Author: Victoria Wilson

Independent theorist interested in questions at the intersection of real estate, value and price.

Bald Eagles

A majestic bird that is easily identified by its size and how the light causes a flash of white on its head or tail feathers.

Choices between time

One word that distinguishes the periods is intertemporal. Here’s a straightforward definition:

Then there’s the distinction of choosing between different time periods and thus enhancing the time span with the outcomes of a choice which one might infer comes from action.

Whereas Wiktionary’s definition keeps the specifics loose and says intertemporal includes any relationship between time periods.

Letwin talks of David Hume

David Hume, a member of the Scottish Enlightenment crew and good friend to Adam Smith, was a practical sort of guy. Perhaps it was his good sense that kept him out of the universities and engaged with a broader, more genial audience. He wrote on many topics. Fortunately, people like Letwin parse through the material to pull out interesting bits like this one.

But if the politician had to be in a way mediocre, he had also to be thoroughly civilized. Civilization was not the same as morality. Hume refused to divide men into good and bad; in the history he rounded off each portrait with a neat balance of virtues and vices, that fails utterly to give a picture of a living man, but makes it clear that he was neither saint nor villain. For Hume would allow no character to be “wholly bad or good; tho’ the prejudices of party make writers run easily into the extremes of both panegyric and of satire.”

So often people are painted as all evil or all angel when we all know, as David Hume tells us, there’s at least a bit of both in most everyone. Then what should we look for in evaluating the political performance of public servants who are apt to be swayed in both directions?

The political morality Hume demanded is in a way far more difficult to observe than the extremest puritan austerity. For it is easy either to follow some set of rules absolutely or to ignore moral qualms altogether. It is easy also to try to establish a perfect city, come what may. But the man who tries to adapt himself to circumstances and yet preserve his integrity, to recognize new problems without destroying law and order, has an endless task. He is eternally obliged to balance one thing against another, to distinguish and compromise, and all this without falling into moral indifference. Perhaps most difficult of all, Hume’s politics assumes great personal resources, an ability to find meaning in life for oneself, and to require from the state nothing more than a convenient setting for private enthusiasms.

A Joy Barometer

You know how you just stumble into a good situation sometimes? I’ve had the good fortune of reading Anna Karenina with a bunch of smart people. The conversation has left more questions unanswered than answers securly rendered. Which leads to the most lovely contemplation throughout the day.

One continuing thread of inquiry over the four weeks has been around the feelings, aspirations, and fulfillment of joy in the rich selection of characters in the novel. How the characters are able, or how they fail, to pursue their best lives. What brings them pleasure and satisfaction versus what brings them torment and madness.

Some in the group have observed that joy bubbles up as part of process of search, discovery and consumation. Kitty, for example may not have felt much joy when a suitor she desired, Vronsky, turned his affections toward Anna. In fact she made herself sick with shame and dismay to the point that her parents whisk her away to an overseas location. A joy meter would register below zero for Kitty at this point in the story. Yet later on in the novel she too finds love.

Is a joy to be measured in the instant? Or over a period of time? Is joy to be measured in stages of life?

Anna was joyful in her first marriage until she met true love. Her passion was all she needed as long as she and Vronsky could steer clear of the judging eyes of greater society. She clung to the joy in the steady state part of the relationship, making every attempt in her personal appearance and ambitions to be attractive. But in her isolation from female companionship and social interactions she looses touch with reality and is driven mad.

Is this the moment where the measure on her joy barometer is the best representation of her life?

Main Street

I swung through Sauk Centre recently and took a picture of the birthplace home of writer Sinclair Lewis (1885-1951). It’s hard for us to imagine how popular his books, Main Street, Babbitt, and others were back at the beginning of the twentieth century. They were immediate hits, turning the small-town boy into a millionaire.

He was born to a doctor and his wife in 1885 in this home in a town which then was home to about sixteen hundred residents.

The detail work on the structure is notable for a home of this period. The balustrade along the porch roof, a frieze below its eaves, the dentil work, and scrolled corner brackets. The windows are topped with a cornice and sided by shutters. One must wonder if immigrant labor from the old country was put to work in creating such ornate structures. The timber most likely arrived on the railroad tracks which ran through town less than three blocks away. The rail bed is now a regional bike trail facilitating a different type of traffic.

It’s a handsome home. At the time it was built, there was no electricity. That would have come later. The roads were dirt, and in the back stands a structure more attuned to a small barn, most likely designed for a carriage. The turn of the century brought all sorts of technological improvements from plumbing, to windows, and lighting. Foundations changed from dugout cellars to functional deeper spaces. But whenever I see the attention to artistic accents on the Victorian era homes, I have to think there was an extra pleasure in their creation.

The town is only three times the size it was back when Lewis exposed the stifling discomforts of small-town life. In a way, he is similar to his peer Zora Neale Hurston (1891-1960), who wrote about her youth community in Florida, telling of insights some would prefer not be exposed. Norms are meant to be understood and followed but not openly discussed in good company.

How Will I Know?

In 1986, a young Whitney Houston captivated audiences with another breakout hit, How Will I Know. Before she gives in to her passionate feelings for the object of her desire, she wants reassurance. She wants to be sure the love in her heart is not leading her astray.

In the refrain, she tells us, ‘Don’t trust your feelings.’ Apparently, the moment of passion is not always a reliable barometer for stormy weather. ‘Love can be deceiving.’ When triggered by a natural impulse, the urge to rush in may lead one off course.

Following your heart, or your passion, is a tricky business. The natural inclinations to react in an altruistic manner may also lead to misgivings. How do we know who should step in when a family is in turmoil? Should it be presumed that a vagabond would be happier in a group home? How do we know who truly needs help and who is an opportunist?

The video tells us more. There’s a moment when all Whitney’s peeps are on the phone. I assume she’s calling her gal pals for advice on the object for her affection. She asking them, how will she know? And I think she is on the right track. Most people look to their peer group to decide how they know who needs help and who’s fine in the moment.

Is MN a He**Ho*e?

This seems to be a popular question these days in light of the new US VP candidate. Those who would like to stress the decline in the quality of life in Minnesota post photos of homeless tents cropping up on vacant forty-foot lots in the city. The chaos, litter, and disorder represent a decline in street life since the summer of 2020 following the riots. The images are current. There is an ongoing whack-a-mole operation underway as neighbors have become tired of the issues around tents in their communities. The city moves them from one location only for them to relocate ten blocks away.

Those who like to stress the beauty of Minnesota post this type of image:

This portrait of a city framed in greenery, wildflowers, and water is not at all unusual or hard to come by. The Mississippi runs through the city, and twenty-two lakes lie within its boundaries. One hundred and eighty parks surround water features, old-growth trees, or grassy play fields, and fifty-five miles of walking and biking trails connect the system. The over seven thousand acres of public space started in 1856 with the donation of Murphy Square.

But here’s the argument that the recent unrest is unsettling. What people point to as the best features are those which were initiated over one hundred and fifty years ago. These whispers and aspirations took decades to initiate, then decades more to shape and form, then decades more to maintain and develop into a system for perpetual use. The photo exemplifies consistent and long-term commitment to this support.

Posting an image of an urban amenity that was decades in the making is an argument against the recent tolerance for civic destruction and unrest. There’s only so much public capacity. If it is drained in one area, then eventually, over time, other public amenities will fall to the wayside and deteriorate.

A New Standard

If people can’t handle the truth (as Jack Nicholson is known to have said) then what will the new standards be? When will the slip up, the mispoke, be called out as a flat out lie?

It is not uncommon for people to misspeak. In thinking about the next thing to say, instead of “blue” you say “red”, or instead of “east” you say “west”. Few will object to a proper slip-up. It’s unintentional. It’s sloppy but harmless. But what about slipping up twice on the same word, or twenty times? When does the use of an incorrect title which embellishes one’s position and stature in a hierarchical system become more than an oops?

There should be some rules to such things. After all, you can’t go around calling out “liar, liar, pants on fire.” Nor is it always appropriate to blurt out a truth. It’s like the spouse who steers clear of the question, “Honey, do I look fat in this outfit?” Here a white lie gets you through the moment of insecurity and lets the evening proceed without an analysis about what one should do about a few extra pounds. Here no one gets hurt, in fact the couple is better off.

So is that the new rule? If no one gets hurt, letting a deception fall to the wayside is not a big deal? Who would care if your twelve year record in the girl scouts was real? Well, if you were making decisions about the future of the scouts, people in the audience may place more value on your opinion given a long-standing relationship with the organization. That’s how people make decisions. They gather information from reliable sources before taking action. Most feel firsthand knowledge is more reliable than outside opinion, so a long-standing interactive relationship lends credibility to a point of view.

It’s a theft in a way. People rely on product information before they make a purchase. They take action based on the material attributes of the product. If people are choosing their public goods, they should have access to a similar level of product information to a degree of reliability. Where the public will settle on the acceptable level of truth-telling is yet to come.

Bad advice

I’m getting a kick out of the weird word. Being weird is not that hard to do, especially when people give you bad advice. Like, always tell the truth. The truth in business is often not what your boss really wants to hear. Nor is it what the local politicians want written on the front pages of the paper. They want the narrative, whether it is the one that makes the boss look good or the politician. They need the narrative.

Asking for an explanation is also not popular. People do not want to explain why they do what they do or they prefer what they prefer or they feel inclined toward a certain outcome. It’s simply understood.

I like the whys. I’ve spent my life asking why. Here I am at a young age looking for a response from a nice lady in red. My one brother sings ‘la-la-la-la’ so he doesn’t feel the discomfort of the lady grasping her ever-tightening hands. My other brother looks off, cute as aways, playing the knave. Undoubtedly the lady in blue is thinking, ‘she’s an odd little girl.’

I don’t regret being weird for a minute. Looking for answers is the most interesting pastime.

Elon wants an Efficiency Commission

How would that work exactly, an efficiency commission? In the business world, when the system is open and monopolies aren’t gumming up the flow of things, new entrants keep prices lean by undercutting the legacy companies, while maintaining a high enough price so as not to go bust. This tension is how people trust that they are paying a competitive price.

When groups or governments come up with pledges to jointly pay for goods and services, the obligation to purchase distorts a more fluid and flexible exchange. It also can set up a fictitious demand, as in the Feeding our Future Fraud case. The knowledge that the funds would arrive gave a financial incentive to fabricate the hungry kids who demanded the meals.

Another inefficiency appears in the form of joint missions, also known as mission creep. For instance, a government acquires a property in poor condition. Instead of bringing it up to the standard that most of the nearby residents would do if it were their home, the government entity goes over and above, not by a little but perhaps by three times the expense of average expectations. “Because it is the right thing to do.”

There are two counting mechanisms that could help an efficiency commission discuss examples such as these. The first is to count the population of the end recipients or receivers of service. A simple demographic count of the kids meant to be served would have immiediately revealed the fraud that led to the theft of $250 million from Federal subsidies. The state demographer has those numbers. It’s not hard to add.

The second example requires a comparison to the average typical repair for the area. Many home repairs and services vary in price. Should a homeowner go with the highest efficiency model, or is 80% high enough? It seems that the likely answer lies with the community of like-minded folks and not the bureaucrat. Wouldn’t it make most sense to spend the money in the fashion that a conscientious owner in the neighborhood would choose to do? After all, they’ve gone through the scheme of pricing and comparing.

Those in charge of public dollars should be vigilant to avoid being taken for a ride, as well as in line with the spending expectations of their constituents.

Emotional response to the Nat’l Anthem

Basketball player Brittney Griner spent ten months in a Russian penal colony for being caught at the Sheremetyevo airport with e-cigarettes with cannabis oil in her luggage. The experience may be the reason for her emotional response to the playing of the national anthem while on the podium at the Olympics.

It’s easy to take for granted what is so familiar to us. Coming into contact with dire regimes across the world most often causes people to appreciate the standard of living in the US, despite the problems here. When it doesn’t, be wary.

I hope all goes well in the primaries tomorrow.

Absolute Power- Movie Review

I really enjoyed this movie, and it’s been a while since I’ve hit on a winner. Full disclosure, I’m a Clint Eastwood fan and found it by searching his large portfolio of films. I also like Laura Linney, who did a fine job. Gene Hackman, Ed Harris, and Judy Davis all came through in their performances as well.

The story is based on a book by David Baldacci and will keep your attention. I also appreciated the balance of enough show and tell to make a point without overt violence or gore. A little can be a lot, and certainly enough.

The Neighbors- Hospital repurpose con’t

The most valuable aspect of the Fergus Falls Hospital is the apparent lack of objection by the community to being neighborly with a spectrum of individuals under the auspices of mental illness. For over a century, the facility housed a tenth of the town’s population.

