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wander---woman · 6 years ago

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“Omnia vivunt, omnia inter se conexa

Everything is alive; everything is interconnected.” – Cicero

Everything is silent. Phones that usually buzz with notifications are paralyzed without WiFi. Our steps are softened by cookeina caps and jewel beetle exoskeletons. My breath, coming out in ragged exhales from the ascent, instinctively falls into a gentle rhythm. Waiting. Our heads crane in the direction of the pineapple field, our eyes focusing on a moving black shape.

Deep in the Costa Rican rainforest, I find myself face-to-face with what appears to be a cross between an anteater and a wild boar. Out come the iPhones to capture whatever the hell it is on our tiny rectangular screens. I re-sheath my phone safely in the pocket of my hip and trendy pants-to-shorts (panorts? shants?). I’m confident that my auspicious sighting will live on forever in its very own Google Drive folder.

The lighting! The saturation! The brilliant greens and yellows of the forest foliage. Nature is my canvas. I’m basically Georgia O’Keeffe. I’ll quit my job, move to New Mexico, and paint yonic watercolors of technicolor orchids for the rest of my days.

Except that, upon inspection, all my photos are all of pixelated, lint-grey globs. Shit.

Forced to live in the moment, I ask our guide what this majestic creature is doing as we spy on it from our hideaway.

He leans in close to me so that I can see the whites of his eyes from behind the elephant ear leaves. “It makes the caca.”

I nod and steer my eyes back onto the pig.

The biology teacher next to me starts to tear up. “I always cry when I see a tapir,” she explains.

Now, dear reader, I’ll have you know that I am an avid hiker. I enjoy flowers and trees and the serendipitous freshwater stream flowing from somewhere high up in the mountains. I like being out in nature and, although my jewelry collection and wildly elaborate skincare routine would suggest otherwise, I don’t even mind creepy-crawlies like tarantulas. But I draw the line at watching an animal take a shit. Dumbfounded as to how Gisella could possibly be moved to tears at the sight, I do what any reasonable human would do. I say, “Of course, absolutely” and hand her a tissue.

Days later we’re at a presentation by Nãi Conservation founder, Esteban. Kids are packed into the building and rain is slapping hard against the wood paneling. Outside, abandoned hammocks toss their leaves out into the storm as Esteban adjusts the projector. He explains that the goal of his NGO is to save the endangered tapir – the very same pig thing that I had scoffed at only days earlier.

Esteban points to the distorted graph on the makeshift screen, a wrinkled bedsheet pilfered from the hotel. Tapirs are endemic to Central America, I learn. They gather nuts and seeds much like squirrels, which they either forget about or disperse around the rainforest via their scat. Esteban, a biologist by trade, goes on to say that this distribution of seeds is an invaluable ecosystem service. With fewer tapirs to eat the seeds and poop them out, fewer trees get planted, which means fewer homes for animals, less tree cover for moss and fungi, and, consequently, less oxygen for humans to breathe.

As it is, there are less than one hundred tapirs confirmed living in the Costa Rican rainforests and the population is decreasing with each incidence of roadkill. Roads have been built that cut through protected rainforest land, which causes habitat fragmentation – tapirs and other animals try to cross the roads to locate other sources of food or shelter, and are inevitably run over. Interestingly, this surge in tapirs killed by vehicles has coincided with pineapple companies demanding shorter and shorter transportation times for their products. Truck drivers speed to meet their quotas and hit tapirs in the process. Esteban’s records show that twenty tapirs have been killed already this year, leaving the population count perilously low.

What I had witnessed the other day – a weird-looking animal taking a dump – was no less than a miracle.

As it turned out, I didn’t know shit about… well, shit.

Esteban’s talk reminded me of our trip to the Monteverde Butterfly Gardens a couple days earlier. An intern, Matthew, talked about how cockroaches are vital in any ecosystem – because they’re such good decomposers, we’d be swimming in mountains of waste without them. He also claimed cockroaches are surprisingly clean and popped one in his mouth to prove it. I made a valiant effort not to squirm in my seat, but wound up doing a seated variation of the potty dance. One thing did ring clear, though – everything’s interconnected in ways we don’t even realize. Cockroaches keep us clean and tapir poo is saving the rainforest.

Nature’s wild, man.

After Esteban’s talk, we got to meet the director of the Bosque Eterno de los Niños (Children’s Eternal Rainforest). She explained that the rainforest conservation effort had very humble beginnings. In 1981, Eha Kern’s elementary school students in Sweden fundraised to save 50 acres of Costa Rican rainforest in the Peñas Blancas Valley. NGOs and organizations worldwide followed suit and the Costa Rican government even agreed to match donations. Now the BEN consists of over 57,000 acres of protected land.

Around the same time in the 80s, fast food chains were coming on the scene in the U.S., which all relied on cheap beef raised in Latin America. (These were the pre-pink slime days.) Costa Rica began clearing massive amounts of rainforest land for cattle pastures to meet the demands of the burgeoning fast food industry. This turned out to be not such a good idea, given the ensuing deforestation and the special relationship we humans have with trees – in that we need them to breathe.

As a result, folks in the U.S. started boycotting fast food chains that used meat imported from Latin America, prompting those corporations to seek out other meat sources. (Or should I say, “meat-like”?) A U.S. biologist, Daniel Janzen, even started raising funds to buy rainforest land and donate it to the Costa Rican national government for conservation. Finally, the Costa Rican government itself jumped on board and started establishing national parks in an effort to save the imperiled rainforest land.

This whole “Hamburger Connection” talk piqued my interest largely because our modern-day relationship to food is a perennial bee in my bonnet. On the other hand, I was stoked to hear this example of people working together – across cultural, linguistic, and international barriers – to un-fuck a dire situation.

If you’re also a fan of un-fucking dire situations, throw a couple dollars at the BEN and/or Nãi to keep tapirs happily eating, pooping, and saving the rainforest in the process:

https://www.acmcr.org/content/donations/

https://naiconservation.org/donate/

My favorite thing about traveling, whether it’s to the Costa Rican rainforest or to the Sahara Desert (that one’s still on my list), is being reminded of how much I have to learn. This time around, a Swedish elementary school class from back in the ’80s showed me the importance of taking initiative, giant cockroaches illustrated the value of all life (even the creepy crawly kind), and an endangered animal’s scat taught me that everything is interconnected.

Here’s to finding teachers in unlikely places.

Fiercely,

Tapir Shit: A Meditation on the Interconnectedness of Life

#Costa Rica #Monteverde #Nai Conservation #nature #rainforest #travel #writing #Children’s Eternal Rainforest

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politicotalk · 3 years ago

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The French 2021 Leader’s Debate for Canada, in English

The French leader’s debate had some key moments which were not present in the English debate. For those who want a brief highlight, here are the key notes from the leader’s debate of September 2021. The questions were a mix of individual questions, debate questions, and were pre-written or came directly from the public. The leaders present were as follow:

Conservative: Erin O’Toole

Liberal: Justin Trudeau

Green: Annamie Paul

New Democratic Party: Jagmeet Singh

Bloc Québécois: Yves-François Blanchet

The Pandemic and Health

1. How are we going to protect the elderly, and stop neglecting them and mistreating them.

This question came from Bernadette in New Brunswick. The first to answer was the conservative party, they said they would “increase transfers in the health sector in a stable and foreseeable manner regardless of the conditions”, but this did not meet the province’s demands, especially Quebec.

The second to answer was the leader of the Green Party who sympathized with Bernadette, telling her that her father also passed away in a long-term treatment centre. She proposed to reform the health sector in order to establish national standards.

The NDP indicated how shameful the situation is, and told that he would remove all incentives to generate a profit from the health sector in long-term care.

Yves-François Blanchet highlighted that the jurisdiction was governed by provinces. “The province’s priorities in terms of Health System are to give the people health care. To do this, they need to have the means”.

Justin Trudeau said he would hire 50,000 beneficiary attendants and offering them a salary of $25/hr.

Jagmeet Singh added that action should be done against people who refuse to get vaccinated. Trudeau took it personally, as he has recently been approached by anti-vaxers.

Cost of living and public finance

2. What is the plan for the labour force shortage?

Everyone said: immigration.

After this, the parliamentary correspondent Hélène Buzetti came on and it seems she completely forgot what subjectivity meant. My god that woman was aggressive!

3. To Erin O’Toole: How do you explain your budget?

The plan is to balance the budget, and create 1,000,000 jobs in one year. Let’s just remember that we were just talking about how there is not enough labour force, and this guy wants to create more jobs?

4. To Justin Trudeau: Is your plan to spend $70,000,000 over five years not going to increase the cost of life?

He wants to manage the inflation.

5. To Jagmeet Singh: How can you justify your plan [to tax the ultra rich] to people who think that it relies on magic thinking?

The media needs to pay their part. There needs to be a stop to fiscal paradises and any loopholes.

6. What to do about daycare?

O’Toole was attacked on his plan to cut $10/day daycares. He instead proposes to make a plan, not saying what his plan is. Blanchet answered by attacking the conservatives’ constant use of the term “plan”, and highlighted the fact that this cumulated to a total of $6 billion in Quebec’s pockets. Trudeau mentioned the fact that hundreds of families were waiting months to get a spot in these daycares and O’Toole’s plan is to scrap this. Ms. Paul reminded the panel that the issue in question affected women especially and that she was in a better position than her male competitors to talk about daycare, and that this issue wouldn’t still be a hot topic if other women were in power.

The environment

The topic of heat waves, forest fire and pollution came up. As the clear solution to overcome greenhouse gases is to reduce fossil fuel consumption, Charles Leduc had this to ask:

7. What is your plan to reduce fossil fuel emissions in Canada?

Justin Trudeau said he would cap fossil fuel emissions for the gas sector, and mentioned that he planned on banning the sale of gas-fueled cars by 2035. The conservative leader said he had a plan with “a lot of details”, he wants to respect the goals set by the Paris Agreement. What this plan is and what these details are will remain a mystery, unless you go on their website. Trudeau reminded the panel that O’Toole would reduce the target established by the Liberal government and would return to the past (? (At this point they were all talking over each other and it was hard to understand)).

Trudeau was then attacked on the fact that his government bought the Trans Mountain Pipeline. Blanchet critiques the illogical thought that establishing a cap would compensate, and help the situation, for buying a pipeline. Jagmeet Singh pointed out that Canada was the only G7 country to has increased its emissions, and indicated that he would stop all subventions to the gas industry.

8. The leader of the debate asked how to reduce emissions while increasing gas production?

Blanchet started by making a metaphor about Cinderella’s pumpkin carriage, and reiterated the fact that it is impossible to increase production while decreasing emissions.

9. Is the Green Party still useful?

The question was asked as all parties introduced an environmental plan. Annamie Paul beautifully defended her party by saying that it had an effective, achievable and audacious plan.

First Nations, Identity and Culture

The first question came from, who a Mohawk from Kanesatake.

10. Will indigenous languages will be recognized as official languages equal to French and English?

First off, let’s just remind ourselves that, according to Statistics Canada, there are more than 70. All leaders agreed that the answer should be yes, with the exception of Erin O’Toole who indicated that the important thing was that public services should be provided in these languages.

11. What is the party’s plan to provide clean drinking water to Indigenous communities?

In 2015, the Liberals promised to erase all boil-water advisories by 2021, a promise they had not achieved. The NDP pointed out how shameful it was that he broke his promise. Trudeau has this to say: “Yes, the pandemic slowed us down, it’s not an excuse, we will catch up”. Even the leader of the debate chimed in about how wonderful it would be to not have to ask this same question in the next leaders’ debate. All leaders agreed that this issue has to be addressed.

