who arrive on sponsored visits and rave about the jagged coastlines of Pakistan’s ‘most dangerous’ province are naïve and one-dimensional.

Yet, ultimately, these are all buzzwords — goray bloggers vs. local ones, the word ‘local’ conjuring the idea of a faceless young Pakistani who can somehow represent every nook of the country, from Ranikot to Rawalakot.

This debate is superfluous when you consider the foremost fact: Pakistan is woefully unprepared for any substantial increase in tourism, be it international or domestic.

Related: Pakistan is uniquely placed to take advantage of religious tourism. What is stopping us?

During extensive travel in Gilgit-Baltistan and northern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa this year, I met dozens of people in the tourism industry who all painted a familiar narrative. Tourism was thriving up north before 9/11 and has been a ghost since. This year, however, almost everyone feels optimistic. They are seeing rising numbers of tourists, particularly domestic ones.

In Pakistan’s affluent heartlands, travel now competes with designer lawn and big weddings as a potent status symbol. The rise of social media, particularly Instagram, has made the well-angled shot of a cup of chai against snowy mountains as aspirational as candid wedding photographs lit up by fairy lights. Travel is so 2019.

There also seems to be general consensus in the north that the new government bodes better for the industry than its predecessor did. Imran Khan quickly did away with the frustrating requirement that every foreign traveller visiting GB or Azad Jammu & Kashmir carry a No Objection Certificate.

In Chitral, the government recently stopped requiring mandatory security escorts — good-natured policemen who would accompany the foreigner wherever she went, their guns jutting out against Chitral’s lush green hills as unseemly reminders of the fact that the country was, at the end of the day, a security state.

Restrictions on trekking around the Chitral mountains have been relaxed. For this year’s summer festival, the Kalash were expecting unprecedented numbers of visitors, both domestic and foreign. From Skardu to Bumburet, everyone told me that the tourists are coming.

But where will they stay? During peak season in Bumburet and Karimabad, Hunza’s tourist capital, all hotels get fully booked, with some tourists unable to find a space to set up tents for the night. According to Aneeqa Ali, who runs a Lahore-based tour company, The Mad Hatters, there is a dearth of hotel infrastructure in the north.

Luxury hotels such as the Serena are present in hub cities as well as in Shigar and Khaplu. The company has, in fact, reserved land for construction in smaller locations as well — in the future, there will likely be Serenas in the sleepy towns of Gulmit, Sost and Passu.

Yet, very few domestic tourists have the purchasing power for Serena nights. What they need are mid-range hotels that provide the necessities that all travellers except hardened backpackers expect — reliable electricity, hot water and clean sheets.

Without any centralised planning, enterprising residents of these areas have cobbled together ways to keep up with the increasing demand for housing. Everywhere along the famed Karakoram Highway, construction workers are busy trying to complete hotel buildings “before season starts”, using whatever material is available to finish the work. Some people open up their houses to guests, employing the concept of the homestay that has been popular in Southeast Asia for several years.

Read next: A journey to Bahawalpur and beyond, on the road of self discovery

Aneeqa, whose company places special emphasis on female travel, tells me that the problem with this decentralised growth is the absence of holistic planning at the local or regional levels. With hastily-constructed rest houses cropping up at every turn, there is no thematic development of areas to ensure that the new construction complements the natural landscape.

There also seems to be no requirement on rest houses to maintain a balance between residents and tourists in specific towns. “I can see Hunza becoming the next Nathiagali,” she tells me.

Ijlal Khattak of Baydaar Travels speaks of the same problem, giving the example of Naran as a paradise destroyed by overcrowding and unbridled construction. Ijlal’s company, highly popular on Instagram, specialises in tours of the Pakistani north, with an emphasis on eco-tourism. Both he and Aneeqa mention the lack of proper sewage and trash disposal facilities in major tourist hubs.

This is emblematic of the Saniplast approach the country treats its problems with — slaps one on and keeps going.

While searching for hotels in Skardu, I found only a few options on Google search and major travel sites such as Booking.com and Tripadvisor. Upon arriving in the city, however, I saw dozens of hotel options, none of which I had come across in my search.

It appears that even as the tourists of Lahore, Karachi and Peshawar use their smartphones to look up hotels, very few of the hospitality providers in the north are using technology to promote their businesses.

And how would they? Hunza hardly has electricity — a stunning fact considering how educated and progressive the region is. Skardu and Gilgit have fewer power issues, but none of Pakistan’s major networks provide internet service there. The military-owned SCOM has a monopoly on data services in the entire GB area.

While military-backed monopolies can come as a surprise only to the most naïve of us, this is frustrating on two levels. Firstly, for Pakistanis travelling in their own country, it is an infuriating hassle to have to switch services and procure a new SIM card upon entering GB. Secondly, and most importantly, even after getting a SCOM connection, one is not guaranteed connectivity. Service is paltry once you leave bigger towns and can sometimes disappear for days.

Explore: How music students in Gojal are trying to keep their culture alive

Yes, there are ways to travel without the internet. Yes, there is something romantic about walking into hotels and asking for availability, bringing to mind the neon “Vacant” signs of old-school American motels. Not being able to tell Facebook you are checking in at the Khunjerab Pass can be a blessing.

