Cocoposts

Rural Government?

The Albuquerque Tribune cover story last night was about South Valley residents considering incorporation as a solution to urban encroachment.  Good luck with that. 

The same sprawl we can imagine the city of Albuquerque feeding on like a greedy animal, happens everywhere.   Every local government eats that beast or wishes they could.   Any new municipality is going to long for that first rush of gross receipts taxes from new construction - the warm blood of the building industry.  Local governments feast as the shopping centers and  ranchitos blossom.  Only later, as those fade into suburban corpses, do they become a  burden - draining away funds for maintenance and service.  But that's a future mayorcouncillegislature's  problem.  So the solution is allowing more development to get more gross receipts taxes - a ridiculous cycle that some call  "economic development". 

Sprawl doesn't much care which jurisdiction it is in.  Making the city out to be the bad guy is an old trick that distracts us from the reality of what is being built in the county.  The differences are negligible.   The "raw" land is considered a magnificent holding zone for the urbanization machine and controlling that machine isn't even within the power of local government - but especially multiple local governments.   

The Perugia Olives

The landlady invited us to pick or "comb" olives at her place  - a ten minute drive from Perugia where she grows olives and grapes, raises a few chickens and has plans for a bed and breakfast.   We "worked"  for several hours, stumbling around the steep slope and trying to stay of the way of the actual workers, not slip on the tarp and not step on olives.   

Afterwards we enjoyed lunch of fried eggs, cured pork - thinly sliced and served cold or "raw", toasted bread rubbed with garlic and doused in the green olive oil and a bottle of  her house wine.

This is where we got the ten liters of olive oil we brought back and it was the highlight of the trip. 

Perugia Pub

The Cocco Pub was closed, thankfully.    

Perugia Apartment

Yes, that is a rainbow directly above (hinting at the weekly cost - electricity and maid not included.) 

Architorture

Perugia was home to the Umbri - indigenous Italians who occupied the area between the 9th and 4th century BC on the easily defended hilltops.  They were overrun by the Etruscans in the 5th century BC, who were subsequently taken over by Romans, who lost it to Goths, etc. etc. 

The walls and towers reflect some of the turbulent history of getting sacked and burned, burned and sacked over and over.  But in spite of the surly attitude of one Furla saleswoman, none of this violent history is on the minds of people today. 

Contrast the location of historic events with the land uses now.  Those cathedral steps where everyone congregates to watch people  on the Piazza IV Novembre?  Scene of a bloody massacre.  That carousel beneath that stone balcony outside the Disney store?   Location of executions.  Those iron details on the exterior of the Pallazo dei Priori?  Spikes for severed heads.

Umbri Sprawl

Umbrian hill towns didn't sprawl much.  There is some industry in the Tiber valley below Perugia today, but the heart of town is still within the area of the walled city.  If you were outside those walls and gates during one of the many eras of wars betweens tribes and princes, you were stray sheep, lost dog or out of luck.  Being on one side or the other really meant something.    

The gates are gone but retail distribution is constrained by the tight space of the walled city. 

Not only does Umbria not have a coast, access by the otherwise and elsewhere ubiquitous tractor-trailers is impossible. 

One consequence is that there is less cheap crap from China.  Most cheap stuff  just isn't worth wedging into the very dear space.  Small scale = higher quality.   Contrast with suburban America  - excess space and easy access to a great quantity of crap.   

Return Perspective

The moon looks full and the cat looks fat.  The City administration looks lame, Eclipse Aviation never was gonna happen and the GOP presidential campaign is a freak show.  Nothing like travel to improve perspective.   

When I got back, there were feathers all over the house.  The cat had set up a future meal with "catch and release" of a sparrow and the bird was up in a skylight.  It had been there for a few days judging by the bird poop on the sofa.  After catching him I narrowly avoided smooshing him in the fall off the ladder.  Bruising took my mind off the jetlag.  This English graffiti was on an Italian wall in Perugia.   I've been made.   

The moon is giving Big Dog better light for his fence-line excavation project.  I thought he might  forget about it after being in dog jail for a week, but no.  The ground is hard so the going is difficult but that appears to strengthen his resolve. 

