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Several months ago I had dinner with a former student, who is now a peer, and her husband. They had invited me over to their home to meet the newest addition to their burgeoning family. As I pulled up I was incredibly impressed, not by the size of the home or the curb appeal, but by the modest size. I remember thinking, "Wow, great home. I bet it is paid off!" Both individuals are highly successful, enjoying lucrative careers and could take their pick of neighborhoods, but instead remain in a modest dwelling, living substantially below their means. I was impressed.
On the way home, I stopped by my 24-hour Walmart for life's necessities and was greeted, as always, by a senior citizen saying, "Welcome to Walmart." I smiled and remembered the number of times people in the workplace, when consoling an unhappy co-worker, had said, "Well, at least you're not saying, 'Welcome to Walmart.'" The contrarian in me started to consider this possibility: Could it be that the position as a Walmart greeter was the ultimate status of success rather than failure?! The ability to live as a Walmart greeter and sustain a desired lifestyle – that would be success!
Next I started to do the math to see if I could be a Walmart greeter. There are certain requirements, of course, as I am unwilling to lower my standard of living and my lifestyle. The basic assumptions are as follows: (1) Minimum wage is $7.25/hour and Walmart would hire me full-time for 40 hours a week; and (2) 100 percent of health care costs are covered by Walmart (aggressive, I know, but base assumptions must be made). Therefore, assuming 22 eight-hour working days per month, a gross monthly salary is $1,276. If taxes and payroll expenses are all-in 30% (aggressive, yes) then net pay per month is $893.20. A sample monthly budget for me as a Walmart greeter is at left. The budget assumes that homeownership is absolute and only payments for maintenance, taxes, utilities and HOA recur monthly. Further, it assumes a modest diet, not likely given my current weight but this is theory, and no major capital expenses, such as the need to purchase a new vehicle.
|Per month
Property Taxes
|HOA - Home
|TT Expense
To be a Walmart greeter, the approximate $1,500 shortfall must be resolved. Given that every Walmart greeter who has greeted me has always been cheerful, a reasonable assumption is that the shortfall is covered by a low-risk annuity. Given that most fund managers target an 8 percent return, a low-risk target will be half this amount, i.e., 4 percent. Therefore, to produce $1,500/month free cash flow (assuming no taxes), the annuity must have a capital base of $450,000. Currently my home is approximately $430,000. This requires that I, as a Walmart greeter, have total assets of $870,000+ and no liabilities. Of course, this assumes all vacations and additional expenses are financed externally through speaking engagements or consulting contracts.
An alternate to purchasing a financial security would be a real estate asset in the local DC area. A $450,000 townhome within the DC beltway in Northern, VA rents for approximately $2,500. After taxes, HOA, insurance and maintenance, the remaining is about $1,500, i.e. the shortfall. Of course, a real estate asset's rent escalates, over the long-term, at inflation. Therefore, assuming wage growth equal to inflation, the chosen life as a Walmart greeter is possible with approximately $870,000 in total assets, i.e. net worth.
Finally, for individual still building their retirement portfolio, the strategy still works. Rather than requiring $450,000 for the home, it can be financed through a 30-year product at 4.50% fixed. With $100,000 down payment, the mortgage is based upon a principal amount of $350,000. Therefore the payment for Principal and Interest is approximately $1,775. Allowing for $500/month in taxes, $100/month insurance, and $125/month HOA, the rental income, assuming $2500/month, equates to the payments. Therefore, the $100,000 down payment in the real estate asset provides an annuitized payment, in today's dollars, of $2,500/mo in 30 years. Clearly, the sooner one plans to be a Walmart greeter, the less capital is required. Note: this strategy assumes that the individual's primary home is paid off in the timeframe as well.
The true financial goal for individuals should not be X dollars and Y physical assets, but rather the ability to maintain a chosen lifestyle while working as a Walmart greeter. Therefore, if you ever walk into Walmart and are greeted by me, take no pity. Know that the smile is not on my face due to a job requirement, but rather, the sides of my mouth, which are elevated forming the smile, are not weighed down by financial worry!
"Welcome to Walmart!"
The dynamic world of real estate is fast paced and often ruthless, which means maintaining an edge over the competition is key for survival. A well rounded marketing strategy is absolutely essential in today's climate and this book will help real estate entrepreneurs boost their knowledge and improve their marketing techniques.
With an easy to follow five-part structure, Joseph Sirgy covers the full range of topics to equip the reader with a holistic understanding of marketing approaches. Starting with the fundamental concepts of marketing as a business philosophy and strategy, Sirgy discusses ideas including strategic analysis, target marketing, and the four elements of the marketing mix: property planning, site selection, pricing of properties, and promotion of properties.
The book also tackles important subjects such as personal selling, effective negotiation, human resource management, and finally a chapter devoted to the legal and ethical issues in the real estate industry.
Packed with case studies, discussion questions, learning objectives, chapter summaries and a companion website, Real Estate Marketing is the most thorough and accessible book on the subject.
M. Joseph Sirgy is Professor of Marketing and Virginia Real Estate Research Fellow at Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, USA
On November 10, 2014, the (in)famous divorce case between oil tycoon Harold Hamm and his former wife Sue Ann Hamm was determined by Judge Haralson in the District Court of Oklahoma County in the USA.
The facts of the case are set out in the judgement: an 80-page report brilliantly summarised for Reuters by the journalist, Joshua Schneyer. At the heart of the case was the issue about just how much had to be given to Sue for her actual work as opposed to how location and other factors unrelated to effort contributed to the fortune. More broadly, the issues to be determined hinged on just how much of real estate or land values can be attributed to the skill and industry of property and land owners and therefore how much of these should they retain as deserving reward. For many investors in real estate, these questions, particularly the notion of 'rent', do not arise: what is important is that 'their property' accumulates value, that rent (for both housing and land) is rising, and that they can invest more to reap the fortune of real estate. But when it comes to real estate and property in oil economies, these questions cannot be brushed aside for they touch on every aspect of society, economy, and environment, even on our values and morality as a people.
In the end, Sue got only 6 percent of the couple's $18 billion wealth, the judge ruling that most of that wealth had nothing to do with the wife's marital skill but rather 'the vast majority of the increase was attributable to market factors outside of Harold Hamm's control' (Schneyer). If the case generated interest, then the ruling has triggered even more interest and set tongues lashing out at what is deemed unfair. Feminists are asking how a 26-year old marriage can end with the man taking the lion's share: a sweet 94 per cent. It is equally valid, however, to ask whether it would be fair to split the oil wealth in three: 50 to Sue; 50 to Harold; and 0 to society. It is tempting to view this case only as a divorce case in which the issues pertain only to an unfair, androcentric legal system.
