My Middle-Aged White Lady Perspective: Don't Apologize for the Truth

Gleefully stealing an armload of Doritos is not something you do to protest the inexplicable death of a young man in police custody. Nope -- stealing several bags of Doritos and dancing down the street with a bunch of other looters is something you do when you're an idiot, taking advantage of a bad situation and making it worse. It's something you do when you basically don't give a rat about anything other than yourself. 

Leaders of the Baltimore community calling out the looters and trouble-makers for looting and making trouble was the right thing to do, because that behavior completely disrespects the memory of the person who died in police custody and it completely disrespects his family who asked that people take a day off so that they could mourn and celebrate and bury their family member. 

Calling them out is important, because no matter what anyone hopes, the miscreants will get all of the attention, and their behavior will overshadow peaceful protests aimed at the people who must know (but aren't yet saying) why Freddie Gray ended up with a severed spine, and it will overshadow members of the Baltimore community, clergy and others, who put themselves between the rioters and the police, who tried to protect property and people, who did the right thing. We'll hear less about them because of the bad actors.  

Apologizing a day later for calling these folks out does a disservice to everyone who is protesting on purpose, with purpose, for a purpose. Community leaders should do better; communities deserve better from their leaders. 

Lots of folks have lots of reasons for why stuff happens like it did in Ferguson, and like it did in Baltimore and like it does in other places when something happens like the death of Michael Brown or the death of Freddie Gray. It stems, we're told,  from long-standing practices of abuse or brutality or economic injustice or gangs or lack of father figures or lack of opportunity or lack of hope or having to check a box on a job application that you've got a criminal record, or a lack of self-respect, or a bad upbringing, or mental health or drug and alcohol issues or a bad education.

But none of it comes from a lack of Doritos.

Tuesday's Number: $214,513

Tuesday is the day my local paper, the Syracuse Post-Standard, publishes the weekly business section. In addition to special features, tips from stock experts, budgeting advice and the like, we get the judgment and bankruptcy listings.

Since mid-2012, I've been tracking health care related filings. I include anything that is clearly a debt owed to a hospital, nursing home, physician or physician group, medical supplier, and so on; I do not include filings by insurance companies, many of which are so diversified it would not be a fair assumption that the filing is related to medical care or health insurance. 

• This week, there were thirteen new judgments to hospitals, doctors, or other medical providers totaling $223,250.
• There was one satisfied judgment, for $8,737.
• And there were no health care related bankruptcies.

I also track filings for each of the four Syracuse hospitals. Here’s the breakdown for this week: 

• Crouse had six, for $39,819
• St Joseph’s gets a credit of $8,737
• SUNY Upstate added six, for $183,431
• Community, part of Upstate, had no filings.

How does St Joe's get a credit? When there are any, I subtract the satisfied judgments from the overall totals and from the individual hospital totals; the likelihood is that they've already been incorporated into the numbers at some point now, since I've been tracking this for two and a half years.  

The paper publishes only those accounts of at least $5,000.

Wondering, on Wednesday (v28)

Have you heard the news coming from the New York State Fair?  

We’re learning from officials that somewhere around 20 offers had been put out for Grandstand acts for the 12-day run of the Fair this fall, and only one – country star Eric Church – has been booked. According to the Fair people, there are two reasons we’re having a problem: the short run of the Fair, and the high cost of acts that are on the road. The threat is that there may be only one Grandstand performer this year, which would hurt the fair almost as much as booking acts that only draw a couple thousand people at the 17,000 seat venue.  (Carly Rae Jepson, anyone?) 

I'm wondering, on this Wednesday, how this news impacts plans for the OnPhitheater being built across the street from the Fairgrounds, which has a commitment to hold a concert during the Fair this year, and which will replace the Grandstand going forward. Remember, we were originally told that the OnPhitheater would complement but not replace the Grandstand, and as we all suspected, it is of course going to be the pay-for concert venue for the Fair.

And unless someone's thinking about extending the Fair beyond the traditional 12 days, won’t we have the same problem going forward? And does anyone think prices will be going down anytime soon, particularly when the OnPhitheater will be in competition with other upstate outdoor venues and casinos, making it a musician's market not a venue market? 

Here's one more thing I'm wondering about. Remember the big darn deal that was made when it was announced that Billy Joel would be playing his 400th show at the Carrier Dome? Wasn't it the same promoter who announced at the same time that Buffalo would be getting multiple Garth Brooks shows? And even more Garth shows were added based on ticket sales? Is there something we're missing here? 

Speaking of missing things, I hope you caught the news from the Upstate Freshwater Institute and that we can safely swim at the north end of Onondaga Lake? It's true, they say: the water is clear enough, and the bacteria levels are low enough, for swimming.  We're still not able to eat the fish, but as far as taking a dip, we're good.

