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Lituya
Mountain climber
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Dec 14, 2017 - 12:23pm PT
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Well now, that might be true but there's a lot of stupid piled into BOTH shallow ends of the pool.
My favorite 1984esque devices are these Amazon/Google/NSA listening pods idiots install all over their houses. And they PAY for them!
Back to my bunker....
Finally, something we agree on. Won't have one of those in my house--and thinking about killing my smart phone too and going back to my much beloved Motorola Tundra flip phone. (I would really miss my Strava app though.)
Edit: Ditto those RFID windshield toll stickers. Here in WA they're called "GoodToGo!" passes.
Edit: Ditto those Lowrance/Spot gadgets that let everyone track your mountain "progress" from their chairs.
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Gary
Social climber
Desolation Basin, Calif.
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Dec 14, 2017 - 12:35pm PT
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A jury found OJ innocent too.
And rightfully so. After Fuhrman's testimony was impeached they had no choice.
I was forced against my will to listen to way too much of that fiasco on KNX.
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Lituya
Mountain climber
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Dec 14, 2017 - 12:43pm PT
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Ironically its called Homeward Bound. So if SF is "repatriating" Seattle homeless who have become stranded in San Francisco and they elect to 'go home' willingly, is that not, I dunno, appropriate for Seattle? Should't Seattle deal with her own homeless problem?
Almost none of them ever lived in Seattle. When asked, they simply said "Seattle" because we were the one of the first states in the union to legalize marijuana. Also, a very permissive policy re heroin and meth.
If you haven't seen Seattle in the past two years, you have no idea the degree to which the problem has grown.
FWIW, I stopped in Juneau last summer--first time in 20 years. Another sad story re drugs and homelessness and liberal metro governance. Used to be a beautiful city.
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seano
Mountain climber
none
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Dec 14, 2017 - 01:29pm PT
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SF expanding program that has bused 10K homeless residents out of town in past decade Dude, you guys just "disrupted" the heck out of taxis and hotels. It seems like you should be able to write a program to find the cheapest AirBnBs in the country, then pay homeless people with drivers' licenses to Uber pool the others to said accommodations.
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Tom
Big Wall climber
San Luis Obispo CA
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Topic Author's Reply - Dec 14, 2017 - 02:01pm PT
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^^^^^^^^^^^
Not just taxis and hotels.
The AirBnB thing has also decimated the rental housing environment in SF, and the Bay Area in general. Landlords are evicting tenants wholesale, so that they can run their rental units as full-time AirBnBs. Some of these SF landlords have evicted tenants protected by rent control, by pretending that they, the landlords, are going to be personally living in their now-vacant apartments. These full-time pseudo-hotels violate zoning laws, but WTF? Uber illegally claimed their employees were "independent contractors", so that they could shift some of the corporation's tax burden to the employees (a faux-clever form of wage theft). Illegally evicting tenants, violating zoning laws, not reporting income (because that would red-flag the illegal operation) and converting scarce rental housing to hotels is all a part of being disruptive.
AirBnB has directly contributed to the Bay Area's housing/homeless crisis. They have disrupted the lives of hundreds, if not thousands of people, by taking away their housing in an environment that has gentrified dramatically, and is no longer affordable to many.
It's the Magic Hand of the Law of the Jungle at work.
Deregulation = Lawlessness = Law of the Jungle = Economic Anarchy
The SPCA Robo-Police were put to work to enforce that anarchy, not to protect the public. But, that is what a private police force is supposed to do: exclusively protect whomever is paying them. A private security force near Stinson Beach regularly attempts to expel citizens from the public beach, which is in the interest of the homeowners, but violates the civil rights of the citizens. In the same way, the SPCA Robo-Cop attempted to further the interest of the SPCA (rid the streets of homeless people), but in the process violated the civil rights of the homeless people.
EDIT
Money is the only valid measure of a man - Donald Doosh
By that logic, anyone without money is not a person. And, a fat cat is more of a person than someone with less money. And, thus, that fat cat, being a superior person, is entitled to superior treatment, with, say, a new tax code that favors the wealthy over the poor.
VVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVV
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thebravecowboy
climber
The Good Places
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Dec 14, 2017 - 02:03pm PT
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I mean are any of them "people" if they don't have money?
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seano
Mountain climber
none
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Dec 14, 2017 - 02:22pm PT
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Uber illegally claimed their employees were "independent contractors", so that they could shift some of the corporation's tax burden to the employee (a form of wage theft, no?). It's worse than that. Their business model is to take advantage of people's underestimates of the cost of operating a car ($0.535/mi this year, according to the IRS, not the $0.10/mi for gas) to pay humans almost nothing until they can be replaced by robots. Even that is not enough in the short term, so they're setting fire to billions of VC money per year to drive competitors out of business.
At first glance, I think it would be great to live in San Francisco or Boulder. Then I think a bit more, and remember that they are both costly NIMBY dystopias. Sure, they would be okay if I made mid-six-figures and could throw money at most problems to make them go away, but that ain't happening.
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Tom
Big Wall climber
San Luis Obispo CA
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Topic Author's Reply - Dec 14, 2017 - 02:31pm PT
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^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
Amazon Prime Now delivery service did the same thing to its drivers. Using the IRS's rate for the cost of operating a vehicle, Amazon's human drones were delivering packages for the equivalent of about $2 per hour. Jeff Bezos, a world-class sociopath, gleefully shifted corporate taxes and expenses onto unsuspecting, and/or desperate workers.
There is a class-action lawsuit against Amazon, right now. The drivers had to conform to a dress, behavior and work schedule code that was indistinguishable from that required of an employee, as defined by the IRS.
It's much easier to amass the world's greatest fortune when you break the law, exploit and abuse other people, work your office staff to death, and generally behave in an manner that is indistinguishable from how a sociopath, or psychopath, behaves.
EDIT FOR DINGUS ^^^^^^^^^^^
Part of the impetus for taxi regulations was to ensure that criminals and rapists didn't drive around, looking for victims.
Uber, Lyft and other fake taxi services have had their share of the recent headlines about drivers attacking, raping, or otherwise committing crimes against their fares. A stolen car in the Bay Area was recently recovered four months after its theft, with 12,000 more miles on the odometer, and UBER stickers on the front and rear.
GO, KALANICK! GO, KALANICK! GO, KALANICK! GO, KALANICK!
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kunlun_shan
Mountain climber
SF, CA
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Dec 14, 2017 - 02:43pm PT
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I despise TNCs (transportation network companies) - Uber and Lyft for the increased traffic congestion they've created. "Ride sharing" sounds like a good idea and something like car pooling, but the result is lots of amateur drivers cruising around all day long and blocking the streets, especially during peak traffic hours. People use public transportation less, and call Uber or Lyft so they don't need to worry about parking. I live in SF and the street in front of my apartment building now has a long line of traffic morning, evenings and weekends, whereas a few years ago there were not many cars. Traffic lights are being installed where there used to be just stop signs.
Any city that does not yet have TNCs should send their city council members to ride around San Francisco for a week on bicycle to witness the traffic chaos we have. I mention bicycles as otherwise they'd simply be stuck in the gridlock never getting to see exactly who is creating the havoc - usually some Lyft or Uber driver stopped blocking a lane, or a long line of them with a single passenger in the backseat.
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Tom
Big Wall climber
San Luis Obispo CA
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Topic Author's Reply - Dec 14, 2017 - 02:53pm PT
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^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ TAMI ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
Part of Vancouver's housing problem, in the form of rapidly rising prices, is the influx of foreigners, specifically the wealthy children of (corrupt?) Chinese officials and business moguls. The immigration laws in Canada are favorable for those seeking to get their children, and their money, out of China. Real estate there, as in New York and Los Angeles, is a favored vehicle for laundering dirty money. People, like Trump, will take a suitcase full of cash in exchange for the title of a luxury condominium. Later, the condo can be sold legitimately for clean money. Using an offshore LLC as the buyer keeps everything in the dark.
How many more Ferraris and Lamborghinis do you see on the streets these days? There was an article in the New York Times recently about the situation in Vancouver.
As the petri dish fills to capacity, and the noose tightens, the conditions necessary for the reappearance of an Anti-Christ become more and more saturated.