However, placed in a broader context, this case raises important issues not only with the particular oil company of the Hamms but also with transnational oil companies. At the minimum, it shows what the market can do when it is allowed into the family and permitted to distribute resources that belong to society and to which society makes much contribution. But, the case also leads to harder questions. If 94:6 is unfair to one individual, what about the unequal distribution of oil benefits between a few transnational oil companies and the millions of people in Africa for whom there is a recurrent scramble for their oil? How should we feel about distribution issues between business interests and the people of Angola, Nigeria, and Sudan? These are only a few of the old oil-producing countries but there are also new ones: Sierra Leone, Liberia, and Uganda where similar questions apply but about whom little is heard because they are poor and often cannot afford the legal services to get them even 6 percent. These local peoples who can literally sniff oil typically get less and less of the resource either in crude or refined form or in terms of direct and indirect compensation.
In 21st century Africa, this question of distribution is not the same old oil story. There are important differences. New oil discoveries are not in sparsely populated villages, but close to or in densely populated urban centres. Africa now has 'oil cities' in which oil destroys but it also builds, raising questions about property rights and property relations for property destroyed; built, transformed, and exchanged, the resulting jobs created and destroyed and the ramifications for society, economy, and environment. Significantly, Africa has made great progress on corruption and governance indices. Today, the press in Ghana is freer than that in Australia, the UK, and USA. More so, the press freedom in Ghana has been improving since 2013 whereas for Australia, the UK, and USA, it has been worsening — according to the World Press Freedom Index 2014. So, it is too restrictive to focus only on 'bad governance', opaque deals and corrupt leaders as the source of all the experiences of oil. As the Hamm case shows, the market is as guilty, if not guiltier. Therefore, we need to understand oil cities not in symptomatic (corruption, greed, dictators, and such like), but in systemic terms. Yet, it is the former, rather than the latter, that most books on oil in Africa discuss.
In Oiling the Urban Economy, I part company with such books. While the book is cast in property rights analysis, it is also different from existing work in property in terms of how I think about property and its relations. As I have consistently argued: it is one thing being interested in property; another thinking like a property economist. In this book, I share the interest of those who talk about real estate and land, but not their mainstream thinking often informed by business, finance, and mainstream economics. I draw on an established tradition in property and political economy that is informed by original institutional thinking to confront the idea that property must only be a vehicle for profit. Specifically, I conceptualise the book around the ideas of Henry George and Karl Marx, their recent incantations and revisions by David Harvey and Hossein Mahadvy and contextualisation by Chibuzo Nwoke. Those who write on Georgism and Marxism may think that it is theoretical fallacy to mix up these two paradigms, because they collide, in the normal course of debate. Yet, that is precisely why they are needed to highlight the contradictions, turbulence, and conflict inherent in oil discussions, especially when they involve property, and when the discussion is much deeper to entail thinking like a property economist.
With Marx and George providing me feet of iron, I jump unto their shoulders to do what was not within their intellectual and political temperament and certainly not of pressing interest to them during their days. Yet, even as I panic on the shoulders of these giants, I gain much more stability and a stronger vision to see much farther than I would, had I consigned myself to some popular concepts held by mainstream economic pundits only interested in zero sum gains and atomistic analysis divorced from broader political economic context. In adopting this more radical basis and vision, I place 'property' in its broader social, economic, environmental, and political contexts and view it diachronically and synchronically. I relate property in one city to the entire urban system, and its regions internally in one country and externally in other African countries. Then, I scale up the analysis to view the question of relationship between and among countries: in the West and in the East. Marxists like to focus on workers and capitalists; Georgist on landlords and landlordism. I focus on all these and more (e.g., colonists). So, the book is not merely as a study of one oil city in Africa. It is a book about concepts and contests, theory and praxis; and context and content. It has major research and policy implications that penetrate right into the heart of oil property and property relations.
Since writing the book, I have been lucky to be invited to be part of many scholarly committees established to welcome new papers on oil. So, I have gotten the chance to be able to reflect on the book in the light of new research. While I see the new work on oil as equally valid, in my opinion, none of the studies I have seen about oil would lead me to change my conclusions in Oiling the Urban Economy. The book continues to be unchallenged in its uniqueness and contribution. Part of the reason why Oiling the Urban Economy enjoys this standing is that the best writers on oil in Africa are not urbanists and the best urbanists do not write about oil. As a teacher in property economics, I see that the best property economists do not engage critical political economic analysis, explaining why most property economists are unlikely to write a book like Oiling the Urban Economy.
I am not suggesting that there is no work at all on natural resources and cities: that will be claiming too much. There is some brilliant work about mining and urbanisation in Africa by my very senior colleague, Deborah Bryceson who recently co-edited the book, Mining and African Urbanisation: Population, Settlement and Welfare Trajectories which was deservedly published by Routledge. That the book appeared in a different series to International Real Estate is, perhaps, less interesting than the different focus of the two books: hers on non-fossilised natural resource, mine on fossil. The two groups of natural resources are entangled in radically different, even if sometimes related, political economic dynamics. In turn, these complexities and peculiarities mould and are moulded by cities quite differently and hence generate different global responses. Nevertheless, my book is part of critical global scholarship on how to understand our current oil-thirsty world, appreciate its ramifications for different property relations in terms of the generation and distribution of benefits and dangers, in order to study existing and imagined possibilities that can transform the world in which we live.
The first book in the Routledge International Real Estate Series, I hope that Oiling the Urban Economy will stimulate enough interest among colleagues in property economics, in planning, architecture, in short, in the built environment. Further, I hope that the book will generate much interest in such social science disciplines as political economy, geography, development studies, political science, sociology, and anthropology. The analysis in the book is such that it will be appealing whether potential readers are in a discipline, not in a discipline, or cross several disciplines either as researchers, students, or teachers; practitioners, policy makers, or activists. For some, this book will challenge what you know, for others I endorse what you have always believed but have never seen demonstrated systematically and for many others the book will provide a critique of the thesis you know, confront the antithesis you despise, and offer a fresh synthesis.
Franklin Obeng-Odoom is the Chancellor's Postdoctoral Research Fellow at School of Built Environment, University of Technology, Sydney (UTS). He is a World Social Science Fellow and Editor of African Review of Economics and Finance. He is also the author of Oiling the Urban Economy: Land, Labour, Capital, and the State in Sekondi-Takoradi, Ghana and Governance for Pro-Poor Urban Development: Lessons from Ghana (Routledge, 2013). He teaches urban economics and property and political economy at UTS and can be contacted at firstname.lastname@example.com. More about him can be found on his personal website, www.obeng-odoom.com
Why did this book need to be written?
We think it is important to highlight some of the big achievements in the tall-building field, particularly to show where innovation is happening. This is important because tall buildings are often the subject of admiration only for their sheer height or skyline silhouette, and often criticized for their poor environmental performance (and not without justification). This book aims to change that impression by showing innovations that are particular to tall buildings, in addition to generally good architectural design and engineering prowess.
How is it different from other books in the field?
The CTBUH is the primary clearinghouse for data in the field of tall buildings. We put our tremendous resources to work in order to make this more than just an awards book, but a comprehensive survey of the activity in skyscrapers the world over, each year.
