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Uber's Waymo Settlement: Why the Road Isn't Clear Yet
Business Radio
Wharton's John Paul MacDuffie and Santa Clara University's Eric Goldman discuss the Uber-Waymo settlement.
http://media.blubrry.com/kw/p/d1c25a6gwz7q5e.cloudfront.net/audio/20180212A-KWR-MacDuffie-Goldman.mp3
Five days into a trial that was set to last for weeks, Uber unexpectedly settled a lawsuit brought by Waymo over the alleged theft of trade secrets from the self-driving car company. Under the settlement, Uber has agreed to pay Waymo a .34% share of the company's equity, which amounts to $244 million. Waymo, which is owned by Google parent company Alphabet, had been seeking damages of $1 billion.
Documents presented in the case remain sealed, including 14,000 emails that engineer Anthony Levandowski allegedly stole from Google when he left to form his own self-driving car company called Otto. In 2016, Uber purchased Otto for $680 million.
Although much of the details are still in the dark, the case sheds light on the cutthroat world of technology-based businesses and the race to produce the next big thing. It also raises interesting legal and moral questions about balancing the interests of a company over the rights of employees. To explore those questions, the Knowledge@Wharton radio show, which airs on SiriusXM channel 111, recently spoke with John Paul MacDuffie, Wharton management professor and director of the Program on Vehicle and Mobility Innovation at the Mack Institute for Innovation Management, and Eric Goldman, law professor at Santa Clara University and co-director of the school's High Tech Law Institute. Following are key takeaways from their conversation:
So many questions, so few answers.
Big corporate cases are settled all the time, so the settlement here was not surprising. However, the timing was a bit of a shocker, the two experts said: Both parties had already spent a significant amount of time and money to get the case into court.
"It was a sign, perhaps, of some very rapid decision-making about how the trial was going," Goldman said. "The timing of that certainly took everyone's breath away."
Despite all the information that did come out at trial, the trade secrets are still secret. Reporters were kicked out of the courtroom when those items were discussed, and the documents are not public record.
MacDuffie and Goldman defined trade secrets as information that creates value for a company because of its secrecy. "It can be something big and strategic, like the secret sauce of Google's search engine algorithm, or it can be really tiny and minor, some differential way that the company knows how to do something that its competitors don't know," Goldman said. "We don't have a really good sense about the trade secrets at issue here because so much of the case was put under seal. We know that there were 14,000 files that moved from Waymo's servers into Levandowski's possession, but we don't have a full sense of clarity about what exactly those trade secrets were and whether they even qualified as a trade secret."
It is difficult for employees not to import ideas from one company to another.
Goldman said the case casts a "crucial shadow" over the issue of employee mobility. California has strong laws that protect the ability of employees to move from one company to another, but the allegation that Levandowski stole so many documents makes it hard to feel favorably towards him.
"If [Levandowski] just walks out the door from Waymo, hands over his keys and takes his brain with him, this case looks very different or probably doesn't get filed," Goldman said. But in this case, it was both a person and "a big chunk of files that made the move."
MacDuffie agreed, saying Uber's business practices have raised eyebrows for a long time. This case was sparked when a supplier for Uber was shown email attachments of some plans for LIDAR, the laser-based technology behind self-driving vehicles, and was asked to bid on it.
"The supplier recognized it as looking very much identical to what Waymo was working on," MacDuffie said. "That is a lot different than just knowledge in an employee's head, if you've got exact blueprints that a competitor developed. Uber always claimed, 'No, this is a fast-moving technology area. We're doing our own stuff; that was coincidental.' But there was this cloud of suspicion around just about everything Uber said, not just because of this case but because of other cases."
Are non-compete laws the solution?
The laws surrounding intellectual property are pretty clear, Goldman said. "The general knowledge of the employee cannot be restricted or owned by the employer, but the specific knowledge that rises to a trade secret can."
Applying that test is easier when dealing with documents because information can be cleaved into "two buckets": general or proprietary. "When information is in an employee's head, we don't have any good solution for cleaving between the general knowledge that's free to take and the proprietary knowledge that's not," he said.
"There was this cloud of suspicion around just about everything Uber said, not just because of this case but because of other cases."–John Paul MacDuffie
Still, Goldman believes the law should err on the side of employees and not restrict them from moving. He mentioned California's laws against non-compete clauses and the inevitable disclosure doctrine. "I think that's been a key part of California's success in allowing and encouraging employee mobility, even though they have information in their head that we can't easily classify."
According to MacDuffie, scientists have researched states where non-compete laws exist and found they have less innovation as measured by the number of patents filed. "Silicon Valley is what we all look to as the leader in the world in pioneering new technologies, and California has said we will not allow these kind of restrictions. The emphasis is on the side of allowing mobility as a priority," he said.
There is no federal law against non-compete clauses, but Goldman thinks passing such a measure would be easy. Many employers love non-compete agreements because they keep employees in place and keep wages down by reducing competition for labor, but the employers ultimately pay a cost.
"It's a way of actually restricting the efficiency of the labor market," he said. "For many big employers, they're trying to keep their key employees, but they're also trying to hire the best talent in the marketplace, so non-compete agreements set up a thicket that makes it hard for even the biggest employers to get the talent that they want."
MacDuffie pointed out that non-compete rules also fly in the face of evolving corporate culture.
"The way of thinking about talent and skill in most big American corporations has really shifted in the direction of valuing the outside hire who has some new and incredibly valuable skill, as opposed to developing people in those skills through an internal career over a long period of time," he said. "With that shift, I would expect at least most large companies would see the logic that California has been applying and maybe back away from opposing this kind of federal law."
"Uber has shot itself in the foot so many times, it's hard to tell where this particular issue fits on the scale of problems that they face." –Eric Goldman
Uber Has a Lot of 'Trust-building' to Do
Uber was already under scrutiny because of the behavior of former chief executive Travis Kalanick, who was removed last year amid a public relations fiasco over his behavior. He still sits on the board at the rideshare company.
On the day of the settlement, new CEO Dara Khosrowshahi expressed regret and said Uber's acquisition of Otto "should have been handled differently."
"It almost deflects from the big charge to the small charge," MacDuffie said. "It wasn't everything we'd like it to be, so let's settle and get this behind us. It allows Uber and the board and new leadership to say, 'This is over. Let's look forward to an [IPO] maybe in 2019.'"
The case left behind a number of casualties at Uber, Goldman said, and the company will have to face the consequences.
"Uber has shot itself in the foot so many times, it's hard to tell where this particular issue fits on the scale of problems that they face," he said. "Uber has a lot of trust-building to do."
Uber has agreed to an audit of its technology to ensure it is not stealing from Waymo. Goldman said that audit will be a nuisance to Uber, which has to realize they are now being watched.
"It's just like having a cop on the beat," he said. "It's going to slow things down and make people stick to the speed limit more carefully."
"Uber's Waymo Settlement: Why the Road Isn't Clear Yet." Knowledge@Wharton. The Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania, 13 February, 2018. Web. 19 January, 2020	<https://knowledge.wharton.upenn.edu/article/uber-waymo-settlement/>
Uber's Waymo Settlement: Why the Road Isn't Clear Yet. Knowledge@Wharton (2018, February 13). Retrieved from https://knowledge.wharton.upenn.edu/article/uber-waymo-settlement/
"Uber's Waymo Settlement: Why the Road Isn't Clear Yet" Knowledge@Wharton, February 13, 2018,
accessed January 19, 2020. https://knowledge.wharton.upenn.edu/article/uber-waymo-settlement/
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Mark Stevenson
Best-Selling Author, Futurist and Entrepreneur
Best-selling author, entrepreneur, broadcaster and expert on innovation Mark Stevenson is one of the world's most respected thinkers on technology and societal trends – helping you see where the world is going – and how to adapt. In an illuminating presentation, Stevenson takes a look at trends shaping the world in the next 30 years, including the increasing reliance on technology and our relationship to it. His key skill is an ability to take complex or abstract concepts and make them understandable by non-specialists without trivializing the subject matter. Audiences are left with a deeper understanding of how to handle complexity in an ever changing world as well as how to create cultures of innovation and creativity.
Mark Stevenson is the author of two books, the just released We Do Things Differently and the best-selling An Optimist's Tour of the Future which has been translated into 10 languages and was described by Wired "a very coherent and entertaining journey through the world of future technology" and by New Scientist as "a refreshing reminder that the future will always belong to the optimists".
His many advisory roles include Sir Richard Branson's Virgin Earth Challenge, Civilized Bank, Atlas of the Future and The Institution of Mechanical Engineers.
As founder of the cultural change agency wdtd.co.uk, he spends much of his life working across the globe with organizations of every hue, helping them see their role in creating a better future, or to die gracefully if they need to. The company's clients are a diverse mix of government agencies, NGOs, corporates and arts organizations.
Stevenson has also written for The Times, The Wall Street Journal, The Guardian, Intelligent Life, The Irish Times, The Irish Independent, The Daily Telegraph, and The New Statesman.
Stevenson is also an occasional comedy writer. His work has been performed on Radio 4 and his play (co-written with Jack Milner) Octopus Soup comes to London in January 2018.
"Mark did a spellbinding job. It was a tremendous speech met with a standing ovation. It is not often that you can hear a pin drop in a room that size – but the audience was enthralled. Wonderful!"
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Share Monthly
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PFC Most Needed
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Programs: Thirteen: A Social Enterprise, Growing Futures, Ottawa Community Food Partnership
PFC Team
Careers/Join Us
PFC Blog
Author: Ben Jolliffe
Where caring comes from and where it can take us
Published in the Kitchissippi Times – December 2020
Karen Secord, Executive Director, Parkdale Food Centre, reminisces about poverty and how an individual's innate kindness and compassion can create a ripple effect throughout a community.
There are some memories that are more than reels of movie footage haphazardly assembled in your minds eye; the way my Nanny built her life around the tiny northern New Brunswick community of Atholville is like that for me.
It was a working man's town, where the goings-ons at the pulp and paper mill decided whether or not people had a job and what their children ate the following week. I remember the air smelled and snow banks were so high we couldn't open the front door.
My Pops was a Hennessey, Irish through and through, with rough hands a devilish grin and musicality that exploded into many a jig and lively song during their infamous kitchen parties. My Nanny was a Boudreau and her fingers wore the sheen off her rosary, her kindness for her community was unmatched.
Even though my parents had moved away from the maritimes after my birth, we visited often during the first decade or so of my life. I didn't know Nanny and Pops were "poor" until much later. I don't think I would have believed it had someone told me, or maybe I just didn't know or care about being poor. After all, I never saw them want for anything. Their big house and even bigger hearts were all I needed at the time.
