Mission Palo Alto

Stimulus adds tax credit for home solar panels -- San Francisco Chronicle

Homeowners interested in sticking solar panels on their roofs got a big boost from the $787 billion economic stimulus package signed Tuesday by President Obama.

Homeowners will now be able to get a federal tax credit worth 30 percent of the cost of their new solar system even if they're also receiving state or local financing.

That could make a big difference in California, which offers rebates to homeowners who install solar systems. And Berkeley has a new solar financing program that lets homeowners pay the cost of their solar systems over 20 years, a program that San Francisco and other cities plan to emulate.

A typical home solar system generates about 3 kilowatts of power. The installation cost in California averages roughly $8.10 per watt, according to Adam Browning, executive director of the Vote Solar advocacy group, meaning the typical cost is $24,300.

Labels: news, solar panels, tax credit

Leaf Blowers’ Legacy / Leaf Blowers Cause Dust, Pollution, and Hearing Loss -- Santa Barbara Independent, October 23, 2008

The leaf blower is 27 years old, having hit the market in the early 1970s; the controversy over its use is just a few years younger. As early as 1975, Carmel and other cities were discussing banning them or regulating their use. While their design and efficiency may have improved slightly, to many people, they still seem like an idea in need of serious refinement or abandonment altogether.

Leaf blowers in general (and we’ll get to specifics about gas-powered versus electric ones shortly) do one thing — move lots of air (at 185 miles per hour or more) and anything else that can go along with it. Their designers imagined that those things would be leaves, grass, and other clippings and finer debris. What they may not have considered is how much else they could be expected to transport as well. These include dust, pollen, animal fecal matter, herbicide and pesticide residues, and other toxic chemicals related to any other pollution source such as paved roadways with lead and carbon residues. The effect of this dust cloud, composed of particulate matter that is 10 microns in diameter or smaller, can last for hours. The California Environmental Protection Agency’s Air Resources Board (ARB) has estimated that a single leaf blower can put five pounds of particulate matter per hour into the air. About half of that is in this size class. The ARB states that such particulate matter can create health risks similar to other pollutants such as exhaust.

Their other, very unpleasant, attribute is their noise. Most leaf blowers emit a minimum of 63 decibels at a distance of 50 feet and significantly more (some near 90 decibels) for the operator. Hearing damage is cumulative, and gardeners who do not use ear protection designed for this high level of sound will impact their hearing significantly. Then there are the people in homes and businesses nearby who are affected by this noise. Irritating enough to healthy adults (loss of concentration and plain old aggravation), kids, elderly, and the ill particularly are impacted by this trauma.

All leaf blowers pollute by blowing particulate matter into the air and adding to noise levels, but gas-powered ones add another level of pollution. Most of them still are running on two-cycle combustion engines that burn a mixture of gasoline and oil (a few new models have four-cycle engines that run on gasoline only), producing carbon monoxide, nitrous oxides, hydrocarbons, and other particulate matter. It has been calculated that the pollution from one leaf blower in use for one hour is equivalent to that from 17 car engines running during the same time period. The particulate matter from combustion is particularly insidious because of its small size (2.5 or microns or less). These particulates remain suspended in the air for hours, even days, and are assimilated easily in the lungs and are harmful particularly to people with asthma and other breathing problems. In Orange County, the ARB calculated that leaf blowers inject more than two tons of combustion pollutants (those insidious small particles) per day countywide. An additional 20 tons of larger particles (those 10 microns in size) also are made airborne.

What did we do before 1976, anyway? Interestingly, the rise in popularity of leaf blowers was in large part due to the serious drought California had been facing. Prior to that, hosing down landscape surfaces was pretty normal. All that water wasted, only to flow into the gutter and down the storm drain. Although many of us were sweeping and raking, leaf blowers were attractive to many others. In light of our increased awareness of the contribution of carbon emissions to climate change, along with no relief in water demand issues, maybe it’s time to go back to mechanical ways. Some professionals will claim that they will go broke by abandoning leaf blowers. Experience is proving otherwise when concerned and intelligent landscapers turn back the clock. When all the costs, obvious ones like the high initial and ongoing maintenance expenses, as well as the extended costs due to air and water pollution are taken into effect, leaf blowers may not come out on top. For example, the City of Claremont, California, decided not to use leaf blowers in 1990. Officials calculated that the increase in workload using rakes and brooms was only 6 percent more than with the use of blowers in the maintenance of city property.

Within Santa Barbara city limits, gas-powered leaf blowers have been banned since 1997. Leaf blowers may not be used within 250 feet of a “residential zone” and all leaf blowers must be certified to meet a decibel limit of 65 and carry a sticker to that effect. In addition, leaf blowers may only be used between 9 a.m.-5 p.m., Monday through Saturday; never on Sunday, nor on holidays. Everyone admits that enforcement of this ordinance is problematic. If you want to report an infraction, you must call the police department at 897-2410. Chances are that, given all the other important issues our men and women in blue need to respond to, the offending leaf blower will have already moved on to the next job. Educating yourself and the landscape service providers you use or encounter could go a long way to turning the tide.

What gardeners everywhere, whether they do their own landscape maintenance or hire others to do it, need to know and remember is that just blowing the debris around does not get rid of it. Organic matter in the shape of grass and hedge clippings, fallen leaves, and other plant debris can, and should, be collected and returned to the nutrient cycle. Even if you don’t compost your own garden refuse, we have an excellent green waste recycling program to deal with it. And most leaves and certainly grass clippings can be left in place under the plants that produced them without removal at all. Sure, sweep the walk and the large bits off the driveway, but don’t rake (or blow!) leaves out from under trees and shrubs. Leave them to return their organic matter and nutrients back into the soil to nurture your garden.

Labels: news

Solar roofing tiles comes to tract housing -- CNet News.com

Call it building-integrated solar power for cookie-cutter housing.

DRI Energy has developed roofing tiles with solar cells built in them. For commercial customers, it has solar panels that literally glue onto flat roofs. The products, branded under the Lumeta name, will be available in the second quarter.

The green tech company sells to builders of commercial constructions, like retail outlets and office buildings, and developers of tract housing, large developments of new homes.

The problem with installing solar electricity in these types of developments is that builders don't want to work solar panels and the racking systems, said Stephen Torres, chief operating officer at DRI Energy. "They don't do rack installs unless they have to," he said.

In the southwest United States, where DRI Energy operates, many roofs aren't strong enough to support a large installation of solar panels, he added. And residential customers in many cases would prefer not having visible panels.

At the same time, there is growing interest in solar power because it's cleaner and it's a hedge against rising electricity prices. So, DRI Energy has designed roofing tiles that have the solar cells within them.

They start with standard terra-cotta colored s-tiles or flat concrete tiles and add a cavity to hold the wiring and solar cells which convert light to electricity. The added photovoltaic cells make their roofing tiles slightly thicker than tiles but are far less noticeable than adding flat panels, Torres said.

For business customers, it has designed solar panels that stick onto a flat roof with an adhesive. That "peel and stick" approach eliminates the need for brackets, said Torres.

Placing panels flat on the roof does have drawbacks. The panels will not generate as much electricity as others that are tilted to optimize the sun angle. Also, they will get hotter than rack-mounted systems which benefit from an air flow below them. That extra heat will lower their overall efficiency.

The company hopes to make up that loss with lower installation costs because there is less labor involved and they eliminate the cost of the racking, Torres said.

DRI Energy has a partnership with Chinese solar manufacturer Suntech Power to supply the cells and manufacturer the panels and solar tiles.

