Neighborhood and City Spotlight – Folsom, California.

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Folsom is a city in Sacramento County, California, only 23 miles from the Sacramento proper.  It’s situated in the foothills of the Sierra Mountain range, and a short drive to Lake Tahoe.  Folsom has a total area of 24.3 square miles.  Of that, 21.9 square miles is land and 2.4 square miles is water.  It was formally incorporated in 1946.

History

Folsom has a history as old and rich as California itself, as the community was first settled as part of the Gold Rush in the Sierras.  In 1847, William Leidesdorff , a prosperous trader and shipping magnate, came to Sacramento by steamer to survey the 35,000 acres he bought years previous, including the area where modern-day Folsom lies.  

After the Mexican-American War, an Army Captain named Joseph Libbey Folsom bought a huge plot of land - Rancho Rio de los Americanos – from Leidesdorff’s heirs.  Folsom started a town called Granite City, consisting mostly of miners, gold prospectors, and the folks who had come west to find riches.  But it wasn’t gold that made the town prosperous, it was actually Libbey’s steadfast work to get a railroad coming to town that connected to Sacramento.  In 1855, Granite City was renamed Folsom to commemorate their founder’s work.  

 In 1880, Folsom Prison was established in Folsom, thanks to an agreement with the Livermore family.  They donated land to the state for the prison in exchange for free prison labor for their sawmill.  The Livermores wanted to build a hydroelectric dam on the American River to power their sawmill.  The mill faltered but the dream of a dam to generate power sprung forth with the Folsom Powerhouse, which supplied electricity to Sacramento.  At that time, it was the longest overhead run of electricity in America (22 miles.)  The powerhouse was in operation until 1952 and is now a National Historic Landmark    

Folsom Prison went on to its own infamy in 1956 when Johnny Cash sang a popular song, The Folsom Prison Blues, and performed there in a historic free concert for the inmates.

Development

Folsom incorporated and became an official city in 1946 after a big campaign by its Chamber of Commerce.  In 1956, only 4 years after the Folsom Powerhouse was established, the Folsom Dam was built, offering protection from flooding rivers and regulating water rights for the Sacramento Valley.

Highway 50 was soon constructed to manage traffic flow to the state capitol, and air traffic began coming in and out of Mather Air Cargo/General Aviation airport nearby.  By the year 2000 there were over 51,000 people living in Folsom, and a light rail system – not a historic railroad – connects commuters to the capitol.

Demographics

As of the 2010 census, the population of Folsom was 72,203.  Of those, 65,243 people (90.4% of the population) lived in households, 188 (0.3%) lived in non-institutionalized group quarters, and 6,772 (9.4%) were institutionalized.  It’s amazing that almost 10% of Folsom is in prison! 

The average household is 2.61 people and the average family size is 3.13 people. 

The median age in Folsom is 37.6 years.

Interestingly, for every 100 females age 18 and over, there are 117.9 males.  We can only assume this is partly because of the high male prison population, as well.

Folsom has 26,109 housing units.  69.9% of those are owner-occupied and 30.1% are rental units.  The homeowner vacancy rate is a low 1.9% and the rental vacancy rate is 5.2%.

Real estate values remain high because Folsom is a desirable place to live and work, yet the city’s master plan is almost full, with no easy places to build or add large communities.

Affluence

It was estimated in 2007) at the height of the real estate boom) that the median income in Folsom was $87,542 and the median household income was $109,032, both well over national average.  The cost of living was just as high, however, at 138% of the national average! 

Recent estimates show that Folsom’s affluence has diminished at all.  In the last census, the median household income was calculated at $94,642.

There are several factors that go into this – great local employers, access to Folsom Lake and other recreation areas, the city’s historic charm, good schools, and pricey real estate.  But Folsom is also a sought-after place to live because of its low crime rates.  In fact, the FBI Uniformed Crime Report consistently ranks Folsom as one of the lowest crimes rates in all of California, most of which are just property crimes, not violent crimes. 

