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sussex-nature-lover · 4 years

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Thursday 28th January 2021

Fossils. Ammonite and a woman named Mary Anning

Firstly a reminder that it’s a big day tomorrow and all weekend what with the Big Garden Birdwatch running and the film ‘The Dig’ being released on Netflix. I wrote about the film Here and the BTO’s Big Garden Birdwatch too.

Nuthatch in our garden

So that’s the reminders done.

Last night on BBC’s Winterwatch they were talking about the Isle of Skye and Dinosaur hunting - evidence of not real life Jurassic Park and last Autumn there was another film about a 19th Century historical, little known, woman who make a huge difference to the study of the natural world. I read about her in a BBC article.

Kate Winslet starred, but I haven’t really heard much about it. Apparently it wasn’t styled as a biopic and contained a largely fictional account of Mary’s romantic inclinations, despite her impact being to change our understanding of life in prehistoric times

"Mary Anning was three things you didn't want to be in 19th-century Britain - she was female, working class and poor" says Anya Pearson, who is campaigning for a statue in her honour.

"This was a time when even educated women weren't allowed to own property or vote, but despite this horrendous upbringing she was able to do all these incredible things."

Lyme Regis: location shown by the red pin in the map

Lyme Regis, Dorset, in the south west of England, where Mary lived, was submerged 200 million years ago. This is why there are so many pre-historic fossils from underwater creatures found there. Mary often went fossil hunting after a storm because this usually caused bits of cliff to fall and for rocks to break open which made the fossil hunting easier. On the flip side of that it actually meant where the family lived was quite a dangerous location.

We’ve visited, many many years ago and had a lovely break. It’s very picturesque countryside and is also famous for the Meryl Streep film French Lieutenant’s Woman. I’ve walked along the famous Cobb, but not with such dramatic effect.

Original film poster

As you would gather from the ‘poor’ comment, Mary Anning's life was scarred by hardship and tragedy, but also quite incredibly triumphant scientific firsts. Born on 21 May 1799 she had been one of 10 children: eight of her nine siblings died before reaching adulthood.

Her father was a cabinet maker but used to scour the beach for fossils to sell and supplement his income. Mary would go out to help him and this is where he interest grew. She was only 11 when he died of TB after a serious fall. Mary carried on the sales to try and help the family survive. Although she had little formal education she could read and so schooled herself in subjects like geology and anatomy and would even dissect modern animals like fish and cuttlefish so that she could better understand the fossils she was finding.

Only a year after her father's death Mary and her brother discovered a skeleton - now known to be an Ichthyosaur - this was the event for which she’s most remembered today. This complete skeleton was around 17′ long. She regularly risked her life in her hunt for fossils, making discoveries that captured the attention of the scientific elite, even though her social status and gender meant she never received the credit she deserved.

Twelve years later, she found the first complete skeleton of a Plesiosaur, a marine reptile so bizarre that scientists thought it was a fake.

The ‘four flipper swimmer’ who ‘flew’ through the ocean.

youtube

The most fantastic find was a Plesiosaur uncovered in 1987. Its abdomen contained bones of an embryo, which proves the animal gave birth to live young.

We’re still learning.

We’ve also got to remember that at the time Mary’s family were non-conformist, t living in a very religious community. The Creation was the subject of society’s beliefs and the notion of extinction was a relatively new idea to science.

Lyme Regis Museum geologist Paddy Howe, who was a technical adviser for Ammonite (the film) describes Anning as a "very poor child who was making fantastic scientific discoveries".

"At this time, geology and palaeontology were burgeoning sciences - just coming into their own, he says. "We know about Ichthyosaur bones from the 1600s but it was the first one to be studied by scientists. It was very important."

The marine reptile was bought from Anning for £23 and later purchased by the British Museum at auction in 1819. It can still be seen at the Natural History Museum. I imagine the value today is priceless.

