(Part 2) Top products from r/bayarea

You're doing great you now have a very good emergency fund but you need to change where you are putting the money you save moving forward. Change your 401k contributions to 22%, this is about 18k/year (the yearly max contribution). Then open a ROTH IRA and contribute 5.5k annually. These are tax advantaged accounts, make the most of them. For both of these investments and your age you want about a 80:20 stocks:bonds ratio, you can use a target retirement date fund to get this ratio but make sure the fees are low (<0.2%). You mentioned you wanted something more liquid than a ROTH IRA elsewhere but the ROTH is the most liquid tax advantaged account available (You can withdraw your contributions tax and penalty free at any time. Your earnings need to meet certain criteria to not be penalized when withdrawn). Any remaining savings should go into a money market account where it can mildly/safely grow and become a downpayment on a house. If after all this you find you still have extra savings start a taxable investment account that is well diversified. Individual stocks are little more than gambling, sure you might hit it big but you may also lose it all. You're young, play the long game to get rich and you'll maximize your chances to do so.

Also read this book sometime before you are 30, https://www.amazon.com/Allocation-Second-Professional-Finance-Investment/dp/0071700781

No, they absolutely don't. They *pretend* to care about precedent, but they overturn things all the time based on ideological beliefs and often rule against their own precedent, at least on important, ideologically divisive matters.

And that boils down to, as Eric Segall used for the title of a very good introduction book on the subject (though not the only one), that SCOTUS is not a court. It's a tribe of elders imposing value judgements when the Constitution has, by definition, no actual answers for the problems at hand (see: affirmative action, abortion, gun rights, etc.)

That's why a decision about, for example, if the printed currency of the United States is valid currency can be overruled within a year because one SCOTUS judge changed. Or why Scalia could overrule 200 years of precedent and declare in 2008 that the 2nd amendment is an individual right, even though we had clear, settled law that always declared that it was a collective one.

The way that they justify these decisions comes from different systems of value applications (living constitutionalism, one of the many different kinds of originalism, etc.) but it's all values, even if they like to pretend otherwise.

In fact, that the American public continues to perceive that SCOTUS IS a court and that it does care about precedence in contentious cases is one of the biggest cons of the American education system. And it's what keeps people from believing that the SCOTUS would ever overturn Roe because it's settled law, for instance, but the reality is they will overturn Roe in a heartbeat if Roberts decides it's OK politically.

SCOTUS is politics wherever the answers are not obvious.

The best way to learn is to try :) I can highly recommend the Colette Sewing Handbook for lots of information and some great beginner patterns! And if there's anything you need a hand with, I'm happy to help out :)

Revenue that goes to an ''org'' not a ''.gov''.
No tolls in the United States go into any municipality's ''revenue''.
This is a little known fact.
What exactly is the VTA?
The government can ''appoint'' people? Just like the Federal Reserve, a private bank. How nice.
Where does the money go when tolls are collected? Follow the money.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Santa_Clara_Valley_Transportation_Authority
I know. We aren't following the money yet. With no sarcasm involved, I wish you luck in following the money.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special-purpose_district
Who owns the Federal Reserve? That seems to be shrouded.
The VTA's money goes into the ''VTA transit fund''.
Anyone who wants to try and verbally simplify what I am talking about, should read this book about the revolution of ''Transportation Authorities'' in the US. You will never find a book more critically acclaimed.
http://www.amazon.com/The-Power-Broker-Robert-Moses/dp/0394720245
Amazing reading.
A review excerpt: ''As time wore on Moses became less and less the man of the people and more and more the man of the system of his own creation, and that system was the toll-gathering mechanism of New York's bridges and tunnels. He invented that peculiar institution, the "authority" (as in Port "Authority" or Tennessee Valley "Authority") that is neither wholly governmental nor wholly private, and so lacks the restraints of either; Moses' cash cows kept him in power and gave him an antidemocratic arrogance that is truly breathtaking and, one hopes, will never be duplicated.''
A must read, if one wants to know what they are looking at, while enjoying any city's roads or public transportation. Man oh man is the public in the fucking dark about Transportation Authorities.

We really liked Jack London state historic park. http://www.parks.sonoma.net/JLPark.html

You'll find there are a huge number of day trip worthy things in the bay area.

Great bunch of day trips in this deck thingy.
http://www.amazon.com/Bay-Area-Backroads-Deck-California/dp/0811834360

I found this book on Amazon, and on "Customers who viewed this item also viewed" I found a similar book it's interesting because it allows "Look inside".

