BEGIN:VCALENDAR VERSION:2.0 PRODID:-//Limba - ECPv6.16.5//NONSGML v1.0//EN CALSCALE:GREGORIAN METHOD:PUBLISH X-ORIGINAL-URL:https://limba.net X-WR-CALDESC:Events for Limba REFRESH-INTERVAL;VALUE=DURATION:PT1H X-Robots-Tag:noindex X-PUBLISHED-TTL:PT1H BEGIN:VTIMEZONE TZID:America/New_York BEGIN:DAYLIGHT TZOFFSETFROM:-0500 TZOFFSETTO:-0400 TZNAME:EDT DTSTART:20080309T070000 END:DAYLIGHT BEGIN:STANDARD TZOFFSETFROM:-0400 TZOFFSETTO:-0500 TZNAME:EST DTSTART:20081102T060000 END:STANDARD BEGIN:DAYLIGHT TZOFFSETFROM:-0500 TZOFFSETTO:-0400 TZNAME:EDT DTSTART:20090308T070000 END:DAYLIGHT BEGIN:STANDARD TZOFFSETFROM:-0400 TZOFFSETTO:-0500 TZNAME:EST DTSTART:20091101T060000 END:STANDARD BEGIN:DAYLIGHT TZOFFSETFROM:-0500 TZOFFSETTO:-0400 TZNAME:EDT DTSTART:20100314T070000 END:DAYLIGHT BEGIN:STANDARD TZOFFSETFROM:-0400 TZOFFSETTO:-0500 TZNAME:EST DTSTART:20101107T060000 END:STANDARD END:VTIMEZONE BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20090102T000000 DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20090102T000000 DTSTAMP:20090102T050000Z CREATED:20090102T050000Z LAST-MODIFIED:20090102T050000Z UID:4325-1230854400-1230854400@limba.net SUMMARY:No Meeting Holiday DESCRIPTION: URL:https://limba.net/calendar/no-meeting-holiday-5/ LOCATION:NY END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20090107T000000 DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20090107T000000 DTSTAMP:20090107T050000Z CREATED:20090107T050000Z LAST-MODIFIED:20090107T050000Z UID:4397-1231286400-1231286400@limba.net SUMMARY:Meeting with Red Line and [owell and Danby Calverton DESCRIPTION:Red line RR from California is sending a rep to Calverton URL:https://limba.net/calendar/meeting-with-red-line-and-owell-and-danby-calverton/ LOCATION:NY END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20090109T000000 DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20090109T000000 DTSTAMP:20090109T050000Z CREATED:20090109T050000Z LAST-MODIFIED:20090109T050000Z UID:4321-1231459200-1231459200@limba.net SUMMARY:Doug Mandich \, President Empire Bank DESCRIPTION:Our speaker this morning was Empire Bank Chairman and CEO\, Douglas Manditch. \n\nI suppose the conventional wisdom among bankers may be that the banks need to be bailed out. Not according to Manditch. Doug said instead of getting bail out money these folks should be going to jail. Paraphrasing Doug\, Jail ‘em\, don’t bail ‘em. \n  \nThe banking system was turned on its head (my words not his) because of false expectations. Mr. Manditch said the mortgage problems were the product of false expectations. If you borrowed for a house using a low interest loan that would later go up\, there would be no problem. By that time you will be making more money\, and there would always be an eager buyer to take the house off your hand at a higher price. Well it didn’t happen that way\, as we all now know. \n  \n As far as AIG and Citibank are concerned\, they should have been relegated to the scrap heap. They are unmanageable in the best of circumstances\, and any attempt to rescue them continues the problem. \n  \nDoug was generally reassuring about the way things will eventually turn out. Not that there will be no pain\, but we will recover after we have paid for the sins of the past. “We’ve been there before\, and while this recovery may be somewhat more painful\, we will  be OK again.”  He did not think that the measures taken so far have been particularly useful. In fact they may make recovery slower. \n  \nThe thinking that Manditch did like was a true energy plan\, and building infrastructure He noting that it will provide jobs\, and it will improve efficiencies for later growth\, but it may not make the recovery any faster. He also said that a floating tax on gasoline that would stabilize the cost at $4 per gallon made sense. The excess revenues should be directed to alternative energy research. \n  \nMr. Manditch spoke about Madoff and said a charity that he had been a board member of was invested. He didn’t understand the investments and motivated the charity to get out. They did\, despite some grumbling from some board members. He pointed out that financial statements are often obscure\, these were totally opaque. I pointed out that those investors should have gotten a clue with a name like “made-off’. \n  \nThese are matters that affect us profoundly and many bankers are running their operations using sound principles\, according to Manditch. That’s the good news. \n\nThis was a meeting rich in content and a lively Q&A.  