Make a Virtual Visit to the Museum

Despite Mary Anning's growing reputation, societal norms meant she would never be accepted into the elite scientific community. In fact, when the Geological Society met to discuss whether the plesiosaur was genuine, she was even not invited along - women were not admitted there until the 20th Century.

"If she was born in 1970, she'd be heading up a palaeontology department at Imperial or Cambridge," says David Tucker, director of Lyme Regis museum.

"But she was a commercial fossil hunter; she had to sell what she found. Therefore, the fossils tended to be credited to museums in the name of the rich man that paid for them, rather than the poor woman who found them.

"This isn't just around gender - the history of science is littered with the neglected contributions of working-class scientists."

Mary Anning: image credit the Natural History Museum

Despite her lifetime of groundbreaking work, Mary remained in hardship and died of breast cancer in 1847, aged 47. She is buried at St Michael the Archangel Church in Lyme Regis.

Following her death, Henry De la Beche, President of the Geological Society and a friend of hers, broke with the Society's members-only tradition to read a eulogy at a meeting, paying homage to her achievements.

He wrote: "I cannot close this notice of our losses by death without adverting to that of one, who though not placed among even the easier classes of society, but one who had to earn her daily bread by her labour, yet contributed by her talents and untiring researches in no small degree to our knowledge."

Three years later, a stained-glass window in her memory, paid for by members of the Geological Society, was installed in the church where she was buried. Her legacy is also marked at Lyme Regis Museum, where there is a gallery dedicated to Anning's life. In a pleasing coincidence, the museum stands on the site of her birthplace and family home.

"The fact that the museum is on the site of Mary's house was not in any way planned," Mr Tucker says. "Her family rented a part of the house which stood where we are, right on the edge of the sea.

"They were living in a house that was on the way down and prone to being hit by the huge waves and it was eventually destroyed by a storm."

The design includes Mary’s beloved dog, Tray

More than 170 years after her death, Mary Anning's story is now taught in schools, and a campaign, supported by Sir David Attenborough and Prof Alice Roberts, is under way to erect a statue in her honour.

Evie Swire an 11 year old local schoolgirl, began campaigning for the statue, claiming there were more statues in the UK of men called John than there were of all women.

"She's done all these amazing things and sadly has been lost in history," Evie says.

"There have been a lot of forgotten women in history but all of them were educated and came from a wealthy background, but she was poor and working class," says Evie's mother and campaign trustee Anya Pearson.

"I get angry when people refer to her as 'just a fossil collector' because she had great men of learning travel across Europe to learn from her.

Two years later and the campaign is beginning to bear fruit, reaching the £70,000 stage target that means the statue can be commissioned.

I can’t say I’ve ever had a big interest in dinosaurs or fossils really. It wasn’t something the girls were ever keen on when they were small and so I didn’t get lead down that path like so many parents do these days. The closest I’ve come was finding the rabbit skull in our garden last year - and that’s not going to set the scientific community on fire now is it. Never the less, reading about some women who did have an interest and have worked on important discoveries has whetted my interest and I’ve enjoyed looking at the topics.

NOTES FROM THE KITCHEN:

I found a slightly over-looked roll of ready made puff pastry in the fridge and so with the aid of my trusty lattice roller, I shall be making a leftover-chicken and leek pie.

FUN FACT OF THE DAY:

Mary Anning is said to have been the inspiration for the tongue-twister ‘She sells sea shells by the sea shore’

#Mary Anning ammonite fossils film nature

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stepphase · 3 years

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best iPhone games offline / the top iPhone games / best iPhone games for free

Of course, a lot of mobile games need an internet connection to play. In fact, if you do not want to use the internet connection on your phone to play games. Also, you can choose plenty of offline iPhone games that are equally alluring and engaging. As well as, here are Apple best 10 iPhone games you can play offline.

Minecraft: Pocket Edition

Minecraft: Pocket Edition comes first in our countdown. Also, the game is designed for these five and more, but adults can also have fun in this creative sandbox. Of course, Minecraft allows you to create almost anything. You are limited only by what your imagination can come out of the game. In fact, some players have even created a Millennium Falcon in the game!

