For those of you new to Phoenix, you may not know that just about this time of year you can get all the free grapefruit and oranges you want over in the Arcadia neighborhood.

Some of the owners of these massive, lush properties have more fruit than they know what to do with. Many of these trees are left over from when this area was all orchards. Some are newer.

Had you driven last weekend along Exeter or Lafayette Boulevards between 44th and 64th Streets and you would have seen many massive boxes on palettes full of fruit, or just piles of fruit along the side of the street.

I was showing properties along there this weekend and we stopped to pick up about 30 grapefruit for my clients.

The idea here is to get the fruit off the ground so the roof rats don’t have anything to eat.  But it is a wonderful way to provide food and beauty at the same time.

Which brings me to my rant for the day.

We waste millions of gallons of water per year on decorative orange trees in Phoenix, as well as trees that could produce dates, figs, pecans and olives. Instead of just tossing these in the landfill, we could produce a millions tons of food for people to, you know, actually eat!

People have said to me that we don’t want more fruit trees because it will encourage roof rats. Well, decorative orange trees attract roof rats, we have to clean them up and we don’t get any benefit from them.

We just have to handle the edible fruit wisely: harvest it and get it picked up right away.

I think we should encourage a culture of urban harvesting in Phoenix. We are not talking about a massive undertaking here. Just a change in awareness.

I’ve harvested about 20 pounds of pecans from the two trees here at my condo complex. That, my friends, is a lot of pies.

Happy thanksgiving to all of you!

We certainly don’t have the idealized Normal Rockwell life, but then neither did he, and that is what makes us thankful for what we have. (I figure that was not lost on Norman, either.)

I am thankful for my family, for Amy and for my true friends. I have made new friends on this year’s  journey that will last a lifetime and I have reconnected with old friends.

I am thankful for even the losses, because they make me a stronger and wiser.

I am thankful for all of those who have entrusted me with their very personal and important real estate decisions. It is a hard time for both buyers and sellers and patience will win the day.

I am thankful and grateful for my co-conspirators at Get Your PHX and excited for Phoestivus.

I am also thankful and grateful for those who are willing to take the hard stance with me to reform Arizona.

Eat well, enjoy the day and make it Rockwellian.

The weather is stunning and the houses are open. Please join us at either one of these great properties on Sunday from 1pm to 5pm!

Please see this PDF file (OH_Tour-2010_1114-LETTER) for a list of all 44 homes that are on the Group Open House tour tomorrow, Sunday, November 14th.

This Group Open House covers North Central Phoenix. Please have a look and visit a few homes! This is a buyer’s market, so this is the time to look!

We are excited to bring you the First Annual Phoestivus Market on December 15th, 2010.

We hope that this will be the start of a new tradition in Arizona. Because, really? Who doesn’t like a gifts, food and chestnuts on a cool(ish) Arizona December evening?

We are highlighting locally-owned, organic and locally produced food and wares.

For Visitors:

We will be at the Phoenix Public Market at 14 East Pierce in Downtown Phoenix. (Map it)

We are very grateful for our event co-sponsors: CenPho.com, CO+HOOTS, Downtown Phoenix Partnership, Grand Avenue Merchant’s Association, Local First AZ, Phoenix Community Alliance, Phoenix Public Market and Roosevelt Row.

For Venders:

Please Note: The application deadline has passed for new vendor applications. Please direct questions to Monika.

Application — As this is our first year, we are adapting the normal application that the good folks at the Downtown Public Market use. Download the Vendor Application and guidelines. Please send application to Monika at monika@afterthediet.com. You can fax your application to 602-256-0117.
Cost –– Info coming soon.
Deadline for Application: December 5, or until the 20 spots are reserved (first come, first serve).
Other Conditions: Only locally-grown or produced goods and foods. Please see the application for guidelines.
Questions: Please contact Monika at monika@afterthediet.com or at 623.486.0737.

For Everybody:

Please help us spread the word. Please download the image of the poster  and share it on email, Facebook or whatever floats your boat. (See here for Phoestivus Poster.pdf or click here for the JPEG version)

For this event, we are looking for holiday-themed products and food to help us make this First Annual Phoestivus Market memorable. Please focus your attention, decoration and inventory in that direction.

79 people applied to be redistricting commissioners in time for the October 15th deadline.

Check out the story here.

There are some great names in there. Some I don’t know.

However, as I often say, this is the least noticed, but most important game in town right now. More important that the elections we are about to have.

Despite what some say, we could have more than 10 out of 30 state legislative districts be competitive. We have only 4 right now and our legislature favors extremism as a result. Further, it is simply unfair that over half of all registered voters effectively don’t have a choice in their elections in Arizona because whomever wins in the primary election in most districts will win in the general election.

