Fausta's Blog

American and Latin American Politics, Society, and Culture

By

Slow Reading

Today’s headline: Library moving date could face revision. Opening may be pushed back a week.

One of the public works projects that The Principality has saddled its taxpayers with is the new resplendent Public Library. Appropriately, the new library was scheduled to open on April Fool’s Day; March 21 was the scheduled moving date, but it has been changed to March 28, since, according to the article, “the library is awaiting its temporary Certificate of Occupancy”. The opening date would then be April 8.

(Temporary CO?). No explanation is given as to why the CO is on hold (or why it is temporary).

The library is presently at The Principality Shopping Center, where you can find any materials you may need if your needs are modest (what you would expect from a local public library), in a perfectly adequate space that was formerly occupied by two bookstores. It is small, conveniently located next to the gym and the supermarket, and, most importantly, there’s plenty of free parking space. Conveniently enough that the number of visitors increased by 25% in the new location.

The new library was expected to cost $12million when it was first proposed, but by now the number is $18-19million.

The library originally anticipated a December 2003 opening but a survey error resulted in the installation of footing 6 inches lower than called for in design plans and the opening date was set back to February of this year. Construction then suffered from harsh winter weather that forced the library to push back the opening date again.

The new building is big, located downtown in the middle of prime commercial real estate, where parking is either not available or to be found in the soon-to-be-completed parking-building-built-on-the-stream.

I called the Shopping Center management office and was told that the amount of the current monthly rent “is not public information”. A quick Google search showed that the rent is estimated at $20,000/month, and, may I point out, in a commercial space for which the landlord takes care of the maintenance and pays taxes to the community. Compare that to the $75,000/month (my estimate: 5% interest divided by 12 months x $18,000,000) debt service, which doesn’t include maintenance costs, for a building that will never pay taxes, on a prime location. Another question also arises, since the parking building’s grand opening was scheduled to take place in tandem with the Library’s, does this mean the parking building’s opening will be delayed further, so there’s no parking revenue that week?

Still, the article assures us “if the extra time is required, it is not likely to exceed the library’s project budget”.

“Not likely”. Let’s hope.

Share

https://faustasblog.com/2004/03/16/

By

Recommended obscure book: Sir Gawain and the Green Knight

Since The University sits in the middle of The Principality and doesn’t pay taxes, its public relations department is keen to promote good will among the locals, hence, we are allowed to audit classes at The University. It was my distinct pleasure to audit Prof. Vance’s excellent Middle English class last year.

Life is full of surprises, however, and early in the class I noticed that several of the students, who are paying nearly $40,000/yr on tuition, habitually didn’t read their assignments on time for the class. Being of the prior generation, I truly couldn’t figure out how they were able to show their faces, much less admit that they hadn’t done the reading. I simply don’t have any sense on humor about this. Back in the olden days we weren’t doing that sort of thing (it didn’t even occur to me, fool that I was), especially for $40,000. On the other hand, as The Husband put it, “it’s not their (the student’s) $40,000, it’s their parents”. That aside, the professor was very patient, erudite, and passionate about the topic, and the class was interesting and challenging.

The first challenge, aside from not tearing my hair out when hearing people hadn’t read their homework, was getting used to the language. Middle English is like Yoda reading Shakespeare on steroids, only difficult. I mean, this:

Thenne watz Gryngolet graythe, that gert watz and huge

means this:

Then Gringolet was ready, that great horse and huge. You get the idea.

Still, I did well enough to mostly understand what was going on with Sir Orfeo and a dozen other Sirs and Ladies, and by the time we got the The Canterbury Tales it all made sense. All the effort was definitely worth it. The Canterbury Tales was great fun, and take my word for it, the Canterbury pilgrims were up to no good, and loving it. A side benefit of taking a Middle English class is that you can impress your really-well-read friends at cocktail parties.

Of all the books we read my favorite’s Sir Gawain and the Green Knight. It has everything an action/adventure story could need, plus romance, told in poetry of great lyricism:


But then the weather on earth battles with winter,

The Cold shrinks downwards, clouds rise higher,

And shed sparkling rain in warming showers,

Falling on smiling plains where flowers unfold.

Both open fields and woodlands put on green dress;

Birds hasten to build, and rapturously sing

For joy of gentle summer that follows next on the slopes.

And flowers bud and blossom

In hedgerows rich with growth,

And many splendid songs

From woodlands echo forth

The Broadview Literary Texts edition is in Middle English with facing translation by James Winny (and it’s beautifully translated), so you don’t have to sweat it. Go read it.

Share

https://faustasblog.com/2004/03/11/

By

Scalp Massage

Friday’s headlines in the county newspaper ($.75 at your supermarket or newsstand): “Painful year reflected in budget plan for schools”, and “Budget woes may soon push garage rate up”.

The first headline refers to the $62.1 million school budget, 5.6% higher than last year’s budget, which means that the average Principality resident will see their school taxes go up $382 in the Borough, and $288 in the Township, on top of the property tax increases.

The second headline’s about the yet-to-be-finished parking garage. Following the still-unfolding MOASB (Mother Of All Spending Binges), the chairman of the Finance Committee’s quoted as saying, “We are facing a tax impact that is unparalleled in magnitude”. Well, duh. Go $200million in the hole and your creditors will want their payment. Therefore, keep raising those taxes, and look for more revenue. There’s only two misgivings on raising garage fees:

1. Since the garage’s not even finished yet, there’s no way of knowing what the optimal rates would be.

2. Less obvious, however, but maybe as important, is the fact that the building’s on an aquifer (Spring Street was named over the stream that runs through it, not because someone was thinking of the Season). The construction delay was caused because the aquifer had flooded the entire construction site, and the water had to be drained before the building could continue. For how long will a parking building standing in a stream can remain viable for its intended use remains to be ascertained.

But merrily the taxpayer-financed redevelopment projects continue, so another front-page headline assures us that “Panel calls for additional public space in Tulane Street redevelopment project”, which is “part of a partnership between . . . (the) Borough and developer Nassau HKT”. Nassau HKT’s owned by a former Borough Council member.

To all this expense, the newspaper’s editorial states that “Skyrocketing tax rates make case for reform”, as if reform would solve the problem. Taxes, no matter how you “reform” them, will continue to go up as long as the spending continues.

Calling for tax reform instead of cost-containment is just like my bad haircut. I can massage my scalp and condition my hair until I’m blue in the face, but my hair’s not going to grow any faster. It does, however, make me feel like I’m doing something about it.

Share

https://faustasblog.com/2004/03/9/