Notable Residents

Jerry Horton, guitarist for Papa Roach

Cristina Mendonsa, News10 Anchor KXTV in Sacramento

Dmitry Tursunov, Tennis Player. Representing Russia in 2008 Olympics

Peter Camejo, Green Party Activist
John "Spider" Jorgensen, baseball player for the Brooklyn Dodgers and Jackie Robinson's teammate

Restaurants

Folsom has some of the region’s finest restaurants, with plenty of options for family dining, ethnic cuisine, and options to eat out on less-than a 5-star budget.  You can find all of Folsom’s restaurant’s and their ratings on Yelp.

Here are the top-rated restaurants in Folsom:

Chez Daniel

Visconti’s Ristorante

Folsom Palace

Saffron Grill

Thai Blossom Cuisine

Bidwell Street Bistro

Sutter Street Steakhouse

Manderes

Fat’s Asian Bistro

Back Wine Bar & Bistro

Jobs

Folsom is home to Sacramento’s largest private employer, Intel.  Intel employs 6,515 people there.  The second largest employer is the California State Prison, with 1,450 jobs, and the Verizon Wireless with 1,100.  Folsom State Prison employs 975 people and the Folsom Cordova Unified School District gives a paycheck to 875 people every month. 

Of the jobs sector, Folsom leads with management and business jobs, followed by service occupations, sales and office jobs, construction and maintenance, and finally, those employed in the transportation and moving sector.  Unemployment hovers around the 11% mark, consistent with most of California.   

Education and Schools

GreatSchools.org rates the Folsom school system at 9 out of 10, well above the national and California average.  You can see all of their school reports here.

Highlighted in the report are the:

Empire Oaks Elementary School - 10 out of 10 score.

Russell Ranch Elementary School – 10.

Sandra J. Gallardo Elementary School 10.

Carl H. Sundahl Elementary School – 9.

Folsom Community Charter School – 9.

Folsom is home to one institution of higher learning, Folsom Lake College.

Arts

The arts and music are alive and well in Folsom, with a vibrant artistic community that’s been compared to, “A little Sante Fe.”  There are plenty of art exhibits, musical shows, and street festivals for all to enjoy in Folsom.  The Ballet Folsom has a long tradition of beautiful performances, as does the Folsom Symphony.  The Hawkins School of Performing Arts trains plenty of Folsom resident and Folsom High School has an award-winning music program.  You can find out more at FolsomArts.org.

Recreation

Beautiful Folsom Lake is the city’s main recreation attraction, bringing swimmers, sunbathers, fishermen, and boaters almost daily in the summer.  The lake covers about 4.8 miles of surface area and runs Granite Bay to the most southern point of Folsom Lake.  Around the lake area, the Folsom Lake Recreation Area has been established as part of the California State Park System, with water covering 2/3 of the park’s surface.  Year-round, people can hike, picnic, camp, study nature, and ride horses in the recreation area.  Popular hiking trails include the American River Trail, Pioneer Express Trail, and Rattlesnake Bar-Horseshoe Bar Trail.

Folsom is the end point of the American River Bike Trail that runs all the way from Davis, California. 

Landmarks

The Folsom Powerhouse is a national historic landmark.  Folsom also boasts several notable bridges – Lake Natoma Crossing, Rainbow Bridge, a historic truss bridge, and Folsom Lake Crossing.  In 2011, a revitalization project completely revamped Folsom’s historic downtown, with museums, antiques and architecture form its past, and plenty of shops, restaurants, and charming amenities for the whole family. 

You can find out more about Folsom at the city’s website.  Or contact us any time for more information and how to buy, sell, or move to Folsom!

21 Negotiation tactics that will help you close any deal! Part 1 (1-10)

We negotiate just about every day, whether we realize it or not.  We may be negotiating salary with a new employer, with a contractor to fix something in our home, or even negotiate for our children to brush their teeth and go to bed on time (the most difficult of all!)  The official definition of negotiation is: discussion aimed at reaching an agreement.  So negotiation really just entails the art of persuasion for a desired outcome.  There are certain basics tactics and strategies we can employ to help us persuade and negotiate like a pro. 

1. Don’t have an adversarial mindset.

Too often, we think of a negotiation as “us vs. them,” or a competition to put-do or get over on your counterpoint.  That is just counterproductive and disingenuous, and will hurt you in the long run.  Instead, go into the negotiation with the aim of achieving a win-win.  Your positive attitude will reflect on the outcome, I promise!

