Lee Foster (fostertravel.com)

San Jose Mayor Chuck Reed

I had an opportunity last week to have a conversation with the mayor of San Jose, Chuck Reed, who seems to have an enlightened and progressive perspective on the future of this major city, both generally and as it relates to travel.

Our meeting took place at the landmark Fairmont Hotel, which kicked off the downtown renaissance when it opened 20 years ago.  I sampled  a delicious tasting menu from their Grill restaurant, featuring rabbit and lamb, a lively pairing with some California wines.  The walkable downtown, with its Tech Museum, theatres, and restaurants, continues to attract more visitors.

Reed sees San Jose and the Silicon Valley as the center of the creative current world technology scene, reaching for comparisons to Florence in the Renaissance or England in the Industrial Revolution.

He sees the world, after moving from the industrial age to the information age/knowledge age, now poised to jump to a new era.  He calls this the "clean technology" age.

Reed believes that San Jose will be the world center for sun-generated power technology development and manufacturing.  Already a San Jose company has the most efficient solar cells in the world.  Nanosolar devices are at the other end of the spectrum.

Why is the area so innovative?

"A lot of the drive comes from the diversity of our people," says Reed.  "There is no ethnic majority in San Jose.  It's not where you were born, but what can you do.  Can you do the job?  Here, no on cares who your parents were."

The Vietnamese, Indian, Chinese, and Italian elements are strong.  New Years celebrations last from November to March. Talented people from all over like to live here.

Reed now sees billions in venture capital going into solar development in San Jose.  There will be new ranges of manufacturing jobs.

"Solar cells will help us deal with climate change," says Reed.  "And solar will help us cut dependence on foreign oil."

Reed is from Kansas.  He went through the Air Force Academy, then on to law school.  A lot of his legal work was in the technology sector before he got into politics.

"The openness of the society here allowed me, an outsider, to run for mayor successfully," said Reed.

When asked about what local travel he enjoys on the weekends, Reed pointed to the bike paths.  He likes to bike on the Coyote Creek Trail or the Alum Rock Trail on the weekend.  There are now about 40 miles of bike trails in San Jose.

Reed has his hands full managing the city.  San Jose is the 10th largest US city.  He laments that the US is turning out too few technology-educated people.  As in all cities, there is a constant battle against crime and homicides.  Budgets are slim, demands for services are unlimited.  Police are stretched thin.

"Despite our cost challenges," says Reed, "San Jose is one of the safest cities in the country."

High housingt costs are a major concern throughout Northern California.  In San Jose the median house costs about $700,000 per year.  San Jose is building about 1,000 subsidized housing units per year.  The city will probably continue to grow at about one percent a year.  The downtown will be "densified" with infill housing near the transportation core, turning open surface parking lots into housing.  The airport, which is seven minutes from downtown, has a "curfew" so that planes don't impinge with noise on the nearby residents at night.

As Travel Becomes Green

How the overall "green" movement will ultimately affect travel is something no one can fully predict today.

Perhaps the impulse to travel will in itself be curtailed, citing the virtue of not consuming and emitting.

Plenty of towels are destined to be re-used in many hotels.

A new tax will be levied, often voluntarily, as travelers buy their way out of the guilt of their emissions by purchasing "carbon offset" credits.  The ideal vacation trip will be "carbon neutral."

Some fairly advanced types of lodgings, such as the beach structures at the Lodge at Molokai Ranch, on Molokai, Hawaii, will become prevalent.  Every unit has its solar generator and composting toilet.  The units are "on the grid" for water alone.

Virtuous lodgings will probably eventually become mainstream, just as "organic" food is now a major growth sector in food production.   Not too long ago organic was exotic, now it is mainstream.

Probably, the evolving traveler will have a better awareness of how sustainable a travel option is, both in terms of the environment it functions in and in terms of the local people who participate in the operation.

Green travel is likely to become a more prominent buzzword as the worldwide environmental crisis intensifies, perhaps symbolized best by the retreating sea ice and its disastrous effect on polar bears.

The discussion of travel and green will preoccupy our thoughts for the foreseeable future.

Delta Queen Sails Final Voyages

It appears that a revered travel institution, the Delta Queen riverboat, has not mustered enough political support to keep her afloat.

The Delta Queen is an aging cruise paddle wheeler plying the Mississippi and tributary rivers.  I have been on the ship.  At a certain hour near sunset,  especially with a glass of wine in hand, I believe I have seen Mark Twain on this ship.  Of course, possibly I was just seeing a Mark Twain impersonator.

