Community A-hole of the week (June 24)

David Luis Garcia is the Community A-hole for June 24 for this little piece of vandalism on Lenser Way in Escondido:



Garcia did not limit his potential for being caught by being ambiguous. His first, middle, and last names will make it easy for him to be caught, if anyone cared.

The problem is not so much in what Garcia did on Lenser Way as much as it is why he had the opportunity to do it. Lenser Way is a street that is about a 100 yards long. It meets Dan Way in a sweeping, non-controlled intersection. Lenser Way's access is off of Rock Springs Road while Dan Way is fed by Mission Avenue. This is what Lenser Way looks like today:


What is of interest about the intersection of Lenser and Dan ways is that this is where the entrance to the Family Fun Center used to be. The FFC, which offered the community a miniature golf course, batting cages, go-carts, an arcade, and other varying attractions, remained a popular draw up until the time it closed down and was demolished in 2006. The lot now sits vacant.


Garcia got his chance at a Community A-hole award because of two separate actions by the city of Escondido, which is hereby granted two honorary Community A-hole awards for these actions.

The first action by city council was to approve a plan for a mixed-use, commercial/residential development for the space where the FFC and a vacant K-Mart sat. The FFC did not have the competitive power to match the potential tax revenue that the new development could bring in, so away it went. Yet in 2006 the economy began its nosedive, and soon after that, projects slated to begin saw their backers and developers pull out. The portion of the lot where K-Mart sat did get a Lowes, but the FCC side did not get built upon, leaving the community with a dirt lot rather than a family attraction.

The second action by the city was directly a result of the creation of the new vacant lot. Lenser Way became a shantytown as the economy continued its free-fall. This shantytown did not consist of tents; rather, the street became a place where displaced individuals could park their motorhomes while waiting out their misfortunes. The street is short, and, as such, I don't remember a time when more than four motorhomes lined the street. Truckers used Lenser Way, as well as Dan Way, to sleep overnight given the area's proximity to State Route 78, Interstate 15, and a 24-hour Denny's restaurant.

The city cleared the shantytown on a Sunday morning this past spring, after having posted eviction notices approximately a week prior. There is not a lot of traffic in this area on a Sunday morning, seeming to suggest the city's desire to playdown its action. More recently, the city worked on the intersection of Lenser and Dan ways, adding no parking signs on both sides of the road, access control at the Rock Springs Road/Lenser Way intersection, and repairing the sidewalk with fresh concrete in which we find our friend David Luis Garcia's inscription.

Escondido has made many missteps in its time. From its inception (the water bond issue of the early twentieth century) to its 2006 heyday of bigotry (the council pushing ideas of roving citizenship checkpoints and suggesting concerned residents turn in neighbors they suspect of being illegal immigrants), history shows a series of bad moves. Garcia is the victim of the city's wrong moves, but it does not excuse him from knowing better.

Homemade Gatorade

Henry's grocery store has a hell of a sale on Santa Cruz Organic Lemonade right now. The sale includes lemonade varieties and limeade, too. The price the store is asking is four 32-ounce bottles for $5. The juices are perfect for gearing up for an extended period of fasting, since sugar energy is important for brain function.

In the longer fasts I've tried (three to five days), I've found that drinking juice feels a lot better than a straight water fast. A little bit of sugar clears the fogginess of the mind and allows one to pick and choose the moments in which you want to be alert. In the past, not only have I created my homemade Gatorade with lemon juice and maple syrup, as in the standard fast recipe, but modified the recipe to include the juices from grapefruit, oranges, kale, spinach, lettuce, and carrots. Those additions brought a complexity to the juice and provided more nutrients. I plan on continuing one-day fasts once or twice, at most, a week. These juices will make those days pass without notice.

The timing of Henry's sale is impeccable; I received a letter from the state today stating my unemployment benefits will be stopped retroactively back to June 12. That means I will receive one more check of approximately $300. Add that to the $7 in my checking account and my worth is $307. Quite an honor for someone with an advanced degree in history. I write that sarcastically but maybe it actually is. Who knows? The bigger issue is to liquidate some assets, and quickly. That means I'll be taking a trip to the Nevada desert exactly one year to the day, to do the same thing, for the same reason. If this is a moment for personal evaluation, the only comment I can offer is, 'huh?'