URL:https://limba.net/calendar/doug-mandich-president-empire-bank/ LOCATION:NY END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20090116T000000 DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20090116T000000 DTSTAMP:20090116T050000Z CREATED:20090116T050000Z LAST-MODIFIED:20090116T050000Z UID:4328-1232064000-1232064000@limba.net SUMMARY:Martin Luther King Holiday weekend -No Meeting DESCRIPTION: URL:https://limba.net/calendar/martin-luther-king-holiday-weekend-no-meeting-2/ LOCATION:NY END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20090123T000000 DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20090123T000000 DTSTAMP:20090123T050000Z CREATED:20090123T050000Z LAST-MODIFIED:20090123T050000Z UID:4333-1232668800-1232668800@limba.net SUMMARY:Roger Corbin\, Nassau County Legislator DESCRIPTION:We had a much bigger agenda this morning. Our speaker\, Nassau County Legislator Roger Corbin\, was delayed by an accident on the Expressway. \nTo fill the time we began an in-depth discussion on MAGLEV. The information is below. \n  \nWhen Mr. Corbin did arrive he was his usual font of information coupled with his usual lack of reticence when discussing Long Island’s tax problems. According to Roger we could better manage tax revenues\, and at the same time create a better outcome for everyone. The problems are several. \nWe segregate communities in terms of wealth producing industries\, and industry poor sections of the both counties. If we all participated in the gross revenues derived from taxes\, no disparities in education caused by low revenues would exist. As it turns out\, the wealthiest communities have the vast majority of the industries; therefore the taxes in Garden City with all of its industry will pay lower taxes than a place like Uniondale where many of the people are quite poor. \n  \nIn addition the multiplicity of school districts creates an overburden of bureaucracy. This layer of management justifies itself on the basis of keeping local control. Yet\, as Corbin points out\, this local control failed to control the many $millions in fraud that was written about in Newsday last year. Nor did it prevent the phony pensions that were created by various professional doing business with the districts. Facing these issues\, as they did in Montgomery County Virginia\, will take desperate times and courageous leadership. Corbin thinks we may have arrived at that juncture where the fraud\, multiple layers of management and spurious claims on the taxpayers dollars can no longer be tolerated. \n  \nMontgomery County Virginia has a demographic that is roughly similar to Long Island. They were where we are now. They junked a system of managing schools that is sadly similar to what we are dealing with. After successfully making that change\, they began to look at other facets of their municipal structures. The Fire department sanitation\, and other services were later consolidated. We can and must address this stupidity. \n  \nMy friend\, and mentor Paul Townsend beat this drum for years to little avail. Maybe now the pain is severe enough. \n\nPictured : Terry Townsend\, Ernie Fazio\, Roger Corbin and Bill Miller \n  \n\nMAGLEV Train Transportation Technology\n  \nThe concept of magnetically levitated vehicles has been known for a long time. In the 1960’s Drs Gordon Danby and James Powell at Brookhaven National Laboratories pursued the invention. Their basic design was developed in Germany and Japan and small lines were built in those countries and in China. The Chinese adopted the German version of the technology. \nIn the United States there were several plans to build out a system and those plans are still out there. Senator Moynihan was a champion of these systems and had he lived they probably would have been built \n  \nIn the meantime the original inventors never stopped perfecting the design. The result is that the system that could be built today is more economically viable than the original designs\, or the designs that were actually built in Germany\, Japan and\, China. \n  \nThe original designs required a small clearance. That small clearance of 3/8 of an inch dictated that the guideway be constructed with very precise tolerances. This design was expensive to execute and it was inherently incompatible with conventional rail. The present design has clearances of 4 ½ inches and this allows the construction pieces of the guideway to be mass-produced\, reducing the production and construction costs. It appears that the cost of the Chinese system was $90 million/mile. The new design would be in the order of $22 million/mile. That is still not cheap\, but it is economically viable. \n  \nThe MAGLEV is powered by linear sequential motors that drive the vehicle forward at the same time powerful magnets levitate it. Because there is no rolling stock friction\, the only impediment to motion is air resistance\, which is negligible at low speeds. At high speeds in excess of 300 miles/hour there is considerable resistance moving through air at sea level. Therefore while the theoretical speed may be much higher\, as a practical matter the energy needed to go faster than 300 MPH would diminish the inherent