Firestorm: The Great Los Angeles Fires and America’s New Age of Disaster

Firestorm: The Great Los Angeles Fires and America’s New Age of Disaster by Jacob Soboroff

A reporter found himself in LA reporting on his hometown of Pacific Palisades burning down. The book tries to straddle the line between detachment and heavy involvement. There are reminiscences of the past in the area as well as jabs at Trump. The fires came right around the transition from Biden to Trump so there is ample time to poke fun of Trump's obsessions. (Many seemed to start off with a rational point and then go off the rails with hairbrained solutions.) The fires come across as surprisingly non-dramatic in the book. There was a lot of hard work and creeping into deserted areas, but not much of the expected personal drama. Maybe we have just become too spoiled with the disaster genres.

Dragon Hoops

Dragon Hoops by Gene Luen Yang

The author has always been a bit nerdy and preferred to focus on his comics. He never saw the fascination that other people had with sports, but he couldn't resist the enthusiasm that people had. He decided to talk with coach. He discovered that he was as relatable guy and was once a gangly teenager. The team is great and has made it to the state championship game many times, but has never won. He became smitten by the basketball team. He decides to write his book on their season.

The book goes through the basketball season and ties in school and basketball history. He tries to go in depth with many of the players. The histories are fairly positive, with the players feeling friendly and well-grounded. The team is mostly black, with a future NBA player. However, there are also other players, including a white "redneck", a Punjabi and Chinese student. They endure some racial taunts, but rub it off. The book mostly covers the on-court struggles of the team, together with the challenges of the author and his life. There are even notes at the end of the graphic novel. Some players are great and anticipate future experience playing basketball, while others are looking more at the "student" part of it. It ends as a nice happy sports-story ending.

Golden Gates: Fighting for Housing in America

Golden Gates: Fighting for Housing in America by Conor Dougherty

Housing has become too expensive. Zoning regulations make building difficult. Many people are living on the streets because there is no place they can afford to live. What should we do? Golden Gates focuses on attempts in San Francisco and California to improve the housing situation.

San Francisco is an extremely liberal city with some of the most expensive housing in the country. People want to move to the city for the many job opportunities. When this happened in the per-War age, cities such as Chicago and New York built up huge tracts fo dense housing. Alas, it is more challenging in San Francisco today. The different types of liberals often work against each other to prevent new housing. Preservationists want to keep the historic character of neighborhoods. They may mention fears of "gentrification" to stymie development. Housing advocates will sometimes fight against anything that is not 100% affordable housing. Environmentalists fear the environmental impacts of new housing. Those supporting new housing are typically the developers and unions that benefit from the act of construction. The voice of "future residents" are almost never heard.

Some people have stepped in to start to advocate for growth. Any development can be good. The difficulty of building housing makes developers concentrate on high end housing. Making development easier would allow for greater diversity in development. The high end of today is what will be the lower priced housing in the future. 

Rent control may benefit current renters, but it often has negative impacts on supply and future renters.

One issue is that today housing is viewed as an investment, not just a place to live. Thus people are more concerned with the impacts on property values. We have many subsidies for buyers, yet it is becoming increasingly difficult to buy.

California has gone through a few different phases of development. In the post-war era, the state focussed on building. Many cities and suburbs sprang up on vacant land with the state helping with the infrastructure (such as water projects.) Then things turned and zoning laws discouraged development. Now there is a shift to encourage more development in part by taking some control away form communities.

The book details stories of fights for housing legislation, as well as the advocacy for San Francisco development and the fight to support apartments in tony Lafayette. the stories combine to show a picture of what can be done to help with housing in the near future. However, the author is cautious to note that there have been many "solutions" that have not panned out. We will see what the future holds now.

Island of the Blue Dolphins

Island of the Blue Dolphins is based on the true story of a girl that was left behind on an island off the California Coast. A band of otter hunters massacred many of her people. Those remaining went on a ship to the mainland. However, her brother did not make it. She jumped off to find him. After a short time on the island, her brother died. She continued to live on the island, surviving with what little she had. Many years later, a ship came to take her to the mainland. 