What do you hope readers will take away from this book?
We hope they will gain a better and more varied understanding of the skyscraper typology, why it's important, and where it is innovative.
What's new to this edition?
Every year we have a fresh opportunity to select the best in the field; in that sense, this edition is no different. But we have added a new category of award this year – "Urban Habitat" – which is a very important and often overlooked part of our organization's name and mission. We thought it was high time to explicitly recognize works that contributed a great deal to the urban habitat.
Additionally this year, the CTBUH established the Performance Award for tall buildings, because all of the attendant effects of building production and operation – including the tendency of awards programs to recognize "design intent" before it has been proven – are amplified in tall buildings. The Performance Award presents a conundrum, because performance can be assessed along lines of environment, energy use, occupant satisfaction and economics. Ideally all of these are positively intertwined. But the conundrum persists, largely because of the industry's reticence about sharing building performance data.
What are some of the controversies surrounding tall buildings?
As I mentioned above, tall buildings rightly come in for criticism, as their sheer size makes them unavoidable as attractors of particular scrutiny. And many tall buildings are in fact terrible pieces of design. They often bear no relationship to the place in which they are planted, are often hostile to the pedestrian scale / street level, and consume vast quantities of energy, as the knee-jerk response to conditioning these buildings has been to seal them up, air-condition them 24/7, and clad them in glass. The reason it's important to have an awards program that identifies innovations and revolutionary thinking is that, as the world urbanizes, we are going to see more and more tall buildings. Given what's happening to our environment, we have to get the next generation of tall buildings right.
What findings in writing/researching the book surprised you?
It comes up more each year, but there are few corners of the world now where interesting and locally appropriate diversions from the glass-box norm are not taking place. We had nominees from beyond the expected raft of buildings in Asia and the Middle East, including places like Guayaquil, Ecuador and Cape Town, South Africa, for example.
How is the field evolving?
This goes back to the main point I seem to be making in this article, which is that, like the rest of the building trade, the tall-building industry is recognizing that buildings really have to perform to be viable – environmentally, financially and culturally. So we're seeing items like solar panels and natural ventilation become more common, and what's most interesting is that they're being executed in such ways as to take advantage of the buildings' "tallness" in addition to its orientation on the site. We're also seeing more serious thought given to the public realm of tall buildings, both where they meet the ground (and where de-emphasis and breakdown of scale is often the most appropriate response), and at height, where there are particular advantages of place that shorter buildings can't really replicate – such as sky gardens.
Is there any recent research or key findings worth noting?
One of the strongest trends evident in the projects completing this year was the number of high-quality refurbishments and environmental upgrades of existing tall buildings to become more energy-efficient, more functional and safer. Establishing a precedent for renovating tall buildings is clearly important to the industry, as there is no template for demolishing buildings of the height we are now seeing constructed when they begin to underperform. Nor can we expect there will be much tolerance for the environmental consequences of demolishing massive buildings and releasing embodied carbon, or continuing to operate them with outmoded and inefficient technology.
It was a pleasant discovery that not all of the solutions to the complex problems we face in the tall-building trade are themselves complex. For all this industry talks about the value of BIM, computational fluid dynamics and parametric modeling, it is refreshing to see that we still have within us an intuitive sense of what will work. To be fair, the solutions profiled in this book were doubtless validated with all manner of sophisticated computational devices, as they should be. In particular I speak of the winner of our Innovation award, BioSkin, which revives an ancient Japanese practice for cooling the environment – spreading water on hot surfaces and dusty streets – by incorporating it within a vernacular shading strategy of a similar vintage, for a hugely necessary antidote to the contemporary problem of the urban heat island effect. Using the simple principles of evapo-transpiration, BioSkin simultaneously relieves cooling loads for the building to which it is attached and neighboring buildings, while diverting site rainwater from overtaxed storm sewers.
Learn more about any of these bestsellers by just clicking on the titles below, where you can read the full blurb, view the table of contents, read reviews, and view inside with FREE ACCESS to the first 30 pages of every book!]]>
Why did Real Estate Marketing need to be written?
This book is essentially one of its kind. The books that are on the market are essentially professional books on real estate marketing written by professional real estate agents or brokers. There are no academic books on real estate marketing to speak of. I have been teaching real estate marketing at Virginia Polytechnic Institute & State University for a bunch of years now, and I have long struggled to find a good book with no avail. So I thought I may be able to help others by writing the textbook that we need (rather desperately) in this growing discipline.
What do you hope readers will take away from this book?
My hope is that students will learn much about marketing strategy as applied to real estate development firms, established concepts of personal selling and negotiation techniques that real estate agents can use, human resource management principles useful for real estate brokers, and most important ethics principles that can guide professional conduct in the practice of real estate marketing.
What is a common misconception about real estate marketing?
Many professionals outside of business believe that real estate marketing is all about selling. The fact of the matter is that selling is only one of the many elements of the marketing mix, actually a sub-element of promotion. Marketing is about understanding housing needs of homeowners and commercial entities (e.g., corporate real estate). The real estate marketer starts out with performing marketing research. Suppose we have a real estate developer who wants to build a community for assisted living. Doing so entails that the developer would conduct primary or secondary research. This is the marketer's starting point. An example of primary research may involve focus group research (e.g., bring a sample of around 15 people who are currently in assisted living facilities to discuss the good, the bad, and the ugly of their assisted living facilities). Secondary research may involve identifying research studies that have been published about the housing needs and preferences of residents of assisted living facilities. Thus information about the customers (through marketing research) is the first step of the marketing process. Using this information, the real estate marketer works closely with architects and building construction professionals in the design of housing that meets the housing needs of the target market. Using marketing research the real estate marketer can also ascertain how customers would react to different pricing venues. Using marketing research the marketer finds out the best location to develop the assisted living community. Marketing research information is equally instrumental in helping the marketer promote the real estate development to potential customers. In other words, marketing research is the most important aspect of marketing, not selling. Selling is perceived as "build it first then we'll hire the real estate salespeople to sell it." Although there is some truth to this "rule of thumb," effective real estate marketing informs us otherwise. Understand the market first; make product, price, and place based on a good and thorough understanding of the needs of the target market; then think about how to go about selling it. In other words, selling comes last in real estate marketing, not first.
We all know that planning restrictions are necessary in order to prevent the market from producing undesirable development that impacts upon communities via congestion, pollution, visual blight and other externalities. So, government control of planning procedures, although often criticised for restricting house building in particular, is seen as a necessary constraint upon free market development. There are, however, adverse consequences arising from such 'interference' with the market. Firstly, since the market is efficient and leads to land being developed for its 'highest and best use', any interference with this will incur costs for society such as inappropriate (more expensive) location of housing and industry.
Secondly, by restricting development, planning controls will push up prices. This can be seen clearly in the housing market in the UK, where demand consistently exceeds supply and over the long period, prices consistently increase and many people find home ownership unaffordable. Thirdly, the planning process itself is expensive and adds to costs for both local government and developers – and the delays that inevitably occur can add considerably to costs and may even result in projects being cancelled.
