The endangered butterfly has become an ideal  insect for scientists measuring the damage of climate change

A new study published in Ecological Entomology shows some species of butterflies adapt much better than others to warming temperatures, especially in mountain landscapes.

Which are most at risk? It appears butterfly species which emerge later in the year or fly higher in the different elevations of a mountain range in central Spain have evolved to reproduce in a shorter window of time, and as a result, may fare worse than those that emerge over a longer period of time.

“We’re already expecting localized extinctions of about one third of butterfly species, so we need to understand how climate change will affect those that survive,” says Javier G. Illan, with the Department of Forest Ecosystems and Society at Oregon State University.

Illan’s group of researchers working at Rey Juan Carlos University in Madrid studied flight patterns of 32 butterfly species for five years at different elevations in a Mediterranean mountain range. They noted the delays in flight dates that occurred as a result of elevation change.

Butterflies are ultra sensitive to climate change and therefore good models for understanding the broader scope of ecological effects linked to insects in terms of pollination and herbivory. In fact, their flight dates are said to be good indicators of future responses to climate change .

Meanwhile, the Brown Argus has defied the odds. The rare British butterfly with orange and white spots near its wingtips is thriving rather than disappearing as a result of extreme temperatures as predicted.

As reported by Scientific American, the insects are on the move and expanding their range northwards some 40 miles, according to the UK Butterfly Monitoring Scheme. This means they are no longer solely dependent upon a single plant species, the Rockrose, which grows on south-facing slopes and absorbs the warmth the butterfly’s caterpillars require.

The Rockrose plant’s choice is cool weather, hosting caterpillars on the underside of leaves on south-facing hillsides, but balmier summer conditions has prompted the butterfly to warm up to new plants such as the Dove’s Foot Cranesbill.

This ability to adapt and expand north shows promise for some species. But according to ecologists, large range retractions in the south cannot be counterbalanced by the expansions in the north. In fact, About ten percent of all of Europe’s butterflies face extinction due to climate change, along with loss of grassland habitat from intensive farming and abandonment of traditional farming in Europe, forest fires and the expansion of tourism.

The same culprits threaten 14% of dragonflies and 11% of saprophytic beetles, according to the European Red List report for the European commission. Among the species listed as critically endangered – the striking Madeiran large white butterfly not spotted on the island of Madeira in twenty years; and the Macedonian Grayling which has suffered habitat loss due to quarrying.

Recently, Richard Pearson, a scientist at the American Museum of Natural History, cited the Red List in a New York Times Opinion page, warning us that a mass extinction is afoot. Some 20,000 species of animals and plants around the globe are deemed high risks and such a rapid loss of so many has only occurred five times in the past 540 million years. Around 65 million years ago, the last mass extinction wiped out the dinosaurs.

Writing about the pending loss of life on the planet, Pearson, who is the author of Driven to Extinction: The Impact of Climate Change on Biodiversity, suggested “this should keep us awake at night.”

He also urged us to invest in ecosystem services considered public goods. “We need to put a realistic value on nature, and we need effective environmental legislation that protects entire ecosystems.”

The post Some Butterflies Doomed, Others Thrive, with Climate Change appeared first on EcoSalon.

Summer battles are heating up in California over an $11.1 billion water bond.

You can lead taxpayers to a bloated water bond but you can’t make them drink  – even if you color coat the controversial measure as the Safe, Clean and Reliable Drinking Water Supply Act of 2012. EcoSalon first reported on this important environmental issue in 2010 when it was first to be on the ballot. But Prop 18 was delayed until the November election by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger who didn’t want to jeopardize its passage.

He crafted his plan during a drought crisis witnessing fields going fallow, unemployment rates reaching 40 percent in some Central Valley farm towns and an ecological collapse in the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta where salmon run was nearing extinction.

“It’s critical that the water bond pass, as it will improve California’s economic growth, environmental sustainability and water supply for future generations,” Schwarzenegger said.

But environmentalists and others have lined up against it, accusing state republicans of being more concerned with dams that subsidize big agribusiness than ecosystem restoration, groundwater cleanup, funding for safe drinking water, recycling and drought relief included in the bill.The centerpiece of the bond is a proposed massive new dam on the San Joaquin River east of Fresno.

Groups like the Sierra Club argue the bond is “all wet” since the bulk of the billions will go to dams – some owned in part by private corporations, as well as a new peripheral canal or tunnel. 

“Rather than address our problems as a one-time purchase, we need to come up with a steady stream of financing that we can use to take on the big, ongoing problems facing our state’s water systems,” the Sierra Club posted on its website.

Gov. Jerry Brown is a vocal  proponent of the canal first introduced in the early 1980s to divert water south from the Sacramento River and the Delta. Economists now figure the project will run $53.8 billion, more than first estimated. Brown also is also defending a $68-billion plan to build a high-speed rail system despite a $15.7 billion deficit and goal to raise taxes.

As Brown sees it: “California is growing. This is not Europe. We’re very entrepreneurial, very innovative, and people are still coming here. We need to make sure we have a realizable water supply.”

Still, some argue the pork-laden bond in its current state has no chance of passing as voters mining for water ask how can the state possibly afford it.

“All everybody’s been talking about is an $11 billion bond when we’re broke,” said John McManus of the Earthjustice environmental group.

Broke or not, it appears climate change will only continue to add to water shortages, a reason water is now considered more precious than oil and more valuable than gold. Water wars – such as the feuding over the bond in California -may be just the tip of the iceberg as runoff becomes even scarcer.

Image: water and power; Metropolitan Water District: US Fish and Wildlife

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Restored vintage resorts in and around Palm Springs are booked up despite scorching heat.

The seasonal exodus to and from Palm Springs is grinding to a near halt this time of year, as temperatures climb to 110 and even beyond.

Things have never looked brighter in summer. Sure, it can be hard to move vigorously at peak heat hours but visitors are getting around the intense rays and seizing good room and travel rates at highly desirable hot spots. Booking rooms well after the spring break deluge are singles and families who are finding the air can be therapeutic and the golf and swimming spectacular if you play by the rules.

“You have to get up very early, like by 6 am to play golf or walk or else it can be pretty uncomfortable,” says Andy Pritikin, a restaurant supply salesman who has been entertaining friends on the weekends at his second home in the Duna La Quinta.