The story takes some liberties with the actual story. But, it is hard to know the details. She was the last speaker of her language. None of her people remained. She herself died of dysentery a few weeks after she arrived on the mainland. Today, the island is uninhabited. It seems a sad end to a people that may have been on their last leg. Could more have been done to save the way of life? Would it be worth it?

Ghosts Of Gold Mountain: The Epic Story of the Chinese Who Built the Transcontinental Railroad

The Chinese were instrumental in building the transcontinental railroad. Without their labor and industriousness, the railroad would have never been completed when it was. Alas, very little is known about their history. Ghosts of Gold Mountain attempts to remedy this. Alas, because few detailed records are available, the book is mostly a recitation of facts and occasional anecdotes. There is no life story that we can follow to understand the life of the Chinese laborer.

The story we have is that of men that came from southern China. Travel from there to California took a similar amount of time as travel from the Eastern US. They worked together and often stayed together with other Chinese. There were very few Chinese women. Men came as gold prospectors and later laborers. Many died, but we have difficulty getting an exact number. They were much more reliable on railroad construction than many white laborers (yet were paid less.)

After the completion of the transcontinental railroad, they were lauded as the next great laborers. They could replace the freed slaves on plantations. They were hired to build many other railroads. They were seen as the next great immigrant group and expected to play a key role in American society. However, this optimism quickly fell away. It was replaced by an even worse discrimination. Chinese were denied citizenship, prevented from immigrating and killed. It wasn't until after World War 2 that the Chinese Exclusion Act was ended.

All My Rage: A Novel

Sabaa Tahir had previously written the Ember in the Ashes series set in fantasy Rome-like world. All My Rage feels like it fits right in the series - except that it takes place in modern California. The characters feel very similar to those in the fantasy series. I liked this book more because I found it easier to relate to contemporary California than a fictional ancient world. This novel even has its version of "magic" at the end. (The magic isn't fantasy "supernatural", but instead a string of coincidences and actions that felt implausible, yet provide the "satisfying" ending.)

The novel centers around a group of high school students living out in the Mojave desert. The female lead (Noor) came from Pakistan after her family was killed. She lives with an uncle that can be cruel and desires that she stay to work in a liquor store rather than go to college. The male lead (Salahudin)has decided to sell opioids to help his hotel-owning family through financial hard times. The other characters are bit players to be foils to the leads (such as the racists valedictorian, the single mother drug addict). There is a huge amount of suffering to go around, both external and internal. I felt sympathy for the characters as they tried to navigate situations and cringes when they made mistakes. 

How to Ru(i)n a Record Label: The Story of Lookout Records

My introduction to Lookout Records occurred when a friend played "Going to Pasalacqua" on his car tape deck. I loved the song. This friend played a lot of indie music, but Green Day was the one that stood out. I listened to a dubbed copy of their early music before I finally found a 1,039/Smoothed Out Slappy Hours at the local independent music store. They were my "indie band". I saw them live a couple of times when touring for Kerplunk! (One show had maybe 50 people in attendance. I got a ride with the opening band, so ended up hanging out with the Green Day as the opening act was performing.) Green Day put on a great performance. I did feel they would probably hit it big, but would likely move on from the band that I had fallen in love with.

Lookout was perhaps the only record label that I would seek out. I knew of Operation Ivy. (They were quite big among the high school crowd.) I also had Mr. T Experience on a regular rotation. I was somewhat distraught when told in 2000 that the East Bay scene was not what it used to be.

Larry Livermore traces his view of the history of the East Bay music scene. He had a band called the Lookouts (which included the future Green Day drummer, Tre Cool.) He was living "off grid" in far Northern California, but would come down to play in the Bay Area. The seeds of the movement were set with Tim Yohannan and Maximum Rocknroll. This covered the punk scene and also earned enough to help fund the setup of 924 Gilman in Berkeley. This all-ages, volunteer run venue became the home to the East Bay punk scene. Livermore also created a "Lookout" magazine about the local music.

