How the March on Washington

On Wednesday, when Barack Obama joins former presidents Bill Clinton and Jimmy Carter and members of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.’s family on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial, it will mark the 50th anniversary of one of the city’s most iconic moments: a stirring speech, a monumental movement, a march that has since become known simply as the March on Washington, as participants asked the government to do better by African American citizens. It eclipses all other marches with its cast of thousands of activists and supporters.

But another character will also be showcased, a supporting player in the history of not only the civil rights movement but also of all public protest in the nation. It will make no speeches but will be clearly visible on television screens, peeking out under the soles of presidential feet.

The National Mall and Memorial Parks is 1,004 acres, curving along the eastern shore of the Potomac River, nestled between Constitution and Independence avenues, between the Lincoln Memorial, where King stood and President Obama will stand, and the United States Capitol.

Administered by the National Park Service, it is the site of nearly 3,000 public events annually: marches and ultrasonic sensor, protests and parades, America’s collective comment box to which hundreds of thousands of citizens trek each year, expressing how they feel the country has failed them. The grass turns brown from purposeful trodding. The Metro entrances burst with people carrying signs.

The March on Washington in 1963 “imposed a vision of what a perfect march was supposed to be,” says Lucy Barber, a Washington historian and author of “Marching on Washington: The Forging of an American Political Tradition.”

It wasn’t the first or only political gathering to be held on the Mall, though. For decades, the space has had a symbiotic relationship with public discourse in this country — it has shaped and been shaped by the issues of the day.

The first march on Washington — at least as we now tell the story of history — was Coxey’s Army, a pilgrimage of unemployed men in 1894. About 500 came to the District under the leadership of an Ohio businessman named James Coxey to lobby the government for jobs.

It wasn’t considered a march then; in fact, nobody really knew what to call it. “They sort of didn’t have a vocabulary for that kind of mass march,” Barber says. The vocabulary issue was a literal one: At that time, the form of civil engagement most familiar to the common man was mass petitions, signed by hundreds and then dropped off at government buildings. The idea of hordes descending upon Washington in person was difficult to conceptualize, so journalists eventually described Coxey’s Army not as a “march,” but using terminology everyone could understand: “Petition in Boots.”

“We now say that protests are covered in the First Amendment,” Barber says. But in the 19th century, many scholars didn’t think of public protest as the “freedom of assembly” intended in the Bill of Rights. “Assembly” was thought to refer to smaller group gatherings — in homes, in churches, in taverns — and not en masse, on malls.

Furthermore, the area that we now think of as the Mall looked very different than it does now. Although designer Pierre L’Enfant’s original vision for Washington had intended an open promenade extending from the Capitol, in the mid-19th century the space was cluttered with Civil War hospitals and a well-trafficked train station where President James Garfield was shot. “At one end of the ‘Mall,’” offers historian Paul Dickson, “you had a place called Murder Bay.”

By the time of Coxey’s petition in boots, the “Mall” was a series of gardens, woods and fishponds, resembling more a forest than anything else. The Washington Monument existed, but there wouldn’t have been a clear vantage point between it and the Car park management system. Even if people had considered themselves free to assemble, metaphorically, there literally wouldn’t have been a place on the Mall to do it.

So Coxey’s Army did not march on the Mall. Instead, it marched down Pennsylvania Avenue, past the White House, which was seen as a more important political statement than hanging out in the forest would have been. When people gathered for the next big protest, the women’s Suffrage Parade of 1913, they also walked down Pennsylvania Avenue.

Pennsylvania Avenue was “what people saw as the seat of power,” Barber explains, because that’s where the inaugural parades were held and where the Grand Review of the Armies had taken place at the close of the Civil War.

The physical contours of the place shaped its cultural significance. A train station and some dense greenery impeded civic-minded individuals from achieving a grander symbolic purpose for the space. They simply couldn’t have seen the protest for the trees.

Even the Bonus Army — an assemblage of thousands of World War I veterans seeking promised payments who decamped to Washington in 1932 — was not, for the most part, located on the Mall. Their permanent camp was in Anacostia, and the most well-known skirmish, in which one veteran was killed and another fatally wounded, took place near the grounds of what is now the Canadian Embassy.

But Washington has always been a city of revision, a palimpsest, ghosts of things built on other things. The Surratt boardinghouse where President Lincoln’s assassination was planned is now a Chinese restaurant, “Murder Bay” is the U.S. Commerce Department and the rambling space extending from the U.S. Capitol is now the Mall.

In the early 20th century, Congress began implementing the McMillan Plan for the redesign of the Mall, which involved razing existing buildings and most of the trees.

Many local residents were outraged: The Mall area’s winding paths had provided a pleasant, shaded walking area. “But the idea was that the federal landscape was scattered,” says Kirk Savage, a professor at the University of Pittsburgh who studies public monuments. Proponents of the McMillan Plan thought that the scattered landscape symbolized a scattered government. “There needed to be some strong symbolic statement of national unity, to tie together the White House, the Capitol and the Washington Monument.”

Despite complaints from residents, the McMillan Plan was completed in the 1930s: The area that had previously been used as more of a local park — the equivalent of, say, Rock Creek — was completely transformed. Now there were wide boulevards, empty spaces and a clear view of all the symbols of federal power.

Detroit EM Orr may put city’s garages

The city might sell its network of parking lots, meters and garages to pay off debt, a move that would generate cash for essential city services and, experts warn, could lead to higher rates.As part of a broader plan that includes valuing the Detroit Institute of Arts collection, Emergency Manager Kevyn Orr wants to put a price tag on the money-losing municipal parking system before deciding whether to sell it.

Motorists might end up paying more for parking in Detroit regardless of a sale, experts say, considering Detroit offers some of the least expensive parking rates nationwide and officials are restructuring city government after filing the biggest municipal bankruptcy in U.S. history.

