If you were in the Bay Area, you may have noticed that there was a lot of intense weather yesterday what with the buckets of rain and super-high winds. The news last night was all about the awesomeness of Nature’s destructive power. Lucky me, I was bestowed a tripartite gift.

Element 1) Pants so wet by the time I got to work I could not stand to wear them. Silly me, I thought, I shouldn’t have worn such warm, thick-materialed pants on such a wet day. Luckily I have an emergency suit in my office (and it still fit) so I was cool.

Element 2) Arriving home to see that I had no front window. Literally. My living room window was gone and a spectacle of glass littered the driveway.

It looks like this now:

(I’m sure it’s also the storm’s fault I can’t figure out how to make these pictures bigger!)

Element 3) My next door neighbor decided to wake me up early this morning (ok, it was 10 a.m.) to insist that the leak in her garage was coming from my house. Okay, yeah, the houses are attached, but by her explanation of where her leak was there was no way the fault was on my side. Also she felt the need to point out that my window had been only eight years old and her forty year old windows held up just fine. Nice.

Update: The storm is slightly less evil than previously thought! I’m not stupid! IE7 is! Firefox rules!

I was very disappointed to hear the done-dealness of the A’s to Fremont plan this morning. While I agree that economically, Oakland is probably in pretty much the same place without the A’s, it’s hard to let go of my childhood memories. Also there’s the part about greedy owners blah blah blah. This just didn’t need to happen and it didn’t need to happen now.

I’m not going to call this short-sighted or stupid, but let’s just remark that calling them the “Fremont A’s” would be quite the mistake, and if you look at the map, I have no idea how anyone’s getting from BART to the new stadium in an efficient, timely, non-hair-ripping-out fashion.

We are so not going to talk about this.

Nice. Very nice.

But the big question is who do we want to play next?

The Tigers, who were hot for much of the season but have since cooled, or the Yankees, who have magical powers - except for that A-Rod fella.

Walk on the left! Stand on the right! Walk on the left! Stand on the right! Walk on the left! Stand on the right! Simple escalator etiquette. Most people get it, but increasingly, especially in the morning (like this morning in the BART/Muni Metro station), it seems like people don’t.

Even the government wants you to get it!

Apparently, though, this is an even bigger problem in DC or people there are really, really vocal about it. See here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here . . .

You should also read “One Small Step for Man … … and one giant leap for economists: How we figured out why people walk up staircases but not up escalators.” It’s not exactly on point, but isn’t it fascinating to read a 4 year old article about economists trying to figure out “If people stand still on escalators, then why don’t they stand still on stairs?” (yes, I wrote “why don’t they stand still on stairs”)?

Also, this story is kind of funny.

Athletics 3 - Twins 2, yay; Cardinals 5 - Padres 1, again good; Yankees 8 - Tigers 4, ugh.

If I had the time, patience, and a hint more obsession, I’d probably write about real estate all the time. I find it fascinating to observe, especially here in San Francisco. Carol Lloyd has written some good pieces recently for the Chron on the softening/correcting/plateauing/whatever market. National stories are interesting, but not quite instructive given the utter weirdness of the Bay Area market.

For example, there is a house currently for sale in Glen Park on Bosworth, near the BART station. I walk all or part of the way to Glen Park BART about once a week and I passed by this house every time. After it seemed like it had been on sale forever, I finally got curious enough to look it up on the MLS a couple months ago. I often look up houses in my immediate neighborhood that I see for sale because of the natural curiosity of what my neighbors think their houses are worth, but I usually don’t care so much for houses I see elsewhere, principally because it tends to be an overwhelming exercise given the still astronomical home prices for the most modest dwellings.

Anyway, I was visiting my mom when I looked up the Bosworth house and when I informed her that it was $1,050,000, she said “A million dollars?! For a house on Bosworth?!” To be fair, it was a four bedroom, three bath house, with the two downstairs bedrooms and downstairs bath (adding 400 sq ft) added recently with permits (”downstairs” and “unwarranted” are part and parcel of real estate listings in SF so a legit addition is a big deal), which certainly ups the house’s value. But Bosworth is on its best day a terrible street in a great location. It’s a stone’s throw from the BART station so it’s great for commuting, not only because of BART, but also because of all the buses (23, 26, 44, 52) and the J Church Muni Metro streetcar that are hubbed at the BART station. There are lots of cute shops and restaurants and a library, though no grocery store (yet) in the neighborhood. It borders Glen Park Recreation Center (with baseball fields and tennis courts) and Glen Canyon Park (a nice open greenspace with lots of hiking). It’s close to I-280. It’s a relatively safe neighborhood.

