How could it happen that the Careful Movers truck had it rear door damaged, dangerously close to the telephone number. It must have been vandalism, and I caught the truck on its way to the repair shop to fix the door. Taken on Richmond north of University.
Urban Trees is a rotating public art display along the North Embarcadero Waterfront. The exhibit is in the pedestrian area west of North Harbor Drive between West Broadway and Grape Street. This is a rotating art exhibit.
Amsterdam is bringing fiber to 450,000 residences, including boats, in the City to bring high speed Internet of speeds in excess of 20 Mbps. The only English language coverage is the BBC. This is a little embarrassing because the City of San Diego put in 17,000 miles of fiber in SDU5, but downtown condo owners cannot get access. In 2007 the VoiceOfSanDiego.com put together a very nice story on San Diego's BandwidthBay.org which covers the history of San Diego's subsidizing the installation of fiber in SDU5.
Steve Francis is the two-time San Diego Mayoral Candidate (2005 and 2008) who ran through over $5M running to unsuccessfully run for Mayor of San Diego. $5M is a big number to spend to boost your ego. Curious about where Steve got all that money, and how much he has now? Me too. With a little EDGAR we can learn about Steve and his money.
So, where did Steve get so much money, that he could spend $5M to run for office. Steve started AMN Healthcare in 1985 and built up his company from nothing to 629M annual revenue in 2004. During that time, Steve sold part of the company and owned 11% of the stock with over 3.2M shares of AMN.
Revenue in 2002 was $775M, and Steve needed to grow the revenue, so acquisition targets were evaluated, which included the MHA Group. To buy MHA, AMN made a bid of stock and cash.
AMN Healthcare had a closing price on April 14, 2005 of $15.90, which gave Steve and the Francis Family trusts a stock value of $52,204,008.90. That's a nice number to see on penultimate tax day, especially when you don't have to pay tax on it (for those who didn't take Principals of Accounting, you don't pay tax on gains until recognized).
In my blog on August 6, 2008, I provided a map of 4 star hotels that participate in Downtown San Diego in Priceline's Name Your Own Price. This is a follow-up of the 3 star hotels that are available in Priceline's "Name Your Own Price," along with a map, and a link to their Tripadvisor.com page, and ranking. If you are wondering where I got the information about the hotels that participate, please see my June 23 article on "Priceline's Name Your Own Price; or How to Find a Discounted Hotel on Your Next SD Visit." If you use Priceline's "Name Your Own Price," you will get one of the seven hotels below. You will not get a hotel that is not on the list below.
If you are looking at the 3* hotels for Downtown and Harbor Island, this is a place where you can save yourself over $125 (<$100 per night for a room typically costing >$225) per night by following the prior link and find your hotel by going to the map of 3* hotels. One of the differences in the 3* and 4* hotel maps is that for the 3* hotels, there are two hotels that are on Harbor Island, which would mean you will need a car if you are coming to SDU5.
Recently I went to a meeting at the The Courtyard by Marriott at 530 Broadway (Broadway at 6th Street). The Courtyard by Marriott is the site of the former San Diego Trust & Savings Bank. In the basement you will find a small museum, with a vault, historic pictures of the bank, and a meeting table set up within the vault.
Alternatively, if you need to have a meeting, there are several nice meeting rooms with several historic pictures of San Diego as well as bank memorabilia.
If you are going to Horton Plaza or the Gaslamp, and have 15 minutes, it is worth the trip. The Courtyard is across Broadway from the Sam Goody in Horton Plaza.
On a recent trip, I found a link in a beer trade magazine to GoodBeerMaps.com. GoodBeerMaps.com has a .pdf for all of Southern California brew pubs. Since the Southern California map stretches from San Diego to Paso Robles, so I wanted to make a special walking map for the SDU5, although there are a paltry two places in SDU5. I have added a third.
Ok, this is not specific to downtown San Diego but Revolution Money Exchange is a great way to give that college student a credit card, without letting the card get them in trouble. Revolution Money Exchange is similar to PayPal in that you can transfer money to someone using a Revolution Money Exchange account, or directly from a Bank Account. The difference is in two areas. First there are no fees to transfer money from either a bank to the Revolution Money Exchange (same as PayPal) and you can have a Credit Card associated with your Revolution Money Exchange account. This way you can give that college student $200 for travel money on the Revolution Money Exchange card. If the card is lost or stolen, you just transfer all of the money out of the account, and cancel the bank connections. If your college or high school student is on a trip, and needs more money for an emergency, you can transfer money to the card for the special need.