There is a new puppy in the hood and the other side of the fence is apparently not close enough and he must be with puppy - having decided old Yellow is too grumpy for playtime.  So he whittles away at the wall searching for weak spots in the perimeter - my North Valley equivalent of Perugia's 4th Century travertine walls - the chain link fence.

The engineering adaptation to his assaults consists of piling broken cinder blocks up against the base of the aging fence - bowing it outward and giving my yard that special white trash touch that neighbors adore.  Along with my dog. 

Style Italia

Generally speaking, Italians are considered leading designers and style innovators.*  The revered Italian style must have something to do with generations upon generations of exposure to the physical history of humanity.  Buildings, walls, bridges, boundaries, wells, intersections and roads are grown and regrown in place - modified and improved by adaptation and innovation. 

Italy is a city planner's living museum - an observatory for adaptation to the modern - that modern being all the more innovative by the necessity of adapting to existing patterns and structures.  Infill forever and ever Amen.

Things like this aqueduct turned raised walkway.  Ancient engineers modified even more ancient engineers'  passage through an Etruscan wall that was  then re-engineered again into a walkway by medieval engineers.

These things were of far more interest than the many fine famous paintings of bearded guys, angels and a mother.  Although we did try to go to the Umbrian National Gallery of Art, we didn't make it past the gift shop before being surrounded by tourists.  But we found the archaeology museum and an exhibit of Etruscan tomb contents of the  family "Cai Cutu" for whom I'm naming my next dog.

*I know this because  I took Fashion Design at TVI in the late 1970's during the phase of my life when I planned to become Fashion Buyer for Goldwater's - Albuquerque's upscale department store where my sister worked who I desperately wanted to outrank.   This followed the "I'm going to be a model" phase which came to a humiliating end after a cold call visit to Eileen Ford in New York.  After my chastening I took the train back to New Jersey where my brother lived and that night was an infamous power blackout  that I took as a sign that I probably shouldn't live in New York anyway.

 

Housing Here

The remarkable thing about the homebuilding industry is the ability of its spokespeople to stay on message - even if it means ignoring reality completely.   I heard that the Homebuilders Association of Central New Mexico was again complaining about Albuquerque's impact fees.

The housing market is stuffed elsewhere.  The Housing Bubble Blog carries the news of the Arizona housing development market collapse.  And Vegas.  And Florida.  Those places the inventory of  homes if huge and clearly exceeds demand.   But here?  Everything is honky dory. Pay no attention  to those sales and inventory figures.  None of it matters.  We're a whole different market.   We're on a whole different planet.   We're like ... like ... Utah!    

From the Salt Lake Tribune via bubble blog:

"Most economists familiar with Utah believe the state's real estate market will not see the huge drops in selling prices or sales seen in states such as Nevada, Arizona and Florida given Utah's strong economy and its ability to generate new jobs and attract new residents.
    'Our housing market is slowing down but it's still solid," said economist Jeff Thredgold, a consultant for Zions Bank in Salt Lake City. 'I don't see big-time declines in prices. I just see appreciation slowing down to single-digits [annually].'
    Chief economist Mark Knold of the Utah Department of Workforce Services agrees. 'It could take a fairly short period of time for our population growth to absorb some' of the excess inventory of homes for sale, he said. 'Things could be better by the end of next year.'
    Broker Matsuura believes FHA reform being debated in Congress, if approved, also could help real estate markets in coming years.
    The measure would help more buyers qualify for home loans by requiring less of a down payment for FHA-insured loans and by stretching payments over 40 years instead of 30. It also would help more buyers qualify for loans in other ways.
    Many sellers, shaken by the downturn, are hoping these and other measures will help re-energize the local residential real estate."

Good luck with that. 

Here?  Impact fees are a big problem. 

I have a jet lag headache and I'm thinking its those damn impact fees.      

The Little Cars

A wide variety of cars are driven in Italy that are never seen in the States.  Ford and Chevy produce small cars for Europe that you've never heard of before. My inner consumer feels deprived.   

Most cars Americans drive simply don't fit in Italian cities. And if the road is narrow you don't change the road.  You get a smaller car.

The "P" cars are popular - the Punto,  Panda,  Polo and Picanto.  The Mini is everywhere - the "mid-size" of small cars. 

The Smart car is about the smallest although old Fiats, lovingly restored, are even tinier.  Phone booths are bigger.