Hopping real estate market

Home For Sale

Home For Sale


With the construction underway of the nearby Oakwood North subdivision I’ve definitely noticed an upswing of “construction tourists” who come by to watch the work. What’s more, though, is that I’ve also seen real estate agents in fancy cars slowly circling through the neighborhood. Now, an agent driving potential homebuyers around is nothing new. These agents, though, are usually alone. That leads me to believe they’re checking out which homes might soon be up for sale. In other words, the new subdivision isn’t even built yet and already the home values in the area are climbing.

My neighbor Randy, whose house is adjacent to the subdivision, received a letter from a real estate agent out of the blue last week, saying if he were to sell to let the agent know. We received a similar mailing last week, too. Suddenly our neighborhood has become very popular.

Target and data breaches

Target_logo

As you are most probably aware, the Target department store suffered a data breach which exposed 110 million of its customers’ credit cards to hackers. It’s not news that these commerce juggernauts are targeted (pardon the pun) by thieves, but what is news is that you heard about it.

Companies get hacked every day. Most handle their data breaches quietly, afraid that the news of the breach would hurt their company’s reputation. Target has been refreshingly upfront about its data breach, with a full-page message from Target’s CEO running in today’s paper. This is outstanding public relations. Being a bit of a network security wonk and an observer of public relations, I applaud how Target has taken ownership of this problem. What’s more, I hope other affected companies will follow Target’s lead and be more willing to own up to their security breaches.

We can’t pretend that hacking doesn’t take place; we all know security-through-obscurity doesn’t work. A better approach would be to acknowledge the scope of the problem and to collaborate on ways to strengthen the tools we all use to keep our networks secure.

Dogs in parks issue moved to committee

Last week, the Raleigh City Council moved the issue of restricting dogs from certain areas of parks to the Council’s Public Works committee. I was aware that might happen but don’t know what the committee might hit on that the parks board and its committees did not. We have carefully considered the issue, collected public feedback, and made sure all along to take our time to get it right.

Again, I feel the key to success here is to provide more dog-friendly areas, whether they be dog runs in existing parks or biting the fiscal bullet and ponying up for additional much-needed dog parks in our growing city. Part of the Parks board’s recommendation was to be tasked with studying where more dog-friendly resources could be added. I hope the Council will see fit to approve that.
Continue reading →

After loss of key doctors, WakeMed seeks to stabilize

I enjoyed John Murawski’s excellent health care story in today’s N&O. You should read it if you haven’t already.

One underlying theme I deduced from the story is summarized here:

“Hospitals have a possibility of providing you with a network of referring physicians, where you can sleep on a more comfortable cushion, knowing that you’re going to get a share of the market and referrals on a regular basis,” Lacin said.

Lacin also said working for Rex frees him and other doctors from money worries and lets them concentrate on practicing medicine.

This got me thinking. Could medical care simply not be a good fit for the so-called “free market?” Honestly? Doctors don’t want to hassle with the business side so they let someone else (i.e. hospital) deal with it and, before you know it, our medical costs are soaring.

What if we went to single-payer healthcare in America? It seems to me that the burden of business hassles could be taken on by the government just as easily as a hospital and the costs could be much less.

With its soaring costs, I think it’s fair to say the free market is failing the medical industry. One day Americans will wake up to this and join the civilized societies which value the mutual health of their citizens.

via After loss of key doctors, WakeMed seeks to stabilize | Health & Science | NewsObserver.com.

Century Drive Solar Farm

Century Drive Solar Farm (click to embiggen)

Century Drive Solar Farm (click to embiggen)

Now that the leaves are off the trees I’d been eyeing this solar farm near the Crabtree Boulevard exit of the Beltline. My daughter Hallie and I took a little time this afternoon to explore this installation.

According to the Raleigh Public Record story on it last year, the Century Drive Solar Farm was approved by the City Council in May 2013. At the time the property owners, J.T. Hobby and Son, stated that it could be 10 to 15 years before the land could support solar panels due to the land being a former landfill and in a floodplane to boot. Apparently they worked out some of the engineering issues because the panels have been present since the end of October, at least.

Raleigh Public Record says there are 4,000 panels here and the filing with the state public utilities commission [XLS] says the solar farm is 1 MW is size. Pretty cool to have a large solar installation in such a high-profile location!

Lonely times

It can be lonely times when one is between jobs. I don’t exactly feel like anyone’s hero right now. It can be challenging to keep my spirits up while focusing on next steps. In-between states like this always make me very uncomfortable.

Then again, the situation I just exited wasn’t a lot of fun, either. If there’s a silver lining to having choices, it’s that I have a say in the future.

Cheap Thoughts: Parking meter app

Dinosaur

Dinosaur


Paying for parking? There’s an app for that. Or at least there should be.

Walking down a downtown sidewalk this week, I pondered a sawed-off pipe near the curb where an old-fashioned parking meter once stood. A few years ago, the City of Raleigh got rid of all the traditional coin-based parking meters and put up new electronic parking kiosks instead. Drivers simply note the painted number for their parking space and enter that into the kiosk along with their payment.

Simple, right? Instead of collecting coins from hundreds of meters, parking staff simply empty the money from kiosks, which take credit cards and paper bills in addition to coins. Drivers can also refresh their parking time from nearby kiosks, avoiding a trip back to the kiosk nearest the car.
Continue reading →

STEM night at Conn Elementary

An N.C. State student demonstrates a plasma tube at Conn Elementary

An N.C. State student demonstrates a Crooke’s Tube at Conn Elementary


Tonight Conn Elementary hosted a STEM night with the help of students from N.C. State’s College of Engineering. STEM of course stands for Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math.

Multiple stations were set up around the school cafeteria where Conn’s students could perform experiments and learn more about science and engineering. I took Travis and Kelly volunteered. We all had a blast!

Symphony rehearsal field trip

Symphony rehearsal

Symphony rehearsal


Being between jobs has its advantages. I spent the morning acting as a chaperone when Ligon’s orchestra students went on a field trip to Meymandi Hall to watch the North Carolina Symphony rehearse for its upcoming Beethoven performance. It was interesting to watch the conductor and orchestra work out the (barely noticeable) kinks in the performance. The kids were also remarkably well behaved, though I think some were quite restless by the end of the two hours.

One of the highlights of the performance was the pianist, Irina_Zahharenkova. She is a phenomenal pianist, memorizing the music so completely that she could know what to play when the conductor asked to start again at measure 415. She also has 8 fingers on each hand, which is the key to her playing. Ok, I made that part up but she can sure play like she has extra fingers!

I hoped to ride Hallie’s bus the five blocks to the concert hall but the seating arrangements made it unworkable. I opted to let her hang with her friends at the hall, too. With that many kids it was tough finding one-on-one time with her. Even so, we compared notes (ha!) afterward and agreed it was good to have gone.