Tracey Taylor

New York Times, June 17 2010

Photo: Joe Fletcher.

“It sounds very Californian, but this home found us,” said Kim Todd, explaining why she and her husband, Andrew, left a 5,000-square-foot house with a pool and a large landscaped garden in Marin County for a home one-fifth the size, with a single bedroom and a wealth of deferred maintenance.

The couple, who run diPietro Todd, a chain of hair salons in the San Francisco Bay Area, first saw the crescent-shaped house nestled in a canyon of redwood trees here about four years ago, and almost immediately made the decision to move.

“We fell in love as soon as we saw the house and its surroundings,” Ms. Todd, 55, said. “Our work life is so public. It’s really quiet here, and the owls fly by at night.”

She and Mr. Todd, 49, had two children who were nearly grown — Luke is now 17, and Sophie is 21 — and they knew they were approaching the time when they would have to think about downsizing, since they were “soon going to be empty nesters,” she said.

But the architecture was a big part of the appeal. The house was built in 1958 by Daniel J. Liebermann, an architect who had apprenticed with Frank Lloyd Wright, and he was just 28 when he designed it for himself and his wife. Like most of Mr. Liebermann’s homes, it is constructed on a radial frame, with curving exterior walls.

Photo: Dean Kelly for NYT.

John Lovell, a friend of Mr. Todd’s who is a designer and had studied Mr. Liebermann’s work, showed him the listing when the house came on the market and urged him to take a look. Mr. Todd then passed the listing along to another friend, Wanda Liebermann, an architect who had helped design several of his salons, without realizing she was Mr. Liebermann’s daughter. “That’s the house I grew up in,” she told him.

Mr. Liebermann had sold the house in 1966, but he was living nearby — and still practicing architecture at 80 — and both he and Ms. Liebermann advised the Todds during the early stages of the renovation, although the lion’s share of the remodel was overseen by designer Vivian Dwyer.

But Mr. Todd also spent many hours alone on the property, ruminating about how to proceed. “I would stare at every angle and reconfigure the space in my mind,” he said of the house, which they bought in 2006 for $1,125,000. “In the end, it was clear the original design was best. We chose to edit and make the home more luxurious.”

That meant leaving the interior layout basically as it was, with one important exception: the three cramped bedrooms and two bathrooms in the sleeping area were replaced with a single master bedroom and bathroom, and a walk-in closet handcrafted in wood by a boat builder. (The couple’s son sleeps in an adjacent guest house; their daughter had already left home by the time they moved in a year ago.)

It also meant upgrading the house’s 19 skylights, putting in a new kitchen and refurbishing the radiant heating system. New lighting was installed throughout the house; the wood rafters and the ceiling were wire-brushed and waxed; the concrete floors were restained and polished; and the exposed brick walls were coated with plaster to create a more modern look.

Not surprisingly, the remodeling budget spiraled. “We started with the idea of spending $350 a square foot,” Mr. Todd said. “We ended up spending at least 25 percent more than that — at some point I stopped counting. I just knew we had only one chance to do it right.”

Living in a 1,100-square-foot house has had its challenges. The couple had to get rid of many of their possessions, including most of Mr. Todd’s collection of midcentury modern furniture. “I had to put so much in storage,” he said. “I brought my Mies van der Rohe daybed here, and it was too big, too square.”

Ms. Todd, however, is content to be a minimalist. “This home represents the next chapter for us as a couple,” she said. “It’s our rite of passage.”

New York Times, May 27 2010

Biz Stone. Photo: Phil McCarten/Reuters.

Biz Stone co-founded the micro-blogging service Twitter with Evan Williams in 2007. They met seven years ago when they both worked at Google. Stone earned an arts scholarship to the University of Massachusetts but dropped out to work as a designer at the book publisher Little, Brown in Boston.

In 1999, he helped start the blogging community Web site Xanga. Originally from Boston, Stone lives with his wife, Livia, in Marin County. Here, edited and condensed, are excerpts of his description of a leisure day. (Yes, he does post to Twitter during his time off.)

Frisky Fidos | My wife, Livy, and I wake up at 7 every morning, including Sunday. We’ve got two rescue dogs that get a little feisty if we don’t feed them: there’s Pedro, the one-eyed Chihuahua, and Maggie. Once the animals are sated, I usually do a quick check of e-mail and online news with a glass of water.

