Haven’t seen a web site like this in 10 years
Is this the new ‘antique’, is this old-fashioned, for the interweb?
Archive for May, 2007
Uh, that is the way it is supposed to work
I saw this headline in the news:
Wolfowitz Blames Media for Resignation
Uh, Mr. Wolfowitz, that is the way it is supposed to work. The media is supposed to bring to light problems and issues that organizations typically cannot fix by themselves.
The headline should read: Wolfowitz Blames Self for Resignation
A good quote from our CEO
Tod Sacerdoti, the CEO at BrightRoll, got a few good quotes in over at Clickz. This is good stuff, especially considering the noise in the space right now. It seems like every other day there is another article about a company doing AdSense for video and getting funding. Now that Google is finally announcing it, it will only get more press.
The interesting thing is… we’ve actually been in that space for about a year. We have made the right connections to the right advertisers
and publishers. We have a lot of experience in this area. This article helps shed some light on us. It’s already created some positive inbound.
Everybody wants to talk to Tod 
Incentives and taxes
As I took a walk around the block today, I noticed that yet another house was being taken apart in that strange California way. Here is what happens. Almost all of the house is torn down and taken away. A small vestige of the original house is left. Usually, the wood and material of this small portion are of questionable value. These houses were built in the late 40’s and the materials were the cheapest available. They then add a second story and build out almost to the edge of their property line. For all practical purposes, it is a new house with double or triple the rooms and bathrooms.
Why?
To avoid getting re-assessed at a higher value which would then trigger higher property taxes. On the surface, it seems like a smart thing to do. However, this is a neighborhood where paying a million dollars for a house is not uncommon. Usually the families doing this are the ones that bought in the last 1-2 years (aka, the top of the market), they are already paying the big property tax hit.
Here is the kicker.
At the last city board meeting, a lot of parents were upset because they couldn’t get their kids into the neighborhood school. Usually these ‘renovations’ are done by new families with small children. Their kids have their own room, but may not have a school with teachers that receive a great salary.
Prop 13. Regardless of its original intenions or spin (protecting those on fixed income), it hasn’t saved anyone in California from higher taxes or inflation.
World War II airplane circling above
For the whole weekend, an old plane from WWII has been circling above the bay area. Kinda neat to see something like that still operating.
