City Planning on the Assumption Low Priced Gas

DT_Tulsa_10_116
Originally uploaded by Jeff Shaw Tulsa Oklahoma

A recent Op/Ed piece in the New York Times by Economist Paul Krugman illustrates an important issue with regard to how Tulsa has grown its cities.

In this case, a simple graphic from Sydney, Austrailia shows the percentage of income Sydney area residents will spend on gas with increased gas prices. Of course, the costs gets greater the further you live from the center.

Dr. Krugman Opines:

This is really our big problem: we’ve made long-lasting investments — in infrastructure, in housing, and to some extent in our auto fleet — based on low oil prices. Those past decisions are what make today’s high prices such a big problem.

Here is my question, can Tulsa really re-develop it's downtown, making it again a business hub when people in the suburbs can't really afford to drive here?

With that question, an editorial statement: It seems that Mass Transit in downtown Tulsa is forever doomed with the advent of the inset parking configuration: There is no place for a bus to stop.

Its the Unofficial Start of Summer!

A Brooklyn Cyclone
Originally uploaded by Jeff Shaw Tulsa Oklahoma

I hope everyone had a great weekend. We spent a half a day at the zoo, a half a day at a company picnic, and yet another half a day at a graduation party. And that was Saturday.

Sunday we spent some time at the Frank K. Berry U.S. Chess Championships being held at the Raddison Hotel in Tulsa at 41st & Garnett.

The above photo is my dedication to the Summer of 2008. It's going to be a great summer.

I shot this picture in 2006 on Coney Island in August. Yes, he does have swim trunks on. It was a shot I couldn't resist.


Click on the image to get a better look at the photo.

Tulsa Summer Reading Program Kick Off Tomorrow!

My son gets really excited about the Tulsa Library Summer Reading Program. So tomorrow, we will be out at the Tulsa Zoo for the Kick off celebration:

1 to 4 p.m. on Saturday, May 17 at the Tulsa Zoo. Children and teens who sign up for the summer reading program will receive free admission to the zoo. (Mohawk Park requires a $2 parking fee.) Rock out with Radio Disney from 1:30 to 3 p.m. with high-energy games, activities and prizes. Enjoy performances by local magicians and bands, a live insect show, face painting, contests and games. The kickoff party is sponsored by the Tulsa Library Trust, Tulsa Zoo, Radio Disney AM 1380, Tulsa Community College and Tulsa Transit.

I hope to see some of you out there. This is such a benefit to your children.

But wait! There's more:

Each child who signs up for the reading program will receive a reading log to record the titles of the books they read and the visits they make to the library during the summer. Please bring the log every time you visit the library.

Each child who visits the library four times and reads eight books will earn a medal of achievement and a booklet of coupons for free entertainment and food items...

...Plus, medal winners who have completed kindergarten or are in first through sixth grade may enter a drawing for exciting prizes...

...Children who read 12 more books will receive a plush, stuffed ladybug as a bonus award.

Here is how our family does it: Each Summer, I buy my wife and my son Tulsa Transit bus passes for the Summer. They ride the bus to the downtown Central Library a couple of times a week, or sometimes the Brookside library. When they come downtown, My wife gets to buy us lunch. It's definitely a lifetime memory event for our son.

And that's what life is all about. Isn't it?

What Children Learn From Grownups

After voting yesterday, I went to my son's school for lunch. As my wife and I were sitting around chatting with the kids, one of the them noticed my "I voted" sticker. She said "who did you vote for?" I explained that the vote was about a tax proposal.

The conversation went straight to the presidential race.

At that, one seven year old child blurted out "Clinton is a baby killer!"

I quickly changed the subject.

Lesson: Watch what you say in front of children.

How about Lunch? Corp-Speak at its finest.

To: B. Smith
From: Jeff Shaw

Re: Lunch on Friday

I forgot to say thanks for lunch on Friday. I think there was a lot of value in the comments you made. I believe we can use the momentum of that lunch as a springboard to more lunches going forward. With that, I wanted to know if you would be willing to participate in a short 2 hour Power Point presentation developed by my Team Focus Group (TFG) of what I think are the critical mass issues, i.e. four hot dogs vs. three; hot sauce, no hot sauce, etc. I would be interested to get another perspective.

On another note, I think there is also some value in exploring some lessons learned in always patronizing the same vendor. In other words, I think the core competencies of The Coney Shop have been met; what is the forward looking perspective as we go from a horizontal to a vertical view of our key relationships and how can we transform that into our existing responsibilities in terms of nutritional manipulatives? What are the dynamic alternatives on a long term basis?

Regards,
Jeff

The Tax Rebate Gimmick

Every consumer likes to get "Cash Back," or get a "Super-size." Even our elites in Washington know that.

Here's how we get dumbed down again:

As Ms. Clinton's and Mr. McCain's proposal to have a tax rebate on gas (just for the Summer, mind you) is a gimmick, so is the current government's efforts to stimulate the economy with a Tax Rebate:

From Reuters:
Consumers mark tax rebates for bills, savings

But the Americans due to receive full rebates -- individuals with taxable incomes less than $75,000 and couples under $150,000 -- are the consumers hardest hit by rising food and fuel prices, the housing sector meltdown, the credit crunch and an uncertain job market.

That includes consumers like Ava Lee, 34, who has been out of work in Los Angeles since December. She says she'll use her rebate to pay for "necessary expenses" like food and gas.

