San Jose Estimate is $40 Million to serve 1 million customers

Like the electric grid, many of today’s water utilities are still using 19th century technologies. That’s attracting a rising number of entrepreneurs to what is one of clean tech’s newest and perhaps most critical sectors.

Some observers see a looming crisis as consumption of the planet’s limited fresh-water resources continues to rise. Sensor networks and other electronics could be leveraged to rebuild an aging and inefficient infrastructure while accelerating the move to seawater and waste water reclamation, they say.
But even the most optimistic experts admit it will take tough new policies and significantly higher prices to drive any progress toward a modern water system. Even with such changes, growth in electronics for water utilities is likely limited to the low-single-digit growth of the utilities themselves.

San Jose Water Co., one of the 10 largest in the country and more automated than most, has all 1 million of its customers metered. But the 225,000 meters it uses are all mechanical devices that must be read in person.
“It would be nice to have automated meters, but right now the cost is prohibitive; we’ve estimated $40 million for our system,” said Tom Victorine, director of operations for the utility, which employs just 324 people and supplies 50 billion gallons of water a year.

Victorine estimates Moore’s Law will put smart meters within San Jose Water’s budget within 10 years.

Moore’s Law is named after Intel founder Gordon Moore who postulated that every two years the number of transistors that can be put into a given space doubles while the price halves making the performance to price ratio increase by a factor of four every two years.

From Electronic Engineering Times

IS IT TRUE that the Evansville City Council shall be asked to consider shifting Parks funding from Community Youth Sports programs to maintenance?….that this that this resolution was created by 1st Ward City Councilman Dan McGinn ….that City Council attorney John Hamilton is making legal and binding adjustment to this document? ….that it is time for the private sector step up and help with the funding of these worthy Youth Sports and Youth Leadership programs in Evansville? …..”that government shouldn’t do for people or groups for what they should do for themselves”?

IS IT TRUE that the appearance and functionality of any cities parks are one of the “vital signs” that visitors or site selectors look at to evaluate the civic health of a city?…that back in the 70’s when New York City had let Central Park be taken over by gangs and it became dangerous that New York was thought to be that way throughout the city?…that back when the Central Park jogger was being savaged and tourists were fearful of walks in the park that New York was losing tourist dollars and business hand over fist?…that only when Central Park was taken back from weeds and thugs did New York real estate recover?…that only when Central Park became safe and clean did Times Square come back to become a vibrant place full of life as opposed to prostitutes and drug dealers?…that back in the 70’s when New York was a dysfunctional mess that the Evansville park system was quite nice?…that New York was brought back to life when a series of strong Mayors were elected who drove out crime and insisted upon civic cleanliness and a pristine Central Park and other New York parks.

IS IT TRUE that world renowned landscape architect Fredrick Law Olmsted designed New York’s Central Park, Stanford University, and the entire park system of the City of Louisville?…that in his book “A Journey Through Texas” written in 1857 that Fredrick Law Olmsted referred to Evansville as the only city of note on the Ohio River in the State of Indiana?…that a student of Frederick Law Olmsted designed Evansville’s Garvin Park and did the layout of a park system in Evansville that is based on Olmsted’s theory of public park design?…that Central Park was brought back from the brink of ruin and that the park system of the City of Evansville can be too?…that proper budget allocation, civic involvement, and a big dose of pride of community can do for Evansville what it did for New York City?

IS IT REALLY TRUE that it’s really time that the Parks Department Administrators and the politically appointed Board members (who receives $3,000 a year for serving on the Board) finally become good stewards of the public trust by becoming pro-active in the obvious maintenance issues in our city and County parks?