Imagine, for the purposes of conversation, that returning the hospital to a newly renovated in-patient treatment facility would allow for a capacity of five hundred residents. Now imagine the alternative. How much time would be required at city council meetings to obtain neighbors’ approval to house five hundred residents in group homes of fifteen residents, or thirty-three sites. It’s mind-boggling, as more often than not the site will not pass the NIMBYs, and thus the process would start over and over again.

The stories told during the tour of the historic complex included tales of interaction in the town of Fergus Falls. Some residents simply walked off the campus and were not pursued. Some residents were gregarious in their interaction with visitors on the long grassy lawn in front of the entrance of the building. But there they coexisted, the residents who lived in the facility over one hundred and twenty-five years and the townspeople of fifteen thousand.

I overheard bits of conversation after the tour guide had wrapped up his talk. A nurse who had started working at the hospital in 1977 was relating some of her memories to a cluster of silver-haired women. A man of a similar generation shared that he had lived on site in his youth. The reality of people’s stories is never as frightening as what is envisioned by a neighborhood asked to become host to this group of society. The reality is far more banal and empathetic.

It’s hard not to believe that the hospital brought many a profession or at least a stable job with a pension. Although not near a bustling metropolis, the area has many beautiful natural features in its lakes and open spaces. For those interested in the outdoors, hunting and fishing, there isn’t a better place to be. For those who enjoy a nestled small town atmosphere or space that acreage living affords, this is where you can find both. A housing and professional facility for those who now live under bridges and in tents on concrete curbs could bring solace to the residents and an income for local residents.

The town not doubt has a mix of good memeories, humorous memories, and undoubtedly some bad ones. But never has it been said or implied that the hospotal closed under pressure from the nieghbors.

Use values for a historic hospital

Before rehabbing a structure, most owners consider how the building will be used. With high vacancies in the downtown business districts, some folks are suggesting the commercial buildings be converted to residential units. It doesn’t take much imagination to understand the impracticality of changing around floor plans from acres of cubicles to one thousand square foot residences with a couple of bathrooms, a kitchen, and outward-facing windows. It’s not impossible to change the use from office space to living space, yet a momumentous task.

The hospital housed the patients, so it is more akin to residential use. The buildings are grand.

There are historic photos of wards lined with beds, which would no longer be acceptable. Instead of 1900 residents, perhaps the space could accommodate 500 in order to comply with modern standards for living space. This would still be a sizeable project. I’m wondering though if the building would appeal to the mainstream population? It seems people would have a difficult time shaking off thoughts of the mental illnesses formerly contained within its walls. Although the structures look like dormitories in a liberal arts college, details like bars on the windows are reminiscent of past occupants.

It seems like the best use for the complex would be for housing folks who are presently suffering from homelessness and mental illness. It’s quite a step up from the tent encampments being dismanteled daily in the core cities.

Local media bias?

There’s been a debate in MN for the past six years around media bias in favor of the Governor and his party. With national and international focus on our fine state, the debate may be settled, or at least fine tuned.

The topic of the day centered around implied combat service by the Governor. Those types of aggrandizements would not have been called out by local media. Now we see full coverage such as this report by CNN.

https://amp.cnn.com/cnn/2024/08/07/politics/tim-walz-military-record-vance-attack

What will tomorrow bring?

Fergus Falls Hospital (con’t)

In a rural county seat, two and a half hours northwest of the Twin Cities, is an arc-shaped building complex that housed mentally ill patients for a century and a quarter. The state hospital was decommissioned in 2007. It is owned by the city of Fergus Falls and now sits vacant, waiting for news of its destiny.

Although the buildings were maintained as long as they were used, a building of that age requires on-going maintenance. Older buildings often are more expensive to keep up as one project leads to another and the standard products and sizes which were used at time of construction are now special orders and customs fits.

Infrastructure, like pipes, electrical and safety measures also age out of their useful life. Take the orange column in this photo.

It reminds me of those chutes they set up in high-rise buildings when they are remodeling. But no, it is not a trash chute. The guide on our tour of the site said there are slides inside those rusty tubes so residents could slip out and evacuate in the event of a fire. Somehow, I’m not sure if they would still meet code.

Renovations cost money. New construction costs even more money. Here’s a project in Austin with no historical appeal (those roof lines are very unpopular in MN!). The project still costs $600K per unit.

The long and the short of it is that the material condition of the buildings does not unduly affect their commodity value, if you will. The age of the structures should not deter a redevelopment in and of itself. The numbers will most likely fall in line with other residential redos.

MN Mental Health update

Here’s the first page of a snapshot review prepared for the MN Senate Committee on Health and Human Services.

This data is for children specifically, but I bet the message for other groups is the same. There is a need for more services. The flow, as with many socially supported endeavors, is the lack of coverage leads people to use more expensive services- in this case emergency room visits.

Do more today, to prevent expenses tomorrow.

What to do with an Asylum?

Not just any asylum – one that was built in the middle of a farm field in a small Minnesota town on the railroad line between St. Paul and Fargo. The last surviving Kirkbride Building that was designed by Dr. Thomas Kirkbride: a complex of four-story structures creating an arc to maximize light and hence health benefits. At 700,000 finished square feet (TPT), the Fergus Falls (formerly) State Hospital is a lot to take care of.

If footage is hard to visualize, here are some comparisons as listed by The Measure of Things. The facility is three fourths as big as Alcatraz (960,000), two times as big as the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool (339,000), and half as big as the Pentagon (1,490,000). In addition to the main buildings, there was a power plant, a gymnasium, a workshop, maintenance buildings, a rehab center, a nurses’ quarters, and acres of cropland which sustained the facility.

On a recent tour I captured a few shots.

Over its one hundred and twenty-year history, there were good times and bad. Built before the turn of the twentieth century, at its peak, it housed 1800-2000 patients. The years of overcrowding led to criticism, which in turn was addressed. The tour guide from the Ottertail Historical Society narrated a balanced set of stories from personal experiences as written in journals, to newspaper articles, to reviews given to the facility from state inspectors.

State-run institutions became an unpopular means of managing mental health patients starting in the 1980s. The trend at the time was to return individuals back into the communities for care. The hospital’s population decreased until it was closed by the state in 2007. Shortly thereafter, the property was sold to the city of Fergus Falls, a community of 14,000.

The conundrum now is what to do with these structures? A commercial building on an acreage site would get bought out and redevelopped, as is underway at the Prudential Site. Even when the buildings are in decent shape, the value of the land makes the numbers work to pull down the structure and replot the acreage for further development.

Over a few posts, I’ll discuss why this scenario is different. Of course, the location in a rural area, an hour away from the Fargo airport is a factor. The condition of the buildings comes into play in redevelopment costs. The historical designation impacts the outcome. So what is it? What is the highest and best use for a historic asylum?

Tolstoy- the public and the private

Upon a recommendation from a friend, I’m delightfully plowing through Anna Karenina. I had yet to tackle the great Russian novelists, and now I see I’ve been missing out. Tolstoy wrote AK over a four-year period in the 1870s, with its first publication appearing in 1878. The title may lead one to think the story is only about a socialite who betrays her husband, but this is not the case. Over the nearly one-thousand-page book, Tolstoy touches all layers of Russian society and a great many facets of human nature. It is a remarkable book.

On more than one occasion the author distinguishes between private interests and public concerns. Levin is a country squire who is preoccupied with bringing agricultural pursuits to a new level. He contemplates all angles of farming. In particular, he expresses a need to invigorate the ambitions of the labor force. Tolstoy depicts various arrangements throughout the novel, including a family farm, hired workers, and leaseholders. It’s important to note that the emancipation of the serfs happened in 1861.

He is desperate to engage the workers for his estate, to key into their motivation. Here is how he frames his ambition:

I need only push on steadily toward my aim and I shall achieve it,’ he thought, ‘and it is worth working and striving for. It is not a personal affair of my own but one of public welfare. The whole system of farming, and above all the position of the people, must be completely altered: instead of poverty – wealth and satisfaction for all; instead of hostility-concord and a bond of common interest. In a word-a revolution bloodless but immense; first in our own small district, then throughout the province, throughout Russia, and the whole world-for a good thought must be fruitful. Yes, it is an aim worth working for! The fact that the author of it is myself, Constantine Levin,…

For Tolstoy, a combination of motive in the private and the public is possible.

Entrepreneurial Philanthropy

Government is really good at saying ‘no.’ Rule-making is all about saying “don’t do this” and “don’t do that.” Sometimes solving problems means saying yes. Like, yes, we can fix that stinky, polluting car. In steps the philanthropic entrepreneur, Environmental Initiative.

Launched in 2017, Project CAR works with local car repair shops to cover the cost of fixing emissions control and exhaust systems for qualifying lower-income Minnesotans. Nearly 600 cars have been repaired since the program began, eliminating 32 tons of emissions. Project CAR is focused on fixing the estimated 25% of passenger vehicles that cause 90% of vehicle air pollution in Minnesota.

Folks who are driving the car which contributes the most to declining air quality are also stretched by other priorities.

Cathy Heying, executive director and founder of The Lift Garage, an established partner of Project CAR, praised the program’s expansion, expressing enthusiasm for the collective impact such partnerships can generate. “Customers come in with all sorts of needs, and, often, environmental impact is not their top priority due to cost constraints. So, this program is amazing because customers want to do the right thing for the environment and this program allows them to do that while also improving their car’s functionality,” she said.

This non-profit ends up offering a two-for-one. They provide people with transportation to go about their daily lives and they reduce a negative externality to the local public. All this without interfering with the owners’ everyday flow of finances and obligations.

What other low hanging fruit are our there for the entrepreneurs to capture?

Max Pay for Political Types?

The Hennepin County Commissioners just voted to raise their pay by 49%. Sometimes this is justified, when the starting pay is unreasonably low. A large percent of a very small number is still a small number. But here the Commissioners were already at what people in this part of the US would consider a nice salary.

District 2 member Irene Fernando proposed the pay raise during Tuesday’s Administration, Operations, and Budget Committee meeting. The proposal would increase the current salary cap for commissioners from $122,225 to $182,141. 

According to Fred, this figure is double of the per capita income in the state.

The commissioners stated that this new amount brings their wage in line with other county executives. But is this a fair comparison? Should elected officials be motivated to serve and then draw an adequat salary? Or should the salary be the motivator to run for office?

The Governor chooses to take home only $127K a year. He seems to think that part of the prize is the job, not the wage.

A strong monetary motivation can also produce golden handcuffs. It’s commonly accepted that incumbent county officials (or city coucil people for that matter) rarely loose their position in an election. Their name recognition and familiarity with the constituents often secures their job. Is it a good idea to pay out a salary that would be tough to duplicate elsewhere and thus encourage someone to stick with it once they’ve lost interest in the spirit of the work?

When I was young, I often heard that jobs from teachers to government positions were done with a spirit of public service. That generation appears to have retired from the workforce.

Local Angle- Veep Speculation

Flow

Often, the merits of a transaction are given from the perspective of a single agent in the trade. An assembly line-worker lost their job when the plant was moved to another location. This is bad. The worker suffered a loss. Quickly, within sentences, the effect is generalized to all the workers in the plant, town or even region. The Experience of the middle aged white guy who is difficult to retrain and find meaningful work of the same quality is the catalyst for all sorts of feelings and demands for government intervention.

Do you see the slide? From a valid totaling up of wins and losses for one individual turned into a model involving segments of society.

It’s important to declare which model is in play as this dictates whether the players are individuals or groups, whether the tally of net benefit or loss is assigned to one or to many, and perhaps most interestingly the flow of reaction and counterreaction as value settles in the system. More interesting insights surface when consequential outcomes are looked at in a flow of events.

Think back to the time of the 2008 recession. Say one buyer purchased a home at the peak of the housing market with a three-year adjustable ARM. When the ARM recalculated in 2011, the buyer’s payment adjusted upwards to an amount beyond their ability to pay. Due to the recession, the value of the home had decreased below the mortgage balance. The buyer ends up in a familiar situation at that time and loses the property to foreclosure. This is a clear loss.

But say every other homeowner in the neighborhood had owned their homes for more than ten years. None of them were interested in selling until after 2015. These individuals realized no impact from the value changes during the recession expcept to see their assessed values decline resulting in lower property taxes. As a neighborhood the effects of the recession were uneventful.

In the plant closure story, there were most probably workers who ended up better off for the closure. Perhaps it encouraged them to return to school to achieve an updated skill. At the other end of work life, perhaps someone nearing retirement ended up with a more favorable retirement package. Getting people to think of workers as a mass might be useful for unions, but loses a finess of obeservation for analysis.

