Welcome to the March Housing issue of NorthBay biz magazine. This month we revisit the North Bay’s most persistent, or to be more accurate, most chronic problem, the supply and affordability crisis in housing. I use the word crisis because housing is so inextricably linked to jobs, transportation and the economic vitality of the entire region. The North Bay continues to struggle to find creative ways of increasing the affordable housing supply in order to bring homeownership within the grasp of more working families.
According to the California Association of Realtors, the December Housing Affordability Index stood at 14 percent statewide. That’s an astounding figure. It means that only 14 percent of California households can afford a median-priced home. Last year, the figure stood at 19 percent. In Northern Wine Country, the affordability rate as of December 2005 was an astonishing 7 percent. This Index is touted as the most fundamental measure of housing well-being in the state. The minimum household income needed to purchase a median-priced home in our area ($548,430) is $134,200, based on a mortgage rate of 6.33 percent and assuming a 20 percent down payment. Everyone seems to agree that there is a housing problem, but when you quantify it, it’s easier to understand that the housing problem really is a crisis.
Supporting that premise, the magazine this month serves up several stories that offer alternative solutions to the housing dilemma. Among them is a look at live-work projects that foster and enable smart growth, apartment-to-condo conversions that confer ownership at an affordable price, and the quantum leap that’s been made in producing low-cost, pre-fab housing. In a related story, we ask top area realtors to compare today’s slowing housing market to down-markets of the past to see if they think this talk about a “bubble” is anything more than just talk. In Industry Vignettes, we interview four of the top commercial real estate companies, and debut a new feature, the quarterly commercial real estate report. Plus, in this issue are stories on green building going mainstream and a profile of one of the North Bay’s leading real estate companies, Frank Howard Allen.
When I introduced our two newest columns, Executive Wellness and WealthWise, in last month’s column, I mentioned that the magazine was committed to the continuing pursuit of excellence. So, as we strive to live up to that goal, I’m extremely pleased to announce the addition of another new column, This Side of the Hill. It’s being written by Bob Ecker, who is an extremely well-established and well-known local journalist. He’s also the current president of BATW (Bay Area Travel Writers). Bob’s work has been published in numerous newspapers, including the Boston Globe, Newsday, San Francisco Chronicle, Dallas Morning News, Miami Herald, and magazines that include Islands, Wine Enthusiast, San Diego and Traveller. His new column will inform, entertain and educate readers with info and ideas concerning the often-misrepresented world of Napa on “this side of the hill” from Sonoma and Marin. His style is breezy and approachable. He’ll focus on wine-related issues, brand new as well as established products, combinations of food and wine, industry scuttlebutt, hospitality issues and many other distinctly Napa topics. He’ll provide readers with opinion, interviews and critiques from his slice of the North Bay. We’re very happy Bob is joining our existing team of fine columnists. We’re eager to hear your feedback on any of our new or long-standing features and columnists. Thanks for reading NorthBay biz, the North Bay’s only locally owned business publication, and stay tuned for more new features in upcoming issues.
With the ease of a greasy spoon diner promoting its soup du jour, the Islamofascists have come up with a new “reason to riot of the day,” an offensive cartoon. First published in a Danish newspaper last fall, an unflattering political cartoon depicting the prophet Muhammad has offended the sensibilities of Islamic fundamentalists, sparking riots, bombings and violent protests around the world. In one London protest, marchers held signs saying, “Freedom Go to Hell,” “Be Prepared for the Real Holocaust,” and “Europe You Will Pay, Your 9/11 is on the Way.” The violence the publication of this cartoon has fostered is hard to fathom, given a Western culture of open debate and critical discourse all framed within the boundaries of free speech. Everyday in the West, newspapers publish highly critical and offensive, to whole segments of the population, cartoons—with not one firebomb being tossed in retaliation. A free press is fundamental to overall freedom. Any attempt to limit or control through intimidation or violence what the print media publishes or the electronic media broadcasts is a threat to every other freedom the West holds dear. Unfortunately, some newspapers and television networks declined to publish the offending cartoon, thereby showing the protesting rioters that their tactics led to at least a partial victory and guaranteeing a similar reaction by the rioters at the next perceived insult.
It’s naïve and over-simplified to just say this disconnect is because different cultures embrace different values. It’s so much more. Our worldview is completely different. We don’t share a common platform of thought. The West isn’t disconcerted by contradictions. We’re open to different ideas and don’t find a threat cloaked behind every nuance of distinction. The fundamentalists are trapped in the Middle Ages where history hasn’t evolved. It’s a clash of civilizations—one living in the 21st century and the other stuck in the 10th century. Will the West give in to threats, terror and the murder of innocents? Democracy is coming to the Middle East and with it comes new ideas and challenges to old ways—all threatening to the established hierarchy. In response to this threat of change, Islamofascists find the need to arouse and inflame people to strike out at any moment for any perceived or manufactured slight. In pursuing this course, the fundamentalists are turning their people into a dysfunctional society demanding apology where none is required, seeking redress for nonexistent offense. When people are encouraged to riot, that’s not free speech, it’s inciting violence. Demanding that the West adhere to their beliefs, bow to their customs and integrate them into our society will never happen, no matter the amount of threats, intimidation or murder of innocents. Any nation that would allow that would soon no longer be the same nation. I think James Pinkerton said it best in a recent editorial, “Differences between the West and the Muslim world can be chalked up to just that—differences. That’s the truth about world ethnicity, and no amount of politically correct wishful thinking will change the truth. Countries that ignore that basic lesson of history and political science put themselves at grave risk of internal discord, subversion and civil war. Either a country is united in a common culture or it becomes disunited in multiculturalism.”
That’s it for now. Enjoy this month’s magazine.