“When the public hears things like this, the first thing that comes to mind is that the cost of doing business in downtown Detroit is going to increase exponentially and hurt momentum,” said David Rich, director of business development for Southfield-based parking consultants Rich & Associates. “People on the other side say: Go ahead. It will force people into multimodal transportation.”

Rich said he has not noticed widespread interest in a possible sale but said there would be bidders. Interest could be dampened by costs associated with repairing garages and updating broken and old meters.Another possible downside: Spinning off the system to a private firm could lead to fewer spaces for the public if parking spots are leased to companies or parking guidance system, Rich said.

A 2011 report said the city could pocket as much as $65 million through a lease or sale. Two years earlier, interim Mayor Kenneth Cockrel Jr. said a sale could fetch $75 million.Other cities have profited by spinning off parking, most notably Chicago.

Chicago received $1.2 billion upfront after entering into a 75-year lease of 36,000 parking meters in 2008. But the deal led to five years of rate hikes and reports the private company that took over the system will make 10 times the amount it paid the city.Chicago had the highest hourly meter rate ($5.75) in the country last year and one of the highest ticket amounts ($60), according to a survey by SFPark, a program created by the San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency.

Detroit was among the lowest at $1 an hour and had a $20 fine for expired meters.Rich, the parking consultant, expects rates will rise one way or another.“Demand is getting to the point at which there is no supply,” Rich said, referring to the thousands of workers who have been relocated into downtown during the past two years by companies such as Quicken Loans Inc. and Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan.

Gary Brown, the city’s new chief operating officer, said restructuring consultants are working on an assessment of the parking system’s assets. Brown said if the parking department were better managed, it could probably bring in $2 million to $3 million more per year.Brown estimated the city could bring in several million dollars more in parking revenue if more meters were functional and through the sale of abandoned vehicles at auction.

When asked how long meters had been down and why, Brown said “It’s a management issue that we’re going to get to the bottom of.”“Before determining what to do with municipal parking, we first have to get it up and running adequately to know what money it’ll bring in and the value of it to lease or sell,” Brown said. “Until we have it operating functionally, we can’t put out an RFP (request for proposals).”

Brown added he is looking to make some “major changes” in the public parking department in the next few weeks to shore up its management and allow for efficient operation.In May, the City Council approved an ordinance to nearly triple its towing fee to $215 from $75. It doesn’t cover storage.

The parking system should be retained, said Detroit political consultant Eric Foster, who has analyzed the department. The city’s 2012-13 budget differs from Orr’s figures by forecasting a $3.7 million profit, and Foster said the department has minimal debt.This year the target is 70 million, to be aided by the number of peak-hour buses rising to 570 from 423 last year.

The Department of Transport today released its 2012 sustainability report, showing advances in its aim to have a third of all journeys taken on public transport by 2030.”Public transport is being taken seriously by Abu Dhabi and we recognise its efforts to reduce congestion by providing access to parking,” said Glenn Havinoviski, regional transport systems director at US traffic-management firm Iteris.Greater use of buses and taxis and more parking meant fewer cars on the road, the report said, raising safety and parking sensor.

The Department of Transport operates ferry services between Abu Dhabi City and Delma Island, on which 87,175 journeys were made last year.Other highlights in the report show 128,000 passengers used Abu Dhabi-based cruise services and 15 million travelled by air.

Abu Dhabi Ports received almost 9.4 million tonnes of shipments, and the airports handled 570,000 tonnes.”This report was designed to show how Abu Dhabi is reducing its dependency on single-occupant vehicles and traditional truck transport from Dubai and other regions, and better managing its internal traffic and parking operations,” said Mr Havinoviski.

“It emphasises the progress made in expanding public transport and taxi services, increasing controlled or paid parking, increasing the number of passengers using Abu Dhabi Airport, passenger ferry and cruise services.”

100s of lightning strikes send firefighters scrambling

A lightning-caused fire north of Tarkio closed part of the Fish Creek Wildlife Management Area on Monday.But most of the smoke hazing the Missoula Valley was coming from as far away as California, since the large local wildfires had relatively little growth despite Sunday’s wind, lightning and rain.The Nemote fire was burning about 25 acres north of the Clark Fork River. Lolo National Forest spokesman Boyd Hartwig said a ground crew of about 60 people supported by one helicopter carved a hand line around its perimenter on Monday afternoon.

Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks spokeswoman Vivica Crowser said the WMA closure only applies to the area north of the river. The Fish Creek WMA also has a state park and extensive public lands south of the river that remain open. The northern portion gets some interest from hunters scouting for archery season.The Nemote fire was one of about 10 that sprouted out of a thunderstorm that dropped lightning across western Montana on Sunday evening.

“We don’t have anything that’s escaped at this time,” Hartwig said. “The Nemote fire is between 20 and 25 acres, and it may be visible from the interstate.”Another lightning-strike fire at Brewster Creek in the Rock Creek drainage (three miles from the Sawmill fishing access site) has a helitack team assigned to it. Additional personnel were hiking to the area, but it was not expected to be a serious challenge, Hartwig said.

The Lolo Creek Complex fire camp south of Missoula got more precipitation than the fires it’s corraling in the hills above U.S. Highway 12, according to information officer Dave Schmidt. The burned area remains at 10,892 acres and is 47 percent contained.Firefighters’ biggest concern was some movement along the northern perimeter, where flames could threaten a BPA power line one mile south of Blue Mountain. Division commanders concentrated their ground and air efforts along that northern edge, and are setting up protections for the Blue Mountain Lookout and Observatory.

Their main trouble spot was the Woodman Creek Basin, which has little road access and few safety zones to work from.The south, west and east flanks of the Lolo Creek Complex were in full mop-up and patrol status on Monday. Evacuation warnings remain in place for residents along Highway 12 and Lolo’s western fringe, and roads in the Forest Service lands north and south of the highway remain closed.

Highway 12 is open for public traffic, but motorists are requested to avoid stopping or parking along the road and to be aware of fire equipment moving through the area. A 45 mph speed limit applies through much of the burn area, and motorists are asked to keep their headlights on.

