Vacant Apartments Across Arizona

The percentage of apartment vacancies is going up.

No one knows for sure how many immigrants are leaving Arizona because of the sanctions law. But apartment complexes with affordable rents in areas with large numbers of immigrants are being hit hardest by the departures.

The departures are coming at a bad time for landlords. The slow economy is making it hard for some apartment dwellers to cover their rent. And others are renting houses instead of apartments as those rents have fallen because of the housing-market collapse.

“It’s a pretty soft (apartment) market to begin with,” said Terry Feinberg, president of the Arizona Multihousing Association.

The state’s apartment-vacancy rate hit 10.1 percent during the third quarter of 2007, up from 7.7 percent during the third quarter the year before, he said.

Data for the fourth quarter won’t be out until next week, but Jodi Bart, co-owner of MEB Management Services, expects Arizona’s apartment-vacancy rate to hit 15 percent for the first time in years. Her company manages 60 apartment complexes in Arizona, totaling about 15,000 units.

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As I’ve said before, be careful what you wish for…

 

New Site: "We Can Stop The Hate"

NCLR has launched a new web portal that will document the spread of hate speech within the immigration debate’s rhetoric: We Can Stop The Hate

 

Adopt-A-Highway Spot Moved for Vigilantes

The California Department of Transportation recently awarded a stretch of I-5 near the U.S./Mexico border to the San Diego Minutemen for their Adopt-A-Highway program. Controversial from the beginning, considering the track record of that particular group of vigilantes, Caltrans has reversed its decision and moved their cleanup location.

The California Department of Transportation said Monday that the group can’t sponsor a two-mile stretch of Interstate 5 near a Border Patrol checkpoint, saying it poses “a significant safety risk.”

“The risk is in the potential for disruption to the operation of the state highway as well as public safety concerns for the traveling public and volunteers in the program,” Caltrans district director Pedro Orso-Delgado said but did not elaborate.

Although the Minutemen will get another stretch on State Route 52 in San Diego—far from the Border Patrol checkpoint—even that might prove temporary. Caltrans said it was reconsidering whether the group was eligible for any piece of highway.

“We have received information during the past couple weeks that warrants a closer look at the San Diego Minutemen relative to the eligibility criteria for this program,” Orso-Delgado said. “The department will pursue this review in an expeditious fashion.”

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Hmmm, I wonder if the vandalism at Ranchos Penasquitos had anything to do with it? Or how about the research done by the Anti-Defamation League and the Southern Poverty Law Center on the San Diego Minutemen’s various ties to white supremacist groups?

Caltrans should’ve done their homework. Let’s see if they end up issuing a mea culpa and revoking the permission altogether. It will be a small win in the fight to send these extremist haters back to the shadows where they belong.

 

New Border Rules In Effect on Thursday

Here are the new regulations that are set to go into effect for U.S. and Canadian citizens wishing to re-enter the U.S. via land ports of entry. (Mexicans can go Cheney themselves).

Effective January 31, 2008, U.S. and Canadian citizens ages 19 and older should no longer expect that they will be able to prove identity and citizenship by relying on an oral declaration alone. Instead, travelers will be asked to present documents from one of the options below when entering the United States at land or sea ports of entry. Travelers who do not present one of the documents listed below may be delayed as U.S. Customs and Border Protection officers attempt to verify their identity and citizenship.

U.S. and Canadian Citizens – Single Document Option

One of the following documents should be presented to prove both identity and citizenship.

Acceptable Documents as of January 31:

• U.S. or Canadian Passport
• U.S. Passport Card (Available spring 2008)*
• Trusted Traveler Cards (NEXUS, SENTRI, or FAST)*
• State or Provincial Issued Enhanced Driver’s License (when available – this secure driver’s license will denote identity and citizenship.)*
• Enhanced Tribal Cards (when available)*
• U.S. Military Identification with Military Travel Orders
• U.S. Merchant Mariner Document
• Native American Tribal Photo Identification Card
• Form I-872 American Indian Card
• Indian and Northern Affairs Canada (INAC) Card

* Frequent Land Border Crossers — to expedite processing into the United States, U.S. Customs and Border Protection recommends using one of the above asterisked documents.

U.S. and Canadian Citizens – Two Document Option

All U.S. and Canadian citizens who do not have one of the documents from the list above must present BOTH an identification and citizenship document from each of the columns below.

Identification Documents*

• Driver’s license or identification card issued by a federal, state, provincial, county, territory, or municipal authority
• U.S. or Canadian military identification card

* All identification documents must have a photo, name and date of birth.

Citizenship Documents

• U.S. or Canadian birth certificate issued by a federal, state, provincial, county, territory or municipal authority
• U.S. Consular report of birth abroad
• U.S. Certificate of Naturalization
• U.S. Certificate of Citizenship
• U.S. Citizen Identification Card
• Canadian Citizenship Card
• Canadian certificate of citizenship without photo

U.S. and Canadian Citizens – Procedures for Children

Effective January 31, 2008, U.S. and Canadian citizen children ages 18 and under will be expected to present a birth certificate issued by a federal, state, provincial, county or municipal authority.

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The ‘out of service’ sign I encountered last fall in Nogales becomes more ironic, everyday.

 

Grijalva Changes Endorsement to Obama

The realignment of super-delegates continues to move in Senator Obama’s direction.

U.S. Sen. Barack Obama will tap U.S. Rep. Raúl Grijalva to help persuade Latino voters to support the Illinois Democrat’s presidential campaign.