Culinary Mash-up | A typical Sunday morning starts with something I don’t usually bother with — breakfast. Livy puts together something for us to eat. Lately, it’s been southern style biscuits from scratch. We’re both vegan. Her dad is from Nashville and her mom is from Istanbul, so there’s an interesting range of influence in her cooking. Then we take the dogs out. Living in Marin means we can take them to so many beautiful spots, but, ironically, one of their favorite places is an office park near our house.

Memo From the Boss | There is work on my Sunday agenda. For almost two years now, I’ve been sending out a weekly e-mail address to employees, board members, investors and advisers. The e-mail covers accomplishments, mistakes, news, some funny personal anecdotes, recognition for a few team members. It takes a few hours to research and write. I’ll often go to a local Starbucks because it removes the distractions of home. I plan my whole Sunday around writing the e-mail. We’re going to be thrown for a loop when the opera season starts, as our tickets are all for Sunday matinees. I do Twitter on Sundays, but I always keep it under 140 characters.

Running the Sun Down | On Saturday, I do an eight-mile run, and on Sunday I do a 10-mile run. Richardson Bay from Mill Valley to Tiburon and back is a favorite route. I’m partial to timing my runs just as the sun starts to set.

Far From the Madding Crowd | We moved from Berkeley to Marin several months ago. I’m coming to appreciate country living, especially on the weekend because it’s more relaxing. We’re in Larkspur, which is generally quiet on Sunday. The spot is more commercial than neighborhoody, but it’s pretty fun that I can ride a boat to work on Monday mornings.

As the Day Turns | “How To Make It In America” comes on HBO on Sunday night, so I like to watch that if I can. I generally turn in around midnight no matter what day it is.

New York Times, May 7 2010

Parker Douglas, left, and Eric Burnstein heading to the Camp Herms Boy Scout Camp above Arlington Park in El Cerrito. Photos: Thor Swift for the New York Times.

Last summer, it all seemed so simple. The cellular telephone company T-Mobile approached the Mount Diablo Silverado Council — Boy Scouts of America to see if it would allow construction of a cellphone tower at Camp Herms, the group’s 23-acre hillside property above Arlington Park in the El Cerrito hills.

The company’s offer included a payment of $2,200 a month for 30 years, money the scout group said would help finance remodeling work at the camp and allow it to create additional programs. The scout council accepted the offer.

What it did not anticipate was the reaction from its members and camp neighbors.

Seven hundred people signed a petition protesting the proposed tower, 250 letters were sent to the scout organization, at least one scout master threatened to move his troop, and a local childcare center and the Sierra Clubadded their names to an orchestrated campaign against the tower. At the center of their opposition are concerns over health risks, particularly for children.

“We were stunned by the response,” said Valerie Ridgers, Mount Diablo Silverado Council’s assistant scout executive. “The tower would look like a tree, and there are no health hazards. The last thing we would ever do is put something up that would harm our scouts.”

The project has been put on hold while T-Mobile does a review, though the company will not say whether this is a result of the protests.

A sense of déjà vu is palpable. Community resistance to cell sites has been common since the mid-1990s, when the first big wave of cellphone tower construction began. In San Francisco, residents are organizing against proposed T-Mobile wireless facilities in at least six neighborhoods: the Sunset, Outer Sunset, the Mission, Miraloma Park, North of Panhandle and Presidio Heights.

In February, the Walnut Creek School District rejected a lease agreement with Clearwire to install a 37-foot wireless broadband Internet antenna at the Walnut Heights Elementary School.

But if the fights are familiar, the context has changed. The question surrounding the protest over the El Cerrito tower and other proposed locations for antennas is: How much coverage is enough? How many camouflaged antenna-trees must be introduced into the landscape to keep all those iPhone apps humming?

The 1996 Telecommunications Act prevents state and local governments from considering health concerns in locating wireless facilities. So the battles are often fought over aesthetics and need.

The growing popularity of smart phones, in particular, is driving demand for more cell sites. Sales of mobile phones stood at 1.2 billion worldwide in 2009, according to figures from Gartner, an information technology research and advisory company, and sales of smart phones rose to 172.4 million in 2009, up 24 percent from 2008.

AT&T says wireless data traffic on its network has grown more than 5,000 percent over the past three years. It says its wireline and wireless investment in California will total $18 billion to $19 billion this year, up 5 percent to 10 percent over 2009, with the addition of at least 200 new cell sites and upgrading about 500 additional sites.