The early-to-rise, early-to-take-cover approach, is routine for desert dwellers during the high season in spring. But with the season extending through June, tourists are enjoying soaking up the lush landscapes of bougainvillea and palms. Here’s some great getaways they’re choosing to stay at:

La Quinta Resort and Club, La Quinta

Among places reporting weekend bookings through the month – La Quinta Resort and Club – part of the Waldorf Astoria chain. It was built in the early 1930s by San Francisco businessman Walter Morgan using renown architect Gordon Kaufman and scores of artisan craftsman. Basically, the city of La Quinta sprang up around this attraction molded from more than 100,000 hand-formed adobe bricks and 60,000 locally fired roof tiles.

Perhaps the most family oriented of desert resorts, it was bustling on Memorial Day weekend with couples sipping wine on the patios and packs of kids cruising on scooters and bikes. The good news is that the resort is self contained with bike paths for tourists who can avoid cars and find what they need on site, including upscale organic fare in the restaurants, golf and tennis on the property. While golf is a big drain, first class resorts here and elsewhere are using reclaimed water when possible. The resort, however, has yet to replace  lush, manicured lawns with the xeriscaping associated with the desert landscape.

“Occupancy is at its peak for the beginning of the summer – as we have about a 40% average for confirmed stay each months so far which definitely places us on the upside of almost being sold out for each weekend throughout the summer,” says Norma Martinez, a resort agent. “Lately we have availability early week and by Wednesday, the weekends are either close to being booked or completely sold out.”

She says the variety of activities from spa treatments to rounds of golf, tennis, shopping and dining is the draw, along with attractive rates. You can also get available room upgrades and free breakfast for two when you book with certain credit cards.

In terms of the rooms (owned either privately or by the hotel) a five night stay from June 24-28 in a deluxe poolside casita with two queens in early California decor goes for only $100 a night. Sometimes, you have to pay in the upper $300’s a night at these kinds of resorts.

Hotel Lautner, Desert Hot Springs

“We opened in September and there has been no lull yet – this is our first summer and so far it has been wonderful with all of the people in town,” shares LA. designer, Tracy Beckmann, co-owner of the acclaimed Hotel Lautner. The four-unit compound in Desert Hot Springs was designed in 1947 by famed architect John Lautner for Hollywood producer Lucien Hubbard. Beckmann and Ryan Trowbridge restored and reopened the mid-century charmer and won an award for Best Commericial Renovation by the Palm Springs Modern committee.

Featured as the backdrop of a fashion spread in the May issue of Town & Country -it has been called a hybrid between a vacation home rental and boutique hotel.

Its lure has been the fully equipped units with the luxuries of post-modern living and a shared  common pool and patio space. “We only book two weeks in advance so it has been pretty full,” shares Beckmann. “We get some Angelinos but really it has been New Yorkers and people from San Francisco because of the great deals on Virgin American. It costs like $700 to fly from L.A. to Palm Springs but the flight deals elsewhere are really cheap.”

She has kept the rooms at the introductory rate of $225 per night during the week and $275 on weekends with a two night minimum but might lower rates to entice mid-century dwelling seekers if rates if the bookings dry up.

Orbit In, Palm Springs

It seems one of the late season draws for singles and couples is the chance to occupy spaces of architectural significance, such as the Orbit In Hotel designed by Herbert  Burns in 1947 as an ultramodern motor court.

Two hotels in one, the nine-room Hideaway is billed as a private complex for groups only (three night minimum) while the Oasis is a nine room retro-futuristic hotel with a saltwater pool and lava-lamp Boomerang bar.

For those who can break away from the work week when the best deals and most space is to be had, the Orbit is dangling weekday specials. Like other mid-century architecture of the Frank Sinatra era being revived in the Springs, it has small but chic reductionist chic allure reflecting the modernist sensibility that less  is more.

Since weekends are booking up pretty fast in the desert, you can always ask to be put on a waiting list at the popular retro hideaways. For some visitors, the heat proves too intense and space can open up for the fierce Bedouin in desperate need of an Orbitini, dip in solar heated salt water or hit some balls with recycled tees for the aggravating yet rewarding endeavor of making par.

Image: Hotel Lautner

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California teens wonder where the race to nowhere ends and summer begins.

California high schools have let out for a couple of months but for many teens it’s just more of the same in skimpier clothing.

Afternoons at AT&T Park waving a goofy foam finger or baking on the sands of Zuma Beach are rare additions to hectic schedules calculated to give them a leg up. Sure, a short family cruise might be squeezed into June – but on deck they must tackle that required summer reading list and plug into something more constructive than Facebook or else rock the boat.

“It’s all about the competition,” shares Cam, a sophomore at Saint Ignatius College Prep in San Francisco, a private Jesuit school known throughout the state for its academic and athletic excellence. “You deserve the downtime but you feel bad if you are on the beach and somebody else is going to summer school or doing community service.”

The sophomore’s large inner circle of  friends say they concur with her view, girls who can barely remember carefree summer days of lemon-aid stands and sleep-away camps.

Instead, after a few days of freedom, they are anticipating more responsibility with temporary jobs, Spanish immersion, community service, sports recruitment camps or doing summer school online and in the classroom. Junior year means buckling down and exploring colleges.

Among those enrolled in summer schools are gifted artists repeating mandatory math and science courses – classes baby boomers took as electives but are now college musts. If a 4.0 GPA was once the standard for admittance to a good college that can lead to a good job, the new average is 4.5 plus volunteer gigs and other evidence of a well-rounded education.

“I feel a skill as particular as studying chemistry is just useless when I know I won’t be using it as a writer,” says Paige, an honors English sophomore and prize-winning poet. “I’m forced to jump through hoops and race hard but for what? You graduate and still can’t get a job. Students are protesting at Harvard and Yale and other Ivy League schools because they can’t find work.”

At Saint Ignatius, where the lunch hour will be cut in half next year to give students the “gift” of more time to be productive, several gifted athletes quit basketball and other team sports this year, despite great disappointment from their fathers who coached them since kindergarten.

The timing occurred in the months following three teen suicides  in San Francisco (two at SI, one at another private school). The tragedies have had a devastating impact on students and the community. And some of the kids cited an awakening of sorts as one reason they literally took themselves out of the race equation, quitting highly competitive and stressful activities and embracing the joy of dance, golf, theater and guitar lessons.

While the jury is out on whether pressure to be a winner in all fields is linked to teen suicide, students have balked about feeling powerless, overwhelmed and depressed over unreasonable expectations.

“You can’t just be excellent at something anymore,” insists Paige. “Adults with with the power to influence the outcome of our futures are asking if we are excellent enough.”

Teens complain that the kind of curriculum and unyielding schedules they must juggle are just too much and end up sacrificing  their childhoods. It’s a valid question for those too old for camp and running through sprinklers and too young to cope with emotional exhaustion.