But Bosworth is a busy, busy street. It’s a main thoroughfare. People come flying down O’Shaughnessy and barely pause at the stop signs. There’s lots of traffic with the attendant noise and pollution. It’s close to I-280. The houses have small setbacks and the sidewalks aren’t super-wide.

As far as the house itself goes, four bedrooms and three baths is on paper phenomenal. From the description and pictures - formal dining room, living room, modern stainless appliances and granite countertops and island in the kitchen, 2000+ square feet - all good selling points. Unfortunately, there are things I personally would balk at. The backyard of the house is not deep and most likely abuts a hill, which makes it private, but limits options. Of course, with the rec center across the street, no yard might not be a deal breaker. And who knows how well it shows or whether it has an unfortunate layout? Bottom line, in the neighborhood and in the home, there are pluses and there are minuses.

I was curious and decided to follow the fate of this house, checking in periodically. Interestingly, despite the for sale sign staying up, the MLS listing disappeared for a few weeks. Until I checked back earlier this week and discovered that the house was listed again - except this time the price had been reduced to $949,000. That’s a hair over a hundred thousand dollars lower - a big drop by any standards. The new MLS listing did not trumpet the reduction as I have seen noted for a number of other houses, but it’s still true.

At first I felt a tinge of pity for the owners - despite the fact that it’s much less of a seller’s market and all the talk of a correction, it’s got to be hard to revise down an expectation that far. Amusingly, Zillow, one of my favorite time-wasting sites, pegs the value of the house at $913,000 - and that’s without the data about the added two bedrooms and bath. That’s right, Zillow, which yes I know is at best an wild estimate because it calculates values based on extremely limited public information (for example, it doesn’t know if your countertops are laminate or granite, whether you’ve got a front lawn or paved it over, whether you’ve added or taken out a room without permits, etc.), thinks that with two beds and two baths the house is worth only forty thousand less than its current asking price. Four bedrooms and three baths ought to get you at least another $100,000. But, alas, the market apparently doesn’t think so and that’s all that matters.

(According to Trulia, which I would like more if it wasn’t slightly impossible to use, through August, for 2 bedrooms in SF the average sales price was $923,144, and four beds average sales price was $1,330,490. This is, of course, across all neighborhoods (a 4 bedroom in Bayview is not comparable price-wise to a 4 BR in Pac Heights); includes condos (luxury and otherwise) as well as TICs in addition to single family homes; and isn’t weighted to account for the difference in inventory between those types of places. [NB: Trulia has revamped their site to include more data - it’s not much easier to use, but it really has a lot more data now.])

As recently as last year, this price reduction could have been pegged as a coy attempt to garner offers above the original asking - lower the price to invite a frenzy of bidding that gets you where you want to be rather than starting high and scaring off potential buyers. But now, the sellers are probably still looking for a premium, but not expecting to get even their original asking. Or are they? Who knows?

I don’t feel too sorry for the owners. According to Zillow and Trulia (you can also check out how much properties sold for through the city Assessor’s website, it’s just slightly more work and the information is presented in a less malleable form), the place was last purchased in December 2004 for $681,000. At list, which the sellers will at least get, they earn $268,000 on the investment in less than 2 years. Even factoring in the cost of adding the lower rooms, that’s a fair return.

Obviously, this one house is not a case study for the entire city. It’s one experience and a hundred factors that may have kept it sitting may be unique to it. But it’s less that the house is worth less, it’s more that it was probably overpriced and now that’s being realized. This is consistent with Lloyd’s recent articles about how buyers are taking their time and noticing which flaws can be fixed and which can’t and also how sellers have been reluctant to awaken to the new reality. 

Bottom line, it will be interesting to see the price when it finally sells - stay tuned.