12. What is your reaction in regards to the French catholic school’s action to throw out and burn books that were deemed racist towards First Nations?

These books were Lucky Luke, Tintin and Astérix comic books. All leaders agreed that burning books in unacceptable. Justin Trudeau added that he didn’t want to tell the First Nations how they should feel.

This is the moment when the debate got at it’s worst. Are you ready for it?

Yves-François Blanchet turned to Trudeau and said “[Trudeau] says we should tell the First Nations what to do or what to think, why should he say this when he tells the Quebecois Nation what to do and what to think?”. Justin felt attacked and replied that he, himself, was Quebecker and that Blanchet wasn’t the only person on the panel to represent the Quebecois Nation.

Justice and International Affairs

13. Should fire arms be banned?

This was a topic brought on by several mayors in regards to melee arms and fire arms which were banned by the Liberal government. Erin O’Toole started by contradicting his own platform, saying that he would maintain the ban. He was criticized on all ends for this, saying that once in power, he would go back on his promise.

14. Will you financially help French-speaking universities outside of Quebec?

Justin Trudeau seized the opportunity to attack his rival, Erin O’Toole, saying that the conservatives would cut in minority languages, adding that Doug Ford and Erin O’Toole are the worst when it comes to cutting funds.

Erin O’Toole replied by saying that he has plans to help these campuses, and he wants to modernize the law on official languages, not indicating how, and pointing the finger at Trudeau for his inaction.

Conclusion

Thoughts on this? The conservatives have plans they want you to know exist, but don’t want you to know what contain. This means that either their plans don’t exist or their leader has no idea what he is talking about. O’Toole was nonetheless very cordial to all his opponents even when receiving direct criticism. Trudeau spoke a lot, interrupting a lot of people, but promised a lot of progressive plans. Blanchet swooped in with a lot of cleverly thought-up criticisms. Jagmeet Singh was very polite and had very well crafted as answers for all the questions, as did Ms. Paul.

#election #canada #canadian politics #politics #debate

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stephenmccull · 4 years ago

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In COVID Hot Zones, Firefighters Now ‘Pump More Oxygen Than Water’

This story also ran on The Guardian. It can be republished for free.

As a boy, Robert Weber chased the blazing lights and roaring sirens of fire engines down the streets of Brooklyn, New York.

He hung out at the Engine 247 firehouse, eating ham heroes with extra mayonnaise, and “learning everything about everything to be the best firefighter in the world,” said his wife, Daniellle Weber, who grew up next door.

They married in their 20s and settled in Port Monmouth, New Jersey, where Weber joined the ranks of the more than 1 million firefighters America calls upon when stovetops, factory floors and forest canopies burst into flames.

Weber was ready for any emergency, his wife said. Then COVID-19 swept through.

Firefighters like Weber are often the first on the scene following a 911 call. Many are trained as emergency medical technicians and paramedics, responsible for stabilizing and transporting those in distress to the hospital. But with the pandemic, even those not medically trained are suddenly at high risk of coronavirus infection.

Firefighters have not been commonly counted among the ranks of front-line health care workers getting infected on the job. KHN and The Guardian are investigating 1,500 such deaths in the pandemic, including nearly 100 firefighters.

In normal times, firefighters respond to 36 million medical calls a year nationally, according to Gary Ludwig, president of the International Association of Fire Chiefs. That role has only grown in 2020. “These days, we pump more oxygen than water,” Ludwig said.

In mid-March, Weber told his wife he noticed a new pattern in the emergency calls: people with sky-high temperatures, burning lungs and searing leg pain.

Within a week, Weber’s fever ignited, too.

‘This Job Isn’t Just Meatball Subs and Football Anymore’

Snohomish County, Washington — just north of Seattle — reported the first confirmed U.S. COVID case on Jan. 20. Within days, area fire departments “went straight into high gear,” Lt. Brian Wallace said.

Within weeks, the Seattle paramedic said, his crew had responded to scores of COVID emergencies. In the ensuing months, the crew stood up the city’s testing sites “out of thin air,” Wallace said. Since June, teams of firefighters have performed over 125,000 tests, a critical service in a city where over 25,000 residents had tested positive as of late October.

Wallace calls his team a “public health workforce that’s stepped up.”

Firefighters elsewhere did, too. In Phoenix’s Maricopa County, which is still notching new peaks in COVID cases, firefighters each shift receive dozens of emergency calls for symptoms related to the virus. Since March, firefighters have registered over 3,000 known exposures — but “that’s just the tip of the iceberg,” said Capt. Scott Douglas, the Phoenix Fire Department’s public information officer, “this job isn’t just meatball subs and football anymore.”

In Washington, D.C. — with over 24,000 COVID cases tallied since March — firefighters have been exposed in at least 3,000 incidents, said Dr. Robert Holman, medical director of the city’s fire department.

They’ve helped in other ways, too: Firefighters like Oluwafunmike Omasere, who serves in the city’s poverty-stricken Anacostia neighborhood, have bridged “all the other social gaps that are killing people.” They’ve fed people, distributed clothes and offered public health education about the virus.

“If it weren’t for us,” Omasere said, “I’m not sure who’d be there for these communities.”

‘We’re Going In Completely Unarmed’

For the more than 200 million Americans living in rural areas, one fire engine might cover miles and miles of land.

Case in point: the miles surrounding Dakota City, Nebraska. That’s steak country, home to one of the country’s largest meat processing plants, owned by Tyson Foods. And it’s on Patrick Moore, the town’s first assistant fire chief, to ensure the plant’s 4,300 employees and their neighbors stay safe. The firehouse has a proud history, including in 1929 buying the town’s first motorcar: a flame-red Model A.

“We made a promise to this community that we’d take care of them,” Moore said. COVID-19 has tested that promise. By the time 669 employees tested positive at Tyson’s plant on April 30, calls to the firehouse had quadrupled, coming from all corners of its 70-square-mile jurisdiction. “It all snowballed, so bad, so fast,” Moore said.

Resources of all kinds — linens, masks, sanitizer — evaporated in Dakota City. “We’ve been on our own,” Moore said.

Ludwig, of IAFC, said firefighters have ranked low on the priority list for emergency equipment shipped from the Strategic National Stockpile. As stand-ins for “the real stuff,” firehouses have cobbled together ponchos, raincoats and bandannas. “But we all know these don’t do a damn thing,” he said.

In May, Ludwig sent a letter to Congress requesting additional emergency funding, resources and testing to support the efforts of firehouses. He’s been lobbying in D.C. ever since. Months later, the efforts haven’t amounted to much.

“We’re at the tip of the spear, yet we’re going in completely unarmed,” Ludwig said. It’s been “disastrous.”

As of Dec. 9, more than 29,000 of the International Association of Fire Fighters’ 320,000 members had been exposed to the COVID virus on the job. Many were unable to get tested, said Tim Burn, the union’s press secretary. Of those who did, 3,812 tested positive; 21 have died.

Moore, in Dakota City, got it from a man found unconscious in his bathtub. The patient’s son told the crew he was “clean.” Yet three days later, Moore got a call: The man had tested positive.

Within days, Moore’s energy level sunk “somewhere between nothing and zero.” He was hospitalized in early June, recovered and was back on emergency calls by Independence Day. He couldn’t stand for long, so he took on the role of driver. Moore said he’s still not at full strength.

As the virus has pummeled the Great Plains, calls to Moore’s department are up nearly 70% since September. Only a handful of his guys are still making ambulance runs, and most have gotten sick themselves. “We’re holding down the fort,” he said, “but it ain’t easy.”

For the first time in my life, I questioned my career choice.

Chief Peter DiMaria

It’s the same story inside firehouses across the nation. In Idaho’s Sun Valley, Chief Taan Robrahn — and one-fifth of his company — contracted COVID after a ski convention. In New Orleans, Aaron Mischler, associate president of the city’s firefighter union, got it during Mardi Gras — as did 10% of the force. In Naples, Florida, almost 25% of Chief Peter DiMaria’s members got it. And in D.C., Houston and Phoenix collectively, over 500 firefighters tested positive — while an additional 3,500 were forced into quarantine.

Quarantining, of course, can put loved ones at risk too: Robrahn’s wife and their three-year-old twins got it. “Mercifully,” Robrahn said, the family recovered.

DiMaria, whose 18-year-old has a heart defect, has been spared so far. But after Big Tony, a close colleague under his command, died of COVID-19 — and after spending months resuscitating people with heart attacks and respiratory distress induced by the virus — he’s as concerned as ever.

“For the first time in my life,” DiMaria said, “I questioned my career choice.”

‘It Weighs Heavy’

The distress of these emergency calls resounds in gasps, wailing, tears.

Some departments — including Houston and Dakota City — have taken on another burden: removing the bodies of those killed by the virus. “You can’t unsee this stuff,” said Samuel Peña, chief of Houston’s department, “the emotional toll, it weighs heavy on all of us.”

Into winter, firefighters have endured a second surge. “We’re battle-weary,” Peña said, “but there’s no end in sight.”

Meanwhile, Mischler said, tax revenue is plummeting, forcing budget cuts, layoffs and hiring freezes, “at the very moment we need the reinforcements more than ever.” And in the volunteer departments, which constitute 67% of the national fire workforce, recruitment pipelines are running dry.

So people like Robert Weber filled the gaps on nights and weekends, which for the New Jersey firefighter proved disastrous.

On March 26, the day after his fever rose, Weber was hospitalized. His was an up-and-down course. On April 15, his wife got a call: Come immediately, the doctor said.

Weber died before she pulled into the hospital parking lot.

This story is part of “Lost on the Frontline,” an ongoing project from The Guardian and Kaiser Health News that aims to document the lives of health care workers in the U.S. who die from COVID-19, and to investigate why so many are victims of the disease. If you have a colleague or loved one we should include, please share their story.

Kaiser Health News (KHN) is a national health policy news service. It is an editorially independent program of the Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation which is not affiliated with Kaiser Permanente.

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This story can be republished for free (details).

In COVID Hot Zones, Firefighters Now ‘Pump More Oxygen Than Water’ published first on https://smartdrinkingweb.weebly.com/

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gordonwilliamsweb · 4 years ago

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In COVID Hot Zones, Firefighters Now ‘Pump More Oxygen Than Water’

This story also ran on The Guardian. It can be republished for free.

As a boy, Robert Weber chased the blazing lights and roaring sirens of fire engines down the streets of Brooklyn, New York.

Weber was ready for any emergency, his wife said. Then COVID-19 swept through.

In mid-March, Weber told his wife he noticed a new pattern in the emergency calls: people with sky-high temperatures, burning lungs and searing leg pain.

Within a week, Weber’s fever ignited, too.

‘This Job Isn’t Just Meatball Subs and Football Anymore’

Wallace calls his team a “public health workforce that’s stepped up.”

“If it weren’t for us,” Omasere said, “I’m not sure who’d be there for these communities.”

‘We’re Going In Completely Unarmed’

For the more than 200 million Americans living in rural areas, one fire engine might cover miles and miles of land.

Resources of all kinds — linens, masks, sanitizer — evaporated in Dakota City. “We’ve been on our own,” Moore said.

“We’re at the tip of the spear, yet we’re going in completely unarmed,” Ludwig said. It’s been “disastrous.”

Moore, in Dakota City, got it from a man found unconscious in his bathtub. The patient’s son told the crew he was “clean.” Yet three days later, Moore got a call: The man had tested positive.

For the first time in my life, I questioned my career choice.

Chief Peter DiMaria

Quarantining, of course, can put loved ones at risk too: Robrahn’s wife and their three-year-old twins got it. “Mercifully,” Robrahn said, the family recovered.