And so now County Executive Joanie Mahoney is thinking we could have a study to see about building a beach up at the Liverpool end of the lake. Are you wondering, like I am, how long it will take before we'll have another JoAndrew bus tour, where Mahoney and our Sonofa Governor can get all of the old  Onondaga Lake plans dusted off? Maybe we'll see another pile of taxpayer dollars dropped into the area?

I mean, our Garth-loving friends have the Buffalo Billion, we might as well have OnMillions, right? 

Tuesday's Number: $509,973

Tuesday is the day my local paper, the Syracuse Post-Standard, publishes the weekly business section. In addition to special features, tips from stock experts, budgeting advice and the like, we get the judgment and bankruptcy listings.

Since mid-2012, I've been tracking health care related filings. I include anything that is clearly a debt owed to a hospital, nursing home, physician or physician group, medical supplier, and so on; I do not include filings by insurance companies, many of which are so diversified it would not be a fair assumption that the filing is related to medical care or health insurance. 

• This week, there were 29 new judgments to hospitals, doctors, or other medical providers totaling $502,251.
•  There were no satisfied judgments.
•  And there was one health care related bankruptcy, for $7,722.

I also track filings for each of the four Syracuse hospitals. Here’s the breakdown for this week: 

• Crouse had seven, for $60,339
• St Josephs had two, totaling $16,304
• SUNY Upstate added 20, for $398,105
• Community, part of Upstate, had no filings.

There was one judgment for another medical provider totaling $35,225 which makes up the balance.

When there are any,  I subtract the satisfied judgments from the overall totals and from the individual hospital totals; the likelihood is that they've already been incorporated into the numbers at some point now, since I've been tracking this for two and a half years.  

The paper publishes only those accounts of at least $5,000.

Making Lemonade

A million times, I think I've heard the old saying "when life hands you lemons, make lemonade."  Well, I think we have a chance to do that.

Below is the email I sent to the Home Builders & Remodelers of CNY, Mayor Miner's office, and Common Councilor Helen Hudson, asking them to consider tackling a 'rebuild' project in Syracuse this fall, since the Parade of Homes has to be postponed until next summer.

The article mentions that the HBR is looking into doing some other event, and I hope they'll consider my idea (or part of it, or something similar).  After all, among the objectives of the organization is this:

to bring together the best and most reliable industry associated businesses, for the purpose of raising the bar of professionalism and customer service, and moving towards the goal of affordable housing for everyone in CNY. 

I have long maintained that a Parade of Homes in the city, not with brand new houses, but with a similar economic investment, could completely transform a neighborhood.  Pulling together all of the many resources available here, from the HBR to the Land Bank  to the myriad branches of government and even local organizations and businesses would be a challenge, but the reward - a renewed neighborhood, increased tax base, and a chance for existing homeowners to benefit as well - should be worth it.

Here's hoping that this time, with a basket full of lemons, we get enough lemonade to go around.

I read on Syracuse.com this evening the unfortunate news that this fall's Parade of Homes at Cranebrook is being delayed until next summer because site work could not be completed timely. 

 As we know, many people look forward to the Parade each year, most for decorating but some for the opportunity to get their dream home. And I know the charities that staff the volunteers for each of the Parade homes may also feel the pinch with the delay. 

Appreciating that, I would say that while this is a setback, perhaps it's also an opportunity to follow the old adage and make some lemonade out of lemons.

 Could this be the chance we've been waiting for to connect the HBRCNY and the City of Syracuse, not in traditional 'Parade' sense, but through a blitz rebuild Parade?  A chance of a lifetime for an urban neighborhood?  A chance for people to shine who usually don't get the spotlight? 

I encourage you to read my blog post on having a Parade of Homes in the city -- not on the outskirts of the city limits, but smack dab in the heart of the city, in a city neighborhood that could use some help and attention. A neighborhood like Skunk City. 

I think this could be a great opportunity, with the creativity, energy, and know-how that the Home Builders, City Hall, and Common Council can bring to the table.  

Thanks for your consideration.  

Stay tuned.

Tuesday's Number $674,128

Tuesday is the day my local paper, the Syracuse Post-Standard, publishes the weekly business section. In addition to special features, tips from stock experts, budgeting advice and the like, we get the judgment and bankruptcy listings.

Since mid-2012, I've been tracking health care related filings. I include anything that is clearly a debt owed to a hospital, nursing home, physician or physician group, medical supplier, and so on; I do not include filings by insurance companies, many of which are so diversified it would not be a fair assumption that the filing is related to medical care or health insurance.

