Highlights:

• Welcoming luncheon with Sacramento Mayor Heather Fargo (invited) and Presentation on the Blueprint Project by SACOG Executive Director Marty Tuttle.

• Mobile Workshop Friday afternoon of new downtown housing by John Dangberg, CADA, and a presentation by the Millennia Associates of the Railyards and tour of the Sacramento Terminal Central Shops.

• Foundation KeyNote dinner Friday evening. KeyNote speaker - Bob Smiley, professor and emeritus dean, Graduate School of Management, University of California at Davis on the Economics of the California Wine Industry. KeyNote speaker sponsored by LAI Land Economics Foundation.

• Napa Valley tour beginning Saturday afternoon featuring Copia – American Center for Wine, Food and the Arts, a tour and wine tasting at the Regusci Winery, and before dinner we will have a wine and cheese reception followed by dinner at the acclaimed Ristorante Tra Vigne in St. Helena.

Read More about the weekend....

[Click Here] to register for the Sacramento-Napa Weekend Experience Online

or [Click Here] to register by mail

Larry Lund

Last call for the Sacramento-Napa Weekend Experience! It's not too late to register for another outstanding Weekend Experience. Our Sacramento Chapter has developed a great program that covers many different areas of land use and provides insightful behind the scene tours and discussions with the people responsible for the projects you will be seeing. Its also a great time to network with your peers. Take this time to visit the program on our website at 209.224.198.102 where you can also register.

Also, for Sacramento and San Francisco members who wish to attend just some of the events, we have partial registration available. Please give International a call at 630-579-3284 for more information.

Congratulations goes out to our Red Sox fans in Boston where we will be visiting next spring (April 30-May 1) Weekend Experience and for our St. Louis members, as we say in Chicago, wait until next year! Speaking of Chicago, the fall Weekend Experience Biennial Congress and 75th Anniversary of Lambda Alpha International will be October 20-22 in Chicago. Mark your calendars now for both Boston and Chicago.

As I mentioned in last months Online KeyNotes, I was a guest of the Washington Chapter at their investiture banquet. This was held at the United States Botanic Garden Conservatory on the National Mall at the base of Capitol Hill. In addition to initiating fourteen new members into our organization, they also acknowledged Kenneth Sparks with their Distinguished Service Award. Ken served until recently as the Executive Vice President of the Federal City Council and was president of the Washington LAI Chapter in 1984-85. Entertainment for the event was provided by The Ernie Douglas Trio and later in the evening at the piano by Ken Sparks!

The following day I met with the George Washington Chapter board where we had a good discussion on how to improve communications and suggestions for International programs.

During the Sacramento-Napa Weekend Experience, the Board of Governors also meets. The Board includes the Executive Committee and each Chapter President or their representative. It is at these meetings where we discuss the direction of your organization.

One of the ideas that the Washington Chapter provided that we will discuss further in Sacramento Board of Governors meeting is the creation of roundtable discussions before the Weekend Experience begins, for example on a Thursday. The concept is to select a specific topic, say the issue of pricing people out of booming cities or affordable housing issues. Then LAI would invite maybe ten members from different Chapters around the world who have both expertise and are interested in this topic to discuss how their cities are addressing this issue. The day long discussion among peers would be memorialized by a professional writer with the intention of publishing the thoughts in an appropriate magazine or journal as well as distributed to our membership. LAI would provide a travel allowance for those invited participants.

I don't know where this discussion will go, but if you like this idea or have other suggestions for how LAI can better serve the advancement of land economics, please e-mail or call me. I hope to see many of you in Sacramento next week!

Editor's Column

Welcome to California and its wonderful capital: Sacramento. Our Governor epitomizes the entrepreneurial spirit of the golden state and is a joy to behold and listen to.

As you read this, I will be on vacation in Australia. I mention this because the entire continent of Australia has half the population of California. The state of California has more population than Canada and is growing faster. The population clock is ticking steadily, with more than 500,000 persons added to the state's current population of 34,000,000 each year.

We actually have no idea of what the real population is as unregistered guests generally refuse to fill out Census forms. Regardless, the state is a beehive of growth and activity. Our employment numbers are suspect for two reasons: first, we have an abnormal number of persons who are self-employed, filing or opting to not file 1099's and second, we have an equally abnormal number of persons, usually of foreign origin, who operate substantial businesses using labor that does not generally appear on payrolls.

