Category: News

If you build thousands of lofts downtown, will thousands of loft dwellers appear from the corn fields? Maybe not:

Even the strongest supporters of downtown growth say that, at least in the short term, demand isn’t likely to keep up with the supply of new units.

“I don’t want to be naïve about it,” said Jim Cloar, executive director of the Downtown St. Louis Partnership. “There’s quite a bit coming online in the spring, and there will be a natural drop-off (in occupancy numbers). But in the next few years, it will get better.”

Demographics, however, suggest it could get worse before it gets better.

In all, 834 rental and 471 for-sale units are under construction downtown. Another 2,669 rentals and 865 for-sale condos are proposed or planned over the next five years.

If all of the proposed units are built and occupied, the downtown population would increase by about 9,800 people in less than five years. That would be a 50 percent increase over the growth rate from 2000 to 2005, based on the downtown partnership’s estimates.

The culprit for this glut? The Keynesian flat tire:

But many developers keep going because projects are being driven by tax incentives, such as historic tax credits, rather than market demand, said Dan Woehle, first vice president for CB Richard Ellis, a commercial real estate services company.

“It would be better if the units come online as the demand builds, but developers are scared that the incentives are going to go away,” Woehle said.

Kinda impedes thoughts of the downtown revitalization, eh, Williams?

Embedded within a story entitled Coroner kept man’s heart after autopsy — mom wasn’t told, we learn about a family’s victorious litigation that forced health officials to turn over the heart of the young man. And what the family did with it:

The couple keeps his heart in a polished, inlaid wooden box in their bedroom.

Imagine that burglar’s surprise when he goes for the jewelry.

Come on, like you’ve not accidentally let a small pistol slip through:

Lambert Field police never found what appeared to be a pistol that slipped through an X-ray screening machine Friday night at the airport.

Five flights were delayed and a sixth bound for Toronto was diverted to Detroit so that officials could re-screen the hundreds of passengers who had filed through Concourse A to the flights.

The incident began about 6:30 p.m. when a Transportation Security Administration screener reported what was believed to be a double-barreled derringer handgun on an X-ray monitor.

Airport police arrived within two minutes, said Chief Paul Mason. But the suspicious item and the man who brought it through security had left the area. Investigators reviewed surveillance video of the area but could not identify the man who may have been carrying a the weapon.

I’d expect it wasn’t really a two-shot derringer, but the fact that they could not immediately identify it, where they saw it, or the person whose luggage in which they saw it troubles me a great deal.

No doubt more inconvenience and government employees would help avert this situation in the future.

Man was arming for ‘war,’ FBI says:

A St. Charles man obtained fully automatic weapons and tried to buy as many explosives as possible in preparation for what an associate called “war,” the FBI says in court documents.

He bought three rifles and a Claymore anti-personnel mine and negotiated for a case of hand grenades, documents obtained by the Post-Dispatch show.

His name wasn’t Devlin, otherwise we would have heard about it for three weeks.

Let the Wookiee win: not just a strategy for holographic chess knock-offs.

The St. Louis Post-Dispatch doesn’t fail to get its headline with Michael Devlin’s name in it today: No ties confirmed between Devlin and other missing children:

No definite links between Michael Devlin and other local cases of missing children have surfaced in a two-week investigation of the accused kidnapper, authorities said today.

But Sgt. Al Nothum of the Missouri State Highway Patrol, spokesman for the multi-agency task force performing the probe, said the investigation had just begun.

But will they ban Guernseys, Holsteins, or Jerseys over this tragedy?

A northeast Ohio farmer was attacked by a cow and died a day later of a fractured skull suffered when his head hit the ground, authorities said.

What goes up must come down? How quaint.

“Our townhouse in Wauwatosa, on the market for eight months, was reassessed at $391,000 last summer,” Boyce said. “Our asking price, after being lowered twice, is now $349,900 and still we have not received any legitimate offers. Assessments are completely out of whack with values.”

Government law trumps natural law, the laws of economics, and every other law it wants when it comes to getting its paws on tax money.

Don’t expect your property tax assessments to fall with the market. Expect, at best, they’ll hold steady until inflation or the government’s own meddling force real estate prices up again.

If you object too strenously, citizen, perhaps you’d prefer to see your house as a couple of parking spaces and a light standard for the new stadium/mall/mixed use complex, eh?

Apparently, 99 Green Balloons are not enough to start the apocalypse.

(Final hat tip to the cat man.)

Greendale wants a say in Southridge’s future:

Greendale officials want to influence the changes in store for Southridge Mall – the village’s biggest taxpayer – as it comes under new ownership.

The village is seeking proposals from two planning firms – HNTB Corp. and R.A. Smith and Associates Inc. – to develop its own vision for the mall’s future, Village Manager Joseph Murray said.

Conversations have focused on whether the 110-acre complex, the largest shopping mall in the state, could support mixed-use development, whether housing could be part of that mix, and costs associated with various redevelopment plans, Village President John Hermes said. Talks have been in progress for several months.

