The biggest news I've got is that my co-housing neighbors got their application approved by the planning commission of Oakland! Yay! They applied to convert their units into condominiums. There's an ordinance that if you remove rental property from the pool, you've got to pay a conversion fee. This fee is based on some arcane formula, and can amount to tens of thousands of dollars per unit. Above, Linton addresses the planners. I did too. But my larger role was to run over to Kinko's and get 10 copies of all the documentation printed up between the time we arrived and the time they presented! I liked helping, and they were all running along that line of stressed/not stressed, and I knew exactly where the Kinko's was.My neighbors have chosen life paths other than making tons of money. The condoization is happening along with the Northern California Land Trust. The NCLT will own the land, and they'll own the structures. This creates permanently affordable housing. Interestingly, that's an issue that was foremost in the minds of the planning commissioners last night. The application specifically asked to be exempted from this fee, and with no speakers against the conversion, it passed easily in a 5-0 vote.
I'm glad I was there. As I move along towards my own goal of condoizing my house, I'll be spending some time in fornt of the planning commission. It was nice to initiate that interaction for someone else's benefit.
There's a beautiful slime mold crawling through my garden. These collective organisms are one of nature's true oddities. I love 'em.
My wife will look into my belly button every once in a while, asking "Do you have mail for me?" and seeing if I've gathered up any lint. When I saw a large tube of oversize belly buttons at IKEA, I had to get it for sorting the mail into!Happy Half Nekkid Thursday!
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