There are other government policies that can greatly impact on the nature of the built environment. A feature of the past twenty years in the UK has been the closure of thousands of public houses or inns. It can be argued that this is just market forces at work – but the market is subject to much government interference that makes it work in a particular way. Taxation of alcohol pushes up prices and reduces demand for the product, especially in public houses where its provision is expensive. Supermarkets can sell in bulk and can use special offers on alcohol as a 'loss leader' to attract customers into their stores. Much alcohol consumption then takes place outside of the regulated environment of pubs and in the home or street. There are then consequences for public health and NHS spending as well as the undesirable effects on villages and communities when their pub shuts down. The problems could be addressed by government using a differential taxation policy.
Major government projects can also have considerable consequences for the built environment and for people. For example, the hugely controversial HS2 rail proposal has imposed costs on homes and businesses that lie on its proposed route. Many home owners find themselves subject to planning blight – unable to sell their home and move house because of the uncertainty surrounding its future. They may then not be able to move to a more rewarding job in another part of the country. This is economically inefficient and reduces the government's tax take. The HS2 project is very long term, but its consequences are already being felt. By the time of its completion it may also be virtually redundant, since it is essentially nineteenth century technology in the twenty-first century where driverless cars are a reality. Driverless cars on motorways might well resemble trains by the time HS2 is completed at enormous expense!
Taxes impact upon the built environment in many ways. One of the more damaging and inefficient taxes is the current system of stamp duty on property transactions. On buying a residential property stamp duty must be paid at a rate of 1 per cent for properties costing between £125 000 and £250 000 and 3 per cent on those costing between £250 000 and £500 000. The rate goes up at certain other thresholds (see page 436 of Real Estate Concepts). The consequences of such a clumsy tax are considerable. Firstly it discriminates against property as opposed to shares (where the stamp duty is only 0.5 per cent. It depresses overall property values by increasing purchase costs; and it makes it relatively cheaper to extend property rather than move house. But perhaps its worst affect is on property prices at the thresholds where the rate of tax changes. If you have a property valued at £550 000 you are almost certain to attract offers of £500 000 because the stamp duty at 3 per cent will be £15000. Stamp duty on a £550 000 purchase at 4 per cent will be £22000!
Perhaps the biggest impact of government policy on the built environment comes from its macroeconomic policy. The government uses fiscal policy (taxation and government spending) plus monetary policy (largely interest rate changes) to manage the economy. Increasingly the Bank of England relies on interest rate increases to slow down the economy. But since most real estate is purchased with borrowed money, there are adverse consequences for home owners and businesses when interest rates increase. It is perfectly possible for the economy in the south east of the UK to be 'overheating', requiring a rise in interest rates to slow it down; while at the same time in other parts of the UK the economic situation has stagnated. The increase in interest rates increases mortgage and business costs in all areas, adversely affecting those areas missed by the boom – they may in fact need a decrease in rates!
We're thrilled to be at the meeting, so please stop by our booth to see all the new and exciting titles we have on display--just a few of which you can read more about below!]]>
This year sees the publication of some exciting new textbooks such as International Approaches to Real Estate Development, edited by Graham Squires and Erwin Heurkens, Real Estate Marketing, by M. Joseph Sirgy and Developing Property Sustainably, by Sara Wilkinson, Pernille Christensen and Sarah Sayce. We also have new editions of two of our most successful textbooks, a 3rd edition of Property Valuation, by Doug Scarrett and Sylvia Osborn, and a 6th edition of Property Development, by Richard Reed and Sally Sims.
Why did this Parametric Cost Modeling for Buildings need to be written?
Most owners, developers, investors, or designers wanting to have a new building budget it on a cost per square foot basis. This, however, doesn't define the scope of the project adequately to control its cost through design and construction.
I once was leading a workshop of designers for a new building project for the Federal Government. I asked them, "How many of you would design me a new 200,000 sf Federal building in Washington, D.C. costing $150 a square foot?" Everyone's hand was in the air. Then I started auctioning off the contract – "How many could do it for $125. How many could do it for $100? How many could do it for $90 a square foot? $85?" Why, I got them all the way down to $75 a square foot and still had a few hands in the air willing to take the design job!
I said to them, "What is this? Get the job first at any price and then figure out what the owner wants?" You see, all those designers could design a building for those prices but the content and quality levels would certainly vary greatly even though the scope (the 200,000 sf) would remain constant. They didn't even question whether the 200,000 sf was net, gross or rentable square feet! And, they probably assumed the 200,000 square feet was all office space with no auditorium, cafeteria, or fitness facilities. All that is also part of the definition of scope.
Scope is "the range or extent of a concept, the room or opportunity for freedom of action." Scope for a building project in my book is defined by five, one-page models; space, configuration, HVAC, plumbing and electrical models. These models create the quantities used to price out the project using my parameter cost data base that comes with the book using a standard code of accounts - UNIFORMAT. With this type of estimate you can see the basis for the cost. What is included in the budget and what is not included is visible and can be reviewed, adjusted and controlled by all parties.
How is Parametric Cost Modeling for Buildings different from other books in the field?
It comes complete with all models and templates as Excel files waiting to be filled out. It comes with an Excel data base. The user can add their own special cost items and can update annually by escalating.
It provides Excel templates to compute ownership costs and which then can be used to compute the rent necessary to recoup the investment. With this calculation one can see if the rental rate is competitive in the market before you look for financing or hire a designer.
What do you hope readers will take away from your book?
The 4 hours it takes to make a project estimate using my book to document the BOE (basis of estimate) is really worth the time.
Can you tell us about the instructor/supplemental materials available with this book?
A set of 12 PowerPoint files, containing 100 slides) is available to use teaching the material from start to finish. The instructor can also project the Excel models and templates on the screen to show how to fill them out and arrive at the scope documents ready to print and a cost estimate solution.
What is a 'parameter'?
A 'parameter' is defined as an arbitrary constant or varies in a consistent pattern, each of whose values is expressive of or characterizes a member of a system.
$/GSF (gross square foot) is not a parameter. Its value is not constant or consistent because it is not expressive of or characteristic of any type of building. It is very difficult to find one parameter at the building project level. Some examples might be, for a:
• School - $/pupil
• Jail - $/prisoner
• Court - $/judge
• Office - $/secretary
• Cafeteria - $/diner
• Hospital - $/bed
You get the idea. You must find a unit of measure term that is expressive of or characteristic of the type of project being priced.
My book computes the parameters at the system or subsystem level of a building project which is relatively easy to do and provides more reliable consistent unit cost information to use. And, this has the advantage of incorporating the major criteria for each system that is the driving force for quantifying the system.
Can you share a story/anecdote from the book that illustrates square foot budgeting?
I once budgeted a building at a price of $81.25 in a prospectus for a new Federal Building going for Congressional approval. It was based on historical data with escalation to the anticipated date of bid opening. The Finance Director called me into his office and said, "You've just crossed the $80 threshold. We can't tell Congress that."