The problem with the Delta Queen is that she is getting old and she is made of wood.  There are some risks to passengers.  Since the 1960s she has been grand-mothered in, as powerful political forces have united to preserve this icon of American travel.

But her next exemption, now scheduled for decision, will probably not occur.  A congressman from Minnesota is the gatekeeper.  He is not sympathetic.  Certain unions who have been excluded from the operation by the current owners are no longer part of the support group, and possibly they have mentioned this to the congressman.

Keeping this living legacy afloat, actually and fiscally, is not easy in the best of times.  So maybe we just have to let go of the Delta Queen in our minds.  Fortunately, there are sister ships, much younger sisters, who have a steely gaze, and are still in the game.  They are the Mississippi Queen and the American Queen.  I have been aboard them also, and they are grand.

Possibly Mark Twain can be envisioned on their decks also, but maybe a second glass of wine would be required.

   

Kids With No Experience of Nature/Outdoors

A travel trend we are all experiencing continues to advance: many kids in the U.S. are now growing up with virtually no experience of nature and the outdoors. 

There is a growing burden on travel journalists and parents to address this reality.

Many modern kids have no joy in nature and have had very little experience of nature in any way.

The issue is addressed today in the San Francisco Chronicle in an article "Nature Deficit Disorder," which one could find on sfgate.com, but there are many such articles afloat.

One kid, interviewed at a mall, stated the position of many, "I'd rather be at the mall because you can enjoy yourself walking around looking at stuff as opposed to the woods."  When asked about Yosemite, he added, "The only things you look at is the trees, grass, and sky."

Today's child has a clear focus on electronic games and media rather than the outdoors.  The Kaiser Family Foundation has studied this and says an average kid 8-18 spends about 6.5 hours a day with electronic media.

Another aspect of this situation is that new immigrant populations don't have the outdoors as part of their family pleasure legacy.  This is particularly true of many Hispanic and Asian groups.  Getting out to enjoy nature has not been part of their family heritages.

When nature and the outdoors do figure into the electronic news, it is often a negative sensational threat and risk.  Stories about lost hikers, bear encounters, and mountain lion attacks spread fear rather than offer enticement. 

There will be consequences as today's kids grow up.  Will they vote to fund protection and support of the great outdoors?  If they've never had a good experience outdoors, they won't be part of the constituency of support.

There are clearly some opportunities here for all of us--parents, grandparents, and travel journalists--to address this issue, in our families, communities, and media.  The enhancement, alerting young people to the joy nature, needs to occur one kid at a time.

Richard Bangs' New Book

I have just begun reading Richard Bangs' engaging new book, ADVENTURES WITH PURPOSE (Menasha Ridge).

Bangs has been a major player in the adventure travel and conservation world for some time.  An expert river runner with many first descents, Bangs knows how to engage the reader and raise the adventure to a higher psychological level.

Many in the public may recall his celebrated Mungo Park dispatches in the mid 1990s.  With Microsoft backing and technology, Bangs was able to make reports over the new Internet medium from remote sites, suggesting the possibilities of the Internet. 

Bangs was one of the founders of the large adventure travel company, Mountain Travel Sobek, and has authored over a dozen books.  His RIDING THE DRAGON'S BACK won a Lowell Thomas Award in 1989.

Bangs has also been a critical political player in the conservation field by drawing attention to many remote areas, awakening the passion for preserving these areas, especially rivers.  This is part of the "purpose" theme of the current book.  Remote areas must be deeply felt to be saved.  Bangs engages the reader, raising awareness of threatened people, places, animals, and habitats.

The current book draws together Bangs' reports on 16 of his worldwide adventures.

I have finished the first chapter, "The Quest For the Lord of the Nile," set, of course, in Egypt.  It is a compelling read about Bangs' fascination with the crocodiles of the Nile.  Bangs has also produced a PBS documentary on this subject.

Bangs is far more than a thrill seeker.  If you want a thoughtful and literate, yet spirited report on adventures, Bangs' new book would be a good choice.

Assistance requested in writing my obituary

Dear Colleagues,

I realize you may consider this a ghoulish exercise, but I am writing to request your assistance in preparing my obituary. I wish to get my affairs in order.

Not one of us likes to think of our demise, but very few of us get out of this life alive. Those who have a successful strategy on this important point might wish to share this with us by hitting the Reply All.