My Nanny spent her days standing by the stove kneading bread or making dumplings to go on top of the bubbling sticky potatoes, cabbage and carrots that she called stew. We would devour the bread crusts soaked in hot milk with brown sugar for lunch or before bed. I thought it was so yummy and wondered why my parents didn't provide that for my meals at home. It was the love and kindness in sharing food that filled my belly, I know that now.
Nanny didn't make small batches of anything. Everything she made was large and meant to share. Extra bread and biscuits with preserves or pickles might be sent with Pops to the family a few doors down. Or, maybe half the pot of stew was headed to the lady with a newborn and a husband out of work. She made molasses cookies, too. My mouth waters just imagining them, even after fifty years. Many neighbours received a parcel of Nan's special molasses cookies for no reason other than they were neighbours.
I wonder sometimes how these early lessons have shaped my approach to life; how much of my Nan's simple, uncomplicated kindness and my Pop's zest for socializing have been grafted onto my soul.
As the Executive Director at the Parkdale Food Centre (PFC), our mission is just this. Creating community and ensuring we are all part of it. Neighbour to Neighbour. As we head into December,I find it difficult to ignore that hundreds of families in Ottawa are homeless and will spend the holidays in motel rooms or other impractical spaces; that many were there in 2019 and some even in 2018.
At PFC, we are reminded almost daily that it is impossible to prepare and serve a nutritious family meal, let alone a festive meal, when a microwave is your primary cooking appliance. I cried in disbelief when a woman told me that her family of six had rice for their Christmas meal in 2019, while only a short distance away there was a community holiday celebration where they would have been welcome. But no one thought to invite them.
Covid-19 has complicated everything. Enjoying a holiday meal on Christmas day in the company of others likely won't be safe. Since this began, the winter season, the holiday season has been looming. The Parkdale Food Centre has grappled with the seemingly impossible predicament of how to serve delicious meals in the winter, while respecting Ottawa Public Health guidelines. Many of the people we serve have health conditions that make them particularly vulnerable and their disability income ($1,169) or Ontario Works ($733) doesn't offer them the luxury to purchase much after rent is paid. Food, let alone healthy food is often not an option.
I won't lie and tell you everything is going to be alright because I don't know that it will. The number of people requiring help is increasing weekly. The cost of food is expected to rise this winter. The Parkdale Food Centre gives each person a robust order of good food once a month and we offer take-home meals, and cooking classes several times a week. Although we rescue food, buy wholesale and in bulk, our grocery bill is enormous.
We need your help. Sixty percent of our funding comes from you, our neighbours.
I can tell you that, like my grandparents did all those years ago, our team at the Parkdale Food Centre will do everything we can to ensure that anyone who needs food assistance is also given kindness, compassion and, often, really amazing bread.
Visit us at parkdalefoodcentre.ca or call 613-722-8019 to donate.
COVID-19 and the right to food
After three decades of shuffling discarded and donated food from the "haves" to the "have-nots", Parkdale Food Centre abandoned it's old vision and values and began to speak the truth: food banking is driven more strongly by models of corporate greed and inflated egos, than by values that recognize the right to healthy and nutritious food for all as a basic human right. We became social justice activists the day we refused to simply dole out scraps that often were not even meal-worthy.
Instead, we began cooking with our neighbours and eating together as a community, created programming that strengthened community engagement, asked the difficult questions and included many in the answers- most of whom are often left out in food banking, changed our mission, and believed in a better and more equitable system. The invitation to join the newly-formed Global Solidarity Alliance for Food, Health and Social Justice gives our small, but mighty grassroots organization an opportunity to share ideas and join forces with other like-minded researchers, academics and hard workers to build an exit strategy to food banking. Below is the blog, which announces the launch of the alliance.
~ Karen Secord, Executive Director, Parkdale Food Centre
For any inquiries regarding Parkdale Food Centre's involvement in the alliance, contact: karen@parkdalefoodcentre.org
Exploring the emergence of a Global Solidarity Alliance for Food, Health and Social Justice
#RightsNotCharity
Around the world, COVID-19 is shaking the foundation of our globalized economic system to its core. The "richest" countries in the world are staring into the face of an economic depression. In the United States, more than 38 million people across the nation applied for unemployment benefits in the last seven weeks alone, and millions more are expected to lose their jobs in the weeks to come. Officially, the unemployment rate in Canada has jumped to nearly 13% – more than any jump during the three major recessions since the 1980s. Meanwhile, economists in Canada agree that these figures do not capture the severity of the crisis when you factor in the erosion of employment insurance since the 1970s and the current ratio of housing costs to income. In the UK, unemployment has soared past three million people for the first time in 30 years.
On both sides of the Atlantic, the COVID-19 pandemic has led to a massive expansion of food charities. In the US, appeals for donations to food charities are a new media constant, and the government is relying heavily upon food banks to redirect agricultural waste. In Canada the federal government has allocated 50 million dollars to shore up the struggling food bank system. Food pantries and food banks were not a regular feature of life in the United Kingdom until 10 years ago.
Now, the Independent Food Aid Network (IFAN) have reported that independent food banks operating across the UK have seen a major rise in emergency food parcel distribution since the onset of the COVID-19 crisis. Almost a third of organisations experienced rises of 100% or more comparing figures for the months of March 2019 and March 2020. This crisis-within-a-crisis is accelerating the institutionalization of food banking in several countries, as a means of plastering over the gap between need and insufficient income for millions.
Following this pandemic (and already in motion) will be an equally staggering rise in food insecurity across the globe. COVID-19 has brought us to the proverbial crossroads. For several decades our governments have been abdicating their role to ensure the right to food for our nations, increasingly foisting this role onto the private sector. As a result, widespread food insecurity and wealth inequality has grown in our countries. The COVID-19 crisis has made evident that this 'normal' is no longer tenable. We are witnessing a private charitable feeding system that has for too long filled the protective role of government pushed to its limits. This is in combination with vertically integrated just-in-time food supply chains that are fraying at the edges. Such consequences are exposing the true extent – and root causes – of the hunger problem in these rich-but-unequal countries.
Make no mistake – this is not a new crisis, but a deepening of fault lines that millions of working families and low-income people have been straddling for the past 40 years. COVID-19 is heightening this decades-old crisis, deepening those cracks, and finally letting enough light in for all to see and experience deep contradictions in our food and social welfare systems and the uneven distribution of wealth that it begets. This voracious extractive economy we've been feeding is about to burst at the seams. It's time for us to reach beyond our nation-states and mobilize, organize, and get loud together as a growing internationalist movement envisioning a different kind of world that centers people over profits and rebuilds the social contract.
Enter the newly named Global Solidarity Alliance for Food, Health and Social Justice. This group of non-governmental organizations, national networks, grassroots activists, and scholars began to emerge two years ago out of relationships built at Trans-Atlantic conferences and meetings, resulting in a growing shared analysis of and reaction to the increased use of private philanthropy and transnational corporate food banking as a response to "rich world" hunger and poverty.
Much of this analysis has a long-standing history; we've seen writing about the international dimensions of food charity since the 1980s, but the lasting effects of the 2008 global recession, together with the acceleration and expansion of the Global Foodbanking Network, which has evolved to disperse the charitable food model across the world, and have led to our renewed focus in organising around these issues.
While the structural issues that this alliance addresses are global, the proliferation of institutionalized corporate food banking, private philanthropy, food banks, and other "emergency measures" as permanent responses to poverty and food insecurity originated in the United States, before spreading to Canada and, since the mid 1980s, have steadily advanced across Europe and other parts of the globe. These solutions have never addressed the root causes of food insecurity, and oftentimes exacerbate poverty. They have allowed governments to look the other way, ignoring income policies and human rights, all the while creating greater openings for the corporate capture of public policy and funding, as well as contributing to the downfall of the welfare state.
This particular analysis is currently missing, or not prominently understood, in the global movements for the right to food and food sovereignty. This #RightsNotCharity alliance seeks to complement and amplify the ongoing work of powerful grassroots networks and movements at national, regional, and global levels that are addressing food systems, public health inequities, poverty reduction and social security.
The Global Solidarity Alliance's focus on so-called "wealthy" countries is a means to build a shared understanding among those in North America and Europe – especially among those who are on the frontlines and work alongside those most impacted by hunger and poverty — of the patterns of destructive policies which have taken hold in North America and are being replicated without criticism in European Countries, and beyond. We seek to build together collective strategies of resistance and alternative models and practices to promote the fulfillment of the right to nutritious food in our respective parts of the world. We also want to invite participation from beyond North America and Europe. In so doing, we will be better prepared to accompany our global allies who have long felt the perverse effects of resource extraction and colonialism by our governments and open collective pathways to authentically struggle for food sovereignty as a right of all people everywhere.
Here's what some of the co-founders of the emerging Global Solidarity Alliance for Food, Health and Social Justice have to say about its potential:
"For the past decade in the UK, emergency food provision has grown, and is becoming an ever more normalized 'response' to poverty and insecurity, as we've seen in a North American context over a longer time period. Now more than ever, emergency food is playing a key role in responding to the needs of those most vulnerable to the effects of the COVID-19 crisis. Whilst these responses are currently much-needed, the idea of charitable food as an 'emergency' must be re-framed; especially important in a (post) COVID-19 context, where the entrenchment and corporatization of food aid are becoming more critical and prominent. Whilst this situation is likely to intensify further as we enter a period of deepening inequality and precarity, there are genuine opportunities for change – something this growing alliance makes possible." – Dr. Kayleigh Garthwaite, Birmingham Fellow in the Department of Social Policy, Sociology and Criminology, Independent Food Aid Network (IFAN) Trustee and author of Hunger Pains: Life inside foodbank Britain.
