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desmond.
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July 20, 2012 at 10:26 AM #19992July 20, 2012 at 10:30 AM #748541
CoronitaParticipantJuly 20, 2012 at 10:30 AM #748543sdrealtor
ParticipantIn our first segment lets start with the Crown Jewel of Fire Stations in RSF. I was dropping my daughter off at Helen Woodward for Critter Camp and finally had a chance to snap a quick picture. Adorned with imported hand hewn stone from the finest quaries in Italy this Tuscan masterpiece features multiple balconies for the residents viewing pleasure.
[img_assist|nid=16473|title=Crown Jewel of RSF|desc=|link=node|align=left|width=466|height=350]
July 20, 2012 at 12:20 PM #748557bearishgurl
Participant[quote=sdrealtor]In our first segment lets start with the Crown Jewel of Fire Stations in RSF. I was dropping my daughter off at Helen Woodward for Critter Camp and finally had a chance to snap a quick picture. Adorned with imported hand hewn stone from the finest quaries in Italy this Tuscan masterpiece features multiple balconies for the residents viewing pleasure.
[img_assist|nid=16473|title=Crown Jewel of RSF|desc=|link=node|align=left|width=466|height=350][/quote]
Why don’t you try to get an appt in there for a “coffee klatch” with its inhabitants (Folgers and powdered creamer, that is, if you can stand it). You could ask to bring your daughter in there to meet the resident Dalmatian :-]
While you’re there, you can sit out on a balcony and ask the “residents” about their “cushy lives” living in the “Crown Jewel.” You could learn all about their daily duties associated with living in the “Crown Jewel” since you probably think they all sit around watching their ipads waiting for a call.
Before you leave, don’t forget to ask each one how many hours they get to “live there” before going home and thank them for their service.
You never know. You might desperately need their services some day :=0
July 21, 2012 at 4:50 AM #748625CA renter
Participantsdr,
You can take your complaints to the PRIVATE developer and HOA that mandate that type of architecture. It’s the architectural style that draws most of the people who **choose** to live there and pay for it.
You can also take your complaints to the PRIVATE developers/contractors who profitted from this building. Not a single firefighter/”union thug” got any of the money spent on this building.
“Jim Ashcraft, president of the fire district’s board of directors, estimated that with all contingencies included, the total cost of the new station will be about $4.7 million.
Michel and Ashcraft said 75 percent of the money for the station will come from fees charged to developers for projects within the district, while the remaining 25 percent will come from the district’s general fund, generated primarily from property tax revenue.”http://www.ranchosantafereview.com/2011/11/01/new-rancho-santa-fe-fire-station-nearing-completion/
……………………
Stop trying to malign the hard-working, decent people who work in public service. Your bitter little song and dance is getting old. If you made poor career (or other) choices in life, that is nobody’s fault but your own.
July 21, 2012 at 9:04 AM #748644cantab
ParticipantIs this an example of excessive government spending on buildings? $78,000 per room to renovate a building that is only 23 years old.
From http://www.navy.mil/submit/display.asp?story_id=68399:
“$8.8 million … to renovate a bachelor enlisted quarters (BEQ) at Marine Corps Base Camp Pendleton.
“BEQ 41371 is a three-story motel style barracks that was constructed in 1989,” said Dan Tokatlian, NAVFAC Southwest project manager for the renovation. “It has 132 rooms and houses 396 Marines. The building does not meet many current codes, and it is not energy efficient.”
The project will include the installation of a roof mounted 50kW photovoltaic system. An unexercised option and one planned modification in the task order could lead to a total award of $10.37 million. The planned modification will include furniture, fixtures, and equipment.”
For anyone who wants details, see http://www.adgcinc.com/MACC0019/RFP.pdf
[img_assist|nid=16475|title=Building 41404|desc=|link=node|align=left|width=100|height=75]
July 21, 2012 at 9:16 AM #748631ParticipantThis is excess any way you put it. I did not call out the workers I am calling out the system. I’m thrilled with my career choices and take full responsibility for myself. Remember that I am self employed and wake up each year with nothing. I’m fine with that and don’t suck off some arcane system. And don’t give me the argument that RE is supported by tax dollars and government manipulation either. No one from the government writes me a check ever. There is a playing field out there and it is completely up to me to make it happen each and every time I get paid.
Across the street from this building is the Helen Woodward center consisting mostly of trailers. Somehow they are allowed to be there in a less than Tuscan inspired villa. The Horizon school next to that is very modest as is the public school just to the South. The only thing that looks anything like this within miles are homes paid for by individual citizens. There are also many old barns in the area about to fall over.
Its not getting old to anyone but the two anvil sisters around here. The system is broken and not sustainable. The corruption and waste in the private sector is unfathomable. You have your pet peeves and have no problem airing them. Others do around here also. We have just as much right to complain about injustice in this country as you and we wont stop either. This is America.