“For the first time in my life,” DiMaria said, “I questioned my career choice.”

‘It Weighs Heavy’

The distress of these emergency calls resounds in gasps, wailing, tears.

Into winter, firefighters have endured a second surge. “We’re battle-weary,” Peña said, “but there’s no end in sight.”

So people like Robert Weber filled the gaps on nights and weekends, which for the New Jersey firefighter proved disastrous.

On March 26, the day after his fever rose, Weber was hospitalized. His was an up-and-down course. On April 15, his wife got a call: Come immediately, the doctor said.

Weber died before she pulled into the hospital parking lot.

Kaiser Health News (KHN) is a national health policy news service. It is an editorially independent program of the Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation which is not affiliated with Kaiser Permanente.

USE OUR CONTENT

This story can be republished for free (details).

In COVID Hot Zones, Firefighters Now ‘Pump More Oxygen Than Water’ published first on https://nootropicspowdersupplier.tumblr.com/

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thisunfoldinglife · 5 years ago

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The Balance of Society is the Job of an Entire Community (or How I Became a Dog Walker)

Since the pandemic has rendered me temporarily unemployed, I’ve been thinking a lot about work. I imagine many of us in lockdown have begun to ponder our working lives. And if not, perhaps we should, considering our jobs take up nearly half of our waking hours. For some, this break from the workplace will shed valuable light on how much our jobs actually serve us, speaking not only financially, but physically and emotionally. Some will lose their jobs altogether. They will lose the businesses they’ve grown, and whatever positions they have worked tirelessly to achieve. For some, it will unlock new pathways to once-forgotten enterprises, interests and pursuits, while others may be forced to compromise their ideals for the necessary exchange of food and shelter. This virus has remarkably turned everything on its head. The solicitor has been declared unnecessary, while the supermarket cashier has never been more highly regarded for her service and perseverance. We have been urged to re-evaluate how essential our roles are, to not only us individually, but to society as a whole.

This extra time for contemplation may have a beneficial outcome for us all. Western society, in particular, is prime for a period of self-reflection and scrutiny. We are a judgmental lot and have become terribly fond of equating a person’s character with that of their job or career, as evidenced by the question we’ve all asked and answered more times than we can count: “What do you do?” The correct response is not: “I dance, hike, travel, garden”. The expected answer is “I’m a doctor, cashier, teacher, waiter” etc. This response is then followed by the enquirer’s practiced nod of recognition—that singular moment in which we are instantaneously categorised and defined. We are put in a box with many other doctors and cashiers, regardless of our portfolio of masterful oil paintings at home or our well-stamped passport. Now, the doctor, who has followed in the footsteps of his father, may swell with pride in sharing his esteemed rank. Yet what about less celebrated employees, like the window cleaner, or the road sweeper—how might they feel about being evaluated entirely on how they earn their living wage? As we are beginning to witness, there is great value in both the barista who whips up our coffee and the barber who cuts our hair. Perhaps we have forgotten that maintaining a society's balance is the job of an entire community.

Many years ago, I was quite happy to be defined by my job. After finishing college with a master’s degree in English Literature, I braved a move to New York City to begin a professional career in publishing. And in response to the all-important question, “What do you do?”, I was able to answer in a clear steady voice, “I’m an Assistant Editor at Random House Publishing in Times Square”. Granted, I was not a doctor, but where I came from, it was a career impressive enough to raise a few eyebrows. For a 22-year-old, I had an amazing salary, an apartment of my own, and I was always delighted to answer the big question upon meeting new friends and acquaintances.

Soon, however, the city began to wear on me. New York can bewilder and disarm a person of any character, and I didn’t belong there. I tried to camouflage myself within my surroundings, but I was a deer in a world of hunters. I felt attacked by the vapid superficialities of the corporate world and the hordes of people pressing upon me on streets and subways. I resented the necessity of carrying pepper spray when coming home late, and the constant clatter of a city always in motion. I found fleeting comfort in smoking cigarettes, drinking margaritas, and watching copious amounts of cable television. In an effort towards better health, I went for a jog, and from out of a car window, someone catapulted a raw egg at me. Flabbergasted, I stood at my kitchen sink, cleaning the yolk from my hair and cursing the city. I glanced at my fridge. I had placed a post card there a year ago, and now it was staring back at me. It was an image of Mexican Hat Rock —a stunning natural red rock formation that depicted a man in a sombrero. I had camped underneath that stone man on one magical trip to the Southwestern States and it was a marvel that he was still there along that lonely road in Southern Utah. I closed my eyes and dreamed myself in that wild patch of land, to hear the rushing of rivers over traffic, and to see that sheet of blue sky unmarred by glass and steel.

The promise of a different world beckoned. My life needed reinvention. I packed my Toyota Corolla, counted my savings, and set my compass westward. The path I had chosen was clearly not working out, and so I swerved, and in doing so, the road unveiled new frontiers. I didn’t know where I would land or what I would do when I got there, I just needed to go. It was perhaps my bravest moment. It marked the beginning of choosing freedom over fear, and I trusted my heart to steer the journey. Weeks later, I landed 2,300 miles away in Flagstaff, Arizona. In direct opposition to the nine to five rat-race, I filled my CV with an eclectic list of jobs including waitress, care-giver, receptionist, pet-sitter, office cleaner, jewellery designer, teacher, cashier, para-legal, and Grand Canyon tour guide. I began answering the big question with more accurate details: “I hike, write, play guitar, paint.” I spent my free time outside under the sun and found friends to share in the beauty of places like Mexican Hat.

Years later, I became a full-time mother, which granted me the most important job I’ll ever have. And as my babies grew, I started to panic about what to do next. I set my sights on returning to University for a degree in Counselling, yet I first needed to earn the money for tuition. While brainstorming funding possibilities with a friend, she suggested I become a dog walker. Her idea was a cosmic lightbulb and I put my full energy into creating a dog walking business. It’s funny how life never fails to surprise. What began as a means to fund an entirely different pursuit, soon became an entity of its own—a successful enterprise and a pleasure. I found peace and tranquillity in the outdoors, loyal companions in the dogs, and the freedom and independence of running my own business. Instead of being in locked in an office, I am out in the fresh air, roaming fields and forests with my dogs. Serendipity helped me carve out a path of my own, and I haven’t thought about counselling since. I am perfectly content exactly where I stand. There are some who can’t help but diminish what I do. When I answer their enquiries about my occupation, their expression belies a perceptible criticism or disapproval. Yet, I don’t take offense. After all, being a dog walker is what I do, not who I am. Instead, I secretly smile inside, knowing that in some great twist of fate, I’ve found a perfect profession that keeps me healthy, happy and balanced. I haven’t seen my dogs now in over seven weeks and I miss them immensely. If there was any part of me that took my job for granted, lockdown has abolished it. Being a counsellor would have saved me from picking my kids up at the school gate covered in muddy paws prints, but my mental stress and inner quietude surely would have been at risk. Some people will never question the work they do. For me, it has always been a matter for great reflection. And so, for my little role in this community, I am extraordinarily thankful.

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keywestlou · 5 years ago

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ALIVE AND KICKING

Still here! Alive and kicking!

Let’s not forget thrilled!

Simply stated, woke 2:30 in the morning with severe chest pains. I have had some over the years. A few heart problems at this stage of my life. Pain the worse this time!

Being stupid, I lay there saying to myself the pain would go away, it was nothing. Took about 3 hours to totally subside.

Called m primary and heart doctors. Pain on wrong side of my chest to be my heart. Maybe an embolism. Whatever, get to the emergency room.

Spent 7 hours being tested. Could find nothing.

Interestingly, from the moment I arrived at the hospital I felt absolutely fine! So it goes.

There will be more tests this week. The cross the elderly bear.

Time to join the world of the living. Dueling Bartenders and La Trattoria tonight.

I thank all who communicated with me in one fashion or another for their concern and well wishes. In a time of stress, they mean a lot.

One more item of concern. Syracuse got beat 58-27 by Boston College saturday. Caused me more pain than the pain in my chest!

My lesbian wives Donna and Terri are celebrating their 11th Anniversary today! God bless them both! Love them!

They were married on the stage of the theater in New York City where Terri was appearing in Chicago as Matron Moma Morton.

I was supposed to be there. Never made it. Instead I was on an operating table at the hospital in Key West having 25 percent of my colon removed. The surgeon thought I had cancer. I did not. The problem was a ruptured appendix.

I keep thinking I am going to need that 25 percent some day.

A few days ago, I wrote re iguanas. It was the opening to the blog of that day. Titled “Iguana Genocide.”

I strongly recommended they be killed! Reasons set forth clearly and distinctly.

I assumed those not living with iguanas would write and say how cruel, so beautiful, how could you, etc. Not one such message.

Saturday’s Key West Citizen carried a front page article concerning iguanas. The lead story. “Invasive Iguanas.” A picture of an iguana wrapped around a power line.

The thrust of the Citizen’s story was similar to mine. Get rid of them!

I was glad for once that someone thought along my lines. The Citizen described them as “one of the Florida Keys biggest nuisance animals.”

The Citizen story dwelled primarily on the damage iguanas are doing to utilities. They have bonded with electrical substations. Love transformers. Causing major outages.

The Keys are the only part of Florida bothered by iguanas. The utilities in the rest of the state have a similar problem. However, caused by another culprit. Squirrels.

The Keys local utility company has entered into a contract with Greenjacket Inc. To provide and install animal guards around the transformers. Cost $91,600.

Trust me, it will not be the end of our iguana problems. In the final analysis, it will cost even more to deal with the problem with no adequate result.

Local governments and the state are to blame. They let the iguanas hang around some 20 years before deciding to do something about them.

I compare the iguana problem to Florida’s python one. The state waited too long. Now over 1 million pythons in Florida. The number growing. The state conceding it cannot eradicate the python population. Rather, the hope is to control it.

HAyward MCkee (his name is so written) became a friend during Irma. He was one Irma’s escapees that ended up at Jean and Joe Thornton’s home in Birmingham.

I see him occasionally in Key West. A rather serious person. Not so if what I am about to share is any indication.

A HAyward comment appeared in this morning’s Facebook.

“My girlfriend invited me to her house where I found her sister alone. So I sat there waiting for my girlfriend while her unbelievable sexy sister was sitting there with me. A few moments go by, then she comes up next to me, and whispers in my ear ‘we should have sex before my sister comes home.’ I immediately got up and turned around to walk to my car. I found my girlfriend standing by the door, at which point she hugged me and said ‘you’ve won my trust.’ Moral to the story, always keep your condoms in your car.”

Some El Presidente stories.

The California fires have gone wild again in the past two weeks. Trump claimed for the second time yesterday that the fires are caused by California not “sweeping” its forest floors.

The message was directed to California’s Governor Newson who is a political foe of Trump.

Trump also claimed a “terrible job of forest management” was being done.

As with the last wildfires several months ago, Trump asserted California should do as Finland does and “rake” and clean its forests.

He said he was going to cut off federal funding that normally would be provided to help California with recovery.

Typical of Trump pronouncements, he was wrong with the Finland comparison. Typical. He knows not that of which he speaks.

Professor Leskinen is a woodlands expert among other things.

The Professor said he did not know what Trump meant by “raking” and “sweeping.” He suspected Trump misunderstood when he spoke with one of his Finnish counterparts several months ago.

The Professor went on to emphasis there is a difference between Finnish forests and California ones.

Finnish forests have an extensive network of roads which act as fire breaks and provide quick access to emergency services. He also represented that Finnish forests are small individual ones, separated by lakes and rivers.

