~ Why the Journal is not worth the price.

Now that you know that I live in Albuquerque you know that the “rag” that I read is the Albuquerque Journal.  It is probably typical of the declining papers of America, no worse and no better than the sad dogs that carry on the mastheads of a once proud journalistic empire that has been shattered into ruinous rubble.  All my friends that started as journalism majors have long since fled to law, or politics, or in one exceptional case inventing a patch for ripening apples (as yet an unproven concept).

To put too fine a point on the relationship between a government that based most of its hope on “freedom of the press” (meaning an actual press) and the reality of the substantial collapse of both journalism and the press and the seemingly simultaneous collapse of the larger empire of government would avoid the more basic reality of the importance of home to both press and government; to say nothing of the people themselves.  “We the people” (it was assumed) lived in homes; not in long-haul trucks, trailers, cars, or under freeway overpasses or half-hidden trees in parks.  If there is any doubt about this assumption you might wish to reread the articles about “quartering of troops” in the homes of America; something once assumed to be bad and wrong and worthy of governmental intervention to prevent.

So yes, we live in different times from times past.  So the Sunday Journal (catchy name) has a real estate section; suggesting a “real” Estate or just espousing a proliferation of a term that has probably lost all meaning - the word “Home” might be so much better, but the real part of real estate is the house, not a home, because a house is not a home to once again borrow book titles from books no longer read.  Are we getting there, yet?

The feature story is the “Gender Gap” (gender GAP).  The story unfolds to reveal that men are from Mars and women are from Venus and that those from earth are probably gender neutral or cross-gender or without gender which gets us back to journalistic styles which favor “I” or don’t favor “I” in favor of the they, or we, or favorite of all terms “personal” (as in choice) - as in its all about personal choice that is based on doing what the media or broadcast media tells you to do which is like having no choice at all.  Are we confused, yet?

In big splashy colors the Mars and Venus people agree on one thing - good schools.  Of course the front page of the paper reports (this same day) that good schools are of interest to only 12% of the electorate; since health care and the economy are stealing the whole show by taking up 100% of the interest; but the whole is about 130% (not 100%) because of “multiple responses” which means that 12% is not a good answer (should be less) and that’s what you get when education has been back-burnered for so long that it has been totally fried as in a microwave oven that doesn’t even have burners and you think I’m confused because all I know is what I read in the newspaper.  I think Will Rogers said that, first.

Under the splashy color Mars and Venus article is one about “Walkable” neighborhoods and the fact that walkable neighborhoods are better.  My neighborhood is not walkable because there isn’t a half-decent grocery (store) within three miles and the theory is that one needs to eat to live and there are no orchards or agricultural spaces or even cattle feed lots or hog farms within the three miles either.  So if Front Page and Real Estate are put together we might imagine that people are interested in a home (house) where one can walk to health care or maybe reaching further, walk to a better economy.  Which the “debt route” generally inherent to buying a home won’t get one to.

Do either men or women care about “affordability” in a home, low utility bills, low property taxes, nearby food or jobs?  No, both men and women want a Home Office; men want a real big garage; women want “updated” appliances.  It’s the cash for clunkers and the new cash for appliances crowd (other articles in this same newspaper).  The cub reporter of today is told to read the newspaper and then write the news; the idea of real world investigation or experience is as old hat as the idea that people permanently ensconced in cubicles in skyscrapers can’t (and shouldn’t) rule the world.

A house near a public park might be nice.  It might be better if the park had a drinking fountain.  But not so good if the drinking fountain was used by the homeless for bathing; or the park was full of graffiti; or the park was full of weeds or trash because the parks department didn’t empty the weeds or pick the trash or use chemicals to eliminate both - which brings up the question of living near chemicals (Bhopal, India comes to mind) but it might also mean living next to the tracks or freeways or buried gaslines or overhead transmission lines or even too near a major sewer artery that is hidden beneath the street (maybe your street) - but I posted about that one before.  Sewer lines like other infrastructure does and will collapse.  But hey guys, “don’t forget about those big closets for your girlfriend or your wife”.

Last week the (Albuquerque) Sunday Journal left off the second half of Barry Stone’s (Syndicated Columnist) blat about the virtue of home inspections.  So, this week the blat has been put first; top of the page; Real Estate page, that is.  Barry writes for the 500th time about the perils of black mold (a truly national threat worthy of Homeland Security) and uninspected room additions (your zoning officials should know).  I know that a five bedroom house with no garage probably has had a garage conversion, but that’s where a good eighth grade education comes in.

What is more important though - a home inspection report or a neighborhood inspection report?  Where are the sewer trunklines; what new transmission lines are planned; where is that half-way house for the criminally insane?  Is there bus service; are there food stores; what is the Ozone level after midnight?  How much have property taxes gone up in the past 10 years as a percentage of current home values?  How many nearby homes are owned by empty nesters wanting to downsize at any price; or owned by those soon to lose their jobs; or too poor to pay the premiums for Obama’s new health insurance company subsidy plan?  Some questions may never get answers, but for others the information in a report might make the answers easy.  Then people might start buying houses for parks and walkability and not because of the cream colored carpets and the size of the kitchen pantry.

If men were from Mars and women from Venus life on earth would be much better.  It is the earth patriots that are the problem; the born here, bred here, die here bunch.  They just “look around”, but don’t look very deeply, don’t think very much; think out of the box, but not off the planet.  The reason why so few believe in extra-terrestrials is that if life existed elsewhere in the universe life on earth would look so lame; the science so primitive; the ways of doing things and approaching problems so feeble and feeble-minded.  Would any one in their right mind buy a home on this planet?  Probably not.

Earth, September 2009 - maybe an interesting place to visit; but who would want to live there?

[2009.09.13 / Sunday - Buying a home]