This sacrifice of childhood facilitated by over-achieving parents and status hungry schools is was prompted the Race to Nowhere film and social action campaign which is making huge inroads. Advocates of an education revolution are urging for an ease to the kill and drill approach to learning and networking for an end to constant testing, more sleep, shorter school days and better homework guidelines among other steps to alleviating stress.

Evidence shows the performance pressure is entirely out of whack with the  cognitive and physical development of young adults while failing to address the reality of what awaits their generation.

Progressive thinkers like Sir Ken Robinson argue the current academic climate – which penalizes failure – is educating the creativity out of kids and failing the 21st century’s needs for creative problem solvers.

“We’re running national education systems where mistakes are the worse thing you can make, yet if you aren’t prepared to be wrong, you will never come up with anything original,” stated Robinson in his widely hailed presentation Do Schools Kill Creativity at a TED Conference. “Picasso said all kids are born artists and the problem is to remain an artist as we grow up. I think math is important, but so is dance.”

Other critics blogging about the race argue a system predicated on academic ability and testing positions students on a college tract starting in kindergarten, and it doesn’t let up in the summer. All activities in and out of school are designed with an eye on the prize, college and a well paying job. Is it working?

More people than ever worldwide are going to college and graduating and suddenly degrees are actually worthless. As Robinson notes, more kids are heading home after college to play video games or wait tables in the neighborhood. According to the Chronicle of Higher Education, some 17 million young Americans with college degrees are employed in menial jobs requiring less than the skill set associated with a bachelor’s degree.

“The system is designed to make us want to go to college, like college is for everyone and everyone has to be super smart,” observes Cam. “The truth is it is all about memorizing and it doesn’t build on anything. Our education in the U.S. is 10-feet wide and one-inch deep, while in Europe it is said to be the opposite.”

Cam’s friend Paige adds: “If the race is all about college, then I’m going to be damn sure to go to a school that is fun and creative with cool people so that I can thrive. Still, if I could come up with something brilliant to do other than going to college, I would.”

Adopting a new conception of how we educate our students to use their creativity wisely could create a healthy shift in seeing our children for who they are, asserts Robinson.

“We might not see the future,” he figures, “But they will.”

Images: Brandeis; Jacrews7;

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How super-sized cruise ships add to the oil crisis.

Recent news that the 2,600 passenger Grand Princess cruise ship will be docked in San Francisco one year from now has unleashed a titanic blast of excitement. Naturally, the thrill of thousands of passengers and crew routinely disembarking at the pier is music to the ears of struggling retailers and restaurateurs. In the meantime, avid cruise fans enticed by dramatic discounts can sail from the Bay and save on airfare for voyages to Alaska, Hawaii, Mexico and the California coast.

“Having the ship sail under the Golden Gate Bridge and berth at the foot of Coit Tower will be spectacular, both for the guests on board and the people of San Francisco,” raves Monique Moyer, Executive Director of the Port of San Francisco.

The Oasis of the Seas

But critics of the supersized cruise ship trend are signaling foggy conditions ahead for accessing the country’s needs to keep its affluenza afloat. Habitual over consumption and the demand for cool aqua parks and live theaters on billion-dollar high rise vessels comes at a huge cost to both the environment and the widening schism between rich and poor. This, amid a growing discontent among the masses worldwide and a contagious occupy mentality. Will occupy the Grand Princess be next?

In terms of greenhouse gas elements, more energy arguably goes into making these ships than what they burn out of a smoke stack – the fabricating of steel, the welding and electronics racks up a stupendous energy and carbon bill – one under-reported by the industry.

Add to that the issue of how ships function, the need for massive diesel fuel and electricity at a time when the end of cheap fossil fuel is a reality – no longer dismissed as the rantings of extremists. An increasing number of thoughtful scientists and economists are writing about dwindling peak oil, skyrocketing prices for a gallon of gas and our dependency on an oil-based lifestyle.

“As steel gets harder to get and more people become aware of what we are doing to get fuel that remains, they will want to prioritize the use of oil out of necessity and use it for moving people around and getting food from where it grows to where it needs to be,” observes Bay Area conservationist, Win Lamar.

He figures resentment will grow if oil is used frivolously on non personal transportation for luxury excursions. “Ships are still for the one-percent elite and as long as resources and wealth go to the fewest, the anger will climax. Look at Syria, Italy, Greece and Spain. People are taking up arms in the street, normal looking people who look like you and me are smashing property in downtown Madrid and it’s only a matter of time before it starts here.”

The award-winning ‘Central Park’ aboard the Oasis

If the prediction is accurate, it will reach tall heights before it falls as witnessed in the fawning over the unparalleled grandeur of world’s largest cruise ship, the Grand Caribbean’s Oasis of the Seas christened in 2009 and lovingly labeled a “floating nation” by the company.

How big is it? As the Daily Telegraph put it, “it’s so big that $75 million has been spent on tripling the size of the Port Everglades terminal at Fort Lauderdale where it sails, and new docks have been built around the Caribbean to berth it for Caribbean cruises.”

Costing $1.4 billion to build and able to carry 6,296 passengers at a time, the juggernaut epitomes excess with features such as its award -winning Boardwalk and Central Park. Carved out in the center of the ship, the public area with pathways mimics a city promenade with open air, lush plant life with canopy trees and seasonal gardens.

Stats show the mother of all ships has sold for roughly 41% more on the average than the rest of the company’s fleet with the least expensive rooms selling for 61% or more. And because of discounts introduced the past few years, cruising is on the rise, 13.4 million people shipping out in 2009 up from 12.6 in 2007, according to the Cruise Lines International Association.

Sure, the discounts cut into profits but the cruise lines are looking at a recovery on the horizon whether feasible or not.

Aqua Park on the Oasis luxury liner

All this means more fuel down the drain and more pollution emptied into the sea, despite stricter federal regulations and efforts on the parts of ships to go greener and clean up their acts. Ocean pollution watch group Oceania reports ships are more harmful to the environment than airplanes, generating up to 25,000 gallons of sewage from toilets and 143,000 gallons of sewage from sinks, galleys and showers each day. Scariest of all, the waste is often dumped without treatment, sending bacteria, pathogens and heavy metals into our coastal environments.

 Plastic in the sea from cruise ships poses harm to marine life

Some of the improvements being made are measurable and lauded as pioneering technologies while other steps amount to greenwashing by what is considered the fastest growing segment of tourism.