Sprint says the Bay Area is one of its top 10 markets in terms of subscriber demand. Tower Source of Colorado Springs, which maintains an extensive database of cellphone tower sites, calculates there are 2,925 sites in the greater Bay Area, each with multiple carriers.

Nationwide, Tower Source said, demand for sites is increasing at about 13 percent annually.

The San Francisco Neighborhood Antenna Free Union estimates there are upwards of 500 locations and more than 2,500 individual antennas serving San Francisco, not including antennas on light and utility poles in the city’s public rights-of-way, or unlicensed WiFi hotspots in homes, coffee shop and libraries.

This is still not proving to be enough in some parts of the city. To address complaints of patchy iPhone signals, AT&T last month introduced Micro-Cells, miniature towers for inside offices or living rooms, which cost $150.

But as the infrastructure needs grow, opposition is becoming more vocal. In El Cerrito, a group calling itself Arlington Park Against Cell Tower has conducted its own research, which it says proves that local mobile phone signal strength is more than adequate. It suggests T-Mobile does not need the tower to improve coverage because it has a tower a half-mile away at Moeser Lane and Arlington Drive, and says a tower would lower values of nearby properties.

And despite assurances that there is no scientific basis for health worries — the Federal Communications Commission says there is no risk from the radio frequency radiation emitted from cell sites — worries persist.

Scott Houser, who leads El Cerrito Scout Troop 104, said that if the cell tower was erected, he would push to move his troop.

“We have this pristine gem in the city in the great outdoors, and I am fearful of the health hazards of a cell tower,” Mr. Houser said.

Nancy Kelleher runs Hug A Bug Pre-School, which is a few hundred feet from where the tower would stand. “There are no guarantees this is safe,” Ms. Kelleher said, “and it’s always after the fact that we find out there are health hazards in cases like this.”

“Child care is a competitive field,” she added. “I might have to relocate.”

Last month, Mayor Gavin Newsom of San Francisco signed a Board of Supervisors resolution calling on the federal Environmental Protection Agency to study the health effects of wireless facilities and requesting the repeal of the limitations that prevent health concerns being considered in cell site siting cases.

Mr. Newsom also supports a bill written by State Senator Mark Leno, Democrat of San Francisco, that would make San Francisco the first city in the country to require that cellphone retailers label their devices with the level of radiation they emit.

But impeding the expansion of the wireless network is a tall order. Roger Entner, an analyst at Nielsen Mobile, said that there were plenty of cases where municipalities had said no to a proposed cell site, but that “every single time, the municipality zoning board blinked and settled.”

Nonetheless, Doug Loranger, co-founder of the Coalition for Local Oversight of Utility Technologies, a nationwide organization working to change federal policy on cell towers and other wireless facilities, said he believed that legislation was tilting in favor of local governments.

Mr. Loranger cited the example of John Avalos, a San Francisco supervisor who is preparing legislation to institute a new permitting process for antennas proposed in public rights of way. He also mentioned the city of Glendale in suburban Los Angeles.

“After an 18-month moratorium on new cell sites that will end this June,” Mr. Loranger said, “Glendale will have adopted one of the most stringent celltower-siting ordinances in the state of California.” The ordinance will increase the city’s oversight of the placement of antennae; cellular equipment proposed for residential areas will face a more intense review process; and carriers may need to prove why the equipment is needed.

In El Cerrito, which, according to the city’s Planning Department, currently has 12 cellphone towers, the debate over another one being put up in Camp Herms is in limbo.

On March 30, T-Mobile informed the city that it was putting its application on hold.

“We want to further evaluate our network in El Cerrito,” said Rod De La Rosa, senior external affairs manager at the company.

Not every El Cerrito resident opposes the tower. Tracy Sichterman, a real estate agent who lives in the Arlington Park neighborhood, said: “I believe the debate about the need for cellphone coverage ended when consumer demand put a cellphone, or P.D.A., in nearly every hand including those of many of our children. Parks and open areas away from homes may make good location candidates for new towers.”

Ms. Sichterman said the effect on home values related to visual impact.

“Real estate values are clearly affected when an electrical or cell tower looms over a property’s backyard,” she said, “but this impact quickly diminishes when the tower is distant.”

On the other hand, Ms. Sichterman has started to see “poor cellphone reception” appear as a property defect in real-estate disclosure statements. “Some buyers, particularly those who work remotely, consider this to be a material concern when purchasing a home,” she said.

