How the Fracking Boom Could Lead to a Housing Bust
When it comes to the real estate market in Bradford County, Pa., where 62,600 residents live above the Marcellus Shale, nothing is black and white, says Bob Benjamin, a local broker and certified appraiser. There aren’t exactly “fifty shades of grey,” he says, but residential mortgage lending here is an especially murky situation.
When Benjamin fills out an appraisal for a lender, he has to note if there is a fracked well or an impoundment lake on or near the property. “I’m having to explain a lot of things when I give the appraisal to the lender,” he says. “They are asking questions about the well quite often.”
And national lenders are becoming more cautious about underwriting mortgages for properties near fracking, even ones they would have routinely financed in the past, Benjamin says.
That’s a real problem in Bradford County, where 93 percent of the acreage is now under lease to a gas company... Read More. (The Atlantic Cities, Aug. 19, 2013)
When Benjamin fills out an appraisal for a lender, he has to note if there is a fracked well or an impoundment lake on or near the property. “I’m having to explain a lot of things when I give the appraisal to the lender,” he says. “They are asking questions about the well quite often.”
And national lenders are becoming more cautious about underwriting mortgages for properties near fracking, even ones they would have routinely financed in the past, Benjamin says.
That’s a real problem in Bradford County, where 93 percent of the acreage is now under lease to a gas company... Read More. (The Atlantic Cities, Aug. 19, 2013)
Tar-sands Oil Could be Coming Soon to New England
A citizens group in South Portland, Maine, is hoping to beat back an effort by Big Oil to pipe tar-sands crude through their city. The group gathered enough signatures to put an initiative on the November ballot that would stymie oil companies’ plans, and now the activists are going door-to-door to convince their neighbors to vote for it.
South Portland is a relatively quiet place where major news doesn’t happen often, and lobstermen and clammers still make a living on the water.
When Vanessa Capelluti and her husband moved to their dream home on Casco Bay here a year ago, they didn’t know that oil companies had plans for this area too... Read More. (Grist.org, Sept. 16, 2013)
South Portland is a relatively quiet place where major news doesn’t happen often, and lobstermen and clammers still make a living on the water.
When Vanessa Capelluti and her husband moved to their dream home on Casco Bay here a year ago, they didn’t know that oil companies had plans for this area too... Read More. (Grist.org, Sept. 16, 2013)
The Eagles Have Landed
Sarasota Observer, Oct. 25, 2012
Ed Smith Stadium’s resident bald eagles have survived.
In 2010, the eagles’ previous nest built atop the right field ballpark lights was removed by wildlife officials and destroyed to make way for the $31 million stadium renovation.
And Monday, a few weeks after their arrival for the winter breeding season, the pair survived the threat of a fire that destroyed a building close to their new nest, which is nestled atop a tall, metal cell-phone tower one block north of the stadium.
Last winter, the eagles relocated to the cell-tower nest — which is actually an old nest abandoned by the eagles years ago — just north of the stadium. The eagle pair has returned to the same nest for this breeding season... Read More.
In 2010, the eagles’ previous nest built atop the right field ballpark lights was removed by wildlife officials and destroyed to make way for the $31 million stadium renovation.
And Monday, a few weeks after their arrival for the winter breeding season, the pair survived the threat of a fire that destroyed a building close to their new nest, which is nestled atop a tall, metal cell-phone tower one block north of the stadium.
Last winter, the eagles relocated to the cell-tower nest — which is actually an old nest abandoned by the eagles years ago — just north of the stadium. The eagle pair has returned to the same nest for this breeding season... Read More.
In Peril: An Essay on the Everglades Hawk
Sugar Mule Journal, Issue 39
About four miles out, on the edge of the slash pines, I saw a shadow approaching from overhead, and I looked up. The bird was black, soaring like a vulture, but it was flying quite low and then it beat its wings—a movement too swift and erratic for a turkey vulture. I captured four photos of the bird in flight before I realized it had a snail, about the size of a golf ball, in its hooked bill.
It was a male Everglades Snail Kite, one of several threatened bird species that had once thrived in the marshes and swamps of South Florida... Read More. (Sugar Mule Journal, Issue 39)
It was a male Everglades Snail Kite, one of several threatened bird species that had once thrived in the marshes and swamps of South Florida... Read More. (Sugar Mule Journal, Issue 39)
Encounters with a Ghost
Two birds bob down for insects, long, slender bills turning over the rich marsh soil. Night seeps in, and coldness, colder than the nights before. Instinct prepares them for the beginning of a journey, the long flight east to coastal Canada for one final rest in Labrador before three days of nonstop flight. Due South-southeast, then straight south, two thousand miles over the open ocean, nothing but water and sky.
The Eskimo Curlew is a powerful flier, fattening up on blueberries and insects every August before flying to South America. Every year, this arctic shorebird makes a 20,000-mile roundtrip migration from tundra to wintering ground in Argentina and Uruguay—across Canada and then south over the Atlantic Ocean. The Eskimo Curlew, which up until the 1870s was one of the most common shorebirds in North America, has a soft, melodious call: tee tee tee or tee dee tee dee. It is slightly larger than a pigeon, has a slender, down-curved bill, and stands on long, stilted legs... Read More. (EarthSpeak Magazine, Issue No. 3, Spring 2010)
The Eskimo Curlew is a powerful flier, fattening up on blueberries and insects every August before flying to South America. Every year, this arctic shorebird makes a 20,000-mile roundtrip migration from tundra to wintering ground in Argentina and Uruguay—across Canada and then south over the Atlantic Ocean. The Eskimo Curlew, which up until the 1870s was one of the most common shorebirds in North America, has a soft, melodious call: tee tee tee or tee dee tee dee. It is slightly larger than a pigeon, has a slender, down-curved bill, and stands on long, stilted legs... Read More. (EarthSpeak Magazine, Issue No. 3, Spring 2010)
New Lawn Parking Rule Splits Community
Sarasota Herald-Tribune, Sept. 14, 2008
SARASOTA - Dressed for church and standing in front of his small gray house in Gillespie Park, Jessie Johnson declared he was going to break the law.
The 60-year-old carpenter is among a group of residents who think a yard parking ban -- which went into effect this summer -- is another push to move working-class residents out of this neighborhood, where tiny old houses sit next to 3,000-square-footers worth half a million dollars... Read More.
The 60-year-old carpenter is among a group of residents who think a yard parking ban -- which went into effect this summer -- is another push to move working-class residents out of this neighborhood, where tiny old houses sit next to 3,000-square-footers worth half a million dollars... Read More.
In Purple Building's Dust, Memories and Potential
Sarasota Herald-Tribune, March 17, 2008
SARASOTA - Everyone in town knew the Idle Hour Bar and Grille, where writers and painters mingled with construction workers over beers after work in the 1960s and 1970s.
Owner Inez Schartz was known for introducing people who ended up becoming good friends. And every year, Ringling College of Art students would donate one painting as a gift to be displayed on the walls of the bar.
"In a way, it was an American version of something you might see in Paris in the 20s or 30s," said retired Ringling College of Art and Design professor Morris "Moe" Mitchell, a regular at the bar, which closed in 1972... Read More.
Owner Inez Schartz was known for introducing people who ended up becoming good friends. And every year, Ringling College of Art students would donate one painting as a gift to be displayed on the walls of the bar.
"In a way, it was an American version of something you might see in Paris in the 20s or 30s," said retired Ringling College of Art and Design professor Morris "Moe" Mitchell, a regular at the bar, which closed in 1972... Read More.