Yet, around the world, shifting travel patterns mean that more and more people opt to travel independently instead of with tour companies. If we want to enable tourists to explore the beauty of Pakistan beyond the biggest cities, is imperative that we have the technology to enable this. Independent travellers, those who want to use public transport and eat at restaurants beyond their hotel’s dining hall, need good internet.

This is symptomatic of one of the largest problems of the industry — an information gap between providers and clients that can sometimes seem insurmountable. We faced this gap in Bahawalpur, a city with an illustrious history of Sufi scholarship, Buddhist and Hindu influence and Nawab patronage. Due to its proximity to India and the presence of a huge cantonment area, the city is entirely out-of-bonds for foreigners.

However, this critical piece of information is not mentioned on the website of the Ministry of Interior, nor on any online hotel listings. We found out only at 10pm one night when my husband, a foreign national, tried to check in at a hotel after a full day of sightseeing. Within a few minutes, there were uniformed policemen standing in the lobby, telling us cheerfully but firmly that we had to spend the night at a police guesthouse and leave the next morning.

From Gilgit, I decided to take the Northern Areas Transport Corporation (Natco) bus across the regional border into Chitral. I asked five different people —hotel owners, wagon drivers, tour operators and Natco officials — whether the famed Shandur Pass was open. I received five different answers:

Yes, it was open. No, it was going to open after May 1st. It was open but one of the buses for the route had broken down, disrupting schedule.

I finally boarded a bus at the end of April, full of disbelief that there could be so much confusion about one of the major routes of the region, run by the government itself.

As the bus made its way into KPK, we began our descent from snowy mountaintops. It was after maghrib and I sat with a clenched jaw as the bus tumbled down a road so narrow the edge was invisible. Every now and then, a young Chitrali construction worker who was working for the Skardu-Gilgit road expansion project would jump off the bus and use an old shovel to dig into the mountain. Then, he would hop back in and the bus would continue down the newly-expanded road, the only major artery connecting northern KPK.

Also read: A road trip with my mother where women ‘cannot go alone’

If the government is serious about promoting tourism in these areas, it needs to improve the abysmal road infrastructure throughout the region. The people there will be the first beneficiaries — currently, it takes one six hours from Phander to travel 100 kilometres to visit family in KPK. The road between Skardu and Gilgit is a nightmare, although work is underway to make it wider. Roads in Chitral that service the three Kalash valleys are in terrible condition, making inter-valley movement lengthy and cumbersome.

The result is that most tourists never leave the most popular valley of Bumburet, which is fast becoming a menagerie of badly constructed hotels and souvenir shops.

Big city media continues to wring its hands over the appropriations of foreign bloggers, questioning their right to tell stories, insisting that the experiences of travel of Pakistanis are much more complex and “real”.

Yet, my travel through the north of Pakistan taught me that this attention, despite its good intentions, is ill-targeted. If there is any group of travellers that the northern tourism industry has a love-hate relationship with, it’s not random white travellers from Poland. It’s the non-local locals.

Tourists from Punjab, Karachi and the KPK heartland (Peshawar, Mardan and Mingora) form the largest proportion of visitors and revenues to these areas. The industry recognises that these are the people who kept coming even when the foreigners disappeared after 9/11.

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These are the people who will always come — to spend a weekend away when Peshawar begins to swelter, on a group retreat from Karachi’s madness, for a class trip from Lums or King Edwards.

They will bring their families because they don’t think, as the average Western traveller does, that Pakistan is a backpacking destination, fit only for the young and untethered. A hotel owner in Phander laughed as he told me that his most prized guests were always Punjabis. “They eat well”, he understated.

The future of Pakistani tourism is Pakistanis. Certainly, it is nice to cultivate a friendlier image abroad and international tourism can bring much good to the country. Yet, hotel owners and restaurateurs up north know that with the country’s logistical difficulties and constantly precarious security situation, the one stable source of income they can rely on is not dollars or euros, but rupees from down south.

While recognising this group of tourists as their primary clientele, many in the hospitality industry also complain about their attitudes to travel.

There have been several incidents of male travellers harassing women in Hunza and Chitral. All northern festivals end with grounds covered in litter and food waste, mostly left by travel groups from the south.

All towns up north have been overtaken by the karahi effect — the omnipresence of Punjabi food on every menu. I remember being seated next to a well-heeled group of Karachiites at a restaurant in Karimabad. They were all staying at the Serena and had come to the restaurant to get a ‘local’ flavour.

After hearing the headwaiter meticulously explain each Hunza dish on the menu and exclaiming, “that sounds wonderful, na” in posh accents, they ordered eight karahis for the table. The waiter begged them to at least try chapshuro, a much-loved specialty. They agreed to get one for the table to share.

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We don’t need to teach foreigners about Pakistan half as urgently as we need to educate Pakistanis themselves. People travelling to the north should treat the trip as something more than a respite from the heat and a backdrop for Instagram shots. There are people living there, with complex histories, unique languages and a food culture that grew out of completely different necessities than the southern plains and plateaus.