efficiency of this mode of transportation. \n  \nThree hundred MPH is quite fast\, and while it does not match the 550 MPH achievable by aircraft at 30\,000 feet in rarified air\, it has the advantage of being closer to the final destination of the traveler. In other words a traveler leaving Grand Central Station in New York going to Union Station in Albany\, would have a travel time that was similar to air travel. However\, without the trip to and from the airport on each end of the journey\, and departure delays\, they would reach their destination sooner. \n  \nThe new system is compatible with existing rail. The same example of a New York City to Albany would be economically and logistically impossible without the ability to travel on existing roadbeds. By placing the operating pods on the outside of existing track the vehicle is lifted and propelled down these modified tracks at a more modest speed (approximately 120 miles/hour) when approaching and leaving the cities. When it reaches a point outside the city it would transfer to a dedicated elevated guideway.  When the MAGLEV emerges into open territory\, it can travel at its recommended speed of 300 MPH \n  \nWhat is probably most significant is the economic viability of the new system because it will be able to transport trucks. The cost of moving freight by trucks is substantial. With the new system\, tractor trailers can drive on and drive off the MAGLEV after traveling hundreds or thousands of miles at 300 MPH using less energy than the truck at 60 MPH. The MAGLEV would have to capture only a small percentage of these trips to pay for itself in 5 years.    \n  \n  URL:https://limba.net/calendar/roger-corbin-nassau-county-legislator/ LOCATION:NY END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20090130T000000 DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20090130T000000 DTSTAMP:20090130T050000Z CREATED:20090130T050000Z LAST-MODIFIED:20090130T050000Z UID:4331-1233273600-1233273600@limba.net SUMMARY:Frank Petrone\, Huntington Town Supv. DESCRIPTION:This morning Huntington Town\, Supervisor\, Frank Petrone discussed his administrations efforts to create a better Huntington. He credited the work of the then\, town councilman\, Steve Israel\, and himself for forging an alliance across party lines. Israel was and is a Democrat and he was a Republican. They both saw the benefit of working together in a problem-solving mode. (Years later Petrone changed his affiliation to Democrat)\nThey began a process of pre-planning to anticipate opposition and meet the demands of the affected communities. Under that effort Canon was attracted to Huntington and set up their North American headquarters in the town. This R&D facility creates 2000 jobs. More importantly\, it attracts thousands of other jobs.\nIn order recapture some of the picturesque qualities of the past\, what is referred to a Huntington Village\, installed ornamental lighting\, brick sidewalks\, and other amenities. The positive image has attracted many merchants to the Main Street area and vacancies are hard to come by.\nHuntington Station on the other hand represented a much bigger challenge. There were changes made there in the past that exacerbated this poorer area. Huntington Station area has always been the residence of working class African Americans and immigrants from various places. In blighted areas\, such as Huntington Station crime and drugs root themselves easier than in upscale areas. The program to “take back the blocks” was inaugurated. According to Petrone\, the residences were informed and consulted and the quality citizens of the area have more recently prevailed. The fact is that a program like this could not succeed without the cooperation of the local residents.\nEvery effort in new housing will value the concept of a walkable community. There is a plan for more concentrated multiple dwellings that will allow for a community center and a substantial park area.\nThere is an effort to build out the infrastructure of sewers to accommodate growth\, and that has been a daunting task. However there should be an opportunity accomplish that under a federal infusion of infrastructure money.\nDuring the Q&A\, a question about the LIRR proposed rail yard was asked. The yard will help maximize the use of the East Side Access that is currently being built. When trains from Long Island can go directly to Grand Central Station\, these yards will be needed to store the additional rolling stock. This yard has caused some people to object\, but they will likely be placed where the old landfill was located. This is actually in the Town of Smithtown\, and while electrification to that point will be expensive\, most agree that the added expense is worth it. \nErnie Fazio URL:https://limba.net/calendar/frank-petrone-huntington-town-supv/ LOCATION:NY END:VEVENT END:VCALENDAR