On top of that, Minecraft: Pocket Edition also has some great role-playing elements in the game. There's an ultimate boss you can handle. As well as, you'll just need to make sure you're gathering the resources needed to make some of the best armor. Just to deal with the evils found in the world of Minecraft. Your path is up to you - create beautiful structures or gather resources to make armor and weapons to fight. Also, The evils that lurk in the world of Minecraft.

best iPhone games offline / the top iPhone games / best iPhone games for free

Plants against zombies 2

Next, we look at Plants vs. Zombies 2. This is a beautiful and lively game with some arcade-style games. Of course, You put plants in the garden, each of which has its own weapons and abilities. You can collect your favorite plants such as sunflowers and peas. Along with hundreds of other plant-based options that are used to fight oncoming zombies.

As you progress, the levels become progressively difficult, which requires modernized plants to fight the tougher zombies. In fact, you can earn items called seed packs that can activate attacks, speed up planting time. Also, acquire entirely new abilities. See how far you can go!

Crossy Road

Crossy Road is a super-simple arcade game where you play as a chicken. And your goal is to cross a busy road. Since the launch of the game in 2014. It has been downloaded over 150 million times and the developers have released a number of add-ons. Of course, That adds new challenges and skins. Crossy Road has unique pixelated graphics that make the game instantly appealing to players of all ages. And further, enhance the fun factor. After all, Try Crossy Road to see if you can add your name at the top of the rankings.

Asphalt 8

Asphalt 8 is a popular racing game with realistic graphics that can push even the latest iPhone to its limits. You can either play offline, or you can connect to the Internet to access exclusive deals, play multiplayer. Participate in special events, receive notifications of new deals, buy car packages, collect various prizes. Download new ones. maps and access Gameloft help. Asphalt 8 has been translated into most major languages and developers often release updates. That fix bugs and add new features, keeping the game fresh and interesting.

Oxenfree

Oxenfree is an innovative adventure game that combines the supernatural horror of 1980. With realistic characters and a cleverly designed dialogue system. Of course, If you're a fan of Stranger Things (and you can't wait for the second season). Oxenfree will give you the excuse you so long for. The game costs $ 4.99 and works on all iOS devices with iOS 9.1 or later.

To the moon

Next to the Moon is an RPG-oriented RPG that initially debuted on a computer, but was recently ported to iOS. The game is about two doctors who travel back to the memories of a dying person to artificially fulfill a wish. What this desire is and how the story ends is something we want you to find out for yourself. If you are not a big fan of role-playing games due to their complexity and time required. That To the Moon is very light for RPG game mechanics and is played more like an adventure game.

best iPhone games offline / the top iPhone games / best iPhone games for free

Super Mario Run

Super Mario Run is the first official version of iOS for Nintendo. And the interesting behavior of the favorite platformer with which so many of us grew up. Unlike the Super Mario series that you can play on your TV, the Super Mario Run is controlled by touch. Your goal is to get your cranes to pull stylish jumps, spins in the middle. And walls to collect coins and reach the end of the level. You can download and play Super Mario Run for free, the game will cost you a one-time investment of $10. Just to unlock the entire mushroom kingdom.

The Guardians of Peace

Step into the shoes of Diego. A young aspiring squire training to become a paladin in The Guardians of Peace Corps amid. The darkling invasion led by the sinister Commander Selfish!

The Ultimate Carnage 2

Get behind the wheel of over 20 different vehicles, from the simple little car to the huge bus. And race through the traffic at full speed.

Clash of Crowds

Be the last one standing! Become the biggest crowd on the farm by absorbing your rivals and converting the humans. Choose from 22 different adorable animals to play with while you grow your way to the top.

best iPhone games offline / the top iPhone games / best iPhone games for free

South of the Circle

Cambridge academic Peter stumbles from the wreckage in search of help, fighting the cold. As his attempts to escape the ice grow more desperate, the lines between his past and present begin to blur.