IS IT TRUE that the City of Evansville Redevelopment Commission will hold a public meeting at 8:30 a.m. in room 307 at the Civic Center on March 1, 2011? ….the reason for this meeting is for the appointed board members of this Commission to consider new appropriations of $2.8 Million dollars for Downtown TIF projects? ….that the Chairman of the Redevelopment Commission should re-advertise this public notice by breaking down what Downtown TIF projects they are planning to launch and the cost breakdown of each project? ….it would be also nice if the Redevelopment Commission Chairmen would send a copy of this information to each and every City Council Members so they can give their input concerning the above appropriations for new Downtown TIF projects?

IS IT TRUE that we are interested in how several new houses were started in the Front Door Pride area after the bond issue to cover the cost was postponed last fall?… that we believe that a full disclosure needs to be made with respect to how each and every one of these $2.8 Million will be spent?

IS IT TRUE CCO “MOLE #3” would like to congratulate 2nd Ward City Councilwoman, Missy Mosby and her challenger Patrick McBride for doing an excellent job in their first e-debate in the Community Observer? ….”MOLE 3″ thinks both candidates did a creditable job?….MOLE #3 predicts this race is too close to call but at this time Missy Mosby has the edge in this campaign?….”MOLE #3″ says that this primary battle between Missy and Patrick will be an old fashion political barn burner?…that we would like to see more issues on which these two candidates have differing opinions?

Dr. Troost’s Crusade Getting Attention

THE COMMON COUNCIL OF THE CITY OF EVANSVILLE

RESOLUTION C-2011- SPONSORED BY:

WHEREAS, the budget for the City of Evansville for the year 2011 currently shows that the sum of Fifty Thousand Dollars ($50,000.00) has been allocated to a program commonly known as Youth Sports; and,

WHEREAS, the budget for the City of Evansville for the year 2011 currently shows that the sum of Ten Thousand dollars ($10,000.00) has been allocated to a program commonly known as Youth Leadership; and,

WHEREAS, the Council has been made aware that maintenance in local Parks facilities is lacking and several facilities are in immediate need of maintenance and has further been made aware that a City resident was injured by a dirty hypodermic needle that was discarded in Sunset Park and that graffiti and litter plague another Parks facility, The Pigeon Creek Greenway; and,

WHEREAS, the lack of maintenance in our City Parks is in part due to lack of sufficient funds to employ sufficient personnel to maintain said Parks and lack of sufficient funds to purchase necessary supplies and equipment to maintain said Parks;, and

WHEREAS, the maintenance or the City’s Parks is important to the taxpayers of the City of Evansville and should take precedence and have priority over the aforementioned Youth Sports and Youth Leadership programs and that the funds in the amount Sixty thousand dollars ($60,000.00) should be utilized for the employment of part time employees to clean, repair and maintain our Parks and for the purchase of materials and supplies to maintain our Parks; and,

WHEREAS, it is the desire of the Common Council of the City of Evansville to utilize the aforementioned sum of Sixty Thousand Dollars ($60,000.00) for the employment of part time Parks employees and for the purchase of materials and supplies to maintain our Parks and that said sum should be transferred to the Parks Department for these stated purposes rather than be granted to the Youth Sports and Youth Leadership programs and that Sunset Park and the Pigeon Creek Greenway be the first facilities to benefit from these funds.

NOW THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED BY THE COMMON COUNCIL OF THE CITY OF EVANSVILLE THAT:

1. No funds be granted or utilized for Youth Sports and Youth Leadership programs.
2. That the sum of Sixty thousand dollars ($60,000.00) be allocated to the Department of Parks and Recreation for the sole and express purpose of employing part time employees and for the purchase of materials and supplies for the maintenance of various Park’s facilities and that Sunset Park and the Pigeon Creek Greenway be the first Park’s facilities to benefit from these funds.
3. That the balance of the funds be utilized to maintain other Park’s facilities as determined by the Staff of the Department of Parks and Recreation.

4.. That the Mayor of the City of Evansville, the Board of Parks Commissioners, the staff of the Department of Parks and Recreation and the Controller of the City of Evansville do what is necessary to achieve these purposes.
5.. That this Resolution be in full force and effect upon its adoption by the Common Council of the City of Evansville and approval by the Mayor.

