ANDERSON ASKS PUBLIC HELP AS IOU BILL STALLS IN COMMITTEE
By Miriam Raftery August 24, 2009 (San Diego’s East County) – Assemblyman Joel Anderson (R-Alpine) is asking constituents help to win passage of his Assembly Bill 1506. The measure would require the state to accept its own IOUs as payment from individuals and businesses who owe the state money for taxes, vehicle licensing fees or other matters. The bill has bipartisan support of 45 coauthors and has been endorsed by State Controller John Chiang, a Democrat. However the Chairman of the Assembly Appropriations Committee last week suspended the bill from being heard by the full Assembly, but has pledged to reconsider the matter on Wednesday. The state has issued nearly $2 billion in IOUs since July 1. The Controller expects to begin redeeming IOUs in early September. “Calfornia’s credit worthiness won’t be measured on Wall Street, but rather on Main Street,” Anderson said. “If the Appropriations Committee fails to pass AB 1506, then California will be sending a clear message to the investment community. If we don’t accept our own credit, why should anyone else?” Anderson will present over 920 letters of support from taxpayers, small businesses, charities, local government agencies, healthcare facilities and business leaders. His office estimates the state would save $18 million by accepting IOUs, since the state will have to pay a 3.75% annualized interest rate over a four-month period. Cities and counties, including San Diego, stand to benefit financially from Anderson’s bill, since the amount of IOUs exceeds what is owed in taxes and fees to the state. “The County could recover $78 million in less than a month,” Anderson said at the East County Chamber of Commerce’s “Politics in Paradise” event on Friday. Opponents cited concern over the state having available funds diminished by accepting the IOUs, however the Chair has indicated he may reconsider the measure in light of cost-saving figures compiled by Anderson’s office. Anderson argues that the state’s financial crisis is harming charities and nonprofits as well as cities, counties, businesses and individuals. He cites the example of Noah Homes in Spring Valley, which is owed six figures by the state yet can’t use its IOU to pay a hefty tax bill owed. “We’re just trying to make sure the state lives within its means,” concludes Anderson, who requests that letters from constitutents on this matter be sent to him at Assemblymember.anderson@assembly.ca.gov.
ARE YOU IN THE MARKET TO BUY YOUR FIRST HOME?
August 24, 2009 (El Cajon)– Looking to buy? San Diego Habitat for Humanity (SDHFH) will be constructing four single-family homes at 801 Avocado Avenue in El Cajon, in partnership with the Jimmie Johnson Foundation and the El Cajon Redevelopment Agency. The El Cajon Redevelopment Agency will be providing the four qualified households a silent second mortgage of approximately $50,000 using criteria under the California Dream First-Time Homebuyer Program – Habitat for Humanity. Income, asset, credit, payment ratios, and payment limitations will apply. San Diego Habitat is a non-profit organization whose goal is to eliminate substandard housing in San Diego County by providing low-income families with the opportunity to become homeowners. SDHFH builds new homes for qualified families. Families purchase the homes with a no-interest mortgage. Since 1987, SDHFH has built a total of 99 homes throughout San Diego County. “San Diego Habitat’s success is due to its dedicated volunteers and hardworking families,” said Monica Zech, spokesperson for the City of El Cajon.”All selected families are required to complete “sweat equity” hours in order to move into their new home.” For more information on this opportunity to own your own home, call Shayna Hensley, Family Services Specialist, at (619) 283-4663, ext 314.
