Pasadena Sub Rosa

OBAMA'S NEW NEW JOBS PROGRAM IN A NUTSHELL

Yuval Levin summarizes: "Spend $450 billion dollars now, it will create jobs, and I’ll tell you how I’m going to pay for it a week from Monday. If you disagree, you want to expose kids to mercury."

VANDALIZED ART AND BROKEN WINDOWS FALLACY

Remember a few months ago when a mural was painted on the wall of a market in northwest Pasadena as part of a city-funded public arts project and then painted over a couple of weeks later by the proprietor of the business?  

Well, now we have another case of vandalism of a city-funded arts project – a sculpture of a hummingbird costing $12,000.  But what did you expect when the program is meant to give away money on the pretense of community art? 

Read about it here:

http://www.pasadenastarnews.com/news/ci_18849557   

This reminds us of what is called “The Broken Windows Fallacy” that says windows will be broken to create work for glaziers.  Read below;

The parable of the broken window was created by Frederic Bastiat in his 1850 essay That Which is Seen and That Which is Not Seen to illuminate the notion of hidden costs (a.k.a. opportunity costs).

This idea is not to be confused with the supposed sociological and criminological effects of Broken Windows, a theory associated with Rudolph W. Giuliani and discussed here: [1].

Bastiat uses this story to introduce a concept he calls the broken window fallacy, which is related to the law of unintended consequences, in that both involve an incomplete accounting for the consequences of an action. Economists of the Austrian school of economics frequently cite this fallacy, and Henry Hazlitt devoted a chapter to it in his book Economics in One Lesson.

The parable describes a shopkeeper whose window is broken by a little boy. Everyone sympathizes with the man whose window was broken, but pretty soon they start to suggest that the broken window makes work for the glazier, who will then buy bread, benefitting the baker, who will then buy shoes, benefitting the cobbler, etc. Finally, the onlookers conclude that the little boy was not guilty of vandalism; instead he was a public benefactor, creating economic benefits for everyone in town.

The fallacy of the onlookers' argument is that they considered the positive benefits of purchasing a new window, but they ignored the hidden costs to the shopkeeper and others. He was forced to spend his money on a new window, and therefore could not have spent it on something else. Perhaps he was going to buy bread, benefitting the baker, who would then have bought shoes, etc., but instead he was forced to buy a window. Instead of a window and bread, he had only a window. Or perhaps he would have bought a new shirt, benefitting the tailor; in that case the glazier's gain was the tailor's loss, and again the shopkeeper has only a window instead of a window and a shirt. The child did not bring any net benefit to the town. Instead, he made the town poorer by the value of one window.

 

 

 

 

A COMPARISON OF MOVING FROM CALIFORNIA TO TEXAS

Recently, this writer aided an 82-year old widow move from California to Texas in order to get out of California due to its high overall taxation and declining social environment.  But how much house can you afford in Texas compared to California?  Below is a comparison.

San Marino, California is an affluent suburb of Los Angeles of about 13,000 people with its own police force and a highly rated school system that does not depend on state funding. 

Terrell Hills, Texas is also an affluent suburb of San Antonio with a population of about 5,000 also with its own police force and highly rated school district. 

If you look carefully, you can find an under-market home in Texas to compensate for any decline in value to your property in California.  In the comparison below the buyer picked up a property in San Antonio for $190,000 under market value that is almost double the size of their property in California.

Any one wanting to relocate to Texas would be well served if they contacted either o the brokers listed below.   

See photos of both homes below.

 

	South Los Robles San Marino CA 91108	117 Canterbury Hills Dr. Terrell Hills TX  78209
Sales Price	$1,325,000	$560,000
Market Value	$1,500,000	$750,000
Home Size Sq. Ft.	3,700 SF	5,061 SF
Lot Size Sq. Ft.	13,000 SF	10,325 SF
Bedrooms/Baths	4 bedrooms, 3 baths	4 bedrooms, 4.5 baths
Garage	2 car garage with guest quarters	3 car garage
Year Built	1928	1949
Condition	Partly upgraded with new copper plumbing and horizontal electrical	Completely upgraded by owner upon sale
Days on Market	118	230
Property Taxes	$14,624 upon new sale	$15,932
Assessed Value	$1,480,000 estimated	$693,350
Seller’s Broker	Soma Warna San Marino, CA (626) 394-6216	Phyllis Browning Phyllis Browning Co. 6101 Broadway Alamo Heights, TX 78209 (210) 824-7878
Buyer’s Broker		Clint Neal Keller Williams Realty 10999 IH-10 West Suite 175 San Antonio TX 78230 (210) 844-0393

Below: San Marino home photo

 

 New Home in Terrell Hills, Texas - a suburb of San Antonio

120-PERSON LAW FIRM LEAVES PASADENA FOR GLENDALE

 

The law firm Christie, Parker and Hale is moving its 120 lawyers from Pasadena to Glendale, joining an exodus of many firms to Glendale.  So reports the Pasadena Sun newspaper. 

Read here: 

http://www.pasadenasun.com/the626now/tn-818-0907-firm,0,1825573.story