Author: Austin Vegas

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Fuck You GOP

The GOP is not interested in doing the job they were hired to do = serving the American people they represent; they’re only goal is political gain for themselves.

REP Patrick McHenry (R) North Carolina quote:

“We will lose on legislation. But we will win the message war every day, and every week, until November 2010. Our goal is to bring down approval numbers for Pelosi and for house Democrats. That will take repetition. This is a marathon, not a sprint.” – Source

F this guy. From here on out some people will assume that nothing the republicans do can be considered constructive, rather destructive. Officials like this that play politics so overtly are why American people despise politicians.

Warren Buffet quote:
“The republicans have an obligation to regard this as an economic war and you need one leader….Job 1 is to win the economic war, job 2 is to win the economic war. Job 3… you can’ expect people to unit behind you if you’re jamming other things down their throat.”

Even many republican’s hate Patrick McHenry; see all his scandals on this site.

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I like living in the most unaffordable city

The National Association of Home Builders released last month their Housing Opportunity Index covering the most and least affordable cities in the country. Here’s a quick rundown of the top 10 metropolitan areas with a population over 500,000.

Ten Least Affordable Cities

1. New York-White Plains-Wayne, NY-NJ
2. San Francisco-San mateo-Redwood City, CA
3. Nassau-Suffolk, NY
4. Los Angeles-Long Beach-Glendale, CA
5. Miami-Miami Beach-Kendall, FL
6. Santa Ana-Anaheim-Irvine, CA
7. El Paso, TX
8. Newark-Union, NJ-PA
9. Honolulu, HI
10. Seattle-Bellevue-Everett, WA

Ten Most Affordable CitiesW

1. Indianapolis-Carmel, IN
2. Warren-Troy-Farmington Hills, MI
3. Youngstown-Warren-Boardman, OH-PA
4. Detroit-Livonia-Dearborn, MI
5. Grand Rapids-Wyoming, MI
6. Syracuse, NY
7. Dayton, OH
8. Akron, OH
9. Cleveland-Elyria-Mentor, OH
10. Scranton-Wilkes-Barre, PA

No one wants to live in these cities, that’s why they are so “affordable”. There’s more to a city than having cheap rent but if the big city isn’t your thing, you may be more interested in checking into the most and least affordable cities under 500,000:

Ten Least Affordable Cities with a Population Under 500,000

1. San Luis Obispo-Paso Robles, CA
2. Ocean City, NJ
3. Santa Cruz-Watsonville, CA
4. Napa, CA
5. Flagstaff, AZ
6. Medford, OR
7. Bend, OR
8. Mount Vernon-Anacortes, WA
9. St. George, UT
10. Laredo, TX

So I’ve lived in SLO and even at the time I can see the rents going up, but this is primarily because the city refuses to build out to accomodate the increasing demand of the University there. 10 years ago, the city was about 55,000 population, of that 36,000 were college students and the rest were bartenders or retired folks.

Ten Most Affordable Cities with a Population Under 500,000

1. Lansing-East Lansing, MI
2. Sandusky, OH
3. Lima, OH
4. Springfield, OH
5. Bay City, MI
6. Battle Creek, MI
7. Canton-Massillon, OH
8. Saginaw-Saginaw Township North, MI
9. Utica-Rome, NY
10. Binghamton, NY

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New JetBlue terminal at JFK

This week I traveled to Orange County, San Diego and Hollywood for both business and a weekend of relief from the sub 40 degree weather. I selected JetBlue to get one last continental flight so I could get enough points for another free flight. I hadn’t flown the young “hip” Blue in quite a few months and this time was taken to Terminal 5 at JFK, the new US hub for JetBlue travel.

T5, the $743 million, 72-acre structure replaces the airline’s previous home in Terminal 6 — the former National Airlines and TWA facility. At the Arrivals terminal drop off, I was treated to a vacant warehouse wall of self promotion and 4 obnoxious round about revolving doors, that just plain don’t work. I with 3 others, struggled with baggage to slowly push around the doors to just enter the terminal – by far the worst engineering design of the terminal. At least those on the departure level had propped open the exit doors to escape comfortably.

The aesthetics are supposed to be white and minimal, with the traditional blue accents around. I didn’t have a whole lot of time to explore the terminal as I ran a bit late helping an old lady get her 6 bags through the revolving door and to check in. Security was fairly quick except for the idiot first time travelers: one that forgets to take his cell phone out of his pocket, one who would not put their bags on the security conveyor until explicitly told to by an also ticked off TSA screener, and the mother of two babies with strollers and too much unchecked bags.

The terminal boasts several food and bar spots (menus listed for all clearly just as you enter the main terminal after security – pic above), with stores that include: Lacoste, Muji, Ron Jon Surf Shop, Duty Free, and Borders. Free wifi has always been one of the biggest pulls for me to fly jetblue (except for the Oakland terminal) but this terminal also includes some laptop workstations with power outlets. Competitors should take note, as if there’s a difference in flight cost by at most 25, I’ll still take the Blue.

I found the terminal to be quite loud despite not having a lot of traffic, and quite inconvenient to get around from entrance to gate. That being said, I look forward to flying out of here again provided the side to the revolving door is open.

The flight back from Long Beach, CA over the rockies: