[bearishgurl]

[quote=spdrun]Does Tesla still do things like this…?

http://gas2.org/2014/09/27/tesla-wont-activate-mans-salvaged-model-s/
http://cafeelectric.com/stretchla/

If I got an email like this, it would provoke murderous rage in me:

“Due to the salvage status of your Model S , I have been instructed to cease providing you with parts. Tesla is very concerned about vehicles with salvaged titles being improperly repaired. Going forward, all salvaged vehicles must be inspected by us or our approved body shop, Precision Auto Body. If declared a candidate for proper repair, reconstruction must be completed by a Tesla-Certified Body Shop.”[/quote]This is absolutely ridiculous. In my mind, a vehicle is not worth owning if the owner is limited as to where they can have it repaired or even buy parts for it.

I have never had any vehicle I own repaired at a “dealership.” And I’ve bought “aftermarket” parts and even shopped at or ordered parts from wrecking yards all my life. And I’ve owned two vehicles which had “salvaged titles” (which I bought for a song), both of which I fixed up slightly and drove for several years. They were perfectly decent vehicles. It doesn’t take much damage for an insurance company to “salvage” a vehicle :=0

[bearishgurl]

[quote=FlyerInHi]BG, maybe you should drive your old and well maintained Lexus to Houston.

Houston is cheaper than CA because they have plenty is of land and supply. We restrict supply though zoning and that is not a market based way of fulfilling housing needs. The governmen restricts private supply and doesn’t compensate in public housing.

In Houston, inside the loop (yes close to downtown), there are very nice neighboods. And the interpresed condos are luxury condo on “bucolic” tree lined street.

The new gated communities are outside the second loop, far from everything.[/quote]LOL, I haven’t been to Houston (and the lower TX gulf cities and towns) in almost 33 years (when there was only ONE loop around Houston)! I’ve lost quite a few of my peeps to death (>2 dozen) but have a big family on both sides. Nearly all of them are now in the Dallas area, OK and AR. OK has the same well-established, heavily-treed brick neighborhoods as Houston does … yeah, with matching brick mailboxes on the curbs 🙂 A ~2500 sf light cosmetic fixer ranch home (4-7 miles from dtn OKC or Tulsa) would cost me $150-$175K and maybe even less now that Big Oil is finding itself having to lay off workers. I have a bunch of concerns about “retiring” there, most of them not having anything to do with housing … which is a really no-brainer for a longtime homeowner relocating from SD County, CA.

CA doesn’t need to “fulfill housing needs” of newcomers. Not only is our water supply finite, we already have over 39M people (as opposed to TX’s ~27.5M). TX has a larger land mass than CA which is nearly ALL FLAT and nearly ALL buildable (save for its mostly narrow flood plains and small ecological and wetland preserves). Newcomers to CA can buy/rent what’s on offer in their area of choice or decide not to move here. End of story.

[bearishgurl]

[quote=spdrun]Maybe I’m wrong, but the “new” development in North Park looks more late 60s to late 70s to me, with some later exceptions. At the time, razing historical homes seemed to be the thing to do. Section 8? Are you sure you’re not talking about the part of the 92104 a bit … east … of North Park?[/quote]Yes, the wider streets to the east (w/nose-to-curb pkg, like SF) such as Swift (but still in 92104) have had multifamily bldgs on them for about 45-50 years now. I’m referring to streets from 30th west to FL cyn and north and south of University Ave. The housing composition of some of these streets has changed drastically since the late ’80’s.

[bearishgurl]

btw, spd, I’ve had to get off I-10 in PHX numerous times on my way to Flagstaff due to huge hour-plus eastbound traffic jams (Flagstaff is often my overnight locale when heading to the CO rockies). I usually get off around the 59th St exit and go at least 14 miles north on the surface street and get on the I-17 in Glendale or thereabouts.

I have found that the north-south thoroughfares on the west side of town are straight and lie in a grid. And I don’t have a road map of PHX and my vehicle will be 22 years old this June :=0

[bearishgurl]

[quote=spdrun]I’m going to disagree about multifamily vs single-family. There are plenty of good and bad areas of both multifamily and single-family form.