When it came time to record a record, the name "Lookout" was used since it already had some recognition. Livermore founded the label with David Hayes after impulsively offering to produce a record for Operation Ivy. The label gradually grew. Hayes left and Livermore brought in a few others to help with it. Things were small for some time. It was based out of his "off grid" location. Later he moved into town, with the label being run out of his $100/month rent controlled apartment. It was very DIY,  even as it became more popular. The label tried to have a tight focus on good bands with the right "sound". The business side was mostly run by Livermore, with two others helping out. This was likely the condition of things when Green Day was having supply problems.

After Green Day hit it big on a major label, their back catalog was in high demand. Suddenly Lookout was raking in money. East Bay pop-punk was the next big thing, and all the bands also got a boost. Bands were eager to be associated with Lookout and majors were looking for the next Green Day. Now would have been the ideal time to cash out. However, Livermore desired to hold to the indie spirit. Lookout instead would die a slow painful death.

The problems started with adding employees. They added one employee. Then needed bigger office space. Soon a number of employees and a store followed. There were more expenses. Then there was Screeching Weasel. Ben Weasel wanted money to buy a house. The advance was too much for Lookout. Instead he went to another label. Then he started accusing Lookout of Withholding royalties. Livermore thought Lookout was on the good side, and was going to follow legal advice to seek a declaratory judgement. One of his employees said he would live if he did. Livermore could not handle that and resigned himself, turning the label over to him. Things went downhill from there. Catalog sales slowed. The label spent more trying to find the next big thing. Eventually, they started withholding payments. Record contracts stated any band could leave if royalties were more than 6 months late. With most of the money making bands gone, there is little hope of the label living on. 

The book is a well written history of the punk music scene. It was mostly made up of kids. (There was even talk of people "growing out" of the music as they enter college.) There are various internal struggles and ego battles, along with ideology dogmatism. It feels like a happy pop-punk song, full of energy and optimism, but not devoid of conflict. It is easy to feel present in the music scene, adopting the parts that feel best. Livermore presents himself as a hard worker, yet owns up to his mistakes.

Family Trust

Family Trust seemed so familiar, yet so different. Taiwanese families in Silicon Valley have their unique culture. This is very well portrayed and familiar in the book. The book does take things to a soap opera extreme. I guess that is needed to make a good story. 

A family is in a messy situation. Grandpa is nearing the end of his life. He has been divorced and married to a younger "gold digger" wife. The family thinks he has a few millions and want to make sure they get their share. Meanwhile, other marriages are breaking apart with affairs. Work is unfulfilling. Many of the family members have well paid jobs, but feel like they have not managed to come close to the fortune that they were expecting. 

The characters are well developed. Just when you are ready to toss out one as pure evil, you get their side of the story. Suddenly, you discover that they have good motives and are in fact protecting people from others. The portrayal of the South Bay is spot on. There is a lot of money sloshing around. It often ends up with those that are lucky (or corrupt) rather than those that most deserve it.

Why governments should never be allowed to design webapps

At the end of December, California sent out a letter stating:

"Providing you convenient online services is important to us. Our highest priority is protecting your tax information"
Then they state they will be deactivating existing myFTB account and requiring registration with a new account.

OK, so they are enhancing security. It makes sense. But how do they do it?

Well, they require the annoying security questions that you must chose from. And the answers have to be at least three characters long. (If your second grade teacher happened to be Po, you are out of luck.) And don't you dare change your favorite book, or call your first childhood crush by a nickname. Alas, this idiocy has become common place in the name of "security". (Thus scammers would have to go through the hassle of scanning somebody's facebook profile to break into their account.)

From there, it asks for numeric digits of your address, zip code and tax information. And then it barfs out because it doesn't like something. It doesn't matter that the information matches what California sent, it still doesn't like it. What do you do?