2. Never be the first one to throw out a price.

When it comes to putting the first number on the table, always make the other side go first.  Why?  If they throw out a number that is way too low, you plan on negotiating it, anyway.  But what if they throw out a number that is agreeable, or even higher than you were hoping for?  Believe it or not, that happens all the time, and that’s why you’ll see experienced sales people ask leading questions like, “What fits in your budget,” or “What would something like that be worth to you?”  

3. Don’t be emotional.

Keep your cool and never get too passionate or heated when it comes to your negotiation – that will only push them away.  Stay calm and collected and think of it as a nice exploratory chat between two friends to find out what works best for both parties.

4. Be willing to walk away.

You have to be ready to distance yourself from the outcome, or end the negotiation unresolved.  If not and it’s do-or-die to you, then you’re way too emotionally invested, and your desperation will show.  Remember that both parties want to feel they got a good deal or favorable outcomes, and if you are too excited or attached, they won’t get that feeling.  Be willing to get up and walk away if it’s not going well, either to look for better options or to give them time to think, but make sure it ends amicably.

5. Get them invested.

The longer you get someone to invest their time and energy, the more likely you are to close the deal.  Not only will you become familiar and psychologically comfortable to them, but also they will have more to lose by saying, “no,” and starting over again.

6. Ask for a value-add at the final bell.

This is a wonderful method to get a little more juice from the squeeze, so to speak.  Once you’ve finalized the big items and the negotiation is rolling toward a favorable close, ask them to throw in something extra, almost as a throwaway.  They are more than likely to say ‘yes,” just to get the deal closed and not backtrack, and they’re feeling good already.  So you just negotiated a price to have your car’s transmission rebuilt?  Ask for the next 5 oil changes to be free.

Likewise, you can add value at the end of any negotiation to prove the tipping point.  Offer to pay them in cash, write good reviews, work on days unpopular with other employees, or get them more referrals – it just might make the difference!   

7. Be specific with numbers and data.

When persuading your counterpart why they should accept your terms/price, etc., make sure to use specific data whenever possible.  There’s a big difference between saying, “Give me a raise because I help the department,” versus, “Give me a raise because I helped the department grow by 14% over my first year here and my team is closing 27 more sales a quarter than your average employee.”  Powerful!

8. Diffuse their risk.

No one wants to lose.  So make your terms or desired outcome more comfortable by diffusing their risk.  You can do this by offering a free trial to prove your worth or trying the proposed arrangement for 6-months before a performance review to reassess.  Also, commission or incentive-lased payment is more favorable to employers or clients because there is less risk.   Let them try it on for size!

9. Don’t waste their time and be honest.

Always respect someone else’s time and trust as if it were your own.  Once that trust is breached, you might as well give up.

10. See the market through their eyes.

Be aware of their competition, market conditions, and trends.  Are they so slammed with business they can't even answer the phone fast enough?  Or is it there slow time of the season when they' re stressed about not having enough income?  Timing is everything, so know their market and business conditions in order to better understand their mindset in the negotiation.

***

Look for part 2 of this article next week, with tactics 11-21!  

The disturbing facts behind mortgage and real estate fraud.

What is mortgage fraud?

Mortgage and real estate fraud entails deliberate falsification, misrepresentation, or action with the aim of financial gain through illegal, illicit, and unethical means within mortgage and real estate transactions.  It’s a broad definition that encompasses every consumer who lies about income on their loan application, all the way up to the most sophisticated and treacherous criminals who bilk the banks out of millions of dollars in phantom transactions. 

Who commits mortgage fraud?

Mortgage fraud in all its forms, big or small, is perpetrated by a variety of players.  The FBI’s special report on mortgage fraud states that guilty parties include mortgage brokers, loan officers, lenders, appraisers, underwriters, accountants, real estate agents, attorneys, land developers, developers, investors, builders, bankers, escrow and title employees.  Some are legitimate and licensed business people who think they are just bending the rules, while others are career, rogue criminals. 