I said, "So what. That's what the building will cost."
He said, "Reduce it to $79.95 a square foot."
I said, "What do you want me to take out? The sprinkler system is worth $1.25 a square foot."
He said, "You can't do that. We need the sprinkler system. Just lower the price!"
By looking at the prospectus you couldn't tell if the building was sprinkled or not, or even what was in the building. I was just trying to make a point. But I learned my lesson to never send up a lump sum budget again. That was in 1980 when I began to cost out on a parameter basis all the systems that made up the $79.95 price.
What are some of the controversies surrounding parameter estimating?
I once priced a new Federal Courthouse project at $10 million per judge. Such a dramatic number was not enthusiastically accepted by management.
Developing a budget in the level of detail suggested by this book will pin down management by putting on record a BOE document. Everyone on the design and management team will be able to read all the criteria documented to arrive at the project scope, quantities and costs but they might not understand their significance.
The cost engineer is in essence designing the building by specifying its configuration, computing the basic loads for all of its systems, and including the basic types of all of its equipment without drawing a picture. If the BOE stands as written then the owner's reviewing officials can spot major deviations on the plans, computations and specifications from what was budgeted.
What got you interested in this topic?
Too many projects were under-budgeted in order to justify getting them started with no way to control cost because of initially hidden client or designer changes. With my system, if you have a cost problem, like you forgot to budget an emergency generator for the building, there are only 3 solutions: 1) justify it and go get more money to fund it, 2) leave it out because you can prove it wasn't authorized in the project, 3) make a tradeoff with some other part of the project to fund the generator without increasing the budget!
Having cost control doesn't mean you will have no cost problems. Having control only means that you become aware of the problem and have the opportunity to act, to make a decision! Remember the slogan; not to decide, is to decide!
What experience led you to write this book?
45 years budgeting building projects and performing value engineering studies for Government and developers.
What suggestions would you make for change/future research/interventions?
Build on my parameter data base incorporating new system materials and equipment such as LED lighting systems, workstation installations, LAN rooms, IT distribution and advanced security systems.
Continually validate my parameter costs using historical data from current Contractor schedules of prices rather than only annually escalating the unit costs.
Do you have any specific suggestions for research?
Research needs to be done in the engineering areas of structural, mechanical and electrical. I will give one example of the procedure I recommend in one engineering area, structural. The following steps would also apply to the other areas.
1. First explore and brainstorm terms expressive of or characteristic to the subject. For structural some terms might be:
2. Select a term that can be estimated (predicted) relatively easy prior to design work. For example:
3. Collect data from actual building projects just started.
a. Obtain the design computations from the designer.
b. Have the designer fill in a one page data sheet with a short system description, the type of structure, the bay size, and summarizing the total loads provided for in KIPS.
c. Collect the Contractor's payment schedule for the structure.
4. Attempt to judge the value of one KIP of dead load vs one KIP of live load vs one KIP of wind load vs one KIP of seismic load. If you design a building in a vacuum to just support itself (dead load) you will have a certain amount of concrete and steel. Then add live load to it to determine how much more concrete and steel will be needed. Then figure you blow on it with wind load and see how much more concrete and steel is needed. Then shake it from one corner (seismic load) and see how much more concrete and steel is now needed. This will produce factors for each type of load resulting in the following parameter formula:
AKIP = DL + f1LL + f2WL + f3SL
5. Develop a formula for each type of structural system and the unit cost for an AKIP. You cannot use a parameter you cannot price.
Are there any current events that are related to your title?
Just recently Arlington County Virginia constructed its first sidewalk bus shelter $1 million per shelter and budgeted many more at $1 million each. This parameter caught wide public scrutiny and anger especially when the shelter did not protect those waiting for the bus from the wind and rain.
Click here to recommend to your Librarian today
(EGLR 2014 Volume 2 due to publish in November 2014 )


text:
When deciding on an affiliate product to promote, you just can't go wrong with a web hosting affiliate program. More and more people are building web sites with every passing day, and there is one thing they all need - web hosting. Of course, many will opt for the free options, but they learn their lessons soon enough - and every time that happens, it means a new web hosting company in the world.
Not only that, but you would be surprised at how many people are unhappy with their current hosting. It was not very long ago that I was doing sales for a hosting company, and 90% of my customers were people who were unhappy with their existing service. I didn't seek these people out, but they came nonetheless.
Not only that, but the recurring nature of web hosting makes it very profitable. Therefore, hosting companies can offer respectable payouts for new customers. If you don't believe me, take a look at what the top web hosting companies are paying for Adsense terms. It's astronomical!
The trick is to find a good web hosting affiliate program. There are a few ways you can go about it:
If you're going to market your pages using SEO tactics, I do highly recommend finding some good long tail keyword combos to go after - promoting web hosting is profitable when you have the traffic, but it's also very highly competitive. Without some good long tail keywords, you'll have a very hard time ever breaking through to the first page of Google.
URL redirection is a common and unfortunate necessity of running web sites. Sometimes sites go through renovation, and sometimes the entire infrastructure needs to be changed. Perhaps you're moving to more SEO-friendly URL's, or perhaps you just need to shuffle some files around for organizational reasons. Now if someone has an interior page of your site bookmarked, that person will get a "Page Not Found" error (also called a 404 error). New visitors can also become confused if they've reached your site from a deep link on another site, or from a search engine which now has an outdated index of your site. And that raises another problem - Google doesn't like it.
Create a 301 redirect. This will allow you to redirect all of your old file locations to their new, proper locations. When the Google spider comes along, it'll also follow your 301 redirects, and this will let Google know that your pages have been moved, and the Google index will be updated with the new file locations.
One thing that tends to confound many people when purchasing web hosting is the difference between Linux hosting and other platforms such as Windows. Linux hosting is currently the most popular operating system among web hosts, for a variety of reasons. In most cases, if you're unsure which OS would be best, choose Linux.
Adding to the confusion is the fact that Linux comes in many flavors: Red Hat, CentOS, Fedora, Ubuntu, SuSE, Debian, and more. The truth is that, for most people, any of these distributions will do just fine, and all but Red Hat are free.
Conveniences in this tutorial:Yourdomain.com – replace with your domainConsole.html – page where the user is sent (we send our hotlinkers to a console hell page)
As explained in part 1, rewrite rules can help stop hot-linkers to your site and cut down on your bandwidth usage. The simple example explained in the part 1 is all most webmasters need, but the functionality of rewrite rules allows webmasters to have far more control over their websites.
In Part 2, I explained how the RewriteCond statement functions and gave more uses for it.
As explained in Part 1, rewrite rules can help stop hot-linkers to your site and cut down on your bandwidth usage. The simple example explained in Part 1 is all most webmasters need, but the functionality of rewrite rules allows a webmaster to have far more control over a website.