There is also a difference in the type of trees and other vegetation with those found in California. Finnish trees are less flammable than those found in California.

The Professor went on. Cooler conditions on average exist in Finland than the hot dry weather in California.

The Professor continued that Finland benefits from a network of volunteers who make up an effective early warning system, thus enabling fires to be doused before they spread.

Another area of claimed knowledge by Trump is the border wall.

In September, Trump said the new walls or repaired ones were “virtually impenetrable” and could not be climbed to get over.

Here it is a mere 2 months. A certain area has had the new walls or repaired walls erected. The report thus far indicates the walls are failing. Smugglers are sawing through. Powerful tools being used. Cordless reciprocating saws that cost less than $100.

Trump and his people are now saying all walls can be gotten through. Has not sounded that way to me since Trump got in office till now.

Conservative Buzz is running an internet ad re Trump described as an INQUIRY: “Does Trump deserve a second term.?” The wording nor precise from my perspective. Should have read: “Does the U.S. deserve a Trump second term?”

Trump has recently been doing 1-2 political rallies a week. I have questions. The inquiring mind wants to know.

Who pays the costs for Air Force One?

Who pays the crew’s time?

Who pays the Secret Service time? If extra Secret Service is required, where does the money come from to pay them?

Who pays local police for their time?

How quickly are these bills paid, regardless of source?

What I am asking is whether government monies pay, Trump’s personal funds, or Trump political funds.

Enjoy your day!

;

ALIVE AND KICKING was originally published on Key West Lou

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allianceinternational-blog · 6 years ago

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riting · 6 years ago

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Johanna Hedva and Lucas Wrench on the durational performance of Machine Project

When Machine Project closed a year ago, on January 13, 2018, we wondered: what if what just ended was a show that was fifteen years long? Perhaps a bunch of artists had visited there as unwitting collaborators in, and audience to, an ongoing performance disguised as discrete events? We asked a couple Machine regulars to write about the show and reflect on how it might help them think about issues specific to performance.

Johanna Hedva: If Machine Project wasn’t a big ol’ performance, what was it?

Was it a science-fiction movie? It had (was) an imaginative concept that foregrounded innovation and exciting technologies, and was entirely populated by extraterrestrials.

Was it a catering service? When I worked there, every day we’d scoot the tables together and squinch our IKEA folding chairs in close and eat the takeout lunch Mark Allen had bought for us out of company funds, and this is the number one reason, of so many reasons, why it’s still the best job I’ve ever had, and I imagine I can speak for my fellow colleagues in saying that it’s one of the best jobs they’ve ever had, simply because eating together day in and day out for several years builds community and trust and friendship like nothing else.

Figure 1: Claire Kohne as Kalypso the vengeful sorceress who chases after Odysseus as he is being rescued in the VONS parking lot. From Odyssey Odyssey (2013).

Was it a really long Vine? ‘Twas a zany goofball slapstick premise exceptionally executed in an unfathomably pinched amount of time, and also served as a vessel for cultural criticism and commentary, while birthing a zillion trends.

Was it a tabletop role-playing game? Maybe not exactly, but in essence it was a bunch of people who could be called players rather than competitors, creating their own characters who participate in a collective narrative within an agreed-upon (fictional or non) setting, which follows guidelines and rules of that agreed-upon world, but which is not necessarily and probably quite different from the rest of the world, and which is great fun and probably addicting. Also, once they got that great website, they sort of became a MMORPG (massively multiplayer online role-playing game), because of those brilliant animated avatars (drawn by Tiffanie Tran) of an octopus (representing the artist), a cactus with a beret (poets), and a pineapple with a mustache (representing the public).

Was it a Hollywood blockbuster? Because it pretty much fits film critic Tom Shone’s definition of a blockbuster being “a fast-paced, exciting entertainment, inspiring interest and conversation beyond the theatre (which would later be called ‘buzz’), and repeated viewings,” and, for a nonprofit, it was pretty damn financially successful.

Was it a book of aphorisms? Fits the Online Etymology Dictionary’s definition for aphorism as “a concise, terse, laconic, and/or memorable expression of a general truth or principle,” and it would be more than just one aphorism, more like a book of them, a very long book, because there were way more than just a few.

Figure 2: Joe Seely as Clay, an old bitch who's been waiting in the desert for 100 years to see the symbol of her desire again. From Ancient Monuments to What (2015).

Speaking of books! Was it a cookbook? Chock full of recipes that simultaneously include careful measurements and room for error, for how to make various dishes, from soupy liquids to layered cakes to multi-plated entrees?

Was it an example of magical realism? Political critique folded into phantasmagorical otherworldly otherworlds, with intricate metaphors, animals, witches, forests, and shipwrecks, and strange objects and doorways that may or may not take you to another dimensional realm that may or may not be 100 years from now or in the past.

Was it a PhD thesis on how certain forms of sociality feel better than others, but strangely it’s hard to articulate why?

Was it an attempt at utopia? Isn’t utopia inherently a failure? Then, but, so, didn’t it succeed?

Was it a puzzle that refused to be solved?

Figure 3: Nickels Sunshine as Yama-uba, a crone with mouths under her hair who feeds on young girls. From Ancient Monuments to What (2015).

Was it a distant island that we tried to voyage to, but alas, our ship ran aground and our beards grew wildly and became entangled in the rigging and, thin with scurvy, we watched the sun go down as the skies roared with thunder and some of us howled at the future while others listened to the wind?

Was it a petition or a vow?

Was it a love letter? It loved me. I loved it. Am I the only one, I don’t think so.

Should these questions be answered? Can they? But why would we want to?

Was it a promise covered in tiny musical notes that when all played together made the big, resounding chord of curious joy?

Was it a dream? It was one of the best dreams.

Johanna Hedva is a fourth-generation Los Angelena on their mother’s side and, on their father’s side, the grandchild of a woman who escaped from North Korea. Hedva is the author of the novel, On Hell (2018, Sator Press). Their fiction, essays, and poems have appeared in Triple Canopy, The White Review, Black Warrior Review, Entropy, Mask, 3:AM, Asian American Literary Review, The Journal Petra, DREGINALD, and Two Serious Ladies. Their works of performance, design, and sound have been shown at Human Resources LA, PAM, the Getty’s 2013 Pacific Standard Time, the LA Architecture and Design Museum, and the Museum of Contemporary Art on the Moon. Most of their performances in Los Angeles were hosted by Machine Project, including The Cave series and Odyssey Odyssey, their adaptation of Homer's Odyssey, which was performed in a Honda Odyssey being driven down the freeway.

Lucas Wrench: Notes on Vermin

The Machine Project Mystery Theater was originally built in 2013 for Chris Weisbart’s Alvarado Caverns project - which transformed Machine Project’s storefront into an amalgamation of a 99 cent store, gas station bathroom, hologram-laden indoor cave, and a faux-victorian seventeen seat basement theater, replete with velvet curtains, gold foam molding, and clamshell stage lights. Most importantly, Machine Project’s Mystery Theater featured a drop-tile foam ceiling, painted gold, leaving a ten inch gap between Machine Project’s rapidly deteriorating ground level floorboards and the precariously adhered foamcore below. Due to Machine Project’s penchant for spontaneous trapdoor construction, by the time I arrived in the summer of 2014, this once benign buffer zone had transformed into a kind of snack graveyard, home to pretzel crumbs, gummy bears, stray popcorn, spilled Tecate, and several bags of chips.

I’d like to examine the multi-year rat infestation that followed through the lens of what our founder refers to in donor presentations as “grass roots porosity”. It’s the philosophy that a small, nimble art space like Machine Project can be host, partner, and collaborator with a wide range of fellow art spaces, community groups, and institutions, creating a network that’s arguably more generative than those of better funded, but less porous institutions.

Figure 1: “Pro-Porosity / Grass Roots Culture”

Porosity is a liability for museums. While Machine Project’s vermin offerings were limited to Snyder’s pretzel rods and various gas station snacks, the sustenance provided by collecting institutions is far more valuable. Anthropological materials offer a protein rich food source, full of keratin, wood proteins, and plant matter. Works on paper can be considered simple sugars - easily digestible starches beloved by louse and silverfish. Painting offers a mixed diet - glues and varnish, wood and canvas. In anticipation of these threats, the borders of the institution are vigilantly policed. Giant freezers inoculate unseen intruders. Inspections and traps hunt for “visitors” like lady bugs and house flies, that can indicate a breach in security and become food for more malevolent vermin. Black lights scan for eggs and insect trails that warn of pending invasions.

Figure 2: Document Freezer at the Gilcrease Museum - Tulsa, OK

Figure 3: Insect trap collection at Gilcrease Museum - Tulsa, OK

To be clear, i’m not advocating for more rat-infested art spaces. Machine Project’s infestation was traumatizing. It demanded weekly visits from Karl The Exterminator to remove glue traps from the drop ceiling. I had a rat chew its way through the secret trapdoor in the upstairs apartment and fall some sixteen feet into the storefront. I saw rat tails dip low between the foamcore tiles, nearly brushing the heads of unsuspecting audience members below. Mice crawled over my feet as I attempted to run sound from the back of the theater. More traumatizing still was the constant, audible scurrying, the threat that at any moment the flimsy tiles would fall, unleashing the barely contained plague above.

Figure 4: Diagram of Machine Project Rat Migration

But with a year and a half of distance between me and the rats, I recognize that the conditions that enabled this gnawing torment are the same conditions that made Machine Project such a valuable resource for artists. It was a space where you could cut a trapdoor in the ceiling without hesitance, and install gold foam tiling without concern for the ensuing trash accumulation. Where a temporary basement theater could stay up for a few more years so other artists can use it. Where the solution to a three year rat infestation was removing the floor of the storefront entirely, then reinstalling it at a 30 degree angle to present a play.

I’m now living in Tulsa, Oklahoma, working at a museum with a giant freezer and insect traps, in an office that requires key-cards to access, where no food is allowed, and the trash is dutifully removed every night. I am protected here - a beneficiary of the museum’s commitment to preserve their collection in perpetuity, and a casualty of the fact that crumbs in my office could spell disaster for some Xth century manuscript stored a floor below. But from a public programming perspective, tasked with bringing the outside in, I can’t help wondering what it would look like to create some space here where a bit of infestation is tolerable. The only problem is how to keep it from spreading.

Lucas Wrench is a 2019 Tulsa Artist Fellow. He was Machine Project’s operations manager (2014-2017) and associate curator (2015-2017).

Machine Project was a place for artists to do fun experiments, together with the public, in ways that influenced culture. It happened at 1200 D North Alvarado, Los Angeles, CA 90026, and elsewhere, from 2003-2018.

Photos by Laure Joliet and provided by the artists.

#machine project #Long Riting #johanna hedva #lucas wrench

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prameet · 5 years ago

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Queens CB6 Residents’ Response to MTA Queens Bus Redesign Proposal

MTA Overview

Every weekday, 5.7 million people ride the New York City subway, the railroad system for which the Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA) is best known ("Facts and Figures"). But the MTA network is made up of much more than just the subway. It also includes the Long Island Rail Road, the Metro-North Rail Road, the Staten Island Railway, MTA Bridges and Tunnels, and MTA Regional Bus Operations. Together, this transportation network serves an interstate area of 5,000 square miles and a population of 15.3 million people ("About Us"). The MTA was chartered in 1965 as a public benefit corporation by the New York State Legislature through Section 1263 of the New York Public Authorities Law. The law lays out, among other things, the MTA’s governing structure (a chairperson, 16 voting members, two non-voting members, and four alternate non-voting members) and various committees the chairperson needs to establish (New York City operations, Long Island Rail Road operations, Metro-North operations; bridge and tunnel operations, finance, capital program oversight, and safety) ("Metropolitan transportation authority", 2020).