"The right to food exists in Canada and has since 1976. It does not mean that the government is required to give out free food. Rather, the government is obliged to create the conditions for people to be able to access good, nutritious, affordable food with dignity, now and in the future. Successive governments, however, have failed to meet these obligations. Covid-19 has the potential of further enshrining food charity as our default response to the almost 4.5 million Canadians that are food insecure. Politicians encourage donations to food banks and themselves wrestle over the opportunity to be photographed sorting what amounts to corporate waste and other people's leftovers, while ignoring the structural barriers preventing people from accessing their right to food. Food banks have only been a part of the Canadian landscape since 1981, but yet they are so deeply entrenched that not one organization or institution is able to fight back against this neo-liberal response to hunger. The Global Solidarity Alliance is pushing back against this pervasive narrative and gives me great hope." – Paul M. Taylor, Executive Director, FoodShare Toronto
"The Global Solidarity Alliance is offering a unique space for building a shared analysis and coordinated action among those advocating for the right to nutritious food amidst the growing entrenchment, legitimization and spreading of private charity as an acceptable response to hunger in countries of high wealth. As we weave together and amplify the stories, experiences and visions for justice from our own communities, we will be prepared to align and build with social movements in the struggle for food sovereignty worldwide." – Alison M. Cohen, Senior Director of Programs, WhyHunger
"The work of the Global Solidarity Alliance is crucial in these unprecedented times where inequalities are exposed, revealing deep structural violence against the impoverished, disabled, children, Black and other racially minoritised and marginalised people. With millions more thrust into poverty and unable to afford food the charitable food model proliferates with the consolidation of Big Food and the increasing corporate capture of food aid. The broad experience and expertise of the Alliance offers thought and practise leadership in developing and modeling solutions for a just discovery." – Dee Woods FRSA, Food and Farming Action-ist, co-chair Independent Food Aid Network (IFAN), and co-founder of the African and Caribbean Heritage Food Network
"Food charities should not have to carry the burdens of reconciling glaring contradictions between food waste and hunger. Over the past 40 years, states, private businesses and philanthropists have invested billions of dollars into a food banking infrastructure to resolve the inefficiencies of an economic model that produces want amidst plenty. Food banks have grown into critical nodes of our global food supply chains as farmers, food manufacturers and retailers are increasingly relying on poverty and hunger to mitigate their own risks of financial loss. The moral impulse to address hunger should not neutralize our moral outrage over a food system that fixes unsustainable levels of overproduction by growing its feeding lines. The global solidarity alliance works to rewrite the call to charity toward food justice and push back against monopolistic dynamics that currently limit our collective power to enact food sovereignty". – Joshua Lohnes, Food Policy Research Director, West Virginia University – Center for Resilient Communities
"Long lines at food banks have become an icon of the Covid-19 pandemic, side by side with pictures of milk dumped on the fields and vegetables plowed under. People are rightly outraged by the massive waste amid distressing need, but the answer is not for our societies to become even more dependent upon food banks. The pandemic has revealed both the utter inadequacy of our social safety net and the fragility of our highly concentrated food system. When four companies control 80 % of the meat processing in the US, is it any wonder that there are "disruptions" in our supplies? When legislatures make even the most minimal social support contingent on the fulfillment of work requirements, is it any wonder that people are destitute in the richest nations in the history of the world? In order to secure the human right to food, we need to develop a reliable income security policy on the one hand, and a network of resilient, sustainably produced, local and regional food supplies on the other. I welcome the Global Solidarity Alliance for Food, Health, and Social Justice as a forum in which we can collaborate to address both sides of the food security challenge. We need rights, not charity". -Jan Poppendieck, Professor Emerita of Sociology, Hunter College, City University of New York and author, Sweet Charity? Emergency Food and the End of Entitlement (Penguin, 1999) and Breadlines Knee-Deep in Wheat: Food Assistance in the Great Depression (University of California Press, 2014).
"Widespread hunger and food insecurity in today's rich world are markers of the moral vacuum at the centre of forty years of neoliberalism. As governments have neglected their human rights obligations under international law, charitable food banking fed by Big Food and corporate philanthropy in the USA, Canada and the UK – indeed across the OECD – have become the band aid food safety net for broken systems of income security. This outsourcing of rights based social policy has enabled ineffective and stigmatising food handouts to replace income security for those in need. Food banking is a failed response, incapable of ensuring food security for the jobless, the homeless and those on low incomes. The catastrophe of Covid-19 now reveals the true extent of the public health emergency and the crisis of income inequality and material deprivation plaguing our wealthy societies. The Global Solidarity Alliance for Food, Health and Social Justice intends to inform and educate by holding government and public policy to account. Please join. #RightsNotCharity!" – Graham Riches, Professor Emeritus of Social Work, University of British Columba, author of Food Banks and the Welfare Crisis (Ottawa: CCSD 1986) and Food Bank Nations. Poverty, Corporate Charity and the Right to Food (Routledge, 2018)
"The Global Solidarity Alliance is creating the space to unwind common understandings related to food insecurity. The goal is to change the narrative-moving away from charity as the solution to hunger to understanding the root causes of hunger and shifting policy, practice, and investments towards building a more equitable and resilient food system for all." – Jennifer Zuckerman, Director of Strategic Initiatives, Duke University World Food Policy Center
"Covid-19 is the crisis-within-a-crisis that highlights and exacerbates the contradictions of a profit-prioritising food system that produces both waste and hunger. We have seen millions of animals slaughtered due to loss of market value and highly concentrated slaughtering facilities at a time of overwhelming demand for emergency food, an eerie echo of 1930s America when baby hogs were liquefied to forestall market gluts at a time of visible destitution. This politically-embarrassing contradiction between excess and scarcity, as Janet Poppendieck and others have long documented, has been alleviated by ever-expanding private food charity. Covid-19 is a klaxon call to attend to food production systems that damage ecosystems (and exacerbate pandemic risks) yet have consistently failed to ensure everyone an affordable, nutritious, desirable diet. Many working and volunteering for food charities agree that they cannot be the key response to hunger; the Global Solidarity Alliance will galvanise the vital role of government as well as partnerships between producers, campaigners, researchers and the many people fighting for a food future that's fair for all." – Charlie Spring, Research Associate interested in international food charity, University of Calgary and Greater Manchester Food Poverty Alliance.
Stay tuned: A website and social media presence is coming soon. If you'd like to get involved, we'd love to hear from you – including groups beyond the UK, US and Canada.
Alison Meares Cohen, WhyHunger, alison@whyhunger.org
Paul Taylor, FoodShare Toronto, paul@foodshare.net
Kayleigh Garthwaite, University of Birmingham, K.Garthwaite@bham.ac.uk
Below are some of the most recent articles published by members of the Global Solidarity Alliance:
Dr. Maddy Power, University of York: COVID-19 exposes inequalities in the UK food system, new analysis reveals
Paul Taylor, FoodShare Toronto: Pandemic has exposed the rifts in our social fabric
Andrew Fisher, author of Big Hunger: The COVID Crisis Is Reinforcing the Hunger Industrial Complex
Graham Riches, author of Food Bank Nations: Poverty, Corporate Charity and the Right to Food: How Food Banks Prop up a Broken System
Dr. Kayleigh Garthwaite: It's not the hungry who gain most from food banks – it's big business |
Maggie Dickinson and Joshua Lonnes: Where Do Food Banks Fit in to the Fight for a Green New Deal?
Sabine Goodwin, IFAN: Between the devil and the deep blue sea
Why do people come to the Parkdale Food Centre?
(From left to right): Rachel Godkin-Jackson, Lindsey Grodesky, Douce Chamukenge, Rebecca McCaffrey (Clinical Preceptor), Marjorie Kort (Clinical Instructor)
For a while we at the Parkdale Food Centre have been wondering, "why do people choose to come to PFC?" Not only that, but also, "what barriers do people actually face in eating healthy?"
These are questions we think about regularly but have had trouble answering in a more objective way.
This past semester, we were privileged to have three nurses from U of Ottawa/ Algonquin College come to the Food Centre to complete a nursing practicum course. The three nurses, Douce Chamukenge, Rachel Godkin-Jackson, Lindsey Grodesky, interviewed our neighbours at the intake desk and worked as volunteers to gather the necessary information.
As part of their final project, they have released a report with their findings. It is worth reading and can be accessed here.
Posted on July 31, 2018 August 22, 2018
A Kitchen Upgrade
(written by Lynda Hansen)
Where would the Parkdale Food Centre be without our wonderful community partners and supporters?
It was just over 3 years ago that we moved in at 30 Rosemount Avenue, after a fast, frenzied fit-up that transformed a dark, rabbit warren-type space into a bright, welcoming community hub, food bank and kitchen. Never in a million years did we imagine just how busy that kitchen would be! A full time Kitchen Manager, daily breakfast and lunch 3 days per week, weekly cooking workshops, community meals, the list goes on.
With the constant and increasing activity came the need for upgrades, repairs, more equipment. Enter St. Matthias Church. For many years, St Matthias had been hosting community meals, once a month at PFC. In February 2016 the St. Matthias Anglican congregation (Parkdale Ave at the Queensway) merged with All Saints' Westboro (Anglican). Many long-time members of All Saints' Westboro joined in with St. Matthias Community Meals volunteer teams and continue to heartily support this legacy ministry of the former St. Matthias Church. Rev Simone Hurkmans, one of the priests at All Saints' Westboro, along with the Ven Chris Dunn, Rev Dr Linda Privitera and, formerly, Canon John Wilker-Blakley — have all donned aprons and wielded knives or spatulas during our community meals (so they knew the limitations of our kitchen!). In the fall of 2016, they asked us to submit a proposal for funds from the recent sale of their church on Parkdale Avenue. While it was sad for the congregation to leave the St Matthias Building behind, they were delighted to have a portion of its sale price returned to the community in support of PFC.
**Fast forward to 2018, past all the boring research and requests for quotes**
The Parkdale Food Centre is now the proud owner of a fire suppression system (that we hope to never use!), and a super-efficient dish pit complete with a new-used low temperature dishwashing machine boasting a 60 second cycle, with a new rinse sink and clean tabling. Thank you St Matthias!
But it doesn't stop there. Without a doubt, it would not have been possible without our long-time supporter, Archer Environmental. They are patient, generous, and always willing to help us out. Our new dishwashing machine was donated and installed at no cost. And if you think that was easy, think again. Installing a new dishwasher also meant we needed the rinse sink and tabling to attach to it. Chef Pat Garland to the rescue! As soon as he saw what we were up to, he offered some tabling from his own busy restaurant kitchen. "I'm going to renovate soon anyway". Seriously, you can't make this stuff up. Thank you, Chef Pat!
To make the tabling fit, we had the great good fortune to find Blanchfield
Commercial Kitchens. They were able to pick up the tabling, cut it to suit, and bring it back to us; again, at no cost. We are so lucky! Thank you, Blanchfield!
We also have some great trades and suppliers that made the implementation of these upgrades look easy. Thank you, Gloucester Electric, Fullarton Plumbing, Shields Mechanical, Andersen Fire, Chubb Edwards, and Russell Hendrix for your great work and professionalism.
Our heartfelt thanks and appreciation go out to the St. Matthias congregation for the funds to support these fantastic upgrades. We are so grateful for this help to make our community kitchen more efficient, not to mention safer.
