Don Tishman's Real Estate Development and Investing Solutions

Some thirty years ago, Roman Polanski was charged with having sexual relations with an underage girl. Polanski was a celebrity motion picture director.This accusation was fodder for the media for many months. The authorities assured the mother of the girl that their names would not be revealed. Nevertheless, the girl and her family were besieged by reporters and photographers. The mother of the child was furious and told the same authorities that her daughter would not appear in Court.

The District Attorney was under threat of not having their essential star witness testifying. They  met with the defense attorneys to negotiate a solution to the prosecution’s problem.  Finally, both parties agreed to accept a guilty plea from Polanski to a reduced charge. Polanski would then be sent to he State Hospital for the Criminally Insane for a 60 day evaluation.  If he was evaluated as sane,probation would be  recommended. The Los Angeles County Parole Dpt. considered Polanski and recommended probation. The D.A. recommended probation and the trial judge agreed.   Polanski  was then promised he would be given probation when he entered a guilty plea.  Some years ago, HBO did a special on the Polanski and established these facts.  No one from the D.A.’s office disagreed with the facts in the HBO special.

Meanwhile the trial judge who had agreed to the various recommendations, was running for a higher offices. In some of his campaign talks, he was saying that Polanski would get the  stiff sentence he deserved. Hearing this, Polanski fled the country and has never been back since. He has been living in France and Poland. Despite both countries having extradition treaties with the U.S., both France and Poland have refused to extradite Polanski. When Polanski went to Switzerland to receive a honor for his motion pictures, he was arrested pursuant to Switzerland’s extradition treaty with the U.S.

What is the legal position of POLANSKI?  He plead guilty to a lesser charge, the DA, the Hospital, and the L.A. Parole office all recommended probation.. The trial judge  agreed to the recommendations. Then after the judge  may have changed his mind. Polanski fled the jurisdiction.

The DA told Polanski’s attorney the State would agree to the defendant pleading to a lesser charge and that the defendant  would get no jail time. This IS what happens in criminal cases. It is called plea BARGAINING.  It is widely used by police, prosecutors, and defense attorneys. If plea bargaining does not bind anyone, this would eliminate plea bargaining. Today, with plea bargaining,  only about 6% of cases go to trial. If all cases would have to be tried, this would completely bog down our criminal justice system. With present number of judges, prosecutors, and courts, a criminal case might take 10 years to come to trial. The U.S. Constitution guarantees a speedy trial for persons accused  of a crime. Witnesses may die, move  or disappear.  Justice delayed is justice lost. Many say imprison Polanski and throw the key away with the key.

Polanski’s acts were particularly heinous. The DA agreed reduce the charge to much milder act. What is at stake is the way criminal cases are subject to plea bargaining in this country. Regardless of how bad Polanski’s conduct was, we do not want to”throw out the baby with the bath water”. We must preserve our criminal justice system. The State must be bound by their promises. Without a responsible criminal justice system, there is no justice.

Amidst all of the uproar over extending health care, a principal objection to this program is because federal government may be involved in managing health care. These objectors insist on private management of health care.  When you look at 45,000,000 Americans without any medical coverage, it makes me wonder why so many Americans do not want to extend medical care because of their government may manage a portion of this program.   The New Yorker magazine recently had a story of the results of some private management in 2008  most banks thought TO BE the pinnacles of superior management  were near collapsing in the fall of of last year.  Some of the  largest insurance companies had to be bailed out by the federal government.  The record of some of the  largest privately American manufacturers is frightening.  GE was near collapsing. GM and Chrysler went bankrupt. All the wizards of Wall Street had to be bailed out by their federal government.