Things are getting tight. My friends are falling off, leaving the area, going to jail, and working, of all things. Luckily, summer is here and along with it comes a strong thirst for good Irish whiskey, Jameson only, budget-mindedly purchased at Traders Joe's for $19.99 per one liter. A bottle that size will last at least a month. The whiskey provides clarity and relaxation, but it is a powerful drug. Like all alcohol, it kills you a little bit each time. But at this point in life and at my age, the line graph is showing that it won't be the alcohol that gets me; rather, approaching midlife, old age will take me first. I'll take the odds on this bet.

A change in tone

I felt a change in tone was in order in my most recent hardship letter to Bank of America. As I have been trying to short sell my condo for the past 18 months, there was a need for the letter to reflect explicitly what impact this meandering process has had on me.

Here is the text of the first letter:


February 16, 2009
To Whom It May Concern:
This is a hardship letter for Michael Dolan, concerning the property at 830 W. Lincoln Ave. #289, Escondido, CA 92026, for which I am seeking a short sale.
There are two major contributors to my financial hardship. The negative-amortization home loan for my property has added principal to my loan, making the amount of the loan much more than the property is worth and also making it impossible to refinance the loan. The other contributor is my loss of employment in November.
When I entered into the loan in April 2006, my loan officer, Peter Long Huynh in the Carlsbad office, told me a negative-amortization loan would be the best fit for me at the time. He added that I would be able to refinance in the future. He told me that despite my reservations about this type of loan, I would be able to refinance into a more stable loan possibly before two years had passed.
My loan officer also encouraged me to max out the equity of my home when I was entering into the negative-amortization home loan. The amount he said I could refinance was well beyond what I thought and what the market reflected my home was worth, but he said that he could get an appraiser to value my property for that amount. I did not feel comfortable, nor could I afford, that loan, so I declined that offer. Again, I was assured the negative-amortization home loan I was signing into would be a temporary fix, and I would be able to refinance that loan into a better loan before too long. That proved to be false when the market declined and the principal added to my loan exacerbated the falling value of my property.
In November, I lost my job in newspaper. The lack of income has made it harder for me to meet financial obligations. And while I am current on my loan now, the lack of income because I am unable to find employment puts in jeopardy my future ability to stay current. I did receive a severance when I was laid off, but that is a finite amount of money and is dwindling each month. Unemployment compensation is only a percentage of my past monthly income, and it is temporary.
I am a full-time graduate student at Cal State San Marcos, working on a master’s degree in history. The degree has a multi-media component, which is providing training in web design and video production. As my industry is going through a transition, these skills are marketable and will help me in my job search when I graduate in May.
Education, however, is costly, and while I do have student loans, which I hold in a savings account, they are loans and will have to be paid back upon graduation. The cost of tuition, books, media supplies, and travel to campus all add up, and can add monthly expenses in the range of $1,000 to $1,200 when broken down over a year’s time.
I appreciate your time.
Regards,
Michael Dolan
cc: Assembly Member Martin Garrick
State Senator Mark Wyland
State Attorney General Jerry Brown
U.S Representative Brian Bilbray
U.S. Senator Barbara Boxer
U.S. Senator Dianne Feinstein
President Barack Obama

A nice piece, no doubt, because I take the high ground, I feel, while allowing for an amicable solution.
Here is the latest copy:

June 15, 2010
To Whom It May Concern:
This is a hardship letter for Michael Dolan, concerning the property at 830 W. Lincoln Ave. #289, Escondido, CA 92026, for which I am seeking a short sale.
There are two major contributors to my financial hardship. The negative-amortization home loan for my property has added principal to my loan, making the amount of the loan much more than the property is worth and also making it impossible to refinance the loan. The other contributor is my loss of employment in November 2008. These are the same factors that I listed in February 2009 when I started the short-sale process.
When I entered into the loan in April 2006, my loan officer, Peter Long Huynh in Countrywide’s Carlsbad office, told me a negative-amortization loan with a HELOC would be the best fit for me at the time. He added that I would be able to refinance in the future. He told me that despite my reservations about these types of loans, I would be able to refinance into a more stable loan possibly before two years had passed.
My loan officer also encouraged me to max out the equity of my home when I was entering into the negative-amortization home loan and HELOC. The amount he said I could refinance was well beyond what I thought, and what the market reflected, my home was worth, but he said that he could get an appraiser to value my property for that amount. I did not feel comfortable, nor could I afford, that loan, so I declined the offer to falsely inflate the value of my property. Again, I was assured the negative-amortization home loan I was signing into would be a temporary fix, and I would be able to refinance that loan into a better loan before too long. That proved to be false when the market declined and the principal added to my loan exacerbated the falling value of my property.
In November 2008, I lost my job in newspaper. The lack of income has made it virtually impossible to meet my financial obligations. After one attempt at a short sale was declined, citing no financial hardships, in January 2010, Bank of America short sale negotiator Marcus Duran made the suggestion that if I demonstrated to him that I actually had financial hardship, beyond being unemployed and without income for more than a year, that he would approve the short sale. At that point, I stopped paying my mortgage and ruined my credit, which had never had a negative mark against it until I entered into this mortgage deal. Unfortunately, Mr. Duran has seemingly disappeared along with the implied deal he made.
I have no income to this day. I have exhausted all of my savings accounts, including my IRA and 401k. I have nothing of value, having sold off possessions in order to pay my mortgage in 2009. The severance I received when I was laid off is gone. My unemployment benefits are exhausted; if I qualify for FED-ED benefits, those can be stopped at any time the state’s unemployment numbers improve. This deal has cost me everything I’ve ever worked for and every bit of security I had for my future. I have nothing and doubt I will ever again be financially secure.
I was a full-time graduate student at Cal State San Marcos, working on a master’s degree in history, when this short-sale ordeal began. I am now an unemployed person with a masters degree. I had a job with Peace Corps on the line; however, the inability to complete this short sale has cost me that job. The short sale was the last item I had to resolve before leaving for this job in May. I shared this information with the short-sale department. The bank declined my short sale after receiving this information, and has declined once more since. This mortgage has cost me the one job opportunity I’ve had in the past year and a half. Worse than that, I find myself having to hide that fact I have a masters degree when applying for jobs. In this economic climate, an advanced degree is a detriment. Despite this, I will soon have to pay back my student loans. All the money I had put aside to help pay back these loans was used to pay my mortgage last year. I have nothing to pay back these loans.
To summarize, I have nothing, no money and no job. I have tried, acting with integrity and being honest, to resolve this matter to no avail. I have lost the only job offer I’ve had in the past 18 months because of the failure to complete this deal. I implore you to release me from the trappings of this horrible business deal so that I may once again live my life, starting from square one.
Regards,
Michael Dolan
cc: Assembly Member Martin Garrick
State Senator Mark Wyland
State Attorney General Jerry Brown
U.S Representative Brian Bilbray
U.S. Senator Barbara Boxer
U.S. Senator Dianne Feinstein
President Barack Obama

While I keep some facts, I felt compelled to share with the bank exactly how, in a free country, it had exerted its will and forced some very uncomfortable choices on my end. Kudos to you, BofA, for being one of the worst examples of American business.

And, yes, all of the politicians listed after each letter were sent a copy. I changed my tone in the introduction letters to them, too.

First time:


Michael Dolan
830 W. Lincoln Ave. #289
Escondido, CA 92026
February 28, 2009
Dear President Obama and staff,
My name is Michael Dolan, and I am trying to short sale a condo I purchased in 2003 and refinanced in 2006.
On the advice of my Realtor, Donna Davis of Prudential Realty’s Escondido office, I am sending you a copy of my hardship letter, which outlines my case and the promises and manipulation made to me by Countrywide Financial. I feel it is important for you and other decision makers to know what happened to people during this latest economic mess so hopefully we can go forward and not make these mistakes again.
I appreciate and respect the work you do for this country and thank you for your time.
Regards,
Michael Dolan

And second time:


Michael Dolan
830 W. Lincoln Ave. #289
Escondido, CA 92026
June 18, 2010
Dear President Obama and staff,
My name is Michael Dolan, and I am trying to short sale a condo I purchased in 2003 and refinanced in 2006. I lost my job in November 2008 and have been out of work since.
I wrote in February 2009 and sent a copy of my first hardship letter that I filed with Bank of America. Enclosed here is my most recent hardship letter. I regret to say that the bank has not approved my short sale despite my effort to get this deal done. I believe this is the eighth time I am restarting the short-sale process. The bank’s failure to work with me also has cost me the chance to serve with the Peace Corps, the only job offer I have received in the past 18 months.
I feel it is important for you and other decision makers to know what happened to people during this latest economic mess so hopefully we can go forward and not make these mistakes again. I am not a person who is looking for a handout, nor am I someone who falls for the current trends of jingoism, bigotry, or race blaming. I am accountable and aware of my actions. I have acknowledged my role in this ordeal. All I seek is that the bank be held accountable for its actions and be required to live up to its word.
Regards,
Michael Dolan

Sharing this with the world is such a great relief; this has been a burden on me for 18 months. The stress was and is astronomical in dealing with this disaster. Everyday I face homelessness and now, as I run out of money, hunger. But those problems are easy to solve: I'll find shelter like so many others without a place to go and three years of practicing fasts has taught me that food is no so important. What is important is no longer feeling alone and isolated by this bad business deal.

Which brings me to another point: the Los Angeles Lakers. Game 7 of the 2010 NBA Finals was almost unwatchable. That is until the fourth quarter. Watching Kobe Bryant adapt — the word he used this morning on the Jim Rome show — to the game inspired me to adapt to my game as well. I relate to Kobe well: both upper middle class kids who have picked our games and now have to prove ourselves. Kobe has been more successful than me, for sure, yet it was last night's performance that proved to be a good study.

I promised myself I would start to write again as soon as I was deployed with the Peace Corps. That should have been on May 18, 2010. The bank's failure to complete my short sale torpedoed my Peace Corps chances. I had been scheming for almost a year and a half to get out of the country via the PC but that was taken from me by the bank. It took me awhile, but now I see where I have to adapt. I have to start writing even though I'm not leaving, and may not ever get the chance to leave/serve.

So let me do this. After shedding the stress of the short-sale process and the NBA Finals, and feeling the inspiration from KB, Queensbridge — both LO and Ron Ron, and D-Fish, I feel free enough to do this at least once a week. There are no reasons why not, so let me meet that challenge and turn this blog into something worthy of reading.

Night and day

That's the difference between 8 a.m. Pacific Standard Time Jan. 20, going into the last hour of the Bush presidency, and 9 a.m. PST, the first minute of the Obama presidency.

What a difference words can make. An Inaugural speech that focused not only on hope, but on an investment in a nation and it's people. It's a wholly different experience than being told to be afraid for the past eight years.

So much has already been said, I won't belabor the point. Goodbye to you, President Bush, and your clubs and your tramps.

Let's get to work ...

The biggest piece of seaweed I've ever seen

This is no doubt the biggest piece of seaweed I've ever seen.

Take a look:



It was down on Grandview the day after Christmas. I found it while shooting b-roll of North County beaches for the documentary portion of my thesis project.

The seaweed startled me when I first saw it. I felt that something this big should be living, in a higher species sense of the word living. It was a cause for pause ...

Cells block

The new no-cell-phone-while-driving law is in effect in California, and from the way in which it has been touted, it should solve a wide range of social ills, including slow sales in hands-free cell devices and accessories.

The problem with this law is that it goes after the visible effects of cell phone use in a car. Things like holding a cell phone, dialing a cell phone and dropping a cell phone on the floorboard in heavy traffic all become conspicuous, and suspicious, actions.

While diving down to the floor to search for a dropped phone while trying maintain control of a car is a stupid and dangerous thing to do, the other two simply are dexterous activities, much like the act of driving a car. It's true that hands should be on the wheel, but oftentimes they are pulled away from their duties to shift gears, change radio stations, and adjust the cabin temperature. In other words, hands were moving around from their appointed post long before cell phones.