Crystal’s Go Green shore excursion, introduced last year has been criticized as a Band-Aid to cover a gaping wound. Passengers paying some $5,000 for the cruise can fork over another $95 for a day of doing good deeds in Malta such as planting trees on the island’s only national park, donating food to a charity and learning about growing practices at an organic farm.

According to the New York  Times, Princess Cruises is trying cold ironing, plugging ships into electrical power at ports in San Francisco, Juneau, Alaska and Seattle. Norwegian introduced a recycling program in 2007 converting used cooking oil to bio diesel for farming equipment in Florida. Disney sponsors volunteer coastal cleanups to remove debris from shorelines and Holland America donates reusable linens, beds and dishes to charities. Others such as Carnival have an environmental officer aboard to monitor compliance with LED lighting, solar panels and other alternative energy strategies.

A cruise ship cold ironing at port in San Francisco

While travelers who must cruise are urged to do their due diligence in investigating large and small ships that are lowering their carbon energy bills, some conservationists argue the best message you can send is to find another way to explore.

“It is interesting times,” observes Lamar. “First we went as fast as possible galloping on horses or having animals pull a wagon and then trains sped things up and then oil was discovered and we had autos, airplanes and these giant ships, and now it’s all winding down with the end of cheap, easy oil. I think that’s a good thing for the planet.”

Image: Royal Caribbean

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How state laws designed to make hospitals earthquake proof are threatening services, forging mergers and jerking costs of care.

As a 2013 deadline looms for meeting the first set of standards of seismic compliance, hundreds of California hospitals ordered to retrofit their buildings are pleading for extensions. The majority of them are facing a lending crunch during the unyielding recession: How will they possibly secure billions in funding needed to get their buildings up to code by 2020?

Code compliance has basically become a sink-or-swim scenario for medical providers that must either conform or risk losing acute care in buildings they fail to upgrade. That threat has prompted public policy observers and industry leaders to condemn the mandate as a huge mess created by naive lawmakers who enacted Senate bill 1953 in 1994 following the Northridge earthquake. It is clear now to the public that those lawmakers failed to consider how much it would cost to make these centers safer than safe, despite the fact most medical buildings have survived past earthquakes without a loss of life.

The scope of a retrofit covers a wide and complex range of hospital features from securing a foundation and walls that might crumble to installing stronger beams to improving plumbing and wiring and securing any precarious objects that might fall when a building shakes. While not part of the mandate, hospitals are using the opportunity of rebuilding to address energy consumption issues in their building envelopes (roofs, walls and insulation) and all  systems such as air conditioning, heating, and the timely replacement of energy-hogging equipment.

Some hospitals are taking the effort to also achieve one of the LEED certification standards in overall ecologically friendly design in the performance and reconstruction of their buildings. LEED as it applies to hospital buildings has its own set of challenges. Hospitals use a tremendous amount of energy to operate daily and California architects recognize that even adding solar panels to parking structures will help to make a small dent in the overall consumption. It also sends a message to the community that they are conscious of their own energy consumption.

While embracing the green alternative energy with open arms, teams responsible for moving quickly to secure their walls and foundations are being bogged down with stringent fire safety codes requiring compliance of facilities which are already non- combustible. This also works to complicate an already stressed facility system for hospitals. Architects, designers and project managers complain of being inundated with unreasonable and redundant safety measures all at once, making it even more expensive and convoluted as they strive to do their jobs in providing retrofitted structures for patients and staff.

The largest obstacle, though, is not innovating a master plan to comply with the codes but obtaining the astronomical funding needed to rebuild. The timing couldn’t be worse as CFO’s go begging for money during the recession when already skittish  lenders are expected to step forward and do what the state is refusing to do: Finance enormous retrofit projects while  incurring an approximate 3% annual escalation rate while awaiting approvals from an already taxed regulatory process.

El Centro Regional Medical Center, one of thousands in the planning stages of compliance with state mandate

The Office of Statewide Health Planning and Development (OSHPD) – which oversees the construction and planning for the hospitals –  is said to be short staffed and flooded with plans and taking a year or longer to issue permits for hospitals to actually begin work.

“If the entire project runs $100 million and inflation escalates at 3% per year, then a year of delay by the state regulatory commission is costing $3 million, and that is money that could save lives,” insists Steve Henry Nielsen,  architect and project manager on one such project in the planning stages at the El Centro Regional Medical Center near San Diego.

Like many hospitals, this one is choosing a a re-design of each of its non-conforming buildings over shutting down and starting over. And while it is able to meet the 2013 deadline by submitting its master plans and drawings for its central utility plant, the architect argues it is costing taxpayers too much to make  changes based on theoretical fears.

“Are we going to lose more lives from people not affording health care due to the rising costs from these upgrades or from buildings falling down on them?” wonders Nielsen, who adds it all boils down to a fear factor in the country which has given rise to excessively stringent building codes. “We’re spending billions statewide – Loma Linda Hospital is estimating $800 million alone for its upgrades – for an added percentile of safety we will never utilize; an added percentile costing a real premium.”

Larger hospitals in Los Angeles and the Bay Area are being hit even harder by the high costs of healthcare infrastructure construction than their rural counterparts which tend to be one-story buildings in valleys at a low earthquake risk. According to the Rand Corporation, the finished cost of a newly furnished and equipped hospital is about $1,000 per square-foot, more than three times the cost of building a new office tower.

Lenders seem to favor the larger hospitals as sure bets when financing these projects, according to outspoken critic Wanda Jones, who runs a San Francisco consulting firm, The New Century Healthcare Institute which educates the public and the industry on healthcare policy issues.

“The recession is causing a downturn in hospital demand as workers lose their co-pay or insurance and lenders aren’t interested in loaning to places with 50% occupancy,” she stresses, “And at the same time the state won’t provide lending or grants. These lawmakers who passed this are just so ignorant in their hubris of not knowing anything about interest rates. They thought this was merely a matter of retrofitting buildings but you can’t retrofit when you have patients with all of the dust and noise and shutting down proves untenable.”

Jones adds that lawmakers originally estimated the cost of the bill would reach $24 million for retrofitting only, clarifying the state would foot the bill for anything over that amount.

“We now have a majority of urban and suburban hospitals choosing to do replacement down to the foundations and re-designing their operating systems, but only one, St. Johns Hospital in Santa Monica has shut down and reopened so far,” she says. “The actual cost of the bill has been estimated at $400 billion and escalate that by inflation and you see why a lot of smaller hospitals won’t be able to get the funding.”