A crew of 764 personnel remains active on the fire. However, some of their air resources got deployed in initial attack for small fires in the Ninemile area resulting from Sunday’s lightning.In the Flathead National Forest, the Snow Creek fire 19 miles southeast of Swan Lake grew to 95 acres after Sunday’s storm. It and the 6,455-acre Damnation fire both started on Aug. 11 and have been in monitor status in the Bob Marshall Wilderness. Forest Service rangers are contacting hikers in the area to advise about Car park management system.

Despite nearly 900 recorded lightning strikes in the greater Flathead Valley from Sunday’s storm, Flathead National Forest spokesman Wade Muehlhof said only two new fires drew initial attack on Monday. Both were held to less than a tenth of an acre.Air quality in the Missoula Valley remained “unhealthy for sensitive groups” most of Sunday and Monday. But little of the haze was from local fires, according to Sarah Coefield of the Missoula City-County Health Department.

“Most of what we’re seeing is coming from California,” Coefield said. “The satellite shows a swath of smoke cutting across Nevada and Idaho and streaking into Missoula County.”Meanwhile, the Lolo Creek Complex and Gold Pan fires were not pumping out the same volume of smoke they had last week, she said.

“Absent a flare-up from the Lolo Creek fire, we don’t expect to see the horrible mornings we had last week,” Coefield said. “But if it flares up, then mornings will go back to being really smoky. There’s a chain of thunderstorms coming, and that fire is still going to be a player.”

National Weather Service meteorologists expect storm systems to move across the Missoula vicinity both Tuesday and Wednesday, with the stronger system coming Wednesday. But so far, neither day qualifies for a red-flag alert for extreme fire behavior.

Details of what is being called the “Harrisburg Strong Plan” emerged today. City receiver William Lynch has filed the comprehensive debt recovery blueprint in Commonwealth Court.

That plan — a long-awaited update to the preliminary plan approved in March 2012 — includes the sale of Harrisburg’s troubled incinerator to the Lancaster County Solid Waste Management Authority, lease of the parking system to a consortium known as Harrisburg First and provisions to both address the city’s structural deficit and lay the groundwork for a brighter financial future.

By taking the weight of the incinerator off the city’s back and its books, the plan promises ample revenue that will help Harrisburg balance its budget through at least 2016.

Municipal authorities are prohibited from issuing tax-exempt bonds for electricity output, unless it is sold to a state or local government. As part of the deal, Borough of Columbia will buy the steam output from the incinerator and then sell it to the commonwealth at a fixed price for the next 20 years. The electricity will be sold for about 4 cents per kilowatt hour in the first year. That escalates to about 7.2 cents in the 20th year, based on projections. The agreement provides for “clawback” provisions if the price under the contract exceeds the then market rate.
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A New Project in Dallas Aims

It’s a dilemma just about every driver has encountered: You’re stuck on the freeway, and traffic is moving at a snail’s pace. Is there an accident, you ask yourself, or is it just typical congestion? Should you exit and take the feeder road, or stick with the interstate? A new, local program could help give motorists more clarity in just these types of situations.

This October, transportation officials in the Dallas area will debut a new program known as Integrated Corridor Management (ICM) along U.S. 75, which extends 28 miles from the city to its northern suburbs. Under the program, all transportation assets in an area are treated as part of a single system. In other words, trains, highways, surface streets and so on will be taken into account when deciding how best to keep traffic flowing, especially when something goes wrong. “What you’re going to experience is a more reliable trip, less congestion and less queuing,” says Koorosh Olyai, who led the ICM project while assistant vice president for mobility programs development at Dallas Area Rapid Transit (DART). Olyai now works in the private sector for the firm Stantec, but continues to assist DART on the project.

Dallas was selected by the U.S. Department of Transportation as a pilot site for ICM because it’s highly congested — the fifth most congested city in the U.S. — and it’s getting worse. U.S. 75 also represents the perfect place to test the concept, given the range of transportation assets along the corridor: a freeway with ultrasonic sensor, managed HOV lanes, a tollway, 167 miles of arterials, bus routes, a light rail line and 900 traffic signals. The highway itself carries about 250,000 vehicles every weekday.

Because traffic engineers would have planned for many different scenarios ahead of time, they’ll know exactly how to tweak the timing of the traffic lights on the frontage road or even arterial roads to accommodate the overflow. In the past, when there’s been a morning rush hour collision, officials might not have changed signal timing, or if they did, the changes might not have extended beyond a given city’s boundaries. Now, “as soon as we got notification the incident happened, we’d go in with just a couple clicks and re-time the signals,” Saylor says.

The focus of the program is more on coordination than technology, since things like loop detectors and speed monitors are largely already in place. A pre-programmed pattern, for instance, would ensure Richardson’s lights are coordinated with those of neighboring cities like Dallas and Plano, and the pattern would be designed to maximize efficiency of exiting freeway traffic while balancing the needs of other drivers.

If there’s an extremely disruptive situation, freeway drivers could be directed to exit and take the light-rail to work. Because the number of available parking spaces at park-and-ride facilities are monitored, as is existing light-rail ridership, drivers would only be directed to the facilities where there’s room to accommodate them.

The project is funded with $5.3 million from the U.S. Department of Transportation, a local share of $3 million and nearly $1 million in other federal funds. Officials say the benefits from things like travel-time savings and reductions in fuel consumption and emissions, amount to about $264 million in savings over 10 years. San Diego is also in the midst of a similar ICM study.

After a year, the pilot will be analyzed. If the results are promising, ICM could prove to be an inexpensive but effective tool for managing traffic conditions at a time when transportation agencies are short on funding. “There’s a lot of interest in implementing this,” Olyai says. “It’s logical. It’s low-cost. It’s using existing assets more efficiently.”

