California Free Press

Off the Top of My Head

San Diego: America's Finest Pothole City

by John Lawrence, December 27, 2019

As an Uber and Lyft driver, I try and remember where the potholes are. Otherwise, I am wrecking the heck out of my car. I scan the road in front of me and swerve to avoid them. The route from downtown to the airport along Harbor Drive and back is particularly hazardous, and, since I drive it a lot, I know where they all are at. The other day I hit an egregiously bad one at Sassafras and Kettner. Since it's a route I'm navigated through a lot, I made a special point to go back there and see exactly where the it was located because I never want to hit that pothole again. One of my riders said he hit one and knocked his car out of alignment in one fell swoop.

So why doesn't the city do anything about them especially on roads that all Uber and Lyft drivers and taxis navigate over on a daily basis? It's all about infrastructure, and this city as well as the US as a whole could care less about infrastructure. As far as the city is concerned, they probably care more about adding to the private economy of automobile dealerships in repair bills than to public expenditures of funds. My poor car is in the position of some poor person in India who can't afford his insulin rather than someone who has good medical insurance. Come to think of it, many Americans can't afford their insulin either. That's why the life span is decreasing and people are dying younger as time goes on.

The US ranks 13th in quality of infrastructure according to the World Economic Forum behind such countries as Singapore, Hong Kong, the Netherlands, U.K. France,  Germany, Japan, Korea and Spain. America's infrastructure is desperately in need of investment, according to the American Society of Civil Engineers. They estimate that the US needs to spend some $4.5 trillion by 2025 to fix the country's roads, bridges, dams, and other infrastructure. They gave the nation's overall infrastructure a grade of D+ in their 2017 "infrastructure report card".

Its the American way: let every public institution go to hell while privatizing as much as possible. Schools, drinking water, sewage systems are all underfunded largely to give private corporations the biggest tax breaks possible. Having given those who have largely funded public infrastructure in the past huge tax breaks means that there is little money left over to repair aging infrastructure much less build more modern and up to date, state of the art infrastructure. Far from building infrastructure, the Trump administration is hell bent on deregulating every protection of the environment in order to make corporations more profitable. With regulations in place corporations would have to clean up after themselves and this would decrease corporate profits. We can't have that. Better to let corporations dump their waste products in America's rivers and streams. This is the way you maximize profits.

Instead of eliminating coal and oil as energy sources in order to reduce global warming, Trump and his associates positively salivate over all the money to be made from fossil fuels. Other nations, namely Russia, are doing the same thing because they have enormous natural resources of coal, natural gas and oil. However, those resources need to go untapped if the earth is to be spared runaway global warning and become like its sister planet, Venus, which has a surface temperature of 900 degrees.

We have to keep 80 percent of the fossil-fuel reserves that we know about underground. If we don’t—if we dig up the coal and oil and gas and burn them—we will overwhelm the planet’s physical systems, heating the Earth far past the red lines drawn by scientists and governments. It’s not “we should do this,” or “we’d be wise to do this.” Instead it’s simpler: “We have to do this.” However, the American government is spending billions of dollars a year subsidizing the fossil fuel industries. We're going in the wrong direction.

So are we as residents of planet earth willing to forego digging up or extracting what is estimated to amount to $20 trillion worth of fossil fuels still underground? Or will we maximize short term profits and say to hell with future generations?

Off the Top of My Head

My Amazing Day

by John Lawrence, September 19, 2019

It started off with an email I received from Mike Wofford, who is a great jazz pianist, having to do with the plight of Betty Bennett, a jazz singer who was married to Mundell Lowe, a great jazz guitarist for 42 years. Mundell died a couple of years ago at the age of 95. Betty is 98 and she's run out of money, a plight that will become increasingly common as people are living into their 90s and 100s. Their money runs out before their life does. Betty's daughter had set up a Go Fund Me website for her to raise money so they could hire another caregiver to spell her daughter and so that she could stay in her own home the equity of which had been drained out. Another problem for older people especially when they get no break on property taxes which are considerable in California.

Betty was a WW II veteran, but so far she hasn't been able to obtain VA benefits. This is from her Wikipedia page:

Her first major signing was with the Claude Thornhill band in 1946, the band in which her husband, bassist Iggy Shevak, was playing. Shortly after her husband left to join Alvino Rey, Bennett followed him there. In 1949, she joined Charlie Ventura's band before going on to join Benny Goodman in 1959.

Her second album featured arrangements by Shorty Rogers and her second husband, André Previn. Bennett later married guitarist Mundell Lowe.

