Comments on: Taxes, Schools and the A’s http://www.eastbayconservative.com/2009/02/28/taxes-schools-and-the-as/ Words from a Non-Leftist Thu, 08 Dec 2011 03:54:17 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.2.1 By: blackie http://www.eastbayconservative.com/2009/02/28/taxes-schools-and-the-as/comment-page-1/#comment-2307 blackie Tue, 03 Mar 2009 07:46:11 +0000 http://www.eastbayconservative.com/2009/02/28/taxes-schools-and-the-as/#comment-2307 I'm in a similar spot to below 580. The next time I move I am going to consider demographics very carefully. I’m in a similar spot to below 580. The next time I move I am going to consider demographics very carefully.

]]> By: mark ross http://www.eastbayconservative.com/2009/02/28/taxes-schools-and-the-as/comment-page-1/#comment-2304 mark ross Sat, 28 Feb 2009 18:34:01 +0000 http://www.eastbayconservative.com/2009/02/28/taxes-schools-and-the-as/#comment-2304 Buying or selling a house in Oakland costs both the buyer and seller 0.75% of the gross sale price in city transfer tax (1.5% in total). Then property taxes (ad valorem and parcel) kick in. The problem is a matter of culture... not practical solutions. The political culture of the Bay Area, and Oakland in particular, is not interested in common sense. As Chip Johnson wrote a few years ago, local political activists are constantly pushing a whole menagerie of screwball agendas. The elected ones pander to these activists and their screwball agendas. Fixing pot holes, attracting new tax base, public safety, bringing local taxes into proper parameters... the activists don't care about these. The activists put out orders of magnitude more visible outrage over the accidental shooting of a BART rider in the Fruitvale station... than the totality of community objection to the cold blooded murders of hundreds of young, local Black men. Buying or selling a house in Oakland costs both the buyer and seller 0.75% of the gross sale price in city transfer tax (1.5% in total). Then property taxes (ad valorem and parcel) kick in. The problem is a matter of culture… not practical solutions. The political culture of the Bay Area, and Oakland in particular, is not interested in common sense. As Chip Johnson wrote a few years ago, local political activists are constantly pushing a whole menagerie of screwball agendas. The elected ones pander to these activists and their screwball agendas. Fixing pot holes, attracting new tax base, public safety, bringing local taxes into proper parameters… the activists don’t care about these. The activists put out orders of magnitude more visible outrage over the accidental shooting of a BART rider in the Fruitvale station… than the totality of community objection to the cold blooded murders of hundreds of young, local Black men.

]]> By: below580 http://www.eastbayconservative.com/2009/02/28/taxes-schools-and-the-as/comment-page-1/#comment-2303 below580 Sat, 28 Feb 2009 17:35:39 +0000 http://www.eastbayconservative.com/2009/02/28/taxes-schools-and-the-as/#comment-2303 I just wish my husband and I had read this article before we left Marin County to restore a Victorian in the Eastlake area of Oakland. Probably we would not have moved and would have saved ourselves a whole bunch of problems. However, things are looking up for us, my husband was able to leave his position at Stanford and secure a new position at a company based in AZ. Although he has been working from home his new employer has just asked him if he would be open to relocating to AZ. This is the answer to our prayers. We finally have some hope of getting out of the Bay Area. I suppose we will have to carve up our Victorian and rent it out as apartments, which is not what we had planned at all, but with CA poised to raise taxes yet again we have to do what is best for us. I predict the brain drain in CA will not only continue, but grow more rapidly in the next four yrs. Next topic---you should run for Mayor, you actually might be able to turn this place around, if anyone can. At least you can see the forest for the trees, unlike V Smoothe. She lost me when she said that Costco has to be on a bus line. Has she ever gone to a Costco? Can you imagine trying to carry 12 rolls of tp, 10 lbs of coffee and a case of wine home on the bus?????? I just wish my husband and I had read this article before we left Marin County to restore a Victorian in the Eastlake area of Oakland. Probably we would not have moved and would have saved ourselves a whole bunch of problems. However, things are looking up for us, my husband was able to leave his position at Stanford and secure a new position at a company based in AZ. Although he has been working from home his new employer has just asked him if he would be open to relocating to AZ. This is the answer to our prayers. We finally have some hope of getting out of the Bay Area. I suppose we will have to carve up our Victorian and rent it out as apartments, which is not what we had planned at all, but with CA poised to raise taxes yet again we have to do what is best for us. I predict the brain drain in CA will not only continue, but grow more rapidly in the next four yrs.

Next topic—you should run for Mayor, you actually might be able to turn this place around, if anyone can. At least you can see the forest for the trees, unlike V Smoothe. She lost me when she said that Costco has to be on a bus line. Has she ever gone to a Costco? Can you imagine trying to carry 12 rolls of tp, 10 lbs of coffee and a case of wine home on the bus??????

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