How come newspapers never ask the big question, by what right does the government think it should exert influence in private business transactions?

Maybe it’s just as well; the answer would be Might, perhaps followed by a little inquisition against those who would challenge the ever-increasing authority.

Don’t think we can? No permits for you.
Think we’re sliding totalitarian? So, is this your car parked eighteen inches from the curb? I think we’ll have to boot it.

And so on, and so on.

Beethoven’s Fifth + 5%:
Seeking a refund, orchestra says concerts are educational and shouldn’t be subject to sales tax:

Are performances by the Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra entertainment or education?

Think carefully about the answer. Millions of dollars depend on it.

According to the state, orchestra concerts are entertainment, and therefore sales tax must be paid on tickets.

For years, the orchestra has been paying the state sales tax on the face value of each ticket sold, and it continues to do so. The money is paid out of general orchestra funds. Now the orchestra wants a refund.

The local sports teams cannot wait to explain that they’re big phys ed classes.

Remember rolling blackouts in California in 2001? Apparently, so do the power utility regulators, and the Public Utility Commission misses them:

California regulators on Thursday banned the three companies that supply most of the state’s power from buying electricity from high-polluting sources, including most coal-burning plants.

The rules are aimed at reducing emissions of heat-trapping gases linked to global warming. While there are almost no coal-fired plants in California, about 20 percent of the state’s electricity comes from coal plants in other Western states.

“It represents a significant milestone in our ongoing efforts to address the challenge of climate change,” said Michael Peevey, president of the Public Utilities Commission.

Not to mention a significant milestone in ongoing efforts to throttle supply while demand continues to rise. No doubt, though, when the unforeseen consequences (unforeseen by the blinkered green government officials, but obvious to anyone with any insight into economics above the grade school level), the Public Utilities Commission and the California Energy Commission (in California, they need 2 bureaucracies to cover it) will find some corporation that’s to blame for people getting trapped in elevators, for server farms crashing, and for elderly people dying from heat.

But rest assured, the costs to the economy and the citizens of California are worth it for some negligible, unproven impact on the Mother Gaea.

Whenever I catch the midday hourly news on the radio, I can’t wait to hear the stock report. Typically, I hear it on my way to lunch or back from lunch. My commute coincides with the final minute allocated to local news on the jazz, country, or greatest hits of the 60s-70s-80s-90s-and-today radio station. I’m always eager to hear the instant analysis of a bored local brokerage functionary or the economic epiphany suffered by the newsreader.

“The stock market is down at this hour…” the deep FM voice narrates. Quite frankly, the day traders who inflated the stock market bubble at the end of the last century didn’t rely on radio to make decisions. The Internet allows people to check the instant progress of their individual portfolios. The day traders who are still trading, instead of flipping burgers or bagging groceries, have access to mystical Level-2 quotes, which are somehow better than simple quotes everyone can get on Yahoo! So FM Man is talking to himself, and me, alone in my truck at a stoplight.

“…as investors react to the latest White House pronouncement / War on Terror speculation / forgettable Reality TV Show decision….” The professionally-trained or university-radio-station-warm-body intones. I’m unclear on what authority the newsreader makes this prognostication or diagnosis, but it’s probably right. Short-term reactions in the marketplace include short-term investors who react to the slightest jostle in the world marketplace by shrieking that someone has picked their pockets. Employment has dropped to 94.2 percent? SELL SELL SELL! The guy on the radio says the market’s down? SELL SELL SELL!

Of course, those who sell on whatever macroeconomic metrics arrive from political, pop cultural, or sociological sources don’t consider the nature of their individual investments. They lose sight of the long-term prospects of the companies of which they have become a part and in whose long-term direction they, as investors, can exert some small amount of control. Instead, they try to be the head cows in the stampede into or out of a bull run on Wall Street or Main Street, or wherever investors huddle. These short-sighted investors react to the lemming clarion call of astrological percentages and to the deep, comforting voice on our radios that makes it into a daily catechism.

“The Dow Jones is down 56.75 points and the NASDAQ is down just under 10,” the fickle fate of Frequency Modulation reports. These numbers represent a selective representation of how certain big name firms, selected especially for their big names, traded that day. Personally, I don’t own anything indexed by Dow Jones or the NASDAQ exchange, so their numbers don’t tell me whether I can retire in 40.2 years or 45.9; instead, they tell me something else, of what I am not certain, but the helpful newsreader and his or her friendly analysts will color the results for me, Joe-Six-Pack-of-Guinness, to understand.

That simple hourly report, crammed into five seconds, fails to capture the state of the United States or world economy. Instead, it only represents the latest sports score in the never-ending playoff between the Bulls and the Bears, played on the limited field of the indices. I can chuckle, or cluck, at the purported performance, but I know the current, somber market report has little impact on my ragtag fugitive fleet of bonds, equities, and mutual funds. By the time the announcer breaks for the updated weather forecast, his prognostication for financial well-being will be as irrelevant as it is forgotten.

