Baltimore's Parking Problem

Last night I was riding my bicycle around the city, happily lowering my carbon footprint, when a thought struck me: "Would it kill this city to put in some bike racks?"

I was in Fells Point, which is an ideal place to bike to instead of driving (it's not too far away, there is never any parking for cars, you can walk around from place to place easily) and there was nothing to which I would secure my bicycle. Finally, I decided to go with the street lamp. If you've ever chained up a bike, you know that it can be difficult to wrap a chain around something with a 10" diameter and still get both your wheels and frame in the loop.

When I rode up to Mount Vernon (to Brewer's Art) the same thing happened...nothing to park my bike against. It's not that I'm saying there's nothing convenient and nearby, but that there's nothing at all! If it was inconvenient, then I'd still chain up against railings and street lamps, but at least it'd be my choice!

Anyway, given the traffic and (car) parking situation in much of this city, why wouldn't they encourage people to ride bikes? Could it have anything to do with all the city-owned pay-by-the-hour parking garages? I'm not sure, but I think that if they're serious about promoting Baltimore for everyone (not just the people that can afford cars and pay-by-the-hour parking), serious about helping the environment, and serious contributing to the quality of life in their neighborhoods then increased bicycle ridership is only going to help. Not everyone is going to hunt around for somewhere to lock up their bike safely if they do manage to survive Baltimore traffic. I mean, I know that I'm dreaming if I ever hope to see bike lanes on major streets here, but a few well-placed bike racks could really improve the city's image compared to other local metropolitan centers.

How Much Do You Like Free Money?

Most of the time this blog is all fun and games, but today we're going to discuss something serious: free money*. Many of you out there are going to say "I like free money," but you could be lying to yourself. Take a look at what I describe here and see what you think.

One of my favorite things in the world is interest. Why is interest so great? Because it's income that I didn't do anything to receive. All I did was NOT spend money in the past. I live within my monthly income, so every time I don't spend money it goes to some type of savings or investment. Therefore, I actually get paid for a non-action. In fact, the more I do this non-action, the more income I have. Sure, the income I make each year on interest is small, but over my lifetime I aim to change that.

So, here's how I maximize my interest each month (I get paid monthly, so that makes this a little easier):

1) Direct deposit to my ING's Direct's "Electric Orange" checking account.
2) I don't have any big bills due early in the month, so I'll transfer probably 80-90% of my paycheck to ING Direct's "Orange" savings account.
3) Time for bills - once I know what I owe and when it's due, I schedule payments (close to the due date) to be sent from my checking account.
4) Time to cover the bills - Money transfers instantaneously between ING Direct's savings and checking accounts, so I set it up to transfer the money back from savings to checking a day or two before the payment gets sent out.

"Wow," you might say, "that seems like a lot of hassle on the internet."

Yeah, it's a lot of hassle...if you HATE FREE MONEY! Look, you're already doing internet banking and online bill pay**, I'm just adding an extra step that pays a little more interest on your money. Not only that, but because I only transfer back the money I need to cover bills, it's a sneaky way to accidentally save money (as long as you spend less than you make - otherwise you have bigger problems).

How much money am I making? Well, assume that I mail my rent check on the 24th of every month. Assume that for 20 days of that month I have the month in the ING Direct Savings account (4.50%) and 4 days in the ING Electric Orange account (4.00%). For every $100 of rent, I will end up with $3.49 of interest at the end of the year. What if I only used ING Electric Orange (4.00%)? I'd end up with $3.16 (for every $100 of rent I pay) at the end of the year. That's not a lot of money, but if you look at it over time for a realistic rent for a young professional in Baltimore, you get the following graph:
One can reasonably argue that the extra $5 that you end up using my scheme for two years is not worth the hassle, but the $45 you get for using ING Direct's Electric Orange checking account is absolutely worth it. It's like there's an extra $45 sitting on the table, all you have to do is reach forward and pick it up. It's yours! All you have to do is open an interest bearing checking account.

So if you like free money (but not quite as much as me) then I recommend you do this:

1) Direct deposit to my ING's Direct's "Electric Orange" checking account.
2) Time for bills - once I know what I owe and when it's due, I schedule payments (close to the due date) to be sent from my checking account.

Finally, I am aware that I do not love free money as much as some others who have already ditched ING Direct for HSBC or some other online savings account with an even higher interest rate***. My answer to that is that I already have some ING Direct CD's, so I need to keep some sort of ING Direct presence and the 0.50% increase in interest is not enough to make me open yet another banking account. Besides, I'll admit it, I love the ING Direct website, it's just plain friendly.

So where does one get this ING Direct? If you don't already have it, let me know so that I can invite you to join. If you wait for my invitation, you'll get $25 free with an initial deposit of >$250 (and I'll get $10 if you do)!

* Ok, for those literalist economist types in the audience, I realize that this is not "free money." In order to get this money, you have to go through all the steps that I lay out above. However, many of these steps are simple, one-time tasks (opening an ING Direct account) or things you do anyway (like paying bills), so I would say that this is as close to "free money" as you are likely to find available in mass quantities.
** If you're not already doing internet banking and online bill pay, you must really, really hate free money. Checks cost money, stamps are about to go up to $0.41 each, and you end up paying way ahead of time usually. Of course, who cares if you pay ahead of time? It's not like regular banks pay interest on checking accounts. You're lucky if you're not getting hit with fees for not maintaining a "minimum balance."
*** I do have an E*Trade savings account with a 5.05% APY that I use instead of keeping cash in my E*Trade brokerage account.