A few years ago, I got lost in an area of Phoenix. All small single-families. I went to ask for directions and had someone kick the window of my rental car for my trouble. Apparently, the area was known for meth and other interesting drugs, but didn’t look “ghetto” at all.[/quote]I believe you spdrun. There are some SFR areas in SD which are “affordable” which I would not buy into cuz I wouldn’t want to live there or have a tenant there to “manage.” (I don’t mind going into those micro-areas to see friends or attend backyard BBQs or celebrations, etc, though.)

I just think some previously wonderful SD neighborhoods full of SFR gems (even “Historical), such as North Park, have been ruined beginning in about ’89 when the City Council “upzoned” certain streets allowing old homes to be razed and 4-8 units built in their place. Some of those particular streets were too narrow for all this extra “activity.”

It appears that the bulk of the “state street” area up to about one block north of the city pool and velodrome has been preserved, for the most part. North Park was one of SD’s jewels and it didn’t need to be ruined with nondescript multi-family dwellings … some of it undoubtedly accepting Section 8 vouchers.

SD doesn’t owe “low-income tenants” adequate housing in desirable “uptown” locations, such as North Park. That’s why we have El Cajon valley :=0. Low-income tenants can eventually work themselves off section 8 and eventually rent/buy a place in a more desirable county location if they so desire.

[bearishgurl]

[quote=The-Shoveler]Suburbs start out as bedroom communities then change to job centers.

They are not static.[/quote]Umm … except Temecula and surrounds are actually considered exurban, NOT suburban. There is a big, hu-u-u-uge difference!

For example, Diamond Bar, Chino Hills and Brea (representing 3 more conveniently-located neighboring counties to RIV) are actually suburban cities which are far more desirable to live in for a “worker bee” with a young family at home than the exurban IE …. located several more cities outward.

[bearishgurl]

FIH, not EVERYONE who owns/rents a single family home wants to live “interspersed” with multi-family dwellings. The sole reason for buying or renting on a SFR-only area is to have more privacy. Newer multi-family dwellings built on infill on the same block as SFRs (ex: North Park SD) drag down the value of those long-existing SFRs by adding parking congestion and even dumpsters in plain view on what were once SFR-only streets. In addition, there are more stereos and radios blaring and more people crammed onto that street with frequent domestic violence calls and the like as well as the constant moving trucks of a transient population.

I would not buy an SFR on such a street … even for investment purposes. I would only buy a SFR on a street which was zoned single-family only and would prefer the entire subdivision be zoned single-family only.

SFR zoning and multifamily zoning should be separate as it is in most urban and suburban areas of CA (SF, among other locales, excepted). The two types of areas attract completely different kinds of would-be residents. Without its heavy zoning restrictions, CA RE would not be worth anywhere near what it is worth today.

You brought up Houston, TX. Compare it (with little or no zoning) to SD and you will find its homes are worth 1/4 to 1/10 of a comparable home in coastal CA counties. There are very good reasons for this.

The way builders are able to offer privacy to new SFR homebuyers in Harris Co, TX and other TX metros is through building a walled and often gated community which has CC&R’s (and HOA dues). Such communities are often built around a manmade lake which belongs to the HOA and could literally be considered “islands unto themselves.” It is only in these (CC&R) SFR communities where you DON’T see RVs, boats, tractors and trailers (and tractor-trailers) parked out in front of SFRs. Quite often, the CC&R community-dweller in TX metros drives outside the wall of his/her subdivision and is immediately thrust onto a wide thoroughfare with a hodgepodge of auto-body shops, tool and die shops, dive bars, no-tell motels and/or tractors and rusty camper shells parked in front of SFRs situated on acreages. The non-HOA communities in or surrounding Houston are full of everything, including sorry-looking outbuildings “parked” on residential property, space-permitting, of course.

Strict zoning laws serve their purpose and I am very appreciative that CA coastal counties (and even CA as a whole) has had them in place for many decades (in comparison with many other parts of the country).

[bearishgurl]

It looks like it will be just $35K, which is less than half of the current lower-end Tesla. Perhaps it WILL appeal to the worker-bee commuter set, who will just have to plug it in every night instead of gas up. I can’t see the Temecula crowd (esp those with minor children to raise) paying $70K and up for a “work vehicle” as are the current Teslas. The sole reason they’re living in Temecula in the first place (instead of SD, where they work) is the lower cost of housing it affords.

The truth is, most of this massive group of commuting worker-bees CAN/COULD afford SD County … yes, even a 3+ bdrm home. They’re just in older suburban areas of SD County and this group wants an even bigger, newer home for the same (or less) money. Hence the tremendous sacrifice they’re making with their time on weekdays. This kind of life wouldn’t appeal to me (esp if I had young kids at home) but different strokes for different folks.