PASSED AND ADOPTED BY THE COMMON COUNCIL OF THE CITY OF EVANSVILLE This ______day of _____________, 2011.

COMMON COUNCIL OF THE
CITY OF EVANSVILLE

__________________________
Presiding Officer

IS IT TRUE that other media sources are finally publishing articles about the vanishing population of the City of Evansville?…that it has only taken 50 years for them to start?…that finally the Courier and Press ran an editorial yesterday that addressed the topic of population declines?…that the Downtown loft program, Front Door Pride, the Pigeon Creek Greenway, a public smoking ban, Amazonia, Bosse Field, the LST and the Downtown arena were all cited in the article as efforts that have been made to make Evansville more attractive?…that population shrinkage is about people and not about stuff?…that with the exception of a public smoking ban which incidentally has NOT BEEN ADOPTED by the Evansville City Council that all of these things are targeted at tourists or at very small numbers of people?…that if these are the things that are being done to alleviate the symptom of population shrinkage that Evansville is seriously misguided?

IS IT TRUE that the Manhattan Institute released a study that concluded that the most influential attribute to the growth of a city is the SKILLS of its residents?…that not one of the things listed above does one thing to improve the SKILLS or educational attainment of so much as one Evansvillian?…that the same study concluded that SKILLED people look for cities that have good schools, safe neighborhoods, short commutes, and other SKILLED people when deciding where to live?…that not one of the things listed above does one thing to improve the schools, the safety of neighborhoods, or attracts or inspires other SKILLED people to choose Evansville as home?

IS IT TRUE that the Front Door Pride homes and the IDEA Home are absolutely stunning and setting neighborhood aside some of the best priced homes in America?…that selling homes for half of what they cost to build is not sustainable for local governments and benefits only a few people?…that price does not matter to young professionals ready to start a family unless the neighborhood schools are top performers and crime is minimal?…that if the FDP neighborhood had schools that compete with Scott Elementary on ISTEP performance and the low crime rates of northern Vanderburgh County that all of these houses would be sold at double the price?…that there is still the ugly reality that adding homes when the population is shrinking defies the logic of free markets?

IS IT TRUE that population flight really is a problem for the City of Evansville?…that breaking down the numbers for the first decade of the millennium reveals that Evansville shrunk by roughly 10 people per week when annexations are considered?…that some of these people left for better opportunities and others passed away?…that there are only two ways to grow a population?…that having babies and having people that move here are the only growth mechanisms available?…that an aging demographic as is typical for Evansville are rapidly getting beyond the age of having more babies?…that the growth of the population of Evansville will depend on being the choice of people who were not born here as a home?…that people choose where to live based on economic opportunity, safety, schools, and then on entertainment options?…that I have never ever know anyone to relocate to a city because of an arena, a ball field complex, a rain forest exhibit, or a WWII boat?…that if the City of Evansville does not start doing something to inspire economic opportunity that the exodus will continue?…that two arenas, five zoos, a hundred miles of bike paths, a chicken in every pot, a half priced house in a crime ridden neighborhood, or even consolidated government will not make up for the deficiency of career opportunities with a good future for young educated professionals.

IS IT TRUE that band aids and games will not solve the population problem? …that an intervention may just be required to get things on a path to growth?…that from an economic perspective it will take the equivalent of chemotherapy, followed by multiple organ transplants to really get the City of Evansville onto a path to relevance and prosperity?

Practical Goals for a Growing City

The article is rather long and deep analytically. It goes into some rather intricate details about the fact that cities with skilled people grow and concentrates on what to do to keep or attract skilled people. It is also clear that valuable skills are a dynamic thing and that creating positive change is the real key to maintaining skills. Here are some excerpts. I encourage anyone who really wants to understand how to make Evansville a skilled city and thus a relevant city to digest the entire article several times.

“Cities grow when people want to be near other people in that city or to something else that’s near that city.”

