New York Times Business Section

0:00their print disability which makes reading holding a book or turning a page difficult or impossible. The content is copyrighted by the respective publishers. For more information please visit us on the web at nfradioreading.org. Hi, this is Jeff Shapiro and for the next hour I'll be reading from the September 6th, 2020-26 issue of the New York Times Business Section of the Niagara Frontier Radio Reading Service. New California City with jobs and homes, not this year. California Forever, a company backed by Silicon Valley billionaires calls its proposal to build a city in northern California a remedy to the state's biggest problems. California needs homes. The company aims to put several thousand of them about an hour's drive from San Francisco.

1:01The state is desperate for middle-class jobs. California Forever would create a shipyard and manufacturing center ready to hire. The plan is well funded, backed by labor unions and has the implied support of Governor Gavin Nusom and yet a move that would have given the project the definitive push died quietly in a behind-the-scenes scramble during the final days of California's legislative session which ended last week. Although not before a stuffed monkey made an appearance and protestors delivered public comment in song. California Forever hasn't given up. The company and its Army of Consultants will almost certainly be back to lobby state legislators in 2027. But by then there will be a new governor with new priorities. Whatever the project's future, its failure in this legislative session is another proof point of how hard it remains to build in the nation's largest and richest state and

2:05why a growing backlash against the billionaire class could make it even harder. It's just incredibly hard to do large projects in California, said Ben Metcalf, managing director of the Turner Center for Housing Innovation at the University of California Berkeley. Mr. Metcalf listed some of the many examples, a high-speed rail line that voters approved in 2008 but that is yet to lay a track of our housing project outside Los Angeles and the redevelopment of a Navy yard, both in planning stages for decades. The state has arguably the nation's worst housing crisis with rent and home prices that far exceed the national average. The high cost of living combined with strict environmental and land use regulations has led to a steady migration of companies and residents to less expensive states. The main problem, Mr. Metcalf continued, is that California's overlapping regulatory

3:08processes scattered among state and local agencies make it nearly impossible to approve, or even outright deny a project. Even when the governor or state legislators get behind an idea, local governments often have effective veto power. Delay becomes the normal course of non-action. Think of any large development in California over the past 20 years and it has taken 20 years for that development to break ground. Mr. Metcalf said, California's regulatory boat is not the only reason California forever is stuck. The company stated goal to build a city for 400,000 people on a rolling expanse of wind turbines and sheep farms is so adacious that it's impossible to say what a normal process might look like. The company has often been its own worst enemy, played by inexperience, shifting plans and a series of political wonders that have dug a well of mistrust.

4:12Suspicion about the company's intentions began a decade ago when a California forever subsidiary started buying up farms in Solano County on the northeastern edge of San Francisco Bay Area. As the company spent close to a billion dollars anonymously gobbling up 70,000 acres, almost five times the southern Manhattan, the vacuum of information was filled with rumors that the buyer might be connected to foreign spies. Those fears were not as waged in 2023 when the New York Times uncovered the plan and its silicone velly backers, including the venture capitalists Michael Moritz and Mark Andrewson, the Lincoln founder Reed Hoffman and Lauren Power Jobs, founder of the Emerson Collective and the widow of Steve Jobs. It also didn't help the California forever's land holding subsidiary had begun assuming a group of holdout farmers whose families have worked Solano's land for more than a

5:15century on the grounds that they were colluding for more money. Since then, California forever has become a political force spreading money across Solano County and hiring high-profile consultants, including former legislative leaders. The company's initial plan was to win approval to build the city through a local ballot initiative, but the measure was pulled in 2024 after polling showed that it had a good chance of failing. They're never tried to build relationships in the local community and that has been their downfall. Sublory Wilson who represents Solano County in the state assembly. The company has since pursued a backdoor plan to develop a new city by getting a nearby existing city to annex some of its incorporated land, unincorporated land. That effort is continuing, but many locals remain skeptical of putting their trust in a company that is backed by tech money and has no record of development.