[bearishgurl]

[quote=FlyerInHi]Meth scourge in conservative country? Gasp!
I guess wholesome upbringing/education was for naught. They themselves would say the results are for their failure to properly teach their kids. Maybe some screwed up culture….[/quote]That “screwed up culture” was homegrown right here in SD County, FIH. A lot of these OK rural families have both parents working far away from home as well as running a farm, which is a 12-14 hr per day job. This no doubt left their “susceptible” kids swinging in the wind after school.

SD’s kids (and adults) who fell prey to our local “meth scourge” initially started out with a “wholesome upbringing/education” as well … that is …. until they didn’t. Much like heroin, all it takes is once or twice to become forever addicted. Like heroin, meth addiction is a very ugly and debilitating disease which is extremely hard to kick. In addition, the physical and mental after-effects of meth addiction are horrible …. and can re-occur decades after getting clean. I know cuz I was working in the “system” when all this went down out in the east county. I remember all of it like it was yesterday.

[bearishgurl]

[quote=FlyerInHi]Mustard oil and turmeric are good. But you’re going to have some unsightly yellow teeth.[/quote]LOL…

[bearishgurl]

[quote=svelte][quote=utcsox]
It might not work the way Republican party elites will like it to work, I will like to remind you since Obummer took office, Republican have won 14 Senate seats, 69 House seats, 12 governorships, and 910 state legislature seats. If this is a failed strategy for a political party, show me a successful strategy.[/quote]

Not unusual that the party that loses the Presidential election picks up seats in the next cycles – it has worked that way often.

But they are doing mind-numbingly dumb things.

Let’s look at Oklahoma. Republican governor, Senate and House. Running a $1.3B deficit for the next fiscal year. That’s $420 for each man, woman and child in the state.

The starting pay for teachers is $31,600 in Oklahoma and they have a shortage that caused 850 classrooms to go unstaffed due to teacher shortage (I wonder why?). What is the Republican’s answer to all of this? SB1187 which eliminates the requirement for teachers to be certified and for districts to participate in the teacher retirement construct or do background checks on teachers. This bill will likely pass the Republican house and be signed by the Republican governor. Yessirree Bob, they have a crack leadership team in OK![/quote]svelte, I know a little bit about OK and can competently surmise where their general fund has gone over the past ~20 years. After the passage of the ACA, OK’s legislature did not agree to providing expanded Medicaid because they could not afford it and rightly so. OK already had/has a LARGE percentage of their population on Medicaid who not only have a very low income but are “asset-poor” enough to qualify for the program under the old (pre-ACA) guidelines.

In addition, OK has several hundred thousand residents eligible to enroll in Indian Health Services. The presence of Indian tribes in OK don’t cost the state anything but instead create new infrastructure (roads and water/sewer pipelines, etc) and thousands of living-wage jobs within the state.

http://www.500nations.com/Oklahoma_Tribes.asp

As of July 2015, OK’s population was estimated to be 3,911,338:

http://www.census.gov/quickfacts/table/PST045215/40

Out of that nearly 4M residents, 819,194 OK residents (or nearly 21% of their population) was on Medicaid in May 2015 in the absence of expanded Medicaid:

https://www.healthinsurance.org/oklahoma-medicaid/

…Medicaid is a program that is not solely funded at the federal level. States provide up to half of the funding for the Medicaid program. In some states, counties also contribute funds. Unlike the Medicare entitlement program, Medicaid is a means-tested, needs-based social welfare or social protection program rather than a social insurance program. Eligibility is determined largely by income. The main criterion for Medicaid eligibility is limited income and financial resources, a criterion which plays no role in determining Medicare coverage. Medicaid covers a wider range of health care services than Medicare. Some people are eligible for both Medicaid and Medicare and are known as Medicare dual eligibles. In 2001, about 6.5 million Americans were enrolled in both Medicare and Medicaid. In 2013, approximately 9 million people qualified for Medicare and Medicaid…

(emphasis mine)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Medicaid

Of course, since the inception of the ACA, many more millions of US residents are now on Medicaid due to Medicaid expansion in 30 states, as of 1/1/16.

