Desert Bloom Bells

Urban Balcony Garden, A Wildlife and Human Refuge...

My third floor balcony garden serves multiple purposes. It is off my office and provides a sense of bringing the outdoors in and I don't feel so enclosed in a building. Also it faces the west side and the plants provide great shade and a sense of cool relief in the heat of summer. I have a hummingbird feeder and a small bird bath and is now an urban wildlife refuge not only for birds but bees, butterflies and is home to a small lizard.

Up and Away

Paraglider Over Ahwatukee...



A paraglider floats over Ahwatukee, this video was shot from the communications towers area of South Mountain. Ahwatukee is a community of Phoenix that is physically separated from the rest of the city since it is located on the south side of South Mountain.






Paraglider Over Ahwatukee from JR Snyder Jr on Vimeo.


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On Social Web Platforms

Bringing The Digital Life All Back Home...

Recently I've being spending less time on the social web and when I am on my preferred platforms, I'm using them for different reasons. Although I like Facebook (it's a pleasant walled garden) it has always seemed a bit like high school and the applications and games don't appeal to me. Twitter, where I've spent most of my time the past few years, started for me as simply a note-taking service for brief thoughts that occurred to me. It morphed into something pleasantly unexpected, a replacement for the interaction I once had on the community that existed on YouTube during 2006-2007, as well as meeting new online friends. After trying Google Buzz it is still a non-starter for me, social web celebs raves aside, currently it just seems more of the same.

It is natural these platforms progress and evolve and for me they have come to feel more like communications tools than hubs for social interaction and community. I embrace that, I find myself more interested in using them to discover new things to read, do, gather information and make contact with people for more extended interaction. My perception is the social web is narrowing down to a connection point for more personal, in-depth conversation, than can be conducted on limited space open social web forums.

Foursquare, Gowalla, Google Latitude, Yelp and other Location Based Services along with smartphones are making inroads I believe because people are looking for more depth in their online connections and want to bring the social closer to home as well as offline. A more personal web, where the platform becomes the communications tool that bridges the community people create online, to more intimate levels for deeper relationships. The internet is the replacement for the old social network, the telephone system, so it is no surprise it is making connections in the same way. Fundamentally human social networking remains the same, regardless of the tools used.

Grand Canal 3rd Avenue Pedestrian/Bicycle Bridge

Mallards and almost Vernal Sunset...

We Will Still Need To Wear Shades...

Phoenix Economic Crisis Solutions in Six Paragraphs

Part Two: A follow up to my post Phoenix Economic Crisis in Six Paragraphs http://bit.ly/a0nS7T Low Tide, Waiting for Second and Third Wave...

Residential Mortgage/Lender Crisis: We need to acknowledge that since the '93-'94 recession, we intensified a decades old delusion of an economy built on housing construction, that was unsustainable. The mortgage/lender standoff is an actuality that must be resolved in a variety of ways, although the answers are not easily attainable, to avoid becoming another Detroit or Cleveland somehow they must be worked out. The populist notion of "walking away" is not acceptable with few exceptions. The process of mortgage holders admitting some responsibility for leveraging when they did and lenders accepting their share of accountability in this situation is without doubt an extremely difficult one.

Unemployment/Underemployment: We should accept we aren't an overly educated (but certainly not a poorly or undereducated) population. We do have very strong customer service and mechanical skills and polite, conscientious, motivated people with a good work ethic. We should actively seek to attract jobs that match what we are really good at doing. We're excellent at high end customer service centers, warehousing and shipping, aviation and communications, healthcare, hospitality and tourism. We have our fair share of software and technical companies and do quite well in manufacturing and transportation. We should focus and capitalize on those qualities and sectors.

State Government: Our state government needs reform but not more regulation and taxes. Our last six Governors have not served us well by design, lack of skill and/or default. Our current Legislature, with few exceptions, is a disgrace. We are a testament to why legislated term limits don't work, a lesson the nation should strongly heed and learn from. "Clean Elections" has been a farce and exacerbated a corrupt campaign contribution system even further. The reorganization implemented by Bruce Babbitt and the Legislature in the seventies was timely and well intended  but no longer works for us.

It's interesting to note that the Babbitt era reforms were primed due to the force of hand of the Federal Government and Federal Mandates during an unpopular Presidency. We now face a similar situation with a divisive US Congress, unwieldy onerous Federal Mandates and another unpopular President. As Arizonans it is time to reclaim our independent nature and reshape our government to make sense for us today.

Commercial Real Estate: The elephant in the room could be our greatest asset. We now (or soon will have) a large inventory of cheap office, business, hospitality and retail space. We still have a great climate and now is a great opportunity to attract businesses and jobs, based on simple supply and demand of available space and an abundant work force, motivated by an extended period of unemployment. Our climate allows us to benefit from Las Vegas' fiscal situation and reputation. What happens in Arizona is generally clean and healthy as well as acceptable to companies, conventions and visitors.

Immigration and Population: The topic of illegal immigrants is a complex one and inspires emotions of every range. A Rasmussen Poll on March 18, 2010 indicated that 59% of all Americans say the US should continue to build "The Fence" along the border. Those of us who have lived here for decades cannot remember a time that illegal immigration has not been a problem for our state. It was not until the problem started spilling over into more distant states that it became a heated national issue. There are no easy answers but somehow all sides must come to the rational conclusion that illegal immigrants of any background in the US, under these economic conditions, is fiscally unfeasible. We need to recognize our legal population needs to be stabilized at a sustainable level for the harsh environment of the geography we exist in. We must invest in education in an analytical meritorious way, recognizing that it will take several generations to build the employee base that attracts leading edge employers.