Superior nutrition and good health habits (I work out each weekday night at the Berkeley Y) probably assure me a far longer life than was lived by my grandfather, Edwin Winfield Foster, who succumbed at age 96. But I am conservative in my projections, so I am assuming only 4 more years of life than he experienced.

So here is a start today at my obituary. I’m sure there are typos in it and errors of concept. Those of you with more vision than I have may well be able to project beyond the few short years that I see clearly ahead. There are omissions about my past also, but space is limited. I am now healthy at age 64, but, as I mentioned, I am not confident that I will live beyond 100.

Here is a first draft, your suggestions requested:

Associated Press, April 1, 2043:

Lee Foster, Travel Journalist, 1943-2043

Noted travel journalist Lee Foster passed away this week on April 1, 2043 in Berkeley, California.

“He died as he has lived now for decades,” said one observer. “He was looking at his computer screen with a smile in his eyes. He had a toasted baguette with melted brie in his left hand and a glass of Chardonnay in his right hand.”

Foster lived for the past 30 years in Berkeley at the Home For Marginalized Travel Journalists, a national franchise of retirement residences set up by generous grants from travel industry providers in 2010, saluting “Those who created the market for travel.” (Editor’s historic note: These residences were fully funded before the terrible Green Travel Panic and Crash of 2011, which bankrupted most of these travel companies in 2012.)

It is said that Foster published words or photos, at one time or another, in every major travel magazine and newspaper of his time, from Travel + Leisure to the New York Times. His travel books won major awards. Over all, his work won seven Lowell Thomas Awards. He had been the first travel journalist ever to earn a dollar in publishing travel in an online situation, back in 1983, when he did a deal with CompuServe to put his travel writing online in return for a 10 percent royalty. He had travel photos in 225 books of a persistent brand known as Lonely Planet, which did not go bankrupt until 2015.

Speculation was widespread about, “What happened to Foster?”

“Clearly, Foster peaked about 2005,” said one observer, as he dipped into the soft Opus I Merlot on the festive boat chartered to scatter Foster’s ashes in San Francisco Bay. “By 2006 the $0 crowdsourcing tendencies in the travel media had knocked out his writing markets. By 2007 the $1 microstock intrusions had crippled his photo markets. Foster’s problem was that he continued to fight the trend. He would have been OK if he had followed the wise path of most of his colleagues, succumbed to the pervasive depression, and given up the quest for profitability. He did not know how to go gently into that good night. That was his downfall.”

A spokesman for Google, a longterm Foster partner, felt these comments were not the total story, as he savored the Asiago aged cheese and western states pine nuts in pesto, both on crackers, which Foster had specified be available for guests in his final ash-scattering event on San Francisco Bay. The Google spokesman requested anonymity, as did all the commentators on Foster, due to the animosity towards Foster that peaked in the landmark 2022 Supreme Court Case Foster vs Reason (Case # 172GCW), which can be Googled.

“The $0 crowdsourcing and $1 microstock did not actually destroy Foster,” said the Google representative. “It was not until the Green Movement/Global Warming fully took over travel in 2008 on a worldwide basis that Foster weakened substantially. When all 192 nations in the UN endorsed the ‘Chill Out, Don’t Travel’ motto in 2009, and required that this be displayed in 16 point type on all travel product advertisements, Foster saw his last profitable web publishing opportunities diminish.”

The Google representative’s comments hushed conversation a bit, especially among the old timers aboard the farewell boat trip for Foster. Many of them recalled the terrible Green Travel Panic and Crash of 2011, which some students of history felt exceeded in scope the US Depression Crash of 1929. The worldwide travel industry was unable to respond quickly enough to growing antipathy towards all travel, which requires so much energy and emits so much carbon. Virtually all travel companies worldwide went bankrupt by March 2012, shunned by every virtuous human being on the planet.

“To his credit,” added the Google representative, “Foster did hang in there to the bitter end. We have in our archives that the last Adsense Ad related to a travel product was delivered on April 18, 2012, and it was to Foster Travel Publishing (www.fostertravel.com). Apparently, we had a little excess inventory from a small yacht cruise ship in the Galapagos, which was a few years behind the curve, and we delivered the ad to a consumer looking at Foster’s article about the Galapagos. The consumer was from Myanmar and wished to go the Galapagos, not knowing, of course, that airline travel had ceased to Ecuador. I can’t blame the consumer because Internet access in the country had been somewhat truncated at times.”