How do we fix this? First, we get commissioners that agree that we can have more competitive districts. Second, we as citizens have to push back against those in government who will seek to draw districts for their own narrow interests. Redistricting is not rocket science and the ASU Morrison Institute is going to help you learn how to draw district lines using the best known mapping software, called Maptitude.

See here for more information about workshops that they will host in December. Unfortunately, they will cost money. So, it is best for groups or organizations to send somebody to participate.

For the sake of our state, please get involved!

More to come…

The phrase of the day is “Feed in Tariff”.

No, it is not a tax on over-eating at McDonalds.

It is a way of encouraging the use of renewable energy. Germany is most famous for this method, but it is not the only one. Read here about how our Corporation Commission might consider the issue.

Why is this important to you? Well, if you’ve ever asked “why don’t we have more solar in Arizona?”, then this is one major reason why.

There are two types of methods generally used.

1) Rebates –this is what we have now. Basically, if you install the panels, you get a rebate from the utility company (as required by the Corporation Commission).

Example: The gross cost for solar panels that I want to put on my roof is $15,000. The utility will give me a rebate of $8,000. Then I can also take various tax credits, etc. The ultimate cost will be around $7,000.

Why this is good: Its better than nothing, which is what we had.

Problems: You need to be able to come up with the initial cost (although leasing companies have made this a little better). Also, just because you install it does not mean that you will use it. Further, as the utilities are the ones who give out the rebates, they can slow the process of installation.

2) Feed in Tariff –The utility (and other rate payers) pay you for the electricity that you produce and put in to the system with renewable energy technology.

Example: My electric bill is $100 per month. But I know that every month I could generate $150 per month worth of electricity, based on current rates and what I know the utility will pay for the electricity I generate. I pocket $50 per month and get free electricity.

Why this is good: It gives investors certainty that they will get money back from their investment. It drives the installation of manufacturing for that renewable resource, but also energy efficiency (the less energy you use, the more money you pocket at the end of the month!).

Problem: Some argue that those rate-payers who don’t have solar have to absorb the cost difference of installing solar versus the cheaper coal/gas options. The important thing to keep in mind, however, is that (a) costs for solar are decreasing and (b) it will cost more if we wait and try to do it later.

So, look at this map. Who do you think would benefit if we do this the right way?

‘Nuf said….

So, how’s this for an eventful evening?

I’m driving along Osborn Rd., near my home near 7th Ave and Osborn Road. Heading east. It’s dark. Last Thursday evening.

Got the setting in your head?

I pass this guy on the south side of the street (so, on my right for the directionally-challenged). He is just finishing tagging a large apartment building sign with green paint.

My jaw drops as I think, “Really, right out here where we can all see you? Really?”

I slow down to get a look. He sees me. I drive ahead a little to pull over on the north side of the street to call Crimestop, police non-emergency. (That’s 602-262-6151, in case you ever need it.)

I’m sitting in the parking lot of Superstar Video fighting with my iPhone to find the number, and he is moving east at a good pace. You have to keep a good pace up while tagging, you know. It’s just part of the mystique, I guess.

I look over my shoulder while the phone is dialing and he is crossing over the street to my side, right toward me. This is not a little kid. He’s no Andre the Giant either, but I’m guessing that he did not spend much time in the library over lunch hours. He is somewhere in his late teens or early twenties, I figure.

I’m on the phone with Crimestop trying to tell her two things at the same time: 1) I just saw this guy tag a sign and I’m watching him. I need to get cops here before I lose him; and 2) this guy is approaching my car, looking right at me with that arms-spread-out, hands-up, “wha’s up”, “you better move along” look.

She’s a little disbelieving for a second because police non-emergency normally expects to get calls about neighbors who won’t stop dumping yard waste in each other’s ally space. I’m sure it didn’t help that I was talking so quickly that she probably thought I was a Russian immigrant.

So, I’m staring at him and talking to her, not letting up. He’s giving me his best, “I’ll cut you” look.

I should mention at this point that I REALLY HATE TAGGERS. I mean with a passion. People work their butts off for their property, and these guys not only deface somebody else’s work, but they also make all of our lives just a little harder with every paint spray and pen stroke.

Don’t tell me its art. Don’t tell me its culture.

Tag up a piece of canvass that you paid for yourself and then I’ll believe you.

I guess he figured that he had successfully intimidated me, or that he better move on because I was still on the phone with somebody at this point.

He moves off ahead of me to the east and then easily, lightly reaches his arm out to a car parked 20 feet in front of me and sprays across the front hood.

I’m telling this to the Dispatch and I think she was taken aback by the gall of it as well, by the tone in her voice.

She say’s, “hold on, I’m trying to get some officers to you.” It goes  quiet and tagger guy is moving east more quickly now, crossing 7th Ave.

I’m not about to lose this guy. My first perp, man! Are you kidding?