A Requiem for Reading?
by Craig S. Maxwell The memorial service for my grandfather, Vernon Wahrenbrock, was sparsely attended; the inevitable consequence, I suppose, of his having lived nearly a century. All his friends and much of his family were gone. We, his survivors, were there of course. And so were a few of the folks he’d come to know at the rest home. But the only other person to pay his respects that day was Chuck Valverde. It was February 18th, 2008 and already he was pale and thin. Still, I had no way of knowing that within six months I and hundreds of others would be attending a memorial service for Chuck himself. The link between these very dissimilar but remarkable men was, of course, Wahrenbrock’s Book House – the shop my grandfather founded in 1935 and that Chuck had operated (and later owned) since 1967. Wahrenbrock’s had always been the flagship of San Diego’s used bookstore fleet and one of the best used bookstores on the West Coast. Recently, many San Diegans were shocked and saddened to hear that the store itself was gone – its doors closed forever. The store’s sudden demise, falling as it did hard on the heels of its owners’ deaths, has provoked thought and memory. Is this simply a reflection of the timing? Smack on the front page of the San Diego Union-Tribune was the story of a small business – Wahrenbrock’s – gone south. Why? Other failed ventures don’t get that kind of attention. Sure, at 74 the shop was old – at least by San Diego standards. But no one had paid any attention to my father’s business when it closed back in the nineties, and it had been around since 1896. No, there was something about Wahrenbrock’s, and perhaps about used bookshops in general (which have been steadily disappearing for twenty years or more) that led to all the attention and caused our city’s collective lament. I think I know the answer, but my explanation will require a brief detour through the past. I, too, was destined to become a used bookman. On one occasion during my informal yet invaluable apprenticeship with Brian Lucas at Adams Avenue Bookstore a co-worker, while casually thumbing through a volume said, “You know, this is a pretty durable piece of technology.” He was right. The technology to which he referred was the codex book – the book as we commonly know it. I was amazed at the profundity of that simple observation. In ancient Greece and Rome, books had been printed on long rolls (think of cellophane or aluminum wrap) called scrolls. This made the reproduction of them (not to mention dog earing favorite pages!) very difficult. But even after the eighth century when most them had been copied into codex form – individual pages sewn or glued at one edge to a spine with hinged boards – the difficulty of reproduction remained. However, both the inconvenience and the scarcity of this commodity were offset by the paucity of need; few people could read. Literacy was largely the province of clerics and scholars. It wasn’t until around 1450 when Gutenberg invented moveable type that this technical difficulty was overcome and in what must be one of the most momentous historical coincidences of all time, Gutenberg’s innovation coincided with the work of another man whose teachings would create for it an inexhaustible market: Martin Luther. Luther’s theology made the Book – the Bible, that is – more important for believers than the Church itself. And this, of course, meant that people must become acquainted with it, must read it. In short, for Luther and his followers reading was close to being a prerequisite for knowing God. Talk about an incentive! But whether Luther was right or wrong, one can easily imagine the effect this doctrine had on the then fledgling publishing industry. Printing presses popped up all over Protestant Europe, and by the beginning of the sixteenth century, had produced over nine million volumes! A revolution had occurred and one of the chief instigators was the need to read. Literacy began to spread, and the world would never be the same. As Europe’s greatest progeny, America could not help but share in the culture of the book. Here, the changes that began with the Protestant reading revolution received the added impetus of powerful political theories that clearly delineated the natural rights of individual men. Included among these was, of course, self-governance and this in turn required that every citizen be at least minimally acquainted with its fundamental principles. Red schoolhouses sprang up from east to west and the teachers in them helped their students learn. But the primary vehicle of learning was always the book. It would be no exaggeration to say that from colonial times through at least the first half of the twentieth century the heart, mind and soul of America was formed by books. …Was formed. But is it still? Since the Second World War many have been skeptical and not without reason. Already hurt by the pseudo-philosophical “post-modern” literary theories still fashionable in academia (one all-too-representative professor I had the