It seems, to have a profitable discussion, one must pick a playing field. If you want to pick a town, then the players are all the workers, their economic impact on local services, and the support available through the municipality’s local services. Who netted out what and where did the money settle in time periods 1, 2, and 3 following a plant closure. If there was a draw of support from a higher level of governance, maybe the playing field needs to be moved up a rung to the county level, or to the region within the state. The players then get expanded to blend in other economic agents and their positive and negative tallies.

Instead, the story is usually told like some mid-19th century Russian novel. The peasants were persecuted and the capitalists must be blamed! This is not helpful.

Home cooked food- does it matter?

I say, yes, without a doubt. Home-cooked food is worth pursuing.

I got wind of a family that was going through a rough time, so I dropped off dinner: a pan of chicken alfredo in penne pasta, Brussels sprouts, buns, and a pan of blond brownies (minus a test brownie to be sure it met grade). I wasn’t even out of their neighborhood before I received a thank-you text. And then I heard later through mutual friends that the food was deemed delicious.

An unexpected gift is often a delight. A gift of a meal just as one is getting hungry is bound to taste better than reheated leftovers. Still, I believe the appreciation for the food is in part because it did not arrive in takeout boxes.

If one is a careful counter of costs, then one will be impressed by the price difference between made-from-scratch and prepared foods. It is substantial. There are lots of financial incentives to spend a little time with the church ladies’ cookbooks and fine-tune a repertoire of family-friendly options. I’d guess, on average, the ratio is 1:3 or 1:4, even with substitutes like Subway. It’s simply so much cheaper to learn to cook!

I won’t sugar coat the drugery of the educational experience. The peppering of complaints from the kitchen table of a missing this or a what if you tried that can almost push one over the edge on the right day. The hang time is worth it, though. When they return from college campuses begging you for a home cooked meal you are blessed with one more affirmation that you did something right. Vindication comes in many forms.

An hour of your time for goodwill?

A local writer-comedian asks on X:

Here are some of the eighty-four responses which rolled onto the thread in just a few hours.

  • Compassionate Action for Animals
  • All About Family
  • MELSA for libraries
  • Minneapolis City Soccer org
  • People Serving People (Shelter)
  • Bridging (furnishings)
  • CommonBond Communities (Shelter)
  • Community Aid Network MN (Food)
  • Open Arms MN (Food for critically ill)
  • Planned Parenthood
  • Habitat for Humanity
  • Union Gospel Mission
  • Ronald McDonald House
  • Community Kitchen
  • Political Campaign
  • For Goodness Cakes (Foster Kids)
  • Sactuary Supply Depot (Mutual Aid for unhoused)
  • Animal Humane Society
  • Tool Library
  • Walker Art Ctr
  • CANMN (Mutual Aid with language barriers)
  • The Sheridan Story (Child Hunger)
  • Teen Center
  • Your Mom’s House
  • DC Silver Lining
  • The Crisis Nursery (Child Care Drop off)
  • International Institute of MN serving refugees
  • MN Women’s Prison Book Project
  • Listening House
  • Peace House
  • Minneapolis Animal Care and Control
  • Save a Bull Rescue (Dog rescue)
  • People’s Laundry
  • Second Harvest
  • Face 2 Face Health Counseling
  • Boneshaker Books
  • EMT at the University of MN
  • St Croix Trailblazers (Special Needs)
  • Volunteer Match dot Org
  • Local Elementary and Middle Schools
  • Extreme Noise
  • Southside Harm Reduction Center (Crisis Line)
  • The Bitty Kitty Brigade (Foster)
  • Feed my Starving Children
  • NorthPoint Health and Wellness
  • Minneapolis Institute of Art
  • Fairview Hospital
  • Second Harvest (Food Shelf)
  • Twin Cities Walk to end Alzheimers
  • Caring for Cats
  • Abbott Northwestern Hospital
  • Cardz for Kids
  • Junior Achievement
  • Meals on Wheels
  • Cedar Cultural Center
  • Darts
  • The Open Door
  • YouthLink
  • Pet Haven Mn

The benefit to volunteer hours is that at every donation an individual evaluates the worth of their time against the mission at hand. This anarchist form of dispensing goodwill will never exceed the need and hence avoids fraud. It also is given with the lowest possible overhead.

Zoning is optional

Zoning is not a taking by the government. Zoning is a means for a population to control the neighborhood where they live. Whether they bought into the single-family setting, or whether they zoned the corner bar out of their neighborhood, it’s the neighbors’ call.

There’s no shortage of desire for control. So accept zoning. It’s here to stay.

Philosophy for you and me

That’s what Michel de Montaigne thought about.

Montaigne was not pitying himself; rather, he was using the criticism of more ambitious contemporary works as a symptom of a deleterious impulse to think that the truth always has to lie far from us, in another climate, in an ancient library, in the books of people who lived long ago. It is a question of whether access to genuinely valuable things is limited to a handful of geniuses bom between the construction of the Parthenon and the sack of Rome, or whether, as Montaigne daringly proposed, they may be open to you and me as well.

Vacant Land Registries

Vacant properties are not popular with municipalities. Cities create a vacant land registry to keep a running log of properties that do not host residents. Here are directions from the town of Brookhaven New York.

There is no longer a requirement to submit a notarized application or payment through the mail – it is all available online. The cost to register is $360 for the year and can be paid through our secure online platform.

Please be advised, that any owner, or agent of an owner acting on behalf of the owner, who fails to register a vacant building or to pay any fees required to be paid pursuant to the provisions of Chapter 87, within 30 days after they become due, shall constitute a violation punishable upon conviction thereof by a fine in the amount of not less than $1,000 nor more than $15,000 for each failure to register, or for each failure to pay a required vacant building registration fee.

The amount of the fine implies that full buildings are of value to the hamlet. Perhaps, in part, this is due to the services a resident will take up once they walk up their sidewalk every day to their front door. Perhaps having people come and go in the neighborhood keeps everyone more secure. Here are the benefits as expressed by the bureaucrats.

Registrant’s point of contact will be notified by phone and/or email of issues that may arise such as:

  • Property maintenance (tall grass, litter on property, etc.)
  • When the Town is notified by law enforcement of unauthorized occupancy
  • If property becomes unsecure.

When properties are registered, the Town will have contact information and will have the opportunity to notify the owner/property manager to correct any issues before taking action. This will save the property owner money.

The city of Miami goes one step further and requires the owners post a no-tresspassing sign and authorize their police force to enter the property should a need for their services become apparent.

Install No Trespassing Sign

Once you’ve submitted your forms, you’ll need to install a No Trespassing sign on the property (this can be any sign purchased any where).

Although it may never cross your mind, your comings and goings every day in your neighborhood and place of business are a public service.

Claims about Prices and Income

BTW- National averages are less than helpful. The Great Recession taught us they can be outrightly deceptive.

Let’s talk Internalizing Externalities

All the cool kids are doing it. An externality occurs when an activity with a commercial goal creates a positive or negative impact on parties outside of the transaction. The classic example is the manufacturing plant polluting the water with their waste. The community downstream suffers a negative impact. Or consider a drug dealer taking up business alongside the playground at the local park. The neighbors no longer use the public park which is there for their use.

The plant and all those who benefit from its production internalize a gain from not properly disposing of their waste, which pushes out a cost to the people downstream. The dealer accesses a young group of clients internalizing a gain from his location while the neighbors suffer the loss. But what about the other way around? A small group forms a club to advocate literacy. They offer extra help in the local schools and give out scholarships to new high school graduates. They lose their time, which could have been spent on something else, so that the local youth may internalize the gain from extra tutoring. Perhaps a company agrees to locate to a small town under the condition the municipality brings in internet infrastructure. The townspeople internalize the benefit of the corporate relocation.

All this talk seems to suggest there are groups of people who are either on the inside or on the outside. The lines are porous, but exist. What if there were a group who had gotten a bad rap for an extended period of time – and it was considered beneficial to come to their aid in some way? Wouldn’t it make sense to place them in locations where other groups have the knack of externalizing benefits to others? That way, no direct interference messes with the balance in their lives. The positive externalities show up in the serendipitous manner of access.

Soft or Firm but definitely not Lumpy

When’s the last time you thought about your mattress? Probably when you were out looking to buy one. There are products like that. We are in the market for a new one so rarely that we forget they are a commodity. It turns out, mattress manufacturers are getting hit hard by the slowdown in real estate transactions.

It’s pretty common to hear about the effects of home sales on the home improvement industry. New buyers put around eighty percent of their upgrades into a new home within the first six months of ownership. No moves means no dissatisfaction with the status quo, which means far fewer trips to Menards, Home Depot, and Lowes.

As with many things, it’s a combinations of factors hitting the mattress makers. More and more buyers are purchasing on-line. Victoria Freeman at the Manhattan Institute (MI) writes:

Brick-and-mortar storefronts are suffering the most because mattress demand has recently shifted toward online sales. As shown below, the ‘mattress-in-a-box’ model has risen in popularity – while only 27% of consumers would purchase a mattress online in 2016, 47% would do so in 2020. Younger consumers, who tend to prefer online shopping, are driving this change.  

A change of shopping venue has given an edge to those who ship and are able to undercut price.

In particular, Chinese exporters often sell through Amazon rather than setting up a U.S. storefront because it minimizes the length of the supply chain, cutting costs. On Amazon, a Queen size mattress from China can thus sell for less than $175 – a marked bargain compared to the average price of around $1,000. The consequence of consumers’ savings on mattresses, though, is that domestic mattress producers are losing market share and hence cutting jobs. 

As someone who is often frustrated at not being able to touch and feel before I purchase, I wonder how this will go. If a mattress simply shows up at your home, will the consumer get what they want, or will the mattress be too firm or too soft? And what’s the deal with those inflatable or rather expandable mattresses? Do they really hold their shape long term?

Mostly it’s interesting to note the instigator of a shifting mattress market is the real estate sales slowdown. Markets are unpredictable, spontaneous, and fun to follow.

Wind from the Sea

by Andrew Wyeth, 1947

I find this painting captivating. How can one see what cannot be seen other than through the influences it creates on surrounding elements? The frail, sheer curtain tells us the strength of the breeze. Two tire treads show us the path it blows in from the sea. If you were able to reach into the frame and touch the white hot paint on the sill, it would be warm to the touch. Shadows and darkness show us a sun high in the sky, slightly to the front of the building, the voile catching glints of light well into the dingy room.

Can Regulation be a Mentor?

Disclosures are often used to inform consumers in the early stages of a transaction. They are especially popular when there is thought to be an imbalance of savoir-faire between the parties. The idea is that if the consumers really knew what they were in for, they would have made another decision. This conclusion might have been drawn under suspicion that the vendors are hiding material facts. Or one might think this is a bit haughty and judgy on the part of the regulator putter-togetherers. This implies that consumers cannot do a little research and inform themselves before making a decision. Either way, all other things equal, more information is better than less information, right?

Maybe.

Gathering information is part of any worthwhile transaction. Only after a review of alternatives can a purchasers feel confident that their decision best suits their needs. At the beginning of the process they may feel confident in their priorities only to have them challenged. They may walk in thinking they’re buying a sedan and drive out in an SUV.

In addition to supporting a spirit of investigation, it is to the consumers’ benefit to learn early on that to be vigilant in their interactions. A good shopper will ask questions and compare answers. An environment of abundant disclosures might lead people to believe that they will be told what is best for them. And everytime they feel they could have done better, they will wonder why no one was there to guide them.

Building Big

Imagine yourself as a living house. God comes in to rebuild that house. At first, perhaps, you can understand what He is doing. He is getting the drains right and stopping the leaks in the roof and so on; you knew that those jobs needed doing and so you are not surprised. But presently He starts knocking the house about in a way that hurts abominably and does not seem to make any sense. What on earth is He up to? The explanation is that He is building quite a different house from the one you thought of – throwing out a new wing here, putting on an extra floor there, running up towers, making courtyards. You thought you were being made into a decent little cottage: but He is building a palace. He intends to come and live in it Himself.

Mere Christianity, by CS Lewis

The Death of Stalin- Movie Review

The Death of Stalin, set in the Soviet Union in 1953, is endlessly funny, but more absurdist than those earlier works. The story spins off from real events. When Josef Stalin suffers a stroke and collapses, guards are so fearful of entering his room that he is left on the floor in a puddle of urine for hours. In the aftermath of his death, his closest ministers, who once trembled at his every glance, begin their scramble for power. As they do, Iannucci masterfully blends dark humour about an authoritarian regime and farcical comedy performed with perfect timing.   

BBC

Historic Designation Success

Milwaukee Avenue Historic District, Minneapolis

Chronology

1883

Real estate agent William Ragan purchases four blocks in Minneapolis to develop high-density housing for the growing numbers of immigrant workers coming to the city.

