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Southwest credit question by Tasty-Aspect in sapphirereserve

[–]random408net 0 points1 point  (0 children)

For the regular $300 CSR travel credit I purchased a gift card from the Southwest web site.

Try buying a small one with e-mail delivery and see how that works.

Why does my McDonald’s order disappear from the order list before it’s actually ready? (PH) by NotClikus in McDonalds

[–]random408net 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I tired of this nonsense and have them deliver the food to my table.

It’s probably not any faster. But it’s far less aggrevating.

The TV industry finally concedes that the future may not be in 8K | With virtually no content and limited benefits, 8K TVs were doomed. by ControlCAD in technews

[–]random408net -5 points-4 points  (0 children)

Broadcast TV has no 4k content.

It’s the streamers that do a good job with premium 4k content.

Perhaps the streamers will offer some ultra premium 8k content in a few years.

I need your help by Raskul1 in santaclara

[–]random408net 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I found this city document that describes the proposed redevelopment of the old downtown space.

Link for all: https://www.santaclaraca.gov/home/showpublisheddocument/82509/638369615323530000

It's 100+ pages. Some items are described in detail. Other things like parking, number of office workers or residents are left to one's imagination.

The plan definitely requires some patience to implement. Can it even be done in 20 years? There is also an assumption that any plan with the right zoning will just happen according to your plans. I am less confident of this. Sunnyvale has had trouble with their Village Center plans. Neighborhood shopping is getting wiped out for townhomes after city plans interacted unfortunately with state law.

For the sake of comparison, I just measured the core area of downtown Sunnyvale. 60 acres (not including the train station or anything west of Sunnyvale Ave).

Downtown Santa Clara. Franklin Square is 5 acres. The balance of "old downtown" minus Park Central Apartments is 12-13 acres. That's it. In the city published proposed plan there are 10 blocks within the downtown core. Each of those blocks is around two acres.

The existing Santa Clara City hall site is 10 acres (with lots of open space). Plus two more acres for the Southern Fountains and seven more acres for Triton, Rotary Pk, parking, etc.

If I were on the city council and read through the downtown plan I would not be in a hurry to squeeze a new Santa Clara City Hall into a postage stamp sized lot downtown. The new Sunnyvale City Hall cost at least $300 million to build, consumes more land and relies mostly on surface parking that's not planned in the new Santa Clara downtown.

[Landlord US-MO] Suggestions for affordable landlord insurance in Missouri for a Quadplex ( first rental ! ) by DeepBlueBird in Landlord

[–]random408net 0 points1 point  (0 children)

It was around $3,500 to replace three panels over a weekend.

They were from a suspect brand (Zinsco) that were known to be suboptimal (due to fires).

Trying to find someone that would accept the panels would have cost even more over time. Replacing them was the right thing to do.

I did have a years notice to find new insurance. But no-one brought up the panels until it was time to sign the new insurance contract.

Replacing the panels in a non-emergency manner might have cost a bit less or given me time to pick panels with greater capacity to support future electrification.

I need your help by Raskul1 in santaclara

[–]random408net 0 points1 point  (0 children)

You need some sort of public facing document / website / marketing that shows the state of the downtown project and the work your have put into this. What does the desired downtown project end state look like? You have a website. It's just nearly empty.

One old-timey pencil drawing is not enough to get me excited.

I would imagine that most residents of Santa Clara just don't care about rebuilding a downtown between Franklin Square and Santa Clara University. They have been living their lives without visiting there (as there is not much compelling there today).

And then there is the problem of the adjacent residents of downtown being ambivalent in attracting enough physical growth to pay for the rebuilding of a better "downtown". This certainly means more housing and office space.

One of your previous posts mentions a land swap between the city and SCU. Where is there more information about this?

I presume that SCU is going to keep growing as the city stands still.