 Sordidians 6:66
EDIT - My bad. My familiarity with the Even Newer Testament is not what it should be. I confused that salient passage as being in the Book of Dementhians, when, in fact, it actually appears in the Book of Sordidians. I changed my posting to correct the error.
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Gary
Social climber
Desolation Basin, Calif.
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Dec 14, 2017 - 03:28pm PT
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...exploit and abuse other people, work your office staff to death, and generally behave in an manner that is indistinguishable from how a sociopath, or psychopath, behaves.
Welcome to capitalism.
As for Uber and Lyft, LAX is now a hellhole thanks to them. You thought it was congested before?
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Lennox
climber
in the land of the blind
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Dec 14, 2017 - 03:32pm PT
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The SPCA Robo-Police were put to work to enforce that anarchy
I’m not an anarchist. I don’t think it can work as a system for a very large society, and it is incompatible with capitalism. I prefer a democratic republic with strong socialist influences and tightly regulated capitalism.
But my pet peeve is the common misuse of the term anarchy, when a better term might be chaos, barbarism or despotism.
Anarchy is not chaos or lawlessness. Hunter-gatherers live(d) in anarchy—free, cooperative, non-hierarchical, egalitarian groups organized around agreed upon rules and beliefs without force.
“Anarchy is law and freedom without force.
Despotism is law and force without freedom.
Barbarism force without freedom and law.
Republicanism is force with freedom and law.”
Immanuel Kant,
Anthropology from a Pragmatic Point of View
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Tom
Big Wall climber
San Luis Obispo CA
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Topic Author's Reply - Dec 14, 2017 - 03:59pm PT
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^^^^^^^^^^
I like the Kant quote. I copied and pasted into my store of written wisdom.
I misused the word "anarchy" above. I mistook it to mean lawlessness. It means "social structure without heirarchy". I am only partially literate, apparently. Mi dispiace. Lo siento.
TAMI - I had to go back to work for a bit, but came back to read the rest of your rant.
Thoughts:
Isla Vista, AKA UC Santa Barbara, has solved the problem of bicycles taking up precious indoor space in the limited and expensive student housing. There are piles of common-use bicycles deposited around the neighborhood. You grab one, run to the store to restock the Speed Quarters Open tournament, and then throw the bike back onto the pile. Typically, freshmen will arrive with a bike given to them as a present by parents, and then contribute it to the pile. Apparently, the mechanically-inclined within the population altruistically contribute to the pile by fixing flat tires and loose drive chains.
Densification pressure has always been an issue in favored locales. For just one example, in Aspen, Colorado, Hunter S. Thompson ran for Sheriff of Pitkin County in 1970 as an obnoxious distraction so that his friend (name?) could effectively run for supervisor, and be a voice against the "greedheads" who wanted the development to occur as fast as possible. One of the California Coastal Commission's primary roles in society is to perform the same function, and put the brakes on converting the highly desirable coastline into wall-to-wall housing and strip malls.
Purdue Pharma, a family-owned private corporation, engaged in a sales-rep-from-hell marketing campaign of encouraging doctors to begin prescribing oxycotin (a drug patented by Purdue) for mild to moderate pain. The North American opioid crisis can be 100% correlated with the sales history of oxycotin. Purdue falsified the FDA tests for oxycotin, which they claimed relieved pain for 12 hours, when it actually only worked for six to eight hours; during the drug trials, test subjects were administered other pain relievers, as part of the fraud. In the real world, patients would experience relief, then agony, then relief, then agony, which cycle was highly conducive to addiction to oxycotin, and subsequent seeking of of substitutes, including heroin, when the prescription ran out.
People in New York City, especially Manhattan, have been living in tiny spaces for a long time. Beds that hinge up against the wall, kitchens that double as living rooms and basement storage for personal property have been common there for decades. I live in a tiny space, and it is surprising just how little space a person really needs. Four people in a two-thousand square foot house is relatively extravagant, all things considered. There was a rental listed in San Francisco that was featured in the SF Chronicle a couple of years ago, that comprised a crawl space under a house, about 100 square feet, about six feet high, with a single light-bulb, that was about $1500 per month. The newspaper article's author indicated that it was not at all clear if the listing was satirical commentary on the local housing situation, or if it was intended as legitimate housing for someone who spent 18 hours per day at their job at a start-up company, and only needed a tiny crash pad.
