Monthly Archives: April 2007

Long Beach Airport on the Move Again

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The Long Beach Airport Terminal Improvements study session is scheduled for today.

The Long Beach City Council will conduct another study session at 6 p.m. today on the improvements to the Long Beach Airport terminal.

There will be a presentation from staff and HOK Architectural Consultants pertaining to the size of the renovated terminal.

It will be good to see what both sides of the project have to say and finally make up our minds once and for all.

It seems we need to update and modernize the airport. Jetblue has offered to update their terminal.

Playing Hooky with Catalina

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OK, I played hooky and haven’t been writing much.

On the weekend I most look forward to, the Long Beach Grand Prix, we were invited to go to Catalina, which was a first and a beautiful surprise.

I was upset to miss out on the first time the American Le Mans series would be racing our streets. As much as I like F1 and other types of open one seaters, I find prototypes and GT races much more interesting, technical and closer to what we use on the streets. Anyway, I watched it on TV.

However, Catalina was a great discovery and surprise. A mixture of a happy peaceful village with Spanish Revival beauties everywhere, I felt at home.

I was surprised to see the amount of well built homes, the details in their Spanish Revival architecture and the overall feeling of the island. Most houses were built out of sturdy bricks and concrete with the occasional brick home. I guess living on an island with little trees, it was easier to built them like that.

I watched the young kids growing up there and though it would be a great place until High School even though most kids probably need more fun.

Wow, what an island and only an hour away from us. Frankly, this reaffirmed that Long Beach has so much to offer.

Networking in Lakewood

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The Lakewood Chamber of Commerce will host its monthly mixer tomorrow, the 16th, from 5 to 7 p.m. at the Ohana Hawaiian BBQ. Yum, just te food alone… never mind!

The restaurant is at 5300 Clark Ave, Siote A2 in Lakewood. 562-922-6377

Business Journal Opposition

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The Long Beach Business Journal opposes propositions B And C that calls for salary increases and extension of term limits.

I don’t know enough to formulate an intelligent pro vs. con argument. One thing is for sure, given how the newspapers have presented the propositions, it would make most people against it. I guess the councilmembers need to explain why they deserve more. Hopefully, they can substantiate it.

See the next issue of the Long Beach Business Journal.

Seeking Alpha Real Estate News

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If you ever want to sink your teeth into the a very well written and researched site on, amongst other topics, real estate, than I highly recommend Seeking Alpha.

On this page alone you will not only read about the current state of our variable real estate market but also about the lending side, the international market, new homes, real estate investment.

It’s a great quality site and I will post more on it in the future.

Long Beach Grand Prix

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Guess where I will be this weekend? Or at least part of it? The Toyota Grand Prix Of Long Beach.

The 33rd (my favorite number) Annual Toyota Grand Prix of Long Beach is coming to the streets of downtown between April 13-15.

For tickets, call 888/827-7333 or visit www.longbeachgp.com which by the way, even if you pick them up yourself, you will ay a handling fee… I guess it’s the pay for the person who pushes the button to print the tickets?

The best days, at least for me are Fridays. I love Fridays with the multitudes of equipment being unloaded, tested, vendors showing their products. Saturdays are also good because you really feel the feel of a GP. It’s intoxicating. Qualifying laps, tests, practices all give you a great feel of the following day. Then comes Sunday with the races.

A few years back, three I believe, the GP thrilled us with vintage F1 and other race cars. It was great. See you there, at least Friday. Ihave to go somewhere on Saturday :(

Finally It’s Said, That Which Scared Every Seller, Made Buyers Dream

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Calculated Risk posted a great an article that really caught my attention. It would seem that according to the Wall Street Journal: Realtors Predict Annual Price Drop. Yikes, let’s see what this piece of news will do to the market.

A real-estate trade group lowered its forecasts for U.S. home sales this year, while projecting what would be the first annual decline in the median national existing home price since it began keeping records in the late 1960s. NAR projected that existing home sales will fall 2.2% this year to 6.34 million, compared with its previous forecast of a 0.9% decline with new home sales likely to fall 14.2% to 904,000, compared with the prior forecast of a 10.4% drop.