Find Medicaid coverage in your state

IMO, the high rate of poverty is OK is due to the dearth of jobs in all but its two most populous cities, OKC and Tulsa. Another (expensive) public health issue it has is entirely due to SoCal ridding itself of their crystal meth scourge (primarily inland empire and East SD County) in the years before 2000 utilizing specialized teams comprised of multiple law enforcement agencies (city, county and Federal) working together. When these clean sweeps were made, these dozens of small-time mfrs were convicted and did their time in CA prisons. Upon release, nearly ALL fled to OK, AR and MO (heavily wooded in parts and much further from the int’l border and heavy police presence) to continue to ply their trade where they left off in SoCal back in ’97/98 :=0

OK did not and does not have enough available law enforcement ranks to deal with this problem effectively. The meth scourge has caused untold physical and mental damage to its (mostly rural) population as well as polluted several of its many beautiful lakes, rivers and streams. There are not enough water compliance people or even Nat’l park people employed there to keep up with the daily water quality in its recreational areas with vast lakes. At least a half-dozen (out of 38) of OK’s most prosperous Indian tribes have been stepping in to fund treatment for meth addiction in recent years, even extending services to non-tribal members (in addition to offering treatment for gambling addiction to OK residents). And of course, they’ve also been trying mightily to heavily educate their members on diabetes prevention and mgmt and enroll them in (paid for) smoking cessation programs.

Without the presence of OK’s tribes operating their own clinics and hospitals, I believe that at least 40% of its residents would qualify for Medicaid today under the old (pre-ACA) rules. I don’t blame OK’s governor OR its legislature for not expanding Medicaid. As we all now know, “Expanded Medi-Cal,” the poster child of the nation for unmitigated idiocy, has turned into very expensive “experiment” with a dearth of providers to serve what is now over 12M CA residents on the program, most of whom don’t want to be there and don’t know what they’re doing there. It’s truly a disaster for CA and should be scrapped, pronto.

I actually checked into this myself and found that there are actually very few “obamacare” providers in OK (especially primary care providers), relative to the 145,329 OK residents who signed up for it and are paying premiums. That’s only 3.7% of its population but many OK providers apparently don’t want to participate in it, undoubtedly causing a lot of OK residents to just forgo insurance and pay the penalty on their low incomes (if they aren’t eligible to access Indian Health).

https://www.healthinsurance.org/oklahoma-state-health-insurance-exchange/

In addition, the OK state treasurer likely did not collect as much tax as it usually does from Big Oil in the past year due to production being down.

IN short, OK has its hands full with a large portion of its uninsured and underinsured in poor health and many needing (or about to need) long-term care. Thank G@d for its many tribes and charitable organizations picking up the slack. It’s as is should be. OK and AR had/have some very peaceful, bucolic areas to camp, boat, fish and ski in and it has been heartbreaking to me to see the after-effects of the “meth scourge” in this region.

[bearishgurl]

[quote=FlyerInHi]Being house proud is not any worse than any other pride.

The bible is clear on pride. It’s bad.
https://www.openbible.info/topics/pride

BTW, i don’t believe in God but I have a long running discussion with a friend who wants to convert me. I’m not convinced that religion as practiced in this country is the answer because people are very prideful.

I’m a product or my environment. I am house proud and I disdain people who have ugly messy house, not because they are poor, but because they don’t take care. A simple, modest place can be beautiful. Rich people who have gaudy houses are worse.

Architecture and design are learned principles like anything else. If you have intellectual curiosity, you would learn about the physical spaces that affect you. I would have like to be an architect.[/quote]Agree with all except that I do believe in God. But I have annoying “habitual prostelyzers” around me as well that I have had to be very firm with in order to be left alone. I am continually appalled at how some people actually live and believe it’s due to laziness derived from untreated depression. Especially in able-bodied senior citizen homeowners. I also missed more than one of my “callings.” I believe I would have been a good “interior designer.” :=)

[bearishgurl]

I don’t think I’ve ever been “house proud” but houses are very, very important to me. Especially for my residence, where I prefer the privacy of a house not too close to neighbors. In addition, I haven’t been without a garage to park my vehicle in every night for at least 35 years. Having a garage is second in importance to me. I detested leaving my vehicle outside at night when I used to rent apts. Of course, vehicle thefts and break-ins were more common in SD and vehicles were easier to break into and “hotwire-start” back then. However, the “club” was available for your steering wheel, as well as primitive alarm systems with engine kill switches. Unfortunately, their on/off switches were mounted on the outside of the vehicle and the thieves knew exactly where to check for them to dismantle the alarm. I found my car pulled over down the street (up to four blocks away) several times when the engine died on the thieves and always with the dash (and doors) ripped out and my radio/cassette player gone, often along with 2 or more speakers. It got old replacing the stereo over and over again and getting seatcovers for vandalized (slashed) car seats as well as replacing slashed tires. Besides that, I don’t like loading and unloading my vehicle in front of neighbors. For example, I don’t need everyone around me to know I’m leaving on a road trip the next day … just a couple of “select” trusted individuals.