One of the reasons New York City is considered (by some) to be the Greatest City in the World is the proximity of the lesser boroughs to Manhattan, and the well-developed mass transit system. Bridge and Tunnel People can work in The City (Manhattan) but live in less expensive, but accessible places like Brooklyn, Staten Island, and the Bronx. By contrast, Los Angeles' corresponding situation comprises far-off sprawl adjacent to the notorious freeways, with the 101 being rated the worst in the world, that have rush-hour traffic that moves at a glacial pace (glacial = climbing related, Chris Mac 8-).
I have to get back to the physical world, now, and make parts.
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seano
Mountain climber
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Dec 14, 2017 - 06:24pm PT
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Thanks for the on-the-ground report, Tami! I read something about Vancouver's investment-property woes a couple of years ago, and it has always struck me as a place I want to drive through as quickly as possible. I was a bit surprised to find that Squamish and Abbotsford don't seem like horrible bedroom communities yet, but I imagine it's only a matter of time.
I have been lucky enough to stay away from the Bay Area for almost 20 years now, but I remember how insane it was at the tail end of the last dot-com bubble, and shudder to think what it's like now. Seattle is turning into 2000's Bay Area, though, and I can only assume that Vancouver is next as the rot spreads north. If I lived there, I'd consider cashing out and escaping to some city in the BC interior, which seems to have plenty of space.
Funny aside: I drove over that cool new bridge while passing through Vancouver a few years ago, and couldn't figure out how to pay the toll, since there are no cash toll booths. I didn't want to get lost in residential streets finding my way around, so I just ignored it and figured it would get ignored in turn. A year later, I got a polite bill in the mail from the company operating the bridge, sent to a rental address where I had only lived for a few months, asking for less than $10. I thought for a minute about the effort required to read my dirty US plate with their LPR, look it up in some database, and send me an international letter, then laughed and happily paid the money. Vancouver and your border guards may suck, but Canadians are awesome.
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Ghost
climber
A long way from where I started
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Dec 14, 2017 - 07:37pm PT
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Seattle is turning into 2000's Bay Area, though, and I can only assume that Vancouver is next as the rot spreads north.
It's the other way 'round. Vancouver was hit first, and Seattle followed.
I was a bit surprised to find that Squamish and Abbotsford don't seem like horrible bedroom communities yet, but I imagine it's only a matter of time.
They may not be horrible bedroom communities, but have you looked at house prices in Squamish?
The real estate tsunami that hit Vancouver has spread in all directions. It may be foreigners driving up house prices in Vancouver, but you have to think beyond that to grasp the full impact. Suppose you have a house in the greater Vancouver area. Maybe you paid $150K or $200K for it twenty years ago. And now, as you're thinking about retirement, it's worth $1.5 million.
Well, that's great, but what do you do when you sell it? Anything you might want in your home city is just as expensive, so you have to move away. But most people don't want to move very far away, so they buy a place in the surrounding region -- Abbotsford or Squamish in this case.
But follow that path for a few years and you can see the tsunami roll through the nearby towns and cities, then further and further out.
Everything within easy reach of Vancouver, including the Hwy 99 corridor at least as far as Pemberton, all the way out the Fraser Valley, and pretty much the whole east coast of Vancouver Island, has doubled or tripled (or more) in price over the last few years.
Seattle has been at least five years, maybe a bit more, behind Vancouver, but the same thing is happening there now. Same as the Bay Area twenty years ago, and probably as far back as one can go in recorded history. I expect people in Rome 2,000 years ago were probably talking about how what had happened in Athens hundreds of years before was now hitting them.
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David Knopp
Trad climber
CA
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Dec 14, 2017 - 10:12pm PT
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Dingus sorry for the late reply-in this case i wish stopo had a direct response, threaded comment function-about the homeward bound program-that is a purely voluntary program that reunites homeless people with family members. May only work in the short term but its not just busing the problem away-that's what i assumed Lituya was referring to.