“In 1900, it was important to be near the coal mine, near the Great Lakes; in 2000, it was irrelevant.”

“In 2000, increasingly, cities are located around places where smart people want to live rather than around places where businesses have some inborn transportation cost advantage.”

“There is no reason to think that the decline of manufacturing firms or the exodus of manufacturing from cities is inefficient or bad. It is a big mistake to think that we’re going to reinvent cities around nineteenth-century solutions.”

“Moving ideas and skilled people has been what made cities work. It’s no longer about the port; it’s about the people. Entrepreneurship is part of the equation.”

“The policy vision that this will tend to push is that if we have skilled workers, the employers will follow. We should have an employee-based view of public policy.”

“Schools predict population growth, employment growth, income growth, and housing growth. Schools are a reliable predictor of which cities do well and which cities do poorly. ”

“The crucial thing, obviously, is that you have smart people and that they want to stay there—and that they don’t immediately respond to a negative shock by moving on to the next city.”

“The key to reinvention is to keep skilled people from leaving. That brings us to the actual policy issue: How do you make cities skilled? If skilled people are so important, how do you keep skilled people in your city?”

“being good at manufacturing meant that they were less-skilled places, so cities such as Philadelphia and Detroit tended to attract huge numbers of unskilled people, which can be a real difficulty for the city later on. The fact that a city was good at doing something for less-skilled people—though it was great in 1950—was terrible in 2000”

“The bad news is that in the best-case scenarios, the top bureaucrats of governments still choose losers.”

“Cities often focus on growing industries in which they have no conceivable comparative advantage. How are cities with incredibly low skill levels and no major universities going to be serious centers of biotech?”

“Why would you think that by focusing on low-skilled, nineteenth-century industries that you are going to reinvent your city for the twenty-first century? The hallmark of the modern economy is unpredictability and innovation”

“There’s no way with the data to reject the view that the number of college graduates, or some reasonable proxy for skills, is everything. Nothing else appears to predict anything about urban success.”

“What else do skilled people like? They live in places with lower murder rates, and they don’t like crime. …Skilled people scoot to the sides of boundaries, where they are able to send their kids to good public schools rather than to bad public schools.”

“As much as we may want to take care of our poorest residents locally, it’s a very hard thing to do because of the mobility of skilled people. We often make things worse because the skilled people emigrate.”

“But if you think that you’re going to save a city by quick fixes such as creating a funky downtown, it’s hard to imagine it working. All the available evidence suggests that most skilled people—for example, a thirty-eight-year-old married couple or a twenty-seven-year-old single person—want good, cheap schools, fast commutes, and safe streets. These things do not come cheap or easy.”

Here is the link to the entire study.

http://www.manhattan-institute.org/html/cb_40.htm

What Makes Cities Grow?

By: Stephen Moore

Back in the 1960s, economist John Kenneth Galbraith pronounced that there was “nothing wrong with New York that doubling the city budget wouldn’t solve.” As the budget more than doubled while the city’s problems grew worse, many came to suspect that just the opposite is true.

Now there’s statistical evidence that high spending and taxes do indeed lead to urban decay. My colleague Dean Stansel and I conducted a study for the Cato Institute comparing the tax and fiscal policies of fast-growing cities with those of declining ones. We found a consistent pattern: spending and taxes were far higher in the declining cities.

Of the nation’s 75 biggest cities, the ten fastest-growing increased in population by between 34 and 89 percent between 1980 and 1990. The ten fastest-declining cities lost between 7 and 16 percent of their populations during the same period. (New York, which grew a modest 3.5 percent, was not among the cities we compared.)

The differences in fiscal policy between the two groups of cities were striking. For every $1 of per-capita expenditures in high-growth cities, the shrinking cities spent $1.71. High-growth cities spent an average of $673 per person per year, versus $1,152 in the shrinking cities. These figures don’t include expenditures on health, education, and welfare, which are difficult to compare across cities because of differences in which level of government is responsible. We found, however, that education expenditures are $1,400 per pupil higher in low-growth cities than in high-growth ones; welfare benefits are higher, too.