If you are an eBay seller, you can receive money as a merchant without any fees. I have switched from PayPal to Revolution Money Exchange for eBay auctions. I have a few reasons for the switch. First, after eBay acquired PayPal, if you want to offer PayPal, you have to accept all forms of PayPal payment. This means that if the user sends money by credit card, your account has to accept credit cards. For PayPal, only merchant accounts can accept credit cards. Once your PayPal account is a merchant account, you are charged $0.30 per transaction + 2.35% of each transaction. I don't object paying these fees for PayPal users with a credit card, however, PayPal merchants have to pay this on every transaction. Historically, I found that 1 in 8 payments was using a credit card. This translates to PayPal getting $0.30 per transaction + 2.35% of each transaction, plus the use of my money. After I realized all of the fees I was paying to PayPal, plus the advantages of Revolution Money Exchange, it seemed like an easy switch.
If you like Revolution Money Exchange, you may also want to investigate Obopay.
You've seen the kitschy Priceline "Negotiator" commercials, and here you can learn the details about how to take advantage of those low prices that your neighbors and business travelers friends are getting. In my earlier post, I discussed how to use the Priceline to find a discounted hotel. Discount means a 4* hotel in downtown San Diego for less than $120 per night on a hotel room that would typically cost $265 or more.
SD is city of neighborhoods and each one has a name, although it can be hard to find that name. For SDU5 the list is easy to find. In those quarterly mailers from CCDC telling us how lucky SD is. If you have not been following the Voice of San Diego, they you may want to read some of the recent stories about the Executive Director of both the Center City Development Corporation (CCDC) and the South Eastern Development Corporation (SEDC) both resigning in the same week in July 2008.
In March of 2007, I signed up and paid $99 to get on the Smart Car list. In January 2008, my Smart Car Passion Cabriolet was delivered. Whenever I take the car out, it always draws lookers and questions. On a road trip with the Smart, I decided to become the inquisitor. I have four questions for anyone who wants to talk to me about the Smart: 1. Have you seen a Smart Car before? 2. What do you drive? 3. When looking at the Smart, what are the first three things that come to mind? 4. Would you buy one.
In my first outing, there were three different groups shadowing the car. I spoke to two of the groups, and learned 1. Yes/Yes; 2. 66 Volvo 122S/Chevy Tahoe 3. Clowns; Man, that car is small; Is it Safe; Great Car for Parking; This car should get 60 MPG (I said that I was getting mileage in the high 60s). 4. Maybe, if it got better gas mileage/Only as a car for around the city and not on the highway.
A fourth group came up, and said: 1. Yes; 2. (I'm an idiot. I didn't ask). 3. Its so cute; Dealer is too far; It looks great for parking. 4. Am interested, but the dealer is a long distance from where I live
While I was talking to group 4, a car Saab convertible drove by, and stopped in the street to yell to friends in groups 1 and 2 that they had bought a Smart, then the horns started bleeping to get the traffic moving.
With gasoline at close to $5, and your decisoin to leave the exurbs and move to downtown SD, you have a few choices to help you find that SDU5 condo. My favorites are:
San Diego Condo Information At this site I like the easy look-up of information, and the low-pressure sell. There is lots of information about the condominium buildings for sale, information about the condominium buildings, and very little pressure to force you to the realtor. This is definitely a realtor's site, however it is more about information, and less about forcing you to contact the realtor to find out about the unit for sale.
Overall - High Rating. Good Information. Easily Researched. Low Realtor Limitation
San Diego Condos This site is one of the most popular results in a web search on downtown San Diego Condos. This site is high on graphics, and low easy to use content.
In the first web site listed above, all of the units are listed in a row. This web site lists each unit individually, with pictures and additional content. If you are looking for information on a particular condo, this is probably a better site. If you want to see, and compare all of the units for sale in a building, then SDCondo.com is probably better.
The last site is Live At The Top This site has its information in a realtor style, which, for this reader, makes it difficult to use. When accessing information on a condo, it brings me to a screen, and I have to scroll within that screen, which takes up about 40% of my laptop's computer screen. Overall, it seems like a site with good information that is poorly presented.
As always, if you are looking for what someone paid, there are several resources, including Zillow
If you have a problem, and don't know who to call, the CCDC, has prepared a 2008 Downtown Living Guide to make your transition to SDU5 (San Diego Under 5) easier.