Camelback

This week I was on a business trip in the Phoenix area. Not a whole lot to comment on, aside from the fact that it's shockingly hard to find a hotel room in the Phoenix area in mid-March. I was running into the problem of spring-training baseball, really spectacular weather (sunny and in the high 70's), and a couple conferences in town.

We finished up all our business by about 3:30 PM, so we hiked up Camelback Mountain near Scottsdale. Thanks to technology that keeps my cell phone out of my workplace, I can bring you these pictures from Arizona.

This is a view from the parking lot, you can't see the summit from here; beautiful scenery though.

"Hiking" is kind of a misnomer for this trail, it's actually more of a rock scramble in a lot of places. 1200 vertical feet in 1.2 miles. We're about a half-mile into the hike at this point. The next picture was taken from the peak visible in this picture.

Here's a view of Scottsdale, Arizona from the summit of Camelback Mountain.

By the way, the most impressive thing about this hike is the people who were jogging up the trail. Next time I'm out there, I'm taking some running shoes and trying it myself, probably will kick my ass, but it'll be fun to try. On the other hand, the next time I'm out there, it may well be >100 degrees, so maybe running in the desert isn't the best choice.

Certified to Observe

Last weekend I became certified as a UPA-sanctioned observer. In order to become certified I had to go through a full day of training, pass a couple tests on the rules, and get evaluated while I observed a college ultimate game. Surprisingly tough requirements actually. But now I have to say I'm now very confident in my knowledge of the new 11th edition rules.

People will ask, why do you want to become an observer? The answer is, because some day I'd like to play in an observed game. I really believe in the spirit of the game, but sometimes on the highly competitive level, poor calls can make the difference in a game. I once watched a team lose a regional championship by one point on an absolutely horrendous call that, had there been observers in the game, would have surely been overturned. So when you can't count on a player's honesty in a really important game, it's nice to have an impartial observer.

Other people will ask, what the hell is an observer? For anyone that doesn't know, ultimate frisbee is a self-refereed sport. Players call their own fouls and violations. When there is a question as to whether a receiver is in or out of bounds, it's their call (unless they defer to someone else who has a better perspective).

Eventually, as games became more and more competitive, the UPA (Ultimate Players Association, the governing body for Ultimate in the US) introduced the observer system. Observers do not make calls or stop play. Observers make active calls on in and out of bounds and generally just watch the game. If a player makes a call, the normal rules apply. They try to work it out on the field. If the call on the field does not satisfy the players involved in the infraction, they can appeal to the observer to make a ruling. Only then will the observer say anything about their opinion on the matter. What if the observer can't be sure of what happened? If neither observer (they usually work in two-person crews) feels comfortable making a decision, then the rules call for a "Do-Over." That's right, the technical term is "Do-Over."

I have to say, I really like the system. Many ultimate players do not like the idea of observers, we're a self-refereed sport and we're proud of it. That's what makes us different, we keep things civil on the field not because some arbitrary authority figure says so, but because we really believe in good sportsmanship. However, after observing some games, I have to say, there are some real advantages to having observers in a game. First of all, we keep time limits, forcing teams to keep the game moving between points. Secondly, the teams we observed were very civil. I think I actually ruled on two contentious calls in the four games I observed (and I saw the semi-final and final of a large college tournament). In the second instance, the thrower called a foul and the marker contested the foul call. The thrower turned to me for a ruling and by the time I could say anything, the marker's team had intervened from the sidelines and talked him out of contesting the call.

All in all, a great compromise. Observers give you the opportunity to show that you are a spirited player, but for the occasional asshole who will try to take advantage of the rules, observers can help keep them in line. Don't get me started on people who take advantage of rules in unobserved games, you can't publish what I think of them. Who cheats in a self-refereed sport? It really speaks to your character when you intentionally foul to gain an advantage. That doesn't make you a good defender, it makes you worthless cheater.

The final observation on becoming an observer? It certainly helps to have some experience in the sport. My roommate and I both became certified last weekend and we agreed that people certainly afforded us some respect since we clearly know what's going on in the game (that, and we have a sense of humor). On the other hand, I also support people with less experience getting the observer training. If nothing else, you will really learn the rules of the sport you play.

PS - I think I'm a big fan of the 11th edition. I love the addition of the "disc space" call, now all these hot shot defenders who run up and hump your leg are going to have to learn how to really mark. I'm not sure that I'm a huge fan of the new "super-continuation," but we'll see how that plays out.

Let's Hear it for the Letter "Y"

The Wall Street Journal ran a recap of a an article in BusinessWeek about women facing a much higher rate of inflation than men. It's an interesting idea, instead of lumping price data for all consumer goods, break it out by the gender of the likely consumer. On the other hand, a study like this is really no better than its assumptions (how are "auto parts and repairs" strictly male consumer goods?), so we probably ought not read too much into this report.

Here in My Arms

As an enormous hypocrite, I generally disapprove of user-generated content. The quality is usually very low and whenever I visit I site like YouTube, I feel like I'm adrift in a sea of pointlessness. I will, however, make an exception for personal recommendations. In very rare cases, I will even pass along such a recommendation.