Why do we have it so good, yet feel it's so bad?

San Francisco - Modern news outlets often corporatist way of delivering the news sounds eerily like Henny Penny when she claimed the sky was falling. Many have perpetuated the fear among the already scared baby-boomer generation that socialist ideas will inevitably destroy America. If it's getting so socialist around here, then where are all the socialists?

     We have it pretty good compared to the rest of the world, then why do some of us feel it's so bad? Where did we get the notion that America is going to hell in a hand basket? Some would say that the media has perpetuated these fears, and however true that may be in the instance of network and cable news outlets, many respectable independent news agencies source their material soundly and report on stories with little embellishment or speculation. These respected outlets, however, aren't where the majority of voting Americans choose to get their news.

      Perhaps Jim Lehrer of the PBS Newshour is a little too old fashioned

California Tuition Increase Seeks Balance, Perspective

San Francisco – Two years ago I moved to California to continue my education as an adult because it was the most affordable place in the country to get a degree.

      City College students currently pay $26/credit hour. One of Governor Jerry Browns' ideas to help solve the California budget dilemma is a proposed $10/credit hour increase to the current rate.  This would be an almost 45 percent increase in cost, but when you compare that rate to ANY other school in the entire country the cost is between 50 to 75 percent less.

      Although California's budget problems are decades old, partly due to a voter-approved freeze in property tax rates, solidified and entrenched (and mostly white) interests in commerce and industry still rule the day.  Many of these voters, some of whom are parents of current City College students, were short-sighted in their desire for what they saw as fair taxation. 

      Californians’ complacence to what in other states is considered fiscally illogical, has sealed their budgetary coffins. The reason California is in such a dire economic mess is because large numbers of loyal, aging, white voters deemed it unfair to pay for property taxes, public services, and higher education at rates comparable to other states (we're not talking about primary or secondary schools – that’s a separate topic), while at the same time demanding the same level of governance.

      For instance, in suburban New York during the 1980’s a 3-bedroom ranch home sitting on 1/2 acre 20 minutes outside the city, could carry assessed property/school taxes totaling around $3,000 to $5,000 annually. Last week, I overheard a female colleague in San Francisco complaining about the fact that the single-family home she owns in gorgeous Lower Nob Hill, costs her about $3,900 a year in property/school taxes.

     What is all the whining about? How is this so-called unfair increase actually unfair?  The opponents of this increase merely note that it's a 30% increase, not the fact that it's still the least expensive, and highest quality education available today.

      A socially vibrant city like San Francisco, with its temperate weather, gentle folk, and world-class transit system is the envy of many municipalities, yet there are those who seem intent on having their water turned to wine without having to pay any extra.

     Let's all pay the fair share that we should. City College students should wake up and smell the stench of an entrenched, aging voter pool who decades ago set California on an unsustainable path of fiscal unbalance and unaccountability.

$36/credit hour is a clearance priced education if you ask this student.

Benefit Bends Bounds of Benevolence

San Francisco - Attending a beer bust to benefit a good cause is generally an easy, quick, and fun way of donating to charitable causes of all kinds, but after attending one of these fund-raising events at Truck, at 15th and Folsom on Friday night, I now have a different view as to the legitimacy of some of these events.
     As a journalist, sometimes i seek out stories of interest, and other times they fall into my lap, as with this story.  My best friend, told me about Al Claxton, 35, who had severely injured his face in a tragic accident, and that the fundraiser was to help him defer the cost of his surgical bills related to the reconstruction of part of his face.
     I later found out that his "tragic accident" involved being utterly intoxicated and face-planting on the sidewalk outside Truck only a few weeks earlier.  I was dismayed to learn during the course of the beer bust, that this type of "accident" isn't new for Mr. Claxton, and that he has a history of drunken calamities.
     When, in the name of charity, does benevolence turn to enabling the behavior of the drunk?  When the repeated behavior of someone who is unable to be responsible for their own safety as a pedestrian, is compensated with accolades, laughter, and "Oh, that's so Al!", we've compromised the meaning of benevolence toward others truly in need.  Those with life-threatening diseases, who would truly benefit from any dollar amount raised by a group of kind-hearted people who enjoy having a couple beers for charity, in this case, have been overlooked in favor of an adult with no concept of his own alcoholism, who stumbled down the street to his own demise.
     True benevolence, in this instance, has been replaced by a shoddy, enabling facsimile of love.  Encouraging someone who repeatedly exhibits this type of irrational and self-mutilating behavior by raising money for them, only tells that person their behavior is okay.  Is this the message we have for someone that many people at this event considered a friend?  These are no friends, these are people who enjoy the tragedy in anothers' hopelessness, so as to not magnify their own shortcomings.     The emcee, a tall, husky Latino gentleman, upon beginning his announcement for the selling of raffle tickets cackled, "Why is no one listening to me?"...grow up and remember why you're there.
     At first this reporter laughed at the concept of this beer bust, but upon meeting Mr. Claxton's friends, i was saddened by their repeated attempts at sick comedy as they poked fun at him for being such a "dumbass."
     I can't wait until the next beer bust, maybe the next "victim" will have gotten his penis caught in the delivery tube at the bank drive-thru, and they'll have a 5K where everyone stumbles across the finish line.  Go to an Al-Anon meeting, and let's stop enabling each other to live our tragedy, and not our beauty.