• This week, there were sixteen new judgments to hospitals, doctors, or other medical providers totaling $683,180.
• There was one satisfied judgment, for $9,052.
• And there were no health care related bankruptcies.

I also track filings for each of the four Syracuse hospitals. Here’s the breakdown for this week:

•  Crouse had four, for $8,624
• St Josephs had none
• SUNY Upstate added eleven, for $650,623
• Community, part of Upstate, also had no filings.

There were two judgments for medical groups which totaled $14,881, making up the balance.

Crouse’s total includes a $9,052 ‘credit’ for the satisfied judgments. I subtract the satisfied judgments from the overall totals and from the individual hospital totals; the likelihood is that they've already been incorporated into the numbers at some point now, since I've been tracking this for two and a half years.  

And, this week, we have the largest filing ever since I've tracked the Numbers: a single judgment for SUNY Upstate was $400,617. I shudder to think of being in that family's shoes.

The paper publishes only those accounts of at least $5,000.

Wondering, on Wednesday (v27)

I had a few interesting conversations with friends this week below are recaps of a couple of them.

One friend's husband has his own business and has a few employees. We got talking about her heading off to meet with their accountant to get their taxes done.  And of course that got us on the whole file-early-or-wait- until-the-last-minute decision, and how we all feel we pay too much. She mentioned that, to solve that last problem, one of her husband's employees mentioned that he and his wife are going to have another child, so they get the benefit of another deduction.  That would be their seventh child.

I'm wondering, this Wednesday, how many times I've heard or seen someone mention all those welfare people popping out kids to get benefits? A hundred? Five hundred? A thousand?  I can't begin to count them all -- but I do think this is one of only a handful of times I've heard anyone talk about non-welfare people doing exactly the same thing for exactly the same reason.

I've talked about it before, such as in this post from last January, written in response to Rand Paul's thoughts on capping benefits for folks on welfare and not increasing them if another child arrives. I asked then, and I ask now (as my friend did the other day) why we reward anyone who does this?  And I'm also wondering, if Senator Paul would be willing to address both the working extra-baby-makers and the welfare extra-baby-makers at the same time?  I doubt it.

I had a conversation with another friend who's getting ready to send her first-born to college. As is the case with many parents, she's feeling mixed emotions, and not just about her baby leaving the nest. She and her husband both are long-time employees at their respective companies, have worked hard to save money for college (and for a rainy day), and are trying to navigate their way through the mess that is the financial nightmare of higher education.

She ran a scenario by me that I had never really thought of before, one I had not heard mentioned before:

Why is it that we are bombarded with ads offering multi-year loans for tens of thousands of dollars for a car, with zero percent interest, and yet we expect parents to pay somewhere north of seven percent for a college loan?  Aren't we encouraging exactly the wrong behavior here?

Well, yes, it seems, yes we are.

And think about college endowments. Here's a snapshot of schools with the largest endowment per student, as well as those with the largest endowments total.   Harvard has the largest endowment, over $35B in 2014, up $10B compared to 2005.  Princeton takes the cake in the per-student endowment, at $1.857M each, for their 7567 students.

Even the most die-hard alum must be wondering what their alma mater could possibly do with all of that money, when folks like my friend struggle to figure out the best way to pay for college, save for a rainy day, and plan to still have a life when she and her husband are empty-nesters in a few years, or hoping to retire a few years after that.

I'm wondering how anyone can look at this and not wish there was an equitable way to get kids the education that everyone says they need to be successful in life.

Maybe Rand Paul and Ted Cruz can work on this as they work on winning the White House.

Tuesday's Number: $490,796

Tuesday is the day my local paper, the Syracuse Post-Standard, publishes the weekly business section. In addition to special features, tips from stock experts, budgeting advice and the like, we get the judgment and bankruptcy listings.

Since mid-2012, I've been tracking health care related filings. I include anything that is clearly a debt owed to a hospital, nursing home, physician or physician group, medical supplier, and so on; I do not include filings by insurance companies, many of which are so diversified it would not be a fair assumption that the filing is related to medical care or health insurance. 

• This week, there were seventeen new judgments to hospitals, doctors, or other medical providers totaling $292,895. 
• There were no satisfied judgments.
• And there were eight health care related bankruptcies, totaling $197,901.

I also track filings for each of the four Syracuse hospitals. Here’s the breakdown for this week: 

• Crouse had twelve, for $200,706
• St Josephs had seven, totaling $146,938
• SUNY Upstate added six, for $143,152
• Community, part of Upstate, had no filings.

When there are any, I subtract the satisfied judgments from the overall total and from the individual hospital totals; the likelihood is that they've already been incorporated into the numbers at some point now, since I've been tracking this for two and a half years. 