More than a Food Centre
Parkdale is more than a Food Centre and most everyone knows that, but every once in a while you get reminded of that when something happens outside of what is a "normal day" at PFC. Today was one of those days
We were cleaning up after Collective Kitchen, washing dishes by hand because the dishwasher had broken down. But hey we had a little "dishwashing work bee" happening with many hands and dish cloths and towels making light work of that not so envious task. A new face appeared at the door – a face of a young person scared, alone, crying, hungry and afraid that the world had lost sight of her. One of the regular neighbours quickly rallied around her and someone got Karen – who whisked her to a private office to provide comfort and reassure her that she was not alone that there was help that the world hadn't forgot about her.
We put the kettle on and made tea. Lunch was reheated for our new neighbour who hadn't eaten a proper meal in almost 48 hours. She quickly gobbled everything up and drank down her tea with hands cupped around the heat of the mug. Lots of crying, sobbing, hugs, more crying, talking and then a few smiles happened. Forms were filled out so she could seek assistance from the Health Centre located upstairs. Food was gathered into bags for her to take home and in those bags was more tea. Those bags of food, a cup of tea, a hot meal, some friendly reassurances, new friendships, and the appointment and resource assistance with the Health Centre reminded me of the comfort and hope that can and does happen each day at PFC.
What is Growing Futures?
Growing Futures is a response to an increasingly uncertain world.
We are a social enterprise geared towards promoting food and financial literacy in children and youth, so they have a better chance at living healthy and fulfilling lives. We aim to foster a more physically and financially resilient next generation by teaching children and youth the importance of good food, how to grow it, and the basics of running their own business.
Participants develop these critical skills by using hydroponic growing systems to create small market gardens. Through Growing Futures, groups of youth (Harvesters) partner with local businesses (Business Partners), who provide mentorship and a customer base. The leafy greens and herbs grown are also sold to individuals, which increases community access to affordable healthy food.
Growing Futures is a social enterprise created and delivered by the Parkdale Food Centre. The project has sparked the imaginations of schoolchildren, university students, and community members.
It encompasses many people's stories because we work with such diverse groups and would not have as much impact on their lives if we didn't bring all those groups together.
We Have Stories to Tell
Let us tell the story of a young man whose experience as a Harvester gave him the pride and confidence to become a peer mentor to other people struggling with addictions. Let us tell you the story of a teenage boy who became passionate about helping people in his community. Let us tell you our story, and by doing so, show how healthy food can be a powerful way to unite people.
Growing Futures' story is important to tell because people need to hear what we're doing and the kind of impact we've had in Ottawa. Our story is important to tell because it reminds us all why we do what we do when we have difficult days. Our story is important to tell because it reminds us how important our work is, as a sector, and how powerful food can be.
Indeed, everything Growing Futures does is designed to empower our youth and the community at large to develop the skills they will need to thrive in a changing economy. We empower our participants in body, mind, and soul; our produce powers participants' bodies, our programming powers their minds to dream bigger dreams, and our community powers their souls.
Dear Neighbours: A Request from Anne
The following is a real letter from Anne Heffernan (a volunteer at the Parkdale Food Centre) to the other residents of her condo.
You have probably heard that Loblaws is offering eligible customers a $25 gift card after it was discovered that customers had been overcharged for bread products over the past several years. Much of the media has been encouraging folks to donate their cards to their local food banks, if they don't need the card themselves. If this is something one would like to do, the process is very simple. You can fill out the form on their website by clicking here and donate your card whenever you receive it. It's very easy and just takes a few minuted to do. Loblaws will mail it to you directly. This rebate is not limited to a household but to individuals.
The Parkdale Food Centre is our neighbour at 30 Rosemount Avenue. I am one of their volunteers. The PFC spends close to $10,000 on groceries every month. A significant portion of this food is purchased at the the Real Canadian Superstore.
As good neighbours, I'd like to encourage all our residents who qualify, to apply for this credit and consider donating it to the PFC. I'm willing to co-ordinate this effort by collecting the cards. They could be placed in the same envelope and slipped under my door.
I believe that we really love our neighbourhood and like to support our local businesses. I feel it is also important to support our neighbours through our volunteer efforts. This is a very simple way to do that.
Would it be possible to forward my email to all our residents and also post it on our notice boards?
Anne Heffernan
Did you miss what we were up to in 2017?
Here are some highlights from 2017 (made possible by generous friends and donors)
*Growing Futures impacted 100's of children, educators and businesses across the city by teaching food and financial literacy, entrepreneurship and community building.
www.growingfutures.ca
*We offered part-time steady employment to five neighbours and 3 youth.
*We provided supervised school placements to four post-secondary students interested in food justice.
*We introduced 24 low income youth to entrepreneurship through 13SocEnt.
www.13socent.ca
*We were honoured to be selected to receive both the United Way Community Builder of the Year "From Poverty to Possibility" Award, and the Canadian Volunteer Award for Social Innovation in Ontario.
*We hosted over 80 cooking workshops with a wide variety of Ottawa chefs, home cooks and neighbours leading them.
*We helped our neighbours find housing, dental care, furniture, clothing, veterinary care and so much more!
*Dozens of groups from government departments chose preparing food for their neighbours in PFC's kitchen as a team-building exercise. We happily distributed the fresh food to those in need.
*We cooked two meals each week for the children in SWCHC's after school program and one hearty snack for the "Place to Be" drop in.
*With the help of St. Lawrence Employment Centre we found a job for anyone who asked for help.
*To address concern that the Chinese Senior's lunch might be cancelled we offered to provide the ingredients needed to ensure a healthy meal and social outing could be provided.
*PFC became a weekly stop for Market Mobile. Now everyone has regular access to fresh food at wholesale prices. Our staff and volunteers helped to make this possible.
*By offering our neighbours as many fruits and vegetables as they need we distributed over 250 boxes of bananas, 150 boxes of apples, about 1,500 bags
of potatoes, and 150 boxes of oranges.
…and there is so much more!
In 2018 we will be working with Youth Now Farm to offer more young adults, with barriers to employment, the opportunity to acquire the skills needed to find and retain a job. We are also excited to have been granted funds to hire an employee to help the organizations in the Community Food Network to better address issues around food justice.
Thank you for helping us create a warm, healthy community hub where everyone is welcomed and valued.
Come visit us in 2018. We'd love to show you around!
How do you get kids to care about food and health problems in their neighbourhood?
Since the beginning of 2017, the Parkdale Food Centre has been offering (funded by the Ontario Trillium Foundation) a food justice program for children in grades 4-6.
The goals of the program are to:
Inspire students to understand the complex and interconnected problems of poverty, health and food insecurity in their neighbourhood.
Engage students in understanding the problems being addressed by inviting them to bring forth their own ideas and opinions.
Equip students to be "solutionaries" in their communities by providing entry points for action.
The program has seen great success and has attracted interest from all over the city. Some children who attend the program have become regular volunteers at the food centre and have a better awareness of how they can contribute to solving problems in their communities.
Read the full report here.
What do you see in this photo?
What do you see when you look at this photo? Bowls of steaming Salmon Chowder? Lunch? The hands of a child? Clean kitchen counters?
When I see this photo I see #kindness and #caring – specifically the hands of #kindness and #caring.
These hands belong to a young person who came to the Parkdale Food Centre to volunteer for a day during his School Holiday break. He loves to cook, he idolizes Simon Bell the Kitchen Manager at Parkdale Food Centre, he loves to learn new things – like how to make biscuits or how to plate and present delicious meals to the many neighbours who need a hot meal on a very cold Ottawa day.
On this very cold day he walked to and from the Parkdale Food Centre to volunteer his help because he cares and has a heart full of kindness towards the neighbours in his Community. He could have easily stayed home to play video games, watch TV or just hang out with his friends. Instead he wanted to volunteer at Parkdale Food Centre and be part of a team in the kitchen giving back to the community. He was there on Wednesday during one of the weekly Collective Kitchen workshops where neighbours gather and learn how to make delicious wholesome foods. I was making Salmon Chowder and he helped me washing mounds of celery, and then peeling and cleaning big bowls of potatoes and carrots. He worked with Simon to produce the most delicious light and fluffy biscuits for lunch. And after serving and sharing lunch with the neighbours he went back to peeling and cleaning carrots and potatoes. That is what #kindness and #caring is all about. That is what giving back to your community is all about. That is why I was attracted to the Parkdale Food Centre – it's because of the #kindness and #caring that is a big part of the everyday activities at Parkdale Food Centre.
I started out supporting Parkdale Food Centre by donating money to the Thirteen Social Enterprise for their bus tickets; then I became part of the Thirteen Social Enterprise team preparing their weekly lunches and often taking them to the Markets to sell their products. All the while being exposed to how much Parkdale Food Centre does for their community; so it was just a natural decision to become a monthly donor. Now I also help out every Wednesday with kitchen work and sometimes I help teach neighbours new skills.
Don't get me wrong, sure I am helping Parkdale Food Centre both financially and by volunteering in the kitchen, but this organization has given me back so much more. I have a sense of community once again – something that I lost after I retired from a busy job as an Executive in the Government of Canada. From the very first time I became involved with Parkdale Food Centre I felt this sense of being part of a larger community that gives back and does so much for their neighbours who, for whatever the reason, need extra support. The #kindness and #caring atmosphere that I'm exposed to every time I enter Parkdale Food Centre makes me happy – I'm happy to know that my financial donations are turned around back to the local community to make the lives of the neighbours better. I'm happy that Parkdale Food Centre has provided an environment that encourages youth to be part of the community of giving back. The Youth today will be our future leaders and future organizers at Food Centres like Parkdale – I know that my financial contributions to Parkdale will ensure that the Youth continue to be involved and that the neighbours who need that little bit of extra support can continue to receive it.
I'm oh so happy to be part of this community of #kindness and #caring.
Article by Deb Abbott.
Questions? We have the answer!
30 Rosemount Ave #2
Ottawa, ON K1Y 1P4
Our Charitable Registration Number is: 889365003 RR 0001
The Parkdale Food Centre is committed to respecting diversity and inclusion for all. We strive to ensure that our programs are reflective of the communities we serve and that everyone – all of our Neighbours, have an equitable and safe seat at the PFC community table.
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text:
Bangkelang is een bestuurslaag in het regentschap Mandailing Natal van de provincie Noord-Sumatra, Indonesië. Bangkelang telt 1049 inwoners (volkstelling 2010).

