Tuesday, May 29, 2018

Solar Art on the Santa Cruz

The street car bridge over the Santa Cruz at Cushing Street has been open for six years (!) and I finally went to see the solar art last week.
The bridge has rusted metal arcs with patterns cut into them. The side walk on both sides of the bridge has scenes from Tucson's history incised into them. A certain moments through out the year, the sun shines through an arc just right to complete an image on the sidewalk.
Last Friday at 10:30 AM, I went with some of my hiking buddies to see the symbol for Mars encircle the Phoenix Mars Lander. It happened to be the tenth anniversary of the Mars landing. The principal investigator of the landing worked at the University of Arizona.

On June 1 at noon, this article in Zocalo says the street car will be the illuminated image, but I'm not sure about that. As I recall, the Tucson Pressed Brick Company on the south side of the bridge will be featured this Friday.

Anyway, it's fun to think of the math and precision engineering and art that all combined to make this happen.

It's also fun to have brunch at Seis in the Mercado San Agustin after experiencing the solar art.

The Loop is One of the Best Things That Ever Happened to Tucson

Some bicyclists move to Tucson specifically because we have a 120 mile system of paved paths with absolutely no cars. I myself walk dozens of miles on The Loop each year. Here's a map of our marvelous Loop. You can get a copy of this and all the other bike paths in Tucson at most bicycle stores.

Monday, May 28, 2018

Student Loan Debt Precludes Mortgage Debt

Because the cost of acquiring a college education has increased so much in the past decade, many millenials have crippling student loan debt. Before they can begin to save a down payment on a house and take on a home mortgage, they need to spend years paying off their student loans. The rate of homeownership among young people has plummeted.

Inability to save the down payment is only part of the problem. Lenders will only allow borrowers to spend about 36% of their gross monthly income on all debts, including student loans, car payment, credit card payments and mortgage. If student loans are eating a large portion of their young peoples' pay checks, they won't have much left to qualify for a mortgage.

The other problem is the lack of jobs. College graduates who are unable to find a job or who lost a job will be unable to make their student loan payments. When they default on their student loans, their credit is trashed, and they are in a hole that will be very difficult to climb out of. Adding to the difficulty is that some employers do a credit check as part of the hiring process. Bad credit means no job offer. 

Some people who had been promised that their student loans would be forgiven if they worked in a public service job found that rug pulled out from under them last year.