This law does not go after what is at the true heart of the distraction: the engagement in a two-way conversation with one person not present. Phone conversations have a zone-out effect on people, an effect that does not seem happen in face-to-face interactions. This effect is not limited by hands-free devices, which do nothing to limit the distraction of the one-person-present-two-way conversation.

Rather than encourage drivers to put down the phone all together while driving, we have enacted a law that gives law enforcement another ticket into our cars. Not to say that this is what they wanted because that would be overtly cynical, but this law will benefit them much more than us. This law will be another crow bar law, prying the door open to escalating offenses.

If we really are looking to make a difference, I suggest police go after bad drivers in general and not drivers holding a phone to their heads. Much like the distractions that have kept our hands busy while driving long before cell phones, bad driving didn't start as soon as cell phones arrived to allow us to communicate any pointless thought with rampant immediacy. Again, it seems like we're "solving" the wrong problem with this law.

Congratulations California: We lead the nation in minor bull-shit laws that an infraction of can end in a major headache.

Mission accomplished, for real this time

The New York Times ran a story on June 19 about the expected awarding of no-bid contracts by Iraqi officials to western oil companies. While this should come as no surprise to the war's many critics, it is nice to see a report on the spoils of war and how this will shape up.

The article reports that the contracts would "lay the foundation for the first commercial work for the major companies [Exxon Mobil, Shell, Total, BP, and Chevron] in Iraq since the American invasion," which is good since apparently oil has become so scarce that the price of gasoline has steadily increased almost without fail each week for more than a year.

The article addresses what many have long suspected, that securing the oil concession was the reason for the war in the first place. "There was suspicion ... among parts of the American public that the United States had gone to war in Iraq precisely to secure the oil wealth these contracts seek to extract,"the article reports.

While it feels good to hear all this, it is not so wise to think that this is some great revelation or that there will be an act of contrition on the part of the Bush administration.

Bush and his clique would never see this war as a blood-for-oil campaign, which is exactly how many on the left (myself included) have reasoned out this brutal nonsense. For all the spin rhetoric that we have become accustomed to in the past seven or so years, there has never been a flat denial that U.S. oil companies would eventually profit from this war. Any denial we did hear centered on refuting the claim that the war's purpose was strictly blood for oil.

Try to view this war through the eyes of a warmonger. A warmonger views a conflict in terms of its specific goal and the inevitable spoils of that goal. To Bush, his mission was righteous: the elimination of an enemy nation within the borders of a tyrannical state. Fight them over there so we don't have to fight them over here; in Bush's mind, this made (and makes) perfect sense. Indeed, the article asserts the "administration has said that the war was necessary to combat terrorism," and obviously the administration is not going to change its story.

Opponents of this war never understood Bush's logic nor his stated reasons for going to war. The whole conflict has reeked of deception, refocused objectives and flimsy reasoning from the beginning. But this was a war with a stated, undoubtedly flawed, purpose and the reward for supposedly accomplishing this goal would be the vast oil fields of Iraq. This war was always going to have spoils, and it was easy for the administration to deny the blood-for-oil allegations since questions suggesting such were flawed in their query. I don't recall a specific question directed toward the president that asked him what the real expected monetary returns of this war were going to be.

Much like the globalizing mission of Christianity more than 100 years ago, the reasons for embarking on the campaign are mired in a savior-based mentality. There is no way to shake the indelible markings in the mind of Bush and his people that what they were doing was right, that it was our job as a country to fight this war in Iraq, and to draw the lines of what is right and wrong for the world.

It is this poor mindset, rooted far in the past, that makes this war so frustrating. Clearly, the conservative ethos are living up to their expectations and in the end, occupying a foreign country while forcing an ideology on its people will work out as well as it did for all the European powers who did the same. Many of us know how this will turn out and that's what is so maddening.

So mission accomplished once again, Mr. President. Like so many things tied to this administration, your globalizing mission against terrorism has lead us back to the trail head, and we have a long hike ahead of us. There is little argument that we will be paying for your spoiled war for the rest of our lives.