A tricked-out Prius, but not mine...

So, I swing my turbo-charged Toyota Pious out on to the street and hang back to watch were he is going. It was amazing that this guy had gotten himself up to the pace of an Olympic speed walker, but still kept that arms-swinging-across-the-butt, chest-high swagger that said, “Don’t cross me, man! I’ll paint you green!”

A few steps later, I see the a white spinning paint can leave his hand and disappear behind  bush in front of Safeway and what used to be the old Furr’s Cafeteria (the octogenarians who used to hold up there would have been aghast at the sight).

So, I drive ahead of him so it looks like I gave up and I circled around in the Safeway parking lot, the whole time talking to Dispatch. I keep telling her where he is, even as he crosses back to the south side of the street and continues east.

Then a major development in the world of Ken, the Perp Tracker: the suspect takes off his dark shirt to reveal a white undershirt. Dark shirt thrown aside, he is starting to lose his swagger in favor of a faster gait.

This guy is a master of disguises. Not only did he ditch the paint can, but he changed clothes and now he’s running. Surely nobody will recognize him!

I swing out past the shoppers; open trunks, canvass reusable shopping bags in mid-pack, and on to the street again. Now he is on my right, but ahead of me by about 50 feet. He ducks in to one of the long, low-slung apartment buildings to my right and I pass as I watch him move down the breezeway, as if he just got back home from a light jog around the block.

I’m trying to describe this to Dispatch, who is intermittently leaving my company. She is trying to try to patch me in directly to the police line so I can talk to the officers in the cars and in the helicopter, which is on its way.

It did not work, unfortunately. VERY unfortunately. Because, admit it folks, how cool would THAT have been?!

So, I’m sitting on Osborn with my hazard lights on where I last saw him and I’m thinking I’d better move. If the cars going around me don’t take off a rear view mirror, then the police who are on their way are likely to think my dinky little car is an old plastic bag on the side of the road and drive over it.

So, I go back over to the Safeway parking lot and park closest to where I lost him. Dispatch (I’m great friends with her by now, so I can call her “Dispatch.” We’ve been through a lot together, don’t you know.), is asking me whether the officers are there yet.

By now two police SUVs are pulling up; one down the ally around where he went and another searching the street. The helicopter (yes, a helicopter for a tagger) is over head looking for him. I distinctly remember saying to Dispatch, “Wow, they got here fast! I love you guys! Great job!”

Yep. Adrenaline makes you say stupid things.

A third SUV enters Osborn further to the east as I see Perpie (I can call him “Perpie” now. We’ve been through a lot together, don’t you know.) walk out of the apartment buildings and back to Osborn. His entire demeanor is as if to say, “Me? I’m just out for a stroll while I compose some poetry about dandelions.”

I’m telling Dispatch, “That’s him, you’ve got him in the helicopter spotlight”, as if her desk is in the helicopter and she can see any of this. The officers just pull him aside and detain him. No running. No “Cops” Reggae music soundtrack.

Dispatch, being the experienced and busy woman that she is gets my digits, asks me to stay put and hangs up.

So, to speed up this story (because I know that you probably have work that you should be doing right now, rather than reading this), I talk to the officer, identify Perp, take the officers to the can of paint, show them where he spray painted the car, which is now gone (poor people), and point out the tagged apartment building sign.

I was especially proud when one cop, after the officers had hauled Perp away and we were all talking in front of Superstar Video, gives me the best complement I’d ever heard. He said, “Man, I’ve never seen a civilian tail a suspect like that. You should have heard the play-by-play on the radio. We knew just where to get him.”

Now, this is just a tagging. I know. It seems silly in some ways to detail this chase. We are not talking about armed robbery here.

But I am simultaneously proud of being a part of catching Perp and cognizant of the comedy of a guy like me driving around in a little Toyota Prius with police and a helicopter tracking a small time crook.

It makes me realize what our officers go through night after night and how happy I am that I don’t have to do it.

Epilogue:

The next day I went out to my car and found that he tagged my driver’s side headlight while he was crossing in front of my car, trying to intimidate me.

I took pictures and let the reporting officer know.

In re-reading this story, it is neither as funny or as exciting as it was when it happened. Again, its the adrenaline.

I am also reflecting on the fact that a kid like this, whom I learned is 17 years old, probably has nobody to take him aside and tell him, “This is not the route you want to take for your life. Divert now and let me tell you how.” That makes me deeply sad.

However, I still feel that we should not back down from people like this out of fear. That is when we lose our neighborhoods again.

“As a map maker, I can have more of an impact on an election than a campaign. More of an impact than a candidate. When I as a mapmaker have more of an impact on an election than voters, the system is out of whack.”
–Consultant David Winston who drew House districts for the GOP after the 1990 U.S. Census.