6:17Public meetings to discuss the project routinely feature shouting matches and epithets like Ola Garc city. When Governor Newsom entered office eight years ago, he pledged to streamline the bureaucracy and speed up building. And he is succeeded in signing a slew of big housing bills and transforming state agencies to make yes easier than no. But for the most part of the changes that focused on existing cities where homeowners and low-density zoning rules have often blocked new housing. Projects like California Forever, which aimed to build an undeveloped land and layer on complexity by mixing industrial uses with housing remain as a mooseb as ever. Over the past year, California Forever shifted its focus to its plan for a shipyard near the mouth of the Sacramento River where the company owns land. It was a chance to redirect the conversation of jobs at a time when Solano's blue-collar

7:19employment base is ailing. The shipyard was also a potential path into a larger project, create jobs and housing will follow. Mr. Newsom's administration positioned California Forever as a means of reigniting investment in blue-collar jobs. In July, D.D. Myers, the director of the Governor's Office of Business and Economic Development, praised the shipyard and suggested that moving fast could help the state repair its reputation as a difficult place to build by sending a broader signal that California can compete for and deliver transformational projects. By August, draft legislation was circulating around Sacramento. It aimed to speed up local permitting, but the crucial detail was that it would have allowed the shipyard to essentially sidestep the California Environmental Quality Act or CEQA. CEQA is the ultimate boogie man for California developers, legendary for its ability to add

8:23years of red tape even to small developments in environmentally conscious projects like public transit and bike lanes. The draft bill aimed to get around the law by allowing California Forever to use a 2008 Environmental Impact Report instead of spending years producing a new one, while also shielding it from future CEQA litigation. In order to win approval though, the bill needed buy-in from the local legislators. Miss Wilson, the assembly member and Christopher Kabaldon, the state senator from Solano County, signaled that they would not support state legislation to help the shipyard without the affirmation of the county's board of supervisors. The board, it scheduled a meeting to discuss the potential legislation in August 25th, three days before a deadline for new bills in the state legislature. Robbie is both four and against the project assumed that the board's approval was close

9:23to certain. But first came hours of boisterous public comment at the meeting from protesters in stock California Forever, T-shirts. The group included a man in a blue vest who voiced his displeasure with the project to the tune of Pop Goes the Weasel as he threw stuffed animal tails over his shoulder. He ended the diddy by pulling a toy monkey out of his vest and imploring the board to vote no. Finally in the late evening the board voted. But instead of voting to support or oppose potential state legislation to help California Forever, it pushed a decision to an unspecified date killing the chances of passing a bill this year. As it happened Mr. Newsom was scheduled to make an appearance in Solano County the next day to announce a state investment unrelated to California Forever. Afterward he answered questions about the county board's vote and expressed his disappointment with the outcome.

10:24I would have voted for that in a nanosecond he sent, the way he's added can be denial in the context of the competitive landscape that's out there. Mr. Newsom, it's a Democrat, is in his final months in office but is widely expected to run for president in 2028. A deal to help California Forever had the potential to cut both ways. At a time a populist rage helping the company could be characterized as a handout to billionaires. But it could also have helped the governor show that he's serious about cutting through the cat's cradle of regulations that have helped make the state so expensive. Where the project goes from here is unclear. The vote was unfortunate but it's not the end of the story, said Daryl Steinberg, a former member of the legislature who is now a consultant for California Forever. The first step, like the officials say, is for the company to mend the bridges and to soften the enmity that is created in Solano.

