Does This Mean That Europeans Are Space Aliens?

Or just some Europeans?

Milwaukee's New East Library

Milwaukee has torn down the cruddy old public library building in my old neighborhood and replaced it with a mixed use building. In so doing, they improved the neighborhood, got a nicer building, and added a lot of housing units and parking to the block. Jeramey Jannene has the story in Urban Milwaukee:

The new East Library is only part of the much bigger project occupying the slice of land at the northeast corner of E. North Ave. and N. Cramer St. Legally speaking, the city owns a condominium inside a bigger building. This allows the city to own the library space, and to avoid paying a lease that would have to include taxes it would be paying back to itself. To make the complex ownership structure work, the city gave the land to the competitively-selected developer for free, in exchange for receiving the 16,000 square-foot library condominium grey box for free. The city then invested $3.9 million in building the library out. The developer invested approximately $15 million in the building. The developer had to also pay for a temporary library location.

...The building, which is already open, includes 99 apartments and 6,000 square-feet of yet un-rented retail space. There are 113 underground parking spaces an 40 street-level stalls (tucked under the building) for library patrons and employees....

...Besides the fact that the city gets more tax revenue when it can tax whatever is built above the library, mixed-use libraries have another advantage, they’re substantially cheaper to build. A new, non-tax-paying, 20,000 square-foot facility was estimated to cost $11.7 million to build. The new East Library, at 16,000 sq.-ft., will end up costing the city only $3.9 million — plus property tax revenue will flow to the city.

This seems like a win/win for everyone.

Honolulu could have taken a lesson from this with the new Aiea Library, which sits in the middle of nowhere and has no housing or rental space included. I wonder if satellite libraries will even be needed in 25 years: technology suggests a lot more books will be available online. At least Milwaukee's East Library should be readily convertible into rentable/sellable commercial space if that is true.

Sam Adams: "Badass Founding Father"

David Forsmark has a quote from Sam Adams which suggests to me that many political things have changed mightily, and not for the better, since the American revolution:

“No taxation without representation” was the unifying theme behind much of Adams’s rhetoric, including this line from his speech protesting the Sugar Act:

For if our Trade may be taxed, why not our Lands? Why not the Produce of our Lands & everything we possess or make use of?

Import duties? Property taxes? Taxes on crops? Inventory taxes? Taxes on business machinery?

More on seven such founders here.

That Responsible Hawaii State Government Again

According to today's Honolulu Star-Bulletin, the Hawaii State Government is working to inflate the housing bubble again. I guess because it worked so well the last time.

First-time homebuyers in Hawaii may be able to receive mortgage loans that will help cover part of a down payment, under a state-run program announced Monday.

The Hawaii Housing Finance and Development Corp. said $43 million in loan financing is available

Actually, not just first time homebuyers, but people who have not "owned an interest in a principal residence for the past three years."

Just to make sure that only financially responsible loans are made

Qualified buyers also must meet income and home price restrictions.

For a family of three or more, the annual gross income limit is $114,240 on Oahu..

OK, so the pols think that people with over a hundred thousand a year need subsidies. Leaving aside the question of just who gets to pay the taxes which make those subsidies possible, how much can this hypothetical family desperately in need of subsidies pay for a house?

"Home price limits are $723,417 on Oahu..." If one is bumping up against the maximum income limit, and buy a house near the maximum price limit, the price will be roughly six and a third times household income.

Gov. Neil Abercrombie said in a statement that the additional loan packages with down-payment assistance will help more people invest in their long-term future and stimulate economic activity.

So, our Noble State will be helping people borrow down payments to buy houses they cannot possibly afford without whopping down payments.

Do foreclosure actions stimulate economic activity?

300 Sextillion Would Impress Even a US Senator

According to the Christian Science Monitor: "Astronomers now say there are 300 sextillion stars. That's 200 sextillion more than previously thought." Give or take a few, of course. It still adds up to a lot of real estate just waiting to be developed.

Lessee: What's 300 sextillion look like?

1 = One
10 = Ten
100 = One Hundred
1,000 = One Thousand
10,000 = Ten Thousand
100,000 = One Hundred Thousand
1,000,000 = One Million
10,000,000 = Ten Million
100,000,000 = One Hundred Million
1,000,000,000 = One Billion = Walking around money for a US Rep.
10,000,000,000 = Ten Billion
100,000,000,000 = One Hundred Billion = Walking around money for a US Senator.
1,000,000,000,000 = One Trillion = Not enough for a US President.
10,000,000,000,000 = Ten Trillion = Sneaking up on the US Debt.
100,000,000,000,000 = One Hundred Trillion.
1,000,000,000,000,000 = One Quadrillion = What Congress would like to spend.
10,000,000,000,000,000 = Ten Quadrillion
100,000,000,000,000,000 = One Hundred Quadrillion
1,000,000,000,000,000,000 = One Quintillion
10,000,000,000,000,000,000 = Ten Quintillion
100,000,000,000,000,000,000 = One Hundred Quintillion
1,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 = One Sextillion
10,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 = Ten Sextillion
100,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 = One Hundred Sextillion = Enough for the President.
X 3 =
300,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 = But this would be even better, of course.

Someone Has Been Using His Noggin

Dumpsters as low cost swimming pools. Here. A thousand bucks for a swimming pool?

It makes way too much sense, tho, so it's GOT to be illegal.

"an airiness, a sense of light and charm"

All in rooms 8 1/2 feet wide and 42 feet long. Three floors worth of 8 1/2' X 42". Hey, that's New York City, and you can have it all for only $2,700,000.

It's located at at 75 1/2 Bedford St. in Greenwich Village, and until 1873 it was an alley. Such a deal must be seen to be believed.