subset: commoncrawl


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Return to: U of M Home
Expert Alerts
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« Spreading Sustainable Tourism |
| U of M Class Helps Parents Nation Wide Address Youth Drinking »
While today's medical advancements are worthy of much praise, the quality of the news generated about them is not, according to a new University of Minnesota study. Gary Schwitzer, author of the study and a professor in the School of Journalism and Mass Communication, says reporting in America paints a poor picture about the reality of today's medical discoveries.
Download fully produced :90 feature || Download raw audio
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Posted by Andrew Swain on June 2, 2008 4:20 PM | Permalink


text:
Republicans meet in Ariz. governor debate
PHOENIX -- Gov. Jan Brewer said Tuesday she's a leader who has begun to get Arizona back on track after economic disaster, but her Republican rivals criticized her as a tax-raising career politician in the first televised debate of the GOP primary.
Careful not to take blame for Arizona's budget woes, Brewer said repeatedly that she inherited the problem when she assumed office. She portrayed her 11/2-year tenure as a series of tough but responsible decisions to avoid draconian cuts to state services.
"I have begun the comeback of the great state of Arizona,'' Brewer said.
But her rivals had their own narratives.
State Treasurer Dean Martin slammed Brewer for supporting a budget that relied on borrowing and a temporary tax increase. He advocated more spending cuts and criticized a Brewer-supported budget that sold the state Capitol and other buildings for quick cash.
``We can get out of this crisis very simply,'' Martin said. ``Don't spend more than you make. The state needs to live within its means. Stop selling our Capitol. Stop selling our assets.''
Brewer fought back, saying Martin voted for budgets that relied on borrowing and raided money from the Rainy Day Fund.
"You're not part of the solution, Dean. You're part of the problem,'' she said.
Yavapai County businessman Buz Mill touted his experience as an entrepreneur who has created jobs, calling Brewer and Martin ``career politicians'' who would rather bicker than solve problems.
``This is almost 40 years of political experience that we're watching back and forth,'' Mills said following an exchange between Brewer and Martin. ``I bring leadership to the government. This is where we have a clear choice in this election.''
Mills is a political newcomer who has already spent more than $2 million on his campaign, most of it from his own fortune.
Matthew Jette, also a political newcomer, staked out a moderate position, supporting Brewer's tax hike, opposing a tough new crackdown on illegal immigration and decrying cuts to education and health care.
``You're not going to bring in businesses without the proper infrastructure for education,'' he said. ``You say you care about the kids, but in the next breathe you cut (Medicaid).''
The cadre of Republicans signed up to challenge Brewer after she angered conservatives last year with her proposal for a temporary sales tax increase. She also was party to a high-profile showdown with the Republican-controlled Legislature that nearly shut down state government over budget disagreements.
But the environment has grown friendlier for Brewer this year.
Voters last month overwhelmingly approved her tax hike. She and the Legislature reached an early agreement on the budget. And she has signed a number of measures cheered by conservatives, including bills giving Arizona some of the nation's loosest gun laws and toughest restrictions on illegal immigration.
The debate was sponsored by the Citizens Clean Elections Commission, the agency that administers Arizona's system of public campaign financing. Brewer and Martin are taking public funds and were required to debate. Participation was optional for Mills and Jette.
The debate will be archived on website of the Clean Elections website.
(Copyright 2010 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)


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The guy on the left is a conservative talk show host named John Ziegler. The guy on the right looking like a slob is Steelers legend Franco Harris. Both men think Joe Paterno was unjustly treated by the NCAA. Ziegler, once fired from a sportscasting job for on O.J. Simpson joke, is from Pennsylvania and ended up in the Harris box at today's Ohio U. game.
For some reason both men were photographed with this Paterno cutout.
Harris has been unapologetic about his beliefs that Paterno was railroaded and the NCAA attacked a program with sanctions while JoePa rests in a grave. It just seemed natural today would be a good day to bring the protest cutout.
Harris, the Penn State legend, told Pittsbugh media in July:
"After I read the Freeh Report, I feel even more strongly about Joe and about his non-involvement in any type of cover-up. There was no cover up," he told Oxenreiter. "No way would Joe ever cover-up anything like this. No way would Joe protect Sandusky or protect the football program."
How Ziegler got into the box and who owns the Paterno cutout is still in dispute.
We do know Harris spent the day with Sue Paterno watching the Bill O'Brien era start with a loss to a MAC institution.
Filed under: Football
it doesn't matter what harris thinks.
...and it certainly doesn't matter what YOU think either!!!
Wow, maybe someone dug a tunnel or maybe he was dropped by helicopter, or arrived "in cognito". This is REALLY important stuff! WHO owns the JoePa cutout??? This also of major importance. The idiot writer likely wants the info so that he can send threats to it's owner.
For a guy who's lively hood depends in part, from the public, Harris is REALLY sticking his neck out here.
You go Franco!
Love you for sticking out your neck and not curling up in fear as others have done.
Tell it like it is Franco. When you believe with your heart do not let anyone derail your actions. Many of us know that Paterno was offered up as a sacrifice even though no evidence exists that he is involved beyond McCleary telling Joe Pa what he saw and Joe Pa reporting it to the Administration. When any of the Liberal Media and ignorant people who accuse without proof or fact can produce factual evidence of Joe Pa's involvment then I will not believe any of the garbage they spew out. Stand strong for those who cannot Franco. Bravo!
Who is McCleary??
McQueary is the name
That photo is creepy as hell. As long as you have knuckle-heads like Harris this whole sorrid thing will never go away.
Who's the knuckle-head here? The word is SORDID you dope!
Due process? The man was made aware he employed a child rapist that was using his facilities to commit unspeakable crimes against children. We can argue all day about how much he knew, whom he told, etc, etc. But the fact remains he knew, and despite having more than requisite power to put an immediate end to what was happening, he did not.
Using the term "due process" to defend a "man" who did not stop such horrific acts perpetrated upon children is absurd. Franco's blind hero worship is sickening.
Were you there? Did you read the Freeh report? My guess is you didn't. "Let he who is without sin cast the first stone!"
Due Process is perfectly fit for what has happened.
To say otherwise is simply ignorant or biased.
"cofe18" needs to simply read the grand jury testimony and also the Freeh Report. At that time, please report back to us with what factual data you have that actually supports your claims of JVP's involvement.
Best Regards
The fact remains that Paterno informed the appropriate chain of command and also watched the police involvement. What more he could of done is nothing more than simple conjecture and judgement by mere humans.
Simply amazing how many of you psu worshippers are still in denial about Paterno's involvement. You can spin the hell out of this issue, but one fact remains clear: PATERNO SCREWED UP!!!
Incorrect FOXFANATIC!
Please cite your source for your inflamatory statement.
The Freeh Report shows no fact based proof. The only fact is that "YOU" are spinning the point you are trying to make.
Your "opinion" is short on factual basis and shows a clear lack of thorough understanding.