"I'd use mine for everyday spending," said Lee, who has turned off her heat and air conditioning to cut expenses. "I would not go out and say, 'Ooh! I have extra money."'

"We're in such uncertain times economically," she added.

Don't get me wrong, I'm all about lowering taxes, and lowering the tax burdens on families, but these gimmicks are bad policy, bad precedent, and they aren't sustainable for long term government planning purposes.

An example: You can't have 5 for $1 hamburgers at your favorite restaurant everyday of the week. They just run that gimmick on the slow days. And (hopefully) they've factored the cost of that gimmick into the regular price of a hamburger.

Let's get back to some fiscal responsibility.

The Candidates' Educational Background - Some Facts

I don't know about you, but I like my President educated. So when people start throwing the word "elite" around, I always wonder exactly what they mean by "elite."

I think of elite as being the best.

That's not what some people think of as elite, at least in a political sense. The Elite are all the people making all the really stupid decisions over which you have no control. Its an amorphous group, to be sure.

I think some people use the term to describe a group of people who make the most money or have the most power.

As an adult, a person is probably in an elite class if, when they were in grade school, they got made fun of for getting good grades. Not so much in college, although that's where I started to experience it.

You know, your friend walks up after a test and says in a condescending tone:

"I bet you got an A"

and you think to yourself: "is there any other grade?"

There is always some schlep who got to the top by mistake, but in a vast majority of the cases people who made best grades in school end up with the most money and/or the most power. Face it.

And well, a good number of people will grow to hate you because of that. If you're a liberal elite, the unthinking conservative will hate you, and if you are a conservative elite, the unthinking liberal will hate you.

By unthinking I mean people who don't have the ability to think about two sides of an issue and decide which side they think makes the most sense. These unthinking people usually get their opinions from the radio, or from a blog (like this one), or they can take the easy way out and just tow the party line (groupthink at its finest).

Wow. I do digress...sorry.

And now for something completely different:

Here now, the educational backgrounds of the major and minor elites (pick your own definition of elite), in alphabetical order:

Hillary Clinton
JD, Yale University, 1973
BA, Wellesley College, 1969.

John McCain
National War College, 1973-1974
BS, United States Naval Academy, 1958.

Ralph Nader
LLB, Harvard Law School, 1958
AB, East Asian Studies, Woodrow Wilson School of International Affairs, Princeton University, 1955
Attended, Gilbert School, 1951.

Barack Obama
JD, Harvard Law School, 1991
BA, Columbia University, 1983
Attended, Occidental College.

Ron Paul
MD, Duke University, 1967
BS, Gettysburg College, 1957.

The Credit Card Trap

I got this wonderful offer in the mail today:

Jeff, ...for the next three months, all purchases you make will qualify for the special interest rate of 4.99%!... Start saving on interest today!....

This means that my credit card company wants me to use my credit card so that they can charge me 4.99% interest on the purchases. So how do I save on interest?

Think of this offer in another way: The offer is essentially the credit card company giving me a discount on their premium interest rate.

I suppose there are people out there that think this is a great deal, especially if they need to buy something on credit and are going to pay it off in three months. But saving on interest?

The only true way to save on interest is not to pay any.

Hillary Clinton's Fight Against Big Oil

From the AP Mrs. Clinton argues her (and Mr. McCain's) position on a summer holiday on fuel taxes:

"All I hear about is gas prices. Gas and diesel, everywhere," she said. "Some people say we don't need to get a gas tax holiday at all, it's a gimmick ... I want the Congress to stand up and vote. Are they for the oil companies, or are they for you?"

Just for the record, Big Government lays taxes, not Big Oil.

Where's the energy policy? On top of that, she's talking about increasing demand on production capacities that are maxed out.

It's a gimmick.

The New McCarthyism - Dirty Politics

Stanley Fish, a contributor to the New York Times Opinion page describes this recurring practice of guilt by association, this time in its relation to the Rev. Wright / Ayers / Obama saga in his editorial Much Ado:

..."More than a half century later, “McCarthyism” was joined in the lexicon by “Swiftboating,” the art of the smear campaign mounted with the intention not of documenting a wrong, but of covering the victim with slime enough to cast doubt on his or her integrity. Now, in 2008, after a primary season increasingly marked by dirty pool and low blows, “McCarthyism” and “Swiftboating” have come together in a particularly lethal and despicable form. I refer to the startling revelation — proclaimed from the housetops by both the Clinton and McCain campaigns — that Barack Obama ate dinner at William Ayers’s house, served with him on a board and was the honored guest at a reception he organized."...

I'm not defending Mr. Obama (I guess I am, in a way) but this garbage isn't only directed at him.

The larger pointed question is: Have we learned nothing in the last 50 years? I think the editorial is a fair description of what we haven't learned, and the levels of "non-thinkingness" people have the ability to reach, including the campaign staffs.

Confession: Several years ago, I employed a person who later murdered a person and is now on death row. I have to say at the time, I thought he was a relatively nice kid, although, he did need some direction - which I believed I was providing.

Does that make me a bad person? I hope not.

When I was in high school, I had a teacher for which I had very high regard. That teacher ended up doing some not so nice things.

I hope that doesn't mean that I'm somehow now joined at the hip with that teacher.

Now, If I was "runnin'" with these people, it would be a completely different situation.

Unfortunately, "Guilt by Assiociation" is where we are in politics today.