Well, there is a support link. Only, chat is broken and secure email requires you to have an account. And phone? Well, you can try, but typically all circuits are too busy to respond to your call. Great. How about website support? There actually is a simple web form. Yeah! Fill it out, and it complains that special characters are not allowed. What are special characters? In this case, a quotation mark.

Lovely California. Just lovely.

---

(1/13 update) And to add to the dumbness:
Tried the super secure form again. It requires you to answer all those dumb security questions and enter all this information about yourself. Then only at the end to you play the game of "match the numbers" to see if you could create an account. Why isn't this the first step? If you fail this final step everything done previously is useless. Uggh!

But, if you are unable to register, you can still make payments. However, they don't make this easy either.

They specifically disable copying and pasting in their form fields. You would think it would be more accurate to simply paste account information, right? Nope. Instead, you have to manually type it. The html source identifies the trickery.

 oncopy="return false;" onpaste="return false;" type="text" 

Somebody at Accenture felt really smart didn't they?

Education gone amok

How can the California PE FAQ be so confusing? I guess that is what happens when it becomes bureaucratization. The modus operandi seems to be legislate the corner case. If some rare bad thing happens, create a large framework of laws to make everything worse, but at least make sure that the bad thing doesn't happen. Then a new bad thing happens and the process starts all over again.

PE seems to be a case of the good intentions gone amok. First off, the instructor must be a properly credentialed PE teacher - unless none are available, in which case any union member can fill in. Yep, credentialing may have at one time been a means of helping ensure quality teachers, but now is just a union protection mechanism. Bureaucracy rears its ugly head.

The PE regulations also provide a lot of talk that really doesn't amount to much. Where are the standards like there are for other subjects?  PE would be easy. Run a mile in 8 minutes. Do 30 push ups. It lends itself to measurement much better than academic standards. Yet that would be too politically incorrect. What about the out of shape kids? (Wait, isn't that the whole point of education?)

And then there is the whole team sport thing. Team sports participation doesn't really count as PE. Why? Probably because they would be getting too much exercise and not enough indoctrination.

Then we have the California Star test. In 2nd grade, the math questions are read to the students. They don't trust them to be able to read. In second grade! Ironically, a bunch of these kids walked out of the test and picked up their thick Harry Potter books. But, because they had to wait and twiddle their thumbs until the teacher could read the problems. (I'm glad they didn't do that when I was in second grade. I always preferred the written problems.) There was probably somebody somewhere that complained about getting bad math scores because they couldn't read. (Wait - aren't there reading tests also? Well, it isn't as if there is any coherent logic to this.)

At one time, the education system provided people with a common set of tools that they could use to interact in society. Now, education has tried to reduce that denominator as far as it can go. Pretty soon we will just have grunting as the standard. It attempts to cater to "subgroups". Why study T.S. Eliot when we can find a Vietnamese-Mexican Woman poet who wrote at the same time? The matching subgroup would obviously appreciate her writing more, even if the world at large previously disregarded it as fluff. (We wouldn't dare teach anything that was popular with the masses.) Under-represented minorities in certain fields are praised and more are encouraged to follow in their steps. But isn't this just a way of propagating the elitism? (The literature "canon" is mostly white men. Lets add women and minorities. That way we can still maintain an elitist "canon". Quality doesn't matter. Elitism does.)

We also have the case of technology in the classroom. The problem is that the students often know more about it than the teachers. If the technology really does help learning, could we just shorten the teaching day to allow kids to spend more time learning physics with Angry Birds?

What do children need to learn?  How to get along with different people? How to live in a community? Well, with large magnet schools, people are back to more self-selected equality. So much for getting along with different people.

Maybe it is to enforce equality. Teach down to the lowest level. That way nobody has an advantage. The problem is that this just accentuates the advantage of the well-to-do. With degraded standards, those with resources will learn, while those without will stagnate at the "basic" level.

Perhaps it is just a means of providing jobs. At least our education does that well.

