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Briefly, I Promise
I hit you up last month about payday lenders on the AZ ballot. Let me repeat myself as briefly as possible. Loan sharks: $12 million to try to convince voters that the initiative (Prop. 200) they are pushing is actually some kind of reform. Arizonans for Responsible Lending: Over 50 organizations, 40 elected officials and 30 candidates. About $100,000 raised so far. However, from what we are seeing, the public is not buying their scam. So, when you see all the slick ads this next month talking about "reform," just look at who is asking you to let them write state laws for themselves. Oh, and here is one of our happy little billboards. We think it says it all!
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Some Candidates I Suggest You Support
If you can escape the cacophony of Fox, CNN and MSNBC and the second by second coverage of Sarah Palin's moose hunting trophies, I suggest you take a look at a couple of these local candidates.
These are school board candidates and the like and need support because they won't get much attention from the larger political world.
Matt Jewett is an honest, straightforward bloke who has been involved in education and community issues for a few years in Central Phoenix.
Carolyn Lane was
introduced one day to a constable who was unprofessional, rude and an
embarrassment to her community. So, Carolyn decided to beat her in the primary. Now she's going for the big prize. She could use your help.
Robin Stamp is a stand-up guy who is doing what more of us should do --just hoping to serve on a school board and serve his community. Robin has a fundraiser this Monday. Please drop by:
Madison School District Governing Board Candidate
Monday October 6th 5:30pm to 7:00pm
At the home of Greg Ensell
805 N. 4th Ave.
Phoenix, AZ 85003
Suggested contribution: $25
My apologies to those who are not listed here. Non-listing is not an indicator of lack of support. Just a quick little shout out.
I'll get some more out in the next Clark Report.
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The Banking Crisis, Real Estate and You
 So, what does it all mean? Bank buy-outs. What are we left with after we figure out whether all this was caused by deregulation or too much regulation or Tribbles in the ship's computer? What does this mean for the possible rebounding of the real-estate market? My guess is that the market was going to start to level out next spring. The banking crisis may only delay that by a couple months because Congress has now backed up the credit market. Based on some great analysis here, you can see that some areas in Phoenix have lost about 50% of their value and won't be able to go much lower. There are other areas, such as Central Phoenix that have maintained their value quite nicely. I'm also hearing that the short-sale and foreclosure investor market is starting to pick up. Lief Swanson tells me that he is helping many more people pick up foreclosure homes than he was just a month ago. This also indicates that we are near the bottom. So, now that the bailout package is finalized, lenders will be able to free up more money and these homes will start to move faster. So, to boil it down, if you are thinking of making a move to purchase a house, I would do it in the next four months and I would do it in the downtown area. If you are thinking of selling, do whatever you can to delay that. If you are interested in a trend analysis based on the MLS database, please give me a call or shoot me an email.
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Cool, Hip Downtown Tips
La Piccola Cucina, Redux
I know I did this one before, but you should really check this one out. I just went there again last night after some time away. You can sit outside now and the food --northern Italian-- is incredible.
Breadfruit
108 East Pierce St.
Downtown
I don't know what excites me more: the new restaurant or seeing the renovated little store front right downtown. They did a pretty good job with a building that was previously just a cement box.
But, the food is really good and reasonable. It was medium spicy, but had good depth of flavor. I had the Curried Chicken and Dumpling for $9.50. It was really spicy. The dense gray dumpling was meant to be used to clean up the sauce at the end of the meal. It tasted great, but it was like storing a hockey puck in my stomach for later use.
There are Canadian hockey players that do that, you know! Honest. Its kind of like how some fish protect their young. Strange sport, hockey.
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Got any good downtown tips? Send 'em my way!
And, as always, I respect your right not to be bothered with annoying spam email. If you would like to be removed from my email list, just let me know. Thanks!
Sincerely,
Ken Clark
K. E. Clark Independent Consulting
  
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