The national median existing home price will likely slip 0.7% to $220,300 in 2007, following a 1% gain last year.

Let’s see if this becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy or the real Mc Coy.

Yosemite Valley And The Future

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We just got back from a Yosemite road trip. Wow, it was amazing!

I have travelled a bit in my life and have seen beautiful places, Corsica, Kyoto, Nice, Antibes, etc. We often hop on a plane to visit Europe or go to Hawaii to just get away. I am amazed to see how rich in scenery and culture our country is.

When Virginia and I rented an RV and drove cross-country, we realized all this and knew we would see more of the country.

Yosemite is an amazing valley. It was sad to think of the peaceful, nature cooperating Indians, accepting the dirty, smelly, viral infested invaders here to “civilize” them. It was also understandable, how they waged war against the invader who showed no understanding of nature and ruined everything in its passage. Then again, time passes, cultures rise and sink, so it goes. However, what gives with tar on paths? I go there to hike in nature, not walk in nature on tar. Sad note.

It got me to think again. Cultures that do not innovate, invent, and in general, just move forward, are doomed to dwindle out of existence. Case in point, Tibet’s invasion in 1952 from the Chinese without so much as a peep from most government to this day. The Tibetan society had grown too secluded and lost focus. I can only assume without any serious knowledge of the Indian nation that they had not progressed anymore and were vulnerable to another more viral culture.

The last point of this post should be an introspection. Are we on the verge of our own downfall? Are not the Asian countries exporting more than we do? Do not the Chinese hold the vast majority of our debts? Do not many companies throughout our great society buy out others and stifle innovations? I do not know where we are going, but I do know something has to change and I wonder if it should not go all the way to our foundations?

I watched Fox News a little at the motel. Now I know the hold that pseudo-news channel has on people. They are cheerleaders for how great we are. If you show very little news, based on half truths and biased views, it becomes easy to steer people.

Real Estate Lessons Heeded In The Muscle Car Madness?

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Anyone watching the muscle car craze of this last year is either scratching their heads or jumping in.

It’s strange, while people talk or market crash and even dare say the R word (recession), others still have plenty of money to plunk down on cars.

Case in point, a rare and well maintained 1971 convertible Hemi Barracuda sold for… $2,400,000.00! The debate is whether or not that car, or that type of car is worth that some. Ultimately, if someone bought it, than yes, it was worth that money for that person. It is a rare car and should fetch more than others. This is where things get confusing, what is the worth of a muscle car?

Muscle cars accelerate fast and… well, that’s it. They don’t handle well, corner well or even break adequately unless you are willing to put some serious work into it. And then, do you have an original car? Not anymore.

What has happened over this last year in the muscle car market seems strangely reminiscent of the real estate craze we witnessed until late 2005. People were snatching houses left and right as the frenzy built to a crescendo. After the dust settles, some people got stung with poor deals that never appreciated as they thought it would.

And guess what? The same is starting to happen to the muscle car market. While rare cars will always fetch more than a fake, redone or copy cat car, plenty of people have bought fakes in the hopes to make an investment and are starting to feel the sting.

I have learned two things from watching both markets over the decades. A, people are way to emotional and finances do not mix well with that. B, to be an investor requires skills, knowledge and a very, very strict discipline not many people have. Until then, some of us are doomed to repeat the same mistakes over, and over again…

Boeing’s Uranium

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Wow, I guess that story from this young man suffering from Uranium poisoning has finally gotten to Boeing. They wilol test the soil for traces of depleted uranium. I wrote about it a while back.

Boeing announced they would work with state and county agencies to test the soil in a portion of the Douglas Park development. Depleted uranium counterweights were used in aircraft assembled at the former C-1 facility and concerns were recently raised that some of that uranium may now be present.

You can read more on the coming issue of the Long Beach Business Journal.