Dateline 6/24/07

As weekends go, this one was pretty good. On Friday I met my new girlfriend after work and hung around Center City all evening. On Sat. morning, my friend from home called me at 8am to tell me he had won tickets to a music festival in north Jersey that day. We decided then and there to go on a road trip and a little afternoon we were at the state fairgrounds to listen to surviving members of several 60's and 70's bands, (Iron Maiden, Alice Cooper, etc) and a bunch of decent cover bands as well. We smuggled in some mixed drinks and played Frisbee and boccie for hours on the field. In hindsight, playing Boccie in a crowded field while drunk may not have been the greatest idea, although no one was injured... It was also nice to mix my friends from high school and grad school. I hang around with a lot of random people so mixing is always good.

On the way home from the concert, we went down Rt 206 and I made a striking observation about the state of New Jersey. After about an hour of driving, I pointed out to my girlfriend (a longtime resident) that the scenery was like a super nintendo racing game, the same scenery motifs just keep repeating. Basically as you drive you see pharmaceutical companies, small nice commercial buildings, big box stores, and track housing - almost exactly in that order, over and over. I spent the next half hour pointing out each change in this scenery to great effect, after awhile, we could predict almost exactly what was coming up next.

Opinion : Philadelphia (my Sim City)

After a lot of complaining about the state of things in the city of brotherly love, people maybe wondering what I would do to fix it. Well, I have played a lot of simcity in my day, so here are my suggestions to improve the place.

1. Goal : reduce vacancy and improve quality of life. Feasibility: very reasonable

Problem: in many neighborhoods are vacant buildings, particularly row houses and abandoned factories. As many city dwellers flee to the suburbs, their old homes are written off and fall into disrepair

Solution: bulldoze the vacant structures. it seems simple, yet it is rarely done. The city should step up efforts to condemn these buildings and level them. Especially the factories. The second step would be to plant grass and trees on the empty lots.

Intended results: At minimum this will help the environment. Those rotting townhouses and factories are loaded with lead and asbestos, and this is likely a cause of the huge asthma rates in north philly kids. Parks will also add aesthetic value to improve quality of life. As for the economics, it should help increase property values in many areas and would also reduce crime by giving drug dealers fewer places to operate from. It may also spur new development in some areas.

2. Goal: reduce transportation congestion Feasibility: Only with federal funding

Problem: Highways are choked by volume delays even at non peak times. Most of the population is under-served by public transit. A car is always needed in Philly, even if you live in city high rises.

Solution : Increase highway volumes by adding lanes. this could be done by simply widening some routes (blue route and other suburban commuter roads) and by stacking lanes on I-76 and I-95 (think the FDR in NYC). Also they need to get rid of the lane pinches on each end of I-676 (worst highway design ever) Finally they need to over or underpass every intersection in the express lanes of Roosevelt blvd. Pedestrian walkovers on Roosevelt and Vine steets would also save several lives per year.
Moving on to the Mass transit system, they need to build subway lines (or elevated rail) to serve built up areas such as south Philly, Columbus ave. (the tracks are already there for god sakes, and btw, this would eliminate the need to drive to go shopping), Northeast philly (maybe run a line down Roosevelt ave.) Germantown, and Manyunk. The train service barely cuts it and the buses take forever and are unpredictable. Also, the transit system should run 24/7.

Intended results: should reduce congestion and pollution. Also should help businesses outside of Center City and make Philly a more walkable city. Highway improvements would also reduce the very high motor vehicle accident rates.

3. Goal: Improve City Quality of life Feasibility: very reasonable

Problem: Homeless people everywhere. Garbage all over many streets and covering vacant lots. all the transit stops reek of urine. Even thriving business and neighborhoods look cheap and run down.

Solution : Rudy Guliani style, "broken windows theory" ordinance enforcement (ie. copy NYC). Make the local police enforce aesthetic violations. Forcibly remove vagrants, especially from city statues and transit stations. Crack down on unlicensed vendors and bar any vendors from setting up on narrow sidewalks. Intersection cameras throughout the grid and anti-noise and horn laws should be passed. Make business maintain the exterior of there properties even if it is in a bad neighborhood (ahem, Uhaul) and fine them heavily if junk is on the left on the property of landscaping is not maintained. City should do its part and clean up around transit lines (especially the North philly rail corridor) and recreation centers.

Intended results: City should be a healthier place to live. Property values and tourists should increase.

4. Goal: Reduce crime Feasibility: reasonable

Problem: Young black men are safer in Baghdad. Property crimes are rampant, even in nice areas. It is not safe to walk around at night.

Solution : Lots of things need to be done. First, reduce unemployment and fix schools (see below). Second, a lot more police officers (Gov. Rendell's "troop surge" of about 1000 officers seems about right) The police need to be able to respond to minor complaints such as break ins and car thefts. Detective resources need to be increased to solve many more of the cities murders. Also, youth need something to do so add more all night rec centers and finish the wireless/laptop computing project. Community policing initiatives like having officers patrol streets on bikes or walk neighborhoods in plain clothes would also help( Drexel U. has apparently ordered its rent-a-cops to start doing this). Adopting NJ's gun control laws would also help. Improving access to mental health care is also needed.


5. Goal: Reduce unemployment Feasibility: reasonable

Problem: High unemployment and poverty

Solution : Create jobs with both private commercial development and public works initiatives. I would expand the CC program that pays those people in green shirts to walk around and clean things. That is a win-win program that would benefit the whole city. Also I would encourage more big-box development in former industrial parks. This worked so well in south Philly, it should be expanded to North and West Philly. Casinos should help
Also schools and job training programs need to be improved.


6. Goal: Targeted re-development Feasibility: some parts reasonable

Problem: Odd development patterns plague parts of this planned city. Also see #1.