Betty had two daughters with Andre Previn who died last February 2019. Previn was involved in the music industry having worked on the music for over 50 films in his career. He won four Academy Awards for his film work and ten Grammy Awards for his recordings (and one more for his Lifetime Achievement). He was also the music director of the Houston Symphony Orchestra, the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra, the Los Angeles Philharmonic, and the Oslo Philharmonic, as well as the principal conductor of the London Symphony Orchestra and the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra. He was also a jazz pianist.

A little about Mundell's career: In 1965 he moved to Los Angeles and worked for NBC as a staff guitarist, composer, and arranger. He wrote music for the TV shows Hawaii Five-O, Starsky & Hutch, and The Wild Wild West, and the movies Billy Jack and Everything You Always Wanted to Know About Sex, But Were Afraid to Ask. He recorded with Carmen McRae and Sarah Vaughan. During the 1980s, he worked with André Previn, Tete Montoliu, and the Great Guitars. He was a teacher at the Guitar Institute of Technology and the Grove School of Music. For several years, he was music director of the Monterey Jazz Festival.

So this extended family was as close as you can get to American musical royalty.

I donated to Betty's Go Fund Me campaign, and then I went on the road as an Uber and Lyft driver. Later that day, during my 4 hour break and after my nap, I spoke on the phone with my friend, Grace Rich, who is in a retirement home facility in Flagstaff after having had a several month serious bout with anxiety and depression. She used to give water and Vienna sausage to the homeless in Tucson. Thank God, she is doing much better and we plan to talk more after several months of being incommunicado. Then I Facetimed with my oldest granddaughter, Jasmine. It was so good to see her beautiful face and hear that she's going to community college and working. She looks great!

Then I went back on the road driving for Uber and Lyft. I had a long ride from El Cajon near where I live to Miramar Road up near Mira Mesa, then another from there back to San Diego. When I saw the woman's destination, it rang a bell. Wasn't that the street that Mundell and Betty lived on? See I knew their house very well because I had cleaned the windows there a whole bunch of times in my former career as a window washer. Sure enough we went right by their house before I dropped the woman off a few houses down the street. What a coincidence I thought! My daughter Justine said, "That was no coincidence, Dad." That was Mundell's way of thanking you. By the way I had presented Mundell in concert with the San Diego State Jazz Orchestra under the direction of Bill Yeager when I was President of the San Diego Jazz Society back in the 80s. The last time I had seen Mundell and Betty at their house, they were both in their 90s but in good health. Betty gave me one of her CDs, and then she went out walking.

After I dropped the woman off I dropped in on my good Swedish friends, Britt and Olof, who lived only a few doors away. I just turned off the Uber and Lyft which I can do any time at my discretion and convenience at least for now. That may be changing, however, since Governor Newsom just signed a bill making Uber and Lyft drivers employees rather than independent contractors. This means I could lose flexibility with my driving habits and lifestyle. Right now it's perfect the way it is insofar as it works for me. Britt invited me to stay for dinner, and we talked politics. She likes Kamala. I like Elizabeth Warren. Of course we all think Trump is an ignoramuis who wants to reduce California's stricter tailpipe emission standards so cars can pollute more. What a backwards shitass! We talked about how this Friday school children were going to walk out of class protesting climate change and about how the Swedish teen ager, Greta Thunberg, is leading the movement in which children, who will inherit the earth, are realizing that, if we don't step it up regarding climate change, they will be inheriting a hellhole.

Then I came home after an amazing day. I'm sure the close knit San Diego jazz community and perhaps the jazz community all over America will come to Betty Bennett's aid. Already after 3 days the Go Fund Me site had collected over $5000.

Off the Top of My Head

Why I Like Driving for Lyft and Uber

by John Lawrence, July 19, 2019

I'm still a functioning member of the economy at 78. I'm replenishing instead of depleting my savings account. That's basically it in a nutshell. As long as my eyes hold out, my back holds out and my brain holds out, I'll be able to keep doing it. But one accident, one bad situation with a rider, one sickness and my driving days will be over. At that point I'll be in the situation where I have to live off my fixed income and my fixed savings which will gradually diminish as years go by. I just hope they don't run out before my time on earth does.

Retirement is being redefined at least by me. I don't play golf. I have no desire to go on cruises. I traveled when I was in my fifties going to Europe five times for extended stays. I have no desire to travel any more. I pretty much like sticking to the same routine every day. I just hope I can get up tomorrow and do what I did today. Uber and Lyft driving don't interfere with my retirement lifestyle. Typically, I write for a couple hours in the morning when I first get up. Then I drive for 3 hours. Around noon I take a 4 hour break. I swim laps in the outside pool at the YMCA in Rancho San Diego where it is usually sunny and warm even if it's colder and cloudy in downtown San Diego. The air is fresh since it blows off of Mount Miguel. The drawback is that it is freezing when you get out of the pool, but I remind myself that this is the price you pay for fresh air.

