My Favorite Topic: Automated Enforcement

Here's how they work in Florida:

Quoted from the article.

1.  poised to expand a red-light-camera program that has raked in $1 million for the city in 14 months...(by adding) five cameras to four intersections, which could catch 1,680 more violations per month  
2. It also costs police officers' time because they review the tapes before issuing citations. Only two officers can use the system at once, and the process was eating up three-fourths of their hours. (note: Want a little cheese with that whine?)
3.  commissioners are also looking to hire two community service officers at $55,000 apiece to administer the red-light cameras. (note: at HALF the cost of LEOs {Law Enforcement Officers})
4.  city staff believe the program can be run for a profit 
5.  "We don't know how many lives it may have saved," said Barry Atwood, Boynton Beach finance director. 
6. Police Chief Matt Immler said that "overall, traffic accidents have not gone down." 

What can be said? Accidents aren't  reduced, lives aren't saved, there aren't enough officers to review all the tapes so they are deputizing civilians to "administer" the program. They're not even sure if the program can generate net revenue (be profitable).

I know, the whole sham is about revenue. It's a back door tax imposed without our approval. I understand it fully, but that doesn't mean I like it. And I hate that it forces my elected officials to lie to me, with both of us knowing, nodding and winking.

Finally, if it were truly about safety, they would have repeatable, statistically significant studies showing reduced accidents, reduced injuries, and the insurance companies would show reduced rates in those cities with effective safety programs.

I Couldn't Make This Up

I got this in an e-mail today. It's not clear to me what the students learn in the departments listed at the end of the press release. Will the students pass the graduation exam?
To quote from their flyer:
"The Plum Academy: An Institute for Situated Practices is an experimental school-as-exhibition.

• Concepts and ideas will take the forefront, rather than materials, styles and conventional aesthetics.
• Specially selected facilitators from the regional community and beyond direct forums that approach topics obliquely, find unique entry points to ideas and challenge the established structures of education.
• (To assist in taking a different look at education, we use the terms “forum” and “facilitator” rather than “class” and “teacher,” respectively.)"

Forums fall into the following Academy departments:

• The Department of Psycho-Cartography,
• The Department of Cultural Husbandry, and
• The Department of Chance.

Good luck to them.  But I hope my tax money isn't actually funding this effort.

Zillow's Algorithms Need Fixing

Zillow.com results seem illogical and contradictory. According to Zillow, the value of my house has fluctuated wildly over the past 5 years. The value suggested by Zillow dropped 36% from June, 2007 to December 2009. Okay, the Bush housing bubble exploded. Fine.

Six months after that December, the value increased 34% in June, 2012. Then down by 29% in the 9 months leading to March, 2011. Then up 21% in 3 months ending June 2011.

I was a little surprised when I was notified by Zillow that my house had lost 61% of its value in 5 months (June to November of 2011). It was then the same as its lowest value since January of 2004, before my house was even restored from being a haven for druggies, squatters and hookers.

Thankfully, the alleged value of my fully restored 8-bedroom, 4 bath home, with a 2.5 car garage in a historic preservation district adjacent to University Circle has increased to by almost 13 percent in the past 8 months. Still a lot less than what I owe on the mortgage.

Secondly, Zillow still shows a value on my arson house in Glenville that was torn down two years ago. They won't accept the info that I emailed them.

I don't care where you live, house values don't fluctuate like that. To paraphrase Yoda, a very bad site is Zillow.