The FBI reports that organized crime is more frequently involved with mortgage fraud, not only to steal money but to launder existing drug money or money from other illicit activities.  In recent cases there have been Asia, Balkan, Armenian, La Cosa Nostra, Russian, and Eastern European organized crime groups involved with various mortgage and real estate fraud schemes.

While this sounds like the stuff of action movies, the majority of fraud is perpetrated by regular consumers, lending professionals, realtors and loan officers who think they are only bending the rules, but cause irreparable damage to the greater system and betray the consumer’s trust.

Where does it occur?

Mortgage fraud occurs in every state and every city of the country, but there are some areas that seem to be hotspots of illegal activity, for a bevy of factors.  Recently, Nevada jumped ahead of California as the #1 riskiest state for mortgage fraud.  California is second, followed by the District of Columbia and then Florida. 

However, when it comes to zip codes where mortgage fraud is rampant, California still has four out of the top ten, and ten out of the top 25.

What does it cost us?

The true price tag of mortgage and real estate fraud is almost impossible to tally.  Of course only a portion of crimes every get reported, or arrests and convictions are made.  In addition, the cost of lower-level fraud, like lying on mortgage applications, overestimating appraisals, and the practice of pocket listings, may not have consequences until much later on.  But there are some factors that help guide us:

According to CoreLogic, since 2012, mortgage application fraud has totaled more than $30 billion annually.  Note that’s just mortgage applications.

That same source reports that in 2010 alone, more than $10 billion in mortgage loans originated based on fraudulent data on applications.

Financial institutions also have their own figures to report, as their Suspicious Activity Reports in 2010 red flagged $3.2 billion in losses, a 16% increase from 2009 and a shocking 117% increase since 2008.

The following five states had the highest estimated value of fraud among mortgage applications per year: 

California: $864 million 

New York: $278 million 

Florida: $273 million 

Texas: $261 million 

Virginia: $231 million

Is all fraud treated equally?

Generally, it’s considered there are two kinds of fraud: 

Fraud for property/housing.

This is when a consumer falsifies documents, lies, or manipulates numbers on loan applications or other mortgage and real estate paperwork in order to obtain a primary residence.  Sometimes it is still fraud, it is well intentioned and the person intends to pay back the loan.

Fraud for profit.

This involves schemes with the sole purpose of stealing money or making a profit illegally. 

Law enforcement agencies estimate that roughly 20% of all mortgage fraud is fraud for profit.

What types of mortgage fraud exist?

Loan Origination Schemes

Backwards Application Schemes

Fraudulently Inflated Appraisals

Illegal Property Flipping

Title/Escrow/Settlement Fraud

Real Estate Investment Schemes

Short Sale Schemes

Commercial Real Estate Loan Fraud

Foreclosure Rescue

Advance Fee Schemes

Builder Bailout Schemes

Equity Skimming Schemes

Debt Elimination/Reduction schemes

Bankruptcy Fraud

Loan Modification Scams

Rent-to-Own Scams

Multiple Listing Service manipulation and pocket listings.

Who is fighting mortgage and real estate fraud?

There are several organizations that investigate and prosecute fraudulent activities.  HUD, the department of Housing and Urban Development, has its own internal mechanisms to find and screen out fraudsters, and pending investigations into single-family residential loans hit an all-time high recently at 765.  The same is true of mortgage giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. 

Financial institutions like banks and lenders are required to file SAR’s, or Suspicious Activity Reports, when they detect some sort of impropriety, even if it implicates their own employees or dealings.  In 2010, there were 70,533 mortgage fraud –related SAR’s filed!

The Internal Revenue Service is extremely active in battling real estate and mortgage fraud, especially from the angle of dissecting the paper trail of financial criminals.  They’re focus is on finding and collecting evidence to prove tax improprieties and money laundering activities, but there is a huge crossover into real estate and mortgage transactions.

The IRS can take civil action by calling for an IRS audit, which happens thousands of times every year. 