The state Public Authorities Law also requires the MTA to produce an annual report on its performance metrics (including ridership and mean distance between failures) and the Federal Transit Administration requires the MTA to submit certain performance metrics to the National Transit Database (Maldonado, 2020). These performance metrics have nosedived in recent years, and a landmark 2017 investigation by the New York Times showed how “the needs of the aging, overburdened system have grown while city and state politicians have consistently steered money away from addressing them” (Rosenthal, Fitzsimmons, & LaForgia, 2017). The MTA’s budget has been cut, mismanaged (“in one particularly egregious example, [Governor Andrew] Cuomo’s administration forced the MTA to send $5 million to bail out three state-run ski resorts that were struggling after a warm winter”), and burdened with debt and high labor and construction costs. Its management has seen high turnover (including the recent resignation of New York City Transit Authority president Andy Byford) and frequent structural changes. Sorely needed track, train and signal upgrades have seen limited investment. Warnings from state and city comptrollers have gone disregarded, and “sloppy data collection and accounting games” have been used.

Byford’s departure was particularly disappointing, as it signaled that the root of the MTA’s problems was poor management, poor administration, and poor politics from the top, and a change in organizational structure would not significantly shake up the organization. As Eric Goldwyn, a research scholar in the New York University Marron Institute of Urban Management put it in New York politics and policy media outlet City & State: “Since the MTA relies on subsidies from federal, state and local governments, it is always susceptible to the will of the politicians who allocate these funds, leaving it often caught up in politics – a politics that doesn’t always lead to the best solution to a transportation problem … After decades of political interference, the agency’s credibility has been undermined and its appetite for big, important fights that would improve New Yorkers’ daily lives has diminished” (Goldwyn, 2020). While half of the MTA’s revenue is generated from fares and tolls, the other half is generated almost entirely from dedicated taxes (such as petroleum business taxes, mortgage recording taxes, and for-hire vehicle surcharges) and state and local direct subsidies ("MTA Operating Budget Basics"). The MTA’s budget highlights how closely its financial health is influenced by the broader economic environment. “Passenger and toll revenues, dedicated taxes and subsidies (including real estate transaction revenue), debt service, pensions and energy costs are all impacted by the health of the economy. If the economic assumptions reflected in the Plan are not realized, the July Plan projected results could be adversely affected” ("MTA 2019 Preliminary Budget July Financial Plan 2019-2022", 2018). Similarly, a state Comptroller’s report cautioned that greater economic setbacks would cause financial hardship for the MTA. “The largest risk to the operating budget may be the assumption that the current economic expansion will continue uninterrupted,” it wrote. “As evidenced by the sharp drop during the Great Recession, the MTA’s revenues are sensitive to economic fluctuations.”

Queens Bus Redesign

In the face of these challenges, bus ridership has declined significantly over the past several years – with New York City Transit bus ridership down 16 percent from 667 million annually in 2014 to 557 million annually in 2019 (MTA, "Subway and bus ridership for 2019"). In a New York Daily News article, Goldwyn attributed the ridership decline to the global financial crisis of 2007-08, the elimination of 34 bus routes in 2010, the popularity of ride-hailing services such as Uber and Lyft, and the impact of traffic congestion. “I don’t think a lot of those drops came back, and I think that a lot of people who were using the bus back then never got back on,” Goldwyn said (Guse, 2020).

In part to counteract this downward trajectory, the MTA has set out to redesign the entire Queens Bus Network. “The Queens Bus Network has not substantially changed to meet the evolving needs of customers. We’ve made minor changes to pieces of the network, but have not kept pace with growth in Queens,” the MTA wrote. “Nearly 52 percent of Queens residents rely on public transit for their daily commutes, and at least 11 percent commute primarily by bus. So, it is imperative that we reinvent the borough’s bus network to better serve its residents and workers, so they can spend less time and energy commuting” (MTA, "Queens Bus Network Redesign Draft Plan"). The new redesign attempts to address the bus network’s service unreliability, slow bus speeds, ridership decline, and the enactment of congestion pricing in New York City. The MTA released a draft plan, which it touts will result in enhanced connectivity, jobs within reach, fewer turns per route mile, improved interborough travel, reduced route redundancy, system simplification, avoiding narrow streets, improved accessibility, ongoing DOT efforts to improve bus service, airport connectivity, and a redesigned express bus network.

But the MTA’s plan drew criticism right from the start, particularly because it reduced service in certain areas. “Our goal is provide reliable, frequent, high-quality service to the greatest number of riders, and our proposed Draft Plan network reflects that,” the MTA wrote in an FAQ appendix. “This means it includes some service reductions, or even the complete elimination of a bus route, to reallocate those fixed resources to areas with high demand and overcrowding issues” (MTA, "Queens Bus Network Redesign: Draft Plan"). In response, the entire 15-member Queens delegation of the New York City Council criticized the plan, including Francisco Moya from Corona (“the MTA’s plan to increase ridership by cutting service is utter nonsense”), Danny Dromm from Jackson Heights (“the current Queens bus redesign plan is bad for Queens residents”), Donovan Richards from Laurelton (“you can’t take away bus lines, shorten routes, and leave out some communities entirely, then expect commuters to want to take public transportation”), Adrienne Adams from Jamaica (“the goal of public transit should be to take New Yorkers from point A to point B expeditiously … the plan in its current form would make this goal unattainable for many residents of Queens especially with commuters with limited public transit options”), Peter Koo from Flushing (“there are simply too many questionable modifications that will put riders from every part of the borough at a significant commuting disadvantage without offering viable alternatives”), Paul Vallone from Bayside (“in Northeast Queens, where there is no subway access and limited public transportation options for commuters, the MTA should be increasing and improving bus service, not creating a more desolate transportation desert”), and Karen Koslowitz of Forest Hills “any plan that does not incorporate increases to service is destined for failure”) ("Queens Council members criticize bus redesign", 2020).

CB6 Residents’ Response

Koslowitz represents most of Queens Community Board 6, which encompasses the neighborhoods of Forest Hills and Rego Park. To outsiders, Forest Hills is best known for its upscale Tudor houses in its Forest Hills Gardens section and for and once being home to the U.S. Open at the Forest Hills Stadium (now a concert venue). Neighboring Rego Park (named after the Real Good Construction Company) is home to malls as one of Queens’s premier shopping destinations. Koslowitz has declared herself “against this plan,” saying that “this plan doesn’t take in the needs of my community” ("Koz, residents blast bus route redesign", 2020). Community members have specifically called out changes to the Q60 bus to Manhattan, accessibility issues, changes to the Q23, and proposed routes through private roads in the Forest Hills Gardens.

One of the biggest criticisms that CB6 community members have is that the Q60 bus will no longer go to Manhattan. The bus currently extends from South Jamaica through Forest Hills and Rego Park to the Upper East Side. The MTA’s redesign would end the route at the Hunters Point ferry landing in Western Queens, from where commuters to Manhattan would have to transfer to the ferry, the subway, or a different bus route. “What you’re doing to the Q60 is unacceptable,” Koslowitz said. “We don’t want to send our people on a wild goose chase. We have seniors that live in this community that can’t do it. We have disabled people that can’t do it” (Kaufman, 2020). A CB6 resident echoed this point in a written comment to the MTA at a community board meeting: “I am a senior citizen. I live in Briarwood. The elevator only goes down one level. I am forced to walk either up or down on the steps. It is getting more difficult for me to go on the steps. I need to take the 60 bus into Manhattan. Please do not take this away.”

Koslowitz and the resident’s comments also hint at another reason the redesign has community members up in arms – challenges to accessibility when transferring from a bus to another mode of transportation. Changes to routes and the elimination of certain bus stops may speed up service, but they come at a cost to riders that need greater accessibility. The redesign would increase the average distance between bus stops in Queens from 850 feet to 1,400 feet (Colon, 2020). “There are many benefits to increasing the distance between stops, including faster speeds and increased reliability,” the MTA’s plan states. “If customers are willing to travel a bit further to a bus stop, many will experience a shorter trip overall. In addition, more widely-spaced stops can prevent bus bunching by reducing the number of times a bus must exit and re-enter traffic.” Nuala O'Doherty Naranjo, a community organizer and candidate for the New York State Assembly said, “The plan completely devalues our seniors, mobility-impaired riders and parents with strollers by not taking accessibility into account” (Torres, 2020). Another way the plan disregards accessibility is by making it a primary goal to route buses to subway stops, with the assumption that bus riders want to transfer to the bus. But as transportation activist Jim Burke wrote for transportation news site Streetsblog, “Subways are often not physically accessible or desirable to everyone. There are lots of elderly people who have aged in place and strictly take the buses and others who simply prefer buses … Instead, the redesign will focus on getting you to the closest subway stop, which will often be a less-desirable location without accessibility or express service” (Burke, 2020).

Another change that some CB6 residents are upset about is the splitting of bus route Q23 into two separate routes. An MTA spokesperson said that “splitting the corridor into separate segments promises to make trips faster and more reliable for riders” (Kaufman, "Forest Hills Commuters Decry MTA's Proposed Q23 Bus Redesign", 2020). One resident who came to a community board meeting wrote in a note to the MTA, “Changes to Q23 are problematic. You are removing service from 69th Ave, which is used regularly by densely populated multi-family housing – elderly people.” Another resident wrote, “Q23 should not be changed. Your contrived rerouting is hurting the community. The new map only destroys lives. No service on 69th Ave for commuters who use subway + youngsters going to local secondary schools … You obviously don’t live here.”

Another major concern that residents of the private Forest Hills Gardens section have is that a new QT87 bus route goes through a private road within their neighborhood. Tony Barsamian, president of the Forest Hills Gardens Corporation, said, “I have to assume that the Q87 routing on Ascan Avenue is an inadvertent error, is an oversight because these are private streets and private property” (Griffin, 2020). Another resident at a community board meeting wrote, “The MTA should not be able to add QT87 route through Forest Hills Gardens, which is a private community with private streets. Doing so will violate Gardens resident property rights and destroy the infrastructure of Forest Hills Gardens (which was not built to accommodate large vehicles such as MTA buses).” Indeed, state courts have affirmed the FHGC’s property rights time and time again. In 1981, in Forest Hills Gardens v. Kowler, City of N.Y., the Appellate Division of the Supreme Court of New York found that the FHGC has “the right to tow vehicles of nonresidents of Forest Hills Gardens from Forest Hills Gardens to a nearby garage” ("Forest Hills Gardens v. Kowler, City of N.Y"). In 1990 in Forest Hills Corp. v. Baroth, the Queens County Supreme Court found that the FHGC has “the legal right to apply an immobilizing boot on unauthorized parked vehicles on its private streets” ("Forest Hills Corp. v. Baroth"). As far back as 1971, the FHGC issued the following warnings to trespassing parked vehicles: “Warning. You are trespassing by parking on privately owned streets. It costs the residents of this community $50,000 a year to pave and maintain these private streets. Forest Hills is not a parking lot” (Friedman, 1971). The MTA will have a difficult time convincing the community to allow a bus route to use one of its streets.

In an influential 2007 article political scientists Chris Ansell and Alison Gash laid out six criteria of collaborative governance, which “brings public and private stakeholders together in collective forums with public agencies to engage in consensus-oriented decision making” (Ansell & Gash, 2007). Part of the reason members of CB6 are frustrated by the Queens bus redesign is because they believe that the MTA is not following Ansell and Gash’s third principle of corporate governance: “Participants engage in decision making and are not merely ‘consulted.’” Ansell and Gash wrote, “We believe that collaborative governance is never merely consultative. Agencies and stakeholders must meet together in a deliberative and multilateral process. In other words, the process must be collective.” The MTA has said that their draft plan is a first pass at what will be a collective process and that they “hope to inspire debate, initiate conversations about our proposal, and discuss other ideas to be taken into consideration.” But community members of Queens CB6 are worried that their feedback will be ignored and the plan will be adopted as it currently stands, without addressing concerns around the Q60, accessibility, Q23, and private streets.

