Cambridge

The power went out again for the first time in a while, this time
around 9pm (a guess based on the flashing clocks). This time it seems
to have kicked Rachel’s computer hard drive… the outages are now
escalating from nuisance to actual damage. I’ll have to remember to
contact NStar again (who, btw., never called back from the last time I contacted them).

Having not yet visited Christo’s The Gates installation in Central Park, I can’t say whether the Somerville Gates really compare. But, the creator of the latter does.

… I’m assuming there will only be one — but who knows?

The only Boston-area Army Corps of Engineers hearing on the Cape Cod wind farm project will take place tonight,
7-11pm, at MIT at 77 Mass Ave., Room 10-250. It’s crucial that our
regional, state, national, and international interests overcome
backwards-looking NIMBYists. Quite frankly, the aesthetic impact of
wind turbines is nothing compared to the health and environmental
impact of power plants — opponents have no leg to stand on.

• Draft Environmental Impact Report
• Executive Summary (26 pp)

I’m also writing the politicians who have opposed the wind farm, especially Senator Edward Kennedy, who ought know better:

Senator Kennedy:

Shame on you for opposing
the wind farm in Cape Cod! If you had any honor or dignity you would at
least recuse yourself from an issue in which you have a personal
interest.

Furthermore your position on this issue is simply
wrong-headed and short-sighted. It galls me that you, a self-styled
“liberal,” would wave the NIMBY flag to block a project that is
critical to alleviating our region’s and nation’s energy dependency on
foreign oil while also reducing harmful pollution and impacts on global
warming. The hypocrisy embedded in your position reflects an astounding
arrogance.

Your unprincipled stand on this matter is costing you
the political support of thousands of your constituents, including
myself. I sincerely hope you will reconsider your position.

I’m
especially disappointed in the position of Attorney General Tom Reilly,
who is gearing up to run for governor and is obviously sucking up to
NIMBYists on the Cape. Massachusetts Climate Action Network’s letter sums up my feeling about his opportunistic opposition.

Philip Greenspun (of arsDigita
fame) went home-shopping in Cambridge and was appalled at the
structurally unsound half-house in Central Square that he found for
$1.25 million. Greenspun’s pretty off-base in his assessment of the
neighborhood: “Central Square is a place with pretty high crime rates
(the city owns
much of the housing in the area and fills it up with people they deem
to be jobless and hopeless).”
For one thing, Cambridge doesn’t “fill up” public housing with “jobless
and hopeless” people — most of the folks living in Putnam Gardens
across the street from us are gainfully employed families who just happen to be
poor. For another, Central Square has rapidly gentrified in the last
five years — it’s hardly the same neighborhood I was afraid to walk
around in when I first arrived in 1993. Nonetheless, I’ll agree with
him: the price is outrageous — by comparison, there’s
a very crooked (and I would surmise also unsound) 3-story on Western
Ave near us that’s going for about $250-$350K per floor. Though I
suppose that building’s also across the street from a big smokestack.

Is there a housing bubble? Greenspun concludes “yes,” citing a Morgan Stanley commentary
on the topic. I find the article interesting in its core thesis that
Americans have shifted their monetary savings (which are now almost
non-existent at 0.2%) into asset-based savings, e.g. real estate. Like
all bubbles, over-investment in real estate relies on rational behavior
slathered over unsustainable facts or irrational trends. Most people
point to ludicrously low interest (and therefore mortgage) rates as the
culprit. Personally I’m more bothered by the irrational pressure in
this country to buy property.

Our friends and co-workers are constantly asking when Rachel and I plan to buy
a home. I interpret their concern as, “When are you going to become a
real adult?” and it reminds me quite a bit of the pressure among teens to own a car.
But buying a house, right now, simply isn’t rational when you consider the
fact that the mortgage on a condo comparable to our apartment is far
greater than our current rent — a sure sign of a bubble. Furthermore,
buying a house — even outside a bubble — isn’t as favorable as most advocates of home ownership
would believe:

1. A house or condo is a huge investment in a single, undiversified
   asset. Unless it represents only a fraction (even a large fraction) of
   your total investment portfolio, you’d be putting your savings in
   incredible risk, even with homeowner’s insurance.
2. Home ownership comes with a huge opportunity cost: you could put your downpayment into an equally if not more
   profitable fund with far less risk.
3. The tax breaks for mortgage payments are significant only when
   your income (and tax liability) is significant. Further, for us
   switching to itemized rather than standard deduction would actually
   increase our tax liability, so that difference would count against any
   tax savings the mortgage payment generates.
4. Only a fraction of your monthly mortgage payment goes towards
   “building equity.” Against that, balance the interest on the mortgage,
   insurance, taxes, and upkeep.
5. The hidden costs of home ownership extend beyond taxes, condo
   fees, and maintenance. The sense of permanence that owning a home
   provides encourages profligate spending on household appliances,
   furniture, decoration, etc. while creating a natural disincentive to
   relocation, even when moving would provide access to better or
   higher-paying jobs. Think of all those people who refinanced their
   homes and spent it on renovation: it’s a lot like investing your money
   in Enron stock when Enron stocks comprise your entire 401(k) plan.