Then I have my lunch and take a siesta. I live a Mediterranean lifestyle. Around 4 o'clock I go back on the road for 3 hours or so. I do this 5 days a week. My weekend is Monday and Tuesday during which I don't drive. I like to go to jazz concerts or have lunch with friends occasionally. I like to go to a movie or out to dinner with my sweetheart, Francesca, who took me to a nice restaurant last night for my birthday. It was right on the water with a beautiful view of downtown San Diego with the setting sun reflected therefrom. As the sun set the city lights came on.

All and all I'm grateful for my life. I say a little prayer every morning before I start driving to keep me and my vehicle safe and a prayer of gratitude when I come home. I don't know if anybody is listening but it feels good anyway. I go over a check list in my mind of things and situations I need to be concerned with and have to look out for when I start each day. Any time you're out on the freeways and streets there is always some risk. I try to minimize that by driving cautiously and defensively. I've learned some strategy about where to position myself to make the most money. The money has been very consistent depending on the time I put in. Certainly being a Lyft and Uber driver is a serendipitous thing that I never expected to come my way and work out so well. The best thing is that I'm never late for work.

Off the Top of My Head

Uber and Lyft Work For Me

by John Lawrence, June 25, 2018

As a recent retiree, I found that I wasn't quite meeting monthly expenses without taking money out of my reserves. This was not a good situation as eventually my reserves would be totally depleted. So the wolf was getting closer and closer to the door. When the reserves get down to zero, the wolf is at the door, and, finally, he gets inside, and the next thing you know, you're on the street. Not a good situation.

Luckily, I got the idea of replenishing my reserves by driving for Lyft and Uber. I'm glad I checked them out. Before long I was significantly adding to my reserves on a weekly basis, and the work was fitting completely into my lifestyle as a retiree. I still got my swim and my nap in. Anything else that came up that I wanted to do, I did that too. As someone said once, "You're never late for work." That's because you have complete and total control over your time. You do it when you want to do it, and, when you don't, you don't. There are not too many jobs that require essentially no training (I got 15 minutes with Lyft), no credentialing, no course taking, nothing but a good driving record and a decent car. It sort of puts the kibosh on 5 years of college and a ton of student loan debt.

I've heard a lot of blather about how Uber and Lyft drivers get no "employee benefits" because they are self-employed. It's BS. I was self-employed for 40 years of my life as a window cleaner. Not only do you get no employee benefits as a self-employed person, but you have the privilege of paying both the employer's and the employee's social security contribution which amounts to approximately 15% of your income. Still it's worth it to be your own boss in my opinion, and have the freedom to decide when and where you want to work.

Employee benefits don't amount to too much in my opinion. They used to have "defined benefit" pensions. That meant that you paid a little money to your employer out of your paycheck, and your employer invested that money so that, when you retired, you got a monthly check. However, all that money you paid in belonged to your employer, not you, so that when you died, your employer kept the rest of the money. It did not go to your heirs. Sweet for your employer, a screw job for you and your family.

Now they have the "defined contribution" retirement plan or 401(k). You can contribute part of your paycheck to the stock market. There is no guarantee that you'll ever realize enough from it to pay your monthly expenses when you retire. If the stock market crashes, you may lose all your money. It's basically a plan that enriches Wall Street. You still do not have control over your investments so, for instance, you can't invest in real estate.

As a self-employed person, you have to think about investing on your own terms so that the wealth you create can be passed down to your heirs and not go to enrich some corporation or Wall Street. For me, that meant real estate. So the idea is that you have to be in the business of creating wealth not just living on a monthly stipend as wages when you're working and a pension when you retire. Creating wealth means that you will be able to cash that in when you can no longer work. Hopefully, you will have enough at some point so that you don't have to work. You will have a nestegg or reserves.

That's where Uber and Lyft came in. I found that my nestegg wasn't big enough to sustain me even when my rental and social security income was taken into account. My social security income was about equivalent to what I can make in one week with Lyft and Uber, and that's even after the privilege of paying both the employee's and employer's share into it. I pity the other seniors who have to live off of that. Fortunately, I did invest in California real estate early on so I have some rental income. It's just not quite enough, that's all. I should have take this wealth creation bit more seriously, but that's not how I (or most people my age) were raised. I was raised to be an employee and have my employer take care of me. (Actually they were mostly taking care of themselves.)

So driving for Lyft and Uber, getting my swim and my nap in each day, and getting the wolf farther and farther from my door is a happy situation for me. I have a 5 year plan. When my new Toyota Camry Hybrid is 5 years old, it will probably be shot with the miles I'm putting on, and I will probably be shot too. At that time, I will probably be able to live off my reserves as a supplement to my other monthly income, and I will have the knowledge that I can pass it all on to my heir when the time comes for me to depart the planet.