You’ve heard me go on about our problems with redistricting. For background check out these articles form last year explaining the background on Arizona redistricting: here and here.

Well, now is your chance to help us fix the most crucial problem facing Arizona today. You can become one of our 5 redistricting commissioners.

The 5 commissioners (2 Republicans, 2 Democrats and 1 Independent who will be the chairman), will be chosen beginning in January to oversee the drawing of our legislative and congressional lines. As you can see from the quote above, this is an incredibly influential and important job. You could choose to maintain Arizona’s dysfunctional system of elections, or you could the agent of reform that will affect Arizona for the next generation.

In order to be a commissioner you:

• must have been registered with the same political party for at least the last three years.
• cannot have been a candidate for public office within the last three years.
• cannot have been elected or appointed to public office within the last three years.
• cannot have served as an offer of a political party, or served as a registered lobbyist or as an offer of a candidate’s campaign committee for the last three years.

You can apply  by going to www.arizona-redistricting-nominations.com. Applications are easy to fill out and are due by October 15th at 5pm.

Watch for more information from me on this issue. But for now, I cannot overstate the importance of this process. the district lines that we draw will determine whether Arizona will move forward, or miss its potential altogether.

So, about two months ago I joined the Valley of the Sun Kiwanis club, the oldest one in Phoenix.

Yep. It was a surprise to me, too.

I did not announce it during the campaign because I thought that would seem a little like I was joining because of the campaign.

In any case, I never saw myself as the kind that would join the Rotary/Kiwanis/Lions kind of groups.

There was something a little too “Fred Flintstone and the Water Buffaloes” about it for me. Plus, I never got the sense that they did a whole lot these days, being that they all seemed to be a hold over from 1950’s Americana.

But my friends Sid Rosen and Bryce Johnson (the guys who collaborated on the geothermal heated and cooled house in CenPho) took me to one of their bi-weekly lunches a few months ago and it started my little pea brain a-turnin’.

Remember the book from 1995 called Bowling Alone? The premise was that Americans are joining less and doing more isolating activities, such as watching TV or playing on the computer. The generation that followed all of the folks who had joined these groups en masse saw these groups as passe, or part of the power structure (to be avoided). The generation after that generation (my generation) could not be bothered to figure out what all the fuss was about.

The result, according to the author, could be that our important social fabric could be torn and we would lose the benefit of people giving back to their communities, etc., etc.

Now, to be fair, and as a nod to my girlfriend, I should tell you that I never read the book. But I was in grad school at the time and as long as I got the premise and some supporting facts, I was good to go. (Hey, I had to read over 1,000 pages per week for school. That’s the best I could do.)

Point is, there was a lot of fear about the fate of America’s future as a society that had previously worked together and played together.

Fast forward through the eras of bulletin boards, AOL and blogs to where we are now: The Land of Facebook and Twitter.

Everybody is joining. Everybody feels like they are part of a community. We “like” things our friends say. We “share” videos. We invite each other to things that most of our invitees will ignore.

Its as if the tendency to join things skipped a generation. Younger people are joining things, but not in the way they would have 60 years ago. It is quick and easy to join now. Probably too quick and easy.

It is a little superficial in a way; a little hollow. We are getting credit for being part of a community without doing as much leg work. The result is that we may not be getting as much done as we think we are. I think as time goes on, people will look for more.

So, I think we are going to come full circle. People will start joining again in person, but it will look a little different. I think that the social networking will have its own life, but it will do a better job of supporting the live activities that give people a sense of belonging and accomplishment.

I don’t think this is just me, either, by the way. I’ve spoken to a number of people my age and younger who are looking at these groups all over again. There is a nexus between social networking and live social service organizations and I’m hearing people talk about it.

So, that is what I want to explore. That is why I joined.

I joined this Kiwanis, in particular, because it is downtown. I have been active here ever since I moved to Phoenix in 1998 and this is where it counts. It seems to make sense along with the other things I do in this neck of the woods, too.

I look forward to see this group grow in the future. I’ve already seen one new member since I joined.

Who knows. Could be a trend. But I refuse to wear a water buffalo hat.

Historic preservation “Grande Dame” G.G. George was highlighted in this spanning piece in Phoenix Magazine about the history of historic preservation in Phoenix.

Y’know, I like to think I have a good grasp on historic preservation. But comprehensive articles like this one really punctuate what a long struggle it has been to preserve our most unique neighborhoods in Phoenix. We have a way to go still in some neighborhoods. But we should all tip a hat to those who came before. They are the ones who presented us with this jewel in the middle of a creeping metropolis  that we have come to take for granted.

It is in their name that we should go toe to toe against people like Sen. Linda Gray, who want to undermine historic neighborhoods in Phoenix.

Enough from me. Please read this article.