1890

Ragan’s development, along what comes to be known as 22 ½ Avenue, is completed.

1906

The residents of 22 ½ Avenue petition for the name of their street to be changed to Woodland Avenue. It changes to Milwaukee Avenue instead, perhaps because of the nearby Milwaukee Railroad.

1970

The houses of Milwaukee Avenue are run down due to suburban growth and disinvestment in city neighborhoods since the 1950s.

1970

The Minneapolis Housing and Redevelopment Authority plans to demolish most of the western portion of the Seward Neighborhood, including Milwaukee Avenue, as part of their urban renewal plan. This inspires citizens to organize to stop demolition.

1971

Activists who oppose the renewal plan gain control of the Seward West Project Area Committee.

1973

Tense negotiations between the PAC and MHRA motivate Jeri Reilly and Robert Roscoe of the PAC to form the Milwaukee Avenue Planning Team with Bill Schatzlein and Bob Scroggins of the MHRA to discuss how to advance the redevelopment plan.

1973

The Milwaukee Avenue Planning Team launches a study to determine the feasibility of rehabilitation.

1974

Milwaukee Avenue receives its designation from the National Register of Historic Places on May 2.

1974

The MHRA gives up on its demolition plan and begins to support the Milwaukee Area Planning Team’s recommendations for rehabilitation.

1975

Rehabilitation begins on three Milwaukee Avenue houses in October.

1975

The Minneapolis Heritage Preservation Commission designates Milwaukee Avenue a historic district.

2007

Milwaukee Avenue celebrates its thirtieth anniversary of rehabilitation with a self-guided walking tour of eight of the restored homes The Preservation Alliance of Minnesota organizes the event.

2015

The Milwaukee Avenue Homeowners Association (MAHA), sponsored by the Seward Neighborhood Group (SNG), receives grant money to install a bronze plaque on Milwaukee Avenue describing the district’s evolution and historic status.

Conflicting Use Values

I like Frederick Melo- Reporter. He knows how to sum up a message in a few words. Here are some captions from the public at a city council meeting.

Midwest Sites

Grain elevators are as prevalent in towns across the Midwest as the corner bar, the grocer, and the three local churches (Lutheran, Catholic, and Presbyterian), or at least in towns on the railroad lines. As the open prairie became home to new arrivals, farmers broke open the soil and turned it into grain fields. Upon harvest, they took their product to the elevators until it was shipped down to the grain exchanges.

This one isn’t as rustic looking as some. The interior wood planking has been covered with a shield of aluminum siding. The structures are known to burn. As they have been decommissioned, local firefighters have set them ablaze for training purposes. Once their original use was replaced by larger shiny cylinders of metal, their new purpose served the community. For one last dramatic day, the flames leap and lick at the side walls as trainees in the safety business try to tame their destructive nature.

Transaction action and Institutions

Does affordable housing vary in quality based on location? Or is it simply a category of housing no different than a category of a car or a type of breakfast cereal? If you can use the home to shelter a household whose income falls below an acceptable level, then the property adequately meets its intended value.

A group of black pastors, led by Dr. Alfred Babington-Johnson, thinks location does matter. They are suing Minnesota Housing, an agency responsible for the allocation of public funds to subsidized housing, for exacerbating a household’s access to success by predominantly building in areas serviced by weak institutions.

A prominent voice among Black Twin Cities ministers, Babington-Johnson sued Minnesota Housing and the Metropolitan Council last year, arguing that state and regional efforts to build affordable housing effectively have backfired, increasing racial segregation while concentrating poverty in poor neighborhoods.

“Whether that’s done with proven intentionality, the outcomes clearly indicate none of the disparities go away,” Babington-Johnson said in an interview Wednesday. “The educational gaps don’t close. The economic opportunities don’t materialize.”

In this quote, Babington-Johnson refers to two institutions: schooling and the workplace. Efforts to develop educated people are regarded as the path to improved employment. Yet when people reside in areas where 40-50% of the residents live below the poverty level, it is easy to imagine that the lack of informal networking and time resources available to nurture these institutions is not at hand.

The Minnesota Housing Commissioner counters:

In a letter to the state advisory committee last month, Minnesota Housing Commissioner Jennifer Ho wrote that “in the last several years, 63% of the new rental units in the Twin Cities metro area that have been awarded funds through the Agency’s Consolidated Request for Proposals have been in the suburbs while 37% have been in the central cities of Minneapolis and St. Paul.”

Which seems to contradict what people on the ground are feeling. My question, as a casual follower of the issues, is why are the numbers so hard to come by? Every time I’ve gone down the rabbit hole to try to nail down the numerical facts of these conversations, time has not allowed for a successful outcome. As public information, it seems they should be accessible. Attorneys for the pastor group put out these numbers.

Attorneys for Stairstep noted that in the Twin Cities, more than 23,000 affordable housing units received subsidies that began between 2017 and 2021. Of them, 56% — or 13,000 units — were subsidized by Minnesota Housing, the Met Council or another form of state funding.

Note the difference in verbiage between ‘new’ units versus all subsidized units. Two thirds of the new units may go to the suburbs. However, this clouds the issue, which is that most subsidies, by the structure of aid distribution, flow to neighborhoods of high poverty. The Housing Commissioner proposes work to be done to create the ideal institutions in place.

“For example,” she said, “the only avenue for lower-income parents of color to access well-resourced schools should not be making them move to a white, wealthy community, which may lack other opportunities that they value. Rather, we should invest in disinvested communities and ensure that all schools are well resourced, allowing people to achieve equity in place.”

The implications that folks could be giving up support groups in a move is a valid one. But who would be in the best position to provide voice to whether it is more feasible to relocate or to enhance institutions in high poverty areas? The pastors, or the residents if given the choice to move, or the government who holds monopoly on dictating where the housing units are located? Shouldn’t residents have a choice?

Show me the Market

I don’t think people will balk at the idea of dual choice, that with every transaction there are blended motivations to the self and to society. But what will be fun to pursue is the idea of a market for the social side of life. The price will set us free (or at least make a lot of decisions easier).

Sandra Peart talks about James Buchanan

“And it wasn’t until much later that when I had read more carefully and maybe had some people kind of point me in certain directions or whatever, that I came to realize that what Buchanan is struggling against is fundamentally important to how we think about economics. And he points to the fact that there are two ways of doing it, as he puts it, two methodologically distinct ways of doing economics. And he says in the first one, the economist sets up a goal for the economy and for the actors within the economy.”

“And that goal, he points to efficiency as one possible goal that could be presupposed. And here’s what’s important, is you then impose that on the model, I mean, it’s part of the model, and it’s imposed on the people who are in the model. And that, he says, in the 1960s, is very different from what he’s trying to do, which is a much messier kind of economics.”

“And maybe that’s why it’s, A, both difficult to do, and B, perhaps not as appealing to some economists, which is you don’t establish the goal, rapid growth, or, as I said earlier, efficiency, but instead, you let the people within the economy, private individuals, engage, as he puts it, in the continuing search for institutional arrangements upon which they can reach substantial consensus or agreement. So that’s a very different way of doing economics. And really, the book is about how the Virginia School, led by Buchanan in this respect, tried to have this second way of doing economics as an alternative, a methodological alternative.”

From The Great Antidote: Sandra Peart on Ethical Quandaries and Politics Without Romance, Jun 28, 2004

Lots of great stuff in this podcast with Juliet Sellgren.

https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-great-antidote/id1530247318?i=1000660538062

Patriotic Choice

James Buchanan is renowned for charting a new direction in economic theory with the introduction of Public Choice Theory. This theory emerged from the realization that politicians are not solely altruistic public servants, but may also be swayed by self-interest in their political roles. It should follow then that when a politician takes action in the form of an exchange, it is possible that that behind the choices lie blended motives. And in general, people can use trades to general a gain for the self as well as the tribe.

After all, purely altruistic action is most commonly seen between parents and their children. When exerting effort during the trying toddler years of dependency or spending down savings for higher education, few formulate a cost-benefit analysis. Perhaps in the back of the parent’s consciousness there is a thought that a healthier, better-educated adult will be a kind caretaker to their elderly parent. This deep bond between parents and children often leads to countless unnoticed acts of selflessness, like a parent waking up in the middle of the night to comfort a scared child or a child sacrificing personal time to help a parent in need. These acts of love and sacrifice form the backbone of familial relationships and lay the foundation for a strong, supportive family unit. Over the years, the selfless actions of parents continue as they guide their children through life’s challenges, always putting their children’s well-being above their own. And as children grow older, they often reciprocate these selfless acts, showing love and care for their aging parents, thereby perpetuating the cycle of altruism within the family.

Blended motives are becoming increasingly prevalent in modern society, as individuals seek to align their personal goals with larger social or environmental causes. In the workplace, many employees are drawn to non-profit organizations, where they can pursue their professional ambitions while also contributing to a meaningful collective mission. Similarly, in the realm of leisure and tourism, the popularity of eco-tourism continues to grow, reflecting a desire to explore the world while supporting sustainable and environmentally friendly practices. Moreover, in the consumer market, there is demand for organic foods and battery-operated vehicles, driven by a dual concern for personal well-being and environmental responsibility. These diverse examples all underscore the complex interplay of individual and collective motivations in contemporary decision-making processes.

This holds true in institutional pursuits as well. Recently, a juror in our area promptly called the FBI instead of keeping a bag containing $120,000 in cash in exchange for an acquittal. This act of integrity serves as a testament to the essential role that individuals play in upholding the principles of justice and fairness in society. Where would we be if citizens didn’t react in a judicious and expeditious manner when confronted with such moral dilemmas? The swift and decisive action taken by this juror ensured that the would-be bribers were tracked down and held accountable for their actions. Such incidents underscore the pivotal role that individuals play in preserving the fabric of justice and upholding the rule of law.

This democracy is made up of individuals like all the ones who will share a 4th of July picnic around BBQs in backyards today. These are the folks who, in actions large and small, blend into thousands of choices made every year, work and contribute to the ever-evolving project of America.

Missing Middle

Philip Schwartz posts a nice example of the missing middle housing. Predictably, someone in the comments doesn’t find the color nice enough.

In 2023 there were 34 of these permitted in the city core. Year to date, another 4. In Hennepin county the total of 3-4 unit multi-family permitted in 2023 came to 78.

Bertrand Russell talks about Mill and Marx

The history of words is curious. Nobody in Mill’s time, with the possible exception of Marx, could have guessed that the word “Communism” would come to denote the military, administrative, and judicial tyranny of an oligarchy, permitting to the workers only so much of the produce of their labor as might be necessary to keep them from violent revolt. Marx, whom we can now see to have been the most influential of Mill’s contemporaries, is, so far as I have been able to discover, not mentioned in any of Mill’s writings, and it is quite probable that Mill never heard of him. The Communist Manifesto was published in the same year as Mill’s Political Economy, but the men who represented culture did not know of it. I wonder what unknown person in the present day will prove, a hundred years hence, to have been the dominant figure of our time.

Environmental reviews- Just a way to say NO?

In the latest round of environmental review versus the world (or do it my way legislation), the boxers are the almighty climate combatants versus those who request a road expansion. I should qualify. When I say ‘request,’ I mean demonstrated demand through usage. If the roadways are full, then it’s safe to say that the participants find travel along that freeway by car best suits their needs. Once vehicles come to a standstill on a commute, they are polluting an extra amount by idling. Managing the road system to facilitate flow keeps emissions lower.

A new law passed last year requires an environmental review before authorizing a roadway enlargement. Calculating a social cost at the time of the transaction, like a road installation, is an interesting thing to do. It should be done in conjunction with calculating of all the other benefits prompt and efficient transporation offers, such as getting the elderly to their doctors’ appointments or kids to their extra-circular activities, as well as getting commuters to their jobs.

Residents are dong that all the time. Cars cost money to own and maintain. Consumers will use them when they are their best option. Denying a population access to a road enlargement pushes them to substitute less desireable options. These are less attractive not because of their love affairs with the car, but most probably because they eat into their time and ability to achieve their other daily tasks.

If the goal is to reduce trip miles, then study populations who achieve success at all their goals while using the fewest miles. How is their matrix of choices allowing this to happen? What are their priorities and how did they achieve them. I can promiss one answer. It isn’t because a bureaucrat squeezed their road improvement project.

Convo with Stiglitz

I have been introduced to so many interesting (and famous!) people through Tyler Cowen’s podcast, Conversations with Tyler. This last one with Joseph Stiglitz is no exception. Tyler knows exactly the tempo to keep the clip of information at a perfect speed. The written follow-up provides links to referenced papers. It’s truly a wonderful service.