One of the best items that I like about CCDC's downtown living guide is the list of telephone numbers to call when you have a complaint.
From a search on Google for "Coronado NASNI" (Naval Air Station North Island), it takes three jumps to get you to the current web site for NASNI. The Google search for Coronado NASNI brings you to the site www.nasni.navy.mil. Clicking www.nasni.navy.mil brings you to a web page which says "www.nasni.navy.mil URL has changed to www.nbc.navy.mil
You will automatically be redirected to www.nbc.navy.mil in 5 seconds. If your browser doesn't automatically load, click HERE."
"This site has moved. You will be automatically redirected to its new location in 10 seconds. If you aren't forwarded to the new page, click here. - https://www.cnic.navy.mil/coronado"
Unit owners of Bosa's most recent San Diego luxury downtown condominium, the Electra, at 700 West E Street, San Diego have been complaining about the size of the square footage of their units, and at least one prospective unit owner tried to bring it to the judge. The owner's complaints are that the square footage of the marketing materials does not match the measurements. Hey, you should have asked if the if the footage was measured using the US or Bavarian square foot.
San Diego has lots of water, and you want to get way out into the water, but your condo was mortgaged against your boat, and now you've lost them both. A Free Thing To Do (FTTD) is to ride the morning commuter ferry. A morning Hornblower ferry will take you from the Broadway to Coronado's North Island, and the to Coronado's Ferry Landing Marketplace.
When looking for 4 star hotels, for low cost prices, the Name Your Own Price section of Priceline.com, is a great resource for low prices on high quality hotels.
First, pick the city for your next getaway. Since this is the SDU5 blog, we'll use the city that counts. Next, go to Priceline.com, and enter the city and dates. When the results appear, you will see "Name Your Own Price" in the top left. Click on "Name Your Own Price."
The Priceline "Name Your Own Price" map for SD runs from Pendleton to Mexico, so you will need to zoom-in. Since you have decided to avoid the exurbs, click on Map 3 " ."
Next, let's find out which hotels you may get if you select 4* hotels in Downtown San Diego & Harbor Island. There are two resources: BetterBidding.com and BiddingForTravel.com
Both BetterBidding.com and BiddingForTravel.com are to collect recent bids from purchasers using the "Name Your Own Price" at Priceline. com. Both sites also have a "Hotel List" which lists all of the hotels that have appeared in a Priceline.com "Name Your Own Price' winning bid.
For BetterBidding.com in SD, you will see: Hilton Gaslamp Quarter Hotel Solamar Manchester Hyatt Marriott Gaslamp Quarter Marriott San Diego Hotel and Marina Omni San Diego Hotel Sheraton San Diego Hotel And Marina W Hotel Westin Horton Plaza
You can confirm this by going to BiddingForTravel.com, which shows: Hilton Gaslamp Quarter Hotel Solamar Manchester Grand Hyatt Marriott Gaslamp Quarter San Diego Marriott Hotel and Marina Omni Hotel San Diego Sheraton San Diego Hotel and Marina W Hotel San Diego Westin Horton Plaza San Diego
Since both BetterBidding.com and BiddingForTravel.com have the same hotels, you can be sure that if you are looking for a 4* hotel, you will only get one of the nine hotels listed above. Next, let's look at the hotel which have appeared recently, and how much they have paid.
Next, let's find out the real price of a SD hotel room. As of June 23, 2008, if you look at BetterBidding.com, you will seek 4* San Diego (Downtown-Harbor Island) Omni San Diego $110 ... 5/22/08-5/26/08 4* San Diego (Downtown-Harbor Island) Omni San Diego $108 ... 8/29/08-9/1/08 4* San Diego (Downtown-Harbor Island) Omni San Diego $108 ... 8/30/08-9/2/08
At BiddingForTravel.com you will see 4* Manchester Grand Hyatt 7/12 $110 4* Manchester Grand Hyatt, $99 5/24/08-5/26/08 4* Omni Downtown June 6-11 $112 4* Marriott Gas Lamp Quarter 06/15 $95 4* Omni Hotel Downtown July 17-21 $110
How could it happen that the Careful Movers truck had it rear door damaged, dangerously close to the telephone number. It must have been vandalism, and I caught the truck on its way to the repair shop to fix the door. Taken on Richmond north of University.