misfortune to speak with told me that he teaches his students that Shakespeare, comic books and a deck of playing cards all possess the same degree of literary merit), books and reading have been further damaged by electronic competitors: movies, television, and most of all, the Internet. Advocates of online reading argue that literature will still be read and that only the medium – not the message – has changed. But when these same tools can with equal ease, and in a split second, conjure up games, videos, movies, photographs, TV shows, phone conversations and every other conceivable form of cheap digital distraction, it’s difficult to see how attention-demanding literature can keep up. Veteran Wahrenbrock’s bookseller Jan Tonessen put it concisely: “We’re going from a culture that was once dominated by this
MARTIAL ARTS SCHOOL HOSTS GRAND OPENING AUG. 29 — PUBLIC INVITED TO FREE DEMONSTRATIONS
August 24, 2009 (La Mesa)–United States Tang Soo will be celebrating the grand opening of a new school on Saturday, August 29 from Noon until 3PM. After outgrowing its previous location, the school has moved into a 3000 sq/ft building at 5200 Jackson Drive, La Mesa (across Jackson Drive from Toys R Us). Classes are offered for all ages from three to 103, and for all ranks. The public is invited to the grand opening festivities, which will include demonstrations of martial arts traditional forms, practical application of techniques and board- and brick-breaking demonstrations. The Lil’ Dragons (3 to 5 year olds) will demonstrate their techniques and board breaking abilities. Promotions of several students to Black Belt will also be celebrated. Drawings for free tuition and t-shirts will be held at 3 p.m. (Winners need not be present to win). U. S. Tang Soo Do (previously known as Sam Frazier Schools of Tang Soo Do) has been in continuous operation since 1996. Please call Master Instructors/Owners Bonnie Welch (619-417-1980 or Sam Frazier (858- 456-5822) for more information.
EDITORIAL: THE ECONOMICS OF “PREVAILING WAGES”
By Tracy Emblem August 23, 2009 (San Diego)–The federal prevailing wage law known as the Davis-Bacon Act was passed in 1931 after the Great Depression. In 1979, nine states repealed laws enforcing prevailing wages as a large-scale "deregulation" and "privatization" movement began in our country across all types of industries. This has not been beneficial to the public because the short term bottom line is more often valued over people and worker’s wages. In California, our prevailing wage law requires hourly rates and benefits to be paid at scale based on where the construction project is located. The law prevents the driving down of local wages and allows local union contractors to compete on a level playing field with non-union contractors. California’s prevailing wage law encourages the hiring of skilled local workers and insures that there are skilled supervisory personnel on the job. Additionally, where prevailing wages are paid, training and job safety programs are more prevalent. Prevailing wage laws do not drive up the cost of construction. A study comparing 391 school projects between 1991 and 2000 conducted by University of Utah’s Chair of Economics, Dr. Peter Phillips, showed no statistical cost difference between schools built with and without a prevailing wage laws. Prevailing wage laws have no impact on "private" construction projects, but do prevent contractors from importing lower wage workers from other states to fill construction jobs intended for local residents and paid for by the taxpayers. Recently the Fourth District Court of Appeal ruled that California’s charter cities can avoid prevailing wage requirements. At a time when our cities are cash-strapped for revenue and people in our own communities need good paying jobs, cities should not hide behind their municipal charter and look only at the short-term bottom line because prevailing wages help build our local economies. A simple premise supports the economic benefit of the prevailing wage law. When workers are paid prevailing wages, their income enters the stream of commerce. Workers who earn a livable wage in turn spend their income in our communities at restaurants, car dealers and other businesses. This generates income for our businesses and revenue for our cash-strapped local governments to pay for public services such as fire and libraries. Cities should not look only at the bottom line. The Davis-Bacon law enacted 78 years ago makes good economic sense and has a broader economic impact. Consequently, we should insist that federal stimulus funding for our local construction projects stay in our communities at prevailing wages. Tracy Emblem is an attorney and a Democratic candidate for U.S. Congress, California’s 50th District. The opinions voiced in this editorial reflect the views of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of East County Magazine. If you wish to submit an editorial for consideration, please contact editor@eastcountymagazine.org.
SIMPLE WISDOM: HOW TO OUTWIT YOUR IMPULSES