The breath of Stiglitz career leaves many areas open for further review. But this comment stumped me a little.

STIGLITZ: Today, the critical issue in trade policy is US CHIPS Act and the IRA. The CHIPS Act was, we had lost the ability to make chips. That meant that if anything happened to Taiwan or Korea, we were in a very vulnerable position. Markets don’t take into account that kind of defense concern, or even the resilience. That goes back to some of my earlier work that markets aren’t very good at assessing risk and pricing risk into the decision-making process.

How does he mean that the market does not take into account national defense? Undoubtedly the chips made in Taiwan are produced at a lower cost than in the US, hence the benefit from trade. But where is the documentation to show the accounting of that price drop? Surely people think that a portion of the discount is from the difference in state governance?

When US retailers buy from a textile plant in Bangladesh, they are aware of the different standards imposed (or not imposed) on the building facilities. Surely they factor that into the the price difference? The US retailers could choose to pay a bit more under the conditions that the building and machinery were held to a high standard, should they choose.

The dynanism of the market will adjust to new circumstances and knowledge as it surfaces under changing conditions.

Pruning advice

My tea rose bushes bloomed spectacularly this spring. A neighbor texted to say her husband needs advice as his plant looked meager in comparison. There are general weather conditions which contribute to the performance of garden plants. Blooms, however, are often the product of a little grooming. Rose bushs like to be trimmed back once the petals are falling into the landscape rock below.

Lilac bushes also enjoy a good haircut once their blooms have faded. Be agressive and cut the stems of the plant down by a foot. A few short weeks later you will notice multiple new off-shoots at every cut.

In eleven months each of these sprigs will be bending from the lilac blooms. A heavy scent will remind you of an elderly aunt with pressed powder make-up.

Shogun- Series Review

This is a great series. The clashing of European and Japanese customs are just one interesting twist in the struggle for power following the death of a great ruler. Another is the depth and power of the female characters. I can’t think of an english speaking war genre with a similar balance of captivating roles.

I remember the splash James Cavell’s novel Shogun made when it was published in 1975. We were also living abroad, and the depiction of cultural interaction was familiar. My brother remembers it as the first novel he could read straight through. The strength of the story lines holds the imagination of all ages, including that of a fourteen-year-old.

Even though a copy of his 1980 book Noble House stakes a spot on my bookshelf, I haven’t thought of James Cavell in years. His background is (perhaps predictably) adventurous.

Imprisoned in Changi[edit]

Shot in the face,[5] he was captured in Java in 1942 and sent to a Japanese prisoner of war camp on Java. Later, he was transferred to Changi Prison in Singapore.[6]

In 1981, Clavell recounted:

Changi became my university instead of my prison. Among the inmates there were experts in all walks of life—the high and the low roads. I studied and absorbed everything I could from physics to counterfeiting, but most of all I learned the art of surviving, the most important course of all.[5]

Prisoners were fed a quarter of a pound (110 g) of rice per day, one egg per week and occasional vegetables. Clavell believed that if atomic bombs had not been dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki he would not have survived the war.[5]

WIKI

I also did not realize he wrote The Great Escape, another favorite film from my childhood.

Watch on HULU with ads.

It’s not the structure-

Allison Shertzer takes issue with the headline’s cryptic economic message. If there is enough housing, then the price for occupancy should settle to the price each resident can afford. If there are fifty homes in a settlement and fifty households, then those who can pay the most pick first, and down the line, the pricing match shuffles until the last match of the least desirable to the household to those with the least resources. This simplified balance market omits nuances like how two homes are tied up when people transition from one property to another. Or that when major renovations are underway, it is difficult to live on the property, so it is vacant.

The basic premise, however, is that when there are sufficient structures to shelter every household, the price to live in those structures is pushed through the system to reflect consumers’ ability to pay. After all, even at the lowest end of the scale, it would be better for the property owner to receive some income from a less advantaged person than to let the property sit vacant.

Or is it?

It is refreshing to see a study confirming that dwellings are, in the big picture, available in
sufficient numbers. “The numbers showed that from 2010 to 2020, household
formation did exceed the number of homes available. However, there was a large
surplus of housing produced in the previous decade. In fact, from 2000 to 2020,
housing production exceeded the growth of households by 3.3 million units. The
surplus from 2000 to 2010 more than offset the shortages from 2010 to
2020.”

This article tries more than most to zero in on what is concerning. It’s not affordability in general. When ten parties are bidding on a house, that tells us there are plenty of households who find the price within their range of acceptability. When houses are selling, and apartments are rented, then folks have the funds to make those arrangements work.

What is of concern, and has always been of concern, is sheltering those at the very lowest of means. This brings us back to the question: If there are open units to occupy, is there a reason why they would be left vacant instead of settling for some cash flow? Yes, there is a reason. In some cases, the net monthly cash flow is negative. The issue is being talked about as if it concerns the building, but it’s really about the necessity of support services.

It would be even more refreshing if the conversation went in that direction instead of
hammering away about building affordable housing, which is another cryptic
economic fallacy.

Counting new homes

Some numbers are hard to find. The number of permits pulled to build homes, for instance, are shrouded in mystery. For all of you counting building starts, however, I have the link for you! The statistics can be found on the US Department of Housing and Urban Development. You can break it down to the county level.

According to HUD Minnesota’s total for building permits pulled in 2023 was 25,665.

A deal on the table

In the 1988 movie Working Girl, Sigourney Weaver has a dramatic entrance to a boardroom setting complete with a bevy of men in grey three-piece suits and heavy mahogany paneling.  Her hair is 80s height, her attire speaks a woman of means, and her use of crutches is both intimidating and explanatory as to why she wasn’t invited to the meeting. Weaver’s urgency to attend is due to, as she announces, “Gentlemen, we have a deal on the table.”

The coming together of parties to a transaction is often featured in cinema in this high-drama boardroom fashion. Tension is integral to two parties, each feeling the other is getting the best of them, and they stand off with their legal eagles at hand. Both benefit from the trade, or they would not be present. The pressure to settle is high.

Weaver is there to claim her stake in the transaction, as there are many participants in the successful execution of a trade. The close of deal-making is when each party comes away with either what they’ve given or what they’ve gotten. There is a settling of accounts.

Debussy on Wagner

Turns out he didn’t like him so.

This verdict, made up of love and hatred, was given once more by Debussy in more graphic, less definite terms which unite, whilst contrasting them, the names of Bach and Wagner: In conclusion, Wagner’s work suggests a striking picture: Bach as the Holy Grail, Wagner as Klingsor wishing to crush the Grail and usurp its place…. Bach shines supreme over music, and in his goodness he has reserved for our hearing words as yet unknown, of the great lesson he has bequeathed us of disinterested love of music. Wagner disappears into the background… He is fading away … a black, disturbing shadow.

In his final analysis Debussy’s chief grievance against the great artist who degraded symphony to the service of his tragedies was a lack of this passion-disinterested love of music. For Debussy was above all a musician, whilst Wagner was above all a dramatist.

Pottery

When my kids were young I tool them to a fund raiser called Empty Bowls. Participants crafted bowls from supplies laid out by volunteers. Then came back to glaze them. On the final day they returned to pick up the creations in exchange for a donation towards curbing hunger in the community. Little did I know at the time that this would launch my daughter’s pottery vocation.

She crafted this pot, sturdy enough to hold my orchid’s heavy blooms.

Pottery workshops are offered in various places all over the world. There’s Seagrove Potters in North Carolina, there’s Royal Delft pottery in the Netherlands, and there’s Stoke-on-Trent in Great Britain which claims to be the ceramics capital of the world.

Mostly I am happy to see her take a liking to a creative process.

A form seen in highlights

Albert Hirshman describes an economic motion in his book Exit, Voice and Loyalty (1970). Parties can withdraw if they do not care for a product or arrangement. They may attempt to impact the process by exercising their voice. Over time, loyalties develop, which influence the superstructure of relationships.

It seems Hirshman would agree with his contemporary, Milton Friedman, about the benefits of school vouchers. Should a family be displeased with a pedantic school district, they could collect a coupon for their tax dollar input and cash it in at another more vibrant district. Since schools are tied to geographies, consumers always have the choice to relocate their homes to attend elsewhere. Vouchers make the process more fungible.

Hirschman outlined the logic of the exit option and how noted how increased competition could improve government performance. But competition didn’t solve all problems, and the exit option had several important drawbacks. The freedom to exit was often used by the most ambitious, educated, or well-to-do users of a particular service, and once they exited, those remaining were even poorer, less educated, and less demanding. Moreover, Hirschman pointed out, the possibility of exit weakened the effectiveness of voice, that is, the ability to directly change the management’s behavior through feedback, discussion, and criticism. 

As Frank Fukuyama explains in his American Interest piece, Hirshman didn’t believe vouchers were the answer to improving a school system. Unlike other commodities, the departure of the stronger students from the classroom has a negative impact on the remaining students. This observation gives a new form to education. Casting the product in this light projects a little amber glow onto all members of the school community. The mission is to educate everyone. If not an educator or a student, the role may be to voice praise or criticism.

A school does not produce widgets on an assembly line, but a group process produces educated students. Changing the composition of the pool of players can have both positive and negative effects on the outcomes. And there are roles for an audience as well.

Commerce with World Vision

An associate asked if I’d consider a donation to World Vision, a philathropy dedicated to assisting children in poverty. I’m familiar with their work as they’ve been present in the developping world since I was a kid. Still- I did my due diligence and checked out their website: World Vision.

At the bottom of the web page the site offers linkes to organization which can vouch for their efficacy as a non-profit organization.

But I wanted to know the individual theoeries behind each on the tiles listed under the tab ‘Ways to Help.’ So I asked ChatGPT to break down an analysis.

Monetary Contributions:

  1. Research planned giving options:
    • Input: Donors contribute financial resources through wills, stocks, IRAs, or gift annuities.
    • Return: Theoretical support from Social Exchange Theory suggests that donors gain satisfaction, tax benefits, and a sense of legacy by supporting a cause, fostering a reciprocal relationship with the organization and society.
  2. Philanthropy:
    • Input: Christian philanthropists invest significant financial resources.
    • Return: According to Altruism Theory, the return is intrinsic satisfaction and fulfillment from helping others, along with potential social recognition and community status.
  3. Create your own fundraising page:
    • Input: Individuals invest time and social capital to raise funds.
    • Return: Prosocial Behavior Theory supports the idea that individuals receive social approval, increased self-esteem, and a sense of accomplishment from mobilizing resources for a good cause.
  4. Shop for a cause:
    • Input: Consumers spend money on products where proceeds support World Vision.
    • Return: Cause-Related Marketing Theory suggests consumers gain utility from purchasing needed items while simultaneously supporting a cause, enhancing their perceived personal value and satisfaction.
  5. Donate cryptocurrency:
    • Input: Donors provide cryptocurrency assets.
    • Return: The Theory of Planned Behavior implies that donors are motivated by perceived ease of donation, tax advantages, and the belief that their actions will significantly impact.
  6. Find donation-matching employers:
    • Input: Employees donate and leverage employer matching programs.
    • Return: Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) Theory suggests that employees feel greater satisfaction and loyalty towards their employer, while employers gain enhanced reputation and employee engagement.

Volunteering Time and Effort:

  1. Volunteer at a warehouse:
    • Input: Volunteers invest time and physical effort.
    • Return: Volunteer Function Inventory (VFI) indicates that volunteers gain personal growth, social connections, and fulfillment from contributing to a meaningful cause.
  2. Host an event:
    • Input: Organizers invest time and resources to plan and execute events.
    • Return: Event Management Theory suggests organizers receive community recognition, personal satisfaction, and social networking opportunities.
  3. Run or walk for clean water:
    • Input: Participants invest time and physical effort in running or walking events.
    • Return: Health Belief Model supports that participants benefit from improved health, social interaction, and the satisfaction of contributing to a cause.
  4. Build kits with your group:
    • Input: Groups invest time and effort to assemble kits.
    • Return: Group Dynamics Theory posits that groups enhance cohesion, collective efficacy, and mutual support while achieving a shared goal.
  5. Knit blankets and sweaters:
    • Input: Individuals invest time and skill in knitting.
    • Return: Flow Theory suggests that engaging in this activity provides a state of flow, where individuals experience deep satisfaction and absorption in a meaningful task.
  6. Pray for those in need:
    • Input: Individuals invest time and spiritual energy in prayer.
    • Return: Spiritual Well-Being Theory indicates that individuals gain a sense of peace, purpose, and connection to a higher cause through prayer.