More to come
July 21, 2012 at 4:32 PM #748666no_such_reality
ParticipantLoo. There is so nuch more low hanging fruit
Fullerton teacher forging the winner of the student government vote
Cudahy officials doing anpleandeal on corruption
State park service hiding tens ofnmillions wwhile cloosing parks and begging for donations
Browns tax first on th ballot gambit
Most of the workers are just workers in a very very broken unaccountable organization
July 21, 2012 at 5:08 PM #748667ParticipantExactly and they take questions on the system as personal attacks. They bring up how tough the job is and its only the best of the best who can handle these jobs. When asked they say they took the jobs because of benefits and forgo higher pay (questionable IMO). Its not out of a sense of duty to the community its out of their own self interests. Do I blame them? Of course not. They are doing what anyone do which is take advantage of the system for their own benefit. The system is a mess.
July 21, 2012 at 6:15 PM #748670Allan from Fallbrook
Participant[quote=cantab]Is this an example of excessive government spending on buildings? $78,000 per room to renovate a building that is only 23 years old.
From http://www.navy.mil/submit/display.asp?story_id=68399:
“$8.8 million … to renovate a bachelor enlisted quarters (BEQ) at Marine Corps Base Camp Pendleton.
“BEQ 41371 is a three-story motel style barracks that was constructed in 1989,” said Dan Tokatlian, NAVFAC Southwest project manager for the renovation. “It has 132 rooms and houses 396 Marines. The building does not meet many current codes, and it is not energy efficient.”
The project will include the installation of a roof mounted 50kW photovoltaic system. An unexercised option and one planned modification in the task order could lead to a total award of $10.37 million. The planned modification will include furniture, fixtures, and equipment.”
For anyone who wants details, see http://www.adgcinc.com/MACC0019/RFP.pdf
[img_assist|nid=16475|title=Building 41404|desc=|link=node|align=left|width=100|height=75][/quote]
Welcome to Prevailing Wage and the US public works system! Why pay $1 for something when you can pay $3 and get mediocre quality?
This is why the Administration’s “Jobs Bill” is nothing other than a pork-laden payoff to Big Labor, the unions and those contributors who gorge at the public works trough.
July 21, 2012 at 7:56 PM #748684Participant[quote=cantab]Is this an example of excessive government spending on buildings? $78,000 per room to renovate a building that is only 23 years old.
From http://www.navy.mil/submit/display.asp?story_id=68399:
“$8.8 million … to renovate a bachelor enlisted quarters (BEQ) at Marine Corps Base Camp Pendleton.
“BEQ 41371 is a three-story motel style barracks that was constructed in 1989,” said Dan Tokatlian, NAVFAC Southwest project manager for the renovation. “It has 132 rooms and houses 396 Marines. The building does not meet many current codes, and it is not energy efficient.”
The project will include the installation of a roof mounted 50kW photovoltaic system. An unexercised option and one planned modification in the task order could lead to a total award of $10.37 million. The planned modification will include furniture, fixtures, and equipment.”
For anyone who wants details, see http://www.adgcinc.com/MACC0019/RFP.pdf
[img_assist|nid=16475|title=Building 41404|desc=|link=node|align=left|width=100|height=75][/quote]
Again, PRIVATE contractors, not public workers/unions.
I guarantee you, they could get it done more cheaply if they used govt workers.
If you want to address fraud and abuse, you’ll find the majority of it comes from deals where public money and PRIVATE companies/interests intersect. It dwarfs any fraud/abuse done on the part of public workers.
July 21, 2012 at 8:04 PM #748685Participant[quote=sdrealtor]This is excess any way you put it. I did not call out the workers I am calling out the system. I’m thrilled with my career choices and take full responsibility for myself. Remember that I am self employed and wake up each year with nothing. I’m fine with that and don’t suck off some arcane system. And don’t give me the argument that RE is supported by tax dollars and government manipulation either. No one from the government writes me a check ever. There is a playing field out there and it is completely up to me to make it happen each and every time I get paid.
Across the street from this building is the Helen Woodward center consisting mostly of trailers. Somehow they are allowed to be there in a less than Tuscan inspired villa. The Horizon school next to that is very modest as is the public school just to the South. The only thing that looks anything like this within miles are homes paid for by individual citizens. There are also many old barns in the area about to fall over.
Its not getting old to anyone but the two anvil sisters around here. The system is broken and not sustainable. The corruption and waste in the private sector is unfathomable. You have your pet peeves and have no problem airing them. Others do around here also. We have just as much right to complain about injustice in this country as you and we wont stop either. This is America.
