Radio Pick: Master Interview of Nader

This week's radio pick was a show I almost didn't listen to. Ralph Nader has been on a book tour recently for his fictional work "Only the Super-Rich Can Save Us," which has arguably been over-promoted. As often happens with well-known authors on book tours, I've heard too many interviews with him lately. Yet, just like the last time Christopher Lydon interviewed him back in 2007 (when Open Source was still a radio show), Lydon managed to get Nader talking about other things and create an interesting show. You may not agree with Nader's ideas about the difference between personal freedom and civic freedom, or his analysis of President Obama's personality, but pay attention to how Lydon gets him to talk about those things in this 38-minute podcast. This is a master interviewer at work.

Listen to MP3 of Open Source "Ralph Nader's Flight of Fancy"

Heritage: Faces on Places

Author Terry Murray spoke at the Swansea Historical Society meeting on 4-November-2009

TORONTO, ONTARIO - This week's meeting of the Swansea Historical Society featured as speaker the medical journalist and author of Faces on Places, Terry Murray. While I had attended a Heritage Toronto walk that included many of the places downtown that she featured in the book, I definitely wanted to attend the meeting to find out what faces she had found on places closer to where I live.

I was not disappointed. While a history of some of the installations that had interested her in this topic and some of the adventures she had while documenting sculpture in Toronto made for an entertaining presentation, there was local content. Over the course of the evening she mentioned at least three places within walking distance of my residence where there was sculpture that either I had never noticed before, or never looked at closely.


A montage of the "reading, writing and arithmetic" sculptures on the side of Swansea Public School, sculpted by Murray Brown in 1953, was captured on 7-November-2009

I set out on an unseasonably warm autumn day today to take a look at two of the places she had talked about. The first proved to be right along Windermere Avenue. During an expansion of Swansea Public School in 1953, the sculptor Murray Brown was apparently commissioned to do another version of the "reading, writing and arithmetic" sculptures that were common in Scarborough at the time. (Neither Scarborough nor Swansea was then a part of Toronto.)


Four gargoyles were found on the north face of the tower at Morningside-High Park Presbyterian Church in the Swansea neighbourhood of Toronto, Ontario on 7-November-2009

Terry Murray's real passion is for gargoyles, sculptures that not only decorate a structure but serve the function of draining water away from them. She did find gargoyles in Swansea at the Morningside-High Park Presbyterian Church. As the building is a community icon, opened in 1917 and serving as a polling place amongst other civic uses, I knew how ornate the church was, but had never paid attention to the higher portion of the tower, where the gargoyles are located. I combined the four on the north face of the tower into a montage above.

For more on gargoyles and other building sculptures around Toronto, see Terry Murray's blog or find a copy of her book.

Transport: Coming and Going

CANDO Contracting's rebuilt GP9u #4009 was captured by James Resor at Lambton Yard in Toronto, Ontario on 27-July-2008; photo used with permission

TORONTO, ONTARIO - I have yet to experience the Orangeville-Brampton Railway (OBRY). The line between Streetsville Junction in Mississauga, Ontario and Orangeville, Ontario operates past the Forks of the Credit River on a line scenic enough to support the Credit Valley Explorer excursion trains. Owned by the town of Orangeville, the line is operated by CANDO, a contractor based in Brandon, Manitoba, well regarded in the railroad industry.

Despite never having seen the railway, I didn't need to leave my own neighbourhood to see the locomotives it has used in recent years. Last summer, the line received "new" motive power. One evening, my fellow Toronto Railway Historical Association volunteer James Resor happened to catch a unit stenciled "CCGX 4009" at Canadian Pacific's Lambton Yard, which is walking distance from my residence. James had to do research, but "CCGX" is registered to CANDO, and the 4009 was discovered to be headed to the OBRY. While the unit might be new to that line and had been rebuilt in 1990, it had originally been constructed in 1959 for the Canadian National. By the time I found out about it, Canadian Pacific had already delivered the locomotive to Streetsville.

The 4009 was headed to the OBRY because the existing power was showing its age. The CCGX 1000 was actually the same GP9 model as the 4009, but it had never been re-manufactured since being built for the Quebec, North Shore and Labrador in 1956. Visually, it looks quite different since it has retained its original high nose.

On 27 October, it hit railfan discussion boards that 1000 was in Streetsville, and soon it was realized that it was being moved to the Canada Cement/Lafarge plant in Bath, Ontario, on the Bath spur off the Canadian National Kingston Sub. Another CANDO operation, the plant would be a less demanding environment for the aging locomotive. I wondered if I would miss the outbound unit just like I had missed the inbound, as reports had the locomotive moving to Leaside Yard in Toronto, then to Toronto (Agincourt) Yard via Streetsville. Finally, when I walked past the now-closed Lambton Yard office yesterday, I found the 1000 there, waiting to be interchanged to the Canadian National.


CANDO Contracting's GP9 #1000 had left the Orangeville-Brampton Railway enroute to Bath, Ontario, and was noted at Lambton Yard in Toronto, Ontario on 6-November-2009

Sometimes the key to railfanning is not going to the right place, but waiting for the right things to come to you. That, and having a good network of friends to catch what you miss.