New York Times, May 2 2010

Photo: Thor Swift for the New York Times

Evan Shively was a chef at Postrio, the San Francisco restaurant owned by Wolfgang Puck, when it opened in 1989. The restaurant has since closed, and Mr. Shively now runs Arborica, a salvaged wood mill in Marshall that supplies architects and designers with reclaimed walnut, redwood and cypress with which to fashion floors, tables and doors. He lives next to the mill with his partner, the artist Madeleine Fitzpatrick. Mr. Shively visits the Occidental Arts and Ecology Center in Sonoma County regularly because, he said, its mission to preserve and restore native biodiversity mirrors his desire to be a steward of the land. (His words have been edited and condensed.)

HUMBLE BEGINNINGS The center is not an inherently exalted spot. It’s a random Californian hillside not unlike many others, a hardscrabble adobe that, year after year, has been added to and enriched, letting it manifest itself over time. Somebody chose to make it extraordinary, which is what makes it inspiring.

ORIGINS OF THE SPECIES I was a puppy prep cook — just starting out at Oliveto in Oakland — when I discovered this place. I wanted to find the source of some beautiful herbal greens that came into the restaurant.

RHYTHMS OF NATURE I think of myself as under pressure because the logs roll in, and if something is not done with them, they’re lost. But, here, the commitment to the effort is so sustained. They have a seed-saving garden that has to be grown out every five years. I look at all the plants and vegetables here and appreciate the fact that it’s a place that values diversity. When I visit, I see varieties of fava beans and garlic I’ve never seen before. And the flowers are woven in for the aesthetics.

Photo: Laura Morton for the New York Times

Several times a week, Daniel Handler and his 5-year-old son, Otto, walk from their home in Ashbury Heights to the Randall Museum, which sits on Corona Heights with spectacular views of San Francisco. Mr. Handler, the author of the best-selling series of children’s books, “A Series of Unfortunate Events” (under the pen name Lemony Snicket), has also written three novels. His current projects include a fourth novel, a children’s picture book titled “13 Words,” and the script for the second Lemony Snicket movie.

OFF LEASH This is my son’s favorite place to run amok. We go to the museum and to “lawsuit park” nearby — a playground which hasn’t been given the nervous-parent treatment yet. There are two dog parks. My son loves dogs but we don’t have one, so he gets to “rent” one here and frolic with it. It feels like he’s a dog, as he runs off energy while I drink mint tea and make chitchat.

ANIMAL BEHAVIOR It’s not unusual for us to stroll down very early and stand around with other hung-over owners of small creatures.

ALL SENTIMENTAL I grew up coming to this museum — they used to have a huge taxidermy bear in the lobby, it was up on its hind legs. I would do rock-polishing classes here after school. One of the joys of revisiting old haunts is that it makes you feel younger and older at the same time. I remember being here as a kid, and now I come here with my son, but I wish I could make that sound less “Hallmarky.”

BLOWING OUT THE COBWEBS I sit at a bench and table with my back to the view, like Gertrude Stein. Otto runs around while I feign interest. I have a fantasy that I’ll bring a pen and write like Lord Byron, but it can get quite windy. So I come here when I feel like a blithering idiot and need to empty out my head.

New York Times, April 9 2010

Isabel Allende and William Gordon. Photo by Heidi Schumann/New York Times.

Isabel Allende always begins writing a new book on Jan. 8, a tradition that began in 1981 with a letter she wrote to her dying grandfather that would become the groundwork for her first novel, “The House of Spirits.” Since then, Ms. Allende has written 17 books, among them “Paula,” a memoir in the form of a letter to her daughter who died in 1992. Born in Chile in 1942, Ms. Allende fled to Venezuela when her family began receiving death threats after the military coup that brought Augusto Pinochet to power in 1973. She is first cousin once removed to President Salvador Allende, who died in the coup. She lives in Marin County with her second husband, William Gordon. (Her words have been edited and condensed.)

CANINE PRIORITIES The first hint of light through the curtains wakes up Olive, our dog, and then our day starts. She jumps on the bed and demands her breakfast. We rescued her, and now we serve her.

MORNING RITUALS Willie, my husband, brings me a big — really big — cup of coffee with milk in bed. I drink my coffee slowly, enjoying the moment. Then we take Olive for a walk, usually to Samuel P. Taylor State Park. I have a favorite trail where I always reflect or pray a little. It’s where we scattered my daughter’s ashes. We stop at Two Bird Cafe in West Marin or Comforts in San Anselmo for breakfast. Coffee and toast is good enough, sometimes oatmeal.