The IRS also works closely with the Department of Justice for criminal cases.  The DOJ also includes the FBI, Federal Bureau of Investigation.  Starting in June of 2010, the DOJ and FBI announced a join special taskforce aimed to combat real estate and mortgage fraud, named Operation Stolen Dreams.  It’s been the largest collective effort to date.  So far, 1,125 defendants have been identified, 485 arrests made, 673 indictments, and 336 convictions.  The FBI has earmarked the defendants responsible for $2.3 billion in mortgage fraud losses.

Operation Stolen Dreams uses sophisticated investigative methods, such as wiretaps and undercover operatives, to collect evidence and prosecute offenders.   The FBI also works closely with 25 different mortgage fraud task forces.  Recent estimates say they have well over 3,000 active investigations.  More than 70% of those pending investigations involve cases with dollar losses totaling more than $1 million.

Do market factors come into play?

As we’ve seen, first with the real estate market decline and now with its rebound, criminals are intent on perpetrating fraud no matter what the market conditions.  It seems that different types of fraud are more prevalent in different markets.  When the market is in a decline, fraudsters prey on financial desperate victims and foreclosure, short sale, loan modification, and debt rescue scams.  When the market is appreciating it’s far easier for them to funnel money through bloated appraisals, straw buyers, and loan misappropriations.

Statistics show that it’s far easier for criminals to make bigger money through fraud in a rising market, where consumer victim exploitation increases in down markets. 

How do criminals find their victims?

HUD reports that fraudsters are trolling unemployment offices, churches, and public foreclosure rescue fairs targeting vulnerable homeowners.  In addition, criminals find their victims:

With Craigslist ads.

Small signs on the side of the road.

With multi-level marketing and Ponzi scheme organizations.

Social media ads and posts.

Websites

YouTube videos.

False news stories.

Seminars and workshops.

Driving by houses and seeing vacant, boarded up homes, houses with For Rent, For Sale, or For Sale by owner signs, or houses with notices on the door.

How can you prevent mortgage fraud?
Report any suspicious activity to your local law enforcement agencies or the FBI.  Most cities have a governing body of realtors and mortgage professionals, like the Sacramento Association of Realtors, etc., and you can report any impropriety to them, as well.  If you are involved in a transaction and suspect fraud, keep careful notes of all communications, confirm your questions via email so there is a paper trail, and double check any gray areas with multiple sources, like title companies, etc.  You can also talk to your CPA or account and attorney to make sure you are not a victim of mortgage fraud - or unwittingly perpetrating it yourself.  

50 Fun facts about soccer's 2014 World Cup!

1. The 2014 World Cup is scheduled from June 12 to July 13 in Brazil.

2. Games will be played in 12 cities in Brazil - Belo Horizonte, Brasilia, Cuiaba, Curitiba, Fortaleza, Manaus, Natal, Porto Alegre, Recife, Rio de Janeiro, Salvador, Sao Paulo.

3. 32 teams participate in the World Cup.

4. In 2010, 3.2 billion people watched the World Cup, or 46.4% of the entire world!  They except even bigger numbers for this year’s tournament – maybe even 50%!

5. 31 teams had to qualify through preliminary competitions up to 3 years before this World Cup.  The host nation always qualifies (Brazil.)

6. The first World Cup took place in 1930 in Montevideo, Uruguay.

7. Since the 1930 FIFA World Cup the competition has grown, extended to 24 teams in 1982 and then to 32 in 1998.

8. During World War II between 1942 and 1946, the World Cup was suspended, starting up again in 1950.

9. A record 204 teams entered the 2010 FIFA World Cup qualification rounds

10. The most outstanding player of the whole tournament is awarded the Adidas Golden Ball award, voted in by the media.  2010’s winner was Uruguay’s Diego Forlan.

11. The top goal scorer in the tournament is awarded the Adidas Golden Shoe award.  In 2010, Germany’s Thimas Muller won.

12. Brazil has won the World Cup more than any other country - five times; 1958, 1962, 1970, 1994, and 2002.

13. Brazil is widely held as the greatest nation to ever play the game, and as the saying goes, "England invented it, Brazil perfected it."

14. Italy has won the second highest number of World Cup titles with four, in 1934, 1938, 1982 and 2006, the most of any European country.  Next is Germany with three titles, in 1954, 1974 and 1990. Uruguay (1930 and 1950) and Argentina (1978 and 1986) have won two each. Traditionally competitive at football on a world stage England (1966), France (1998) and Spain (2010) have all claimed only one each.