Media: **NO** Streeters, Peter

TORONTO, ONTARIO - On Tuesday's edition of CBC Television's The National, the flagship news broadcast of the network, host Peter Mansbridge basically admitted that they had been fooled. In a piece on the swine flu, they decided to air a number of man-on-street (funny how that hasn't been changed in the vernacular to "person-on-the-street") reactions to the lines at clinics. One of the comments that made it to the air in the initial edition of the program was one accusing the federal government of not having been organized. It turns out that the person who made that comment was an operative of the official opposition party. When the piece aired, someone at the CBC recognized him and the footage was pulled from subsequent editions of the program. To their credit, the CBC owned up to situation, and summarized it on their show, inviting viewer feedback.

I've been over this topic before, most notably in this post last April. I see absolutely no news content in a "streeter" (as "man-on-the-street" interviews are called in the trade). They don't answer any of the journalistic questions. I turn to newscasts for hard facts and analysis, not opinion. Furthermore, in this era of talk radio and blogs, there are plenty of places to read opinions, so there's no need to include them in a newscast. As the CBC event demonstrated, the "streeter" is especially vulnerable to contrived opinions by people just wanting to get on television, or with an agenda to promote--I find the prospect of commercial manipulation of "streeters" by corporate publicists to be especially frightening. Basically, I don't see any good reason to air a "streeter," and I see plenty of reasons not to air them.

When it comes right down to it, "streeters" are lazy journalism. Rather than using the limited time of a broadcast to include more information on a story, or taking the time to find an expert who might have an informed opinion, the reporter just talks to people on the street, and uses that to fill out a report. It might have entertainment value, but it does not have journalistic value.

One of the new features on "The National" is Wendy Mesley "asking provocative questions about the news stories." In one of the first installments last week, Mesley went to a location on Queen Street West in Toronto near the "Hug Me" tree to ask people to prioritize education versus space exploration. The sidewalk she chose for this "streeter" is the same place where I have observed Naked News reporters doing the same thing. So, basically, the CBC has stooped to the level of the Naked News, except clothed.

I don't understand why there is any controversy about this. The CBC should not be airing "streeters," period.

Transport: Big Nothing on Santa Fe

TORONTO, ONTARIO - On Tuesday, Berkshire Hathaway announced a $26 billion outright purchase of the Burlington Northern Santa Fe Railway, whose operational unit has been legally known as just "BNSF" since 2005. The news has received wide attention in the financial press as it is the largest purchase ever by Berkshire Hathaway. I seem to be regarded as some sort of transportation analyst, as I have received many e-mails asking what this means for BNSF. The general consensus on the answer, with which I have no reason to disagree, is almost nothing.

BNSF was formed by a 1995 merger between the Burlington Northern and the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railways, two iconic names in United States railroading. With more than 32,000 route miles, the vast majority west of the Mississippi River, the line was the largest in the nation until the Union Pacific acquired Southern Pacific a year later in response. Since then, BNSF CEO's Robert Krebs and Matt Rose have been credited with prudent investment and general competence in running their railway, which remained much more fluid than its primary competitor during economic good times.

Berkshire Hathaway had already been investing in BNSF for some time, seeing in the financial numbers the same competence that industry observers have seen. Its stake had already reached 22% even before this week's news. While Berkshire Hathaway had invested in other railroads, most notably Union Pacific and Norfolk Southern, its largest stake had always been in BNSF.

Note that in addressing this acquisition, I refer to "Berkshire Hathaway" and not its primary investor Warren Buffett. While Buffett may be one of the richest people in the world and an iconic figure as chairman of Berkshire Hathaway, there is little reason to believe that he will take any kind of hands-on role at BNSF. Generally speaking, Berkshire Hathaway purchases companies in part for their quality management and then leaves them alone to run their business and make a profit that goes back to Berkshire Hathaway. There seems no reason to believe BNSF is going to be any different than Dairy Queen, Coca-Cola, Wrigley, Geico or any other company in which Berkshire Hathaway has significant investment.

So will BNSF have a new name? Unlikely. Will it paint its locomotives a different color, such as a return to the famous red and silver warbonnet of predecessor Santa Fe? Unlikely. Will its attitude toward Amtrak, toward which it has been regarded as a much better partner than other Class I railroads, change? Unlikely. Will it change its position on steam excursions over its lines? Unlikely. Will anything perceptible to the public change? Unlikely.

It is entirely possible that the only thing that will change at BNSF is that it will no longer pay dividends to investors, instead sending its profits to Berkshire Hathaway. This may also mean more freedom for BNSF in making long-term capital investments with a portion of those profits, an area in which it was already regarded as more proactive than its industry peers and which may make it even better-positioned for economic booms in the future.

Indeed, Buffett himself described this investment as an enormous "bet on the future of the United States," citing the relative fuel-efficiency of railroads for overland transportation. Some analysts think it is also a bet on continued imports from foreign countries, which usually move by rail from ports to their final destination regions, and on domestic coal, of which BNSF is a major carrier.