Please stop until you have educated yourself fully on the issues at play.
sue paterno and franco need to move on like penn state is trying to do . the alumni saw this and dropped the lawsuits . penn state is lucky they did not get charged with child porn charges i am sure sanduskys computer at the school are filled with it. i am sure the investigation is continuing and after hearing the paternos keep going i hope they throw the book at this place. paterno knew everything --the man was not stupid -
Are you a police detective? You sure are "sure" about a lot of things in this case. Don't you think one of the first things they would have checked out are any of Sandusky's computers? Wouldn't that have been part of the big story if he was sick enough to have it? How about you worry about your own life and stop spouting off about all that your "sure" of!
Your point point being that the man that designed the gun is also responsible for the murder therafter by a crazed gunman.
Let me send you a dollar so that you may go buy a clue.
Thank you, Speader!
The ignorance of some people just simply abounds throughout these blogs.
Go to sleep firman101.
The real story in this picture is who that is in the background on the far right. It looks like current and past CEO of The Second Mile, Bob Poole.
Okay ... let's have Franco Harris be forced to have anal and/or oral sex with an ugly old man a few times before he sings the praises of the selfish, power-hungry "JoPa". Paterno only cared about himself, and his family needs to just go away and let the sins of Joe Paterno fade away, instead of trying to cash in on his totally false image. He was a very flawed person. ... that's all. What a bunch of selfish, perverted sickos his family is. Just go live off the money you got from your Dad which he got by allowing Sandusky to ruin the lives of innocent, trusting boys. I feel guilty for being a sports fan sometimes because of people like Paterno, Sandusky, and Harris. hey Franco ... why not have a cardboard cutout of a naked Sandusky so he can do "horseplay" on you?
Okay ... let's have Franco Harris be forced to have anal and/or oral sex with an ugly old man a few times before he sings the praises of the selfish, power-hungry "JoPa". Paterno only cared about himself, and his family needs to just go away and let the sins of Joe Paterno fade away, instead of trying to cash in on his totally false image. He was a very flawed person. ... that's all. What a bunch of selfish, perverted sickos his family is. Just go live off the money you got from your Dad which he got by allowing Sandusky to ruin the lives of innocent, trusting boys. I feel guilty for being a sports fan sometimes because of people like Paterno, Sandusky, and Harris. hey Franco ... why not have a cardboard cutout of a naked Sandusky so he can do "horseplay" on you?
Enabling equates supporting. JoPa loved winning and winning only and as such, he was absolutely fine with kids getting raped under his roof so long as those wins kept coming.
"Hey Jerry, remember to turn off the shower room lights when you're done with that boy!" ~ JoPa
I only wish he lived long enough to see his statue ripped down and his legacy destroyed!
Franco must have enjoyed the Ohio University loss even more. The downward spiral of Penn State's football program is just beginning.
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12th Biennial State of the San Francisco Estuary Conference
September 17-18, 2015
Oakland Marriott at City Center
1001 Broadway (12th St/City Center BART Station)
Oakland, CA
Every two years, the Partnership brings a focus on the management and ecological health of the San Francisco Bay-Delta Estuary. The State of the Estuary Conference showcases the latest information about the estuary's changing watersheds, impacts from major stressors, recovery programs for species and habitats, and emerging challenges.
The September 17th evening poster-session reception offers a chance to gather and talk informally with colleagues and other leaders engaged in current research and restoration activities.
So mark your calendars now for September 17th and 18th and be sure check back for updated information to be available soon!
Award nominations for the Jean Auer Award and the Environmental Project Awards are due July 8th.


text:
Harare — USUALLY parents enjoy when their children take after them, especially where the calling involves art and culture.
When children do this, they keep the family name alive and their parents' pride glowing.
Daisy and Jane are the musician-cum-comedian Susan Chenjerai's daughters.
Susan made history when she partnered the late Safirio "Mukadota" Madzikatire in song when they released what could be some of Zimbabwe's greatest duets, Isaac Hauchandida, Ndatemwa Negogo and Dhali Iwe, among others.
She also partnered Mukadota when the two switched their act over to comedy as Mhuri yaVaMakore that became Mhuri yaVaMukadota succeeding another television serial, Chidudu, in which the two featured.
Maybe those who are conversant with television simply know her as Amai Rwizi, the only woman who could tame Mudhara Mukadota.
Daisy and Jane are two of Susan's daughters who tried to take the artistic root their mother took. They may not be very popular today but to people who follow music, Jane Chenjerai, is not a new name.
To those who have sharp memories, the name Daisy Chenjerai will surely knock on the doors of their memories.
At the height of the liberation war in the late 1970s when half of the country's population had been herded into protected villages or keeps in order to keep them away from helping the freedom fighters, Jane released her first song -- Usandimirire Pagedhi Unondirovesa Nababa.
It was a simple song composed by a girl who was staying in Mbare, a song that probably had not been inspired by the advent of protected villages but when villagers who were locked up heard it, it assumed a completely different meaning.
During those days, district assistants, who were very notorious for harassing innocent villagers, manned every protected village's gates.
When the song came out in 1976, the villagers used the song to mock the DAs whenever they conducted body searches every time the villagers returned from their daily chores outside the protected villages.
It's not clear whether Jane had any other songs besides the hit, which propelled her to a higher level and made her a shining example of what Mbare could offer.
Because Jane's song was released years before the creation of the Internet, her name and her song do not exist.
Some time in the 1980s, Jane's younger sister, Daisy, emerged from the woodworks to follow her mother's footsteps. She released the song Zai Regondo, a fairly tale story about a mother expressing her love for an only daughter.
Her song was boosted by a production of a video that received favourable airplay on the television programme Mvengemvenge (now Mutinhimira Wemimanzi/ Ezomgido).
But unlike their mother who hit the entertainment road in 1952 and stayed on till 1984, the siblings gave up after very successful songs.
Despite the silence, there is no doubt that Daisy and Jane are a source of pride to their parents because their efforts spawned great results.


text:
The Chronic Dev Team did say the Windows version of the "Absinthe" Greenpois0n jailbreak tool was coming soon, and apparently now is "soon." That's right folks! Those of you with only Windows-based PCs can now jailbreak your A5-powered iDevices, iPhone 4S and iPad 2, running iOS 5.
It appears the Greenpois0n website is still experiencing high volumes of traffic, therefore, you likely won't be able to get the link too easily. However, here is a direct link to the Windows version of the Absinthe tool.
After you begin the download, take a look at our jailbreak video walkthrough and Absinthe pre-application tips before running the actual jailbreak app.
For easy reference purposes, here is a direct link to the Mac OS X version of the Absinthe tool.
Happy jailbreaking!


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Back roads to Bama
View Single Post
Gnarly Adventurer
Joined: Sep 2012
Location: Alabaster, AL
Oddometer: 159
Sunday Day 2
Thanks!!! Even after rolling off the bed all night, I still slept good. BUT, I was awake at the crack of dawn. And I was excited about my day. This is a first!