11:26The county has shown that they are interested in shipbuilding and interested in jobs, so it's time to build on that over the fall, Ms. Wilson said. California Forever should take a hard work and realize that a city is more than just buildings and streets and water. It's about building in the context of an existing community. Seven billion dollars. The planned investment by the U.S. oil giant Shabron in Venezuela. Shabron, the Texas Energy Giant, is expanding its footprint in Venezuela. Where it is already the largest private oil producer and last week, the company announced that it would invest seven billion dollars in the oil rich or an OCO-Belt region. Over the next five years, it's said it plans to double its production in Venezuela to 600,000 barrels a day, more than half of the country's current output. Right last month, President Trump announced an unusual partnership with another oil company

12:30that he said would give the United States majority control of a large portion of Venezuela's oil reserves. The New York Times from Becca F. Elliott reported, and while the idea underscores the Trump administration's interest in exerting U.S. oil interest in Venezuela, it may also elevate the competitors of Shabron and make the company's presence in the country more complicated. Mr. Trump's deal involves a collaboration with Alejandro Betancuart-Rupez, a polarizing Venezuelan businessman. Mr. Trump has pressured Venezuela to change laws, governing the oil industry to attract U.S. companies and foreign investors. It's an national assembly voted in January to approve an overhaul that would give foreign interest more control over operations. Shabron's opportunities in Venezuela are sharp turn around in its prostrux there. Shabron stayed in Venezuela after its government nationalized the industry and forced companies

13:32to accept smaller stakes, a decision that was unusual at the time. Competitors like ExxonMobile and Connacole Phillips refused to operate on those terms and pulled out roughly two decades ago. Shabron's current output of about 280,000 barrels a day is shared with the Venezuelan state oil company its partner there. The changes in Venezuela this year have taken this from not being very competitive within our set of alternatives to something that's very competitive. Shabron's chief executive Mike Worth told NBC. So far this year stocks were up. The S&P 500 is up 12.8%. Mortgage rates were up. Bankrate.com 30 year fixed mortgage is at 6.89%, which is up 0.69 points.

14:33And Jabba's claims were down. The four week moving average down 5.4%. Quotes. The equity is approached us. They have approached everyone in college athletics. This is from Aaron Horbath, deputy athletics director of the University of Notre Dame, who said that his program was not interested in such partnerships. Quote. It's also for the evidence that airlines have completely given up on expanding their base of economy pliers. And this is from Sally French, a travel expert at Nerd Wallet, on Southwest Airlines expansion into premium airport lounges. And here's another quote. Why do you want to surprise people? What good does that do? That's from Christopher Waller, a federal reserve governor, and how much the central bank should communicate about its thinking. You're listening to a reading of articles and features from the New York Times business

15:36section, and an agro frontier radio reading service. Teaching future generations about September 11th, by Elizabeth Hillman, chief executive of the 9-11 Memorial and Museum. She and her team are trying to find new ways to tell the story of that day to the increasingly large number of people without memories of it. On September 11th, 2001, Elizabeth Hillman had the same reaction as many to the horror she saw on full-down television. I wondered what I should do next, like a lot of people, she said. The former Air Force officer, then in Philadelphia, had just taken a job as a law professor. She worked her way through academia, eventually becoming president of Mills College. After reading a merger between Mills and Northeastern University in 2022, she was looking for her next role, which led back to September 11th.

16:39The position of chief executive, the 9-11 Memorial and Museum opened up, and Ms. Hillman, a military historian, had taught about September 11th in her classes. It was a natural fit. In late 2022, she became the CEO of the museum. It's the kind of thing that had such powerful residents and has so many layers that I could spend a lifetime trying to understand it. Ms. Hillman, who's 58, said the museum is dedicated to that. She arrived at a challenging moment. The museum, which relies mostly on ticket sales, it is $36 for an adult admission. As reported, a series of losses since attendance never fully recovered after the COVID-19 pandemic. Ahead of the 25th anniversary, Ms. Hillman and her team are trying to find new ways to tell the story of that day to the increasingly larger number of people, without memories of it.

17:39In recent years, the museum has put a greater focus on September 11th related illnesses. This year's commemoration will add an extra moment of silence for those who have died from the health effects over the past 25 years. This interview has been edited and condensed. Question. How does one become CEO of the 9-11 Memorial in the museum? Answer. I didn't ever see myself as a running museum in Memorial. I didn't know how much about the site itself, but I realized it reached so many people. 100 million people have come to the Memorial since it opened. 28 million people have visited the museum and we will reach 20 million students by the time we get to the 25th anniversary. I had a chance to come here to commemorate what happened and to inspire and end to hatred and intolerance. It was a great opportunity to prepare for a significant moment in the history of the institution.