DAILY MISSIVE We do some chores, like Costco, or the Farmers’ Market. At home, Willie reads the paper while I write to my mother, who is 90 and lives in Chile. I write to her every day, and she responds with beautiful, handwritten letters.

NURTURING THE TRIBE In summer we may have a full house on Sunday. When I moved here, I missed my extended Chilean family, so slowly I put together my “tribe.” We are between 10 and 17 people. If the tribe is coming for dinner, I cook the main course and sometimes dessert. Willie cooks the rest of the week; Sunday is his day off. In winter I may cook a Chilean vegetable stew (charquicán) and filet mignon, or a coq au vin, or beef stew. For dessert, a Chilean flan de leche, my son’s favorite.

FAMILY TIME My Sundays are ideal, especially when the family is around. I love to have all the kids in the pool (five grandchildren plus their friends), the women in the kitchen cooking and gossiping, the men watching a game. It’s like an Italian movie.

A SCRIBE’S CALL I try not to work on Sundays, but if I am in my writing time (Jan. 8 to around May), I may sneak to my casita to work if we have no guests. The casita was meant to be the pool house, but it ended up being my studio. I’m working on another novel, and I’m very busy now.

EARLY RETIREMENT If we are alone, we may watch a movie in bed. If we have company, Willie and Olive go to bed early, often before the guests leave. I go to bed later.

 

Photo: Cutter Capshaw Photography

New York Times, April 7 2010

Michelle Kaufmann, an architect, remembers leading Laura Bush, the first lady, on a personal tour of one of her prefabricated homes, pointing out its on-demand water heater and explaining how the graywater system recycled waste water. It was May 2006, and a full-scale model of Ms. Kaufmann’s Glidehouse design had been erected at the National Building Museum in Washington. It was, Ms. Kaufmann said, one of the high points for her design-build company, mkDesigns.

There were others. The company had its debut with a bang in 2004 when Sunset magazine chose to feature a model of the Glidehouse in its annual Celebration Weekend event in Menlo Park, Calif. An estimated 25,000 people — builders, architects, potential clients — waited in long lines that formed even before the doors opened to see mkDesigns’ modern take on the prefab home. The overwhelming response jump-started the company, which until that point had been a one-woman operation. It seemed like the right idea at the right time.

Ms. Kaufmann immediately hired a client-services manager to handle the hundreds of customer inquiries she began receiving and set to work building her business. “There hadn’t been a precedent for a green preconfigured home,” Ms. Kaufmann said, “and ours struck a chord.” The firm, based in Oakland, Calif., rapidly earned a reputation for its streamlined modular homes and went on to build a total of 53, mostly on the West Coast.

Ms. Kaufmann built more homes than any of the other dozen or so boutique prefab-home companies that have sprung up in the past decade. These include Resolution 4 Architecture in New York, LivingHomes and Marmol Radziner in Los Angeles, andFlatPak in Minneapolis. While most of the firms emphasized custom designs and high-end prices, mkDesigns aimed to reach a middle market with homes that cost $160 to $180 per square foot, not including the site.

Together, the green prefab companies represent a tiny segment of the home construction market, but with their focus on sustainability and affordability, they offer the prospect of genuinely green homes delivered to a mass market — an alternative to cookie-cutter spec houses and bloated McMansions. “Before the economic meltdown, all builders were looking at prefab in one way or another,” said Leo Marmol, founder of Marmol Radziner.

One reason was the success of similar firms outside the United States. Of all the new single-family houses built in Finland last year, for example, 68 percent were wholly or partly prefabricated, and the home building company Sekisui builds approximately 15,000 modular housing units a year in Japan.

Predictability is one attraction. Home parts are made in a controlled environment and assembled on site, often in a matter of days, meaning weather is less of an issue. And prefab buildings produce about 50 to 75 percent less waste than site-built homes.

Ms. Kaufmann’s first challenge was to find factories that would produce the parts necessary to assemble her homes. “Factories wanted high volume,” she said. And some of them did not want to take on the liability of manufacturing green but untested features, like countertops made of recycled paper.

Even when Ms. Kaufmann found factories that would create what she wanted, the alliances didn’t always last. “We found a factory in Canada that worked well for a while,” she said. “But they got a big order to build workers’ camps in Alaska and told us we would have to add six months to our project schedule, and they doubled the fee. Here we were in contract with a client — it was not acceptable for us to pass that on to them.”