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I speak Chinese so I read some of the poems in the 2nd book above. Some sentences in them are just so plain yet touching, like "just hope to get to San Francisco soon"（但愿早登三藩市），"raise my head to see Oakland so close like a few feet away"（仰望屋仑相咫尺）.

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Also it shatters the misconception of mine that all these early Chinese immigrants are uneducated coolie who fled their hometown to the states. They expressed how much they miss their hometown often. And some are written as a highly stylized prose with classical allusions, quotes, antithesis... (For example the one on page 143 of the 2nd book).

Pretty sure she can rent it if she has cash and a LARGE deposit.

The other thing you guys could do is buy a beater car off craigslist for cash and then sell it when you get to your destination. Here I found you some beaters.

Also, get this book for your roadtrip, it's the bomb- all local specialties throughout each of the regions of the US and helps you avoid the ever pervasive chain stores.

They also have an interactive website with maps to help you plan your routes.

Have you considered some books instead of in-person classes? Obviously quite different from having an actual human look at and critique your work, but Understanding Exposure and The Photographer's Eye are two of my favorites for learning the fundamentals of how to make good and interesting pictures.

Just FYI, the "Streecar Conspiracy" is really a myth. GM might have helped to put the nail in the coffin of street cars in some places (namely LA), but there is virtually no academic analysis that supports the conspiracy. The streecars were pretty much doomed already by that point. Even on the wikipedia page you linked to it mentions alternate explanations and other factors. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/General_Motors_streetcar_conspiracy#Other_factors

If you want a really good analysis of why so many cities switched to cars, this is an excellent (if academic) book: http://www.amazon.com/Los-Angeles-Automobile-Making-Modern/dp/0520073959

The core issue is about what gets subsidized by whom and what doesn't. If we want to learn from history it is important that we get a good understanding of what actually happened.

From the Ferry Building, Sausalito is better than Oakland/Alameda for departure view; Sausalito heads north along the waterfront past Fisherman's Wharf, while Oakland/Alameda heads SE under the bay bridge, missing the classic SF downtown.

Or you can take the Sausalito ferry from Fisherman's Wharf, that has a direct view back over the city including the bay bridge in the background, with the golden gate on your right.

Edit: this google map shows the ferry routes well

The Oakland/Alameda is a great ride though, with going under the bay bridge, and views of the oakland docs, especially at night. (Disclaimer: I like watching the cargo ships load and unload, after reading this book on the history of cargo containers and how it affected the shipping industry in the SF & Oakland )

Edited for clarity on where ferries leave from

Thanks for sharing your experience. I highly recommend this book on the subject esp. Fremont's rise. I thought it was very balanced: https://www.amazon.com/American-Babylon-Struggle-Postwar-Politics/dp/0691124868

> Well some renters will tell you they pay property taxes indirectly, but I guess you don't buy that.

Let’s skip the part where you put words in my mouth.

> Your disdain for private windfalls is cute

I think identifying private windfalls in order to design progressive taxation is more than “cute.”

> Everything you're talking about would kill Development, btw

All I have described in this thread is how property taxes work and why I think they should be higher. While it’s true that very high property taxes can discourage development, there are ways of encouraging development even when the property tax is high (e.g. tax the land at a higher rate than improvements, or exempt new construction).

> Not all land has value. Not all land increases value. In SF, we presume these things to be true, but no, they're not always true, and the assumptions your making require us to be talking about cartoons instead of real life

None of these are assumptions that I made.

> Linking to the assessors handbook is meaningless. Quote the section you think is relevant.

See, for example, the section “Economic Concept of Use Value” which describes how the market value continues to exist (and you continue to pay property tax) even when a house is owner-occupied or vacant.

> The assessors themselves can be idiots, which is why Prop 13 exists. Value isn't set by rumor or your opinion of how hot the market is, and there's limitations on when you can assess for a reason.

In The Permanent Tax Revolt, Isaac William Martin argues the exact opposite: Proposition 13 passed because assessors became too professional, and politically powerful neighborhoods who had previously been given artificially low assessments revolted rather than pay the calculated taxes.

Agreed. Prop 13 is like a curse to most Californians.

