With gas over $4.00 a gallon, it has never been a better time for people to consider walking more and living a healthier life. While it’s nice to live in a city or a neighborhood with a lot of parks where you can take a morning or an afternoon walk; what if you live in a neighborhood that is not walker-friendly? If that’s the case, check out Walk Score and find which neighborhood in your city that is walker-friendly.

Walk Score ranks city across the nation to find which city is the most “walkable”. And as a San Franciscan, I am proud that my city is ranked number 1; followed by New York, Boston, and Chicago. Walk Score ranked almost 2,508 neighborhoods and it gives a score of 0 - 100 depending on its “Walkability” index. It takes into account shopping district (known as center), the density, housing demographic, parks and public space, pedestrian-centric design, school system, and the streets.

San Francisco’s Walk Score is 86. I am curious what my neighborhood Walk Score is. I entered my address and it is 100 out of 100 aka Walker’s Paradise. That’s a 14 points differential. In a political race, that would have been considered a land-slide victory.

Just look at the map below. Presidio is a few blocks north and Golden Gate Park is a few blocks south. And within half a mile radius, you will find endless number of restaurants, cafes, bars, groceries stores, shops, parks, movie theaters, yoga centers, libraries, book stores, schools, etc.

The Song Almost Paradise is ringing in my head.

Almost Paradise, we’re knocking on heaven’s door. Almost Paradise, how could we ask for more?

There is one thing stays true in San Francisco irrespective of time, weather, or the season. The parking situation in the city is a nightmare. There are more cars than there are parking spots (unless if you live in the outskirt like Outer Richmond or Outer Sunset.) I have it happened numerous times when I had to cancel a plan simply because I couldn’t find anywhere to park my car.

Some of the most notorious neighborhood are Russian Hill, North Beach, Cow Hollow, Marina, Mission, Haight Ashbury; pretty much neighborhoods with a vibrant night-life with high concentration of restaurants, bars, and clubs. Not having to worry about parking spot, in my opinion, is a lifestyle enhancer. How nice it is to be able to go anywhere without having to worry about arriving half an hour early just to allow enough time to drive around to find a spot.

Well, now you can. GottaPark, a new online venture, allows you to reserve a parking spot owned by individuals or businesses in the city. You can login to your account, enter the address of your desired destination, enter the time desired, and find availability in the area and reserve it.

And if you own a driveway or a parking spot, you can also make that spot available for rent. You set the available time and the price desired. You provide your contact information and a description of the spot. It will then be made available by GottaPark for other individuals to rent. How much you want to charge is entirely up to you. You will be able to view the individuals and their contact information who rent the spot from you. Payment will be made to you the week after the rental takes place and it will be paid to your paypal account.

Gotta Park Reservation

Although I am hopeful, I can see two potential abuses with the system.

1. Will there be any verification system in process? How does one know the parking spot is really owned by the poster? Any yo-yo can sign up for an account and put their neighbor driveway up for rent as a practical joke.

2. Says a parking spot was reserved for two hours by Person A, and Person B reserved it for the next two hours. What will happen when Person A did not show up in time at the end of hour 2? Is towing warranted? Or a penalty is enough? GottaPark did address this issue on its FAQ but it still causes a great deal of inconvenience to Person B.

This system will only work under the assumption that everyone is playing by the rule. I am hopeful yet cautious. When you sign up, please put me Joey Rosario as your referral. I am not sure what kind of credit I will get but a credit is a credit and I’ll be happy to take them. It won’t be long before New York and other big cities will follow suit.

And the service starts TODAY (at least that’s what the website says).

Last week I caught a glimpse of America’s Got Talent preview for this week show.  I didn’t know who the performer was.  The preview showed a black male sobbing on stage.  Piers Morgan, one of the judge, called him the Heart of America; even Jerry Springer shed a tear.

I don’t normally watch tv so I missed his performance on tv.  I am going to rely on my internet search skill to find out who he is and watch his audition video on youtube.

After a bit of search I found out that he is Kyle Rifkin from Harlem.  He is 36 years old and he is an R&B singer.  He performed The Tempations’ Ain’t To Proud To Beg.  He was incredible and Piers Morgan is right.  He is the Heart of America.

After last year free wi-fi project failure between Earthlink and the city of San Francisco, a local startup company called Meraki took over the project at the beginning of the year.  It has provided free wi-fi to ten of thousands of people in San Francisco.  You can help out Meraki extends its network coverage by signing up as a volunteer on its website.  Meraki will provide you with a repeater (a device that receives and transmits signal) you can install indoor or outdoor (ideally on the roof) that will serve as a wireless access point for the free wi-fi in your neighborhood.

From the map coverage on their website, coverage is mostly concentrated in the Haight-Ashbury, Bernal Height, and Mission district.  I have signed up as a volunteer but I have not received the device as of today.  The only thing I have received is an email acknowledgment informing me that I will be receiving an email shortly on how I can contribute to the project in my community.  That is the last I heard from them.

Well, I hope this will NOT be another Earthlink fiasco.  It shows promise so far.  For the very least, this project has got off the ground.  If you are a San Francisco resident, you can do your part to help this project by signing up as a volunteer on their website.

Have you ever wondered how much the US Dollars has declined against major currency since the current president was inaugurated on January 21, 2001? The number is mind-boggling.

US Dollar - Euro from Jan 22, 2001 (1.0656) - Jun 27, 2008 (0.6339)
Dropped 40.51%

US Dollar - British Pound from Jan 22, 2001 (0.6827) - Jun 27, 2008 (0.5018)
Dropped 26.50%

US Dollar - Chinese Yuan from Jan 22, 2001 (8.2781) - Jun 23, 2008 (6.8634)
Dropped 17.09%

US Dollar - Canadian Dollar from Jan 22, 2001 (1.5026) - Jun 27, 2008 (1.0108)
Dropped 32.73%

US Dollar - Australian Dollar from Jan 22, 2001 (1.7969) - Jun 27, 2008 (1.0411)
Dropped 42.06%

US Dollar - Singaporean Dollar from Jan 22, 2001 (1.7367) - Jun 27, 2008 (1.3631)
Dropped 21.51%

I am not suggesting President alone is the only one responsible for the declining US Dollar. Federal Reserve should take plenty of heat for its fiscal policy. Why in the world does the Federal Reserve even exist? To bail out the so-called “struggling” Financial company like Bear Sterns?

If financial institution like Bear Sterns went under because of the sub-prime lending and Citibank had to write off tons of bad loans, you would think the financial industry was the main victim. But if you think about it. Aren’t the borrowed-money will make it back to the financial institution anyway? Borrower borrows money from the bank to pay the seller. Seller uses the money to pay the outstanding mortgage. And who owns the mortgage? The financial institution.

The Federal Reserve has no business bailing out companies from going under; the same way I don’t think the government should be in business of bailing out homeowners for buying a property they cannot afford. Where is accountability? You have the Federal Reserve ponies up $30 billions to help out JP Morgan buying out Bear Sterns. Keep printing money Bernanke and let’s see how low US Dollar can go.

So who is actually profiting from this fiasco? The way I see it, it’s the financial institution. They get the money from the Federal Reserve they do not deserve to buy out companies who went under and as a result, they become even more powerful than they once were. So when the financial industry tells you there is a crisis, take it with a grain of salt.

Don Harrold says it best on this video below. Subscribe to his Youtube Channel and listen to what he has to say. You will see his perspective on how the Wall Street keeps giving you one bad advise after another and making money at the expense of YOU and your hard earned money.