Whatever it is, there will be a lot of surprise if the Berkshire Hathaway acquisition makes much difference in the day-to-day operations of BNSF.

Economics: Boeing Move Unsurprising

TORONTO, ONTARIO - News sources outside of Washington state and South Carolina largely ignored Boeing's decision last week to place a second 787 assembly line in South Carolina instead of Everett, Washington. Nobody should have been surprised at the decision; no matter what the unions in Washington had offered, Boeing's decision reinforces what I see as clear tenets in North American business in this era, none of which make any sense from a long-term perspective but seem to have been adopted by most businesses anyway.

These tenets apply to the manufacturing of finished goods that are not interchangeable commodities produced by oligopolic companies (which are actually most durable goods and branded consumer goods, and thus quite of a few of the things still manufactured on this continent), and apply less or not at all in highly-competitive commodities, including some of the components of the finished goods.

(1) Timelines don't matter. Because customers have relatively few options in these products, taking a delay in the launch of a product does not lead to significant loss of market share or customer goodwill. Boeing already has taken delays in the 787 launch because of outsourcing, and the complication of two geographically distant lines will inevitably add more, but this is not perceived to hurt the company relative to the labor cost reduction.

(2) Quality doesn't matter. Again, mostly because of limited options, companies can afford to have modest quality problems and then fix them on finished products as customers have nowhere else to turn. While I have no doubt that the quality of planes from the non-union line in South Carolina will eventually match that of the line in Everett, a new line of recently-trained workers always starts at a disadvantage. Boeing is making the common calculation that the initial quality issues will not be significant in the long run.

(3) Experience is not worth paying for. Mostly because of points (1) and (2) above, companies would rather hire new workers that will work more cheaply and bring "new ideas" to a situation than continue to do things the way they have been done in the past. The working assumption seems to be that processes used in any given industry must automatically be flawed if they are time-tested, rather than things that have been refined with time into an efficient form. Thus, moving to a location with relative inexperience in an industry and cheap labor is always favored over expansion in an area with a qualified pool of workers that demand higher salaries, union or not. Boeing is saving a lot of money in labor costs by moving to South Carolina, but relative to Everett, the pool of potential employees is relatively inexperienced.

(4) Internal competition is always desirable. Rather than having to position themselves against competitors, any company of adequate size prefers to create "internal competition" between units at different locations doing similar things to push their productivity, with the threat of shutdown omnipresent. Companies that acquire competitors--such as pharmaceutical companies--are particularly adept at using this tactic between sites of the original and acquired company. The situation leads to undesirable conditions for workers at the sites under internal competition. Boeing has clearly set up this kind of situation between South Carolina and Washington.

While the union in Washington state can rightfully be accused of handling the situation poorly, in light of the above four tenets, there was probably nothing they could do to convince Boeing to place a second line next to the first. In fact, it was probably only for public relations and political negotiation with the union that the company made it seem like there was any possibility for a second line in Everett at all.

Much of the validity of these tenets depends on specific business circumstances that do not lend themselves to generalization, but in general I think they're crazy. Not living up to timelines and producing a quality product erodes one's customer base and makes it possible for competitors to gain market share, ultimately hurting profits in most situations. More importantly, creating internal competition leads to more stressed employees who care less about the success of the company, rather than building a team atmosphere with everyone working toward a common goal and rewarded for that. It's basically management by fear instead of management by positive incentive. It's harder to find ways to motivate people than it is to try to scare them, but it almost always leads to better work--that may actually be worth what it costs in salaries.

However, that's not how businesses are run on this continent today. Instead, they seem to be run on misguided principles like those cited above.

Transport: Traffic Zebras

TORONTO, ONTARIO - Organized sports have given us the image of black and white striped uniforms being used for referees, people enforcing rules. The image is so strong that in a famous Budweiser commercial aired during the 2003 Super Bowl, a black and white striped zebra ruled on a game being played by the brand's Clydesdale horses.

The advertising agency that came up with that ad may not have been drinking the product they were advertising. It turns out that the idea of zebras as rule enforcers dates from at least as early as 2001 in Bolivia. As reported by Independent Television News and the Christian Science Monitor, the city of La Paz, Bolivia has been using "Traffic Zebras" to help make its streets safer for more than eight years.

The program was started by the La Paz Foundation for Youth with Social Problems, who wanted to give troubled youths a chance to turn their lives around. They were given zebra suits and told to help people cross the street, and with time the respect they are given by drivers has apparently increased. It probably doesn't hurt that they pull antics like laying--as if dead--on the hoods of automobiles that violate traffic laws, nor does it hurt that they have authority to cite offenders. In fact, the Monitor even reported that the normal police are concerned that the zebras may be encroaching on their normal police duties.

I honestly don't know how "Traffic Zebras" would be received in automobile-dominated North America. This is the continent where Boston's well-publicized Walk This Way campaign was about getting pedestrians to obey traffic laws, not vehicles. (And, of course, as best I could tell the last time I visited Boston, it didn't work.) Somehow, I doubt Mayor Mumbles (er, Menino) will give it a try, nor will any other mayor in the United States or Canada.