Impact of COVID-19 Pandemic

“Public input is crucial to the development of this new network,” the MTA said in its draft plan. “We want to hear from you” (MTA, "Queens Bus Network Redesign"). The MTA held 29 community meetings throughout the borough to solicit feedback. Another 10 meetings have been postponed because of the COVID-19 pandemic. “We are committed to rescheduling at a later date to hear your feedback before issuing the Proposed Final Plan,” the MTA said. The COVID-19 pandemic has already affected the MTA in significant ways. MTA Chairman and CEO Chairman Patrick Foye recently requested more than $4 billion in federal aid as part of the economic fallout resulting from COVID-19. “I am urgently requesting substantial federal aid at the level of MTA revenue losses ($3.7 billion assuming ridership trends this week continue for six months) and COVID-19 expenses (approximately $300 million annualized) as we continue to respond to the coronavirus pandemic,” he wrote in a letter ("MTA Issues Letter to New York Congressional Delegation Requesting Robust Federal Aid", 2020). In another disclosure statement, the MTA wrote, “Recent substantial declines in ridership and traffic in response to the COVID-19 pandemic have already been observed and have become more severe daily. There remains a high risk for further reductions in ridership and people may permanently alter their commutation behavior after this crisis based on their telecommuting experience during the COVID-19 crisis” (MTA, "MTA Annual Disclosure Statement Supplement"). The future of the Queens bus redesign will undoubtedly be impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic. But when the redesign is taken up again, the MTA will hopefully take the concerns of CB6 residents seriously.

References

About Us. (n.d.). Retrieved March 20, 2020, from https://new.mta.info/about-us

Ansell, C., & Gash, A. (2007). Collaborative Governance in Theory and Practice. Journal of Public Administration Research and Theory, 18(4), 543–571. doi: 10.1093/jopart/mum032

Burke, J. (2020, January 7). Op-Ed: MTA’s Queens Bus Redesign is Not Good for Jackson Heights. Streetsblog. Retrieved from https://nyc.streetsblog.org/2020/01/07/op-ed-mtas-queens-bus-redesign-is-not-good-for-jackson-heights/

Colon, D. (2020, January 3). Queens Bus Network Redesign Strives for Simplicity. Streetsblog. Retrieved from https://nyc.streetsblog.org/2020/01/03/queens-bus-network-redesign-strives-for-simplicity/

Facts and Figures. (n.d.). Retrieved March 20, 2020, from http://web.mta.info/nyct/facts/ffsubway.htm

Friedman, C. (1971, March 38). Residents of Exclusive Forest Hills Gardens Employ Towaway System to Discourage Outside Parkers. The New York Times, p. 91. Retrieved from https://www.nytimes.com/1971/03/28/archives/residents-of-exclusive-forest-hills-gardens-employ-towaway-system.html

Forest Hills Gardens v. Kowler, City of N.Y, 80 A.D.2d 630 (N.Y. App. Div. 1981)

Forest Hills Corp. v. Baroth, 147 Misc. 2d 404 (N.Y. Misc. 1990)

Goldwyn, E. (2020, January 28). Andy Byford couldn’t have stopped political interference in the MTA. City & State. Retrieved from https://www.cityandstateny.com/articles/opinion/commentary/andy-byford-couldnt-have-stopped-political-interference-nyc-transit.html

Griffin, A. (2020, February 14). Queens Bus Redesign Slammed by Forest Hills Residents at Community Board Meeting. Forest Hills Post. Retrieved from https://foresthillspost.com/queens-bus-redesign-slammed-by-forest-hills-residents-at-community-board-meeting

Guse, C. (2020, January 20). NYC bus ridership fell for sixth straight year in 2019, hit lowest level in decades. New York Daily News. Retrieved from https://www.nydailynews.com/new-york/ny-bus-ridership-declines-mta-20200120-b3xal6q5ujdgxhutefvevoqvza-story.html

Kaufman, M. (2020, February 25). Under MTA Bus Redesign, New Q60 Route Wouldn't Go To Manhattan. Patch. Retrieved from https://patch.com/new-york/foresthills/under-mta-bus-redesign-new-q60-route-wouldnt-go-manhattan

Kaufman, M. (2020, February 7). Forest Hills Commuters Decry MTA's Proposed Q23 Bus Redesign. Patch. Retrieved from https://patch.com/new-york/foresthills/forest-hills-commuters-decry-mtas-proposed-q23-bus-redesign

Koz, residents blast bus route redesign. (2020, February 20). Queens Chronicle. Retrieved from https://www.qchron.com/editions/central/koz-residents-blast-bus-route-redesign/article_1994c803-a459-5e18-ba07-781faa911b9b.html

Maldonado, C. (2020, January 6). Metropolitan Transportation Authority Selected Performance Measures. Retrieved March 20, 2020, from https://osc.state.ny.us/audits/allaudits/093020/18s18.htm

Metropolitan transportation authority. (2020, February 15). Retrieved March 20, 2020, from https://www.nysenate.gov/legislation/laws/PBA/1263

Metropolitan Transportation Authority. (2018). Mta 2019 Preliminary Budget July Financial Plan 2019-2022. Retrieved from https://new.mta.info/sites/default/files/2018-12/MTA-2019-Prelim-Budget-July-Financial-Plan-2019-2022-Vol1.pdf

(2020, March 17). Retrieved from http://www.mta.info/press-release/mta-headquarters/mta-issues-letter-new-york-congressional-delegation-requesting-robust

MTA Operating Budget Basics. (n.d.). Retrieved March 20, 2020, from https://new.mta.info/budget/MTA-operating-budget-basics

MTA. (n.d.). Subway and bus ridership for 2019. Retrieved May 21, 2020, from https://new.mta.info/agency/new-york-city-transit/subway-bus-ridership-2019

MTA. (n.d.). Queens Bus Network Redesign Draft Plan. Retrieved May 21, 2020, from https://new.mta.info/system_modernization/bus_network/queensbusredesign/draftplan

MTA. (n.d.). Queens Bus Network Redesign: Draft Plan. Retrieved May 21, 2020, from https://new.mta.info/document/12701

MTA. (n.d.). Queens Bus Network Redesign. Retrieved May 22, 2020, from https://new.mta.info/queensbusredesign

MTA. (2020, March 18). MTA Annual Disclosure Statement Supplement. Retrieved May 22, 2020, from http://web.mta.info/mta/investor/pdf/2020/2019CoronavirusUpdateSupp031820.pdf

Queens Council members criticize bus redesign. (2020, January 23). Queens Chronicle. Retrieved from https://www.qchron.com/editions/central/queens-council-members-criticize-bus-redesign/article_50ec2c66-3e1a-11ea-9587-4f40a540ec27.html

Rosenthal, B., Fitzsimmons, E., & LaForgia, M. (2017, November 18). How Politics and Bad Decisions Starved New York’s Subways. The New York Times. Retrieved from https://www.nytimes.com/2017/11/18/nyregion/new-york-subway-system-failure-delays.html

Torres, K. (2020, January 29). Jackson Heights Residents to Rally Against Bus Network Redesign at Travers Park Thursday. Jackson Heights Post. Retrieved from https://jacksonheightspost.com/jackson-heights-residents-to-rally-against-bus-network-redesign-at-travers-park-thursday

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biofunmy · 6 years ago

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Would You Like to Spend Forever in This Tree?

SANTA CRUZ, Calif. — Death comes for all of us, but Silicon Valley has, until recently, not come for death.

Who can blame them for the hesitation? The death services industry is heavily regulated and fraught with religious and health considerations. The handling of dead bodies doesn’t seem ripe for venture-backed disruption. The gravestone doesn’t seem an obvious target for innovation.

But in a forest south of Silicon Valley, a new start-up is hoping to change that. The company is called Better Place Forests. It’s trying to make a better graveyard.

“Cemeteries are really expensive and really terrible, and basically I just knew there had to be something better,” said Sandy Gibson, the chief executive of Better Place. “We’re trying to redesign the entire end-of-life experience.”

And so Mr. Gibson’s company is buying forests, arranging conservation easements intended to prevent the land from ever being developed, and then selling people the right to have their cremated remains mixed with fertilizer and fed to a particular tree.

The Better Place team is this month opening a forest in Point Arena, a bit south of Mendocino; preselling trees at a second California location, in Santa Cruz; and developing four more spots around the country. They have a few dozen remains in the soil already, and Mr. Gibson says they have sold thousands of trees to the future dead. Most of the customers are “pre-need” — middle-aged and healthy, possibly decades ahead of finding themselves in the roots.

Better Place Forests has raised $12 million in venture capital funding. And other than the topic of dead bodies coming up fairly often, the office is a normal San Francisco start-up, with around 45 people bustling around and frequenting the roof deck with a view of the water.

There is a certain risk to being buried in a start-up forest. When the tree dies, Better Place says it will plant a new one at that same spot. But a redwood can live 700 years, and almost all start-ups in Silicon Valley fail, so it requires a certain amount of faith that someone will be there to install a new sapling.

Still, Mr. Gibson said most customers, especially those based in the Bay Area, like the idea of being part of a start-up even after life. The first few people to buy trees were called founders.

“You’re part of this forest, but you’re also part of creating this forest,” said Mr. Gibson, a tall man who speaks slowly and carefully, as though he is giving bad news gently. “People love that.”

Bring Your Dog, Forever

Customers come to claim a tree for perpetuity. This now costs between $3,000 (for those who want to be mixed into the earth at the base of a small young tree or a less desirable species of tree) and upward of $30,000 (for those who wish to reside forever by an old redwood). For those who don’t mind spending eternity with strangers, there is also an entry-level price of $970 to enter the soil of a community tree. (Cremation is not included.)

A steward then installs a small round plaque in the earth like a gravestone.

When the ashes come, the team at Better Place digs a three-foot by two-foot trench at the roots of the tree. Then, at a long table, the team mixes the person’s cremated remains with soil and water, sometimes adding other elements to offset the naturally highly alkaline and sodium-rich qualities of bone ash. It’s important the soil stay moist; bacteria will be what breaks down the remains.

Because the forest is not a cemetery, rules are much looser. For example: pets are allowed. Often customers want their ashes to be mixed with their pets’ ashes, Mr. Gibson said.

“Pets are a huge thing,” Mr. Gibson said. “It’s where everyone in your family can be spread. This is your tree.”

“Spreading” is what they call the ash deposit. The trench is a “space,” the watering can is a “vessel,” the on-site sales staff are “forest stewards.” When it comes to both death and start-ups, euphemisms abound.

It’s all pretty low-tech: mix ashes in with dirt and put a little placard in the soil. But there is a tech element: For an extra fee, customers can have a digital memorial video made. Walking through the forest, visitors will be able to scan a placard and watch a 12-minute digital portrait of the deceased talking straight to camera about his or her life. Some will allow their videos to be viewed by anyone walking through the forest, others will opt only for family members. Privacy settings will be decided before death.

Death Is a Growth Industry

As cities are running out of room to bury the dead, the cost of funerals and caskets has increased more than twice as fast as prices for all commodities. In the Bay Area, a traditional funeral and plot burial often costs $15,000 to $20,000. The majority of Americans are now choosing to be cremated.