All of this isn’t to refute the value of home ownership, just simply
knock it down a few notches from its high (and irrational) position on
the American Dream totem pole.

It’s not like we’re sitting around hoping the bubble bursts, either.
The economic collapse that would result would probably leave us both
unemployed (a substantial portion of my salary is supported by IOLTA,
which relies heavily on home financing for income). But then, we’re also not
eager to have our rental fee catch up with home prices.

For as long as we’ve lived at our apartment, we’ve had irregular
power outages. Sometimes we get notices from NStar about planned
“service upgrades,” but about 90% of the time we don’t. Generally the
power goes out between the hours of 1 and 3 a 15-minute stretches.

The situation is quite annoying because it causes all the clocks to
reset, and in particular it drives the UPS backups on our computers
nuts. (I need to figure out how to disable their audible alarms).

Today I talked with “Cathy” at NStar customer service, and an
engineer should be getting back to me. If this continues I am going to
start talking to our neighbors to identify what actions we can take.
Certainly these outages are only nuisances when compared with, say, the
power situation in Baghdad, but, like I said, it’s annoying.

Rachel and I couldn’t help but head out this evening over to our local bar to cheer on the Sox as they swept
to victory. We hooked into the game in the top of the 8th (I’d come
home late after some Kerry phonebanking), and the standing-room crowd
was pulsating with excitement. The in-house DJ spun great tunes over
the commercial breaks but always cut back to the action. Everyone was
your best friend.

In another six days I’m looking forward to an even bigger
celebration. I couldn’t hear what Kerry was saying in the ad at the end
of the game, but as stupid as a Red Sox “bounce” for the Massachusetts
senator might seem, if it happens — I’ll take it.

…At least that’s what you’d think if you believed the Globe’s coverage of the Pring-Wilson trial.

Journalists have inflated a simple comparison
of the backgrounds of the two combatants, Alexander Pring-Wilson
(a Harvard graduate student) and Michael Colono (a “townie”), into a claim that class tensions in our
neighborhood are just waiting to erupt:

The case has stoked class tensions in a community of great poverty and
great wealth; Cambridge reserves 17 percent of its housing stock for
government-subsidized, low-income residents, but it also boasts the
highest concentration of million-dollar homes of any large city in the
nation.

Given the strikingly different backgrounds of the two protagonists,
some have described the case as a deadly clash between town and gown.

– Class
divisions evident in fatal stabbing case (9/19/04)

But prosecutors used the testimony to emphasize his privileged
background in a trial that has brought out long-standing tensions
between working-class residents of Cambridge and the Ivy League
community.

– Defense
calls character witnesses in Harvard student murder trial
(10/4/04, AP )

”I was just trying to cover up my head; that’s what you do in rugby,”
Pring-Wilson said in a packed courtroom during the third week of his
trial on a first-degree murder charge, which has played out against a
backdrop of class tensions in Cambridge.

–
‘It was the most horrible thing’:
Defendant says he feared for life in deadly fight
(10/6/04)

None of these articles cites any evidence that this fatal encounter
reflects any “class tensions” in Cambridge. We live 2 blocks away from
the Pizza Ring where this fight occurred and can attest that our
neighborhood is indeed remarkably diverse. Besides us renters are $400K
condos and subsidized public housing projects. Yet the most heated
town-gown dispute I’m aware of is between Harvard and property-owners
over land use. You can hardly call that “class conflict” (not when most
properties are near or over the 7-figure mark), and in any event it’s
not the kind of conflict that leads to knifings in the street.

I don’t claim that town-gown relations are always smooth, but to
connect some vague “tension” to a tragic murder is irresponsible
journalism. I dare say it’s the kind of intellectual laziness that
connects some vague “terrorism” to Iraq.

We came out of the Central T station and
BAMN, we walked smack into a block-long DANCE PARTY.  Aw yeah,
it’s not just the WORLD’S FAIR, it’s a DNC KICKOFF. And looking at the
street tonight,  you could see that there’s more to our city than
hippies and yuppies. Our town KICKS.Elders youngsters blacks whites
asians large small — tonight, Central Square dance party was the place
to BE.

Eat at Pizzeria Uno’s between Thu July 22 and Sat 24, give them this coupon,
and 20% of your check will go to the St. James Summer Shelter in Porter
Square. St. James is run by students at Phillips Brooks House
Association and thus a sister shelter of sorts to UniLu, our designated wedding
charity, which is closed during the summer.

Just ignore the irony as you wolf down that deep-dish Spinoccoli