Greening our city and implementing a long-term approach to addressing climate change and reducing carbon emission encourages economic growth and helps improve our public health and our overall quality of life. Boston has made important strides towards mitigating our environmental impact and ensuring a healthy living and working environment for all of our residents, but tremendous challenges remain. I have developed a 6 point plan to address those challenges and make Boston a more sustainable city, which includes reducing our reliance on fossil fuels, promoting renewable alternatives, implementing the Diesel Emission Reduction Ordinance, and improving public modes of transportation. I believe it is one of the primary responsibilities of government to ensure that everyone, regardless of race or income, has a healthy environment in which to live, work, and raise a family.

While cutting carbon emissions by 25 percent below 1990 levels by 2020 and 80 percent by 2050 is indeed an ambitious goal, I believe we can and we must achieve it. There is mounting evidence about the negative, long-term effects of climate change, including coastal flooding, higher temperatures, and more extreme weather. We must work to improve our environment in ways that will make people happier and healthier, such as promoting urban agriculture and ensuring that every Boston resident has access to clean water,Parking assist system, and green space.

As a city with a substantial amount of older infrastructure, Boston faces the dual challenge of incorporating green building practices into new construction while also retrofitting existing buildings to reflect advances in energy conservation practices. As Mayor, I will work with stakeholders at the federal, state, and city level, as well as private parties, to successfully implement strategies designed to lessen GHG emissions from Boston’s commercial, industrial, and residential buildings. I believe we should continue the innovative Renew Boston, reform the city’s zoning ordinances, and initiatives like the Building Energy Reporting and Disclosure Ordinance because it not only creates jobs and gives us the power of information to measure and manage energy efficiently, but also is cost effective, good for our economy and for our environment.

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Sharing economy arrives at the airport

The park ‘n share economy has arrived at the airport, with three such rental car companies launching in the last six months. In case you don’t know, park ‘n share works like this: Someone flying out for a trip parks their car in a designated lot near the airport. Employees paid by the park ‘n share company take the keys and hand that person’s car off to someone else flying into the airport, who rents it while the owner is out of town. It’s like car-sharing with a pseudo-middleman.

The first park ‘n share company FlightCar is a Y-Combinator startup that launched six months ago and operates out of SFO and Boston Logan Airport. SFO is in the midst of suing it for not paying the airport licensing fees that other rental cars pay. Oops.

The second company is RelayRides, which has offered regular car sharing since June 2010, and launched a facilitated airport park ‘n share feature a few weeks ago. It’s backed by Google Ventures and Shasta Ventures among others and has raised $13 million in funding

The third and final company, Hubber, launched in June — it’s the first park ‘n share to hit LAX and the only one not backed by venture capital. It’s taken a very different path from the Silicon Valley-steeped RelayRides and parking sensor, although they’re all operating in the same space. Its founder, Paul Davis, never thought he would start his own company. When we chatted, he wasn’t totally sure about the difference between a seed round and a Series A round, and he didn’t see anything unusual in the fact that he didn’t take venture capital.

“I wanted to take the risk on my own because I don’t necessarily want it to not work on someone else’s dime,” Davis told me on the phone. “I’ve been bootstrapping till now.”

Davis isn’t a typical founder — he’s a non tech, non business guy who worked as a production manager in Hollywood when he came up with the idea for Hubber. In winter 2012, he leased a house in Tahoe to visit when he was between films. He purchased a car to get him to and from his vacation home and the Renoe airport. When he was working on a flick in LA, the car would sit useless near the Nevada airport for weeks on end, giving him the idea of a peer to peer airport car sharing service.

“I needed guidance, so I picked up the phone and found a consulting group in New York — Abrams Carsharing Advisors,” Davis says. “I called them up and said, ‘Is anyone doing this?’ And they said, ‘No but we like the idea.’”

Abrams pointed Davis in the right direction, told him the key players, and introduced him to vendors that could provide insurance, branding, DMV checks, parking violation processing, and all the other backbone elements to car sharing.

Here’s how Hubber works: The company has a contracted parking lot that’s a five minute shuttle ride from the airport. Car owners drop their car off with a valet at the lot who washes it and fills the gas tank. When the renter arrives, who has reserved the car in advance online, the valet checks their ID, and they hop in and go.

Renters pay $40 per day for lower-end “coach” cars, and up to $75/day for the luxury, “first class” models. Car owners get $10-$20 a day for “renting” out their car, and Hubber takes the rest. For renters, that price includes car insurance, but not gas. However, if renters return the car to the lot with an empty tank, Hubber only charges them the cost of the gas — no inflated fees.

With RelayRides and FlightCar breathing down its neck, Hubber isn’t the only park ‘n share option out there, but it’s gotten a head start by being the first in LA. Davis is glad for the parking guidance. He says his biggest business challenge in the future is getting consumers to trust these types of systems, and more startups who run this platform will raise awareness.

But there is also a more abstruse explanation. If a genuine, self-sustaining recovery is indeed establishing itself, then abundant central bank money printing will soon draw to a close, beginning the long march back to more normal interest rates. This may in turn signal the end of the present, manic hunt for yield in equities markets, corporate bonds, emerging market debt, buy to let and just about anything else that seemingly offers an above inflation rate of return.

Where does this leave investors? Let’s start with bond yields, as these are a more telling indicator of appetite for risk, or “animal spirits”, than shares. Since the beginning of May there has been a sharp uptick in bond yields across all major, advanced economies. Yields are now back where they were in the summer of 2011. Admittedly, this is still incredibly low by historic standards. All the same, the recent increase in yields has been one of the most rapid on record, and few believe the correction is yet over. Nonetheless, this ought to be seen as an overwhelmingly positive development.

Many have characterised the apparent mania for government debt as an artificially generated bubble, and no doubt there is something in the argument. Central banks have been buying bonds on an unprecedented scale (quantitative easing). Various other forms of “financial repression” have also been applied to drive investors into sovereign debt so as to fund deficits and ensure ultra-low interest rates.