By 2012, observers report, Foster had pretty much given up the struggle and continued to persist in a vegetative state at the Home for Marginalized Travel Journalists in Berkeley.

Foster’s later appearance in the news occurred in 2022 as the long, slow legal case against Foster, mentioned above, made its way to the Supreme Court. The main argument of the plaintiffs in the aforementioned class action suit, Foster vs Reason (Case # 172GCW) was Lost Alternative Income Opportunity. This was best expressed on the final ash-scattering voyage by Plaintiff X, who mentioned also that she particularly enjoyed the Oberle San Luis Obispo County Cabernet paired with the Sonoma Goat Cheese in a radicchio salad.

“Our main argument with Foster was that he gave us hope, which was unconscionable,” said Plaintiff X. “When the system was gradually crashing, he held out the prospect of potential travel journalism profitability. This was sinful, illegal, and inappropriate behavior by Foster. In my case, he deprived me of ten potentially profitable years selling Real Estate. I could have made a bundle. But Foster sucked me in with the hope that I could survive economically as a travel journalist. It was all those professional development sessions on Travel and the Internet. It is for this that we hang him in effigy every year on his birthday, July 23.”

Carbon Offsets as the New Indulgences in Travel

I hope the traveling public will show a measured response of respect and skepticism to the new "carbon offset" presentations about travel products.

The entire "green" movement in travel is so fraught with the prospect of chicanery that vigilance is desirable.  We have environmental problems on a huge scale--that is a given.  We also have creative people addressing those problems in travel in a responsible way--that is to be desired.  But there is also the huge possibility of the desire for profit masquerading as virtue.  Every single assertion and situation should be looked at with some intensity.

For example, today I received a press release about a small ship in the Galapagos celebrating its "carbon offset" contribution.

Seeing the Galapagos is one of the major environmental treats available to the world traveler, as I recount on my report about visiting there, which I have been able to do twice.  See

http://www.fostertravel.com/temp-GALAPA.html

Regarding carbon offset, in other words, here is the thinking: we have sinned by creating this huge consumption issue of sending travelers to the Galapagos.  We will redeem ourselves by investing some money in a "carbon offset."  The amount invested is not stated, so one does not know if the investment is trivial, as a marketing ploy, or substantial.

"Carbon offsets" run the risk of being the new "indulgences."  In the Middle Ages, as students of theological history may recall, the Catholic Church sold indulgences.  If you've sinned, you could redeem yourself by buying indulgences.  All had sinned, as is human.  But indulgences might keep you out of hell or reduce your time in purgatory.  Since the time frame was all eternity, the investment was considered appropriate.  In today's terms it might be seen as risk avoidance, possibly for a long time.  Selling indulgences was a profit center for the Catholic priesthood of the time.  It also provoked a young German, Martin Luther, to nail a few theses to a door of a German church and start some corrective actions.

If the "carbon offset" is highly focused, then I think it should be supported today.  For example, if a Galapagos cruise "carbon offset" goes to immediate solar and wind installations on the Galapagos, making them more sustainable, then this would be a good thing, assuming the Galapagos has the solar gain and the wind energy resource to harvest.  That is another issue.  We don't want wind power installations in becalmed environments, just for virtue.  We don't want solar panels installed, with virtue, in total cloud cover environments.  Each claim to virtue needs to be assessed, and supported thankfully when found to be economical.

There is a lot of technical know-how required to evaluate the complex world of the Galapagos and all the yachts/small cruise ships that service it.  Can more efficient engines power the yachts? Can better desalinization systems solve the drinking water issues?  Those would be legitimate "carbon offset" targets.

The outfit behind this press release is EcoVentura and their Galapagos reservation people at Galapagos Network.

Vastness of the Cruise Industry

I was struck this week by the vastness and prosperity of the cruise industry.

I have been following cruising for some time and have a dozen cruise articles on www.fostertravel.com if you select Menu of 200 Destinations, then Worldwide, and then Cruising.

Yet the robust growth of this aspect of travel continues to astound me.

I received this week the annual book on cruising put out by the Cruise Lines International Association, whose 24 members represent 97 percent of the cruise capacity in North America.

Their website, incidentally, has a major consumer information component, so if you are interested in cruising, become aware of www.cruising.org.

An overview of where cruising is going is just amazing:

-This is the fastest growing element of the travel industry.  About 500,000 people took a cruise in 1970.  More than 12 million cruised in 2006, and the 2007 estimate is 12.5 million.