A love story between colleagues Peter and Clara, set against the backdrop of the Cold War. South of the Circle is a narrative adventure game about memory, survival. And the consequences of not dealing with the past.

Misk Schools Quest

In the year 3020, the earth became so polluted that humans built floating cities above the cloud. And filled them with service robots to take care of most aspects of life. But now, those robots turned against civilians due to a mysterious virus, and as Elite Robot Officer Mask 802. Your mission is to cure the robots to save the city of Alpha Cloud.

FR Legends

From driving legendary FR (front-engine, rear-wheel-drive) drift cars at the world’s most iconic circuits. To customizing everything on your car including engine swaps and wide-body kits.

best iPhone games offline / the top iPhone games / best iPhone games for free

House Flipper: Home Renovation

House Flipper is the best free one-man makeover crew on the market. Become an interior designer and start your very own business. Carry out orders, renovate, decorate houses, and sell them with profit afterward! Get new skins for your tools.

Space Marshals 3

Join the rowdy Space Marshal crew on their latest misadventure in outer space. Strap those boots on, gear up, and get ready to hunt space crooks!

FGTeeV Goozy

Explore a house full of weird technology and slimy surprises as you attempt to save the FGTeeV family. Take control of the powerful Multitool to help on your adventure around the mysterious house of Dr. Jax. The Multitool is your ultimate weapon when it comes to solving the many puzzles that exist in-house.

We are here to hear from you

After all, you can contact us to let us know if we are missing something on our page. I hope you like it and thank you for your visit.

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surgems · 5 years

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Things to remember when renovating a house

Whether you’re an experienced house flipper or this is your first time taking on your renovation project, there are still plenty of considerations to make before jumping in at the deep end and purchasing a home to renovate. There may be visible issues like rotten or cracked cambridge engineered flooring and doors Yorkshire, or the issues may be more hidden, such as subsidence or mould. That’s why the first thing you need to do, even prior to buying the house or building, is get a building report from a chartered surveyor. These reports may not highlight every issue that the house has, but it will at least give you some idea of what you’re getting yourself into.

Ensuring that you have enough money to sink into a renovation project, whether your own or through a loan, is vitally important. First off, you need enough to purchase the home (which could increase in price if bought at auction), carry out any structural repairs and maintenance, and beautifying the interior of the home. Hidden costs and surprise issues can pop up at any of these stages, such as needing new cambridge engineered flooring or bespoke skirting boards. There will assuredly be things that you forget to budget in, such as doors Yorkshire, so it’s best practice to make sure you have what you think you will need saved up, and then add more for a safety net!

Setting a schedule for when you want the home to be fully renovated by is necessary to ensure that the project doesn’t run wild and end up taking much longer than anticipated. Projects can run on for years and years if not properly managed, draining the opportunity for profit. As well as a long-term schedule, a day to day one is required too to prevent overlap between tradespeople. Having different people in to install doors Yorkshire and cambridge engineered flooring on the same day because it wasn’t scheduled correctly is a nightmare that could be avoided with some time management.

Don’t try and do everything yourself. Whether it’s to cut costs or just to save your pride, taking on all the work yourself can really tire you down and wear you out. If you’re working a full time job and trying to keep the momentum of renovating your project home up, you will struggle to stay motivated. Attempting to do this will also stretch out the project more than necessary, as you will be stretched thin to get everything done. On top of this, some jobs, such as wiring or plumbing, can be potentially dangerous. In these cases, it is much better to hire an expert to come in and carry out the work. There are definitely some times when the work can be carried out yourself, such as laying laminate flooring or fitting bespoke skirting boards, but struggling on and burning yourself out just to save some money can be really detrimental to both your health and the renovation project.

Remember that you don’t have to do everything to complete the renovation project. People like to put their individual stamp on a home so if you fully furnish it and splash out on bespoke skirting boards and other items, you could turn away potential buyers who want more of a blank canvas to work on.