“The death services market is very big — $20 billion a year — and customer approval is low,” said Jon Callaghan, a partner at True Ventures, an investor in Better Places. “The product is broken.”

The firm’s other investments include Blue Bottle, Peloton and Fitbit, and Mr. Callaghan sees consumers of those products as ones who would be interested also in Better Place trees.

“Every industry seems to have its time when things get wild,” said Nancy Pfund, the founder and a managing partner at DBL Partners, which led early funding. “It’s been mobile apps, it’s been cars, it’s been fake meat, and now it is death care,” she said.

“But we have to come up with a better name than ‘death care.’ Maybe it’s legacy care,” she added. “Maybe it’s eternity management.”

Around 75 million Americans will reach the life expectancy age of 78 between 2024 and 2042, Better Place suggests. The company’s pitch is that tree burial is good for the environment, the location is more beautiful than a traditional graveyard — and it’s cheaper as well.

Ms. Pfund also sees these forests as a way to monetize conservation. Actively managing a forest is expensive, so much so that financially strained state park systems are having to turn down gifts of land. Conservation easements, an agreement between an organization and the government to preserve land, have become more popular as a solution.

“No one has really made a big business monetizing conservation, nothing that could scale,” Ms. Pfund said. “So a bell went off when we heard this pitch.”

Where’s Grandma?

Those tracking the death services industry are more skeptical about how disruptive it will be.

John O’Conner, who runs Menlo Park Funerals, said more than 90 percent of his clients opt for cremation.

“Most of my people scatter on their own,” Mr. O’Conner said. “They just go at night, scatter grandma, have a cup of champagne, and every day they drive by that park they know grandma is there. Why would they pay $20,000 to go to a memorial grove when they can scatter at any little park they want to for free?”

That act is, technically, illegal.

“Don’t ask, don’t tell,” Mr. O’Conner said. He said he knew of a few golf courses in the region that had to put up signs imploring people not to scatter guest remains there.

Ben Deci, a spokesman for California’s Cemetery and Funeral Bureau, said Better Place Forests’ activities do not fall under the bureau’s purview.

“It looks to me like they’ve just purchased large tracts for forest land and are allowing people to disperse their ashes, and they say here ‘This’ll be your tree or whatever,’” Mr. Deci said. “You don’t need our approval to do that.”

Mr. Gibson does have a permit from the state verifying him as a cremated remains disposer. “But that’s not quite the right way to think about it,” he said.

How to Choose the Right Forever Tree

One recent day, Mr. Gibson walked through his 80 acres of Santa Cruz forest where about 6,000 trees are available, many wrapped in different colored ribbons, waiting to be chosen.

“The last major innovation in cemeteries was the lawn cemetery in the ’50s and ’60s, basically so they could get a lawn mower through easier,” Mr. Gibson said.

To claim a tree, customers walk through the forest and find one that speaks to them. The Better Place brochure also guides them: Coastal redwoods are “soaring and ancient,” tan oaks are “quirky and giving,” while a Douglas fir is “stately and reverent.”

“Some people want a tree that is totally isolated, and some people really want to be around people and be part of a fairy ring,” Mr. Gibson said. “Some people will come in and they’ll fall in love with a stump.”

“People love stumps,” he said, pointing out a few trees people bought just for the nearby stumps. “They’ve got a lot of personality.”

Younger people often choose younger trees because they like the idea of growth.

Debra Lee, a retired administrative assistant in San Jose, felt immediate kinship with the madrone tree she chose.

“She’s about 60 years old, and I’m 63,” Ms. Lee said of the mature evergreen with dark red bark. “Looking at her growth pattern you can see things have been hard at times because she’s kind of curved, but she made it to the top to get to the sunlight.”

When a customer chooses her tree, as Ms. Lee did, she cuts the ribbon off in what Better Place calls the ribbon ceremony.

As Mr. Gibson hiked across the Santa Cruz forest in a sweater and work boots, he noticed a rhododendron, his mother’s favorite flower, growing out of a stump.

Both his parents died when he was young, and, at 12, Mr. Gibson was adopted by his half brother. He is now 36, and, since then, he has spent many afternoons in Toronto at his parent’s grave site, set on a noisy corner, with a shiny black headstone that reflects traffic.

“You remember them dying, you remember the memorial service, and you remember the image of their final resting place,” Mr. Gibson said. He was haunted by that badly designed grave site. “It’s comically bad.”

Visiting their grave in 2015, he decided to quit his job running a marketing automation company. He would make a better graveyard.

“A lot of investors laughed at us when I first pitched this,” Mr. Gibson said. “People don’t really like thinking about this.”

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sadyehurd343-blog · 6 years ago

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How To Compose Engaging Headlines Contents As Well As News.

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melindarowens · 7 years ago

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The Boys Are Back In Town… – Daily Pfennig

Chuck Butler’s: A Pfennig For Your Thoughts

November 28, 2017

Good day… And a Tom Terrific Tuesday to you!Man I’m still finding it difficult to get back into the saddle and the swing of things! But here I am, and hopefully things will get back to the way they were before my body decided to go all jiggy on me! The visiting nurse yesterday told me that she had read through my medical history the night before, and Kathy, said, “That probably took you all night to get through!” I laughed and said, ” I told you they call me lucky”! I’m switching things up today and have my IPhone playing Pandora, Jazz holiday station, and I’m greeted with a jazzy version of Home for the Holidays…

Well, I told you yesterday that the euro was already showing some slippage, not much, but some, and that it would be interesting to see what happened to the euro’s big rally while the PPT was on holiday last week, once they returned… And well, we saw it… The dollar rallied and the euro which at the end of the day on Friday was as high as 1.1948, was knocked down to 1.1900… UGH! I could easily be saying damned PPT, but I won’t, no wait! I just did! HA!

And this morning, the euro has fallen below 1.19 in further buying of the dollar by somebody that doesn’t see the forest from the trees!

Of course the dollar could have rallied on its own given the statement from the incoming new Fed Chairman, Jerome Powell, who had this to say… “Our aim is to sustain a strong jobs market with inflation moving gradually up toward our target. We expect interest rates to rise somewhat further and the size of our balance sheet to gradually shrink.”

Boy, I don’t know that’s going to sit with President Trump, who has let everyone know for over a year now that he prefers low interest rates… Last February, I wrote in an article about how the President then said that if rates get to 4% we’re screwed… his words not mine, but I agree, given everything that has gone on and how the economy lives and breathes on cheap credit. I don’t want to get all negative already on my attempt to climb back into the saddle, so I’ll just leave that there…

Besides, it’s far more fun to blame it all on the PPT, isn’t it? Oh, and as far as my thought on the December rate hike, I’m still of the opinion that there won’t be one… Unless, like I explained in the past that outgoing Fed Chair, Janet Yellen, wants one last taste of being able to stick it to the President.

Well, it appears that the CFPB (consumer financial protection bureau) is going to get new leadership here in the U.S. I don’t even want to get started on how I feel about the CFPB, and how they weren’t really out to protect the consumer, but more about sticking it to financial institutions who were doing their best to provide products and services that investors wanted. So, I’ll just leave that there, and hope that the new leader goes in a different direction!

In other things going on here in the U.S. that should be weighing down on the dollar… A new report from the Federal Reserve Bank of New York last week found that U.S. household debt hit another record high in the 3rd QTR of almost $13 Trillion. The largest increases came in student loans, auto debt and credit cards.

I’ve been saying for months now that I believed the U.S. consumer had “tapped out”, but when it comes to adding to debt, they appear to have found a second wind!. Now, there will be the smarty pants guys with the propeller head hats that will tell you that this data means nothing, because the population has grown… Well, take it with as many grains of salt that you wish, I’m just saying that in my opinion, this is bad…

And now, it’s Christmas shopping season, I would only think that the $13 Trillion will only go higher… And then January comes and the bills begin to show up in one’s mailbox and they get deep sixed, because there ain’t no way in hell they can pay them… I shake my head and wonder if their parents ever sat them down and explained money, savings, spending, etc. to them… I would think not! Oooh, I’ve gone deep and dark there, haven’t I? I had better stop before I really turn dark… But before I leave this thought…

The Fed also reported that, as of September, 4.9% of outstanding household debt was in some stage of delinquency. More specifically, of the $630 billion of debt that is delinquent, $408 billion is seriously delinquent (90 days late or longer), the Fed said. Wait until January/ February’s figures…

I forgot to highlight the move higher in the price of Oil yesterday… Oil is now trading with a $57 handle… Our friends at OPEC (NOT!) will meet with Russia this week to discuss production… Recall that the Oil ministers thought that by cutting production months ago that they could get the price of Oil back to $60… Well, $57 isn’t $60, so I expect to hear OPEC announce further cuts this week at the meetings. What say you? The price of Gold saw a ” good day” yesterday and added $6.10 to its price. At one point of the day I saw Gold at $1,299, but that was short-lived, as the “boys in the band” didn’t like the looks of that!

I don’t know if you’ve been following/ tracking the price of Palladium but I sure have! Recall when I was doing a daily report on the spread in price between Platinum and Palladium, with the later overtaking Platinum a couple of months ago, and hasn’t looked back since! Supply and demand is driving this price higher folks… Just like things should be without outside interference! Supply is lacking and demand keeps getting stronger for Palladium…

The U.S. Data Cupboard didn’t come into play yesterday, and today we’ve already seen the results of the dollar rally in Rocktober, as the advanced Trade figure rose to $68.3 Billion, when it was only forecast to be $65 Billion… This figure will get whittled down when all the beans are counted, and the final will be lower when it prints in a week or so. The Case/ Shiller Home Price Index is scheduled to print today, and if my thoughts on this are correct, we’ll see and increase in the Home Price Index number, as the madness continues..

To Recap…. The boys were back in town (great song by Thin Lizzy) yesterday after their 4 day holiday weekend, and immediately the euro’s gains got whittled down throughout the day and overnight markets. Gold rallied but is getting sold off this morning, and the price of Oil has moved upward and waits for the results of the OPEC meeting in Russia this week.

For What It’s Worth… Well, we’ve all heard for years that we shouldn’t rely on Social Security for our retirement funds… Well I found this on MarketWatch and it’s just another analyst’s opinion on where Social Security is going, and can be found here: https://www.marketwatch.com/story/warning-social-security-faces-a-23-cut-2017-11-27?link=MW_popular

Or, here’s your snippet: “If you think you can count on Social Security to prop up your retirement than the joke may be on you. The news media’s been so busy covering President Trump 24/7 that a really big story slipped through the cracks this summer: Social Security will begin paying out more than it takes in by 2021 — just three years from now, and come 2034 or so — just 16 years away — payouts could be slashed by about 23%, unless tough steps are taken to bolster the rickety program.

Based on a projected U.S. population of about 370 million in 2034, that would mean drastically smaller checks for some 87 million Americans, the trustees estimate. How small? Try $5,969 a year in today’s dollars, according to the Peter G. Peterson Foundation, a think tank that focuses on fiscal matters.

That’s nothing less than devastating for the estimated 60% of retired Americans who rely on Social Security for at least half their monthly income.

What’s going on? You can read the whole government report here (if you like long, dense, boring bureaucratic language), but you probably know what the problems are; they’ve been obvious for years.”

Chuck again… That would be my luck, right? Reach the age to received some of the money I put in the program since I began working when I was in the 6th grade, and have them tell me, sorry, but we spent it all on someone else… UGH! It’s not that I need it, it’s that it’s mine!