-The cruise industry's economic benefit to the US economy was estimated at $35.7 billion in 2006.

-The number of new ships continues to grow, reflecting an optimism about the future.  Nearly 40 ships were built in the 1980s, nearly 80 in the 1990s, and roughly 100 new ships will have been introduced since 2000 by the end of 2007.

-What the cruise ship experience is continues to become more diversified.  Though there are mega-ships, there are also many new small niche ships, such as those focused on nature.  Cruising now means more ports of call than ever before.  Your cruise ship may now have wifi, a rock climbing wall, multiple themed restaurants, and all the spa and fitness amenities imaginable.

-No one seems to thing the audience has been exhausted.  Only about 17 percent of US adults have taken a cruise.

-The average cruiser is now 49 years of age, down from the stereotype "older" market of the past.  Average household income of cruisers is $104,000, a dramatic figure in itself.  Florida, California, and Texas are the big three states for cruise patrons.

-Another amazing aspect of cruising is that about 90 percent are booked through travel agents.  In fact, cruise bookings account for more than half of all the vacation sales income for travel agents.  As travel agents struggle to survive in the new economy, cruise sales have been their salvation, as other sectors work directly with consumers and bypass the travel agent.

I've cruised on some big ships in the Caribbean, where the ship was the destination.  I've also cruised with small ships in Alaska, where getting close to humpback whales was the main point.  I've even cruised down the Yangtze to experience China.  You can see this in my write-ups on www.fostertravel.com.  The diversity of the cruise experience in 2007 provides an option for almost every taste.

Michael Frome, Conservationist

On a few occasions in the past, while at major gatherings of travel journalists, I have been in the presence of Michael Frome, the noted conservationist.  I always sensed that he was a man of substance in shaping the American environmental landscape, but didn't know too much about him.

Recently, however, I became aware of two of his books, HEAL THE EARTH, HEAL THE SOUL (Bartram Books, Milwaukee) and REBEL ON THE ROAD (Truman State University Press).

Looking at these books is an inspirational read.

Frome returns again and again the central theme of his journalistic life--that he could never be just an "objective" journalist, that becoming an advocate for wilderness, national parks, and conservation was his calling.

In the HEAL THE EARTH book there are affectionate portraits that Frome has penned over the years to the great pioneers in the American environmental movement.  To those of us who did not know these personalities, their life stories are intriguing.

There is a lot to learn in these pages.  Though I grew up in Minnesota, for example, I didn't know that Hubert Humphrey was an author of the original Wilderness Act.

Frome has been around longer than most of us, thriving now at age 86 in Wisconsin.  It is touching to read of his plane ride as a WWII -era airman across the Amazon, when that area was indeed a trackless wilderness. 

Frome knew the politics and the players, large and small, in the developing American environmental movement.

Early on, Frome took to heart Thoreau's comment, "In wilderness is the preservation of the world."  After internalizing those comments, there was no allowance for mere dispassionate reporting on the American great outdoors.  Frome became the advocate.  He always had opinions, and editors hired or fired him on that basis.

The REBEL ON THE ROAD book is more of an autobiography, just as the HEAL THE EARTH is more of a collection of philosophical reflections.

The subtitle for REBEL ON THE ROAD says it all:  WHY I WAS NEVER NEUTRAL.

If you seek an engaging look at the philosophical writings and life story of one of the great American conservationists, pick up these two books by Michael Frome.

The Pleasures of Minneapolis Saint Paul

I recently had an opportunity to visit the Twin Cities again and update my article on the "quality of life" vision of these two cities.  Of particular interest to travelers is the developing Riverfront District of Minneapolis, which now has a Mill City Museum, explaining the flour milling story.  You can walk out on the Stone Arch Bridge and see the present configuration of St. Anthony Falls, the only cataract of rushing water on the entire Mississippi.  Because this waterfall could be harnessed to create mechanical power, flour mills were built in Minneapolis, and the city became the flour milling capital of the world.  Adjacent to the Mill City Museum is the Guthrie Theater.  I enjoyed dinner in its Cue restaurant and then saw a performance of 1776.  The Guthrie is one of the outstanding repertory companies now flourishing.  One specialty of Minneapolis, incidentally, is fine dining in its major cultural venues.  The other restaurant I savored was Wolfgang Puck's 20-21 in the Walker Art Gallery.  The Walker now hosts a special exhibit about Picasso's influence on American art .