Speaking of taxes, I like Richard Florida’s idea: tax land based on a a formula that benefits dense housing. His book:
New Urban Crisis

Check out the reviews on this author's book on Amazon:

http://smile.amazon.com/The-Golden-Road-Notes-Gentrification/dp/014311297X

Do you know why PG&E exists at all? What's the historical reasoning behind the quasi public/private monopoly? We wanted efficiency of larger power plants and no rat's nest of power lines across the city from competing power companies. If the city owns and maintains the power lines, there's no rats nest. And we're at a point now where power generation through means of solar and wind allows individuals to set up solar and wind farms however big or small as they can afford. The need to consolidate power generation into the hands of one giant is unnecessary, and all we need is for a public entity to facilitate the infrastructure and transaction between the sellers and buyers.

Each city builds and maintains their own power lines and facilitates the marketplace between buyers and sellers. Then people can build solar and wind farms wherever, sell their power to cities who then sell it to buyers at whatever markup keeps the power lines maintained and pays for regulation of the sellers.

Try reading: https://www.amazon.com/Big-Switch-Rewiring-Edison-Google/dp/039334522X

basic economics

I doubt any Bay area politician has any grasp on the matter.

You aren't standing up to them. You are driving moderates who sympathize with them into extremism and radicalization. You are making it harder to implement the solutions that actually reduce the number of extremists. You are increasing the chances of minorities being targeted in the future.

We know that inclusion and community-building reduce the rates of radicalization

There are guides for how you can actually help solve the problem of extremist violence.

Scientists who study genocide and mass political murder have noted that escalating ethnic violence leads to more genocides and ethnic cleansings, not fewer

You are helping the nazis. You are putting me and my family in danger. Will you please grow up and start doing something productive?

You want to see how far left Democrats are today, read the 1925-1934 Democratic, or fascist literature and news of the day. If I stripped from the source material and told you it was a Bernie quote, you'd believe me and at the same time be reading Mussolini and FDR or worse.

• Three New Deals by Wolfgang Schivelbusch
  
• The Origins of Totalitarian Democracy by Jacob Talmon
  
  
  Bruce Bliven, editor of the New Republic, sagely remarked not long ago that if or when Fascism ever makes any headway in America, it will probably be known as "Anti-Fascism."
  
  If Bernie said, "we demand that collective good be put before individual self-interest" he might be right. But he'd also be quoting the chief Nazi newspaper, Volkischer Beobachter.

>The US has a minority rule in the sense that the constitution protect the minority from the decision of the majority. Context? Give some examples.

Where in the Constitution supports your argument? Cause if you did know you would have posted that section of the Constitution rather than link to Amazon.

What is your argument again and what section is it? https://constitutionus.com/

>We have an example of limited government. It’s ours. You and people like you have and are changing that by confiscating lawful property to give to others whom you deem more worthy of it.

Your answering an argument I didn't make. Changing zoning laws isn't taking away any ones property. Having affordable housing that allows all San Franciscans to raised and die isn't some fantasy, like ending slavery, protection of indigenous Americans, women's right to vote, civil rights, disabled rights, and rights of gays. The right to affordable housing is civil right considering the importance of ones home.

>Throwing out feel good platitudes doesn’t change 1. The constitution. 2. Basic laws of economics and 3. Human nature.

• The Constitution has 27 Amendments the Constitution changes over time.
  
• There is no such thing as "Economic laws" there is no courts, no legislation, no enforcement. But there are "Economic theories,
  
  
• Libertarians have no clue on human behavior, they are isolationists, loners, https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/the-fair-society/201108/what-s-the-matter-libertarianism
  
  Thomas Sowell the Libertarian, would rather read "Economics for Dummies,

Wrong! Yes, it absolutely did.

Why would people live in a warehouse? Because the cheaper alternatives don't exist when you have to pay Bay Area real estate and rent far more than what any artist can make.

It's different thing to work in a warehouse but people were living in it. And then, because you entertain where you live, they had a party. Stupid? Yes. But that's a normal expectation and behavior in places where you live.

Unless simply banning art in the Bay Area is the goal. Because art isn't ever a money-maker pretty much by definition. See also: "The Gift" by Lewis Hyde.

The fire was very much a symptom and had its proximate cause in the housing crisis.

Now I'd expect the "landed gentry" and NIMBYs generally to deny this - that's exactly why people are denying it - 99% have Reddit histories of NIMBY-like behaviors and that includes lying about reality to suit their own biases, benefit and needs.

NIMBYs need to acknowledge they are the problem. If we want no diversity, no art, no service economy, then continue the status quo! But understand that's NOT how the Bay Area became a nice place to live! That's NOT how you assure you have nice things!