I didn’t get a chance to celebrate, but despite their collective best efforts, the Athletics and the Cardinals both managed to make it to the playoffs - the red birds on the last freakin’ day (only because Houston lost, the Cards lost too). Nice. Unfortunately the Twins are apparently streaking so that doesn’t really give me the greatest feeling about their series with my Athletics. It doesn’t help that the Cardinals are taking a meh 83-77 record into their series against NL West champs the Padres. But, of course, I have faith and all that. Good luck!

The AP via MSNBC.com is reporting that the US fatalities in Afghanistan and Iraq have now equaled (and then swiftly exceeded) the number of people killed on September 11. By any analysis, that’s a tragedy and it’s sad to realize that that figure is only going to increase. The problem with the story, of course, is that by folding the numbers of lives lost in Iraq and Afghanistan, the AP and MSNBC aren’t doing much to keep the distinction clear between those two theaters that technically have nothing to do with each other. Iraq isn’t really about the war on terror or 9/11 so why imply that it is? Other grisly figures include 2,390 who died at Pearl Harbor and, inexplicably, the 405,399 lost by the U.S. in World War II. Of course, the story concedes:

“Historians note that this grim accounting is not how the success or failure of warfare is measured, and that the reasons for conflict are broader than what served as the spark.”

The first part I totally agree with, but nice that the second part only serves to further confuse the issues. Good reporting, guys.

The magic number for the A’s is 4. The magic number for the Cardinals is 5. That’s the World Series I want. I’m pretending I haven’t jinxed it.

And not only is San Francisco the second “smartest” city in America, hometown Oakland the 18th, and most populus city in the metro area San Jose 15th, but those cities are also on the list of priciest places for renters. San Francisco lands at #2 (behind NYC and its wowza $2,469 average monthly rents), San Jose at #4, and even Oakland’s freaking out the renters at #7. It’s lovely that California has 6 of the top ten. I chalk it up to the weather.

Finally, I bought 14 books last night. I have a serious problem.

Update - 9/23, 12:19 am: The A’s magic number is now 2. Even better.

In a way, most Muni stories are slightly trivial. I mean, they’re just about how much the bus sucks, retellings of inconveniences that pale in comparison to local social and political turmoil or any of the international crises of the day. But when you’re just trying to live your life and get from place to place with relative efficiency and Muni incompetence sets up a barrier, in those moments, these are to you the most important things on the planet.

A week ago, I had to go play a soccer game out at West Sunset (aka Jim Lucey Fields) at 39th Ave and Quintara. I had never been, but based on the Muni system map and the schedule on 511, the L-Taraval was my best bet. It went straight from the financial district where I worked (from Embarcadero station) out to an L-Taraval stop at 40th Ave and Taraval, a mere four blocks from the field. Getting home looked promising, with the 48-Quintara traveling right from 39th and Quintara to half a mile from my home. Unfortunately, when I looked up the 48’s schedule, I discovered it stopped running between those points at about 6:45 p.m., which fits, of course, with Muni’s bizarre determination that rush hour is long over by then. But I figured I could take the L to Forest Hill Muni Metro Station, which is what I do (going outbound) to get home every day, and there are four buses I can take, one that gets me 3 blocks from my home and three that get me half a mile from my home, followed by a relatively easy walk.

Knowing that 511.org estimated a 43 minute trip (including walking time), I left work at 5:45 and booked it to the Embarcadero station, knowing that either the 5:51 L or the 5:57 L would do the trick, but also knowing that 511.org and the Muni schedule are both kind of full of crap. In a stroke of Muni luck, I only had to wait through one train before an L pulled up. The first sign of trouble, though, was when the destination signs read “Sunset Blvd.” instead of “47th Ave-Zoo.” I recalled Sunset’s location from the map and guessed it was probably an extra block’s walk and would be a fine end of the line for me. I boarded and took a seat.

The second sign of trouble was that the car kept stopping in the tunnels - more than usual. And going really slow. The last couple weeks, the Muni Metros have been crawling along between Castro and Forest Hill, requiring me to leave work about 5 minutes earlier every day to avoid missing the connecting bus and either waiting in the cold or trekking from Forest Hill. But this ride was different in that we were slow and stopping between every station, though not a peep about it came from our driver. However, by the time we left Castro, every in-tunnel stop, which sometimes felt as if they were as little as a few yards apart, was met with a collective exasperated sigh from the passengers.