#Cambridge Engineered Flooring #bespoke skirting boards #doors Yorkshire

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lenakrruger · 6 years

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The perils of flipping new houses

All over Southwestern Ontario in cities like London, Woodstock, Brantford, Paris, Kitchener and Cambridge, out of town buyers – mostly from areas like Toronto, Mississauga and Brampton – are purchasing new houses and townhouses on spec with the sole intentions of doing flips.

It all sounds so easy. First you follow the roadside signs to a homebuilder’s trailer and sign an offer to buy. Make sure you bring your I.D. and make sure you ask about the $5,000 free appliance offer. Then you must follow further builder’s instructions to make a series of small extra down payments. That’s no big deal, it’s just how it works. Let’s hope you have the money to do it or room on your credit cards. The agreement will state a closing date off in the future, like 18 months away. It’s that simple. Over that period resale prices should jump up 10 or 20 per cent. Conventional wisdom seems to tell us that.

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Then you wait and do nothing except do a final walk-through and then close the deal. It helps if you know a good mortgage broker. It also helps if you spring for the one minor upgrade of putting in a gas hookup in the kitchen for a gas stove. Some buyers expect that and sometimes it can make or break a deal. Then resell the house and take the profits and go somewhere else and do it again. Some purchasers are now on their second or third successful flips. What an easy way to quickly get ahead in life!

But sometimes unexpected wrinkles pop up. If you buy one of these units, sometimes you must wait a year or two until the market prices reach up to your expectations. This means you may have to rent it out for a short period to help cover the carrying costs. To find a good tenant, some buyers turn to Kijiji and others to the services offered by real estate agents. New houses and town homes for rent are now regularly popping up increasingly on the MLS system, sporting remarks in the fine print of the listing such as, “Please give credit reports with score, employment letter / stubs, lease agreement, non-smoking policy, references and no pets please.” So, what if the rents collected do not totally cover the cost involved in carrying a new property?

You just have to hope for the best. No stains on the carpets, no oil stains on the driveway, no hockey puck dents in the garage door and no dropping of frying pans on the ceramic floors in the kitchen. No matter what kind of lease you write up, the tenants will always have the right to cook and some people like to cook up a storm.

The concept of having tenants in a brand-new house for a year might be somewhat difficult to get your head around. You also must hope the new tenants will report back to you on such issues as sump pumps not working properly and window wells clogged up with debris. It is not nice to get a midnight call about a basement flooding.

On the flip side, new tenants often must put up with all the inconveniences of having construction activities and mud or dust all around them. With no sod on the ground, dust bowls may blow up quickly.

So, what’s with the picture of the row of freeholds at the top of this article? Do you notice a few things that are missing? Where are the fences, the decks and the landscaping? We took this picture from the street and it shows one- and two-year-old finished freehold units in Brantford, Ont. Similar pictures could have been taken in towns and cities all over this region.

Who is going to foot the bill for the much-needed fences, decks and landscaping? This is an issue that often squashes deals being done by real estate agents who are trying to get them leased out. For many “flippers” these are all minor concerns, which will somehow work themselves out over time at someone else’s cost.

Tenants’ best interests are never really taken into consideration. Tie your dog up to a stake in your rear yard with a rope that is less than 14 feet long. Pets are not supposed to part of this equation anyways. Wheel your barbecue out into the driveway to use it. Living in new units like this often comes with several compromises. If you’re lucky and one of your immediate neighbours is actually an owner, you might benefit from a partial fence going up.

In London, which is where I sell real estate, there are now more than a dozen brand new executive houses for rent on the MLS system with rent prices typically in the $2,000 to $2,750 per month price range. Yet that is only part of the story. Many more units are posted for rent on Kijiji, Facebook or on the Toronto Real Estate Board and access to show these units is accomplished with the use of keys placed in lock boxes. While these rental prices may seem to be a good deal, there is always the worry of the landlords putting up for sale signs near the end of the leases or asking to put a family member into the house.