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The Mammogram Assault

Last week I felt assaulted: not on the street, nor in a dark parking structure, alley or another risky location. Instead, this feeling of having been assaulted happened to me in a hospital.
It happened during a routine screening mammogram.When I was 32 years old, after more than a year of misdiagnoses, a different doctor than the first ordered a mammogram that saved my life. For years after undergoing experimental radical radiation treatment, I would come to tears during a mammogram. Some of it was pain from the pressure of the test on my scarred breast tissue. Some of it was my fear of being told: “The cancer has recurred.”

Today, I’m a veteran of mammograms. I receive them annually. And I will have one again next year. I believe that women should not hesitate to have their first screening mammograms, and then regular ones thereafter as recommended by reputable guidelines and in consultation with their doctors about their level of risk.

That being said, I’m angry! While I waited for my mammogram last week, another woman in her 50s joined me in the waiting room. Clad in a floral cotton mammography shawl, she was trying not to cry. She’d just completed her mammogram and was waiting to hear if another view would be needed. I commiserated with her about the chilly air conditioning in the waiting room and I smiled, hoping to provide distraction or encourage her to share what was going on emotionally for parking guidance system. She smiled back, but it was plain something was wrong.

In my experience, if you need an MRI the radiologists act as if they can’t do enough for you: music of your choice, some gentle words, a tap on the knee, and a call button to use at any time, for any reason. Yet here’s a test that is also scary at best, quite painful for many women, and the message this tearful woman got was the equivalent of “Next! Come on! Woman up!”

As she rose reluctantly, she glanced at me and acknowledged my encouragement. Her lips tightened, clearly disappointed, she trudged out of the waiting room for another “view” — a euphemism for what she would experience. Minutes later she returned, weak and short of breath. Her face was ashen, her eyes red. She went into the changing room, closed the colorful, flowery curtain (chosen, no doubt, to make us all feel better), and then cried softly.

As I thought about whether I should interrupt this woman and try to talk with her some more, the technician called me for my mammogram. I waited a moment; my waiting room companion’s crying had subsided. “Maybe it isn’t my business,” I thought, But surely it was someone’s.

The technician didn’t walk with me, as several others had done in years past, smiling and endeavoring to relax me. No, she was gone, and I wandered the hallway to find the right room. There was no time for small talk, just a few questions about my history and then we got started – my birthdate, doctor’s name and my own. Missing was a gentle touch on my shoulder as some technicians had ventured in previous years. Absent was any assurance that “This won’t take long” or “Tell me right away if this hurts too much.”

While I like efficiency when having my car serviced or ordering lunch on a short break, I decided this technician could use some guidance. “There’s a lot of scarring on my right side from radical radiation, so you’ll want to move slowly,” I said. She may have nodded, but nothing was said.

She placed my arm across the machine then grabbed my right (radiated) breast, poked, stretched, squeezed and pressed without hesitation. The clear acrylic pressure plate descended, without hesitation, until pain tore through my breast and into my shoulder. Then down a bit more. “Don’t breathe,” she said, stepping behind the radiation barrier.

I braced myself, stepped forward, she positioned me, lowered the pressure plate rapidly rather than gently as others had so proficiently done in the past. I yelped in pain. She uttered something that may have been “sorry” but sounded more like, “Oh.” She did not release me from my prison of pain nor ask if I’d like to step back. She continued: the pressure was made more intense. “Just let it be over.”

“Don’t breathe,” she said stepping behind the radiation barrier. For several long, long seconds I hung there, up on my toes, feeling as if I would surely faint. And I’m no shrinking violet.

No good wishes passed between us as I left the room, walked unsteadily back to the waiting room, and sat to wait as the woman had before me, to find out if another ‘view’ was necessary. “If so,” I thought, “another technician will have to do it this time.” But I was dismissed – one of the lucky ones. Tears welled in my eyes for the first time in years. Maybe they were for parking guidance system, but I suspect for the woman before me too.Now, I’m a big believer that a little discomfort (even a lot sometimes) is better than a poorly performed medical test. For many women, mammography is not very painful. Yet, there is nothing about the test itself that makes consideration and competence mutually exclusive.

Mammography, as is common with MRIs, should be done with compassion. “Would you like to rest between views?” and “We have one more to do. How are you feeling?” are the kinds of questions mammography patients need to hear.Imagine if you will that, without warning or tenderness, someone grabs, stretches, pushes and squeezes a man’s testicles between two plates for a medical test. Obviously, the very thought is appalling. It would be inhumane. And so is any such treatment with mammogram patients.

The next time you go for a mammogram (or go with someone you love), observe the behavior at the reception desk and the body language of the technician. Is everyone just trying to get to lunch hour or beat the traffic? How is emotional expression dealt with in the waiting room? If the technician shows no interest in your concerns, insist that she does so. Let her know if a breast is sensitive — and how she can help you endure the discomfort. If she isn’t receptive — ask for a different technician. If you’ve been treated like I was, then when it’s over (though preferably before) tell the person in charge and inform your doctor, as I did, so that other women won’t suffer from indifference or incompetence.

You are the customer. Sure you’re fearful, and that’s a big part of the reason why most of us don’t think to insist on a best practices mammogram. Many women I’ve talked with consider mammography pain as something they must tolerate for a greater good. To some extent and for many women, that’s true. But there is absolutely no reason why you should feel that you as an individual have been ignored and your pain belittled. No one should be trembling as they leave, feeling violated and fearful of the next mammogram they must endure.

A mammography unit that won’t do its best to make you comfortable shouldn’t be in business. You wouldn’t normally volunteer for a colonoscopy where they had run out of anesthetic — so why volunteer to be abused during a mammogram because they don’t train their technicians properly?

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My Home Constructions’s new project in Hyderabad

My Home Constru-ctions has announced a new residential project Vihanga, near Wipro Junction at Gachibowli in Hyderabad. The 21-acre project will have close to 2,000 apartments, sized between 1,115 sq ft and 2,160 sq ft.

According to the company’s chairman, Jupally Rameswar Rao, the project has been launched with an inaugural offer price of Rs 4,100 per sq ft and the company has by now received bookings for about 60 per cent of the units. It will take about three to four years to complete all phases.

