Concepts in the Paradox

Black Friday came and went, and this year and I did not buy a thing, since the day after Thanksgiving is Buy Nothing Day for me.

And I bought nothing.

And I feel fine about that.

Valencia Gardens officially opened this week. I’d like to take a few moments to talk about why this is a bad thing for San Francisco’s ethnic Mission district.

It’s worth taking a look at a the Chron’s take on VG, as well as their photos. I’ll summarize their article with my own comments.

On Valencia/Gurrerro and 14th/15th street there used to be a block of projects built in 1943. They were torn down for many good reasons, namely poor design (central squares with no purpose), outdated plumbing, electrical, as well as rodent and gang infestation.

In 2005 the project was flattened, as all good government housing should be, and replaced with something only slightly better: suburban housing. $66m later, we have 230 units, complete with modern electrical, backyards, parking, and one way streets. The last two items making this a suburban sprawl in a 5-acre block of the Mission.

Suburb sprawl in the city? Read more »

I was on my way to return some items to CompUSA, when I noticed folks standing about Market Street with duct tape “X” symbols on them. “What could that mean?” I thought. I took a photo just in case it was a new fad.

A couple sporting duct tape

The Powell cable car turn around became very silent, perhaps eerily so. Little did I know that such markings meant that they were the next to be attacked by zombies!
Read more »

I try to recycle when it is convenient for me, fortunately my municipality makes it convenient to place paper, bottles, and cans into a single container, with general trash in another. At my previous apartment, I also had a food scraps bin, so even if I used paper plates I could drop in them in to be mushed into planting soil — even with the food on them!

If we as human kind on planet Earth are to continue on with our existence, we must recycle. It benefits us economically too: recycled goods don’t cost as much to manufacture compared to raw materials, and there is a never ending stream of reusable materials as long as more people do their part.

Did you know that cars are the most commonly recycled item? They take hundreds of barrels of oil to produce, but they are also mostly recycled into more cars that don’t take as much oil to produce, and hopefully use less oil when in use.

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