Le Blog Exuberance //

The many sides of the "housing crisis" — it’s later than you think in California and Texas

We bemoan the loss of pristine nature.

We cherish it, enshrine it in national parks, visit it, protect it, photograph it, promote it.

And yet will will lose more and more of it, because that is the way things go.

More and more people, with our ravenous appetites for novelty. New continents, new forests, new ports, new riches to harvest, new people to conquer.

A smaller world in 2008 than in 1492.

All the gifts of Nature, it seems, are to be brought under the whip of Mankind.

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The Unforeseen, executive produced by Terrence Malick and Robert Redford, premiered at the 2007 Sundance Film Festival. Called “the best film at the festival, hands down,” the film documents the struggles between development and preservation of Austin Texas.

 

View the trailer, reviews and latest news at  http://www.theunforeseenfilm.com.

2008 Theater Showings:
March 7 - Boston - Kendall Square Cinema
March 14 - Los Angeles - NuArt
March 14 - San Francisco - Lumiere
March 14 - Berkeley, CA - Shattuck
March 28 - Austin, TX - Alamo South Lamar
April 4 - Seattle, WA - Varsity
April 11 - Denver, CO - Landmark
April 18 - Philadelphia, PA - Ritz Theater
April 18 - San Diego, CA - Ken Cinema
May 17 - Columbus, OH - Wexner Center for the Arts
more cities coming soon....

And another movie about suburban sprawl: Radiant City.

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And in today's Los Angeles Times: “A stoic little town faces tomorrow. A massive housing project may mean the end for Neenach, in the Antelope Valley.” Be sure to watch the Times's video, which is beautifully produced and photographed. They simply listen in on some of the folksy wisdom of Sigfried Carrle, a 76 year old man who moved out to this rural setting in Los Angeles County years ago.

Listen to a discussion on KCRW radio today, where they speak with New York Times business columnist Gretchen Morgenson:

The Housing Crisis Is Eating America's Economy
Home foreclosure may become an industry in itself. Today's New York Times features a California company called You Walk Away, which is looking for clients whose mortgages are now worth more than their houses, so they can't refinance to meet rising payments. For less than a thousand dollars, You Walk Away will show them how to deliver their problems back to the bank by foreclosure. Part of the problem is the idea that housing is not just a place to live, but a gold-plated investment whose value just keeps going up. What goes up must come down, leaving tens of thousands of people with increased payments on loans worth more than their houses. Are greedy banks and investors at fault? What about homebuyers themselves? And what's the impact on an economy that depends on consumer spending?

Don't tell me you didn't see this coming.

 

Technorati Tags: Austin, nature, oil, OilAddiction, overpopulation, pollution, sprawl, suburb, suburbansprawl, Texas, TheUnforseen, traffic

Lunar Eclipse of 20 February 2008, from San Francisco

Turned out that Wednesday, Feb. 20, 2008, was a good evening for an eclipse. In the middle of a series of rain storms, the weather cleared for a while in San Francisco and right on schedule the full moon arose in the east, already obscured by Earth's shadow. Here it is, viewed from San Francisco's Potrero Hill. Also, check out my photos of the Aug. 28, 2007 lunar eclipse.

The Independence leaves port for the last time: a great white hulk of imperial excesses

This ship, the Independence, has been in drydock for years at San Francisco's Pier 70 shipyard. It's fated to be cut up for scrap. While the average sentient being was “watching” the “Superbowl” (*gag*), I was out tooling around the exceptionally quiet City on my bike (thank you for not driving those few hours, ya gas-addicted whores). A few days later, the ship was towed out of the bay, probably to be scrapped in Asia. So goes the waste of the the world's rich.

• Last U.S. ocean liner heads into the unknown — San Francisco Chronicle
• History and old postcard photos of the Independence
• Flickr photos of the Independence leaving San Francisco Bay, 2008

Technorati Tags: cruiseship, Independence, SanFrancisco, SanFranciscoBay, ship

Helicopter rescues surfer in Pacifica

We were walking at the beach in Pacifica today when a  rescue helicopter swooped in to pluck a surfer out of the ocean.

From the San Mateo County Times, Feb. 11, 2008:

“A Brazilian teen who misjudged the movement of the tide on Sunday had to be rescued by a Coast Guard helicopter as he sat on his surfboard at sea, according to officials.”

 

What I don't understand is why the City of Pacifica doesn't have a police boat that can pick up distressed surfers.  The helicopter was overkill, me thinks.

Technorati Tags: California, emergency, helicopter, Pacifica, rescue, surfer

Hunter's Point Power Plant: demolition death

Catastrophic demolition accident at old PG&E plant (30 January 2008, San Francisco Bay View National Black Newspaper, by Tonja Muhammad):

“The untimely collapse of a steel structure at the old Hunters Point PG&E Power Plant on Evans Avenue caused the death of one demolition project worker and serious injury to two others Monday. Two five-story boiler towers were being prepared to be brought down when the collapse happened.”

The (big, bad) machine in the garden.

• Hunter's Point Power Plant  being decommissioned, San Francisco, Heron's Head Park
• PG&E Hunters Point Power Plant Dismantlement and Abatement
• Hunters Point Power Plant Controversy in Bay Nature magazine, 2006: "In the late 1990s, when local residents started to question their abnormally high rates of cancer and other afflictions, the San Francisco Health Department began studies that revealed some frightening statistic — Bayview-Hunters Point residents were suffering from twice the average U.S. rate of asthma, cervical, and breast cancer, and had hospitalization rates that were three times the national rate for congestive heart failure, hypertension, and emphysema. Bayview-Hunters Point and the bordering neighborhood of Potrero Hill also had noticeably higher rates of bronchitis and other upper respiratory diseases in children."

 

Technorati Tags: demolition, energy, HuntersPoint, PG&E, PowerPlant, PowerStation, SanFrancisco

Support KCRW 89.9 fm Santa Monica

I love that radio station too much. Once again, Jason Bentley takes me to the moon with his Metropolis program, followed on by the equally dope Nocturna, hosted by Los Angeles native Raul Campos. Talk about shaping my musical perception: I've listened to KCRW regularly since 1985!

» Support KCRW «

{The scene: Syar Industries, Inc. Lake Herman Quarry, Vallejo, California. Rock products and asphaltic paving materials. The thought: man, I love this winter light. Taken on Sunday December 16, 2007, returning  to San Francisco from Sacramento.}

Technorati Tags: kcrw, quarry, vallejo