Peas and Carrots, Peas and Carrots

            As similar as we Americans wish we were, our willingness to emphasize our similarities sometimes lingers in our closed mouths like so many bad throat lozenges. If, on the street, we asked for people’s views on prohibiting (brown) children from receiving an education, most respondents would be opposed, citing the negative societal effects of an undereducated generation.  Likewise, if election results showed results similar to those obtained through a public opinion survey, then elections would be decided before the polls close.  In these survey/election processes, we find the duality of the American status quo.  We’re all for change, but why so fast, and why so loco? 

Immigrants have been coming to this country even before declarations were penned or proclamations were uttered. Conservative fringes that attempt to proselytize humanity in the guise of purity, while instilling fear in their contemporaries of how nonwhites in this country will ultimately overwhelm or undermine our "sistema franca”, have existed since lords ruled over serfs. And what American, at some point, hasn’t felt the nationalistic pride of one accord being sung by brethren and foe, holiday-time benevolences of wheat and wine with those less fortunate. We hold this virtue as part of our American culture, but doesn’t American culture (or it's cultural elitism) habitually brush aside the calls for justice by its’ smallest minorities?  Does it not contain derisive groups extolling the purity of being Caucasian, while forgetting, linguistically, that Caucasian wouldn’t exist without the Asian? Do we not recall many U.S. presidents subjugating their moral imperatives to merely get reelected?  To denigrate the future of our culture, merely by emphasizing the existence of another, only serves to dilute the culture of the denigrater.

In 1996, California’s Proposition 187 election results show that for every blue-haired person over the age of 50 with a either a fat pension and/or plenty of time on their hands to visit their local polling place, there were four middle to lower class working parents without ample time to cast their ballot.  Prop 187 passed with 59 percent of the vote, but technically, 59 percent of those who were able to vote, and that’s with only half of the registered voters participating in the election. Independent surveying of large groups of anonymous people also doesn’t have to take place within a 10-hour period, on one day, and at only a few select locations. And even if Prop 187 hadn't been thrown out by the courts, these election results show that if verbally asked, many people will respond with their heart. Unfortunately, the aorta doesn’t dislodge itself from the top of the heart and pull that lever in the booth, or touch that screen in the cubicle; only the mind can do that.

Given optimal conditions, humans will choose their best vision of a better future, but when restricted by time, finances, or overwhelming daily responsibilities, humans will choose the path of least interference. A lever isn’t a heartstring, and a person with a clipboard on a sunny street corner has a face, not a screen.  Don't let the polls and surveys proliferated on unscrupulous news channels determine your political leanings.  There are many minorities that are still left to be heard, if we only learn to listen.

Slinky Sister City Streetcar Reappears

The Castro - Usually, being bumped off the historic "F" streetcar line at Market/Noe can be a bummer, especially in bad weather.  But today, as i was directed to disembark by the operator, I turned to look East down Market Street, and spotted a slender, blue streetcar.  One that I had never seen before.  Apparently, i was witnessing an initial test run of the return of one of the most unique streetcars in the historic fleet, a carriage from San Francisco's Sister City of Zurich, Switzerland.  
          "In June, 2004, Market Street Railway facilitated the delivery of Brussels No. 7037 to the San Francisco Municipal Railway (Muni) following its retirement. Muni modified the tram for service in San Francisco, and renumbered it to 737.
In June, 2005, the car made its first appearance on the street, but at the request of Mayor Gavin Newsom, it wears the blue and white livery of San Francisco's sister city Zürich, Switzerland, which operated similar looking cars (but narrow gauge and non-PCC). In the future, No. 737 may be restored to its original 1952 cream Brussels livery" (via Market Street Railway).

          The streetcar was running in 'training' mode, so it stopped without passengers.  The exterior was this almost periwinkle blue that reminded me of the sky if you look straight up.  The driver threw open it's doors, revealing a classic interior with abundant wood and brass adornments.  The gleaming paint, authentic emblems, touches of gold and the window trim were among the notable details.

          I hope to see this streetcar more frequently, and soon i hope to ride this historic piece of our living, moving past.

View of train approaching Market/Noe from the east.

    

Insignia located along the side, close to the rear.

Place and date

View of train leaving station