In late 2006, Ms. Kaufmann decided she had no choice but to buy or build her own factory. With capital from one of mkDesigns’s partners, the company bought a modular-home factory in Seattle that was rapidly reconfigured to put out 14 homes a year.

To run the factory, Ms. Kaufmann hired away a manager who had been in charge of laptop production and distribution for Hewlett-Packard in Tokyo. This was in line with Ms. Kaufmann’s vision of creating a hybrid company that straddled the line between architecture and product design. “You could compare one of our homes to an iPod — a really well-designed product that can be customized with different skins and applications,” she said.

Having a manufacturing plant changed the game. “It allowed us to design the elements we wanted and to grow,” Ms. Kaufmann said. “We were wearing two hats and the clients were getting a better product.” The factory was so successful that within two years, it became apparent that the company needed another — larger and more sophisticated. “We didn’t start off with the fanciest factory,” Ms. Kaufmann said. “We were in bootstrapping mode.”

At the height of its success, mkDesigns employed 60 people in the design studio and the factory. Ms. Kaufmann attracted a number of investors willing to put up $100 million to help buy half a dozen factories across the United States. In early 2008, before the economy turned, the firm found a plant in Sacramento that it thought would be perfect. Ms. Kaufmann decided to sell the Seattle plant but leased it back and kept production going.

When the economy did turn, the mortgage collapse made it increasingly difficult for clients to obtain loans. With business declining and the housing climate increasingly uncertain, Ms. Kaufmann decided not to buy the Sacramento plant. “We realized others could do the job much more cheaply than us,” Ms. Kaufmann said. Things had changed. Factories that had previously been reluctant to risk manufacturing unfamiliar parts were now phoning Ms. Kaufmann, hungry for work and offering competitive bids.

But then, in quick succession, two factories she had chosen to work with went out of business. One had taken payment of $700,000 for two homes whose parts they had committed to produce, but mkDesigns had to finance the completion of both homes. The other factory left mkDesigns to finish work on homes whose parts were only partly delivered.

In hindsight, Ms. Kaufmann says she believes that one of her company’s main issues was an inability to create economies of scale. She and her partners had hoped that over time, and as the volume of their output grew, they would create more production and time efficiencies and that their costs would fall. Other practitioners have had similar problems.

“Volume is still one of our biggest challenges,” said Todd Jerry, chief operating officer at Marmol Radziner Prefab. Ms. Kaufmann concedes, too, that she was sometimes overly optimistic about production expenses and priced her homes for less than they actually cost.

Last May, she came to the painful realization that while the company might have been able to cope with one challenge, it could not handle all of its difficulties at once: the collapsing housing market, the closing of the two factories, the financial hits. “We need to close,” she told her staff, which had been pruned to 25.

It was a difficult time. “We had all invested so much of ourselves into the mission of making thoughtful, sustainable design accessible,” Ms. Kaufmann said. “Closing was heartbreaking.”

Last September, a fledgling prefab firm, Blu Homes of Boston, bought the rights to build mkDesigns’ preconfigured home models. Bill Haney, co-founder of Blu Homes, said the company had technologies that would allow it to make the homes more affordable. So far, none have been built. Ms. Kaufmann has opened an architectural studio.

A full-scale model of one of Ms. Kaufmann’s homes, an mkSolaire, continues to stand on the grounds of the Museum of Science and Industry in Chicago, a spot that had been occupied previously by only one other house, designed by Frank Lloyd Wright. Erected in May 2008, Ms. Kaufmann’s home features a solar-electric generation system and a living roof. Its purpose, according to the museum, is to “show consumers what the future may bring.”

Photo: Peter DaSilva/New York Times

New York Times, March 26 2010

After a long ride, the fantasy of a perfect day

Markos Moulitsas is founder and publisher of Daily Kos, the largest liberal blog in the United States, with one million to three million unique visitors a month. Mr. Moulitsas, 38, started his blog in 2002 after a stint at law school persuaded him that it would be “a cold day in hell” before he ever worked as a lawyer. Born to a Salvadoran mother and a Greek father, he is the co-author of “Crashing the Gate: Netroots, Grassroots and the Rise of People-Powered Politics.” He lives in Berkeley with his wife and two children. (His words have been edited and condensed.)

RUDE AWAKENING I have a 6-year-old and a 3-year-old. Sleeping in isn’t an option. My wife is an early riser and takes care of their needs, but I’m rarely in bed past 7:30 a.m.