For those reasons, our stated unemployment rate of 5.9% is bogus. It is more likely 4.0-4.5%. We know this because most of other criteria of measuring growth indicate that the economy is rather healthy. The state's retail sales, car sales and home sales align with a far more rapid employment growth than is reported by the Department of Labor.

We have more than 15,000,000 civilian jobholders in the state and they continue to spend with abandon, particularly on housing. This year more than 750,000 new and resale homes and condominiums will change hands in the state, more than 10% of all the home turnovers in the United States.

Californians love to buy homes and move up to bigger mortgages. The odds of finding a Californian living in the same home long enough to pay off a 30-year mortgage are poor. I'm not exactly certain, but there may be no one living in the state today that has remained in the same home for 30 years.

According to the California Department of Realtors, the average resale home increased 21% in the past year. New homes appear to be up 10-12% over last year. In any event, the market remains vibrant. In 2005, our firm is projecting that home prices gain at a far lower rate than in 2004, probably half the rate, but still tolerable.

We also project that there will not be a housing glut or that the bubble will burst or that the sky will fall. We see a stronger economy, healthy home sales, and a continuation of the ebullience that marks the California economy as one of the world' greatest economic machines.

Our economy continues to evolve and recreate itself, using our inventive mechanisms to dominate the intellectual-property industries.

The California chapters of Lambda Alpha and Governor Ahrnold welcome you to land of plenty. Enjoy!

Alan Nevin
International Editor
anevin@marketpointe.com



Chapter Corner

Chicago-Ely Chapter

Chicago-Ely Chapter's Fall Chautauqua is "How do we Value Historic Preservation?"

The Chautauqua will examine the evaluation process for historic landmarks by a municipality and examine the weighing of landmark status upon the value of the building to the owners and the benefits to the public.

The program will include:

Bob Wislow President of U.S. Equities
Bob Brueggeman, Professor, University of Illinois, Chicago
Rick Wendy, Attorney with Piper Rudnick
Brian Goeken Director of the Landmarks Division of Chicago's Department of Planning and Development
Dick Roddewig President of Clarion Associates, Inc.
Joe Antunovich President of Antunovich Associates and Chair of the Landmarks Preservation Council of Illinois.

The program is Wednesday evening November 17, 2004 at 5 PM at Chicago Athletic Association. Cost is $50 for dinner. For more information call 847-676-3744

George Washington Chapter

Kenneth Sparks receives the Distinguished Service Award from our George Washington Chapter. At the October 20 Investiture Banquet at the United States Botanic Garden Conservatory, the Washington Chapter honored Mr. Sparks for his leadership within both the community and Lambda Alpha International.

Ken until recently served as Executive Vice President of the Federal City Council, a prestigious association of 200 top business, professional and civic leaders. The Council is involved in many activities designed to enhance the Nation's Capital. Members of the President's Cabinet and other Federal officials serve on the council in an ex-officio capacity.

Over the years, the Council under Sparks leadership have assisted in bringing to fruition such projects as METRO, Union Station, the Convention Center and the Ronald Reagan Building International Trade Center. During his 28 year tenure at the FCC, Mr. Sparks has held a variety of additional appointments and between 1970 and 1981 he was adjunct professor at the Virginia Commonwealth University and the American University.

Mr. Sparks was inducted to Lambda Alpha International in 1978 and served a two-year term as Chapter President during the years 1984 and 1985.

New Members

Los Angeles Chapter

Todd D. Basmajian, Buss-Shelger Associates
Laura Brand, Kaiser Permanente
S. John Dudzinsky, Jr., Lantana Development Co. Inc.
Deborah Feldman, Attorney
Michael S. Goodman, Building Owners and Managers Association of Greater Los Angeles, BOMA/GLA
Kevin Lamb, Esq., Lamb & Kawakami, LLP
Brian C. League, University of Southern California
Joseph G. Lucas, Buss-Shelger Associates
San San Lee, Office of San San Lee
David W. Martin, CIM Group
Thomas E. Mullahey, AEW Institutional Real Estate Services Group
William A. Spurgin, Spurgin Development Company
Thomas M. Stemnock, Planning Associates, Inc.
Jon Soffa, University of Southern California
Michael Teobaldi, MT Associates, Inc.
Chuck Whitaker, John A. Martin Associates
Chester A. Widom, WWCOT