18:41Question. About a third of the U.S. population was born after September 11th, 2001. What has this changed the museum's approach? Answer. We don't find any lessening of interest in what happened. The stories remain compelling and they're still unfolding. The 9-11 Health Effect story is a very powerful one that speaks to young people who understand environmental toxicity in a way that I didn't when I was young. Question. How does the museum deal with conspiracy theories? Answer. The institution is an archaeological site. The museum is where this happened. The pools are in the footprints of the towers so I think that firsthand experience and that ability to meet people where they are is the best way we can help teachers and families reckon with those who have some misunderstanding about it. Question. There are also the videos that show what it was like the weeks and months after the towers

19:45fell. You see news coverage in John Stewart's monologue. It's striking. Answer it is. That's one reason that I think young people are drawn to this. Everyone wants to know if they can get through things that are difficult. 9-11 in the rebuilding of the World Trade Center, it shows you that you can recover, at least in some ways, from even really unbelievable loss. Question. You can see them uncomfortable talking about the museum as a business, but it makes money through ticket sales, a gift shop and donors. Why is that the right business model? Answer. Nine profits aren't sustainable if they can't keep the lights on. We're in a campaign right now to help sustain us for the years and decades ahead by raising money around the 25th anniversary. The tickets that people buy for the museum make the memorial free. The pandemic has shown us that dependence on ticket sales made us vulnerable.

20:47We have work to generate other sources of revenue. Question. Why can't tickets to the museum be free? Answer, well, there are great museums around the world that are free. There are great museums that aren't. Being a private, non-profit protects our independence and makes us accountable to people most affected by 9-11. I think that's an appropriate model. Question. This museum has a lot of list of trustees. How do you manage all those perspectives? Is consensus ever possible? Answer. This is New York. And this is about 9-11. There's no way to build a short list of people who care about what we do here. The board has a lot of faith in the way the institution has run and I make sure we don't get out of alignment or fail to talk about the challenges that we face. It's what's about knowing what everybody wants, as making sure they know what's happening.

21:47Question. Is it harder to make decisions when there are such deep emotions involved? Answer. Well, it's different dealing with people who are experiencing grief and loss. We have to be more accountable. We have to be willing to share more. We have to be willing to grant grace to people who have very strong perspectives with which we might not be able to align our next steps or correct what we did in the past. Question. Visiting the museum is very heavy. Do you expect visitors to come time and time again? Answer. Well, we recognize most people will come and spend a couple of hours in the museum once. And we also realize most of the people who want to learn about 9-11 aren't even going to visit the museum. Question. How do you support the workers interacting with this story day in and day out? Answer. Well, we've worked with some institutions, like hospitals and healthcare institutions, that have workforces exposed to challenging situations.

22:49We have adapted some of the training that they do. Question. What do you do when the content gets overwhelming? Answer. Well, sometimes I cry, sometimes I step away. But mostly I lean into it, realizing more about what happened that day and how it affected the people who were there is like another gate to understanding. I don't think you ever reached the end of those gates. Question. How often are you talking to 9-11 families? Answer. We have nine family members on our board. We're in touch with them regularly. We have members of the first responder community on our board too. I get correspondence from family members. They're not of one mind or one type, people from 90 countries, or killed on 9-11. Question. Let's turn to you. Tell me about your upbringing. Answer. Well, I was born in the city just east of Pittsburgh called McKeesport. My dad served in the Army Air Forces during World War II.

