Buy a house in valley.. get some acreage and a place for your children to grow up out of urban influences.
This was the promise to the new generation of road warriors.
It was also the promise to my generation. Most of the my graduating class now lives in South San Jose instead of South San Francisco. Those that moved got suburban lots with a nice backyard. It was something that they could not afford in SSF. The jobs headed south too. San Jose grew and grew. The once plentiful apricot orchards were replaced with urban sprawl with no since of containment. Traffic got worse. Serious shopping moved to the perimeter and everyone drove cars to get to everywhere. Spending more fuel to do the basics.
Gas has climbed in my adult life from 30 cents a gallon to more than 4.65 a gallon. As great as it is to be a conservationist.. and we all should use less.. this still amounts to inflation. It shows up in the food he buy. White peaches at Raley's are 3.99 a pound. When Grandpa had a farm, he sold tree ripe fruit for a dollar a bushel People buying for fruit stands on the Eastern slope of the state could even get a better price than that if they were buying more than 20 bushels. if you brought your own containers.At today's prices, 3.99 a pound makes a bushel of peaches (about 30 pounds) to be 120 dollars. Heather said a pound of organic peaches in the city are over 5 dollars a pound. Save the fuel, plant peaches or apples or something you can eat in your front and backyard!
Older people are having a really difficult time with this economy.
At the bargaining table we will have a problem with this economy and its inflation too.
It will get down to labor vs fuel. Its a chicken and egg question. You cannot get the kids to school without transportation. Without kids in school you do not need as many teachers to teach them.
The district will always pay its fuel bill first then its labor bill.
Take care.. stay cool..
Pat
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Let's think about grandpa and grandma for a moment...
Did they have air conditioning?
Did they have more than the pickup truck?
Did they take long vacations and if they did, did they drive? take an airplane?
How many nights a week did they eat out?
Did they have a color television? What were their hobbies?
I once did a comparison with my weekly grocery list and what grandma's would have been. We eat waaaaay more processed food. We believe in food from foreign countries.
Backyards are becoming more and more expensive. As we look at housing options, one that is looking really good is a condo in downtown SJ... but that would make growing peaches rather difficult.
My commute is 26 miles each way... is that 52 miles a day? When I was working in Sonoma County, I drove at least a hundred miles of backroads every day. Will fuel increase our use of public transit?
K
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