Solution : Needed projects for selected areas:

around convention center: get rid of homeless shelters, adult stores, and parking lots on arch street. Replace with restaurants and shops, and probably another hotel

on North Broad: bulldoze the shady businesses and develop nice residential to connect the Fairmount and Northern Liberties neighborhoods.

with old MCP Hospital: develop high rise condos. That is a perfect spot on the hill overlooking the river.

Italian market area and chinatown: Needs nice restaurants

Area around temple: bulldoze the row houses and build a sports complex and low-rise student housing. The money they spent on that Edge complex could have improved probably 20 city blocks.

Area on edge of U City: Same as above. (Drexel led the way with W. Philly athletic complex.) They need to get more businesses on west market street and more college buildings out west.

Along Delaware River and in Old city: build high-rise condos. This is a part of the city people actually want to live in...they should try to pack them in.

maybe more to come later...

Good article : Global prosperity (or lack thereof)

This article is a great analysis of our current world, although I have a few quick thoughts:

1. I am not entirely convinced that the world can physically support a world where the BRIC countries consume as much as the US and Europe per capita. Serious tech improvements will be necessary, and major conflicts in those emerging countries could easily derail improvements, especially if poor workers revolt in China or the India -Pakistan conflict heats up.

2. The article claims only 50 mil. people will be added to 1st tier countries. This must not be counting immigration (there are a quarter that many Mexicans in the US alone). Not counting immigration in this type of analysis is a major oversight.

3. The author and his world bank friends seem to believe that money is the solution to all of the world's problems. Increasing African aid is not going to do anything unless those african recipients have the infrastructure and institutions to invest and distribute that money. Long story short, giving everyone in Somalia $100 (double the highest per-capita african aid) isn't going to fix anything (it will likely make the problem worse. Also, judging by the past effectiveness of the World Bank, It is clearly not the answer to the said lack of infrastructure.

Opinion : The end of a good car

The news that Honda is canceling its Accord hybrid makes me sad. At the auto show a year ago, I though this car was the best all around practical car on the market. It was fast, looked cool, got great gas mileage, and looked cool. Alas, lately the auto industry is being more driven by marketing than technology (at least more so that usual) as several companies try to cut costs and look cool. I would say the biggest victim of this trend is Honda. (honorable mention to Ford, which has actually made a few decent cars lately) Honda has clearly been the biggest innovator of late and it has nothing to show for it. It was the first to the market with hybrid technology (with the Insight), the first to put that technology in a normal model (the civic) and its latest redesigns simply look cooler than their Toyota rivals and they haven't been plagued with as many recalls as Toyota or Mitsubishi. Problem is they are getting crushed in the market. Toyota is outselling them in pretty much every category, and they are the slowest growing Japanese automaker. (to be fair, it isn't all hype, Nissan, Mitsubishi and Mazda 08 models all look cooler and generally go faster)
While I would probably by a Nissan if i had the cash, it bothers me as an engineer and a tech fan when the innovator loses out to a rival with simply better hype.


Disclaimer: for financial reasons, I currently drive a beat up 92 Corrrolla

Opinion : Future mayor of Philadelphia

Well the democratic primary in Philly has come and gone, and the least ambitious black guy (in this case, Michael Nutter, who i would only have voted for if he named one of his kids Fluffer) has won again. Something tells me that this will not change the city all that much. I think that the candidate that this city really needs is already in the mix. The person who really should be the next mayor of Philly is Mayor Street's crazy felon brother: Milton Street.

Now you might ask, why would a rational conservative want a mentally ill, corrupt felon from jersey running the city? Because in my opinion, Philadelphia's problems have gotten well past the point where sound rational planning are going to do much. At this point even when the city does act in its own interest, it gets slapped down by the state (on school budgets, gun sales, and zoning casinos, in just the last year). Crime and unemployment are skyrocketing, public transit ,the schools, and local hospitals are all going bust, real estate outside of CC is dying, and the police seem rather useless. A mayor who is going to open a few more rec centers, have the police frisk black people, and smile with children is not what this city needs. A mayor who is going to shout down critics, lie about actual tax revenue, and embezzle money from neighboring states is exactly what this city needs. Judging from his display at city hall a few months ago (Fark.com didn't do it justice) I bet Milton isn't afraid to stand up to Ed Rendell over self governance(the dems don't support him now anyways, he has nothing to lose). And I am sure that someone who claims $200K in income selling hot dogs would not be put off when the school district loses $70 mil in its budget (just move the decimal point over a few times, we will shake down Bill Gates foundation for the difference later). Also as an added bonus, he wont be able to seriously offend anyone, because noone takes him seriously. Further more, taking his fellow criminals over to Jersey when the police start to close in is about the best crime fighting plan for Philly that I have heard yet.

At any rate, if a logical rational solution to the local troubles were to be found, It would have been found already. Clearly that approach is failing, what we need is a change. Philly needs to embrace its urban character and elect a corrupt, mentally ill, insider as our next mayor. Milton Street in '07

Dateline 6/6/07

IMS is over, long live IMS! actually it isnt ending in itself, just my being in it and this is important because it is now my full time job to find people to fill the program for next year. I can honestly tell these potential candidates that it was worth it. This program challenged me non stop. I learned a lot and am much better prepared, and more likely to get into medical school.

On the medical school note, the AMCAS (application service) went live yesterday, meaning that it is time to dance the dance again. I am very confident this time however, at least for getting into Drexel (and the interview is guaranteed). I would honestly rather leave Philly, but not too concerned about that at this point. The great thing about my job is that i get to read 100's of other people's admissions packets, so i have a lot of insight into what to write and what works for these things. I rewrote all my essay's and activity descriptions this year and they seem to be a lot better than last time. It remains to be seen if this helps.