Grijalva will campaign around the Southwest for Obama, courting union members and environmentalists heading into Super Tuesday on Feb. 5. His title in the campaign will be announced Tuesday, Grijalva said. Twenty-two states will pick their favorite Democrats then.

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Grijalva had previously endorsed John Edwards for the Democratic nomination. Also on the Obama front, he’ll be in that big city north of the Gila River on Wednesday.

Please join Barack Obama at a ‘Stand for Change’ Rally in Phoenix where he’ll talk about his vision for bringing America together and bringing about the kind of change we can believe in.

‘Stand for Change’ Rally with Barack Obama and special guests Gov. Janet Napolitano and Caroline Kennedy

Arizona Veterans Memorial Coliseum
at the Arizona State Fair Grounds
1826 W. McDowell Rd., Phoenix, AZ 85007

Wednesday, January 30
Doors open: 3:30 p.m.
The event is free and open to the public, but an RSVP is strongly recommended:

http://arizona.barackobama.com/phoenix

For security reasons, do not bring bags. Please limit personal items. No signs or banners are permitted.

Still no love for Baja Arizona? Tsk! tsk!

sombrero tip to cpmaz

 

"But….Eees So Eeesy"

I laughed. Alot.

h/t to Liza

 

Guns in the Classroom

First it was guns in our bars, now it’s guns in our schools. Add another folder to the National Embarrassment file for Arizona.

PHOENIX — Two Mesa lawmakers are drawing up legislation to give teachers — and some students — a chance to carry firearms on campus.

The proposals by Sen. Karen Johnson and Rep. Russell Pearce would allow anyone who has obtained a state permit to carry a concealed firearm to bring it onto public-school campuses, something now a crime under state law. It also would overrule similar policies at community colleges and state universities.

The prohibition would send a message to would-be criminals not to target schools because they might not be the only ones armed, Johnson said. People age 21 or older can apply for concealed-weapons permits in Arizona.

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The Abyss

“Anyone who fights with monsters should make sure that he does not in the process become a monster himself. And when you look for a long time into an abyss, the abyss also looks into you.” – Friedrich Nietzsche

Can’t do it today. I just can’t. The news is often heart wrenching, but the apathy and sometimes outright approval of the atrocities has reached my personal limit of unbearable.

Everyday I remind myself that every single person on this earth has had a unique experience of life. Different locales, different relationships with family, friends and passers-by. Different languages, customs, and preferences for breakfast. Perhaps their fingers trained upon a certain button on the remote control that automatically directs them to the most outright and outlandish of propaganda cradles. Or is it the amount of fiber and saturated fat in the diet? Hmmmm.

In real life, I’m often pensive (which is mirrored here on the web), but it comes with a huge dose of humor and sarcasm as I play pundit to the going ons around me. Wallflower by trade, prankster by nature – I can be both predictable and shocking at the same time. Ah, the joys of a Myers Brigg flunkie (I scored in the middle of all four categories the last time I took it). Not that my spirit is content or able to be defined by a studious sorter of personalities based on a bunch of culturally incompetent questions.

What does one do at the end of the proverbial rope? Let go and let the Flying Spaghetti Monster God? There was a time in my life where that would have absolutely been the answer. It’s not that I’ve lost the faith, it’s that I’ve watched in horror as messages of hope and faith and peace and love become substituted by reality teevee, recycled episodes of Pants Off! Dance Off!, and pulpits of doom and gloom.

Do we see what we wish to see? Do the words we read, the speeches we witness, the smirks we view, the votes we cast, the bickering we thrive upon mean anything? I suppose the answer is yes, but it has been a very long time since any movement has been registered in the direction of sanity – using my personal Richter scale, of course. Yours may be functioning quite admirably, but it seems like my gauge has been broken or replaced by a more appropriate device.

No. The planet has certainly been tilting in a swiftly way that is beyond my comprehension. Madeleine L’Engle may have sussed out a nugget of truth in her reality, but I have yet to feel so lucky.

Whiner! Pessimist! Fool!
Yes.

But it gives rise to the inner-phoenix. It is the defibrillator to my apathetic heart. The muse that needs both salt and sugar to remind itself that it is indeed alive. Perhaps I am cursed to walk this world like a sponge – absorbing the angst and elation that comes with life’s secrets.

There’s a key somewhere, but until I stumble upon it, a post like this will appear every once in a while to keep my ego in check and the floating light bulb illuminated that signals a reminder that there is still breath in my lungs, blood in my veins, and love in my life that can ultimately slay the abyss with light.

Can someone flick that switch?

Mil gracias

 

Pima County Early Ballot Request Deadline

If you live in Pima County and haven’t requested an early ballot for the February 5th Primary Election, tomorrow – January 25th – is the deadline. You can do the request two ways:

Deadline Friday

Eligible voters in the Feb. 5 election — registered Democrats and Republicans — have until Friday at 5 p.m. to request an early ballot. To do so, go to www.recorder.pima.gov or call (520) 740-4330

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Latino Man’s Body and Humanity Exploited

This is vile.

A passerby reported the body of the man, who appears to be of Hispanic descent, in a remote area of northeast Rutherford County near the Wilson County line. He had no identification on his person.

He was well groomed, clean and the condition of his hands led detectives to believe he was employed at an indoor job.

No one has reported a matching subject missing and his fingerprints do not show up in any database. It is possible he is not in this country legally.

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Number One: They show a photograph of the dead gentleman’s face like he’s a specimen, not a human being.

Number Two: They assume that he’s not here legally

Number Three: You can almost hear the shock that he would be “well groomed, clean”

Racist, inhumane idiots. Their contact information can be found here.