Jogging in Truckee
August 1, 2010
One of my all time favorite places to jog is on the Truckee River Legacy Trail. The paved trail extends from the Truckee River Regional Park all the way downriver to the Riverview Park. The total distance of the current trail is about 4 miles but it will eventually extend all the way to the Glenshire/Devonshire subdivision making it completely unnecessary to drive your car into town if you are inclined to ride your bike instead. This past week I hit the trail at 7 am 3 mornings out of the 7. At that time of the day, the temperatures are in the high 40′s but it doesn’t take long to warm up in the wonderful sunshine. The other advantage of jogging at this early hour is the lack of fellow trail people. I love the solitude — so difficult to find these days, even in our little town. It’s just me and my tunes or my podcast. I hope you enjoy these pictures that I took to showcase the trail. Check it out . . .
The California Real Estate Purchase Contract
May 25, 2010
I had an occasion today to receive a copy of a real estate contract from the State of Michigan. Upon reviewing this document I felt compelled to share with my fellow California Realtors the fact that the contract there is only 4 pages long. I am sure that Michigan Realtors think that this is a lot of paperwork but compared to California whose pages total about 40, it is wonderfully brief and simple. Yes, the language is still all legalize and double talk but there is so little that you can pull out your dictionary, do some research and be finished reading it within 15 minutes. I tell my clients in California to take it home, read up, pinch yourself when you fall asleep and pour yourself a cup of coffee (or a large glass of wine depending upon what time of day it is), because you are in it for the long haul.
Why do you suppose that this contract can be so different in the two states and yet they both convey the same idea and accomplish the same job? I ask myself this question and can only come to one conclusion. California Realtors and their clients have experienced way more lawsuits based on the transfer of real estate. The length of the contract, I believe, is an attempt to “cover all of the bases” in the hope that a lawsuit will not occur.
California used to have bragging rights on being the state of the environmentally conscious. Considering all of the trees that the real estate contract and appurtenant disclosure documents have killed, I believe that crown has slipped.
BMPs, who needs EM?
May 24, 2010
The Tahoe Regional Planning Agency says that any property that exists — residential or commercial — within the Tahoe Basin, requires a compliance certificate that their BMPs have been completed.
Jennifer and I attended an informational meeting today at the North Tahoe Conference Center that was put on by the TRPA. Shay Navarro, Associate Environmental Specialist with the Agency did a good job of explaining what the BMPs are. This is an acronym for “Best Management Practices.” The problem is that the clarity of our finest lake — Lake Tahoe – has diminished since 1968 when the visibility was 102 feet. At last measurement 2008, the visibility was 69 feet. Apparently the cause of this regression is a lot of sediment entering the Lake from things like water dripping off of roofs, moving dirt down the road and into the Lake. Another cause might be snow melt off on unformed and unpaved driveways, again picking up sediment including oil from autos and moving it into the lake.
The TRPA has been charged with remedying this situation and one of the ways they plan to do that is to require property owners to have their property assessed and bear the responsibility for mitigating any problems that their property may be causing. The 3 ways they are forcing the property owners hand are requiring the BMP certificate of compliance at 1) the point of application for a building permit; 2) application for a buoy permit; 3) targeted enforcement; or 4) at the point of a real estate transaction as something that must be disclosed to a potential buyer.
Some drastic measure of cooperation must be taken since out of the 45,000 properties within the Tahoe Basin that need to have compliance with this BMP situation, only 12,000 properties have stepped up to the plate (and this has been required since 2003).
For more information on this — there is a lot at the TRPA’s dedicated website where you can even find out if your property has a certificate.
10,000 Steps per Day Challenge
May 2, 2010
Well May is going to shape up as a walking month for me. I have challenged myself to participate in The Tahoe Forest Center for Health and Human Performance (big name for my gym) sponsored program that asks us to walk 10,000 steps a day. It is only 2 days into the program but so far so good. This morning I walked the Legacy Trail and things are beginning to shape up there also after a LONG, LONG winter. Check it out.
April Fool’s Day – 2010
March 31, 2010
April Fool’s Day came early this year as we all woke up this morning (3-31) to snow after a rather large winter storm passed through Truckee and Tahoe last night. We got about 6 inches of fresh powder and the temperatures dipped to the 20′s (f).
The skiers are happy, I am sure. It must be one of the best ski days of the year and those who happened to be up here — mid-week — were treated to a great little present from heaven. The thing about “spring” snow is that it melts off so fast that those who will wait til Saturday will be disappointed. However, the weather service is predicting some more snow before Easter but I wouldn’t count on it. Right now the sky is Tahoe Blue.