It’s a jungle out there. Everyone knows that new projects will sell out quickly, sometimes even before a shovel has hit the ground. Builders understand they are selling to captive audiences who are not big on spending too much money on costly upgrades. At the same time, builders take comfort in having firm sales posted on their books just in the off-chance that the markets decide to tank. Smart builders also play the game of pricing their units defensively in the hopes of not giving away excessive profits to the speculators.

Buyers like to play the game of being one of the first to sign up as new customers in the hopes that their new builder will be constantly changing their asking prices upwards.

As for the exercise of paying out commissions to agents who want to register new buyers’ names with them, that gig in many new projects is now over. Builders now don’t need an endless wave of new buyers because they continue to pour in off the streets. In this environment cutting out the middleman makes perfect sense.

The post The perils of flipping new houses appeared first on REM | Real Estate Magazine.

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felishasheats · 6 years

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The perils of flipping new houses

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Buyers like to play the game of being one of the first to sign up as new customers in the hopes that their new builder will be constantly changing their asking prices upwards.

The post The perils of flipping new houses appeared first on REM | Real Estate Magazine.

The perils of flipping new houses published first on https://oicrealestate.tumblr.com/

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go-redgirl · 7 years

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California's real estate gold rush is even boosting Stockton, but at what price?

Steve Lopez Contact Reporter

Not long ago, the Delta city of Stockton was drowning in bad news.

It went bankrupt. It led the nation in foreclosures during the housing crash. It found itself on a list of the most miserable places to live in America. It was too far from job centers. The crime rate was high and a former mayor got slapped with criminal charges.

But now Stockton – something of a northern cousin of once-bankrupt and long-beleaguered San Bernardino -- finds itself at the top of a list of California cities with the greatest increase in home prices over the last five years, at 92%.

What happened?

How Stockton went from bust to boom

For one thing, the San Joaquin River port city had fallen so far, it had the most ground to make up.

For another, nearby burgs like Tracy, which is closer to jobs in the Bay Area and Silicon Valley, have become too expensive for many people.

The housing affordability crisis, in other words, has given a boost to Stockton, where you can still buy a nice family home in the $200,000 to $350,000 range.

But recovery can be a double-edged sword.

“Now we’re seeing rent increases, and it’s not like Coastal California, but we’re starting to have signs of housing shortages and rising prices,” said Jeff Michael, director of the Center for Business and Policy Research at University of the Pacific in Stockton.

Stockton Mayor Michael Tubbs said it’s nice to see the housing market bounce back, but he’s concerned about all the residents who will only fall farther behind as neighborhoods gentrify and costs rise.

“The median income here is $43,000, and that doesn’t equate to being able to buy a house for $300,000,” said Tubbs.

If people are feeling the squeeze in a town recently called a miserable place to live, is any California outpost safe from the affordability crisis?

On a recent Saturday, I checked out the action at several open houses in Stockton, including a three-bedroom, two-bath home with a swimming pool on Azalea Way.

“We already have one offer on the house,” real estate agent Wendy Barbieri told a shopper.

The list price, by the way, was $364,950.

This was in Lincoln Village, a leafy, upscale neighborhood with some of the city’s better schools. This same house, I guarantee you, would go for $1 million or more in much of Los Angeles, and closer to $2 million in Sunnyvale or Cupertino.

But as I was saying, when costs rise and fall, there are always winners and losers. Barbieri, the real estate agent, said longtime residents who want to move up to something a little bigger or nicer now find themselves in competition with new arrivals willing to make wretched commutes.

“There’ve been a lot of cash offers,” said Barbieri, “with buyers being outbid like crazy by cash that’s coming from the Bay Area.”

At another open house, I met a flipper, which is always a sign that prices are going up. Debra Chen said she bought a house for $172,000 and put between $50,000 and $70,000 into an upgrade. Now it’s listed for $289,999.