Shrinking cities had more than twice as large a bureaucracy as growth cities: the high-growth ten had 99 city employees per 10,000 residents; the shrinking cities, 215. City taxes averaged $304 per capita in the high-growth cities, compared with $588 in the shrinking ones. And whereas none of the 15 highest-growth cities have an income tax, ten of the 15 lowest-growth ones do. A key for urban revival, it’s clear, is to reduce spending and government employment so that existing and prospective businesses and residents don’t bear such a high tax burden.

In our daily “IS IT TRUE” column on February 3rd we published the following paragraph on how there is a fine line between what was going on in Egypt that eventually toppled the regime of a dictator Hosni Mubarek and the discontentment in Evansville that has been rising as a result of basic infrastructure not working and services like park cleanliness not being tended to.

“IS IT TRUE that there is a fine line between what is going on in Egypt and what is going on in Evansville?…that the world seems to be in a period of discontentment?…that this discontentment with the status quo is valid and as plain as the nose on ones face to see?…that somewhere in Cairo, Egypt a few short years ago in private homes, the people that we now see in the streets were forming their own Tea Parties, Southern Indiana Democracy for America’s, and Tri-State Tomorrows?…that those groups attracted members, that politics and governance continued to fail them, and that a breaking point was reached?…that blood has been shed and changes will be made but that if the political leadership of Egypt would have listened and acted 10, 20, or 30 years ago and practiced good public policy all day everyday that this bloodshed could have been avoided?”

Some of our readers understood the parallels and were supportive of the column. Others were downright insulting sending emails to personal addresses and calling me everything from a half wit to a stooge for publishing that observation. I stood by that observation then and I stand by it today.

Let me be clear. I do not equate goon squads, baton wielding camel mounted police, and dictatorial government with needles in the park, disfunctional sewers, uncleanliness, and pot holes that would gobble up a SmartCar. I do equate the failure of American government both local and national to provide fundamental services to the failure of the Egyptian government to perform well enough to keep the outrage at bay.

Egypt is governmentally many years behind the United States from a democratic republic point of view. The Egyptian people went into the streets over human rights that we US citizens basically take for granted. The discontentment in Evansville and other American cities that is manifesting itself in splinter groups seeking to improve our democracy is rooted in not getting what we expect. A case in point is that we expect that our parks will be cleaned and safe, our roads will be maintained, and that our sewer can be counted on to work. These are not rights. They are however services for which we pay taxes to receive. When we do not get these things that we pay for and expect, for a while we tolerate it, then we become disgusted, then a child steps on a needle in a city park and it becomes an outrage. The needle in the park and that cavalier response of local government to the pleas of the father was the “straw that broke the camel’s back” for many people in Evansville.

From that perspective the outrage here is still a fine line away from the outrage in Egypt. This week the public employees of the State of Wisconsin have shut down the Madison school system and 14 Democratic members of their state legislature have crossed the money saving border into Illinois over their Governor’s proposal to ask them to pay more for health insurance, contribute to their own retirement plans, and to modify the collective bargaining agreement that they are working under.

The New York Times today published a column titled “Cairo in the Midwest?” to describe the scene and attitude of the 15,000+ public employees who took to the streets over the Governor’s plan. It is their right to do so and we shall see how it plays out. Personally, I think needles in the park and the general decay of Evansville’s infrastructure is more important and affects a higher percentage of our population than the public employees of Wisconsin’s insurance and retirement plight. Both of course disrupt someones life and both need to be resolved satisfactorily.

The Wisconsin protests are dominating the national news while Evansville’s infrastructure and maintenance deficiencies struggle to get the attention of other local media outlets. Our discontentment is valid and important. For those of you who sent messages calling me a half wit for connecting these dots 16 days ago please extend those comments to the learned journalists and writers from the coasts who are now connecting the same dots and writing about “Cairo in the Midwest”.