15. Countries who have won the FIFA World Cup display their success with a gold star for each World Cup title, placed proudly above their nations badge on their international football shirt
Bidding and selection is a controversial process, seen by many as very corrupt. This discord was most recently brought to light by the controversial bids FIFA accepted from Russia for World Cup 2018 and Qatar for World Cup 2022 during the 2007 bidding process, claiming the honour over countries like England, Spain and Portugal, seen by most as preferable choices due to their high standard of stadium, transport and hospitality.

16. Spain enters the 2014 FIFA World Cup in Brazil as reigning champions, claiming the trophy in 2010 by beating Netherlands 1-0 in extra time in Johannesburg, South Africa.
But this year, Spain is only the fourth favorite in early betting stakes. Brazil is the favorite with Argentina, second and Germany, third.

17. The FIFA World Cup is so sought after and contested because it brings an influx of BILLIONS of dollars to the host country’s economy. During the build-up to the 2010 FIFA World Cup in South Africa, the projected total direct economic value for GDP (gross domestic product) was approximately $21.3 billion!

18. This will be the first World Cup where goal-line technology will be used.  Drones and robots will also be part of the security, media, and fan appreciation experience.

19. It’s the 2nd time Brazil has hosted a World Cup, only the 5th country to do so.

20. It’s been 36 years since a South American country last hosted a World Cup!

21. A paraplegic teenager will take the first 2014 World Cup kick to initiate the ceremonies.

22. Bosnia And Herzegovina (one country) is the only country to qualify for the first time.

23. The record number of World Cup career goals is 15 by Brazilian forward Ronaldo.

24. The record for most goals in one World Cup tournament goes to Just Fontaine.  At the 1958 World Cup in Sweden, he scored 13 goals in just 6 matches,

25. The record for the most World Cup appearances is 25 by German player, Lothar Matthaus.

26. In 1986, FIFA prohibited shirt swapping because they did not want players to ‘bare their chests’ on the field (sorry ladies!)

27. The fastest goal ever scored in a World Cup was by Turkish player, Hakan Sukur against South Korea in the 2002 World Cup, who scored only 11 seconds in.

28. The most-attended game was during the 1950 World Cup, when 200,000 people packed into Rio De Janiero’s Maranana stadium for a match between Brazil and Uruguay, huge rivals!  We won’t see crowds like that again due to safety codes.

29. The oldest player ever to lace ‘em up for a World Cup match is Roger Milla, who was 42 years old.

30. Norman Whitesides of Northern Ireland was the youngest player, at 17.

31. The official World Cup song for this year is “We Are One.”  The official anthem (isn’t it the same thing?) is “Dar um Jeito, (We Will Find a Way.)”

32. Coca-Cola has its own anthem for the 2014 World Cup, called, “The World is Ours.”  (With they’re own anthem, they may be right!)

33. The French team demanded that 2 types of soap be placed in each of their hotel rooms!

34. The Simpsons has dedicated their own episode to the 2014 World Cup!

35. The World Cup champion team will be awarded $35 million USD!

36. Honduras and Bosnia & Herzegovina (first time) are the only two countries never to have won a World Cup match.

37. India withdrew from the 1950 World Cup when FIFA regulations demanded each of their players wear football boots, while some of them wanted to play barefoot.

38. Out of the 18 World Cup tournaments, South American and European countries have won 9 titles each, while no other continent is represented as a champion.

39. The first hat-trick in a World Cup match (scoring 3 goals or more) was achieved by a United States player!  Way back in 1930, Bert Patenaude of the U.S. scored 3 goals in a match against Paraguay.

40. Zinedine Zidane is the official dirtiest player in World Cup history, with 4 yellow cards and 2 red cards in only 3 tournaments!

41. The winning team once was awarded the Jules Rimet Trophy, which is named after the French football administrator and third president of FIFA.