Acceptance: We have relied on unsustainable economic enterprises in an environment that is not capable of sustaining a large population without damaging our environment to the point of damaging and permanently devastating it. Realistically, although the entire country is in (at a minimum) the worst recession since post WWII, we are for all practical purposes, in a depression. The best indicator of the future is the past and looking at history. In that context, we are quite capable of pulling ourselves out of this condition but it will require hard work, consistent and unified effort, with a sustained ability to perpetuate progress one step at a time. 

Ocotillo Splaying Green in the Desert

Blooming is just beginning...

Ocotillo (Fouqieria splendends), also known as Coachwhip, grows mostly on stony slopes in the desert southwest of the US at altitudes around 3000-3500 feet. Like Saguaro, it is most frequently located in Arizona and factually is not a true cactus. Growing in the shape of an inverted funnel most of the year it is dry and appears as a large shrub of sticks with spines. These sticks are frequently used as handy poles for fencing, wired together to make sturdy structures as wind barriers and to keep animals in and out.

The leaves are present most of the year but are small and tiny but in the wet season become evident by turning very green and large. The rainy winter Phoenix has experienced this year is bringing the leaves out magnificently now. Soon the red flowers, which are pollinated by hummingbirds and carpenter bees, will become much more abundant and larger.


This promises to be a gloriously green and colorful desert spring in the southwestern US.

End of the Road?

Cordes Junction 

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Phoenix Economic Crisis in Six Paragraphs

Low Tide, Waiting for Second and Third Wave...

Residential Mortgage/Lender Crisis: In the Phoenix Metro area housing prices have dropped at least 50% leaving most homeowners underwater. There are quite a few indicators they will drop further. Personal debt stress, exacerbated by overextension of HELOC, credit card and other unsecured debt, has created social problems and identity crises on a large scale. Lender's are not in a position to  forgive debt in an economic scenario with a cornucopia of perpetrators. 

Unemployment/Underemployment: Although statistically the Phoenix unemployment rate is not as high as some areas (it technically hovers around 9%) realistically it is probably in the high teens and possibly low twenties percentile. This does not include the underemployed and those who have been employed for the duration of the economic crisis but never earned high wages and/or had their earnings decreased by cut backs in hours, bonuses/incentives slashed or stopped, 401K contributions ceased and wage step backs.

State Government Indebtedness: The State of Arizona's budget problems are legion, of all states it has the second highest shortfall and considered the worst deficit in the nation. The gap is $2 billion with no real pending revenue in the foreseeable future. Federal stimulus money has all been spent basically due to the Governor and Legislature failing to realistically deal with budget cuts at state agencies and in programs. The Unemployment Insurance fund is insolvent. The Legislature is once again called this week into Special Session by the Governor. Additionally the tax structure of Arizona is largely based on sales taxes, money is collected by the State Treasurer and then distributed to counties, cities and towns. Proposals to increase sales taxes is strongly resisted. Raising taxes on a population and business community that is having difficulty paying current bills could only curtail spending and hiring, resulting in actually reducing revenue.    

Commercial Real Estate: The elephant in the room. The Valley is spread with high rises and strip malls that have never been occupied or even completed. There are many more that have already been vacated or are emptying out and prices on all commercial real estate this year have descended by 50%. The implosion of Mortgages Ltd. sparked devastation in the commercial market by reaching far beyond properties Scott Coles and company ever supposedly financed in a Ponzi-like scheme of tremulous magnitude. Essentially commercial property is in abeyance and has yet to fall completely although on it's way. It is a ticking time bomb.

Immigration and Population: Phoenix has a large illegal immigration population that is not being resolved. Regardless of political, ethical or moral considerations, this is economically unsustainable. People living in the shadows with little or no income and the associated social problems is factually a fiscally risky business. There are also reliable indicators, although the statistics are not complete, that Phoenix is de facto losing other population. It is accepted that a lot of talented, educated and high earners have already left, a loss of leadership and skills when most needed.

Denial: There is a sizable segment of the business community, political class and general population that has blinders on. No one likes to fail, concede or relinquish the life they've been living. The Day of Reckoning is coming and many people will be forced to skip anger/resentment, bargaining, depression and crash directly into hard pavement acceptance. Many people are going through these stages now but putting on a brave face (I refer to this as The Scottsdale Syndrome), which is masking as denial.


For some background, visit my post with a video blog done on Labor Day 2009, "The Economy and Me: My Hometown" http://bit.ly/3jjus3

PART TWO:

There is a future

411: What City Please?

Men Broke Barriers Too...

In early 1973 I was one of the first male telephone company switchboard operators hired by the Bell System (and Independent Companies) in the US in over 75 years. I was crossed-trained as a Directory Assistance operator (we worked with large paper directories) and as a Toll and Assistance operator on a manual cord switchboard built in 1948. I later worked as an overseas operator on old circuits in an International Operator Center. Some of my anecdotal operator stories, as well as operator history articles are on the website Privateline.

Telephone history still interests me and look forward on this blog for photographs of original switchboards we used "back in the day."


This is a short video I did a few years ago telling a comedic story about one of my experiences in those days.


411: For What City Please? from JR Snyder Jr on Vimeo.

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Arizona Blooms on the Ides of March

Season of "Just Right" blessed by lots of rain after Season of "Cool"

Desert Broom in bloom

Phoenix has three seasons: cool, just right and very hot. This has been an unusual year since we have had a very rainy winter with rainfall in the Phoenix metro area since January ranging from 4 to 10 inches according to rainlog.org for the period between January 1st and March 14. This has caused a lot of early blooming and an abundance of greenery after a very dry decade of drought.







March is generally when we can tell what type of summer we will have and so far this look's very good. I can not remember having a winter weather like this since the mid-nineties. What a great way to start a decade.

Spring Leaf Buds

We know that we can look forward to very hot but many of us like that season. It's far more enjoyable though after a mild cool winter and a spring of just right.