LOGGING ON I grab my computer and quickly check in on my site and e-mail, make sure there aren’t any problems. Another quick scan ensures no big news happened overnight. I then check on the kids, who are usually fighting over the remote control or whining about having to go to church with my wife.

TWO-WHEEL WORK I eat a carb-heavy breakfast, fueling up for my long Sunday cycling training ride. Right now, that means a 50-to-60-mile ride, about three to four hours. I ride in the Berkeley and Oakland hills, Moraga, Orinda. Once a month, starting in May, I’ll be doing one century per month — organized rides of 100 miles or more. My big goal for the year is Death Ride: 129 miles with 15,000 feet of climbing over several mountain passes in the California Sierra.

REFLECTIVE TIMES You’ve got to think about something while on the bike for so many hours, so I try to work out family and work issues and strategize. I like to flex my entrepreneurial muscles, dreaming up new features for my site or even new business ideas. I’m also a classically trained pianist and composer, so I might dream up a catchy tune.

BIRTHDAYS AND BEARS Sundays are a big birthday day, so with two small kids, chances are there’s a birthday party. If not, the kids must be entertained, so it’s off to the Oakland Zoo, or hiking or going to a park. If it’s football season, I’ve got to watch my Bears. So I might have some people over so that the kids play together while I watch the game.

FANTASY LAND On an ideal Sunday, rather than a real one, I’d go out for my big, long bike ride. I’d get home. The kids would magically be napping, so I could take my own recovery nap. A few hours later, we’d wake up, go out for an early dinner. No one would fight, no one would spill food or drink all over themselves. We’d go to the park, have a great time, and when I told them it was time to go to bed, neither of them would complain. Add a Bears victory into the mix, and we’ve gone from ‘ideal’ to ‘perfect.’

New York Times, March 19, 2010

Photo by Heidi Schumann/New York Times.

As college admissions season draws to a close, the spotlight has been on students’ getting a foot in the door. Less attention is paid to how many of today’s high school seniors will emerge a few years down the line with diplomas in hand, and what might cause them to veer off track.

It is much tougher to stay the course in college if you are the first in your family to enroll in college, if you have rarely strayed far from home and if your life is still affected by family problems, be it a jobless parent or an addicted sibling.

At a national level, one student in two enrolling in college earns a degree within six years. In the Bay Area’s most challenged communities, the ratio is far worse.

The problem is most acute among young black and Latino men. According to data gathered by the Oakland Unified School District, only 8 percent of black teenagers entering ninth grade will get a bachelor’s degree. Only 34 percent of black male students, and 44 percent of Latino male students who entered the combined University of California and California State University system in 2001 had graduated six years later. The rate for white men was 62 percent.

That statistic, graduation rates, is in the cross hairs of the East Bay College Fund. It is perhaps the most visible of a small but growing number of Bay Area nonprofits that are beginning to make inroads in steering young, at-risk students to college, and also helping them through it. The fund’s method is to supplement financial aid with a carefully administered program of mentoring, peer-to-peer guidance and life-skills training.

Experts in education say the program may provide a model for bridging the college completion gap.

Take the case of Jameil Butler. His college aspirations were almost destroyed, despite his talent as a football player, when, in 2003, he took a bullet in the stomach outside a Sacramento nightclub. Then 17 and a football star at Oakland Tech, Mr. Butler had been assured by his coach that he was in line to receive an athletic scholarship. The injury eliminated that possibility.

After seeing a presentation by the East Bay College Fund at his high school, Mr. Butler put his future in the hands of the organizations that provide financial aid to underprivileged students.

Mr. Butler is now about to graduate from Fresno State, and he said he owed his success to being selected by a nonprofit that not only makes money available, but is also committed to assisting its scholars through graduation.

When Mr. Butler’s grades slipped 18 months ago, his East Bay fund mentor was there to help. “I didn’t hold up my side of the bargain for a while,” Mr. Butler said, “but they continued to be in my corner.”

The majority of educational charities have traditionally concentrated on the front end of the process. Government policy has also tended to concentrate on access, and has only recently turned its attention to completion, said David L. Kirp, a professor at the Goldman School of Public Policy at the University of California, Berkeley.

“We need more strategies to keep kids in school,” Dr. Kirp said. “The financial crunch has led to higher tuition fees, and cuts in courses, which means some students are facing a more expensive, longer term at college.”

Seeing the horizon stretching out indefinitely can discourage students who are already feeling overwhelmed.

