Solar Eclipse Report & Earth Day options
Dear friends,
As this newsletter reaches you, I will be just about to arrive back home after spending two weeks in New England. This most enjoyable journey was motivated by the solar eclipse, and I am delighted to report that I got to experience 3.5 minutes of totality. That was a new and awe-inspiring experience for me, and I must say, I am now hooked!
My husband and I flew into Boston during a Nor’easter that meant a turbulent arrival, for which we were rewarded the next morning with several inches of snow, a real treat for this California girl! Timing during our trip felt lucky in each location we visited. One of my favorite museums is the Isabella Stewart Gardener, an esoteric Venetian-inspired villa and garden with a remarkable collection of art. While I’d been there several times before I’d never caught the displays of nasturtiums before, and what a treat! The gardening staff grows pots of their special strain of seeds, and lets the plants trail 20-25 feet down from balconies in the central garden courtyard, creating a magical effect. They’re only in bloom for about three weeks each year, and having them coincide with eclipse watching seemed especially fortunate!
We were then off to Vermont with our Boston hosts and former Berkeley residents, Robert and Barbara. We stayed in a ski resort in Jeffersonville that allowed us to simply take chairs out to the parking lot the day of the eclipse, and we had great viewing from there. Other friends had chosen to drive or fly to various part of Texas, and some of them were disappointed by cloudy skies. But while we had a bit of cloudiness before totality, if anything it enhanced the experience, producing a lovely halo effect before the big event. I got to experience that totality is really something special, and TOTALly different from even 99%! We got to see the red light of the prominences, and a beautiful “diamond ring” at the end. A couple at the resort chose to have their wedding occur during totality, with the minister pronouncing them husband and wife just as the diamond ring appeared. Ahhh!
The eclipse was truly something extraordinary. Knowing that so many people made the effort to share in this celestial event together was surprisingly moving. The folks who gathered from numerous states in the parking lot at this Vermont ski resort probably did not have a great deal in common in terms of politics. But for those few too-short minutes we all shared in a sense of wonder, appreciating something so much larger than any of us. We shared information about eclipses, offered each other wine and snacks, and for a brief time all that mattered was our shared experience. And I kept thinking, can’t we learn from this and find a way to focus on what we all have in common, which is so much more than our differences?
We spent several days in Vermont, driving along lovely rural roads with lots of birch trees and some remaining snow, visiting maple sugar farms, and getting to meet various of my singing friends. We also caught four special folk, chamber and choral music concerts, finishing back in Boston. We were surprised to learn that our trip would correspond with the Boston Marathon! It was a treat to experience some of the buzz of this major civic event, where more than 30,000 folks ran.
After starting our visit to Boston in snow, we came back to true spring weather, with gorgeous blue skies and daffodils in bloom everywhere! Each day trees emerged a bit more from their winter slumbers. We had a super time wandering the North End, the handsome streets of Beacon Hill with beautiful window boxes in bloom, and enjoyed seeing the gorgeous murals in the Boston Public Library. And, of course, the Museum of Fine Arts is an amazing place to savor wonderful art.
Now I’ll need to jump back into the real estate market, where Insurance challenges continue, and have escalated further. I have buyer clients interested in a home on a terrific North Berkeley street that is a poster child for all the conditions that insurance companies don’t want to encounter, especially for writing new policies. This home was built more than 100 years ago, has galvanized water pipes along with some copper, the roof is about 15 years old, and while it has upgraded 200A electrical service, there is some knob and tube wiring. That last condition alone would be enough to disqualify this home from most carriers right now. Location conditions are also be used to deny new claims and cancel existing ones. High fire risk zones might be understandable, but now an amorphous condition called “density” is being used to cancel policies. Since my last newsletter I received the news that State Farm will be canceling my policy in a year. Let me know if you’d like recommendations for brokers who may be able to help if you too receive that news. I will lend a sympathetic ear, as well as resources!
Non-contingent offers have been the norm for my entire real estate career, but things have changed. Now, including a contingency for insurance in an offer is essential in my opinion. The previous home that these buyers were interested in received five offers, the top two of which had contingencies for exploring insurance. But the sellers insisted on getting into contract with no contingencies, which is how they obtained their home a few years ago. They felt so strongly about having no contingencies (and hence lower risk of cancellation) that they accepted an offer more than $150K lower than the highest offer which had a contingency. I pray that sellers and their agents are now sufficiently tuned into the challenges regarding insurance to accept that having an insurance contingency is going to be a standard condition moving forward.
Earth Day will be celebrated starting this coming weekend, though the official day is Monday, April 22. The 2024 theme, “Planet vs. Plastics,” aims to raise awareness of the harms of plastic pollution for human and planetary health. Previous events have covered a range of environmental issues, from climate change and clean energy to protecting species and the benefits of tree planting. How will you celebrate this year? Maybe with a special walk or a hike in the hills? Maybe by volunteering to clean up the Bay, or planting California Natives in your garden? Truly every day should be Earth Day and we can all make efforts towards a world where that’s the case. I’d love to hear what you are doing this year.
The Earth Day website has lots of great information and activities to inspire you. EARTHDAY.ORG is committed to ending plastics for the sake of human and planetary health, demanding a 60% reduction in the production of ALL plastics by 2040.
Below you can check out some of the options that our local cities are organizing for April 20th.
On May 4th and 5th, you can continue the celebration of using native plants by attending the in-garden version of the Bringing Back the Natives tour. You can sign up on the website, where you’ll also find lots of great resources about California natives.
However you decide to celebrate our Earth, let’s make it more than a one-day effort!
Arlene