As far as SF sucking or not-all you folks(not you kunlun shan) bitching about how dirty congested full of homeless-whatever, it's my home, i grew up here, it's what made me who i am-and feel damn lucky it happened here not anywhere else. And it's still amazing-today i woke at dawn, took the train to the embacardero in the chilly morning, listened to some music in my headphones while i walked a few blocks along the water to a commercial bakery, picked up still warm sour baguettes, made with a historically old starter, for my catering gigs, walked a good mile in the shady cold to a friend's newly opened cafe on 6th at Jessie, a skanky neighborhood if ever, had amazing coffee and hung out with the guys who built it. Then 30 mins later i was running with my dog on the beach, in view of the golden gate, no one round. Later we heard the coyotes howl a block from my house-there was a puma there last week!
So yeah, it sucks here but i love it. Probably never leave.
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kunlun_shan
Mountain climber
SF, CA
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Dec 14, 2017 - 10:44pm PT
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David, I love living in SF! Moved here from Vancouver, BC 24 years ago....for just 2 years to go to school, and am still here. As DMT said, both cities have similar problems, though when I visit Vancouver's Downtown Eastside I'm much more horrified than in the Tenderloin or anywhere else in SF. I can afford to live in SF only because of rent control and a lease started in 1994. Vancouver is now unaffordable for me. Two beautiful cities on the ocean - the only places I know which I can comfortably call home. Similar to you, a few days ago I heard and then saw a coyote while late night biking through GG Park to Ocean Beach. So cool they are here in the midst of the City. Life goes on :-)
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Tom
Big Wall climber
San Luis Obispo CA
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Topic Author's Reply - Dec 15, 2017 - 12:27am PT
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Forget the Robo-Cops - - - - - - - - - here comes Robo-Hooker.
ROBO-SLUT MOLESTED IN AUSTRIA
"BARBARIANS" TOOK THE ROBOTIC SEX SLAVE TO A PLACE TOO FAR
A robotic sex doll named "Samantha" was programmed to respond libidinously to gentle seduction. But, while on display to the public in Austria, overzealous men savagely ravaged the electronic super-model, breaking two of her fingers and "heavily soiling" her face and hair.
Samantha's breasts, buttocks and other body parts were damaged by enthusiastic grabbing, groping, pulling and thrusting. Her creator, Sergi Santos, said that Samantha's A.I. programming was still fully intact, and that she will be ready for more action after some minor cosmetic repair.
The inventor says that the sex doll was designed to endure abuse. “Samantha can endure a lot, she will pull through,” he said, according to the British tabloid.
The Daily Star reports the inventor has sold 15 versions of Samantha at about $4,000 a pop (no pun intended).
ROBOTIC SEX DOLL MOLESTED AT AUSTRIAN ELECTRONICS SHOW
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couchmaster
climber
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Dec 15, 2017 - 07:42am PT
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If you send Samantha out there to roust the street folks Tom, I suspect she'd come back dripping like a freshly glazed donut.
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Ghost
climber
A long way from where I started
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Dec 15, 2017 - 10:13am PT
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My experience in Seattle very much mirrors David Knopp's and Kunlu Shan's in SF. I moved here from Vancouver fifteen years ago to take a job, expecting to head back north in a couple of years. But I fell in love with the place and am still here.
Are there problems? Of course there are. Pretty much any large city has problems. But then, so do most small cities, large towns, and small towns.
Most people can't see past the pictures of the homeless encampments, or the junkies huddled in the alleys, or whatever. But when you think about it a little more deeply, the picture changes. If life in whatever small place you love so much is so great, why don't more young people move there? Why are your neighbors all old? Why? Because there are not enough jobs for people of working age. If you grew up in that wonderful town, and are now a twenty-something, what are your options?
Sure, there are some exceptions, but most small places, however wonderful you find them, have nothing for the young. So they leave, and are replaced by that retired couple that bought the place down the block from you for ten times what it would have sold for a generation ago.
And the population of the big places swells. And the house prices and rents climb. And the tent cities grow.
As it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be.
And, yeah, I'm leaving Seattle next year to a place we bought in one of those wonderful little towns...
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