Corporate and Group Engagement:

  1. Explore corporate partnerships:
    • Input: Companies invest resources to engage employees in charitable activities.
    • Return: Stakeholder Theory supports that companies enhance their reputation, employee morale, and customer loyalty by demonstrating social responsibility.
  2. Ignite your Christian school:
    • Input: Schools invest in educational programs on poverty and injustice.
    • Return: Transformative Learning Theory suggests that students experience personal growth, increased awareness, and a commitment to social justice.
  3. Activate your church congregation:
    • Input: Congregations invest time and resources in community engagement.
    • Return: Community Engagement Theory posits that congregations strengthen community bonds, deepen spiritual growth, and enhance collective efficacy.
  4. Do the 30-Hour Famine:
    • Input: Students and participants invest time and experience temporary hunger.
    • Return: Empathy-Altruism Hypothesis supports that participants develop greater empathy, a deeper understanding of global hunger, and a stronger commitment to social action.
  5. Ask for a World Vision speaker:
    • Input: Organizations invest time and resources to host speakers.
    • Return: Narrative Theory suggests that audiences gain inspiration, motivation, and a deeper emotional connection to the cause through storytelling.

Advocacy and Voice:

  1. Tell congress what matters:
    • Input: Individuals invest time and effort to communicate with legislators.
    • Return: Civic Engagement Theory indicates that individuals feel empowered, experience increased political efficacy, and contribute to shaping public policy.
  2. Connect kids with sponsors:
    • Input: Ambassadors invest time and social capital to promote child sponsorship.
    • Return: Social Capital Theory suggests that ambassadors build networks, enhance their social influence, and experience fulfillment from facilitating connections that improve children’s lives.

Full circle from Fahrenheit 451

“People don’t talk about anything.”

“Oh, they must!”

“No, not anything. They name a lot of cars or clothes or swimming pools mostly and say how swell!

But they all say the same things and nobody says anything different from anyone else. And most of the time in the caves they have the joke boxes on and the same jokes most of the time, or the musical wall lit and all the colored patterns running up and down, but it’s only color and all abstract. And at the museums, have you ever been? All abstract. That’s all there is now. My uncle says it was different once. A long time back sometimes pictures said things or even showed people.”

Minimize the Rules

Too many rules:

  • Make it hard for well-intentioned people to find their way.
  • Are difficult to enforce.
  • And thus encourage people to do their own thing anyway.

Boettke sets up the situation

There was a presumption toward voluntarism in human affairs, but in recognition that our nature is divided between a cooperative nature and an opportunistic nature we must figure out a way to curb our opportunistic side if we hope to realize the fruits of our cooperative side. While our cooperative nature is reflected in our propensity to truck, barter and exchange (which no other species actually exhibits), our opportunistic side is revealed in the warring nature witnessed throughout human history. Political economy solved the puzzle by suggesting that we could sacrifice in a small way the presumption of voluntarism in order to create a government which will curb our opportunistic side and enable our cooperative side to flourish. Thus was born the argument for limited, but effective, government that was the core of classical liberal thought from John Locke, David Hume and Adam Smith to more contemporary writers such as Frank Knight, Ludwig von Mises, F.A. Hayek, Milton Friedman and James Buchanan.

How to find an infill lot

It’s not easy.

Clients who want to live in an old neighborhood have few choices. The open land is gone. Most homes that are in the neighborhood are in good enough shape to add value to the lot upon which they are perched. Ideally, the clients want to find a tear down, or a home is such rough shape that most everyone cannot see a renovation opportunity. But it doesn’t stop there. As this thread explains, there are more issues in play.

Soil testing and estimates for debris removal and site prep are easy numbers to come by. The tricky bits of information is whether the plan the clients have in mind will fit on the parcel and still comply with the building codes and municipal ordinances.

Lack of information results in uncertainty. Too much uncertainty and people do not want to move forward. That’s not progress!

MN Homestead History

It’s impressive really. Stat. 507.02

Before Minnesota achieved statehood, the Territory of Minnesota enacted a homestead exemption statute that shielded homestead property from “sale on execution, or other process of a court.” Rev. Terr. Stat., ch. 71, § 93 (1851). When Minnesota entered the Union, the homestead exemption was incorporated into the Minnesota Constitution and it remains there today. Minn. Const. of 1857, art. I, § 12. In relevant part, Article I, Section 12, provides that a “reasonable amount of property shall be exempt from seizure or sale for the payment of any debt or liability.” The purpose of the homestead exemption is to “preserve the homestead to the family even at the sacrifice of just demands.” Holden v. Farwell, Ozmun, Kirk & Co., 223 Minn. 550, 558-59, 27 N.W.2d 641, 646 (1947). Indeed, in order to ensure “a stable and independent citizenry and thereby promote the public welfare, it has always been the policy of the law to protect with jealous zeal the homestead right of the citizen.” Id. at 558, 27 N.W.2d at 646.

The Legislature has enacted various statutes implementing the constitutional directive. Minnesota Statutes § 510.01 (2012) defines the homestead as the “house owned and occupied by a debtor as the debtor’s dwelling place, together with the land upon which it is situated to the amount of area and value hereinafter limited and defined.” Minnesota Statutes § 510.02 (2012) further provides that the homestead exemption shall be limited to 160 acres or less, and shall not exceed $300,000, or $750,000 if the homestead is primarily used for agricultural purposes, subject to periodic adjustment of the dollar amounts in the manner set forth in Minn. Stat. § 550.37, subd. 4a (2012). The exemption extends to the debts of both spouses even if only one spouse holds legal title to the homestead property. See Minn. Stat. § 510.04 (2012).

Consistent with the purpose of preserving the homestead to the family, Minnesota law has, at least since 1865, provided that no conveyance of the homestead by a husband is valid unless “the wife joins in the deed of conveyance.” Minn. Gen. Stat., ch. 68, § 5 (1865). That requirement, which is currently codified at Minn. Stat. § 507.02, is now gender-neutral and provides:

If the owner is married, no conveyance of the homestead, except a mortgage for purchase money under section 507.03, a conveyance between spouses pursuant to section 500.19, subdivision 4, or a severance of a joint tenancy pursuant to section 500.19, subdivision 5, shall be valid without the signatures of both spouses. A spouse’s signature may be made by the spouse’s duly appointed attorney-in-fact.

Minn Lawyer

Ownership means maintenance

I’m an advocate for homeownership. No question. But to develop products which prematurely get people of little means into a home is irresponsible. For example:

For a time the monthly expenses may be all that is owed. After a while larger mechancial expenses appear. Some can be deferred by stop gapping replacements here and there. Eventually the folks will end up with a home that has not appreciated because of all the impending repairs.

Review Qualifiers

Purely by chance, I parked across the street from what turned out to film venue which specializes in vintage productions. There was a handy leaflet right under the red letters ‘cinema.’ So I grabed one, as old movies often appeal to me.

I prefer to watch a recommended film just to take some of the risk out of the time investment. A Brief Encounter was coming up as a summer viewing option. The screenplay was written by Noel Coward which sounded promising. The blurb suggested that it was one of the best British films ever made.

I didn’t quite see it that way and drifted off about half way through the production.

More qualifiers would be nice when people suggest something is the best of its kind. It seems that there are many layers of what a film could be. So what is this one the best at? Maybe more context is needed. That’s certainly the case when evaluating so many things.

What I like about this paper

A recent paper, Houston, you have a problem: How large cities accommodate more housing, by Anthony W. Orlando and Christian L Redfearn, offers a new reading of real estate data.

Consider the stylized fact that unmet demand is most-inexpensively delivered on low-cost land at the periphery of the commuting shed, known as a “greenfield” site. This type of development uses low-cost, low-density construction methods. However, in productive and desirable urban areas, low-cost land—especially close to jobs and retail—is quickly consumed, pushing single-family home builders farther away from the amenities that make these urban areas attractive. Eventually, this progression reaches a limit in which commuting back to these amenities is too costly. At this point, the greenfield land is effectively “built out,” and developers are forced to look inward to more expensive land closer to the core where spatial amenities are valued by renters and buyers. When this “infill” development becomes a larger share of new housing supply, the marginal cost of supplying a new housing unit will increase, and the elasticity of supply will fall. Thus, even in the absence of different regulatory regimes, an MSA with more population and more density will appear to have a steeper supply curve because large and growing urban markets naturally progress in this direction.

Real estate has a history of being talked about in static numbers. Orlando and Redfearn discover a dynamic in their research. A city grows along the fringe where the developers can build over large parcels of undeveloped land. This is the most consumer-friendly by meeting the desired structure for the lowest cost. But at some point, the authors observe that the commute to a central business district causes infill projects to gain in status. At that point, a city gains new units within the old infrastructure instead of in the greenfield.

Much of what we have learned in the two decades since DiPasquale (1999) first prompted the field to investigate housing supply is aggregate and static in nature. The goal of this empirical work is to document the location of housing stocks within several MSAs over a long time of growth. The results presented in the article are largely descriptive. It is abundantly clear that aggregate analyses miss the compelling dynamics we documented.

Why stop at the trade-off between low cost fringe housing versus commute time? There are many other interesting dynamics to expore.

In Memory

Here’s a wonderful short movie about Tank Man was produced by Robert Anthony Peters.

No Problem Here

I see this in reverse. The beauty of real estate is that it keeps people honest.

It takes a Team

The Timberwolves lost to the Dallas Mavericks on Thursday at the Target Center, but they brought home a win to Minnesota fans. It’s been a couple of decades since the franchise has had this level of success. They brought the audience along to more than one close game just to sneak out the win to stay alive. Fans loved it.

But it’s the team members who are saying team endearments at this stage of their season. Mike Conley, a 17 year veteran of the sport said in an interview that his teammates have renewed his love for the game. They have made him feel young again.

The others too have talked about dedication to a whole new year of getting back to the top. This mutual support is refreshing to see. I hope they become the role models they seem to be as we are all better when we work together.

The business of Public Goods

My grandmother would tell a story of giving in their rural Iowa community. Word would get out after a Sunday service at Holmes Lutheran Church that a family was in need. A gathering of kids’ clothes or staple food supplies would be left in a neutral pickup area, maybe at the end of a driveway. Then the mother in need would later pick it up. Poverty was shameful, you see. Direct contact in the transference of aid would be a disrespectful slight on their condition.

The evolution of social welfare has come a long way since the happenings along the gravel roads squaring off sections of farmland. Provision of resources funnels through formal government channels instead of being left solely to the church aid societies of the 50s. Efforts to detach stigma from acceptance of aid are ongoing. The evolution of food stamps is a credit card with funds for the purchase. Free lunches are provided in all school buildings so there is no distinguishing between families that qualify for aid and those who don’t.

It’s hard to see how public humiliation in the face of unforeseen circumstances is profitable. However these control mechanisms were developed as a means of discouraging group members from taking more out of the communal pot of resources than needed. It was a social metering of loosely held assets. Back-up reserves are not attached to one specific individual in the group. They are intended to meet the shortfalls of the worse off.

Scolding looks are used in other ways to keep up shared appearances, When the neighbor grass is getting knee high they may feel the scorn of dogwalkers as they pass on the sidewalk. Pushing and nudging with looks, back turns, and low whispers are simply how it’s done in society when it’s thought necessary to get the word out about control of shared space.

There’s a two-fold reason these norms are swept away in the face of dire poverty. The unkindness is too harsh as the victims are too vulnerable. And furthermore who wants to discourage, in any way, a mother from taking food for their child? The desire for stigma-free acceptance of benefits for kids is simply a long-term win for the group. Healthy kids make for healthy adults.

There are those who, however, may come to an erroneous conclusion about the tapping of public benefits without those disdainful social guardrails. Some will pursue as many benefits as they can find available to them with no personal calculation of need. And others still take the pursuit of public benefits as a business model. They dreamt of being an entrepreneur, they say. This claim is being made in defiance of accusations of fraud.

When public goods and resources are formalized through government metering, then funny things happen. They no longer have the appearance of a common pool resource but rather they take on a more private form under the guise of a ‘program.’ Gone are the nuances of need-based use. Instead, they are peddled and appropriated in a coin-counting manner.

Perhaps an ingredients label is required. This is a one-hundred percent publically funded resource. It is fraudulent to transact outside its intended mission.

Turns out Libraries do matter

There a new paper out supporting the capital investments in libraries: The Educational Benefits of Libraries.

The figure shows that after a boost in library capital investment, reading test scores steadily increased. In the short run, library investments increased reading scores by 0.01 standard deviations. Seven years out from a project, scores were 0.04 standard deviations higher in districts that invested in public libraries than their counterparts.

I’ll wager there are further tie-ins between libraries and the general social well-being of surrounding neighbors. Personally, I plan to brush up on my french.