Labels: news, solar panels

East Palo Alto plan hits bump -- SV/SJ Business Journal

According to public record, including hundreds of documents on file in San Mateo County court, Taran has spent well in excess of $100 million since September 2006 to acquire 70 parcels, mostly contiguous, in a thin ribbon of land fronting U.S. 101 and a stone's throw from what is arguably the most status-laden community in the South Bay. Yet, all of the properties lie in East Palo Alto, among the region's most humble communities, and they range from modest and aging apartments to some that can only be described as blighted.

The properties also flank University Circle, East Palo Alto's redevelopment centerpiece completed in the last five years that includes a four-star hotel, sparkling fountains and three stunning Class A office towers.

Read more...

Labels: news

East Palo Alto hazardous waste plant ordered to close and clean up -- San Francisco Chronicle, 2007-08-31

The state has ordered an East Palo Alto plant that treats and stores hazardous waste to permanently close.

Romic Environmental Technologies Corp., which runs the plant, also must clean up its 10-acre bayfront site and return it to "productive economic use," according to a statement issued Thursday by the California Environmental Protection Agency's Department of Toxic Substances Control.

"(The department) has constantly monitored the facility's operations and ultimately found that it could not be operated safely," said Maureen Gorsen, director of the department.

Read more...

Labels: news

The two major pieces of news are that we have a new Property Management company and a new Board of Directors. Late last year, the serving Board contracted Dominic Ferrari to take over managing Mission Palo Alto from Deborah Sell. You can contact Dominic via email or by phone or postal mail:

Dominic Ferrari
Ferrari Management Company
444 First Street #A
Los Altos, CA 94022
Tel: 650.917.9911
Fax: 650.917.9991

On June 6th, the Mission Palo Alto Homeowners Association held its annual meeting, and elected a new Board of Directors. Remaining on the Board from last year are Clara Starr as President and Soccoro Nevarez as Treasurer, and Andrew Rich was elected as Secretary in place of Keith Trask who declined to be re-nominated.

This Web site has been pretty much on hiatus since last summer. We're going to try to get it back up as a going concern again, and I've made a few minor changes.

1. Posts now have comments enabled. That means you can comment on any post and I'll receive notification.


2. I've fixed and updated the mail form. It turns out the form had been broken for a while (oops); now fixed. Also changed the email addresses for the Board of Directors and Property Management.

Now the question becomes: What do you want to see on your Web site?

Some possibilities:

• contact list for Mission Palo Alto residents


• discussion forum


• shared calendar (plan your events)


• minutes of Board of Directors and annual HOA meetings


• Mission Palo Alto realtor listings

Of course many of these features would be password-protected for resident use only.

Let me know what you think in the comments, or use the mail form.

Labels: annual meeting, Board meeting, news

Prices up, sales down / Median in Bay Area rises 19% over last September: "Bay Area home prices jumped nearly 19 percent on a year-over-year basis in September, but there is some evidence -- including a continuing decline in the number of homes sold -- that the housing market is moderating.

The median price for an existing, single-family home in the nine-county region was $646,000 last month, 18.8 percent above the year-ago level, but down 0.5 percent from $651,000 in August, according to a report issued Tuesday by La Jolla real estate information firm DataQuick."

Labels: news

Bush's tax panel would limit break for homeowners / Dems complain plan would hit California, other blue states hard: "A tax reform proposal agreed upon Tuesday by President Bush's advisory panel would eliminate the federal deduction for state and local taxes and sharply limit the tax break for home mortgage interest.

That's leading some Democrats in California and New York to assail it as an attack on the blue states -- the ones that voted Democratic in the 2004 presidential election -- which tend to have higher taxes and housing costs."

Labels: news

Mortgage Rates Are on the Rise: "Americans may have seen the last of long-term mortgage rates below 6 percent, and borrowing costs for home buyers likely will climb further, slowing frenetic demand that has stoked U.S. housing in recent years.

Realtors have spotted a drop in the appetite for housing in recent months, and a survey of lenders from Freddie Mac on Thursday found that rates for 30-year mortgages — a popular home loan — have crested 6 percent for the first time since March."

Labels: news