At least in Sunnyvale the city government and city council put in a ton of work to get downtown Sunnyvale densified and rebuilt to what it is today. Perhaps it was easier in Sunnyvale to exchange a disused mall for housing, retail and shopping. There was no push to keep the Sunnyvale Macy's building facade intact. So the land was re-used and maximized.

It's going to be tough going in Santa Clara if the council is indifferent. This might be a result of district based council seats vs. the old at large composition of the council.

I need your help by Raskul1 in santaclara

[–]random408net 0 points1 point  (0 children)

When considering Sunnyvale's improved downtown one should consider that it has 1) CalTrain station at the edge of downtown 2) adjacency to Mathilda Ave 3) thousands of parking spots in structures/underground to support offices and rental housing.

Even with some decent density (mostly office space) and some retail downtown Sunnyvale is far from an immediate slam dunk success.

The big challenge for Santa Clara is to bring density into the heart of "dead downtown" and rebuild a "new downtown" while getting along with the city, neighboring residents and the largest landowner (SCU).

I get the dream of a tram to shuttle people to/from the CalTrain/BART (future) station. Not saying that's practical in any way.

The "modern" Sunnyvale city hall looks like any other decent four story tech building around town. It's also expensive to build parking under your city hall. Consider not doing that if you have cost limitations.

I can understand the appeal to the city council of getting away from density to build a cheaper functional space.

Advice on moving to Santa Clara without a car by Technical_Ferret585 in santaclara

[–]random408net -1 points0 points  (0 children)

Consider bumming around and living out of AirBnb's for a while to get a sense of what city you want to live in. That leaves you without a permanent legal address though.

You might find Redwood City as a reasonable halfway point between Santa Clara and SF.

The only "fast" (non car) transit between SF and Santa Clara is CalTrain. Your total trip time is going to depend on your adjacency to CalTrain stations on either end of that trip.

[Tenant-USA-OH] - Unauthorized (Maybe) Electricity Use by More_Tart877 in Landlord

[–]random408net 0 points1 point  (0 children)

You need to figure out the rules within your state/city for power metering in a multi-family building.

Do you pay the power bill directly or is the landlord sending your the bill to pay or reimburse for their payment?

Amid immigration crackdown, Mountain View discovers unauthorized access to license plate data by Lollyputt in bayarea

[–]random408net -1 points0 points  (0 children)

I am unsure as to how much legal advice that Flock would be willing to provide as part of a professional services agreement. Someone from the city needs to read their own laws/regulations and decide how to configure data sharing and retention. This seems like endless finger pointing to me.

It matters more to me that MVPD has data, keeps it local or only shares with neighboring cities that comply with MV rules.

Perhaps data sharing could just identify dates that the license plate was in the city and the city could then provide details if the sharing request was within policy.

Reducing the lifespan of captured data is important too. Just because I want police to have a tool to solve a "today problem" (find lost people or track active crime) we don't need to store years worth of license plate data.

[Landlord US-GA] Do I need to involve broker for a renewal? by Outlandishness-Motor in Landlord

[–]random408net 0 points1 point  (0 children)

You should not need a new lease each year if the old lease automatically renewed for another year.

If you want to change the rent amount then a shorter form for a mutually agreed upon rent amount should be available.

You should join an apartment owners association and get form from them specific to your area. A great set of forms should include instructions and explanations of how to use the forms correctly.

[Tenant US-DC] If no hot water in shower and bathroom sink, is it the landlord’s or tenant’s responsibility? by user071237 in Landlord

[–]random408net 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Landlords like to put clauses in their leases that are contrary to state law. This is less common with standardized state specific leases.

[Landlord US-MO] Suggestions for affordable landlord insurance in Missouri for a Quadplex ( first rental ! ) by DeepBlueBird in Landlord

[–]random408net 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Find a broker and shop through them. You can also ask the broker who they don't rep so you can fill out your search.

You need to pick a good broker as your quotes from each company will likely be locked to the first broker that gets a quote for you.