After a convenience store breakfast of a coke and a rice crispy snack that evidently shocked one of the granola locals, I was off on my ride
About a half mile from the motel, I hung a left onto Gleeson Road and rode a mile or two until the pavement ended.
OK, I will admit that it wasnt the Road of Bones, but it was an adventure for me. The whole ride was a terrible wash board and had a couple of sandy and hard packed sections covered with loose rocks that made me tense up a bit. I made a quick visit to the Gleeson Jail and poked around a few minutes. There was a GSA in a driveway on the way, but I thought folks might not be crazy about me taking pictures of their yard. Getting shot wasnt on todays itinerary
From the Gleeson Jail, the road had been recently paved all the way to Elfrida, so it was a smooth ride all the way to Vision Quest Lodge that I used to call home.
In the late 1980s, when we arrived at the Lodge with the wagon trains for the winter, the place was packed to the seams. There were two wagon trains that each had around 100 kids and 40 staff each. There was an orientation camp with probably 40 or 50 kids, the main camp with close to another 100 kids, a quest camp with about 40 kids, a total of another 50 or 60 staff and a Cuban camp, where there were probably 20 or 30 of the Cuban adults with serious criminal and mental problems that Castro sent us as a present, along with the staff that looked after them.
Today the wilderness camp is essentially empty, except for Butch who is shoeing some mules in the barn.
Butch gives me the run down on the place. The wagon trains have stopped the cross country trips and are limited to short runs around Arizona that we would have considered a quest back in the day. The good news is that Harold is running the Lodge and he was one of the good guys. He was truly a stand up guy and I hate I missed a chance to tell him hello.
In the 1980s, Rand McNally did a pretty thorough study and found Vision Quest to be the most successful juvenile delinquent rehabilitation program in the country. In my last bit of time there, the social workers started showing up and complaining about the little angels having to sleep on the ground in teepees, so they built platforms for them. They complained about the cursing (OK, I will give them that one), they complained about the no nonsense physical limits that made the program actually work, and they complained about anything and everything. They finally complained until they got their way and now the little angels have air conditioned barracks, they have no physical limits and the program has become watered down. Really a shame.
One bright spot on the Vision Quest tour was Butchs truck. If I ever decide to don some assless chaps and start hauling my bike in a truck, this is the truck I want to haul the GSA:
From the Lodge, I make a quick stop at the Elfrida corner store, where the owner asked me about my ride. I told him I was heading to the Coronado Trail and he warned me to dress warm. The 84 degree day wouldnt last long up there. He had a place in Alpine and told me of a great place to eat in Springerville at the end of the trail.
On the road to Wilcox on Highway 191 (which used to be Highway 666 until the locals complained about the superstitious numbers), the Border Patrol set up a road block for all of us heading north. In a low point of the day, they just waved me through. That would have never happened 20 years ago. There would have been a 30 minute search and interrogation. Getting old sucks. Another thing I rediscovered on the road to Wilcox is how riding 50 miles in a straight line while you just stare at your destination for almost an hour isnt really exciting
Through Wilcox, lunch in Safford and then on to the fun. Clifford is an old mining town like Bisbee, but without the hippies and the artists. Made a loop through a great little downtown that is just waiting for someone with a vision. This place has character.
On to Morenci where the road goes straight through the mining operation and up a twisty road to start the 130 mile Coronado Trail. The road rides through a little tunnel and right under the augers and mining equipment. On several views there are huge dump trucks hauling dirt out of the mines.
The next 30 miles are just climbs, switchbacks and sheer drop offs. Everywhere you turn your head the view is suitable for a postcard.
After 30 miles of twisties, the road stretches out to beautiful rolling hills and grass covered fields interrupted regularly by shorter sections of twisty mountain climbs.
I took my time traveling the trail and time started getting away from me. About two thirds the way into the trail, it started getting dark around Hannagan Meadow. I stopped at a lodge and restaurant to don some more clothes and the lady told me that I had about 45 miles to go, but the tough part of the trail was over. I put on a couple of layers under my First Gear jacket, stepped into my new Bilt pants and tore the tags off of my new Bilt gloves. My hands were already freezing and I was really looking forward to the heavy Bilt gloves. These things looked like they were made to make the Eskimos jealous. Big heavy fake fur lined mitts. Once I was rolling with my gear I found the first bad side of the Bilt gloves. They are so thick that I cannot feel the controls through them or the heated grips. Once I got up to speed I found one thing that you could feel through the mitts THE COLD. These things are crap. I stop and put on my bicycle gloves and just tough it out
Once its dark and cold, I really start slowing down and just tip toeing out of the mountains. The 84 degrees of the afternoon quickly turned into the mid 30s and the BMW even started flashing a snowflake on the dash just to let me know it was cold (note to BMW - I figured it out on my own
). I was going so slow at one point I was passed by a truck pulling an RV trailer. By the time I got to the Safire Restaurant and Lounge in Springerville, I was freezing, tired and there was no ego or pride left. A quick enchilada supper and I was next door and sleeping in no time. I might have been beaten, but I was still smiling.
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Stanley R. Chamberlain, 70
Published DateMOULTONBOROUGH — Stanley Robert Chamberlain, 70, of Blake Road, died suddenly July 1, 2013, at his home.
Born in Laconia, NH on May 9, 1943, he was the son of Robert Wesley and Marjorie May (Seavey) Chamberlain.
He was a kind, loving husband, father and grandfather. He will be greatly missed by wife, Ellen F. (Wheeler) Chamberlain, sons, Robert, Allen and Stewart Chamberlain, stepsons, Nick and Greg Botkin, grandchildren, Cathryn, Saige, Lindsay, Emily, Darius, Alexia, Gaige and Gia.
Private Graveside service will be held at the convenience of the family. A celebration of Stan's life will be held on Sunday, July 21 from 1 pm to 5 pm, at Stan's home on 32 Blake Road, Moultonborough, NH. All who wish to pay their respects are welcome.
Many thanks to his caregivers, doctors, friends and family who watched over him.
To sign Stan's Book of Memories, please go to www.mayhewfuneralhomes.com


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Wistariahurst Museum
Acquiring its name from the flowering vine, Wistariahurst is an historic house museum. Wistariahurst Museum reflects the lives and tastes of both generations of the Skinner family. The museum features original leather wall coverings, columns, elaborate woodwork and an interesting tale of how two generations perceived and used the house very differently.
The museum's permanent collection includes decorative arts; paintings and prints, textiles, and a rich manuscript collection of family and local papers. The museum offers a wide variety of programs and events, including workshops, concerts, lectures, and demonstrations. The museum is also available for private rental and group tours.
Wistariahurst Museum is dedicated to preserving Holyoke's history and inspiring an appreciation of history and culture through educational programs, exhibits and special events. Listed on the National Register of Historic Places, Wistariahurst is the former home of William Skinner, a prominent silk manufacturer.
Please Visit their website at http://wistariahurst.org
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Department Head
Penni Martorell
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Office Address
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Posted on November 20, 2012 by Wistaria Hurst