Plaats in Noord-Sumatra

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaWikipedia


These are some of the most important facts about UEFA European Championship.
The UEFA European Championship is played in two parts. First part is the qualifying round in which all the teams except the host nation play to qualify for the tournament and the second part in which teams play in the actual tournament which is organized every four years in different European nations.
This tournament was the brainchild of the former UEFA President, Henri Delaunay and the first tournament was held in 1960 in which only four teams participated. All these four teams were qualified from a knockout tournament played two years before the tournament.
The first tournament was almost cancelled because the lack of support and many countries were too late to apply for the participation.
The current name 'UEFA European Championship' was adopted in the year 1968. This year, even knock out tournament was replaced by the current qualifying round.
There have been ten different winners till now of the UEFA European Championship. Germany and Spain have won it thrice. Germany has won the championship as West Germany in 1972 and in 1980 and as Germany in 1996. Spain is the only country which has won the tournament twice in a row.
The tournament was expanded from 4 to 8 to 16 and now to 24 teams will participate in Euro 2016 to be played in France.
Denmark was failed to qualify for the 1992 edition, but then there was a civil war broke out in Yugoslavia hence Denmark replaced them as a special invitee in the final tournament and the story doesn't stop here, Denmark actually went on to win the Championship!
There are total 46 countries who take part in the qualifying rounds of the UEFA European Championship, which starts, at least 2 years before the actual tournament.
A qualifying game between England and Scotland in the 1968 competition witnessed the highest number of attendance in the history of the tournament. The match was held at Hampden Park and total 130, 711 spectators watched that game.
International politics too played a part in this tournament, as in 1960 the right-wing Spanish government forced the team to withdraw as it did not want their team to play against the communist USSR (Russia).
The result of the semifinal between Italy and USSR of the 1968 Championship was decided by the toss of the coin. Italy guessed it right and proceeded to the finals.


1 -- INFO PACK for each game.
2 -- KEEP INFORMED page on this web site.
3 -- LEVEL 2 INFO Game Day page - available ... one page for each Xavier game.
PLAYOFF ELIGIBLE - Hawks are eligible again!
This link is now active as the Hawks have become Playoff Eligible for the 2017 post-season, and will provide valuable insight, tidbits and numbers.
An important page called PLAYOFF MATERIAL & LINKS is now available on this web site, and it provides a quick way to find all kinds of pertinent material regarding the 2017 Playoffs.
Many people sometimes wonder what are the plans, or the time schedule, regarding material being released for the WIAA Playoffs.
Check out details and requirements regarding use of a drone. Know that a drone, or Unmaned Aerial Vehicle, will NOT be allowed at any event hosted by Xavier.
Be sure to check this page often for updates for Playoff Info regarding Xavier Football 2017. The Hawks seek to become Playoff Eligible once again under head coach David Hinkens... who is in his 17th year coaching XHS. For a complete look at the all-time Playoff History for Xavier Football, see the HISTORY-RECORDS page on this XavierHawksSports.com web site.
You can find this page on XavierHawksSports.com by selecting the WIAA INFO PAGE link on one of two places on this web site: 1) on the FOOTBALL page, or, 2) on the TRENDING page, found via a link across the top of most pages on this web site.
Check the "updated" date at the top of this page, to see when it has been revsied. Be sure to REFRESH this page, so it is current on your browser. Some of the links in this section will take you to items on XavierHawksSports.com -- while some links will open a new window and take you to the WIAA web site, or the WisSports.net web site, or possibly another web site.
updated 10-23-17 am Check back here for updates.


Scent branding? Can you protect your hotel's fragrance?
Scent branding? Can you protect your hotel's fragrance?
The lodging industry differentiates brands and facilities based on price, style, colors, room layout, services and many other things. These things make up the "trade dress" of the hotel and are protected by the Landham Act. 15 U.S.C. § 1051. The imagination of marketing professionals is almost unlimited. Most trade dress is based on visuals. Some trade dress includes audio– specific music, soothing sounds, plush beds and pleasing lighting. Occasionally hotels have ventured into aromas. Could that be a new marketing niche?
Consider that the scent industry is a multi-billion dollar industry. Candles, perfumes and air fresheners are part of our every-day lives. TV and radio are filled with advertising for these products. According to the NewScientist, our noses are "exquisitely sensitive instruments that guide our everyday life to a surprising extent. Subtle smells can change your mood, behavior and the choices you make, often without you even realizing it." Certain smells trigger memories much more powerfully than sights. So it makes sense that hotels start to include this in their branding, in their names and in their marketing.
But your hotel name or tagline does not need to reflect your chosen aroma. You can simply put your chosen aroma in the lobby so that guests will associate your hotel with a chosen aroma.
So: HH "Hawaiian hospitality brought to you" A Hawaiian theme hotel could include the amazing smells of Hawaiian ginger flowers and white plumeria.
Once you get the guests in the hotel, then – if they like your aromas – they will associate that smell with your establishment in a positive way.
Is this something that needs legal protection? Can it be protected? Certainly the name(s) you use can be protected. The "Mountain Air Abode" could be protected as a servicemark. While trademark/servicemark protection arises automatically from legitimate use, a scent that serves as a product or service identifier is also eligible for trademark registration in the United States. Scents, however, must meet an additional requirement called "acquired distinctiveness" to be registered as a trademark. If other hotels use a similar scent, such as the small of cookies baking, consumers would not associate that scent with any particular hotel, and that scent would not be eligible for trademark protection. Further, the formulation of a particular aroma itself can be protected as a trade secret. If you use an off-the-shelf aroma, you may still be able to protect the association of that aroma to your hotel as part of your hotel's lodging concept – or trade dress – under the Landham Act.
The lodging industry has started to seek legal protection of proprietary aromas. If you believe that the association between the scent and your establishment is a competitive advantage for you, then you should take steps to protect that competitive advantage.
For more information please contact David Tryon or any member of Porter Wright's Intellectual Property Practice Group.