Contrast this failed private management to recent developments by the U.S. Department of Energy. These recent developments of public management are startling. The Lawrence-Livermore National Laboratory recently announced the development of their program to  use  gigantic lasers to convert nuclear waste into a very inexpensive source of energy- a relatively small amount of nuclear waste can produce enough electricity for the all the electric users in California. The Las Alamos National Laboratory is competitive with the Lawrence-Livermore National Laboratory. Both are publicly funded institutions. Not to be out done by the Lawrence-Livermore, the Las Alamos National Laboratory recently announced a public- private partnership to produce low cost alternative energy for transportation from algae. The release from the Las Alamos National Laboratory states:

“An award-winning Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL) sound-wave technology is helping Solix Biofuels, Inc. optimize production of algae-based fuel in a cost-effective, scalable, and environmentally benign fashion—paving the way to lowering the carbon footprint of biofuel production.

The world population is 6.7 billion. Of these folks, approximately 4.5 billion have some sort of electricity. The population of Germany is 82 million. This represents less than 2% of total world population that have electricity. Nevertheless, Germany is the world leader in alternative energy including wind production, solar voltaics (solar panels), and passive solar buildings. Passive solar buildings require little energy for heating and cooling without using solar panels. The first passive solar house was built in Germany in 1990. In 1996 the Passive House Institute (Passvihaus) was formed to promote solar houses and establish standards for passive buildings in Germany. Since then passive houses in Germany have reduced energy costs by as much as 90% compared to “normal” house of the same size.

Passive solar housing design uses windows, doors, and walls to collect, store and distribute solar energy to heat in the winter and reject solar heat in the summer. The key to designing a passive solar home is take advantage of your local climate.

How is a passive house designed ? Through the use of conduction,convection and radiation.

First, these homes must face south. The east/west dimensions  may be twice as long as the north/south dimensions.  The exterior building materials store heat. Best are masonary materials like concrete, brick, stucco, etc.  The design’s features include window location, window size and glazing, insulation and air sealing.

The angle of the sun is higher in the summer than the winter. The solar heat in summer must be blocked. Shutters,awnings and overhangs are used for this.  The design of the overhang depends on how far the home is from the equator.

The passive building design does not use pumps, fans, or electric controls to move solar heat.

On December 27, 2008, the New York Times in describing a passive solar home in Germany wrote:

“In prior years attempts at creating sealed solar housing failed because of stagnant air and mold. But now passive solar houses use an ingenious central ventilation system. The warm air going out passes side by side with clean,cold air coming in, exchanging heat with a 90% efficiency.”  www.newyorktimes.com/2008/12/27/europe/27/house.html

Here are web sites for more details:The Department of Energy has a site for Passive Solar Design, the Green Building Institute, and the Passive House Institute, U.S

These are a few I found on Google under passive houses and passive house design.

Recently I put solar panels on my roof which are terrific, but passive home design may be the future of home design.

“The engineer and architect have to work with other people’s money. They must consider their clients and, like politicians cannot be too far ahead of their movement.”  Royal Institute of British Architects, 1927

Dr. David Fisher is the creator of the revolutionary Dynamic Tower, the world’s first building in motion. The Dynamic Tower claims to herald a new era of architecture: Fischer says” Buildings in motion challenges traditional architecture, becoming the symbol of a new philosophy that will change the look of our cities and the concept of living.”

This skyscraper that pivots on itself . Construction started in 2008 will be finished in 2010 for two- one 80 story in Dubai and 70 story in Moscow

His Highness Sheikh Mohammed Bin Rashid Al Maktoum ruler of Dubai and Vice President of the United Arab Emirates,  said to David Fischer “Do not wait for the future to come to you…face the future.”

Dr. David Fisher’s revolutionary Dynamic Tower, the first building in motion which is the first skyscraper to be entirely assembled in a factory from prefabricated parts, factory made buildings will offers the advantages of any modern industrial product, it saves energy, reduces construction time and dramatically cuts building costs.