When we got to West Portal, I was a little excited. I’d never been out that far on the L line, though I’m not sure why I was such a dork about emerging from the underground into the sunlight. I’ve taken the N to Golden Gate Park a million times from downtown and the J all over when I used to live in Noe Valley. But alas, this was new territory on the L. I relaxed and sat back to enjoy the ride as I realized there was a long way to go.

Unfortunately, the stop and go nature of our trip did not change once we were out on the street. At first I chalked it up to the fact that the road equals cars and traffic and stop signs and stop lights and pedestrians, but clearly something else was up. That something was never revealed to the passengers, but at 24th Ave and Taraval the driver announced that he was turning around and we all had to get off the streetcar. No explanations, no apologies, just get off the bus. That collective exasperation had morphed into a slightly more hostile irritation and frustration by this point, but there was nothing we could do other than disembark and watch as the train backed up, switched to the tracks on the other side of the double yellows, and receded from view.

I surmised it was too far to walk and I had seen another L close behind us a few blocks earlier. It eventually caught up to us, and we boarded. We eventually made it to 40th and Taraval, and I walked the four blocks to the field, arriving a little over an hour after I started my journey and cursing the L to anyone who would listen.

After a lovely time playing soccer until the sun went down, I trudged back to 40th and Taraval to catch the inbound to Forest Hill. I got there at 8:17 p.m., allegedly just missing the 8:16 L with one scheduled to arrive at 8:28 and another at 8:43. I know the Muni schedule cannot even be considered loosely associated with  reality at most points in time, but at night when the traffic is a little less heavy, Muni can sometimes hew a little closer to its published timetables. Though not so much this time.

I knew the L was supposed to come every 15 minutes, and seeing none just missed down the road I was optimistic, also supported by the fact that there was another person already waiting. I have no idea where this naïveté sprung from, but it was knocked out of me in due course. I waited. And then I waited some more. Five, ten, fifteen minutes went by without a hint of an inbound L. Then twenty, then twenty-five. Finally, after approximately 30 minutes in the cold and about 12 minutes after I decided I should spend my time listening to Nightcrawler and getting to love it and twenty minutes after I decided to stop calling Matt to bother him, the L rolled up to the stop. The best part, as you may suspect, about all this was that there were four outbound Ls that roared by in the other direction. Four!

Of course, the ride to Forest Hill on the empty, nearly nine p.m. streets of Parkside was s . . . l . . . o . . . w. We eventually made it to the station, and I was lucky enough to wait only briefly for a 43-Masonic, which got me halfway home, and walking through the door just after 9:30 p.m.

So to recap, I spent about 130 minutes of Muni related transit to get about 70 minutes of soccer in. Not very practical or efficient. I love soccer, but if over two hours of transit time is required, I better be crossing a bridge or at least the city limits.

So this past Wednesday, I had to make the trek to West Sunset again. Swearing off the L, which may be dead to me now, I chose to thumb my nose at the bus system I would desperately love to support, but can’t because that would require me to sacrifice my own sanity. I parked as close as I could without getting into permit parking territory to Glen Park BART Station (about an 8 minute walk) in the morning, and jumped in my car after work, having left just after 5:50 p.m. Total transit time to the park was just under 50 minutes, but about 5 of that involved me turning the wrong way after being freaked out by a minor traffic jam and having to double back. After playing, I was home in less than half an hour (which included chatting afterwards), which drive interestingly also involved a wrong turn, that might actually have been a short-cut, but it was really foggy so I could never reproduce the effort.

In the end, I learned my lesson. How could I forget that this is the same Muni that can’t figure out how to not inconvenience thousands of people on Giants’ game days, the same Muni whose drivers I have witnessed yelling at young kids and old people and blowing by women with babies at stops, the same Muni that is so unpredictable that I rarely bother to check the schedule before standing out on the corner, the same Muni that at least once every week-and-a-half or so I give up on and walk the steep 20 minutes to Glen Park in the morning rather than wait out the bus? If only they wouldn’t make it sound so damn easy to just hop on the bus and go.