HOME >> COMMUNITY >> GENERAL DISCUSSIONS >> WHEN YOU CAN'T RUN ANYMORE, YOU CRAWL.
When you can't run anymore, you crawl.
Hi everybody. I havent been to this site in a long while. I used to post here quite a bit but I havent been thinking about Firefly much recently. Guess the reason for that is I leant out my DVD's to just about everyone I know the last 3-4 months. Well, I finally got them back and watched a couple of episodes the last week and man how I missed Firefly. Made me think of these boards and how passionate you guys are and how I missed reading/posting here. I hope everyone is well n such. Guess I was lost a little bit but have found my way back.
When you can't run anymore, you crawl, and when you can't do that... well, you know the rest.
Welcome home Gorramreavers. Missed seeing you around the boards. Good to have you back.
Glad to see your around still, always enjoyed your posts.
Sounds stupid cos i joined about 10 minutes ago...but, Welcome Back!
Now tell me, how did u get that Mal profile pic! My River one just won't work!
Two by two, hands of blue."
Choose your name from the list and then edit your profile, in there are your choices for an "avitar".
well, that's too funny! mine obviously didn't work either...just ignore me.
it's avatar. and they both seem to be working. and click on the home button, then My Firefly. if you're logged in, you should be able to edit your profile, from there.
Oh sure! Come back and depress the living F*x out of us!
there will never be a Firefly, Season 2.
I ain't agivin' up hope. A decade is nuthin'.
What if, after that nuthin' decade, they film the PREQUEL episodes, with our BDH's YOUTHFUL PARENTS as the cast???
I call dibs on the razor after Zoid!!!
Someone rush the screener to Zoid! It's not piracy, a life is at stake.
Have you heard they've pushed back the premiere of the movie 5 months, to September 30th, 2005?
I say we count to three and pull the triggers simultaneously. Ready?
What was I saying? Damned short-term memory loss! Oh, well. At least my movie comes out in April.
BTW, what is that goo all over the other side of the room?
Only 310 days, 21 hours, 44 minutes, and 20 seconds left until The BDM!
I'm convinced that Universal won't be able to contain the screener for five months and I don't suppose they'll reschedule post-production. So I don't think we'll have to wait until September.
Well, I've only been a Firefly fan since like Friday! When I saw my first whole ep on Sci-Fi.
But I did see 20 minutes of Ariel before that and I just knew then that I was in love with River.
Of course I'm still around. Ain't no power in the 'verse going to keep me away.
heheh..sorry Zoid and others. I guess I was a little melancholy after watching 'The Message' and 'OiS'.


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Nordstrom pushes warehouse deal to spring
The City of Visalia will have to wait until swimwear season to find out which city Nordstrom will dive into for the next 20-50 years.
Last month, city officials said Nordstrom may not make a decision until May on whether they will locate their new West Coast fulfillment center in Fresno, Visalia and a third option in Nevada.
The news isn't that surprising considering the City Council just had its second reading of an amendment to zoning laws that will help fast-track the project for Nordstrom to build the warehouse/distribution center in the city's industrial park.
At its Jan. 19 meeting, the City Council unanimously voted to remove Line No. 463 from its 1991 General Plan Land Use Policy 3.7.10 prohibiting major industries from initially employing more than 750 employees. The policy states the reason for the threshold is to "ensure the efficient physical, economic and cultural assimilation of major industries and employees into the community" and additionally required a conditional use permit for the business. The City Council approved the second reading of that amendment at its Feb. 1 meeting, meaning it will take effect at the end of this month.
Paul Bernal, principal planner with the City of Visalia, said removal of the line of policy will allow the city to "fast track" projects for employers bringing more than 750 jobs in their initial operations. The Visalia Planning Commission recommended the action following a Jan. 11 public hearing.
While not mentioned specifically, the removal of the line of law clears a hurdle for Nordstrom to locate a West Coast fulfillment center in the City's industrial park. In December, the City Council approved a Jobs Incentive Agreement for the upscale retail giant that would bring 1,800 jobs and $3.8 billion in economic development to Visalia and Tulare County as a whole.
Visalia's offer matched the offer made by the City of Fresno, which is also still in the running for the center. The deal essentially came down to Visalia, Fresno and a Nevada-based property.
Nordstrom pushes warehouse deal to spring2016-02-102016-02-09https://thesungazette.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/04/header-logo-orange.pngThe Sun-Gazette Newspaperhttps://thesungazette.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/01/sub-Visalia-NordstromRack_Houston.png200px200px


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Pompano Beach considers plans for apartment project, Wal-mart market
By Brian Bandell
Pompano Beach officials will consider plans for an apartment/retail building in the city's revitalized historic downtown and a Walmart Neighborhood Market.
Both items will go before the city's Development Review Committee on June 21.
The city's community redevelopment agency has established the Downtown Innovation District along Atlantic Avenue just north of city hall and the new Pompano Beach Cultural Center complex. The CRA renovated some historic buildings there into retail and art studio space. One apartment complex has already broken ground there.
Now Cavache Properties, headed by Adam Adache in Pompano Beach, has proposed another project in the district. It is called Downtown Pompano Apartments, although Adache said it will likely be renamed to Old Town Square.
Cavache Properties has the 1.9-acre site at 109, 112, 116 N.E. 3rd Street; 212 N.E. 1st Ave.; and 101, 113 and 121 N.E. 2nd Street under contract from multiple property owners.
"This area, which is Pompano's official downtown, is undergoing massive redevelopment and has become the main focus of the Pompano Beach CRA," Adache said. "It has been attracting new art venues and galleries and new restaurants, and retail."
The 10-story building would have 280 apartments of 203,583 square feet, 4,652 square feet of retail, 5,717 square feet of amenities, and 331 parking spaces. Adache said the units would range from studios of 480 square feet to two-bedroom apartments of 863 square feet. Old Town Square would have a gym, clubhouse, pool, and whirlpool spa, he said. He hopes to have a restaurant as one of the ground floor tenants.
Old Town Square was designed by Adache Group Architects.
"Our project, which will target millennials, is only 2.3 miles to the beach, less than one mile to I-95 and only 15 miles to the Fort Lauderdale International Airport," Adache said. "We will be building smaller but very efficient units that will provide millennials the opportunity to live in a trendy market rate apartment at a much lower overall cost."
Wal-mart market proposed on Federal Highway
A Wal-mart Neighborhood Market has been proposed at 3241 N. Federal Highway.
Called Cresthaven Plaza, the 42,232-square-foot project with 193 parking spaces was designed by BRR Architecture. The 6.2-acre site is owned by 1307 South Wabash LLC, an affiliate of Chicago-based Wolf Investment Properties.
The site currently has a 28,879-square-foot retail building, which would be demolished.
Boca Raton attorney James L. Pruden, who represents the developer, declined comment.


This episode of the Sculptor's Funeral examines the controversy surrounding the removal of statues from public spaces around the United States. Why are statues commemorating the losing side of a civil war more prevalent than those commemorating the victors of other wars? What is the message they were designed to send - and who sent the message? Jason examines this fascinating case study in public art as propaganda.


Nintendo's hope of recapturing its fading glory in the video-game industry rests on the new games it wants to bring out with its faster, movielike Project Reality machine.
Much of that responsibility will fall on Shigeru Miyamoto, the 41-year-old game designer who invented Nintendo superstars such as Donkey Kong and Super Mario. His official title is producer; he directs a staff that will fluctuate from 10 to 25 people over the three years it is taking to develop the first games for the new machine, scheduled to come out in fall of 1995.
The company also has lined up a limited number of foreign softwaremakers to design games for the machine, including WMS Industries Inc. of Chicago and Rare Co. of England. Nintendo has kept participation down to try to ensure that many of the new games will be blockbusters that will encourage families to plunk down cash for the new hardware.
"We have enormous potential to introduce a drastically new form of entertainment," Miyamoto said. "Video games are a series of editing. With the more powerful processor, it changes how we can edit."
Some possibilities: three-dimensional characters, as many as 100 enemy characters on a screen or more realistic sports games.
"If we're doing a basketball simulation game, for example, the player can only move one character. But there are four other players. They must move very smartly-like a Michael Jordan or a Magic Johnson. I am asking the game directors if these concepts can be added onto these games," he said.
Miyamoto joined Nintendo in 1977 fresh out of a small college where he studied industrial design. He began by drawing picture backgrounds for arcade games. He got his break inventing video games in 1980 when the company had hundreds of unsold arcade games returned and needed new ideas to reprogram the read-only memories.
"It was an order from the company, not because I wanted to write video games. I came up with several story boards. The managers picked their favorite. It turned out to be Donkey Kong," he said.
He said there aren't many guidelines for game development. One key: "If the marketing people come up with the initiative, then the game won't sell," he said. "Marketing people think in terms of the present. We have to think two years ahead."
Miyamoto is a radical in the staid Nintendo environment. One day recently he wore a burgundy tie with yellow dinosaurs that he bought at the Museum of Natural History in New York.
Does he play video games?
"When I was 28 and got started designing games, I played a lot for my age. Recently, I hardly play at all."
How about his children, ages 6 and 8? They play "whenever they get permission from their parents," he said. "If they play more than two hours, I gently say, `It's time to stop.' "