42. During World War II, the trophy was held by Italy, winners in 1938.  Ottorino Barassi, the Italian vice-president of FIFA, secretly transported the trophy from a bank in Rome and hid it in a shoe box under his bed to prevent it from being stolen by the Nazis.  However, the trophy was stolen from Westminster Central Hall in England where it was being exhibited prior to the 1966 World Cup there. Although heavily guarded around the clock, the trophy was lifted from its cabinet and discovered missing by a security guard on his circuit on 20th March. It was later found by an unexpected duo -- local civilian David Corbett and his dog 'Pickles' on March 27th, when the dog sniffed it out under a suburban hedge outside Corbett's house.

43. The Jules Rimet was replaced with the FIFA World Cup Trophy in 1974 after Brazil won the right to keep the trophy outright in 1970. It was later stolen again in 1983 and has never been recovered, widely believed to have been melted down and sold.

44. The United States placed third overall in the first World Cup in 1930, which is still our top finish.

45. We qualified automatically as the host country in 1994, but we’ve qualified for every World Cup since then.

46. In 1950, the U.S. team beat the mighty England team, 1-0, which is still considered one of the greatest World Cup upsets ever.  We lost to Spain, 3-1 in the final.

47. This year’s U.S. team is without Landon Donovan, their leader and best player for the last 15 years, who also holds the record for the most goals in international matches.  He was not included in the final roster in favor of a younger player.

48. The United States plays their first 2014 World Cup game against Ghana, June 16.

49. Football (soccer) is easily the world's most popular sport, with an estimated 2 billion players or more!

50. This World Cup will be the best yet!  Will you be watching?

Solar Roads will shine brightly in their failure.

"There is nothing worse than a sharp image of a fuzzy concept." ~Ansel Adams

Maybe, just maybe, they’re on to something big.  That’s what people say when they see the images on Facebook; synthetic highways the color of AstroTurf, a trail of bright incandescent glowing as a car drives over or even a moose walks across it.  The ensuing social media post, entitled Solar Roadways, goes on to describe how Julie and Scott Brusaw, an unassuming couple from Idaho, have devised solar technology that’s ready to change the world.

Their idea is alarmingly audacious and plausibly simple enough to capture our collective imagination – to replace all the roads in the United States with special solar panels that collect the sun’s energy, even as we drive on them.

Their imaginative innovation isn’t just folly – Scott is an electrical engineer and the couple has worked on Solar Roadways for years, manufacturing a working prototype and rising to popularity with an Indiegogo campaign that’s raised $1 million so far from private contributors, including $400,000 in the first month.  Our Federal Highway Administration has already dolled out two rounds of funding to Solar Roads to advance the technology.

The concept works like this; instead of asphalt, we’ll replace all roadways and highways with their solar materials, impact-resistant panels that look like paving stones, covered in clear “smart” glass that is as tough as bullet proof glass.  The solar panels gather, conduct, and store energy from the sun’s rays, and are embedded with digital sensors and as well.  The solar panels are so tough that they can withstand a 250,000-pound truck driving over them, or a massive tractor, as the images of one test showed.

The panels would also serve to filter storm water off the roads, conduct electricity so they’d replace aboveground cables, and have heating cells so they’d automatically clear the roads of snow and ice.  They’d also have built in LED lights, so they’d light up at night, light up to show when an animal or obstacle is stopped in the road (like a moose or a stalled car,) and could transmit driving safety messages to motorists.  In theory, these roads would also totally eliminate our need for cars motored by fossil fuels because they’d be able to regenerate the batteries in electric cards as they drove over them. 

Ostensibly, buy replacing all the nation’s roadways with these panels, we’re be able to generate more than three times the electricity needed for all U.S. energy consumption. 

Sounds downright Utopian, huh?  There’s no denying that the idea of solar roadways is enticing beyond measure, but is it viable?  That’s where we run into a few bumps in the road (so to speak.) 

Critics of Solar Roadways (and the backlash is gathering like storm clouds,) point to a few fundamental reasons why the idea will never come to fruition, and is essentially a waste of time and money;

The first is cost.  There are approximately 29,000 square miles of roadways in the U.S.  It would take about 5.6 billion of these solar panels to replace all that surface area, at a conservative price tag of $56 trillion dollars.  And that’s just the cost of the solar panels – imagine the tab when we add in installation, ripping up our roads, highway shutdowns, etc.  Even if we grossly overestimate the cost of asphalt roads, solar roads are estimated at about 50% more than traditional roads. 