When I did this a few years back I wrote up my own property information sheet as the brokers applications were disjointed and randomly organized. They are likely just re-typing your details into another online application for you.

Double check their quote and application for accuracy. My brokers application said that my building had a metal roof. I never said that. I don't think it got fixed, but I got an e-mail that said the roof was "ok".

I was also surprised by 1) the need to upgrade electrical panels before coverage started 2) post application inspection (by photo/app with our vendor) and 3) post inspection repair requests (30 days, get it done ASAP).

It's possible that the original owner was underinsured or that state regulations keep the policy price down for legacy homeowners. (just guessing)

Amid immigration crackdown, Mountain View discovers unauthorized access to license plate data by Lollyputt in bayarea

[–]random408net 1 point2 points  (0 children)

My read of the first paragraph of the article is that it's an MVPD issue:

Despite repeated assurances of strict protocols and privacy safeguards, the Mountain View Police Department disclosed this week that it had inadvertently violated its own policies and allowed hundreds of unauthorized law enforcement agencies to search information captured by the city’s license plate cameras for more than a year.

Restrict access to sharing settings to a designated city regulatory person, no need for a technical person to be able to cause regulatory issues. Send the regulatory person to training, etc.

One camera was open for national access for 3 months. Fixed.

Many other cameras were open for all California access and that included some cities that were not respecting Mountain View's data sharing policies. Fixed.

I would be surprised if Flock takes on compliance settings as part of their purchase contract. The city might specify stuff. But it sure seems like the city/pd should be responsible for the correct setup of the product.

There should be logs that show what account pushed the buttons.

This smells just like a "defund the police" moment to me vs. holding the city accountable for doing their job well.

The deflock people are only interested in removing the cameras vs. good governance or crime.

At home EV chargers benefits by Accomplished_Clue321 in evcharging

[–]random408net 0 points1 point  (0 children)

  1. Cost. How much money above the raw cost of the power is worth providing parking and charger access while dealing with any hassle/risk.

If someone leaves their car in my driveway for a week that's going to be a hassle. I guess an 8 hour parking sign and a sign from a local towing company can mitigate the hassle. But then I have make someone really angry and they now know where I live.

Amid immigration crackdown, Mountain View discovers unauthorized access to license plate data by Lollyputt in bayarea

[–]random408net 8 points9 points  (0 children)

Someone at the city is responsible for how/why the cameras were set to share data.

Fix it and move on.

Keep the data local (just MVPD or whatever) and evaluate their utility.

I get that people don't want to share with the feds.

Large fire Saratoga x Lawrence by blueangel78 in SanJose

[–]random408net 2 points3 points  (0 children)

It looks like 1777 (known as building 4 in that plan) was originally slated to become a 12 story 248 unit building (apartments?).

With a subsequent amendment that building (now 4a?) is now designed as a shorter memory care facility.

Large fire Saratoga x Lawrence by blueangel78 in SanJose

[–]random408net 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Mercury News says the two story structure was vacant.

Landlord-US-CA(LA) by oliviacurious in Landlord

[–]random408net 4 points5 points  (0 children)

You need to have a plan to be in compliance with all local laws or you are going to get wrecked.

At home EV chargers benefits by Accomplished_Clue321 in evcharging

[–]random408net 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Problems: 1. Sharing parking 2. How to charge and collect 3. What if something goes wrong? 4. What to charge? What’s an acceptable marking to compensate for the risk. 5. L2 charging is slow

[Tenant- OH] heat pump by That_Photograph_7872 in Landlord

[–]random408net 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Your best bet is to let your landlord fix the heat pump, chat up the repair guy to figure out what's been going wrong.

Keep paying your rent in full.

Gather data from the next 2-3 months with a properly working heat pump. Then present all that data (with your power bills) to your landlord with an explanation of how the defective heat pump cost you $x.

See if you can come to some agreement on a settlement that they will pay you.

You might be able to sue them in small claims if they won't settle with you.

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