The project will have 20 blocks in a combination of ground-plus-14 and ground-plus-17 floors. About 16 blocks will have six flats in each floor. “We have ensured that over 70 per cent of the total area is open and the rest is ground coverage,” he said.

The size of two BHK units are in the range of 1,115 and 1,275 sq ft and the three BHKs measure between 1,690 and 2,160 sq ft. The four BHKs, also called sky villas, will have landscaped terrace. Its total built-up area will be around 3,500,000 sq ft.

There will be dedicated two-level parking which will accommodate about 3,400 vehicles. Amenities include a reception lounge, jogging track, outdoor play, Car park management system, tennis courts, swimming pool and a skating rink. There will also be multipurpose halls, a clubhouse, gym, spa, guest rooms, convenience stores and a crèche, Rao said.

The project will also have wi-fi enabled areas, car wash area and automated billing for water, power, gas usage and maintenance. On the safety aspects, Rao said the project will have a fire alarm, fire sprinklers in individual flats and wet rises in parking and other common areas. It will also have a security system with motion sensor cameras in the common areas, intercom facility to all units connecting security as well as solar fencing.

Library officials are getting ready to install a new surveillance system that should be a dramatic improvement from the current one, Director Linda Andrews told the Hoover Library Board tonight.Library officials are in talks with a contractor to install 32-36 new security cameras as part of the first phase of the new system, Andrews said. A second phase planned for later would bring the total to 57 cameras, she said.

The current cameras use technology that is 12 years old, Andrews said. “You can’t even recognize a person’s face. There’s no way to even identify anybody,” she said.Newer technology produces much better images, Andrews said. The new system also will cover the parking lot, whereas the current system does not, she said.

Andrews emphasized that the cameras will monitor open areas, hallways and stairways. They will not be used to invade people’s privacy, she said. “The cameras are not going to be looking at what people are reading or looking at on computers,” she said.The camera system will be hooked in to the Police Department for monitoring and is being designed to complement and connect with a more extensive security camera upgrade planned for other city buildings, Andrews said.

Funds for the project are coming out of money the library had left over from roof repairs that came in way under budget, Andrews said. Library officials had budgeted $500,000 for roof repairs, but the work ended up costing about $262,000, leaving a $238,000 surplus, she said. City officials were gracious to allow the library to use the leftover money for other library projects, she said.

The total cost for the first phase of security camera upgrades has not been determined until a contract is reached with the installation company, she said.Other money left over from the roof project will be used to remodel the circulation desk at the entrance to the library, Assistant Director Amanda Borden said.

The current design has people coming to library personnel for help from all directions, and staff members have to bounce around from one location to another to assist people, Borden said. The new design will reduce the size of the desk and allow for more efficient service, she said.

Construction bids are due by Thursday, and library officials hope to start construction by the first or second week of September, Borden said. The project should take about 90 days, she said.

“Hopefully, by the first of December, we’ll have a new, parking system, more efficient circulation desk installed,” she said.The front entrance may be a bit of an eyesore during construction because workers will block off their work area with a temporary wall, Borden said. A temporary circulation desk will be set up in the interim period, she said.

In other business tonight, Andrews informed the Library Board that the Hoover Public Library has received a $26,500 federal grant from the Institute of Museum and Library Services to upgrade its public print management system, which allows people to print out and copy documents.

Equipment with the existing print management system was introduced in 2002, library records show. The system has printed more than 1 million documents and has had software updates over the years, but the equipment itself has not been updated and has experienced prolonged outages in the past year while waiting for repairs, library records indicate.

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Can the Nairobi city centre hold?

After a lull in real estate development within Nairobi’s Central Business District ( CBD), activity is set to resume after the recent groundbreaking ceremony for what is slated to be the tallest building in the region.The National Social Security Fund has commissioned the construction of 39-storey Hazina Trade Centre, a vertical extension of the existing building that houses Nakumatt Lifestyle on Monrovia Street.

Though the move is a positive indicator of the city’s rising status as a global investment destination, it has shifted attention to the city’s ability to provide the requisite infrastructure to support future developments of such magnitude.

The last few years have seen a number of local and international organisations give the city centre a wide berth by relocating to Upper Hill, Westlands, Ngong’ Road, Mombasa Road, Gigiri, Kilimani and Kileleshwa. Many are running away from the persistent traffic congestion, strained water supply, power and adequate parking spaces.

“Our long list of challenges includes our current lack of capacity to manage solid waste, insufficient infrastructure development, and poor public transport and parking sensor…. There is overwhelming demand for services without commensurate capacity to provide them. The challenges ahead of us are many, and in some ways tricky, but they are not insurmountable,” said Dr Kidero.

Interestingly, the governor was the first to question the massive NSSF project in the city, citing safety concerns of those currently using the building or working in adjacent locations. Building industry experts say Nairobi — more so the city centre — has no choice but to make radical planning changes to retain its attractiveness in a region where other capitals such as Dar es Salaam, Kampala and Kigali are itching to get noticed.

They argue that even if the city was to shift to another location today, there would still be the expensive burden of laying down new infrastructure, hence the need to improve on what we already have.

“All of our operations deserve reliable, efficient parking management services,” commented Bijan Eghtedari, Park One CEO, “but luxury operations require the best of the best to meet the valet parking needs of our VIP clients. As one of the pioneers in this technology with our proprietary Valet Tracking System (VTS), Flash Valet’s technology was a natural progression for us to help streamline our operational processes and continue to impress our clientele with advancing technology.”

Flash Valet offers enormous upside for parking providers both large and small; every aspect of an operation can be managed from one platform. The system tracks parked vehicles, revenue control, guest check out, and other features with ease. Barcode scanning makes tedious paper-based vehicle tracking obsolete. Flash Valet even streamlines employee management, keeping tabs on time and attendance and providing integrated payroll processing capabilities.