The East Bay fund’s program, which awards individual grants of $16,000 spread across four years, is founded on graduation targets: it aims to have 75 percent of its scholars graduate within six years. Since its start seven years ago, the fund is on track to meet that goal. Twenty-nine of its sponsored students are on track to earn diplomas by the end of this academic year.

Having a mentor’s support through college was crucial for Brittany Chambers. Now a senior anthropology major at Berkeley, Ms. Chambers became a mother while attending Excel College Preparatory High School in Oakland. Despite the obstacles, she decided to try for college. Now she hopes to earn a masters’ degree in public health.

Her mentor, Patty Gates, a lawyer who volunteers for the East Bay fund, helps her prepare for exams, takes her to lunch once a month and is on call to talk. “I call her with personal problems, Ms. Chambers said. “She’s always there.” When the father of Ms. Chamber’s now 5-year-old daughter was murdered, the fund provided support.

Andy Fremder, a co-founder of the fund, said the organization concentrated on Oakland, where 70 percent of high school students are black or Hispanic, groups that are underrepresented on college campuses.

“Oakland can seem like a third-world country to some people,” Mr. Fremder said. “Many of these high school kids live under so much duress that a college education seems like a fantasy.”

Mr. Fremder and his team visit most Oakland high schools each year to talk to seniors about the fund.

In mid-January Mr. Fremder was at Life Academy High School of Health and Bioscience, where about 15 students turned up at a threadbare auditorium to hear him speak. Mr. Fremder opened with a question: “How many of you are interested in getting a $16,000 college fund?” Having secured their attention, he explained that beneficiaries must have a B to B+ average and documented financial need.

They must also be able to demonstrate that they have overcome obstacles and are capable of seeking help. “We want to know your story; we want to know you,” Mr. Fremder said.

Helping Mr. Fremder with the presentation was Sam Becerra, 24, a Latino who grew up in East Oakland. An East Bay fund scholar who graduated from Pomona College in 2008, Mr. Becerra now works in the financial services industry in San Francisco.

Dressed smartly, Mr. Beccera took each question in stride, admitting he had been so nervous on his first day at Pomona that he threw up, but went on to have four enjoyable years.

The East Bay fund is modeled on the Meritus College Fund, a San Francisco group that has awarded 300 scholarships since it was set up in 1996. Its founder, Dr. Henry Safrit, said that when the fund noticed a drop in the number of black men applying for grants it decided to take action.

“These are the kids at highest risk,” Dr. Safrit said. “They drop out of school, never work, are killed. It’s a waste of humanity.”

The fund revised its application requirements to include C grades in certain circumstances, and started a pilot program at two San Francisco high schools, where it monitors and supports every black male student. Erik Moore, a bond trader with Banc of America Securities in San Francisco, volunteers for the East Bay fund. Many of the young men , Mr. Moore said, need affection. “These are macho guys,” he said. “Sometimes you just want to hug them.”

Mr. Moore also makes a point of showing his charges what is possible. He takes them to where he works so they can experience the excitement of the trading floor. He also takes them to fund-raisers in stately homes on the Peninsula.

Mr. Moore, who is black, is in a good position to demonstrate to young black men what can be achieved. He grew up in Richmond and said it was through the encouragement of a next-door neighbor who became his mentor that he went on to graduate from Dartmouth College and get an M.B.A. at the Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth.

“A lot of the kids want to be Michael Jordan,” Mr. Moore said. “I show them that suits can make more money than athletes.”

The college completion model is getting noticed. In 2008, after many years of channeling its energies toward a diverse number of causes, the Berkeley Community Fund opted to pattern itself on the East Bay fund program and offer four-year scholarships and mentoring to students at Berkeley High School. Donors can choose to support an individual student.

“After we retooled,” said Jessica Pers, board president of the community fund, “we doubled our donations in 2009 over 2008.”

New York Times, March 4 2010

Slowly, signs of confidence are returning to the region’s housing market. The latest Case-Shiller index data shows that Bay Area home prices in December were up 4.8 percent from 12 months earlier. Real estate agents report seeing multiple offers again, including on foreclosed properties, which made up 36.6 percent of all homes sold in the area in January, according to MDA DataQuick.

Redfin, the real estate company, reported that there was competition for 92 percent of the offers it presented last month on Bay Area listings priced under $500,000.

But there are at least three significant bumps on the road to recovery. And they could be coming to a neighborhood near you.