The California Gold Rush and the Coming of the Civil War

[October 2009] The book starts and ends with the duel between Senator Broderick and California Supreme Court Justice Terry. In between it tells stories from California history from before the gold rush to the civil war. The initial portion of the book focuses on the fairly well known history of early settler's, Sutter, and the stampede for gold. The most intriguing part here was the story of transportation to California and Vanderbilt's vindictiveness against those that wronged him.

The bulk of the book covers the movers and shakers in California at the time. These are the stories of men that left there home states in pursuit of greater political power in California. These stories are tied to the quest of politicians in Washington to balance the free and slave state needs. The story of the southern "Chivs" in California is especially interesting.

The many different threads all seem to tie in to the story of California. However, the story ends before the civil war, with the war only mentioned briefly in the epilogue. With the emphasis of the title I would expect a little more coverage at least up to the start of the war.

California High School Football

Last night we went to a football game at Homestead High School. Some of the best known alumni are the "Steves" that founded Apple. That should tell you a bit about the school. It has produced a few NFL players, but clearly, football is not the focus here. The opponent was Los Gatos, a team that has had a little more recent football success. (Stanford and NFL QB Trend Edwards comes to mind.)

However, the school does go through the motions. There is a (really big) band in the stands. They are all dressed up like a band and play in the first half. Then, they do their half time show and go AWOL for the second half.

The opposing band doesn't bother to show up in California. This in spite of the opponent located within biking distance. (A sousaphone on a bike would be an interesting site.) In Texas, band would routinely travel a couple of hours to accompany the football team. California? Nah, they don't seem to be part of it.

At least the Los Gatos Cheerleaders came along. Homestead had cheerleaders, too. Well, at least they had a bunch of people doing synchronized cheering motions. They seemed fairly oblivious to what was actually going on on the football field. They also didn't look like cheerleaders. Black pants and a green jacket? They could have at least tried to adopt something resembling a cheerleader uniform. Instead they looked more like a few people that wandered out to show off.

Halftime was also a letdown. The dance team went on the field and did their thing (to piped in music.) The band then came out and stood in place while some brass and percussion danced around playing a funky song.

The stadium was also tiny. About the size of a junior high stadium in Texas. In spite of the size, the fanbase was not all that bad. A number of spontaneous "defense" chants arose during the course of the game, along with plenty of cheering and yelling.

At least the football team still seemed to play some fairly standard football.

However, instead of the pageantry that surrounds high school football, we get something more akin to the sterility of the NFL game, though without the large-scale community involvement.

The cheerleaders, dance team, band and football team were all doing their own thing, but none seemed to care about what the others were doing. While there were some fans that were really involved in the game, many seemed interested in only particular areas. (There for the band, the cheerleaders, the dancers, etc.) There were very few "external" members of the community involved in the game. You would even be hard-pressed to find any signs around campus indicating a game would be going on.

Perhaps it could argued that this is healthy. Schools don't dedicate too much attention to one area, but spread their loyalties and energies around. (This was the argument that Palo Alto gave when no students seemed to realize they were playing for the state championship.) However, this "diversity" of loyalties instead leaves each group isolated without the benefit of a strong supportive community experience. When the band and other groups are actively involved and tightly intertwined with the team, they become part of the entire experience. The fans support everyone together, rather than a single group. The participants and spectators all have a better experience. The individuals get to enjoy a bit of community.

Balancing the budget on the heads of children

This tax year, California has deducted the income tax exemption to 1/3rd of its original value. The state has also significantly cut spending on education, and taken away money that was supposed to go to schools.

I guess they figure that children can't vote, so they most be a great target for tax increases and revenue cuts.

Still, you have to wonder where all the money goes. With some of the highest sales tax and income tax rates in the nation, why does California have so many budget problems?

Well, part of it must have to do with the tendency to spend everything that comes in when times are good, then attempt to balance the budget by borrowing when times are "not so good". These loans do eventually come due. D'oh!