Fred Bredemeyer, Park One of Florida President, had the following praise: “I was first introduced to Flash Valet when the technology was in its infancy. At the time, the Flash Valet team was still just trying to figure out how to enhance the valet parking experience with their texting and parking guidance. After revisiting them almost two years later and seeing how the software solution has evolved into a full parking management platform, I was very impressed with how much ground they have covered in such a short time. I have full confidence that Park One’s transition to Flash Valet will benefit our company.”

Rapid expansion continues at Flash Valet, with no plateau in sight. The technology is now deployed at hundreds of locations nationwide in over 30 cities. “The fact that we designed an innovative product while remaining client-centered has contributed greatly to our success,” explained Flash Valet’s Juan Rodriguez. “Our technology has been built with flexibility in mind, and is designed to be adaptable based on our client’s unique environments. We listen closely to the needs of clients and never assume that we know how to run their business. With their input, we’re able to configure our platform to meet their specific needs.”

The app for iPhone and Android is called “Find It, Fix It,” and doubles up on options for reporting abandoned vehicles, graffiti, potholes, parking enforcement, and other city-related issues.Previously, you would have to call the city, or visit one of Seattle’s six Neighborhood Service Centers to report problems.

The app allows people to report an issue using their smartphones by snapping a photo, adding information about the nature of the problem, and hitting submit. A map with a “drag and drop” feature – or the phone’s built in GPS – can be used to pinpoint the location of a pothole or abandoned car.

“When you’re out in your neighborhood and see a pothole, graffiti, or something else you think the City should know about, “Find It, Fix It” gives you an easy way to notify us so we can fix it,” Mayor Mike McGinn said in a news release.

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My Trip To Visit Freedom Fighters

This feeling in my gut is hard to describe. Driving through the luscious green valleys of Oregon’s wine country, I almost forget where I’m headed. It’s an idyllic scene, straight out of a dusty American novel. Rolling hills, winding roads and endless fields of farmland.

I have arrived at Federal Correctional Institution (FCI) Sheridan, home to hundreds of federal prisoners. The prison is halfway between Portland and the Oregon coast in a rural town off Highway 18. I’m often tempted to keep on driving, right past the guard towers and deprivation, until I reach the tranquility of the ocean shore less than 40 miles beyond.

Even after driving four and a half hours to get here, I am very grateful. Many families drive for days to see their loved ones. The costs are so prohibitive that some turn to carpools and sharing motels. For me, this visit is a welcome chance to reconnect with a close friend. For the families that surround me, it is the glue that keeps their shattered lives from Car park management system.

These visits bring hope and a sense of calm during a time when reality is often unbearable. Most important are the hugs and warm embraces being exchanged between husband and wife, father and son, brother and sister, friends and lovers. I can feel the tide of emotion as it floods the room. Though physical contact is limited to 30 seconds at the beginning and end of each visit, the love that flows during these brief moments cannot be quelled.

Everyone here is sacrificing individual freedom to earn the privilege to visit this place. First up is the approval process. With serious consequences on the table for any false statement, I cautiously fill out a battery of questions, divulging everything from my social security number to how and when I met Chris Williams.

I agree to a criminal background check to ensure that I won’t “present a management problem for the institution.” Deep down, I quietly sweat this step, knowing that I have prior cannabis convictions. After what seems like an eternity, I am given the green light for visits. Now, it’s time to study the rules.

No shorts or sleeveless shirts. Hemlines on dresses must fall below the knees. No hats of any kind. Money for drinks and snacks is limited to $20 and must be in coins, carried in a clear plastic purse or ziplock bag no bigger than five by seven inches. The only other items allowed are a single car key and photo ID.

I drive past a security booth and begin to assess my surroundings. Towards the back of the property is a medium-security lockup where visitors must pass through metal detectors, sending their shoes and accessories through an x-ray machine. Closer to the front is what looks like a super-max facility, with razor wire woven through every inch of chain link fence. For an added shock to the system, this is where prisoners are sent upon arrival and it is where they go when problems arise, be it medical or disciplinary. The impenetrable fortress also serves as a constant reminder for the guys at the minimum-security camp next door; one wrong move and they get put “behind the fence.”

As I pull into the parking lot of the camp, I find myself thankful once again. I try not to imagine what life would be like if Chris had to spend five years in a prison more restrictive than where he is now. Then, I take stock of the drug reformers who don’t have to imagine because they are living it. Jerry Duval, Aaron Sandusky, Eddy Lepp, Luke Scarmazzo, Virgil Grant, Marc Emery, the list goes on — all assigned to higher security prisons than the one I’m visiting now.

There’s a batch of forms and assorted pens on the built-in counter next to the doorway. As I fill out the paperwork, I notice a flimsy divider nearby that partially blocks a bank of windows. On the other side of the glass are dozens of eager prisoners milling about, waiting for their names to be called over the loudspeaker, notifying them of a visitor’s arrival.

I return my gaze to the questionnaire at hand. Along with a long list of prohibited items comes a warning about the five-year prison term I face for having any contraband. I reluctantly sign away my rights and hand the form to a guard along with my ID.

This place reminds me of a cafeteria, bathrooms and vending machines line one wall and windows line the other. The view of the parking lot is underwhelming, to put it mildly. There are about 50 tables scattered about with chairs squarely placed on two sides to discourage intimate contact. I select a spot on the opposite end of the room, close to a courtyard that is permanently shuttered.

I watch as one prisoner after another walks in from a door near the guard desk. The happy reunions that I witness fuel the excitement for my own visit. Chris is the next one to enter the parking system. My grin spreads from ear to ear. He looks healthy and happy, which is more than I can expect under the circumstances.

We start the morning with a cup of coffee; Chris likes his black and extra strong. The vending machines are out of bounds for prisoners, so I’ve quickly figured out his personal tastes while guessing which food and beverages to buy.