In a bucolic neighborhood called Swain Oaks Manor, I walked through a $349,000 listing and then met a neighbor outside. Robert Lovato, a retired teacher, didn’t see an up side to rising prices.

“It’s not good for me,” said Lovato. “It just means my taxes are going to go up.”

On the other side of that problem are Dianne and Alvin Reyes. They rented in the Milpitas-Fremont area with Dianne working as a physical therapist and Alvin as an engineer at Tesla, but they were outbid on houses they could barely afford, and rents kept rising. So they recently bought a four-bedroom house in Stockton for $345,000, and Dianne got a job close to home. Her husband, however, still commutes to Fremont, two hours down and two hours back.

“What we pay now is much less than what we paid for our rental,” said Dianne, who hopes her husband can eventually work out a transfer to a closer Tesla plant.

Deborah Gelbart, a medical assistant at an Oakland hospital, was a lifelong renter and lived near her job. But like so many other Californians who make decent money and do essential work, she was hit by the twin curses of rising rents and flat pay. So she just bought a three-bedroom in Stockton for $220,000, signing up for a long commute.

“I love my little house,” Gelbart said, telling me her new home is her first, and she sees it as an investment she might one day pass on to family.

Mayor Tubbs just bought a house himself. He said he paid $375,000, after being outbid on another one he was interested in.

Tubbs, by the way, is the son of a single mother and an incarcerated father won a City Council seat when he was 21, with Oprah Winfrey among his campaign donors. When the former White House intern became mayor last year at the age of 26, one of his endorsements was from President Obama.

Tubbs is a Stanford grad, and my interview with him had to be delayed because he was on his honeymoon after marrying his college sweetheart, a Gates scholar who is studying for her doctorate in Cambridge.

Success doesn’t have to mean leaving Stockton

Given the couples’ credentials, it seems there might have been a few other options than anchoring in Stockton. But home is home, and Tubbs was drawn to the challenge of turning around the city that took so much abuse when he was a youngster.

“As kids, you internalized it,” Tubbs said of Stockton’s years-long struggles and dubious distinctions. “I think that’s why so many folks of my generation thought that success meant leaving Stockton.”

Now he finds himself working on crime, poverty, blight and homelessness even as he deals with the ups and downs of gentrification. In that regard, he’s no different from dozens of other mayors in California.

“We’re stressing the need for all types of housing, including multi-family and high-density housing, and we’ve got a couple of projects coming to downtown,” said Tubbs, speaking from a City Hall office near the river, the marina, arts centers and the minor league baseball stadium, so the potential is there.

He said he wants to find ways to finance affordable housing, and he wants to streamline the building permit process to cut down on development costs and keep prices lower.

Tubbs has no authority over the school district, but said he’s begun forming alliances with educators because a better educated workforce could draw more business and higher-paying jobs to Stockton, which will soon be home to an Amazon distribution center expected to employ 1,000 people. Amazon, Tesla and other big employers already have operations in nearby Tracy, Manteca and Lathrop, and Stockton is the next city down the line.

It would be hard not to root for a city down on its luck for so long, and in many ways, the Stockton challenge is the state challenge.

California is blessed to have the resources, jobs and wealth that it has, but the economy booms only for those who are highly educated or have specialized skills and can throw crazy money at houses in bidding wars that put homes further out of reach for everyone else. Too many Californians are doomed to budget-sucking housing costs and nightmarish commutes that impact the environment and quality of life. You have to wonder how long an affordable house in Stockton will still be an acceptable tradeoff for those who lose three or four hours each day to get to work and home.

With the governor’s race about to launch, the candidates need to explain how they can help mayors like Tubbs design communities that put jobs closer to homes and work better for people of all income levels. That means more transit, more telecommuting, better education, higher wages and finally, more housing, so the added supply brings down prices that are suffocating far too many people.

If California has a bigger challenge these days, it has not crossed my desk.

Real Estate

Foreclosures

Housing Market

Colleges and Universities

Education

University of the Pacific

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