Dr. Fisher states, “Today’s life is dynamic, so the space we are living in should be dynamic as well, adjustable to our needs that change continuously, to our concept of design and to our mood, buildings will follow the rhythms of nature, they will change direction and shape from spring to summer, from sunrise to sunset, and adjust themselves to the weather, buildings will be alive. From now on, buildings will have four dimensions, the fourth dimension is ‘Time’ to become part of architecture,” Dr. Fisher added. “Buildings in motion will shape the sky line of our cities. By combining motion, green energy and efficient construction, the Dynamic Tower will change architecture as we know it, and will start a new era of Dynamic Living.”

The building generates electricity from wind turbines mounted horizontally between each floor, eighty story building will have up to seventy nine wind turbines, making it a true green power plant while traditional vertical wind turbines have some environmental negative impact, including obstruction of views and the need for roads to build and maintain them, the Dynamic Tower’s wind turbines are practically invisible and extremely quiet due to their special shape and the carbon fibre material they are made of.

Another environmentally green element of the Dynamic Tower is the photovoltaic cells that will be placed on the roof of each rotating floor to produce solar energy, approximately 20% of each roof will be exposed to the sun, so a building that has 80 roofs will equal the roofing space of 10 similar size buildings.

The prefabricated units arrive at the building site ready for quick and efficient installation, this approach known as the Fisher Method also requires far less workers on the construction site than traditional traditionally, In fact each floor of the building can be completed in only seven days, units can also be customized according to the owners’ needs and styles.

Each individual unit will be completely finished at the new Rotating Tower factory in Italy and exported worldwide, it will be equipped with all necessary plumbing and electric systems including all finishing from flooring to ceilings, bathrooms, kitchens, cabinets, lighting and furniture.

The Dynamic Tower in Dubai will have 80 floors, and will be 420 meters (1,380 feet) tall, Apartments will range in size from 124 square meters (1,330 square feet), to Villas of 1,200 square meters (12,900 square feet) complete with a parking space inside the apartment. the first 20 floors will be an offices, floors 21 to 35 will be a luxury hotel, floor 36 through 70 will be residential apartments, and the top 10 floors will be luxury villas located in a prime location in Dubai.

There is also a 70 floor Dynamic Tower proposed for Moscow.

A very timely design that will have the entire world watching with great interest.

In considering this “dynamic” concept, the questions are how much Net Operating Income  and sales revenues will this skyscraper produce, and the cost to produce these results.

Time will tell

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YNAMIC TOWER | DUBAI

I am anxious to read Ted Kennedy’s new book.  I meet him twice. The first time was in 1963 shortly after Ted was elected to the Senate. His brother, John, had a meeting with officials of the Young Democrats at the White House which I attended. Ted invited some from that meeting to party he was having that evening. My only impression from that party that he was friendly and was a little awed by being in the U, S. Senate.  Our next meeting was about 17 years later when he was running for the President against Jimmy Carter in the Democratic primaries. His candidacy  was based on ’60′s liberal Democratic ideals, unfortunately the political climate had become much more conservative by 1980. Undaunted by the result of the 1980 Democratic Primaries, Senator Kennedy remained a ’60 type Democratic liberal, but he developed the ability to span political ideologies by his personal friendship with Senators of all political shades. He was a tireless worker who attracted exceptional people to work with him. As a result Senator Kennedy was always prepared with extraordinary knowledge of the legislation in question.  His attention to detail was a sterling quality of his advocating and debating legislation. Many of his years in the Senate, conservatives controlled legislation.  Senator Kennedy continued to push for universal medical care for all Americans throughout his entire 47 year Senate career. With the Democratic victory in the 2008 election, Ted’s chances of making his dream legislation law finally seemed more likely.

In 1963, when John Kennedy was President the Civil Rights Act had little chance of passage. In 1964 President Lydon Johnson used President Kennedy’s death to get to this successfully passed as the 1964 Civil Rights Act.  Senator Kennedy and Caroline Kennedy were supporters of Barack Obama that made a difference in the Democratic primaries.    Only the future will tell whether  President Obama can bring Ted’s dream to fruition after his death.