El Camino Hospital, $200 million seismic facelift

As an example of one of the behemoths that has persevered, Jones credits El Camino Hospital of Mountain View, California which not only retrofitted from the ground up to meet seismic upgrade building codes but also introduced construction innovations, improved its department by department efficiency as well as patient flow, emerging as the most technologically advanced hospital in the country, according to Jones.

Unlike most large hospitals, El Camino had the land to allow project officer Ken King to erect the new building between the old ones and then slowly phase out the outmoded units.

However, the norm affects hospitals without enough real estate to even adequately address their own current parking problems. The result has been a pattern of shotgun mergers in which some of the smaller hospitals join forces. This partnering mollifies the impact of the current climate of rising inflation and a Medicare crisis in the reimbursement for services.

“We had 450 hospitals in the state in the 1980’s and now we have 388 and we aren’t done yet,” says Jones. “The upside is we might end up with a higher quality hospital in the case of an old one from the 60s merging with a more modern building, but the downside is that as a rule, new hospitals are not being built in California.”

The mergers could mean patients are driving farther for care, but Jones says California is a state where the population is used to driving one hour for dinner and that people in the outlying towns near Bakersfield are now driving to the larger city hospital because they can secure good care. As a result, she argues the state should revisit opening more emergency and urgent care facilities as it once had before larger hospitals lobbied to close and absorb them.

While some  lawmakers have openly expressed regret about signing off on the 1994 bill prior to fully understanding the scope of the work, most realize there is no turning back now that many entities have already invested millions on compliance while others have spent thousands of man hours in planning sessions to simply get the ball rolling.

In the meantime, at least OSHPD has been “malleable” in granting deadline extensions to those demonstrating progress, according to Nielsen, and the agency admits acute care hospitals that must comply by 2013 may encounter unforeseen delays beyond their control.

But one of the benefits of all of this is the construction provides an opportunity for hospitals to upgrade all of their systems from an ecological perspective. This includes insulating exterior walls and roofs, and upgrading all equipment to being more energy efficient. For instance,  new imaging equipment can be up to 40% more energy efficient than the same equipment ten years ago. Also, all standard building utilities such as air conditioning, heating, hot water and electrical management can conform to current energy strategies as well.

Among the hospitals seizing the chance to go greener is El Centro Regional Medical Center which is looking at co-generation to become more energy efficient in its new services for the hospital. “If a building is down, you are not going to build it to previous energy strategies,” observes Nielsen. “You are naturally going to embrace the current technological knowledge that is out there.”

Still, once hospitals are ready to begin construction and move ahead on such beneficial  improvements, they are getting mired in bureaucratic red tape resulting from over-taxed regulators. OSHPD must review all of these plans and refuses to take the sole blame for the growing  backlog for permit approval.

“These delays could range from contractor issues to local ordinance requirements,” explains David Byrne, Information Officer of OSHPD. As far as the agency’s own delays in approving plans, Byrne says the responsibility for the hold up can be widely distributed among hospitals, their design team and regulatory agencies.

“Hospital buildings are some of the most complex buildings in the state requiring the highest level of building standards, codes and regulations and the review is a collaboration process between the architects and engineers designing the facility and OSHPD,” Byrne says. “The number of back checks and the amount of time the designers have the plans before resubmitting plans for back check can have a substantial impact on the overall duration of a project from first submittable to approval. On average, plans are with OSHPD less than 50% of the time.”

Counter to this, Nielsen is of the opinion that OSHPD is generally checking for things that aren’t going to matter if a theoretical earthquake ever hits.

Image: Mazetti

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The who’s-who of break out California artists making waves.

Venice Beach has its colonies, Santa Monica a bevy of industry collectors and downtown L.A. is in full- throttle renaissance mode. So why wouldn’t edgy artists transplant themselves to southern California? Even down the choked 405 south in San Diego and up north to the Bay Area, alternative galleries are willing to market new genius to upscale collectors. Aggressive marketing, word of mouth and shows delivering meet-ups get those artists on the map in the sunny gallery terrain beyond eastern Mary Boone country.

Here are 10 notables stirring attention:

Nicole Buffet, Berkeley

Graduate of the San Francisco Art Institute in 2004, Buffet is the disowned granddaughter of Warren Buffet, the whole black sheep saga allegedly resulting from her participation in The One Percent, a funny doc about disparities between America’s rich and poor. Still, the name brings a cache and she has the talent to stand on her own with her cubed brown packing paper stories – mini books woven like an evolutionary quilt revealing clues of the latest lost generation. Buffet recently got raves at her installation, Viva Novelita, at the Candy Store Collective in San Francisco.

Cassandria Blackmore, San Francisco

Internationally sought after pioneering reverse artist who graduated from Pacific Northwest College of Art, Blackmore received the prestigious Hauberg Fellowship for her painting on glass. Her figurative and abstract works push beyond traditional boundaries of glass into a more contemporary expression. Her unconventional process came sixteen years ago when removing glass from a frame, painting a self portrait, shattering it and then reassembling it like a puzzle.

Cybele Rowe, San Diego

Originally from Sydney, Australia, abstract ceramic sculptor Rowe studied at the City Art University of New South Wales and has exhibited her work and lectured at the Smithsonian as well as galleries such as the William Merrill in Laguna, Ca. and at the Laguna Museum of Art. She molds, fires and glazes freestanding pieces at Mission Clay Products in Corona, California to produce works like the Evolution of Curve, reflective of her love affair with clay as the most honest and sensual of media.

Samuel Borkson and Arturo Sandoval III- FriendsWithYou

An inventive tag team collaborating on iconic inflatable sculptures like the black-and-white Phantom, plush and wooden toys, bounce houses and ticklish installations, these two artists known as FriendsWithYou are among the Miami transplants to Los Angeles. No matter where they export their good works, they’ve created a design resource center to showcase sculpture and market/merchandise their brand for wide distribution. Their installations gained attention at the Art Basel Miami and they enjoy permanent collections at the Museum of Contemporary Art (MOCA) , the Indianapolis Museum of art and the Haus der Kulturen der Welt Museum of Berlin among others.

 Jimmy O’ Neal, Los Angeles

A lifelong interest in quantum theory and multi-dimensionality is revealed in Southern born O’ Neal’s recent Paradisio exhibit at Lowe Gallery, in which archetypal icons of myth and legend are channeled via orgies of sensually swirled paint. The series of paintings by the artist, who studied at Savannah College of Art and Design, are executed with scientifically augmented materials such as colorless paint which brilliantly reflects light as a mirror when applied on sanded plexiglass. “They have to be seen live to appreciate the liquid extravagance, undulating orgasmic spectacle and the exceptionally intelligent conceptual elements that combine to make him and this show his tour de force,” observed gallery owner, Bill Lowe.