The second issue is one of practicality; imagine the infrastructure nightmare of actually doing the work!  The Federal Government now spends about $50 billion a year maintain our current roads, and we still have potholes and bad areas and construction shutdowns everywhere.  Can you even fathom how big a job it would be to rip up every roadway and replace it with solar panels?  Think of Boston’s Big Dig – a 10-year catastrophic cluster – and that was just one tunnel in one city!  To get it all done and convert entirely to an electrical infrastructure, while we still need to use our roads, would be so expensive and time consuming it’s unestimatable. 

So far, there has been a lot of cheering, back-patting, and superficial dollars thrown at the project – the pom pom’s are out – but how they’d come up with real funding necessary to launch this is still a mystery.  Solar Roadways has been uber-popular with the Google Solve and TED crowd, admirably so, but a million dollars will buy you a slick PR campaign these days and a working prototype and little else.

In fact, Solar Roadways lost out on GE’s $200 million Ecoimagination grant and if you added up all the clean energy grants all around the world we’re still only talking a couple billion clams.

The retort from the Brusaw camp is that solar roadways will bring in revenue in other ways – by creating jobs, producing spare energy to sell back to the grid.  They can also charge a nominal fee for reenergizing electric cars, and sell advertising space for electronic billboards on the roads.  Or, we could just put a toll every ten feet…

But the biggest obstacle to Solar Roadways comes, surprisingly, from serious clean energy advocates.  Quite simply, there are better ways to do it.  Instead of ripping up every road and replacing it with tech that needs to be driven over and maintained, why not just equip every rooftop in America with solar panels?  And build solar cell banks on the unused sides of highways and the medians? 

That’s the light bulb realization that will doom Solar Roads.  Already, progressive states like Oregon are building solar cells by their highways – not on them – to capture usable energy.  It’s a far more efficient method – they don’t need to worry about ripping up existing road, keeping new panels clean, glass durability, and how to store and relay captured energy.

Rooftop solar is far cheaper, easier to install, has a decade of innovation invested, and comes with none of the logistic hassles of solar-in-the-road.  Rooftop solar can turn toward the sun automatically and you don’t have to worry about shutting down a whole highway for maintenance or replacement. 

So the conversation comes back to the same one we’ve been having for 20+ years; why aren’t we utilizing solar power more in the United States?  Photovoltaics (capturing the sun’s energy) still only accounts for no more than 1.13 percent of America’s power production, yet it is free once the infrastructure is in place, never runs out and turns a problem (global warming?) into a viable solution for clean energy that can be phased in with little or no detriment.

20 years is also about how long the technology to generate solar power from unused spaces, or “distribution generation,” has been shining on.  You can put solar panels anywhere there is wasted space – rooftops being the main one (especially commercial) but also car covers, pool covers, car rooftops, etc.  Even the archaic U.S. Census Bureau estimates that installing solar panels on every home in America would produce 3.75 trillion kilowatt hours of electricity a year, about the same amount of energy generated in the entire United States in 2011. 

Already, we’re lagging far behind much of the world in solar and clean energy generation.  Germany has already implemented solar programs that produce enough energy on par with all of the United States (in a much smaller country with a colder, less-sunny climate.)  China has a stated goal of producing 8 gig watts of solar power from distributed generation this year.  Sun-rich Middle Eastern countries are even on board. 

Yet it seems that unless there is forced governmental regulation calling for certain solar and clean energy quotas from corporations (commercial roof space,) states, and municipalities, it’s unrealistic to think the needed change will occur one humble homeowner’s rooftop at a time.  And that is exactly where Solar Roads may succeed - publicity, bringing solar alternatives to our national awareness and back into our conversation, making solar energy marketable, cool, and within reach.  Indeed, the concept of solar roads may end up advancing the cause of clean energy in its eventual failure more than all other predecessors in their success.  For Solar Roads it may be a case of “Shoot for the moon, but settle for the sun.”