What was learned?

As the Lift/Uber kerfuffle comes to a close, it will be interesting to see what is learned from the two year process of politicians acting as labor negotiators between the independent ride share drivers and the platform owners.

The Governor singed a bill amid grandstanding to settle a set ride fare which all parties found acceptable. This is a win as the service is valued by a spectrum of riders and sectors. The negotiations, however, were lengthy. As one council member recently observed, the final horse trading involved in getting to ‘yes’ from all sides used up the political capital that could have been used to get the bonding bill done this year. No bonding bill means no bonding money for all the projects requested across the sate. The loss is all the agreements that were left unconsidered due to the distraction of a relatively small pool of workers.

Economists refer to this as opportunity costs. If your capital is doing one thing, it can’t be doing another. Some might say the politicians are constrained by the amount of time they have in a session to review, discuss, and come to terms on items of public concern. But if public officials are in the profession of providing goods and services of value to their constituents, doesn’t it follow that their choice of which products to work on is actionable? To not make time for the bonding bill is a choice not a constraint

Rosolino and Pete continue to develop this argument that “opportunity costs be regarded not as constraints to which individuals passively respond. Rather they are the reciprocal of choice itself.” Paper in the link.

Heaven on Earth

For those who love adventure and real-world challenges, body and mind. Nature is a heaven on Earth. Here, Pastor, we surely agree. The Creation, whether you believe it was placed on this planet by a single act of God or accept the scientific evidence that it evolved autonomously during billions of years, is the greatest heritage, other than the reasoning mind itself, ever provided to humanity.

The Creation, E.O. Wilson

Privatize everything!

In Jennifer Burns biography of Milton Friedman, the famous economist is portrayed as affable and polite even under duress.

Still- he had many detractors. People in this camp, I suspect, might have been turned off by the thought that every service or enterprise is done better in the private sector.

Here is a section from Milton Friedman, the Last Conservative explaining how easy it would be to charge to enter the National Parks. And there is a small fee to access the park, as there is the cost of a stamp to post a letter.

“The entrances to a national park like Yellowstone, on the other hand, are few,” continued the Friedmans. It would be easy to set up tolls at the entrance. “I the public wants this kind of an activity enough to pay for it, private enterprise will have every incentive to provide such parks,” they concluded. Similar logic extended to the post office, public housing, toll roads, and even Social Security. Each of these could be more efficiently handled by private enterprise, the Friedmans proposed, enumerating a list of fourteen “activities currently undertaken by government in the U.S.” that could not be justified by their principles. “This list is far from comprehensive,” the authors noted.

But haven’t you ever wondered why some things remain in public hands while some are replaced by private alternatives?

Why are most parks public? Why is USPS still around after all the alternative forms of communication have evolved? Why do toll roads exist only in limited markets?

History continues to challenge the Friedmans’ view that all goods and services respond best in traditional private markets.

Louis and Clark Caverns, Montana

A Man in Full- Series Review

This new series on Netflicks has a nice mix of rivalaries and atavistic responses. As in all good stories there are several story lines intertwined. Jeff Bridges and Diane Lane anchor the acting while a flury of lesser known actors flush out their roles. So far I’m happy to have clicked on this new offering.

Robert Nozick explains individual action for communal benefit

Nozick is a lesser know political philosopher who wrote Anarchy, State and Utopia in 1974. It was offered as a response to John Rawl’s theory of justice. One point of contention revolves around different methods for redistributing resources to the least advantaged. Should this be a top down imposed structure or spontaneously emerge from the churning motion of voluntary action from below?

Some fear individual action is inadequate if left to the individual. Hence the need for control. In this passage Nozick captures the essence of individual action toward communal goals. The delight of it secures its success.

Consider the members of a basketball team, all caught up in playing basketball well. (Ignore the fact that they are trying to win, though is it an accident that such feelings often arise when some unite against others?) They do not play primarily for money. They have a primary joint goal, and each subordinates himself to achieving this common goal, scoring fewer points himself than he otherwise might. If all are tied together by joint participation in an activity toward a common goal that each ranks as his most important goal, then fraternal feeling will fourish. They will be united and unselfish; they will be one. But basketball players, of course, do not have a common highest goal; they have separate families and lives. Still we might imagine a society in which all work together to achieve a common highest goal. Under the framework, any group of persons can so coalesce, form a movement, and so forth. But the structure itself is diverse; it does not itself provide or guarantee that there will be any common goal that all pursue jointly. It is borne in upon one, in contemplating such an issue, how appropriate it is to speak of “individualism” and (the word coined in opposition to it) “socialism.” It goes without saying that any persons may attempt to unite kindred spirits, but, whatever their hopes and longings, none have the right to impose their vision of unity upon the rest.

Insurance Update

Come to find out, property insurance rates on a $300,000 home vary by state. They vary a lot. The annual premiums for a dwelling in Missouri and Mississippi are twice as much as Maryland and Maine. Minnesota is, of course, just average.

Insurance.com

If you haven’t thought about your insurance coverage in a while it might be an idea to dust off the policy and dig into what is covered. Some riders are negligible in cost yet nice to have when the situation arises. And example for coverage is on the water line from the meter in your basement to the connector at the street. Standard deductibles have also gone up from $1000 to $2500. The larger deductible may save your annual premium $200-$300.

Also, be sure to understand how the coverage works. With all the roof claims, often driven by contractors knocking on doors after a hailstorm goes through a neighborhood, companies have changed the payouts on roof replacements. Many companies will prorate the coverage once a roof is over fifteen years old. If the storm comes through in the twentieth year of the asphalt shingle life, then the homeowner only gets paid the value of the remaining years of life.

A periodic review is indeed essential for staying informed about external factors that may affect your insurance coverage. Even if you are content with your current provider, the insurance market continuously evolves, making regular evaluations crucial for ensuring that your coverage aligns with your needs and the prevailing circumstances.

Freddie Mac calculates Boomers’ Exit

As of 2022 there were 69 million Boomers, accounting for 21% of the U.S. population, and 38% of total homeowner households. Boomers are overrepresented in the homeowner demographic because homeownership rates tend to increase as households age, gradually starting to decline as households age beyond age 75 (Exhibit 4).

As of 2022, Boomers were between 58-76 years of age. By 2035, these Boomers will be between the ages of 71 and 89. We estimate the retention rates of these age cohorts as they age over the period from 2000-202211 (Exhibit 5).

Applying these retention rates to the Boomer households as of 2022, we estimate the number of Boomer households each year through 2035. We find a gradual decline in the number of Boomer households over time from around 32 million in 2022 to 23 million by 2035 as the oldest Boomers reach ages close to 90. Per this estimate, there will be 9.2 million fewer Boomer homeowner households by 2035 (Exhibit 6).

That’s more than 9 million homes available for the Gen Z’s who are entering into their home buying years.

Read the entire report from Freddie Mac February Outlook.

God Willing

I’ve recently crossed paths with an individual who slides in the expression God Willing as a qualifier. Whether at the beginning or the end of a sentence, there it is. You are asked to have faith that it is God’s will. It’s neither preachy nor awkward, but rather comforting the way it lines right up with the other words he uses to communicate.

Many languages and cultures incorporate similar phrases. Inshallah is an Arabic expression meaning “if God wills” or “God willing.” In Latin a signator of a letter may have closed with Deo Volento, with hopes the message has arrived to the intended recipient. And in the King James version of the Christian Bible it appears in James 4:14-4:15.

14 Whereas ye know not what shall be on the morrow. For what is your life? It is even a vapour, that appeareth for a little time, and then vanisheth away.
15 For that ye ought to say, If the Lord will, we shall live, and do this, or that.

Roberta Estes at Native Heritage Project writes about an expression she remembers from her childhood, “God Willing and the Creek Don’t Rise.”

Did you know the saying “God willing and the Creek don’t rise” was in reference to the Creek Indians and not a body of water?  We didn’t.

It turns out that the phrase was written by Benjamin Hawkins in the late 18th century. He was a politician and Indian agent. While in the south, Hawkins was requested by the President of the U.S. to return to Washington. In his response, he was said to write, “God willing and the Creek don’t rise.” Because he capitalized the word “Creek” it is deduced that he was referring to the Creek Indian tribe and not a body of water.

Have a wonderful rest of your Sunday- God Willing.

Hennepin County Library

There are 41 branches of the Hennepin County Library system serving the 1.6 million residents of the county. Some are historic buildings, some have scenic views over a lake, and some have a modern flare. All are well frequented.

Mission and vision

Our mission is to inspire, facilitate, and celebrate lifelong learning.

Shaped by the information needs and aspirations of our residents, we envision the library as a shared space for enrichment and connection.

Library services are an important part of thriving and interconnected communities. We believe that every Hennepin County resident should have a library card and use it regularly.

Although visits haven’t reached the 5 million high benchmark from pre-pandemic days, borrowing has surged to 12 million items. Visitors also use library spaces for remote work or gatherings in one of the many conference rooms.

When so many people of interest site a library or a librarian as an inspiration at a younger age, I wonder why more correlations are not made between library useage and outcomes in other areas.

There’s a huge turnout for the book sale fundraisers. At this one the first couple in line put in for a 45 minute wait.

Five Minute Real Estate

In this five minute video clip, Frederick Melo with the St. Paul Pioneer Press refers to a number of important real estate outcomes. He was invited to the weekly PBS show, Almanac, due to a recent announcement that a portfolio of commercial buildings, including the iconic First National Bank Building, is being listed for sale.

The collection of buildings are owned Madison Equities. Long time real estate developer, Jim Crockarell died in January and his heirs are not interested in being landlords. Building owners can gain emotional attachment to their properties as appears to be the case here. Some of them were half empty and some completely empty. Significant vacancies do not happen on the turn of a dime. Commercial leases are multi-year and companies have an investmest in their locations. So this recent announcement reflects activity which has been brewing for a while.

Well known architectural firm, TKDA, is also moving. They are relocating to Bloomington to keep workers happy. After 100 years, the downtown devotees are succumbing to practical desires for free parking. An added feature is scenic vistas over the Minnesota River. To attract workers back into the built environment, they are seeking out new surroundings in the third largest city in the state.

US Bank is also stepping away from downtown yet still staying in St. Paul. Workers here also say no to the densest part of the city. Melo reports that the building has had ghost leases for years. While technically under contract, the one-employee-per-floor occupancy has been a long-time indicator of what the future held.

What to do with all these vancant buildings is the question of the day. The solution under proposal is converting the office space to living space. But conversions are very expensive and the demand for residential in the capital city is not as strong as next door neighbor in her sister city. It’s a tough place to live.

Grants and tax increment financing are being proposed as public interventions. Is this a good idea? I’m not so sure. The mayor is quiet letting a non-profit alliance offer investment strategies. Their approach is to focus on one street at a time. One street a downtown does not make.

Cathy Wurzer brings in the ringer of a topic just at the end. Crime and personal safety. These are real issues that have been muted in the last four years. People don’t want to have to worry about being carjacked at knife-point when they’ve got a head full of kid’s programming and an armful of work manuals. Proximity to violence is a deal breaker for many people.

I had not heard of the study the Downtown Alliance had done around the DT Greeters pre and post pandemic. Within a district where a tax was collected to support the greeter program, quality of life crimes decreased by 40%. Whereas in the adjacent Lowertown area (where the St. Paul Saints stadium is located) crimes increased by 20%. Jim Crockarell, the real estate developer, opposed the district. This is speculation, but I’m guessing he thought greeting people and being busy maintainers of sidewalk safety was meant to be organic. It was the civic thing to do. Yet here is concrete data that an organized effort to deter crime, a significant motivator, was successful with subsidized labor.

In review, we were told about multiple exits to the city core. Be careful to note this was not a sudden occurance. We heard about emotional attachments beyond the pull of financial prudence. We heard about consumer driven needs for parking and easy access. We heard about the impracticality of retrofitting the built environment (file under why so many old buildings come down). We heard about public subsidies that will fall woefully short of the task. We heard about the big driver, safety, which is often kept on the QT so as not to implicate an area.

That’s a lot in five minutes

Title work from the Book of Ruth

In Chapter 4 a plot of land is identified for aquisition.

3. And he said unto the kinsman, Nấ-o-mi, that is come again out of the country of which, selleth a parcel of land, which was our brother Elim-ẽ-lēch’s:

Then one worries about past liens and encumbrances.

5. Then said Bo-ăz, What day thou buyest the field of the hand of Naomi, thou must buy it also of Ruth the Moabitess, the wife of the dead, to raise up the name of the dead upon his inheritance.

So one asks for witnesses to the transaction.