It is easy to tell the difference between a 20 yo vehicle which has always been garaged compared to one which has been parked outside most/all of its “life.”

I would give up 2 bdrms for a garage. In other words, I would rather have a 2 bdrm house with a garage than a 4 bdrm house without one. Especially with a house situated on a city lot where there is no room to build a (detached) garage.

Having a house is more important to me than having a newer vehicle, having my house “remodeled” all at once or having the latest appliances, electronics and furnishings in it. “House” ownership means everything to me and I won’t move without a house waiting for me to move into on the other end (whether leased or purchased) :=0

[bearishgurl]

scaredy, you can now purchase “specialty” mouth rinses both with and without a prescription.

see: http://www.colgate.com/en/us/oc/products/specialty

and: http://www.colgate.com/en/us/oc/products/prescription-only-products/colgate-periogard-rinse

[bearishgurl]

[quote=scaredyclassic]I am scared.

I plan to go ever 3 months, but 10 months elapsed since last visit.

Ayurvedic treatment involves mustard oil and turmeric . Also rinsing with oils. I’m gonna try that too.

Inflammation.

I don’t think one can wear out gums and still have teeth. When the gums go the teeth fall out.

Twizzlers was a bad joke. I eat loads of sugar though. I thought burning it off with exercise was OK. Well, no more. I love twizzlers, cookies, cake, candy, caramel, popcorn, rice, juice, smoothies, pie, jam, jelly, ice cream, esp. Ice cream..

It’s over. I’m old.[/quote]You are correct in that when your gums recede due to periodontitis, your teeth don’t have as much tissue to hold them in your mouth and can become loose. There comes a time in life when what you did in the past can catch up with the current state of your health. Better to know now than a few years from now when you could end up with full-blown periodontitis. Be glad you have dental insurance, scaredy.

Also, another, even more frightening reason to cut refined sugar out of one’s diet, imho …. is the threat of being diagnosed with pancreatic cancer (albeit too late and nearly always incurable). First of all, I’m not a medical professional and therefore not an “expert” on this subject. But over the past few months, I have been going over and over in my mind why I have managed to lose no less than FOUR VIP’s from my life (all aged 58-64 at the time of death) and ALL very athletic, muscular and in good shape (none drank or smoked or were anywhere near “obese”). When I started to compare these individuals (all male) with one another, they all had one thing in common and that was that they were all addicted to refined sugar (at least in front of me). They liked Cokes, pie and sweet rolls for breakfast (often buying their breakfasts from convenience stores on the way to work or machines at work), ate candy bars during the business day, went to fast food joints for lunch ordering shakes or another sweet soft drink with their meals and usually always had dessert again in the eves when they ate dinner at home. They had this type of diet nearly their entire lives. Their athleticism, even in middle-age, kept them from gaining weight. They ranged in height from 5’9″ to 6’1″. After diagnoses with this deadly disease, they lived 3, 4, 6.5 and 11 months. The one that lived 11 months elected to try a 5 month chemo regimen and radiation (cobalt) treatments at the time which adversely affected his quality of life for at least 5 months out of the 11 months he survived as well as burned his skin. All lost 1/4 to 3/4 lb of body weight per day (on avg) after diagnosis and weighed just 65-75% of their original body weight at the time of death with significant muscle wasting (cachexia). After diagnosis, their tumors seemed to double in size every 2-4 weeks and all suffered in pain in their last 3 months despite being given strong opioids both intravenously and orally.

This is just another reason to quit refined sugar, IMHO. At the very least, I believe a diet high in refined sugar (along with a high-fat diet) can contribute to pancreatitis, regardless of fitness level. Of course, YMMV. No one really knows the true causes of pancreatic cancer.

[end of preaching]

[Author]

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