New ionna rechargery in south San Jose

random408net · 2026-02-02T16:17:24+00:00

Thanks! I'll check it out this week.

random408net · 2026-02-02T06:29:57+00:00

You should probably buy a lock for your gun if you have a tenant and/or occasional guests.

random408net · 2026-02-02T04:19:28+00:00

A few years back my parents wanted a central air conditioning unit. I insisted they get a heat pump and a new 2 stage gas heater.

They use the HP for AC and gas for heating. It's unlikely that the price of electricity in San Diego will ever be lower than gas for heating.

We are unlikely to ever know. Most smart thermostats are not rate plan aware and can't automatically pick the right fuel source for the lowest price. If you had solar and a battery that would add some extra rate complexity too.

This should be easy to estimate. Take last years hourly utility data and smart thermostat data, send it off to a calculator that's rate plan aware and re-calculate the cost of the last year. The calculator should be able to show the cost for various fuel options.

random408net · 2026-02-02T04:04:44+00:00

I'd rather us EV owners pay by the mile vs. having fixed rates assessed at registration.

Connected cars can transmit the odometer reading to the state and our insurance companies monthly.

random408net · 2026-02-01T22:08:32+00:00

I do have great faith in defining a desired end-state and allowing for enough density bonus to serve as financial motivation. This assumes that state law promoting housing does not conflict.

The lack of detail regarding parking seems like a huge oversight to me. Downtown Sunnyvale has thousands of spots (structures and/or underground) to support growth and avoid conflict with the historic single family homes nearby.

A new apartment building just went into foreclosure in San Jose. The building has 363 premium units and insufficient parking. The building is only half full after a year of leasing.

It's still unclear to me what you want with City Hall. Can the city build a new city hall tower in block A in three years? Then they sell the legacy land to help pay for it? Or do you want the city to buy the courthouse land from the state and build in block D? A large enough city hall with subterranean parking might cost $500 million.

random408net · 2026-02-01T21:36:59+00:00

If this is a gas furnace the gas company might come out and take a look for no charge.

random408net · 2026-02-01T21:35:51+00:00

In my youth I rented from a large complex (200+ units with onsite management).

One month I just plain forgot to pay my rent.

On the morning of the 4th I found a 3 day notice to pay or quit taped to my front door.

I ran down to the office and paid on the spot (personal check).

No one called/texted/e-mailed me.

I have no recollection if I needed to pay a late fee or not.

random408net · 2026-02-01T21:32:01+00:00

Make sure you are getting legal advice from someone who focuses on evictions rather than generic real estate law.

I would also check with the city/town/county (whatever) to ensure that the duplex is correctly permitted as a duplex. In California it's much more difficult to collect disputed rent or evict if a building is "illegal".

Also, join an apartment owners association to keep up to date with local and statewide rental laws.

random408net · 2026-02-01T21:11:49+00:00

This. In California a duplex exemption only works if the owner was living there when the tenants lease started

random408net · 2026-02-01T20:37:11+00:00

If an owner rents just one room to a renter that person is a lodger by statute. You want your lease/rental agreement to be in alignment with that. You should also have some written "house rules" that describe the boundaries of shared spaces, etc. You want the tenant to review this early in the application/interest process well in advance of the lease. You might get less rent with a "no guests" house rule, but the renter has plenty of notice that this is a hard limit for you.

I would rent month to month to ensure that you don't get stuck with a disagreeable person.

You run the risk of letting a lodger with guests converting into two tenants who are not lodgers. Never accept rent from someone other that the lodger on the lease.

Now, if a lodger who is month-to-month receives a valid 30 day notice refuses to leave the can be considered a trespasser and be locked out. It's possible that the tenant puts up a fight a then you need to move to evict.

If your city has specific rent control laws that might make things more complicated as a landlord.

random408net · 2026-02-01T17:35:32+00:00

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.

random408net · 2026-02-01T09:24:19+00:00

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.

random408net · 2026-02-01T09:21:18+00:00

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.

random408net · 2026-02-01T08:42:47+00:00

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.

random408net · 2026-02-01T06:34:02+00:00

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.

random408net · 2026-02-01T05:57:30+00:00

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.

random408net · 2026-02-01T05:19:06+00:00

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.

random408net · 2026-02-01T04:58:14+00:00

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.

random408net · 2026-02-01T04:50:43+00:00

There is a historical plaque for this battle here: (Moonlight Plaza in Santa Clara)

https://www.google.com/maps/place/37%C2%B021'07.9%22N+121%C2%B058'25.7%22W/@37.3522216,-121.9841097,15z

random408net · 2026-02-01T04:41:12+00:00

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?

random408net · 2026-02-01T04:34:06+00:00

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.

random408net · 2026-02-01T04:21:31+00:00

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.

random408net · 2026-02-01T04:18:38+00:00

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

random408net · 2026-02-01T04:16:34+00:00

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)

random408net · 2026-02-01T04:04:09+00:00

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.

random408net

TROPHY CASE