9 And Bo-ăz said unto the elders, and unto all the people, Ye are witnesses this day, that I have bought all that was E-lim’-e-lech’s, and all that was Chi-li-ăn’s and Mäh-lõn’s, of the hand of Na’-o-mĩ.

Instead of gap coverage, the buyer secures the potential claimant to the land through marriage.

10 Moreover Ruth the Moabitess, the wife of Mäh-lon, have I purchased to be my wife, to raise up the name of the dead upon his inheritance, that the name of the dead be not cut off from among his brethren, and from the gate of his place: ye are witnesses this day.

That’s a wrap on a closing.

The thing is- many countries still rely on insufficiently formal titling of land.

How many people does it take to start a protest movement?

It turns out quite a few. Tablet Magazine has an excellent article on the people behind the recent protests on campus’ across the US: The People Setting America on Fire- An investigation into the witches’ brew of billionaires, Islamists, and leftists behind the campus protests.

Not only does the article list out the actors: “This largely decentralized network of agitators is, in turn, politically and financially supported by a vast web of progressive nonprofits, NGOs, foundations, and dark-money groups ultimately backed by big-money donors aligned with the Democratic Party.”

But also gives shape to the dynamics of the interaction:

These groups, Shideler says, typically operate in a decentralized manner, using successful tactics drawn from decades of anarchist organizing and spread through left-wing activist networks via word-of-mouth, as well as through formal trainings by professionals such as Fithian or the nonprofit “movement incubator” Momentum Strategies. “If you look at Fithian,” he says, “she has consulted with hundreds of groups on how to do these things: how to organize, how to protest, how to make sure your people don’t go to jail, how to help them once they’re in jail.” There is no one decision-maker; rather, decentralized “affinity” groups work together toward a shared goal, coordinating out in the open via social media and Google Docs.

It’s worth a full read.

When do regulations work?

There’s a frequent complaint around government’s performance. Measurements for outcomes on public policies are difficult to evaluate. So how do we know when regulations meant to make things better, work?

One sense of it could be reflected by the populations adherence to the new rule. For instance, when smoking was banned from indoor areas there was a lot of grumbling. Now, a quarter-century later, it is rare to enter a home hanging heavy with the sent a-la-ashtray. The constituents agree. No smoking is great! Don’t even think about lighting up by the public entrances to buildings as perfuming oneself with the sent of Marlboros is not OK.

Some cities place permit requirements on all sorts of home improvements. I doubt there are objections to paying for an city inspector to stop out for the significant improvement projects like roof replacement or furnace upgrades. But the fees can hit smaller appliances like gas ranges or hot water heaters too. In these cases the regulatory charge adds an additional ten to twelve percent to the new appliance. After paying a sales tax and a delivery fee, people find this onerous.

As a result, people bypass the permit process. Pretty soon it becomes a known thing and nobody is following the rule. When the public ignores a regulatory process, I’d say it’s time for a reassessment.

Time- according to Alfred Marshall

Marshall proposed thinking in one of four blocks of time. The first would be a market period, where demand determines price because there is not sufficient time to alter supply. The short run, Marshall’s second period, introduced a new wrinkle: by responding to demand, firms could increase supply, but only by spending more money. So prices might go up, set by the cost of supply, working in tandem with demand.

The third period, the long run, during which firms had time to develop new efficiencies, introduced a further complication. Now rising demand might trigger falling prices as businesses benefited from economies of scale and better organization.

The fourth period, secular time, was Marshall’s nod to history it-self. Secular time was generational time, which might see huge shifts in demographics, knowledge, or political organization, completely refiguring the dynamics of supply and demand. Marshall had found a way to integrate the glacial movements of the ages, the lurches and accelerations of the present, and the universalizing clarity of economic abstraction.

Lifted from Jennifer Burn’s book Milton Friedman: The Last Conservative. She narrates Friedman’s encounter with Alfred Marshall’s book Principles of Economics.

Time in real estate is yet on another schedule.

Paternity Leave

It’s game time for the second in a series against the Denver Nuggets and lead Timberwolves defender Rudy Gobert is taking the night off. For what you say? For the birth of his baby. My. Times have changed.

I guess the team is on-board with his decisions. As they should be.

Gobert and the Timberwolves were well aware that he might have to miss a playoff game for the birth of his child, and the team has been nothing but supportive of his choice to be at his girlfriend’s side for such an important life moment.

“I would do anything I can to be there,” Gobert told the Deseret News in March. “I don’t think there’s any debate to have. Coach Finch and every guy in this locker room, that’s what I love about them, we have a level of human connection and empathy for one another that I think is really good. And I think all the guys will be literally telling me, ‘Don’t play, go.’”

MSN

The team has tons of momentum. Let’s hope this opens up an opportunity for one more player to become a star.

Christ Church, Malacca

Christ Church is the oldest protestant church in Malaysia. It sits on the same square as the administrative buildings set up by the Dutch in the seventeenth century.

The Stadthuys (an old Dutch spelling, meaning city hall) is a historical structure situated in the heart of Malacca City, the administrative capital of the state of Malacca, Malaysia, in a place known as the Red Square.[1] The Stadthuys is known for its red exterior and nearby red clocktower. It was built by the Dutch in 1650 as the office of the Dutch governor and deputy governor. It continued to be used as the Treasury, Post Office, Government Offices, and suites of apartments for the high officials after the takeover by the British.

WIKI

The librarian who liked the beach

Many lessons were learned from the Covid lockdown, including knowing which jobs are conducive to work from afar. Employees who work primarily through an internet connection discovered that they preferred working from home as it gave their lives more flexibility. Some employers are now indifferent to where their employees sit when they earn their paychecks. But not all employers are so flexible.

A few years ago, a brouhaha flitted through the local news as it was discovered that the man in charge of our largest, and nationally recognized, library system was running the show from a downtown condo in LA. Minnesota’s weather is indeed a drawback. Still, the Hennepin County Board is in charge of this position and was not amused by someone in a key position choosing to live by the beach instead of in the land of ten thousand lakes.

There’s a consensus that if you are a public employee of stature then you should be experiencing the public environment here, along with the rest of us. You need to part of the team. You need to be in the know of the subtle and sometimes unsaid nuances of an area’s culture and aspirations. To dial in from afar was deemed unacceptable and a severance package was negotiated.

Where you choose to live tells a lot about your preferences. It’s an acceptance of the combination of features available to residents in the surrounding area. There’s an acknowledgment, by taking on the expense of the move, that there is something to gain through the relocations. Interestingly, the minority population in Minnesota is the only population that has gained ground between 2022-2024. Minnesota Compass, a non-profit research group, recently released these numbers.

People of color in the Twin Cities has increased by 34,000 in two years. It doesn’t seem to indicate the concern about policing and the justice system that some in the political realm are suggesting. Quite the opposite.

Knob and tube and deal breakers

In the early part of the last century, when electrification was new, a house wiring system called knob and tube was installed in many homes. It was a labor intensive process but the materials were less expensive. Where there were workers, knob and tube made sense. Wires ran between the interior walls and the outer shell throughout the house on the whim of the electrician. Without a plan, it is difficult to know which wires connect where. This becomes a drawback at time of a remodel. But the more significant drawbacks are the safety hazards due to overloading the system with electrical demands the system was not designed to carry.

This investor purchased a nine-unit building with k&t.

The fuse box looks funny because it doesn’t have the flip breakers. The cute green topped glass are the circuit breakers.

Insurance companies in our area will no longer cover a home with k&t. At least that’s the latest I’ve heard. They tried twenty years ago or so to make it a rule, yet it did not hold. There was enough demand in the market to over turn removing that option from their insurance offerings.

Lenders, federal mortage insurance rules, property insurance providers all play a role in real estate excahnges. In this way they feature in the price of property. It’s uncommon for a subsidary service to make a property unsaleable, but over the years there have been instances where property types have taken significant hits. Condos in the early 1990s would be another example.

Chapter 5- who does what when

Stubborn Attachments is a smart slim book by Tyler Cowen. He presents a decisive defense of society’s obligation to pursue economic growth. Although he expands his profession’s definition of wealth by bulking it out to include a larger scope of life. Wealth Plus is how he describes it.

In chapter five he wrestles around with some ideas about who should do what when. In order to not only have monetary wealth, it is valuable to sense that when something bad is on nigh, someone is around for a rescue. When the drowning girl needs to be saved, there must be a member willing to jump in the water and pull her out.

It’s not efficient if everybody were to jump in. She’d be saved by the sudden and dramatic reduction of the water level. Meanwhile no other jobs would get the attention they deserve. S0 how is it that the available labor will be in place when a task needs doing? When a crime needs reporting or an old pensioner needs protecting? That’s a great question.

It’s the question that begs the demand for benchmarking.

Pop star or rule or pop stars rule

They’re called influencers when they hit soccial media venues peddling cosementic products and outfits. Pop mega-star Billie Eilish isn’t hawking commodities. She’s pushing for people to make a sacrifice for the environement. Instead of enjoying a new outfit, settle for a used one. Instead of going solo in a vehicle to her concert, pair up and carpool.

“Hit Me Hard and Soft,” Eilish’s third album, is due out May 17. For the tour, she is focusing on sustainability and is continuing her longtime relationship with environmental nonprofit Reverb, to which she’ll donate a portion of proceeds from ticket sales. She’s also encouraging fans to carpool or take public transportation to her concerts and to wear thrifted or borrowed clothing rather than purchasing new. Fans are also invited to bring an empty reusable water bottle as there will be free refill stations at the venue.

St Paul Pioneer Press

Reminding people to do their part toward a common goal is one way to advance its objective. Another is to pass a law. No plastic straws, for instance, was meant to help the environement.

What I wonder about is which of these to strategies has a bigger impact, and to what degree? Spitballing it I would guess that someone of Eilish’s stature teases out more action, probably a lot more action. It wouldn’t be that hard to measure the ridership of the audience memebers.

I wonder why there aren’t more efforts to nail down the results of some of these strategies. If a mega-star can generate more significant results than a law. Skip the bannings that no one pays attention to and hire the influencers to change the world.

Work is Voluntary.

Is volunteer the right word for unpaid labor? Afterall, in free societies jobs are done voluntarily as well. Carees are pursued on a voluntary basis. That’s the whole idea. You get to choose. ‘The difference between work that is done as service work, in the efforts to improve or maintain a common goal, and work done for private enterprise, is that in one instance you are paid through reciprocity down the road, and in the other you are paid in unfettered cash.

How you choose to spend your waking hours in labor or leisure, caring for your loved ones or idly reading a book, working for a paycheck or going to an NBA playoff game, are all done voluntarily.

The difference is not whether you choose to work, but whether you choose to work for compensation. In fact, you can blend the. You can work for a check and in conjuction with your passions. And do it entirely voluntarily!

Austin Tx and the Missing Middle

Kyla Scanlon- economist

I love this clip by Kyla about the housing market in Austin. Build more housing and prices moderate. Too true.

There’s another factor at play here. Austin is a new town which has experienced a lot of growth. And along with the growth, prosperity. So for folks in the area to be pro-expansion and in turn pro-housing growth is an easy turn.

In more established cities, there are networks of additional interests all meshing on top of the landscape. There were reasons why residents fought for and built out their cities following those rules. For new growing metros, the Austin plan would be easy to adopt. For more those with longer histories, it’s not the same game. Here it will take other strategies to urge continued housing growth.

Future Farmers of America- Minnesota Edition

Years had passed without me giving the FFA a second thought. If someone had asked, I would’ve bet money on their demise years ago, during the era when everyone talked about the death of small-town rural America. If it hadn’t been for stopping at a rest stop on Sunday, the organization would still be out of my sight.

As it turns out the two bus loads of kids who were shoulder to shoulder in line for the sandwiches were headed to the FFA Minnesota State Convention at the UMN. Three days of events starting at a very early 7:30am. The dairy evaluations were at 7:45am.

This organization is not lacking for members eventhough it seems to be lacking media coverage.

Minnesota’s 95th State FFA Convention was held April 21-23 at 3M Arena at Mariucci and at the Minnesota State Fairgrounds.

Speakers, awards, competitions, workshops and sessions were some of the highlights for more than 6,000 FFA members from Minnesota attending the convention, celebrating the convention theme “Achieve – What It Takes.”

Here are some stats:

4,200 FFA members 7th-12th grade are pre-registered for the state convention.
15,000 FFA members in the state.
40,000 Minnesota students are enrolled in Agriculture, Food and Natural Resources (AFNR) classes.
218 FFA Chapters in Minnesota middle and high schools.
338 Agriculture, Food and Natural Resources teachers/FFA advisors in the state

This is from from a Grand Rapids outlet, WDO

Youth interest in rural communities is good news for the environment.