Within the first hour or two, the guards call “count time.” The prisoners are herded into the hallway where they’re officially accounted for, one of five times daily that this ritual is performed. The process takes about 20 minutes, so I line up for the restroom with other women who are visiting. We chit chat to pass the time, but leave meaningful friendships just out of reach. None of us wants to think of this awful place any more than we do already.

Chris is sitting back down by the time I return. We decide to play cards and he grows amused by my frustration after beating me time and again. Half our visit has passed and it is now lunchtime. I buy Chris a sandwich and an iced tea. A meal in the visiting room of a federal prison isn’t particularly appetizing for me, so I grab a bag of chips instead.

After lunch, we decide to play Scrabble. Chris doesn’t know it yet, but I specifically chose this game so I can get even for the whooping I took at cards. There are no writing materials to keep score with, so we eventually lose track of the points. By the time we finish one game, it is nearly 3:00 p.m. and our visit is almost over.

Is it time to let the banks die a natural death?

Since the banking crisis of 2008 and subsequent chaos in the global financial system, governments and central banks around the world have implemented all manner of extraordinary policies to prevent another major bank failure.

Interest rates have been cut to zero, banks have been flooded with reserves and governments have taken on huge quantities of toxic assets. Understandably, people are angry. Yet although investment banking is widely blamed for the ultrasonic sensor, the roots of these problems lie in retail banking.

It is generally known that two of the UK’s four biggest banks – Royal Bank of Scotland and Lloyds Banking Group – failed and had to be part-nationalised during the credit crunch. It is less widely known that the other two biggest banks – Barclays and HSBC – have also undergone major restructuring since the crisis, shedding thousands of jobs and shrinking their balance sheets considerably.

The building society sector also experienced a considerable shakeout in 2009 as a consequence of the global meltdown. One, Dunfermline, was nationalised, others were bought by larger banks and building societies and another, Kent Reliance, was even bought by a private equity company.

Unfortunately, this has caused indigestion for some buyers. The Co-operative Bank is about to undergo extensive restructuring owing to its 2009 purchase of Britannia Building Society, which it transpires had sufficient toxic loans to overwhelm the smaller Co-op’s balance sheet. Meanwhile Nationwide has struggled to integrate the three smaller building societies that it absorbed and it too has had to undergo major restructuring in the past few years.

So the UK’s biggest lenders and its entire building society sector have undergone radical surgery, with many still in intensive care.Nor have smaller retail banks been immune. Northern Rock and Bradford & Bingley both failed and were nationalised in the crisis. A significant number of small banks, building societies and credit unions have also gone belly-up. Most depositors in smaller institutions are below the Financial Services Compensation Scheme limit, while in the US, Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation records show that thousands of small banks have failed in the past five years.

After the financial crisis, there were extensive inflows of deposits to small banks and building societies as people – encouraged by campaigns such as Move Your Money – moved funds out of banks that were seen as ‘risky’ and ‘bad for society’ into institutions that had a better image. We now know that these other institutions are no safer, and perhaps no better for society, than the big banks that are criticised so widely.

The 2008 crisis was no more a crisis of big banks than it was a crisis of investment banks. It was a crisis of banking in all its forms. And it has not yet ended.The continuing shakeout and restructuring across the banking industry is immensely damaging to the economy. Weak banks stuffed with risky non-performing loans cannot lend productively and deleveraging bank balance sheets and building capital have deflationary effects in the wider economy.  

But at least these banks are still alive,  although badly wounded. If we keep them on life support for long enough – keep funding costs down with low policy rates and subsidies, guarantee riskier lending so that they appear to be doing something useful and provide them with lots of cheap liquidity – eventually they will recover, won’t they?

Unfortunately, the treatments being used to keep them alive themselves have toxic effects. Most were supposed to be short-term interventions to prevent disorderly collapse – it was never envisaged that they would continue for years on end. And some interventions seem to maintain banks at the expense of the Parking assist system.Very low interest rates are supposed to encourage the flow of credit to borrowers who would be reluctant to pay higher rates. What they actually do is prop up highly indebted households and businesses, preventing bankruptcies and foreclosures.

New loans are generally at higher rates – in some cases much higher – than old ones, even though official rates are on the floor. Preventing bankruptcies and foreclosures protects banks (and, indirectly, savers) as a sudden swathe of business and household debt defaults would spell disaster for many lending institutions, particularly the smaller ones. Unpopular though it is to say this, large universal banks are actually less likely to fail than small lenders concentrated in particular market sectors such as residential mortgages.

Very low interest rates also prop up the prices of safe assets, which are used as liquidity buffers by financial institutions. And they depress bank funding rates, both in the wholesale market and, perhaps more importantly now that banks are trying to reduce their reliance on unstable wholesale funding, for rates to depositors.

The problem is that banks have overheads – staff costs and premises, for example. When interest rates are very low, banks do not earn much. Yes, if funding costs are low too they make a profit on the difference. Yet margins are being squeezed, which is affecting bank profitability across the board. All the major banks report reduced interest income and rising costs.  

Margin squeeze is particularly tough for small players, so very low interest rates tend to benefit large retail banks at the expense of smaller ones. When margins are tight, the winners are those with the largest market share.Another problem, according to Steve Hanke at the Cato Institute, is that very low interest rates kill the interbank market. It simply is not worthwhile for banks to lend to each other when they can pretty much earn the same for parking excess reserves safely at the central bank. This impairs the flow of funds around the financial system.

Central banks around the world have used quantitative easing and term lending (repo) on an unprecedented scale to offset the collapse of unsecured interbank lending, in effect ensuring all banks have excess reserves so do not need to borrow from each other. But this does not encourage banks to lend, all it does is enable them to make payments. And as risky lending ties up capital – and banks are short of that because of their horribly risky lending books – is it any wonder they are charging high prices for risky lending? They do not really want to do it.

So very low interest rates destroy bank margins and slow the velocity of money. Providing banks with cheap funds offsets this to some extent as it enables them to refinance their existing loan books at lower rates, improving their spreads and keeping variable rates to existing borrowers at historically low levels, thus avoiding defaults.