Diving watches are among the most popular types of sports watches available. They come with special features that go beyond time keeping, and are traditionally designed to be a tool for deep water exploration.
The popularity of diving watches extends beyond the deep diving community and into the broader market. Designer and high-end luxury diving watches have specialist features that make them unique from other sports watches.
Find out everything you need to know about diving watches, and check out some of our favourite brands and designs.
What is a diving watch?
As you might expect, one of the most important features of a diving watch is water resistance. Diving watches have the functionality to be submerged for extended periods of time in deep water - they can usually be used at least 100 feet below the surface, by official diving standards.
A rotating bezel is a very common feature on a diving watch. Used to help mark periods of time passing, a diving watch rotating bezel needs to display up to 60 minutes of time with clearly marked time intervals, to allow wearers to see how much time has been spent under water.
Another common feature is a set of brightly coloured hands, particularly on the second hand. In the dark depths of the ocean, the wearer can clearly see the passing of time so they're aware of how much air supply they have left. Above the surface, it helps to create a fashion statement.
Diving watches are available from lots of different designers and creators, with price points to suit almost every budget. The more expensive the watch, the more features it typically comes with, but even our lowest priced diving watches are beautifully made, reliable, and include everything that makes a diving watch special.
The Promaster Divers watch (£249) from Citizen is everything you need in a deep-water timepiece. With a black rubber strap and water resistance to 200 metres, the watch also comes with a clearly marked rotating bezel and brightly coloured hands for clarity.
The stainless-steel case provides an attractive finish, while Citizen's Eco-Drive fuels the movement for accuracy you can rely on. It's a perfect beginners' diving watch that will make a welcome addition to any watch collection.
For a subtle nod to the nautical, few diving watches blend style with practicality quite as well as the Tissot Seastar 1000 watch (£475). The bright blue face and bezel contrast beautifully with the white hands for very easy reading, also adding a splash of colour to a suit or formal outfit.
The device utilises Tissost's legendary Swiss engineering to create a high-quality watch with a water resistance of 300 metres. The silver metal bracelet looks clean and professional, while the sapphire glass gives it a hardy, stylish finish.
Created to celebrate 140 years of innovation, the Precisionist 140th anniversary edition watch (£636) from Bulova is a remarkable timepiece. The movement is famous for its precision, which spans across all features on the watch.
The solid stainless-steel case and bracelet make this a durable timepiece, with a water resistance of 300 metres and a bright green second hand for timekeeping clarity. This is a serious piece of equipment which will suit sea divers and keen watch collectors alike.
The Khaki Frogman watch (£1,150) from Hamilton might look like a very simple timekeeping device, but there's serious technology hidden beneath the surface. A watch that was created for the US Navy, it continues to lead the diving watch market today.
The timepiece is water resistant to 1,000 metres, with a helium escape valve and Swiss-made automatic movement. The case is made from titanium, and the glass is sapphire, making a highly durable watch that can stick with you in any circumstances.
Diving watches are available for almost every price range, with luxury timepieces containing features for serious divers and amateurs alike. Browse the full divers watch collection at Watch Shop, with excellent timepieces from big name brands.


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Q: Will PyGObject let me use a Python array.array to pass a GArray of floats to a library (Gimp)? Some Gimp methods exposed via GI (GObject introspection) expect a GValue whose value is a GArray of float.  In Python, can I create an array.array of float and expect PyGObject to marshal it correctly to a GArray? (loosely speaking, to a pointer to a float and an integer count of elements in the array.)
Specifically, Gimp 2.99 (the development branch) has in its API:
@accepts(GObject.Value, float, gsize)
@returns(none)
def value_set_float_array(value, array, length):
    # Python wrapper for gimp_value_set_float_array()

IOW it really expects an address (pointer) to the first float of many floats contiguous in memory, an 'array'.  If in Python I create an array.array containing four floats, and pass it as the second argument to Gimp.value_set_float_array(), will PyGObject do the right thing?
I know I could just try it, or read the PyGObject code.  But even if I could get it to work, I believe that the Gimp API might be better if it had a constructor for a GValue (or a constructor for another Gimp type Gimp.FloatArray) that accepted a GArray.  Then my understanding is that PyGObject would automatically marshal a Python list of floats into a GArray.  In other words, my question is about guidance for architecture of GObject introspected API's.
Gimp supports other bindings, such as Lua and Scheme.  It seems to me that Gimp should support GArray arguments, which would probably support all the bindings.
(The question springs from trying to use type Gimp.FloatArray, which doesn't seem to be a GObject.  Maybe the problem is larger, that Gimp should base Gimp.FloatArray on GObject?)

A: I believe it can work, you just need to use the (element-type float) annotation in the docs: https://wiki.gnome.org/Projects/GObjectIntrospection/Annotations

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaStackExchange


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Well summer is on it's peak, i decided to have a peek at the dell's summer offers and was surprised to see that their homepage is not there. Instead it redirected me to regional contact page. Don't know if it's a bug in their website script or did they upgraded their website themselves this way so that people from any specific country are redirected to contact page specific for their country.
It maybe a nice attempt, but there should be a homepage link there atleast! when i clicked on the dell logo in header, it redirected me to same place! Come on dell! what the. . .?
Hey Nabtron,where are you going. no more update?
been busy in editing the website design and speed optimization (improved alot infact) and some other tasks. Hopefully site will be active again with the same pace!


NOAKHALI, Feb 11: The 250-year-old Ramjan Mia Jame Mosque is standing as a sign of old architecture at Daulatramdi Village under No. 7 Ward of Bataiya Union in Kabirhat Upazila of the district.
Locals said one late Ramjan Mia built the mosque on five decimals of land in 1770. The mosque is 31 foot long and 10 foot wide. There are two minarets, three doors and two windows in the mosque.
Khadem of the mosque Sharifullah Chowdhury Babu said the four foot wide walls of the mosque have different artworks. The mosque is standing on 12 pillars.
Locals said two minarets of the mosque were damaged during an earthquake many years back, which were not repaired since then. As the mosque is small, only 50 devotees can say prayers at a time.
Some local people said steps were taken locally to repair the mosque earlier, but later the initiative was postponed. Former upazila nirbahi officer (UNO) of Kabirhat visited the mosque and assured them of taking steps but it was not materialised.
Local people alleged that the mosque had about 27 decimals of land. But, now most of the lands have been grabbed.
In this connection, UNO Md Shariful Islam said he would know nothing about the mosque. But, steps will be taken after consulting with local people.


text:
Are Positive People Really Healthier?
Open Comments
Walker and Walker / Getty Images
by Amanda MacMillan
Perpetual optimists claim that their cheery dispositions bring them better health. It turns out that theory is not all in their heads: There is real scientific evidence to support a positive attitude protecting your mind and body, says Fred Bryant, professor of psychology at Loyola University in Chicago — and everyone can benefit from the glass-half-full thinking.
For example, optimistic people are half as likely to experience a cardiovascular event (like a heart attack or stroke) compared with their less positive peers, found a recent review of more than 200 previous studies. Sometimes these correlations can be attributed to "confounding factors," like the fact that happier people may be less likely to be obese, poor, or involved in unhealthy behaviors. But in this review, the association held true even after the researchers controlled for things like smoking, body weight, and socioeconomic status.
People who think positively may also live longer, be less likely to catch colds, and be better able to cope during hard times, according to more research. Researchers aren't entirely sure why, but they think it may have to do with happy people's lower anxiety levels, which protect against the harmful physical effects of chronic stress, such as inflammation and high blood pressure.
Other research has shown that positive thinking can trump physical exhaustion. When physically fit men and women gave themselves repeated motivational talks on stationary bikes in one study, they rode 18 percent longer before hitting the point of total exhaustion.
RELATED: 12 Apps That Can Train Your Brain
So what if you aren't a natural optimist? Bryant says anyone can train himself to think more positively, simply by practicing one simple skill. "Crucial to being happy and healthy is the capacity to savor the moment — to appreciate ongoing positive experiences in our everyday lives."
There are plenty of ways to accomplish that, too. Bryant says it's as easy as taking note of small, positive things in your life, and being thankful for them, taking the time to soak up and appreciate everyday beauty — a sunset, your kid playing in the yard — and feeling pride and accomplishment doing a job well.
Of course, positive thinking isn't inherently a good thing. It can be detrimental if it makes you overlook misfortunes that could otherwise be prevented. "Optimists who never wear a seat belt because they are certain they will not have a car accident, for example, may put themselves at greater risk of injury than pessimists who are worried about a crash," says Bryant.
In the end, it may be healthiest to expect the best — and to savor the good times when they come along — and also be prepared for the worst.
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Can multiple user work on same tableau file at same time on tableau server ?
We 4 person are in same team and we are working on same tableau file and we don't want to update our files twice. So is there any way on tableau server through which all person can work simultaneously?
In a versioning tool like PVCS, only 1 person can check out a file and work on it.
Here, surely all of you will be able to work on the same file at the same time. But, the changes that your colleagues do will not be part of your workbook. So, only 1 of you should be working on the workbook at a time, and if multiple people want to work on it simultaneously, one among you all need to take responsibility to consolidate all the changes into the workbook.
The purpose of version control in Tableau is that if changes published are incorrect/unexpected, and you need to revert to the earlier version, you can do so.
so if i am the owner of the group and all 4 persons are working on the same tableau file and then my colleges cant save that ?
I don't want to do same work again and again. suppose my college made changes in worksheet 1 then i don't want him to come to me and ask me to do same changes in the file so that, it reflects in the final file.
If you let multiple people work on the same file, then you have to take responsibility to consolidate the changes. There are no other options.
If each of you are working on a different dashboard in the workbook, you can look at splitting them into separate workbooks.
Tableau Server does not have tools for collaborative development or source control. For robust control in a collaborative environment, you will need to leverage separate tools and/or workflows.
Check-in / check-out repository. Keep a "local" copy of the Tableau Server workbook on a repository that supports this feature, like SharePoint. A user refrains from doing any work on the file until they can "check it out" from the repository. Once they finish their changes, they publish to the server, upload the modified file back to the repository, and then "check in" the file to release it for others to work on. In this scenario, only one user can be making changes to the workbook at a time.
Source control repository. Because TWB workbooks are just XML, you may be able to leverage a line-level source control repository like git to manage a local copy of your workbook. I've never tried this, so proceed cautiously — but it's possible that a workflow around git would allow multiple users to simultaneously make edits to a workbook. Robust source forking, merging, and conflict detection make this a potentially viable option. On the other hand, the workflow to manage and interact with a source control repository potentially represents a steeper learning curve.
A third option is to not maintain any "local" copy of the workbook, and have editors download the workbook from Tableau Server each time, make their changes, publish it back, and then delete the downloaded copy. However, without a check-out mechanism (which Tableau Server will not provide), you still need some external mechanism for detecting when someone else is currently editing the workbook.