Yes, the karahi doesn’t taste the way it does in Anarkali, but if you wanted karahi you should have never left Anarkali.

Despite the teetering economy, we will likely continue to see a boom in intra-country tourism over the next few years. Saba Akbar, an architect and prolific solo traveller behind The Local Trails, predicts the same, crediting the rise of social media to an upcoming exponential increase in tourism. “When that happens”, she says, “we need to be ready for it”.

It is important that both the government and tourists recognise that this boom in numbers itself is not a mark of success. Even in the best of circumstances, tourism inflicts damage on the environment and the hosting cultures. Unless we can channel this growth to directly benefit the people of these areas and protect their homes from irreversible harm, it will never be worth it.

Header photo: S.M.Bukhari

Do you have a critical take on tourism promotion? Share your views with us at prism@dawn.com

The post Forget white bloggers from Poland. How much do Pakistanis know about domestic tourism? – Prism appeared first on Tripstations.

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Google’s drone delivery business gets FAA go-ahead

An offshoot of Alphabet Inc.’s Google has become the first drone operator to receive government approval as an airline, an important step that gives it the legal authority to begin dropping products to actual customers.

The subsidiary, Wing Aviation LLC, now has the same certifications that smaller airlines receive from the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration and the Department of Transportation. It plans to begin routine deliveries of small consumer items in two rural communities in Virginia within months, the company said.

“It’s an exciting moment for us to have earned the FAA’s approval to actually run a business with our technology,” Wing Chief Executive Officer James Ryan Burgess said in an interview. He called it “pivotal” both for his company and the drone industry in general.

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Drone regulations still don’t permit most flights over crowds and urban areas, limiting where Wing can operate. But the approvals signed by the FAA on Friday and Monday give the company the ability to charge for deliveries of clients’ goods in Virginia and apply for permission to expand to other regions.

While scores of companies working in test programs have gotten FAA waivers to perform demonstration flights or to make deliveries over short distances, there has never been a drone company approved under the regulations designed to ensure safety at traditional charter airlines or smaller air-cargo haulers.

It required Wing to create extensive manuals, training routines and a safety hierarchy — just as any air carrier must do.

Companies receiving permission must also be majority owned by U.S. citizens under long-standing restrictions imposed by the Department of Transportation.

Because the idea of drones flying over people’s homes is so new, the company plans to conduct extensive outreach to local government leaders and the public, Burgess added. Actual deliveries are expected to start within several months.

Mark Blanks, director of the Virginia Tech Mid-Atlantic Aviation Partnership, which has been working with Wing on tests of the deliveries, said “we’ll be working with the community a lot more as we prepare to roll this out.”

The people living in the neighbourhoods where tests were conducted ranged from academics at the university to farm hands, Blanks said. Wing and university representatives have contacted many of them to ensure they were comfortable.

“Across the board everybody we’ve spoken to has been pretty excited,” he said.

Wing provided extensive documentation to support its application, including records of thousands of safe flights conducted in Australia in recent years, according to the FAA.

“This is an important step forward for the safe testing and integration of drones into our economy,” Transportation Secretary Elaine Chao said in the release.

Some drone companies have complained that the process of obtaining air-carrier certification was too onerous. Many of the requirements that made sense for a charter airline — like flight attendants and seat belts for the crew — didn’t apply to them.

Burgess said that the process of applying to the FAA took months and was “very rigorous and very thorough.”

Other drone companies applying for FAA approvals should be able to move more quickly now that the agency and Wing have worked through the issues of what rules should apply to drone operators and which ones should not, Burgess said.

The FAA’s air-carrier certification was needed because existing rules created strictly for drones don’t allow the kind of flights Wing envisioned, he said.

According to regulations issued in 2016, for example, drone operators are allowed to fly for hire, but have to do so within strict rules prohibiting flights outside of a ground operator’s eyesight. Similarly, the FAA has allowed automated flights over longer distances, but they are only demonstrations and companies can’t accept payment.

In order for Wing to operate over longer ranges and actually charge for the service, it needed to become a full-fledged air carrier. The FAA confirmed the air-carrier certification was signed, but didn’t offer additional comment.

Wing plans to begin deliveries in the Blacksburg and Christiansburg areas of Virginia. The company has been conducting research at nearby Virginia Tech.

Unlike Amazon.com Inc.’s Prime Air, another would-be drone delivery company, Wing will sell items from local merchants. Now that it has gotten FAA approvals, it will begin finding business partners in the two towns, Burgess said.

Wing’s drone, a hybrid between a helicopter and plane, is able to lift off vertically and fly horizontally at high speeds. It carries packages in its belly, lowering them to people’s yards with a tether while it hovers a safe distance overhead.

The company also recently won approval for drone deliveries from regulators in Australia, where it has conducted extensive testing.

The FAA’s approval demonstrates the rapid maturation of drone technology, Burgess said.

“It shows these devices can be value-added in our communities,” he said. “They can be a faster, cleaner, less expensive way to transport things while still adding to the safety of society.”

Bloomberg.com

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