Olga Lah, Los Angeles

A student of both art and theology, Fuller graduate Lah was  the 2010 recipient of the Getty Multicultural Intern Alumni Award as well as the American Association of Museum Conference Fellowship. And those are just the latest in recognition of her brilliance at craft. like many of  the new LA breed, she has participated in collaborative shows at edgy venues such as Gallery 825. Using humble materials in repetitious labor and craft, she says she seeks to question perception and the nature of reality, “after a kind of precarious monumentality.” Her sculpture and installations engage the viewer in a sensory experience said to remind us of our own physicality.

 Gustav Godoy, Los Angeles

About to debut his second solo exhibition with the Honor Fraser Gallery, Godoy brings a minimal approach to a new body of cast concrete sculptures in Vacant Mounds and Markers which quietly examines spiritual spaces and secular objects positioned at ground level. The mounds’ reference stems from the pitching mound at L.A.’s Dodger Stadium, which is said to be sacred to Godoy who was transcended by the World Series Championship led by Mexican pitcher Fernando Valenzuela in 1981. The ensuing Fernandomania helped assuage controversy over the history of the stadium built in Chavez Ravine, home to a vibrant Mexican American community. Godoy – who has starred in a host of impressive mixed media solo acts – received an MA from Vermont College in Montpelier and also graduated from UCSB and studied architecture and urban design at UCLA.

 Rosson Crow, Los Angeles

A graduate of Yale, Crow’s ink, acrylic and oil canvases such as Unhinged, 2012, also was part of a solo exhibit, Ballyhoo Hullabaloo Haboob, at Honor Fraser. Crow has earned a name for her theatrical and lush paintings featuring decadent interiors, but her more recent work is seen as a departure as she explores the intimate, psychological and emotional dimensions of sober gilded eras of the past. In that exploration, she taps a frenzied nationalistic collective memory in bleak Dust Bowl towns struggling to survive, to celebratory tickertape parades – all emblematic of American growth and decline.

Kristin Calabrese, Los Angeles

Paintings like this one of 3,000 Band-Aids from her Back of My Face exhibit explore the relationships between internal emotion and the world outside using familiar objects as vehicles for expressing Calabrese’s thoughts and angst. Other works deal with household brooms, plywood or self-portraits featuring the artist balancing spaghetti or a potted plant atop her head. An MFA graduate of UCLA, she has enjoyed solo exhibits with the Leo Koenig Gallery in New York, as well as the Gagosian Gallery in Beverly Hills and the  Southern California Institute of Architecture in L.A.

 Bonny Lhotkha, Los Angeles

Her Digital Darkroom exhibit at the Annenberg Space for Photography showcased Lhotka’s extraordinary mastery of printing works on unusual surfaces from glass to acrylic to aluminum – as well as pushing the envelope with drywall, bamboo and rusty tin. A past artist-in-residence at the Smithsonian, she sees time as a fluid medium to be manipulated the same as paint.  “My art explores the continuum of time,” she explains. “I gather images by looking closely at them in a historic aspect. I look for surfaces that reflect passage of time.” In addition to her images being included in over 100 collections, her work is shown internationally and she is the founder of the digital artist collaborative, The Digital Atelier.

Images: Friendswithyou

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Restoration Hardware is going out on a limb for spring with a line that speaks to modern minimalism.

Meander into Restoration Hardware’s highly architectural, bare bones showroom at the San Francisco Design Center, and you will be puzzled by what has been added as well as subtracted as the retailer keeps devising new algorithms for tweaking and modernizing its line.

The spring inventory is almost unrecognizable, the company having tossed out most vestiges of its former traditional self in a reinvention of what it is calling “furniture for the ages.”

In this case, what is being restored are deconstructed old world Queen Ann and Napoleonic reproductions impersonating timeworn naked frames awaiting fabric and welting in the upholsterer’s workroom. They are at once sadly barren and perversely fetching. And in many ways, these tactile statements reflect an impulse to shed the excess that binds us.

As described by the maker: Inspired by the unadorned beauty of their grandfather’s 19th Century wing chair- limited from its velvety upholstery and the frame exposed – the Van Thiels replicated the old world artistry of its inner workings. Character belies comfort. A distressed walnut frame accented with nailheads is complimented by the texture of burlap and antiqued cotton.

Exposed: The Deconstructed Collection is the latest attempt to head into a new direction. Chairman Gary Friedman and his management team of function-forward retailers strive to become the fastest growing luxury line in the home furnishings market. Apparently, there is also a goal of being the most fabulous and that can be left to the eyes of the beholder.

Earlier, they set the minimalist stage with fabric and leather seating taking their cue from classics, such as the tufted and rolled armed Kensington sofa and armless fabric and leather seating. Elongated like the best low slung Mid-Century collectibles, a reductionist profile is achieved in the intentional scale,  density and no- frills textile options.

Grand Kensington Rolled Arm sofa

Plush and low Soho recalling tufted Chesterfields of turn-of-the-century men’s clubs

Chelsea, inspired by 1970s English sofas

The jury is still out on how clients will take to the new direction, but then again, retailers everywhere are trying to capture an upscale market of trendsetters seeking these neutral statements for dynamic primary and second homes.

This is apparent in the Big Style/Small Spaces line, unveiled with a nod to the recognition that “the world is getting smaller” and Restoration is fitting in with furnishings and accessories for seven settings: the Paris Pied-a-Terre, the San Francisco Victorian, the  Napa Farmhouse, the London Townhouse, the New York Loft, the Boston Brownstone and the LA Bungalow. The pared-down upholstery follows the design rule that understated classics as part of an overall scheme allow other embellishments to stand out.

But in this case, most of the new vanilla classics for the ages are paired with other understated elements, resulting in a high brow beige-on-beige wash, accented with deep metals which help define the otherwise neutral canvases. Good deconstructionists have long appreciated the marriage of important period pieces with simple, clean cottons and linens, which brings them more current.

Still, buyers who have been fed rich velvets, and mohair and washable linens by vendors like Restoration, Pottery Barn and Crate and Barrel, might find the the hot deconstructionist direction leaves them a tad bit cold once it leaves the stylized design center showroom and comes home.

Image: Restoration Hardware

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Carbavores divided on returning to a grain-free Paleo diet, said to yield results more than skin deep.

Imagine a life without any sort of grains – rejecting that nurturing warm basket of sourdough, the doughy Noah’s bagel with smear on Sunday mornings, the tortilla enveloping the rice, beans and meat and the sesame seed bun that makes a hamburger something more satisfying than a lonely patty on a plate.