23:51Then he went to college and worked for US Steel. My mom was a dietitian. I'm one of five. I have a twin sister and she's smarter and nicer than me. She's really empathetic and helped me understand people better. My three older brothers challenged and provoked and protected us. Question. Did your father's service inspire you to go into the Air Force? Answer it dead. I chose the Air Force because of my dad's service. Did you imagine a long career in the military? Well, I wanted to become a space operations officer in Klaw, Roder Springs, and mostly I wanted to be a successful Lieutenant and Junior Officer in the Air Force. I had a lot of responsibility when I was young, which I was proud of, and I took seriously. Then, what was your sliding doors moment? Well, I knew to get promoted. I needed a master's degree. The Air Force sent me to study history at Penn. I was very focused on what I was learning and I realized I didn't want to stay in the Air Force.

24:52Part of that was the don't ask, don't tell policy. I came out when I was in grad school and that man staying in the Air Force was a different proposition. That was another piece of it. What did you learn from your service that you bring to your work today? When you're in the service, you don't get to choose your mission and you don't get to choose the people with whom you're going to accomplish it with. So you learn to figure out how to work with what you have. What's something you've learned from one of your youngest workers? How to use the camera better on my phone? Speaking of the phone, what is your most used app? We have a tool where I can see how many people are in the memorial compared with our forecast. I look at that all the time. Do you think veterans make good CEOs? Clearly. In hindsight, what's a decision you would have made differently? I don't go there. It's good and bad from every decision.

25:53And if you weren't doing this job, what would you be doing? Running a library. I always fill up lifting seeing people in a library. We have to keep trying to learn more. Charmed by root, 66 America. Foreign tourists, drawn by myths and quirks, provide a financial contribution for small businesses along the nation's storied artery. Wolfgang Wurz took a drag on his cigarette and a sip from his coffee cup, looked at his watch and boo his whistle. It was 8 a.m. in the parking lot of the best western and suburban St. Louis. Time for Mr. Wurz to rally his troops, a dozen German and Swiss tourists, so they could jump on their Harley Davidson motorcycles and head out on Route 66. Mr. Wurz, who was 67, rattled off the day's stops on a roughly 200-mile stretch through

26:54Missouri. The wagon wheel motel and Cuba, the rocking chair and fanning, the devil's elbow bridge, the Redmond's candy shop in Philpsburg, and by about 5 p.m. Springfield, the birthplace of the highway known as the Main Street of America. And Mr. Wurz, a wily weather-beaten former ski instructor from Dubingen, Germany, looked at the group of middle-aged bikers and leather jackets and boots and gave them their marching orders on day 3 of their 2 week, 2,500-mile-sold turn from Chicago to Santa Monica, California. Let's go get your kicks. The mother road, as John Steinberg called Route 66 in the grapes of wrath, turns 100 this year. And the motels, the diners and the gas stations along the road have repaired their neon signs, refresh their menus, and stock their shelves with commemeterate, commandorate

27:58belt loads for the flood of extra traffic. Tourism boards and Route 66 associations have held classic car railings, street painting contests and art installations, including a 23-foot stained glass style pushpin that marks the midpoint of the road's Oklahoma stretch. No one buys a ticket to visit Route 66, so numbers of how many tourists and tracks are in precise. A Rutgers University study in 2011 estimated about $132 million in annual spending along the highway. Jennifer Wilding, a community engagement advisor at the Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City, whose domain includes four states intersected by Route 66, expects spending to be markedly higher during the Centennial. The amount is probably less than a week's worth of revenue at Disney World, but it is

28:59meaningful to small businesses. The shops along Route 66 lean into their location, and as I drove sections of the route with Mr. Wers and his group this year, business owners said that the anniversary was providing a significant financial boost. International tourists are among the biggest source of revenue. More than a third of the visitors by some counts are from overseas. Through our Route 66 associations throughout Europe and South America, as well as in Japan, Australia and beyond. Shopkeepers say that international travelers stay longer and spend more than Americans who are typically older and by less. Jennifer Brennan, co-owner of the Fanning 66 Outpost in Cuba, Missouri, said that sales had jumped about 50 percent this summer, with magnets, bracelets, and salt and pepper shakers selling especially well.

