With the overturning of California's Proposition 8, the U.S. enters a new era in basic civil rights. As delightful as it has been to see homophobes falling over themselves to find justifications for their political stance that might read as anything other than transparent bigotry, it is even more delightful to see them lose their argument in a court of law. I applaud the ruling as I applaud all individuals courageous enough to seek out love in a world of fear and commit to a lasting relationship in a world of temptation. I've been told I'm a hopeless romantic.

Naturally, the most steadfast of the opponents to same-sex marriage have accused the gay judge who ruled against Prop 8 of being biased. I suppose that is true, to some degree; after all, who is not slightly biased in favor of his own rights to liberty and the pursuit of happiness. Still, the venom spouted toward this man is yet another indication of the level of bigotry at work in the struggle of the extreme right to keep homosexuality closeted, dismissed and subjugated beneath the heel of a heterocentric world view.

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It will be five years since Katrina on August 29. The impact of Katrina is quite painful for regular people in the area. This article looks at what has happened since Katrina not from the perspective of the higher ups looking down from their offices but from the street level view of the people - a view which looks at the impact on the elderly, the renter, people of color, the disabled, the working and non-working poor. So, while one commentator may happily say that the median income in New Orleans has risen since Katrina, a street level perspective recognizes that is because large numbers of the poorest people have not been able to return.

Five years after Katrina, tens of thousands of homes in New Orleans remain vacant or blighted. Tens of thousands of African American children who were in the public schools have not made it back, nor have their parents. New Orleans has lost at least 100,000 people. Thousands of elderly and disabled people have not made it back. Affordable housing is not readily available so tens of thousands pay rents that are out of proportion to their wages. Race and gender remain excellent indicators of who is underpaid, who is a renter, who is in public school and who is low income.

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There are so many vacant stores in my area that the disappearance of another storefront pizza parlor shouldn't have had much of an impact on me. I'm a vegan who never even tasted the pizza at Bella Nonna (though my family liked their food well enough), and there are as many pizzerias within a few miles of my house as there are slices in a large pizza. Yet the recent failure of this local business has been bothering me a lot.

According to a neighboring business owner, the pizzeria's owner was forced to close by the landlord after falling behind in the rent. I have no clue if the proprietor of the shuttered pizzeria tried to negotiate with the landlord. In my real estate law practice, I've assisted some of my commercial clients in receiving rent reductions and talked other landlords into extending lease terms without any increases in payments. Such concessions helped some shopkeepers and service businesses stay open, even if their lines of credit were curtailed or cut off. However, there have been just as many landlords who flatly refused to renegotiate or offer any incentives to keep an occupant from seeking more favorable terms down the turnpike. The end result is that the landlords often only gain more empty stores.

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Really? Among everything else this state is handling, Patterson decides to ban this? NY Governor David Patterson has signed a bill that makes short-term, vacation apartment rentals illegal in New York City, a defeat for those who think it will limit choices for Big Apple budget travelers, according to USA Today.

The new law, which outlaws New York apartment rentals for less than 30 days, "fixes problems caused by illegal hotels and improves quality of life in traditional residential apartment buildings, while also meeting the needs of visitors. By removing a legal gray area and replacing it with a clear definition of permanent occupancy, the law will allow enforcement efforts that help New Yorkers who live in SRO units and other types of affordable housing preserve their homes," said Paterson in a prepared statement. "By making the effective date of this law May 1, 2011, property holders, business owners and not-for-profit corporations will be able to adjust the uses of their properties to the provisions of this law, or to dispose of the properties at issue so that they may find alternate sites for their current uses."

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