Psychologically, we have come to embrace our corn, wheat and flour. But physiologically, the new school of thought is that they are the enemies in the ongoing American battle against obesity and degenerative diseases.

Enter The Paleo Solution – The Original Human Diet, a New York Times Best Seller mapped by former research biochemist and amateur kick boxer Robb Wolf.

His program, also referred to as a caveman diet, calls for a simple shift away from foods he claims are at odds with our health (grains, legumes and dairy) and an increase in the natural unprocessed foods of our nomadic ancestors along with supplemental vitamins, minerals and antioxidants.

So what do followers eat? Lean proteins that support strong muscles, healthy bones and optimal immune function; fruits and veggies rich in vitamins, minerals and phytonutrients that combat cancer, and healthy fats from nuts, seeds, avocados, olive oil, fish oil and grass-fed meat. No crispy cereal. No milk. And yes, the meat sandwiched with iceberg lettuce in place of that dense, beastly yeast – the seductress of all seductresses.

“This Paleo diet concept works, and it’s not a fad, ” argues Wolf, who operates a website with podcasts and forums. “It works with our genetics in synchronicity with the way we are supposed to live instead of antagonistically with the way we are supposed to live. It limits certain foods and that may be a heartache for some people but that’s the way it is. We’ve set out an intervention and make recommendations that are livable.”

Hiker and biker Edwin Bradley reports improved health benefits from the Paleo Solution

So livable, that it’s catching on, especially in experimental California where many will quickly step to the plate and try anything rumored to make you drop ten pounds in a hurry. But for 54-year-old San Francisco lawyer Edwin Bradley, an avid hiker and biker, the weight loss was not a motive but an added benefit along with visible improvements in his skin after a couple of months of following the plan.

“My psoriasis lesions don’t scale as much and my skin is smoother and more pliable and I’m getting unsolicited feedback from people who ask if I’m doing Botox because my skin looks so good,” he reports. “I’ve had the condition for 30 years and I don’t expect it to go away in two months but I’m satisfied it will continue to improve drastically over time.”

Not only that, he has found sticking to the diet has significantly boosted his energy. “In a practical performance matter, I ride my bike long distances and no longer have the blood sugar drop off I used to get,” he explains. “My energy descends very gradually and I think it’s because grain energy is kind of a sugar energy that comes on quickly and goes away quickly and when you are getting your carbs from vegetables and proteins, you don’t have that drop off. I can be feeling hungry and still be able to ride for two to three hours without getting the shakes or the feeling I need an emergency food fix.”

Bradley, like many Bay Area foodies who opted for organic and grass-fed back in the day when Alice Waters burst on the scene, has recommended the book to colleagues and friends, sharing the philosophy that our digestive systems are designed for the way we ate before the age of agriculture: wild game, fruits and vegetables, nuts and seeds.

“I stumbled upon the book and it was the first time I saw someone make the connection between modern grains and chronic low level and auto immune diseases such as Crones, psoriasis, diabetes and arthritis,” he says. “If you understand the basic Paleo tenants, you will understand that what makes cows sick from eating corn is what makes humans sick from grains, which we’ve been consuming for only about 8,000 years. We were hunters and gatherers long before that, and look at the lean bodies of our ancestors who never had the same sicknesses.”

Sarah J. says Paleo improved her Celiac symptoms and curbed addiction to sugar and starches

Testimonials on the Paleo Solution website validate both the weight loss and health improvements from Colitis to Fibromyalgia to Type I Diabetes, Rheumatoid Arthritis, Celiac Disease and female hormonal imbalance. Among those testifying, Sarah J., who says she suffered for years from Celiac Disease and finally her joint and throat pain is gone and she can now lift her kids with renewed strength.

“One of the biggest things so far in terms of my quality of life is that for the last three months I have been more emotionally stable than I have been for a long, long time, and I don’t feel so depressed,” she says, adding she now craves salad and has been weened off of sugar. “My tastes have actually changed and I’m listening to what my body really wants instead of what my cravings demand. And I’m not hungry all of the time. I actually feel full.”

Critics Dismissing it as a Fad

While health experts readily link our industrial food era diet and lifestyles to modern cardiovascular disease and type 2 diabetes and hypertension, the American Dietetic Association, many food writers and anthropologists have dismissed the Paleolithic path as just another fad diet.

They argue even if cave dwellers did exist without processed cereals, dairy products, refined sugars, oil and alcohol, that doesn’t mean modern humans are genetically adapted to follow the same rigid course. And in terms of converting to healthier grass fed meats, even California’s premier steak houses and restaurants are clinging to flavorful marbleized prime arguing it’s what’s for dinner because customers still demand it.

Consuming grains and grain-fed meat are habits proving hard to break after 8,000 years – at least without more compelling evidence. Some diet bloggers have even voiced out that breaking the habit can also be expensive since free range, grass-fed and organic produce often cost more than less healthy foods.

The Problem With Too Much Protein and the Exclusion of Carbs

A high protein diet can run the risk of placing undue stress on the kidneys which filter waste products from the breakdown of protein and this is why you are urged to get your kidney function tested before doing such a high protein diet.

Recent Harvard University research shows the popular low-carb, high protein approach may promote rapid weight loss but significantly increase atherosclerosis, a build up of plaque in the heart and a leading cause of heart attack and stroke. Feeding mice such a diet also resulted in an impaired ability to form new blood vessels in the tissues deprived of blood flow, which might occur in a heart attack.

In addition, giving up carbs entirely can be a problem for big fuel burners such as athletes and cultures incorporating certain grains and boasting longevity: Asians eat rice as a staple and legumes and grains are features of the highly emulated Mediterranean diet.

And despite Bradley’s experience of a lower blood sugar drop, studies show beans and grains in their whole and unprocessed form and a lower glycemic index than most fruit – perhaps the banana being an exception. The American Diabetes Association calls for a diet of 50 percent veggies, 25 percent proteins and 25 percent grains or starches to manage blood sugar levels, along with increasing exercise – arguably the real solution to modern chronic health issues even more than counting calories.

Senior author of the study, Anthony Rosenzweig, a professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School, notes that doctors need to consider such rigid diet effects in counteracting vascular disease when advising their patients. “This issue is particularly important given the epidemic of obesity and its adverse consequences,” he says. “For now, it appears  that a moderate and balanced diet, coupled with regular exercise, is probably best for most people.”

Even Bradley admits to emerging from his cave from time to time and succumbing to an urge.