30:00We've been ordering like crazy to keep up, she said, adding that 120 international motorcycles had stopped by that day. They're currently listening to reading articles and features from the New York Times Business section and then I agree frontier radio reading service. Roberto Benelli, the most gung-hole member of Mr. Wers' group, bought 16 T-shirts by the time he made it to Arizona. Peter Fordham and his wife, Katja Winer, spent about $10,000 each to join Mr. Wers' tour, a bucket list item that included flights from Germany and motorcycles that they rented in De Plain at Linoi. Patrick Tuttle, the director of visit, in Missouri, said that visitors from 45 countries signed the guest book in City Hall last year when people from outside the United States spent $5.7 million in Japan, a majority of whom were probably travelers on Route 66.

31:08Mike Cowan, who turned a gas station into a Yip Shop in Williams, Arizona, said that about 60% of his customers were from abroad. Yet, it can be an edgy time for international visitors to travel through America. Sam Murray, who guides New Zealanders on Route 66, said that some customers canceled the reservations this summer because they were nervous about the political climate. The strong US dollar, combined with higher gas prices, airfares, and travel insurance, also played a role. But largely, Route 66 felt like an apolitical haven. International visitors told me that they were reluctant to wait in the political debates that they had little stake in. Shopkeepers and restaurant owners did not want to alienate their customers by airing their own views. Friends say to me, you can't go to the US now. Mr. Wers said, I always say every country has its problems.

32:10Presidents come and go. Route 66 stays the same. For decades, Route 66 was the quickest way to drive across the country for sharecroppers escaping the dust bowl, soldiers reporting for duty, and travelers relocating. That last group included my parents, who moved from Brooklyn to Los Angeles in 1960. Along the way, the roadside was filled with motels, advertising air conditioning, and colored television, stores, hawking souvenirs, and restaurants. They would soon be mythologized in the movie American Graffiti. But as the interstate highway system expanded, many towns on Route 66 were bypassed and withered. The last stretch was bypassed in Williams, Arizona, when I 40 opened a few miles away in the entire road, with federally decommissioned in 1985.

33:13Not long after Angel del Gildalillo, a barber in Seligman, Arizona, helped form the historic Route 66 Association, which persuaded the state to erect historic Route 66 signs to draw tourists back to the towns. The other seven states along the road followed soon. It worked. Thousands of tourists trying to relive the era of roadmaps, station wagons, and full-service filling stations, returned to Route 66 even though it was not no longer a continuous artery. The museum speaks reverently about the road, like Trekkies or model train nerds. The Route 66 sent an all-amagasing who slogan his watchdog of the mother robe never seems to run out of material. Some roadies collect pins, shine-classes, and other souvenirs. Some international fans said that they learned about the road from Steinbeg's book, or the

34:17Bobby Troop song, Get Your Kicks on Route 66. Raised in Germany, Mr. Wurst said he phoned love with Westerns, classic cars, and images of the American West. I grew up watching Lassie, Bonanza, and John Wayne movies, and this was always America to me. The diners, the neon signs, the cars, and cowboys and Indians said Mr. Wurst, who has Route 66 tattoos, on his arms. On his first trip on the route in 2009, Mr. Wurst was struck by the friendliness of Americans. He returned the next year and the year after, when he brought his friend Anja. She loved the trip so much that after they had finished in California, they went to Las Vegas and got married. Wolf came in Anja started a non-profit group and have led more than 20 tours, becoming minor celebrities.

35:19When the group visited Gary's Gay Parita, a roadside museum in Ashgrove, Missouri, the owners, Bob Turner, Byron's, and her husband, George, Huggwoke came in Anja, like they were old friends. Miss Byron said she loved international visitors. Plenty of Americans stopped by, of course, but they are often in a rush. We as a culture aren't built for the contemplative, she said. The walls of her gift shop were covered with stickers left by tourists from Costa Rica, Japan, and elsewhere. Raburro Rossi, who runs a Route 66 Association in Italy, and wrote Route 66, an American myth, agreed. The visitors are gorgeous in the sense of freedom palpable. While befriending people along the road is the main reason that he's returned many times since the first trip in 1990. To me, Route 66 is not simply a roadie road in an email. It is a family that begins in Chicago and ends at the Santa Monica Pier.