Link to “Cairo in the Midwest?”

http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/02/18/cairo-in-the-midwest/?src=un&feedurl=http://json8.nytimes.com/pages/opinion/index.jsonp

Mayor Cites Choosing Family over Politics as Driving his Decision

STATEMENT of Mayor Weinzapfel

From: Evansville Mayor Jonathan Weinzapfel
Regarding: Political Future
Date: Saturday, February 19, 2011

I don’t think I’ve made any secret of the fact that for the past few months, I have been exploring the possibility of running for Governor of the State of Indiana. And I’ve been encouraged by many of my supporters and friends to get in the race. They say my experience here in Evansville of creating good jobs, improving education and taking innovative approaches to government could really benefit the state…particularly now.

When I think about running for Governor, I get excited about the possibility of helping all Hoosiers across Indiana achieve their dreams and about moving our state forward. But I also think about the time it takes to run a statewide campaign. I would have to spend the next two years away from my family and friends and away from this community.

Some might find this hard to believe, but one of the benefits of serving as Mayor is that I can do my job and still have time to enjoy my children, watch them grow up and participate in their lives in a meaningful way.
I’m not ready to give that up. And it’s become clear to me that running for Governor would force me to choose between politics and my family. And frankly, that’s an easy choice for me, I choose my family.

And so, I’m announcing today that I will not be a candidate for Governor in 2012

Although I’m not running, I intend to work as hard as I can to help make sure Democrats take back the Governor’s office. I’m excited about the candidates who have expressed an interest in running, and I’m confident that come November of 2012, Hoosiers will be celebrating a Democratic victory, and celebrating a bright future.

IS IT TRUE that City County Observer Mole #3 has predicted for over a year now that lame duck Evansville Mayor Jonathan Weinzapfel would not be making a run for either a 3rd term as Mayor or for the Democratic nomination for Governor of Indiana?…that the next career step for Mayor Weinzapfel may just be a position as a lobbyist in either Indianapolis or Washington D. C.?…that the 32 candidates who have put themselves forward to fill 10 elected positions will assume the collective leadership role for the City of Evansville on January 1, 2012?…that the problems that they will face are already legion?

IS IT TRUE that the City County Observer is pleased with the fact that VenuWorks has announced the intention to hire 25 full time workers and up to 300 part timers to service the new Evansville Arena?…that SMG has 32 full time employees in Evansville right now and employs and equivalent number of part timers to do the day to day things needed to manage events?…that we encourage VenuWorks to give much consideration to any SMG employees who may be let go as they have valuable knowledge of local markets and sponsorship opportunities?…that we hope that although the process was suspect that the transition will be smooth and that Evansville prospers as a result of opening the new Arena?

IS IT TRUE that moving 25 or 32 or even 300 jobs from one location within the City of Evansville to another location WILL NOT CREATE ONE JOB?…that the only way for any public official to claim credit for permanent job creation as a result of building the new Arena is to find a use way to use Roberts Stadium in a way that retains many of the jobs that are already depending on its events?…that if and we must say if some senior elected official like a Mayor finds and supports extending the life of Roberts Stadium that then and only then should that person be able to publicly congratulate themselves on creating a single permanent job by building a new Arena?

IS IT TRUE that the 11 elected offices that are up for grabs this year in the City of Evansville elections have drawn the interests of 32 candidates?…that the range of candidates run from high school grads to doctors, from rich to poor, and from populist charismatics to recluses?…that this is what a government of the people is all about?…that Evansville has never seen such a menagerie of people seeking elected office?…that most of these people have a chance?…that for the first time in perhaps 50 or more years Evansville, Indiana has a chance of having a balanced local government?…that good public policy emerges when different philosophies are forced to think together?…that maybe just maybe the groupthink that has paralyzed Evansville will go away forever and a true participative government will lead us to a level not seen since the early 1950’s from a national relevance perspective?