Similarly, labor relations are not the state's forte. When times are good, they are willing to give great benefits to workers. When times are bad, well, its difficult to take those away. (Though they have had a little success with furloughs, there still is the huge pension liability.)

Excess regulation also hurts things. Propositions lead to all sorts of craziness. And court cases don't help. California has some of the most expensive property values around, yet some of the lowest property taxes. And those taxes are often sucked up by the state instead of sent to the schools and cities. Schools can't raise property taxes, so they are stuck asking for parcel taxes and doing sneaky tricks with bond money. The parceling out of money from other sources leads to the ""not my money" problem, and thus crazy spending.

Schools in general bring out other questions. Why are schools suffering so much? The population has increased significantly, while the school-age population has declined (with the public school population being smaller still.)

In a lot of the Bay Area, the schools are long since paid for. Even with a 30 year bond, the debt from the school building would be long gone. Maintenance may be higher for older buildings, but we are in a temperate zone where utility costs, even in buildings with poor insulation, would not be too terribly high. As a bonus, the districts often lease out some of their schools to other private schools. Thus, they get an additional source of revenue from the schools. (If they are not making a profit from this leasing, then that is another big problem...)

Schools have also outsourced transportation. Parents generally drive their kids to school. Very few school buses exist, and walking and biking are rare.

Incidental school costs are also footed by parents. Supplies, field trips, parties, and even library books are paid for by parents or PTA organizations.

Taxes? Well, supposedly all properties will increase 2% per year, with greater bumps for property changing hands. An increasing revenue should easily cover a relative stable population. Occasionally new housing developments will pop up, adding new students. However, these should also add a nice bump to revenue. (This assumes that property tax revenue actually makes it to the schools, a thought which borders on wishful thinking.)

So, it comes down to the classroom. Computers and technology. On one hand, computers are deemed to be a vital educational tool. On the other hand, schools assume that students have computers at home in order to carry out assignments. If they can do the work at home, why do they need them at school? The cost of obtaining the computers, as well as networking, housing and maintaining them is not trivial. And that doesn't include time wasted on them. Typing is a useful skill. However, significant time and effort is needed to develop good typing skills. Unfortunately, computer time is often spent playing "educational games", which tends to be a great way to waste time.

Then there are teachers. When they want more money, they are highly skilled professionals that bring unique talents to the classroom. When layoff time comes, they are replaceable cogs to be removed based on union seniority. The state and nation over-regulate the teaching profession, turning schools in to education "factories". The teachers union responds by unionizing the teachers as they would factory workers. School administration does some of both, spending countless hours dealing with state regulations and union "rules". What happened to simple teaching?

The current regulatory environment has also encouraged the very inequality among schools that it sought to avoid. Poorly performing schools are more likely to lay off teachers and pay less. Better schools can pay more and hit up parents for more money when needed. The better schools have better test scores. The bad ones have bad scores. The same teacher or principal will look good at one and bad at another. So which one would you like to work at?

California Paid Family Leave and the IRS

A few years ago, the IRS ruled that California paid Family Leave was taxable. They reasoned that it was some form of unemployment compensation, and thus should be taxed.
For the 2009 tax year, the first $2400 of unemployment compensation is tax free. Does this mean that the first $2400 of paid family leave is also tax free?
Haha! That would be wishful thinking. Nice loopholes only apply in the land of the big bucks. I'm sure there will be a nifty IRS ruling saying something like "well, the law exempting the first $2400 was strictly written, and since this is not real unemployment compensation, it doesn't count."
This is somewhat similar to the logic differentiating State Disability Insurance (SDI) from Voluntary Disability Insurance (VDI). The state administers SDI and requires everyone to pay. However, some employers use VDI instead. The benefits of VDI must be equal to SDI and both must take in enough revenue to cover expenses. The main difference is that VDI is locally administrated, and thus can be better correlated with the employer's system.
Oh, and you can deduct SDI from your taxes.
Even though both are substantially identical, VDI cannot be deducted from your federal taxes, while SDI can.