U.S. restaurants blast Kevin Federline TV ad:

A leading restaurant association has called for the cancellation of a TV commercial featuring Britney Spears’ estranged husband, Kevin Federline, as a failed rap star working in a fast-food eatery.

In a 30-second ad for Nationwide Insurance, Federline is shown dreaming he is a rap star but then snaps out of it to face reality — he’s working at a burger restaurant.

The commercial is due to be aired during the National Football League’s Super Bowl championship on Sunday, February 4, advertising’s biggest televised sporting event of the year. Last year’s Super Bowl drew more than 90 million viewers.

But the National Restaurant Association’s Chief Executive Steven Anderson has written to Nationwide saying the ad leaves the impression that working in a restaurant is demeaning and unpleasant and asking the commercial to be dumped.

“An ad such as this would be a strong and a direct insult to the 12.8 million Americans who work in the restaurant industry,” wrote Anderson, head of the association that represents 935,000 U.S. restaurants.

What a stuffed shirt.

Because no one working in a restaurant dreams of a better life; no, says this comfortably office bound and expense-account bearing gentleman, who could dream of something better or who could recognize humor in their situation when working in a restaurant? Not the mindless automatons in the industry.

But his press release got into the paper, didn’t it?

And you, consumer, do you think more highly of the restaurant (owners and franchisers) of America that they have chosen this stalwart Dun Quixote to stand up for them (but not their workers)?

MLK Party Causes Uproar on Texas Campus:

Authorities at Tarleton State University said they plan to investigate a Martin Luther King Jr. Day party that mocked black stereotypes by featuring fried chicken, malt liquor and faux gang apparel.

“I feel like there is no excuse for this type of ignorance,” said Donald Ray Elder, president of the Stephenville school’s chapter of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People.

So mocking stereotypes is as offensive and ignorant as actually believing them?

Ah, who cares, let’s call the attorneys. Certainly having a sense of humor should be worth some punitive damages to those who do not.

Billboard where Ladue student was slain draws fire:

A billboard advertising the apartment complex where a Clemson University student from Ladue, Mo., was strangled with a bikini top is drawing criticism for its sexually suggestive images.

It shows a young woman in a spaghetti strap shirt smiling, with the word “Reserved” below her. A second photo shows a woman sporting a tattoo on her lower back, accompanied by a pair of fuzzy dice. It reads: “Not so Reserved.”

Yes, the billboard is tacky, but really, does the apartment complex have to avoid any mention of sex or bikinis for the rest of its existence to avoid offending the employees of charity where the woman in the murder worked? That’s a little too sensitive even for my bleeding little heart.

Meanwhile, AP headlines this story with a cliché based on a metaphor for actual firearm usage with the intent to kill. Do you think they were being clever, tacky, or merely clueless?

Undocumented carp:

Senator Dick Durbin and Representative Judy Biggert have introduced legislation that would approve funding for a barrier to stop the spead of the Asian Carp.

[snip]

The carp have no natural predators in the area and threaten Great Lakes species by competing with local fish for food and habitat.

The legislation would authorize the Army Corp of Engineers to finish building a permanent barrier in the Chicago Ship and Sanitary Canal and study options to stop the fish.

Asian Carp: They just eat the grubs that American carp won’t. I know, some of you will point out that the nation’s carp are all immigrant carp, but that’s not important.

What is important is that the Democrats in Congress recognize the danger of unchecked influx from the south.

The rah-rah:

The Democratic-controlled House voted overwhelmingly to cut interest rates on need-based student loans Wednesday, steadily whittling its list of early legislative priorities.

The legislation, passed 356-71, would slice rates on the subsidized loans from 6.8 percent to 3.4 percent in stages over five years at a cost to taxpayers of $6 billion. About 5.5 million students get the loans each year.

The short term fix that will have unintended, and startlingly unforeseen, consequences:

The House bill aims to reduce the $6 billion cost by reducing the government’s guaranteed return to lenders that make student loans, cutting back the amount the government pays for defaulted loans and requiring banks to pay more in fees.

Let’s see, Congress has just:

• Cut the profitability by limiting the upside (the interest) that lenders can make.
• Increased the risk by cutting out the government “insurance” against default. Instead, those defaults will have to be covered with the reduced margin for error (the interest; profitability is just unused margin for error).
• Increased fees that the lenders have to pay to have access to lowered profit potential and increased risk.

That’s the sort of fiscal and economic thinking that comes from not having to balance your checkbook.

So in 20 years, when student loans are harder to come by, the poor students will have to enter the workforce with naught but a high school education and, to those who can afford it, an Associates degree. To struggle, not make it very far, and vote Democrat.

Just kidding. The same people who strangle the privatesque solution today will determine that education is a right, like health care, and the government–they–should be the ones to fund it and mete it out.