More to come[/quote]
Hell yes, you and your ilk are the #1 beneficiary of the government’s largess over the past 5+ years. Do you have any idea how much government money is spent on housing and finance? What do you think your income would look like without all the lobbying done by the NAR and related interests? What if there was an open market where anyone who wanted to assist buyers/sellers could do so without any of the restrictions lobbied for by the NAR? What would your income (a percentage of price!) look like if not for the government-backed loans which make up almost the entire mortgage market?
Again, if you have a problem with the fire station, go talk to the developer and HOA. Ask them all about it, and make yourself more informed before you go spouting off.
July 21, 2012 at 8:25 PM #748686ParticipantNeed to add that your group of lying thieves is most responsible for the financial crisis that has decimated so many govt entities. If you actually do some research instead of spewing your uninformed rhetoric, you’ll find that the #1 reason that govt finances are in such trouble is because of the significantly reduced revenues, not pensions.
Governments are often forced to spend what they take in (if you need me to explain that to you, just let me know), so their expenditures went up with the bubbles. If not for the bubbles, they would have been forced to keep their spending down, and they wouldn’t be in the shape they’re in today. Realtors were 100% behind the bubble and were telling everyone to pay more than they should and that they should stretch to bid more than the next potential buyer. The NAR was very actively denying that there was a bubble, while pushing for even more “financial innovation” so that more idiots could pay more for housing than they could ever afford.
……..“Lereah has been criticized for encouraging the rise of the United States housing bubble. According to a blog quoted by the Chicago Tribune, “In October 2005 Lereah was busy calling the bubble believers ‘Chicken Littles.’ Many of the predictions espoused by the ‘Chicken Littles’ are fast becoming closer to reality. … David Lereah has lost credibility because of his irresponsible cheerleading.”[8]
Commenting on the phenomenon of shifting NAR accounts of the national housing market, the Motley Fool reported, in June 2006,[9]
“There’s nothing funnier or more satisfying … than watching the National Association of Realtors (NAR) change its tune these days. The latest news release from this sunny-Jim industry group finally fesses up to its past fiction, but even when it admits the bubble’s going to pop, it can’t muster the courage to just come out and say it. … the NAR is full of it and will spin the numbers any way it can to keep up the pleasant fiction that all is well. … [T]he cracks began to show in subsequent remarks from NAR ‘Chief Economist’ David Lereah. The head outfit that ridiculed the idea of a housing bubble for years is now crying for Ben Bernanke to bring it back. … It should have been completely obvious to anyone with a loan calculator and a glance at wage increases that those months of industry bubble denials were just wishful thinking.”
Business Week also captured David’s most famous quote:“The steady improvement in [home] sales will support price appreciation…[despite] all the wild projections by academics, Wall Street analysts, and others in the media.” David was Chief Economist at the National Association of Realtors when he said this. The day was Jan 10, 2007, just as housing prices steadily worsened falling even farther than many skeptics had predicted.”
July 21, 2012 at 9:57 PM #748690Participant[quote=CA renter]
Again, PRIVATE contractors, not public workers/unions.
I guarantee you, they could get it done more cheaply if they used govt workers.
If you want to address fraud and abuse, you’ll find the majority of it comes from deals where public money and PRIVATE companies/interests intersect. It dwarfs any fraud/abuse done on the part of public workers.[/quote]
CAR: But those private companies are required to work within FAR/CFR guidelines, which include mandatory compliance with federal wage and labor laws which dictate the use of Prevailing Wages. I doubt that government workers could do it cheaper (because they’d be required to use Prevailing Wage standards as well).
If you wanted to truly get the best bang for your buck, you’d make it true low bidder and the (present) market would drive down costs considerably.
On certain federal projects, such as NRC/DOE you are actually required to use union labor, which really spikes costs. I’ve done security projects at NGS (nuke generating stations) where 100% compliance with union labor is the norm and the labor costs (compared to other Military/Federal projects using Prevailing Wage) were obscene. Cost overruns, work stoppages and incessant Change Orders were the norm. It wasn’t uncommon to pay 3x to 4x what the job should’ve cost and all because of the union labor angle.
July 21, 2012 at 10:02 PM #748689ParticipantI love it. Now they are MY thieves. I’m the first to admit all the problems with Wall Street and NAR. Im not defending them. I’d be happy to see it all cleaned up and would be perfectly fine. I have other skills and could do lots of things with my life. I’m not a one trick pony sucking off the taxpayer dollar.
Exactly what HOA and developer are you talking about. I didnt see any mentioned in the article. What I saw was a govt entity (the fire district) using developer fees to finance their largesse. You covered the problem with govt finances perfectly. The problem is declining reduces. You just left out why it is such a proble which is the inability to reel in expenses adequately in the face of declining revenues. Thats the problem not pensions which are one of many symptons of the problem. So are palacial fire stations out of character with the area. You said the RSF was necessary to keep up with the architural style in the area. I was back through today and took more pictures. We will all see what buildings look like around there and why it is truly a Crown Jewel.
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