9.14.2007
"The results surprise even this surreal estate connoisseur."
Argh. It looks we weren't alone in fighting this dreadfull rental market in San Francisco. From today's Chronicle: What's behind the current hot San Francisco rental market?
When Garner began culling the data a year ago, rents might have been high for the average graduate student but they were relatively stable. But in the past few months, the rents seem to have shot up. Average one-bedrooms, which hovered around $1,770 between September 2006 and April 2007, now go for about $1,980. And though two-bedroom prices dropped from about $2,600 in October 2006 to about $2,400 in February of 2007, they have since catapulted up to over $2,900. By the same token, three-bedrooms, which hit an annual bottom at around $2,950 in November 2006, rose to around $3,800 in August.
Sounds like a great city to raise a family, huh? Or not. Perhaps this partially explains why so many dogs have their day here.
There are an estimated 120,000 dogs in San Francisco, according to the city's Animal Care and Control department. There are anywhere from 108,000 to 113,000 children, according to U.S. census figures from 2000 and 2005.
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Dogs dominate in part because it's becoming increasingly impossible for parents to afford to live in San Francisco -- 1,000 students disappear from the public schools each year. Also, a large percentage of the city's gay couples are choosing canines over kids, said Laura Cavaluzzo, San Francisco editor of urbanhound.com.
But, back to the rental market, I can't explain how terrible it was trying to go about landing an apartment this summer. It was amazing (and moreover, ridiculous) attending apartment showings only to have to compete with between 20-50 people treading through a tiny studio or "junior 1 bedroom." This article primarily speculates that the recent real estate fallout (i.e. interest rate increases and iffy variable-rate loans leading to home foreclosures) is what is fueling the increase, but I'm quite sure that there is a marked increase in demand with the summertime wave of recent college grads heading into the city--most people we ran into while on the hunt were 20-somethings looking for an affordable place (of which there are none). A rental guru from the city agrees:
The aggressive run-up in rentals, he says, is reflective of the robust Bay Area economy -- which has hired a new crop of young workers primarily looking for a studio or one-bedroom apartment.
On the plus side, I guess if we ever do move outside the city, life will seem a lot easier and a LOT more affordable. But for now, we're just thrilled to have a place.Labels: dogs, economics, housing, san francisco
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1.23.2007
SOTU:
8:15 - Cheney already looks like he wants to shoot somebody (in the face...of course).
8:18 - Balance budget...hmm, will be a $10 Trillion nation debit...$8 trillion of which under just three presidents - Reagan, Bush, and Bush
8:18 - Balanced the budget...three years ahead of schedule...if you don't count Iraq
8:21 - Are all the people there reading along? (do you think the "applause" breaks are highlighted?)
8:23 - I see Obama
8:24 - Tax breaks on the first $15M of health care costs only works if you make more than $15M
8:26 - Is Pelosi trying to make it VERY obvious when she is/is not clapping
8:29 - Energy-notice he always says FOREIGN oil (clean coal my ass)
8:31 - Reduce gas usage by 20% in ten years...that seems like very little over a very long time
8:32 - Double the capacity of the SPR...through drilling?
8:33 - Did he say global climate change...I didn't think he knew what that was (or didn't believe in it)
8:34 - Domestic policy done...on to Iraq
8:35 - "Take the fight to the enemy"..."Staying on the offense"
8:36 - I think he is about to play the "it could be worse" card
8:36 - And there it is
8:39 - He is drawing one big circle around any thing he doesn't like and calling it terrorist...not that there aren't a variety of terrorist organization, but in his mind it seems so simple if they disagree with him, they must be terrorists (with us or against us).
8:41 - Condi looks piiissssed
8:42 - McCain is asleep
8:44 - Define "victory"
8:47 - Wealth of Iraw into rebuilding of Iraq...and into the pockets of the war profiteers
8:48 - Violence could spill out around the country...its not already
8:49 - smirk
8:50 - He just tied not supporting the escallation to not supporting the troops...classy
8:51 - Special counsel to advise on terror? Haven't we had a few of those that the Repubs have ignored in the past?
8:52 - Civillian specialists...aren't those called mercinaries?
8:54 - Is he basically calling out everyone in the world who doesn't like us?
8:54 - AIDS in Africa...was the Red Product thing what clued him in?
8:57 - Dikembe Mutombo - K?!?
9:00 - Wesley Autrey...he''s pointing a lot...was that a chest pound?
9:02 - smirk
Totals:
49 minutes
62 applause breaksLabels: economics, George W Bush, politics, State of the Union
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1.19.2007
Not So Silly Brits
I realize we always laugh at those silly Brits for having terrible food. But now they're laughing at us--because of our water. The San Francisco Chronicle's David Lazarus explains:
In early 2004, Coca-Cola launched its Dasani brand of bottled water in Britain. Dasani had already established itself as one of the most popular bottled waters in the United States.
Within weeks, however, Coke had a disaster in the making. The British press discovered that Dasani was nothing more than processed tap water and ran a series of indignant stories suggesting that consumers were being hoodwinked by the U.S. beverage giant. ... The water was quickly withdrawn from store shelves and plans were canceled to market Dasani elsewhere in Europe, which to this day remains a Dasani-free zone.