First, Apple revealed a critical bug in its implementation of encryption in iOS, requiring an emergency patch. Then researchers found the same bug is also included in Apple's desktop OSX operating system, a gaping Web security hole that leaves users of Safari at risk of having their traffic hijacked. Now one researcher has found evidence that the bug extends beyond Apple's browser to other applications including Mail, Twitter, Facetime, iMessage and even Apple's software update mechanism.
Soltani, an independent researcher whose recent work has included analyzing the surveillance documents leaked by NSA contractor Edward Snowden on behalf of the Washington Post, warns that the security of several applications on that list are severely compromised, including Apple's email program Mail, scheduling app Calendar and the its official Twitter desktop client. The bug affects how Apple devices authenticate their secure connection with servers, allowing an eavedropper to fake that verification and hijack or corrupt traffic using what's known as a "man-in-the-middle" attack. "All these apps would be vulnerable to the same man-in-the-middle vulnerability outlined on Friday," Soltani says.
Some of the affected apps such as iMessage and Facetime have added security that could reduce the effects of the security vulnerability, though Soltani warns that for the iMessage instant messaging application the initial login at Apple's me.com website may be compromised, even if the messages themselves remain encrypted, and that similar problems may exist for Facetime. "There are going to be parts of the protocol like the initial 'handshake' that rely on TLS, and those will be vulnerable to man-in-the-middle attacks," Soltani says.
Equally troubling is the notion that Apple's Software Update application is affected, which means that Apple's mechanism for pushing new code to OSX machines, including security updates, could be compromised. Soltani notes that in addition to SSL and TLS, Software Update also checks for Apple's signature on any code that it asks users to install. But he adds that the code-signing protection hasn't stopped malware from spoofing those updates in the past to install spying tools on victims' machines.
I've reached out to Apple for comment on Soltani's findings, and I'll update this post if I hear from the company.
Apple's newly discovered security flaw, dubbed "gotofail" by the security community due to a single improperly used "goto" command in Apple's code that triggered it, initially came to light Friday when Apple issued a security update for iOS. Researchers at the security firm Crowdstrike and Google quickly reverse engineered that patch to show how it affected OSX as well, and initially recommended that users stay away from untrusted networks and avoid Safari, which is more dependent on Apple's implementation of SSL and TLS than other browsers such as Chrome or Firefox.
Soltani's work, however, shows that the problem extends further, leaving many users with few options for secure communications until Apple issues a fix for its desktop software. The company promised in a statement to Reuters Saturday to make that fix available "very soon." Given the widening gaps in Apple's security the flaw exposes, it can't come soon enough.


Cumbria Gateway is a progressive and innovative Social Enterprise that provides user-led, person centred health and social care services within substance and alcohol misuse. It was founded by recovering substance users and evolved as a response to service delivery gaps. Current provision offers limited choice with only professionals supporting those in treatment.
Following treatment, there is no continuation of support. This time is critical as people are more likely to go back into addiction. Peers that are in recovery see the red flags of relapse early and can respond appropriately to individuals. Members in later stages of recovery provide hope for new members that recovery is possible, whilst gaining a sense of purpose, increased self-esteem and continue to build positive relationships with others.
To offer a peer led supportive environment in which people can recover from addiction and develop positive futures in their local community.
Supported housing for individuals who are homeless and want to detox from substances (7 days a week).
Out of hours drop-in services (7 days a week).
Running a charity shop, providing retail training and work experience.
A lunch club, using locally grown produce and teaching how to cook healthily on a budget.
Provide a clear pathway with drug & alcohol services.
Various new groups emerging: arts, walking, etc.
13 homeless people that wanted recovery moved into flats. 8 positive moves and 4 found employment.
50 members attending therapeutic drop in.
Recruited and trained 22 volunteers and 6 for handyman service.
Service users gaining new skills and becoming work ready.
Reduction in Social exclusion through new/improved social networks.
Internationally recognised SMART recovery course that sustains recovery and prevents relapse.
Service entering into education – University degrees.
People with addiction benefitting from aftercare via our peer mentoring and support programmes.
Individuals benefitting from harm reduction breakfast club and have been inspired and motivated to recover from their addiction through peer mentors.
Statutory services have seen a reduction in addiction related health problems and homelessness.
Families/carers have accessed extended support.


Bifacial modules, particularly when coupled with tracking, introduces considerable complexity.
Researchers at Belgian research institute imec – and its EnergyVille partnership with Flemish peers – are launching a simulation framework which they say can accurately calculate the energy yield of a bifacial PV system.
Bifacial technology has already begun to be deployed in large-scale PV projects and is well on the way to becoming a mainstream module technology – it is expected to represent more than 35% of modules by 2028, according to the latest International Technology Roadmap for Photovoltaics. However, complications with precisely calculating the energy yield of bifacial systems are still an issue that can deter investors and developers.


The City Council on Tuesday took a somewhat dim view of a proposed amendment to the city code to regulate outdoor lighting on private property.
It decided a draft of the proposal recommended by the Planning Commission needs some tweaking. Mayor Pro Tem Jane Egly was appointed to work with the sub-committee that created the draft. She will report back at the July 12 council meeting.
"Hundreds of hours have been devoted to this," Mayor Toni Iseman said. "What can be salvaged? We want to send a message that this is an important thing. How can we make it work and not sit in a round file?"
One of the major objections was regulation by complaint.
"It bothers me that it is complaint-driven," Councilman Kelly Boyd said. "I had a neighbor who complained about five houses in the neighborhood because he wanted it all dark."
Boyd said he agreed with dissenting Planning Commissioner Norma Grossman that voluntary compliance should be tried first.
"Complaint-driven [enforcement] keeps code enforcement from being pro-active," said Monica Tuchscher, staff liaison to the sub-committee.
Compliance could be as simple as changing a light bulb to a lower wattage and each case would be treated individually, Tuchscher said.
Councilwoman Elizabeth Pearson opined that city buildings should be reviewed before the council starts dictating to residents. Iseman added that street lights on Coast Highway in Laguna are the biggest violation.
"I agree the city should set a good example, but I also would like to see a change to prohibit light trespass and protection for wildlife," Councilwoman Verna Rollinger said.
Louise Thornton, a representative of the Ocean Laguna Foundation, pointed out that the draft did not address the impact of night lighting on the marine life.
The purpose of the draft ordinance is to establish general lighting standards that reduce or prevent light pollution, glare and light trespass — light that spills from one property to another, conserve energy, preserve neighborhood character and night-sky beauty, according to Tuchscher's staff report.
"It's about time," said resident Walker Reed, an ardent amateur astronomer. "Light destroys night vision."
Outdoor lighting, under the terms of the draft, would be required to be hooded, fully shielded and aimed downward.
Exemptions include low voltage landscape lighting that does not exceed 400 lumen, which is 35 incandescent watts, seasonal decorations, lighting associated with historical resources, safety lights controlled by a motion sensor and accent lighting for art in public places.
Rollinger said the number of holidays in a month and who decides on what safety light is should be spelled out in the ordinance.
The subcommittee, composed of two planning commissioners, two Design Review Board members and two Environmental Committee members, attempted to create an ordinance that is simple to understand and simple to enforce, Tuchscher said.
"The first ordinance [draft] was more strict, but we had visions of throngs of people showing up here," said sub-committee member Caren Luizzi. "This is a stepping stone.
"We just wanted to get it on the books and see how the public received it."
Iseman said the committee had illuminated the issue.
The draft is available for review at http://www.lagunabeachcity.net. Click on meetings and then on the May 3 council meeting agenda documents or audio.
In other council news, electric car drivers will be able to charge their vehicles in Laguna.
The council voted to install two charging stations in the city-owned Laguna Canyon Road parking lot, to be operational by June 1. Charging will be free, but parking in the spaces will be limited to four hours.
"I have a hard time seeing your time and energy expended on a product that is weak," resident Dennis Myers said. "I suggest you start with [a fee] of $2 an hour and double it every hour."
The charging stations will cost the city an estimated $775 in electricity if two cars are charged for three hours each day, June through September, Senior Water Quality Analyst Will Holloman told the council.
Councilwoman Elizabeth Pearson said the electrical costs combined with a loss in parking fees revenue amounts to a substantial reduction in revenue.
If a $10 space was occupied every day for year, the parking fees would total $3,600.
The charging stations will be metered for time and electricity use.
Data will be collected and a report will be made to the council at the end of the September.


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