My Changing Neighborhood(s): October 2016

Monday, October 31, 2016

NEIGHBORHOOD HALLOWEEN DECORATIONS 2016

Thursday, October 27, 2016

AFTERNOON OF A SPIDER

The building I live in is fortunate to have a backyard.

In that backyard

a spider has spun a web fastened to an english ivy plant on side

and on the other, to one of the trumpet vines

that spill over from the property next door.

Monday, October 24, 2016

NEIGHBORHOOD CLOSINGS 2016 (#14 in a series) – FLY BAR & RESTAURANT, JERUSALEM MARKET

After many years in business at the corner of Larkin and Sutter, Fly Bar and Restaurant has closed

1085 Sutter

as has the Jerusalem Market

1100 Sutter

catty-corner across the street.

Friday, October 21, 2016

UPCOMING LOCAL EVENT – A NIGHT AT HOGWARTS

at the New Village Cafe, 1426 Polk Street.

Wednesday, October 19, 2016

Monday, October 17, 2016

CRANES

Always overhead, as least for the moment.

Looking north on Polk Street near Sutter.

Thursday, October 13, 2016

UPCOMING LOCAL EVENT – PUBLIC HEARING ON ELIMINATING 19 POLK MUNI STOPS

A public hearing on eliminating the Larkin library bus stop is scheduled for this Friday, October 14, at 10:00 a.m. at City Hall, Room 416 in Hearing Room 4.

If you're a constant user of this bus stop and want to have a say in it's future, attend the meeting tomorrow.

Thursday, October 6, 2016

ORPHEUM THEATER MAKEOVER

This was the Orpheum Theater in December 2015. Even though the facade is partially covered, you can see how dingy and dirty it had become.

Here's how it looked in January and throughout most of this year when it was doing the Christo-Wrap thing until this August

when it finally unveiled its newly-painted, clean, white facade

which fits in well with the continuing transformation of the mid-Market area of San Francisco, and does the old (90 years and counting) theater proud.

Wednesday, October 5, 2016

NEIGHBORHOOD SPIRITUAL ORGANIZATIONS – MASJID aL-TAWHEED (#2 in a series)

Masjid al-Tawheed is a Sunni mosque located at 1227 Sutter. For more information about it and its services, click the following link below:

https://www.salatomatic.com/spc/San-Francisco/Masjid-Al-Tawheed/E45txqkSdP

Monday, October 3, 2016

2014 WAGE LEVELS AND MEDIAN INCOME

Whenever there's talk about income inequality, I always find myself thinking that finding out what percentage of the populations makes what would be a much more useful and accurate way of looking at income inequality.

Awhile back I came across a blog by Michael Snyder entitled "Goodbye Middle Class...." [WashingtonBlog, October 21, 2015] bemoaning the fact that 51% of americans made less than $30,000 a year. It also contained a link to a table of 2014 wage statistics from the Social Security Administration. At last! I thought. Something concrete to pin all these abstract percentages (the 1%, the 99%, the bottom 30, the top 10, etc.) I'm always hearing about on.

The 2014 table of wages runs from $0 - $50,000,000 starting in increments of $5,000. It's over 50 rows. I wanted something simple. So, starting with $30,000/51% as the base, I grouped wages into the following seven levels:

$30,000 and below

$30,000 – 39,999

$40,000 – 49,999

$50,000 – 74,999

$75,000 – 99,999

$100,000 – $249,999

$250,000 and above

until I reached that elusive 1%, at least of wages.

The following chart is the result:

WAGE LEVELS 2014
$250,000 and above – 1%	3,170,000 people
$100,000 - 249,999 – 7%	22,190,000 people
$75,000 - 99,999 – 7%	22,190,000 people
$50,00 - 74,999 – 13%	41,210,000 people
$40,000 – 49,999 – 9%	28,530,000 people
$30,000 - $39,999 – 12%	38,040,000 people
$30,000 or less – 51%	161,670,000 people

What I like about this chart is that it helps me see that talk about the average wage of americans depends what wage level you're talking about. It also helps me understand why, when you consider how debt-ridden americans are, so many people feel such economic anxiety.

On Sept. 13 the New York Times and other media outlets announced to great fanfare a new median household income of $56,500, an almost 5% percent increase over the previous year.

That made me curious. What was the median household income level in 2014, and where would it fall on the graph above?

Googling that question came up with a median income of $53,891. Rounding it off to $53,999, the median income would roughly fall here on the chart:

WAGE LEVELS 2014
$250,000 and above – 1%	3,170,000 people
$100,000 - 250,000 – 7%	22,190,000 people
$75,000 - 99,999 – 7%	22,190,000 people
$54,000 - 75,000 – 12%	38,040,000 people
2014 MEDIAN INCOME $53,891
$40,000 – 53,999 – 10%	31,700,000 people
$30,000 - $39,999 – 12%	38,040,000 people
$30,000 or less – 51%	161,670,000 people

I can see why the news of increased median income growth was greeted with such a so what? response by so many people. What good is median income growth if you're wages aren't anywhere near that? Almost full employment looks great on paper, but a lot different to people working two 25-30 hours-a-week jobs at $10-12 an hour just to make ends meet.

In October 2016, the Social Security Administration will be coming out with new wage statistics for 2015. It will be interesting to see what has changed and what hasn't, and where the current median income falls now.

Sunday, October 2, 2016

NEIGHBORHOOD RE-OPENINGS 2016 – TOAST EATERY (#13 in a series)

Toast, which was closed briefly after running afoul of the Dept. of Public Health and was blogged about here:

http://mychangingneighborhood.blogspot.com/2016/09/neighborhood-closings-2016-13-in-series.html,

has resolved its problems and re-opened to normal business.

My Changing Neighborhood(s)