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Be that as it may, most Americans are probably unaware that Dasani, like many bottled waters sold in the United States, doesn't originate from pristine mountain springs; it starts in the same pipes that run into people's kitchens.
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As I reported in Wednesday's column, Americans spent an estimated $11 billion last year drinking 8.3 billion gallons of bottled water.
That means the average American consumed almost 28 gallons of Dasani, Aquafina, Evian or hundreds of other brands -- more than any other commercial beverage except soda. More than milk. More than coffee. More than beer.
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The leading bottled water brand in the United States is PepsiCo's Aquafina, followed by Coke's Dasani. Each does more than $1 billion in annual sales, according to Beverage Marketing Corp.
Both Aquafina and Dasani, as well as many other bottled-water brands sold in stores and supermarkets, are what the FDA calls purified water. Purified water comes from the same municipal pipes that everyone else's water comes from.
The difference is that purified water undergoes any of a variety of filtration treatments to remove chlorine and most dissolved solids.
"It's municipal-source water that's been purified," explained Hemphill at Beverage Marketing Corp.
In other words, tap water.
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The irony is that, while the packaging of purified water frequently evokes natural settings and often features the word "pure," it is distinct from ordinary tap water precisely because it has been run through sophisticated machinery.
It is, in other words, anything but natural. Industry representatives generally make no pretense of claiming that purified water is better for consumers than most tap water.
Judging by the $11 billion we spend on water, it appears as if "private water" has officially taken off. And unfortunately, the next step is the privatization of our municipal water systems, as detailed in this piece in Mother Jones Magazine and this very interesting essay in the Utne Reader.
Less attention has been paid to another effect of branded water: It advances a corporate agenda to privatize public drinking supplies. "Bottled water is getting people into the habit of paying an awful lot more for their drinking water," says Tony Clarke, author of "Inside the Bottle," a book-length expose of the industry published in 2005... As much, in fact, as 10,000 times what they pay for tap water.
In 2003 the world's three largest for-profit water services corporations, France's Suez and Vivendi (now Veolia) and Germany's RWE-Thames, announced their goal to take control of 70 percent of U.S. and Canadian public water utilities within 10 years. By conditioning people to pay more for water than they do for gasoline, Clarke argues, the industry undermines confidence in public water utilities, setting the stage for privatization.
While we're talking about water, here are some interesting stats on water consumption from the Utne Reader:
We Are Water
o Percentage of the human body that is water: 70
o Number of days the average person can survive without water: 3
Tree Hitters
o Percentage of daily water use saved during Sigmota, Sweden's annual Pee Outside Day: 50
The Wet & Dry
Amount of water used each day by:
o Households with dishwashers, washing machines, and sprinklers: 1,000 liters
o Households with piped-in tap water: 100-300 liters
o Households using a public water hydrant: 20-70 liters
o Households using a distant water source: 2-5 liters.
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1.18.2007
"We make almost no money off our recordings themselves."
There's an interesting interview at NPR about the Boston's Dresden Dolls, the leading purveyors of "Brechtian Punk Cabaret." If you aren't familiar with the group, watch the delightful Coin-Operated Boy or the more recent Sing. Anywho, the band had some interesting things to say about the economics of being an indie-rock band.
The Dresden Dolls are a band on the verge of making it. Unless, of course, they don't. They've been touring almost full time for years, playing to ever-larger crowds and opening for some big-name bands. They've toured with Nine Inch Nails. But even at that level, it's very tough for a band to make enough money to survive. Just renting a tour bus costs $1,000 a day, including the cost of gas and a driver.
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And as the crowds grew, they managed to get signed a good-sized record label — which sounds good, but Palmer says it doesn't pay much.
"We make almost no money off our recordings themselves," she says.
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Like many bands, the Dresden Dolls get a royalty that works out to about $1 per CD. But before a band gets to see any of that, it has to sell enough CDs to cover all of the label's production expenses, which can amount to hundreds of thousands of dollars. Most bands never sell enough CDs to dig out of that hole. So even as bands get bigger, they have to tour constantly to earn all they can from ticket sales.
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Palmer and Viglione might be budding rock stars, but they're still pretty broke. They have to pay their road crew three to four times what they pay themselves — which is a modest $1,500 a month. Remember, this a band that has toured with Nine Inch Nails.
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At bigger shows, the Dresden Dolls can take in more than $1,000 a night selling merchandise, which makes the "merch table" a major source of income whey they're on the road. Of course, venues try to take as big a cut of that as they can. Palmer says that leads to regular screaming matches between bands and venue managers.
"The reason the shirts are sold for $25 and $35 is that the venue takes a giant, whopping percentage," she says. "Sometimes, they'll try to take a larger percentage than what's in the contract, and you have to whip out the contract and get into these arguments."
Interesting stuff. Moral of the story - if you want to support your favorite bands, go see live shows and buy some merchandise. Or better yet, buy some merchandise straight from the artist via their own website.
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