Currencies today 11/28/17… American Style: A$ .7604, kiwi .6923, C$ .7812, euro 1.1886, sterling 1.3272, Swiss $ .9828, … European Style: rand 13.6965, krone 8.1992, SEK 8.3239, forint 261.76, zloty 3.5345, koruna 21.4178, RUB 58.29, yen 111.30, sing 1.3449, HKD 7.8022, INR 64.37, China 6.5979, peso 18.62, BRL 3.2265, Dollar Index 93.05, Oil $57.89, 10-year 2.32%, Silver $17.09, Platinum $ 948.56, Palladium $1,017.89, and Gold… $1,295.00

That’s it for today… It’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas… Our house is getting decorated, Alex hung the outside lights for us on Sunday, and the kids and grandkids all went to the tree farm to cut down their Christmas trees this past weekend. I was not able to go with them, and it saddened me so, because I was the one that always spearheaded the tree cutting down day! Oh well, maybe next year… Longtime readers know that I simply adore Christmas, and love it when the house is all gussied up… Hopefully by Christmas I’ll be back on my horse! And being a kid again, full of anticipation, and excitement… Fingers crossed! OK, Beggie Adair takes us to the finish line today with his jazzy version of the Christmas Song… I hope you have a Tom Terrific Tuesday, and remember to be Good To Yourself!

Chuck Butler

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source https://capitalisthq.com/the-boys-are-back-in-town-daily-pfennig/ from CapitalistHQ http://capitalisthq.blogspot.com/2017/12/the-boys-are-back-in-town-daily-pfennig.html

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everettwilkinson · 7 years ago

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The Boys Are Back In Town… – Daily Pfennig

Chuck Butler’s: A Pfennig For Your Thoughts

November 28, 2017

And this morning, the euro has fallen below 1.19 in further buying of the dollar by somebody that doesn’t see the forest from the trees!

That’s nothing less than devastating for the estimated 60% of retired Americans who rely on Social Security for at least half their monthly income.

Chuck Butler

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from CapitalistHQ.com https://capitalisthq.com/the-boys-are-back-in-town-daily-pfennig/

#TrumpNews #CapitalistHQ.com

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billgsoto · 8 years ago

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Senate Agriculture Committee Examines Conservation Options for Next Farm Bill

Senate Agriculture Committee Ranking Member Debbie Stabenow (D-MI). Photo credit, Senate.gov.

On-farm, voluntary conservation programs – such as the Conservation Stewardship Program (CSP) and Environmental Quality Incentives Program (EQIP) – provide farmers with the tools, technical assistance, and financial support they need to make their operations more sustainable and resilient. The farm bill, our nation’s largest and most significant package of food and farm funding legislation, sets the policy that supports private lands conservation and stewardship efforts. The farm bill also sets mandatory funding levels for many food and farm programs, including US Department of Agriculture (USDA) conservation programs.

On Thursday, June 29, the Senate Agriculture Committee held a hearing to identify opportunities to improve and build upon conservation and forestry programs in the 2018 Farm Bill.

The hearing consisted of two panels that each brought together USDA officials and the farmers, ranchers, and foresters who have seen first-hand the benefits of farm bill conservation programs. In her opening remarks, Ranking Member Senator Debbie Stabenow (D- MI) noted the significance of and critical need for USDA conservation programs and the economic opportunities that they provide:

“With 70 percent of US land privately owned, our farmers, ranchers, and foresters are the original conservationists and our first responders to sustain the health and diversity of our natural resources. However, they should not have to bear this responsibility alone. The farm bill provides important conservation and forestry tools that help farmers and foresters keep our water clean, improve the resiliency of our landscapes, and protect habitat for wildlife. In addition to these important environmental benefits, conservation and forestry also create economic opportunities. I’ve always said that the farm bill is a jobs bill—and conservation and forestry is no exception.”

While congressional support for on-farm conservation programs has generally improved since 1985, when the first Conservation Title was added as part of the farm bill, the Title suffered some significant setbacks in the 2014 Farm Bill when conservation spending was cut for the first time since the 1985 bill. In the 2014 Farm Bill, Congress cut the Conservation Title by $4 billion over ten years; the figure rises to $6 billion when the across-the-board budget cut mechanism known as sequestration is factored in. The impacts of these cuts, as well as the need for programmatic changes in the 2018 Farm Bill’s Conservation Title, were reflected by members of the Agriculture Committee and the witnesses throughout the hearing.

To learn more about the on-the-ground impact of voluntary USDA conservation programs, see NSAC’s June 2018 “farmer fly-in” blog.

Demand for Working Lands Programs Remains High

As part of the hearing’s first panel, Deputy Chief for Programs at USDA’s Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) Jimmy Bramblett discussed the oversubscription and growing demand for working lands conservation programs. He highlighted CSP and EQIP, the heart of USDA’s working lands conservation portfolio, and explained that updates made to CSP over the past year have further increased producer interest in enrolling in the whole-farm conservation program.

The importance of conservation support was also reflected in the testimony of many of the witnesses on the second panel. Paul Dees, a corn, rice, and soybean farmer from Mississippi outlined for the Committee the challenges he has encountered as a result of high demand for CSP’s limited program funds:

“While CSP has been successful, the consensus in our region suggests it is not adequately funded. 154 eligible producers, including myself, have unfunded applications in my county and those that surround it. Many more producers have not even applied because of the lack of funds.”

Bramblett highlighted the enormous soil health benefits that EQIP practices confer to farmers; EQIP provides support for a variety of soil-boosting practices, including cover cropping, conservation tillage, conservation crop rotations, and prescribed grazing. Senator Amy Klobuchar (D-MN) emphasized the important role that voluntary programs like EQIP play for beginning farmers in particular. The Senator then asked Mr. Bramblett for an update on what NRCS is currently doing to ensure that new and beginning farmers can access and benefit from these programs. Mr. Bramblett noted for the Committee that both CSP and EQIP include funding set-asides for beginning, socially disadvantaged, and limit resource producers, and both also feature higher cost share rates and advance payment options for these producers.

The National Sustainable Agriculture Coalition (NSAC) has helped to create and implement many of today’s most important agricultural conservation programs, and we remain committed to continuing to expand access to these programs for historically underserved producers in the next farm bill. We will also continue to work with our partners at USDA and in Congress to ensure that these crucial programs are designed and funded in a way that allows them to deliver the most efficient and effective support to farmers and achieve the highest net environmental benefits.

Partnership Programs Need Additional Flexibility

Many of Committee Members and the expert witnesses also spoke about the importance of the Regional Conservation Partnership Program (RCPP), which was created in the 2014 Farm Bill. RCPP is unique in that it brings farmers and ranchers to the table to address resource concerns while also leveraging private funding and directly involving partners (such as producer associations, state/local governments, farmer cooperatives, organizations, universities and others) in project development and implementation.

In his testimony, Executive Vice President of the Ohio Farm Bureau Federation Adam Sharp stressed the Farm Bureau’s promotion of working lands programs over land retirement programs, explaining that RCPP brought critical water quality benefits to the western Lake Erie watershed. NSAC believes that working lands conservation programs like CSP, EQIP, and RCPP must be protected and enhanced in the next farm bill in order to ensure farmers and ranchers have the tools they need to protect natural resources, while simultaneously maintaining profitable operations.

Sharp, as well as several Senators, highlighted the importance of ensuring that RCPP has the flexibility it needs to address the unique needs of a variety of regions and partners across the country. In particular, we at NSAC are urging Congress to provide appropriate flexibility in the 2018 Farm Bill so that RCPP’s partners can innovate and better provide the technical assistance, including outreach and coordination, for these public-private partnerships.

Need to Shore Up Land Protection Programs

Last week’s hearing also focused on land protection programs, including the Conservation Reserve Program (CRP) and the Agriculture Conservation Easement Program (ACEP). The expert witnesses stressed that demand for these programs outstrips available funding – making it difficult for the programs to serve the farmers that are actively seeking USDA support.

NRCS administers wetland, grassland, and agricultural land easements through ACEP. The program’s low acceptance rates, according to Mr. Bramblett, were not a result of lack of qualified applicants, but an issue of limited program resources. The 2014 Farm Bill consolidated several easement programs into ACEP and also lowered authorized funding levels over the course of the 5-year bill. Senator Patrick Leahy (D-VT) questioned Mr. Bramblett as to the expected impact of this decline in fiscal year (FY) 2018, when only $250 million in funding will be available (half the authorized level that was available in FY 2017).

Mr. Bramblett confirmed that he didn’t expect demand to drop next year, and thus it was possible that NRCS would only be able to fund as few as 7 percent of applications in FY 2018. NSAC believes that it is critical that Congress return ACEP to its historical funding levels in the 2018 Farm bill so that the program can begin to address and serve the overwhelming backlog of farmers interested in conservation easement support.

One of the more contentious issues regarding conservation and the 2018 Farm Bill — whether or not to raise the acreage cap for CRP — got quite a bit of attention at the hearing. Given that commodity prices are low, interest in CRP has spiked and many are pushing for a significant increase in the number of acres that USDA’s Farm Service Agency (FSA) is authorized to enroll.

One of NSAC’s priorities for CRP in the next farm bill is that program dollars are targeted to protect the most highly sensitive land. We are also working to ensure that critical partial field practices (e.g., filter strips, riparian buffers, grassed waterways, contour grass strips, and other conservation practices) remain available and properly incentivized through Continuous CRP (CCRP). Any increase to CRP in the next farm bill will carry a hefty price tag. Given the fiscally conservative nature of Congress, there may be an attempt to raid other conservation programs in order to pay for a CRP expansion. NSAC will work with members of the Agriculture Committee to ensure that any expansion in the CRP cap does not come at the expense of working lands programs like CSP and EQIP.

While expansion of CRP dominated much of the conversation about the program, several witnesses also expressed concern over the impact that taking large swaths of land out of production could have on beginning farmers who need access to affordable farmland to start their careers in agriculture. Senator Joni Ernst (R-IA) asked the panel whether idling whole farms through CRP is truly the best use of taxpayer dollars. She went on to provide several real life examples of young farmers that had experienced roadblocks in accessing farmland because the CRP rental rates were above what they could afford to pay.

Officials from both NRCS and FSA both told the Committee that they support a careful balance between working lands conservation support and land retirement. As we move toward the next farm bill, NSAC will continue to advance opportunities to protect the most sensitive acres, while also working to ensure that farmers and ranchers have the tools they need to actively manage land currently in production.

Protecting Conservation Compliance

While the majority of discussion and questions focused on specific working lands and land protection programs, Senator Stabenow also noted that the re-linking of conservation requirements to crop insurance subsidies through conservation compliance was a critically important win from the 2014 Farm Bill.

“The 2014 Farm Bill also included a linchpin agreement to protect highly erodible soils and wetlands[…] Maintaining this agreement will be critical.”

Conservation compliance requires that in order to receive any form of USDA payments, producers cannot drain or fill wetlands, or expand the scope of existing drainage on farmed wetlands. Additionally, they need to have a soil conservation plan in place if they farm highly erodible land. The basic idea, which NSAC will seek to protect and strengthen in the next farm bill, is that farmers should practice at least basic conservation in return for government subsidies.

What Happens Next?

The House and Senate will continue to hold additional farm bill hearings in DC, as well as field hearings and listening sessions across the country. The 2014 Farm Bill expires September 30, 2018, and the future of the conservation programs discussed at last week’s hearing depends upon the timely passage of the 2018 bill. Stay tuned to NSAC’s blogs and email alerts as we continue to monitor and provide updates on the Conservation Title and key sustainable agriculture programs under consideration in the upcoming farm bill.

from National Sustainable Agriculture Coalition http://ift.tt/2spxrPp

from Grow your own http://ift.tt/2upZMqi

#Grow your own

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