“I eat ice cream and candy and occasionally a small amount of baked things like a chocolate hazelnut croissant,” he confesses, “But I’m consistent about not including grains in my formal nutrition and have ordered sandwiches on the golf course where I ate everything and threw the bread away. I have a naughty splurge but I don’t cook for it or shop or plan for it.”

Naughty perhaps by Paleo standards but less harmful than most splurges. He says it’s important to remember that even if he strays it is still with real food: ice cream and not imitation ice milk; real baked goods with pure butter, sugar and chocolate; a bit of real soda at the movies rather than diet drinks with Splenda or synthetic sweeteners containing  the same molecules as embalming fluid. According to Bradley, you would be hard pressed to find Paleo followers who haven’t eliminated the proven poisons from their diets.

Wolf  stresses how these poisons have become highly addictive since processed sweet and salty, crunchy and doughy goodies are more accessible than his prescribed nutritional fare. His Paleo Solution informs us it is normal for man to be seduced by momentary pleasure over what might promote longevity. As he sees it, we are only human, and a few things haven’t changed.

Images: ispeakpaleo

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How a resurgence in luxury spending is boosting consultants cultivating clients with deep, couture pockets.

In the exclusive world of the Saks Fifth Avenue Club, survival of the fittest is all about the eye, the gab, the loyalty, and yes, the tailored fit. Proving to be one of the fittest is Gustavo Tabares, 50, one of six of the Saks personal shopping consultants at the Biltmore Fashion Park’s store in Phoenix, where he has robed and Spanxed, bejeweled and accessorized women from 18 to 85 over the past 12 years.

It’s a tough job but somebody has to do it – somebody who uses their innate gift to guide affluent shoppers in making smart choices that endure.

“I love my clients, I love the city here and my partner is here, so it isn’t important for me to leave and dress celebrities in Beverly Hills,” shares the stylist, who gave up his retail biz at the Biltmore because of the 24/7 grind. “I don’t want to work for one person who is very demanding and you have to be at their beckon call at all times.”

Instead of the Rachel Zoe devotees desperate to stand out or at least not flop on the red carpet, Tabares services everyday executives, doctors, housewives, sports wives, a handful of men and local celebs attending society events and fund raisers, jetting out to second homes or planning weddings.

They are varied but what they share is money to spend and a reliance on a consultant savvy at amassing a rack of gems that suit them and who are able to inform about fashion houses, fabrics, colors, as well as completing an ensemble.

“Not everyone with a lot of money has great taste, and the biggest advantage for them is the personal service and the convenience, especially for those who are too busy to shop,” he says. “My clients walk from the parking lot to the dressing room and then back to their cars, never needing to peruse the store. I do it all for them.”

He and other club consultants like New York’s Fay Ricotta, featured in the Wall Street Journal, do it all in large, hidden closet size rooms where they line up what they have amassed for their clients. While the service is free, clients lusting after labels are willing to fork over big bills for their clothes, and the consultants earn their livelihoods from these healthy commissions.

The percentages amount to six-figure incomes for top consultants in good times, but after 2008 the club saw a decline as shoppers cut back, nothing staggering but enough to worry salespeople at Saks without salaries. Wardrobe consultants at Barney’s and Bergdorf Goodman also reported feeling the pinch.

“Clients were more careful and did not continue shopping the way they once did,” observed Tabares.

He shares this season’s pattern and color fest is one way his shoppers are coming back – the bright geometric explosion spilling over to everything from shifts to beads and bags, working like eye candy.

“When you walk into the store and see gorgeous color everywhere, accessories, shoes, ready-to-wear, it makes people smile,” he shares. “When the economy is bad, designers go for color.”

Even if the picture continues to be bad for most taxpayers, the start of a dramatic sales spike in the luxury category segment was reported by the New York Times a year ago with July 2011 seeing an 11.6 increase, the biggest monthly gain in a year due mostly to a Dow Jones recovery of 80 percent and the success of marketing to convince the public that extravagance is chic again – or at least quality over quantity should prevail.

As evidence luxe is alive and kicking again, marked- up designer goods began flying off of the shelves at department stores, where consultants were cultivating a new consumer, one seeking the couture image as long as the investment was more than one season deep; not just trendy but with a classic longevity.

Neiman Marcus closed its own personal shopping salon, yet the store gloated over selling out almost every size of its Christian Louboutin Bianca platform pumps at $775 a pair, while Nordstrom kept a waiting list for a $9,000 Chanel sequined tweed coat.

As stylist Tabares points out, customers seeking high design have still learned lessons about spending frivolously, adding that a focus on the quality argument is actually in line with the eco reductionist mantra less is more. “You can go to Marshall’s and spend $100 and buy three outfits and wear them once or twice and if they go to the cleaners they will look old,” he says. “When you buy quality it always looks good.”

If stores like Saks resorted to mark downs in 2008 to swipe more plastic, buyers and designers are now peddling over-the-top accessories, including fancy footwear which has suddenly shot up as reflected in the most extreme example, this Spring’s strappy Wave Wedge at Neiman’s  – yours from Alexander McQueen for $4,630.

The increase prompted a snarky outcry from Jezebel asking what has happened to designer shoes since 2000 when full priced YSLs and Pradas were $400. “They really got f—ing expensive!” said the fashion watch site, which quoted Barneys as agreeing $900 as the average price for shoes is disconcerting but adding it opens up with ballet flats for a reasonable $395.

Which all begs the age-old question of restraint: if you have $395 for flats or $9,000 for a beaded jacket,  does that mean you should spend it? Jenny from the block used to have a little now she has a lot, but stays grounded and never forgets where she came from.

This is what we expect from big celebrities, but what about professionals living in a country with hungry children and depleted public schools? Should they be careful and conscientious buying stuff on sale like the everyman?

Personal shoppers rarely if ever pull discounted items for their customers; in fact one flamboyant, unnamed top consultant at Saks in San Francisco confided, “I don’t believe in sales.”

One of this stylist’s longtime clients recently held a gala at a five star hotel the city, showcasing a feathered gown he had plucked for her and entertaining guests with a lavish display of ice bars with caviar, boatloads of sushi, a half dozen open bars, candy rooms to rival Willy Wonka’s factory and bags of gourmet gifts for guests. It led her husband to quip, “she had an unlimited budget yet managed to exceed it.”

Some were taken aback by the extravagance during this recommended era of belt-tightening, but as one fellow board member of the hostess aptly put it: “These people may throw expensive parties but they also are the first to write a check for a good cause when you need them.”‘

Images: Arizonafoothills; Kendrascott; Wall Street Journal;metro

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