The paper publishes only those accounts of at least $5,000.

An Easter Message

Easter sunrise, 2015/veritablepastiche

Today is a day of celebration for some, a deeply religious holiday for those who celebrate that The Son is risen. For others, it's a 'normal' day, filled with content that the sun has risen.

For me, being in the latter half of that equation, Easter Sunday has always been a day of family, food and laughter, with heavy emphasis on the laughter part, certainly while my Dad was alive, and we have done well to keep that going since he's been gone.

When we were kids, we colored eggs, and had our Easter egg hunts, searching high and low for the ones we had colored and the coveted plastic ones with coins or jelly beans inside them.  I can picture my brothers, one and two years older than me, and taller, wandering around the house on Easter morning, checking things out, making mental notes of where the good ones were. My oldest brother had a way of tilting his head and raising an eyebrow when he saw a treasure waiting in what I'm sure Mom and Dad thought was a particularly good hiding place.

I also remember us getting chided by my Dad, for doing reconnaissance before he and Mom got up, for trying to take more than our fair share, not playing well together, and so on.

Even though we stopped going to church when we were young, around nine or ten I think, there was always an expectation  that we would 'behave' appropriately.  Not just from a discipline perspective, such as riding your bike into the charcoal grill (me), or succumbing to peer pressure and shoplifting (me), or playing with matches (NOT me), or a classic, 'spelling' bad words by writing 7734 upside-down (yeah that was me again), but from the larger perspective too.

You did not need to go to church, you did not need to believe that Christ died on the cross, or in the Resurrection, or in the rest of it, to understand that treating people fairly and with respect was the right thing to do, that taking everything you saw or could get your hands on and leaving others with nothing was the wrong thing to do, that being mean and calling people names or picking on people who were 'different' was not acceptable, or that being charitable, even to your annoying little sister, was the better path to take.

Surely, we did not learn these lessons perfectly, sometimes to the chagrin of my Methodist mom and my non-religious Dad, but I suspect they hadn't learned the lessons perfectly either. My Dad never met a dumb blond joke he didn't like, for example, and never missed an episode of All in the Family, but made sure that 'Polack' jokes became 'Peter, Andy and Susan' jokes.  They never stopped trying - and never stopped encouraging us, through word and deed, to keep trying as well, not because there'll be a place for us in Heaven if we do, but because our place on Earth can be better for the effort.

And that's where we are today, some 45 or 50 years later. Our collective place on Earth can be better for the effort, for the simple wisdom that we were taught when we were kids:

Do unto others as you would have them do unto you. 

Let's not do things to others in the name of our religious beliefs or our politics that we would not willingly accept if done to us by others in the name of their religious beliefs or their politics.

Let's not be the reason why, in what is arguably the greatest democracy in the history of the world, we need to have laws on the books reminding us that we cannot discriminate against others based on their

race, color, religion, ancestry, age, national origin, disability, sex, sexual orientation, gender identify, or United States military service

This doesn't mean that we can't find things distasteful, or that we have to like everyone, or that our circle of friends needs to look like a Target ad or an Applebee's commercial or the stock photos we see in our company's publications, or that we have to agree with everyone on everything, or even that we have to understand everyone else.

After all, we are not perfect, and I don't think (for believers or non-believers) that perfection is the expectation. But can we strive to do better, be more accepting, more tolerant, more forgiving, more understanding?

Make room. Do unto others.

Happy Easter.

Wondering, on Wednesday (v26)

Think about your family and friends, coworkers, people you see on the bus or in the liquor store or at the dry cleaners or at a concert or at one of your children's school plays or athletic competitions or at the gym. Or church. 

Think of your Facebook friends, and Instagram or Twitter followers. Think about politicians and preachers and news reporters and actors and actresses and studio heads and motor heads and radio heads and talking heads. Think about rappers and crooners and twangers and cellists and drummers and color guard participants and criminals and jurors and homeless people and the people who help them.

Think about your parents and grandparents and people you knew in college or high school or elementary school. Or the bank teller or the kid at the register or the guy stocking the toilet paper at the grocery store or the car salesman or the phone survey person who calls you during dinner. 

And for all of the people you see and come into contact with every day wherever you spend your time, or do whatever it is you do (knowing that what you 'do' is practice your religion 24/7/365), tell me if at any time you have felt compelled to advise any of those people that your religious beliefs prevent you from engaging with them.

And then picture yourself being on the receiving end of this constant practice of religion whereby you cannot be served by someone else, based on how you look or sound or your actions or your faith or lack thereof.

I'm wondering, on this Wednesday, whether you'll say it feels more like freedom or more like discrimination.