36:24Several shopkeepers told me that international travelers wanted to see the real America. A better description might be lost America. On Route 66 went into the heyday before interstate highways plowed through the country. As I traveled parts of the road, I was reminded though that the heyday was not universal, especially long stretches of the road, where Jim Crow laws were enforced, and people of color were unwelcome in many establishments. Outside Oklahoma City, the three-filling station, one of the few black-owned gas stations on Route 66, was the point and reminder of that period. The station was an oasis for black travelers and searchered gas, food, and a campground to avoid so-called sundown towns, which excluded people of color after dark in the 1960s. If you were a white traveler, your experience on the road would be a lot different than

37:26a black traveler. Said Trade Thompson, Executive Director of the Oklahoma History Society, we tend to look back on the past with roads covered glasses and witness nostalgia, but it wasn't that way for everyone. As Route 66 entered its second century, people along the road wondered what the future holds. During the road's first Renaissance in the 1990s, the journey appealed mainly to older Americans who had traveled Route 66 decades earlier. Then came the baby boomers whose parents drove the road. Michael Wallace, who in 1990 published Route 66, the mother road, is credited with igniting and renewed interest in the road. He was also the voice of the sheriff, in the 2006 Pixar film Cires, which take place in a fictional Route 66 town, Radiator Springs. The movie is introduced younger fans to the road, and replica cars from the movie at

38:30outside gas stations to attract families. In Sealingman, busloads of tourists speaking Mandarin and Spanish continue to stop at Angel Del Gidello's old barber shop Gip Shop. Currencies from 166 countries are stapled to the ceiling. Social media has helped shops and restaurants reach new fans. The Big Texan Steak Ranch in Amarillo, Texas, live streams customers who try to win a free 72-ounce steak, along with the potato, salad, and shrimp cocktail, if they finish it all in one hour. Dozens of videos of the contest circulate on YouTube, TikTok, and Instagram. While Mr. Wors' group arrived, Marianne and Massage's, a burly woodworker from Hanover, Germany, tried and failed to finish the meal. Were a wet canvas and people were painting and said, Bob Ewy, the restaurant's owner?

39:34The entire road is a kind of canvas. Many towns feature murals painted on building walls and vintage neon signs on storefronts. Musical roads with bumps on the street that play a song when you ride over them. Were built in Talsau, Oklahoma, where drivers can hear Woody Guthrie's anthem, this land is your land. Until you're on it, you don't see it. Cedarized Martin, director of the Oklahoma Route 66 Association, and manager, preserve Route 66 for the national trust for historic preservation and whose wife, Samantha Extance, worked on the musical road. You can put your stamp on it. Only toward the end of their trip, did Mr. Wors' group begin to reflect on all that they had seen. Taking two weeks to drive, 2,500 miles, might seem like a lot of time, but the group were busy making several stops a day. They drove through New Mexico, made a tour into Utah, posing for a photo where Tom Hanks

40:35stopped running in the movie for his come. They took helicopter rides over the Grand Canyon and traversed the Arizona Sidewinder, an 8-mile stretch with 191 hairpin turns and steep elevations with few guardrails. In each evening they pulled into a motel parking lot, grabbed their bags from the SUV that on your drove, opened cold cans of Budweiser, and relived the day. The official end of Route 66 is at the intersection of Lincoln and Owen Big Boa Vards in Santa Monica. But for the German and Swiss bikers and for many other travelers, their trip concluded not at the Route's actual finish line, but on a pier about a mile away. That's where Ian Boa and Hock souvenirs out of a hut next to a sign that reads, End of the Trail. Mr. Boawn is a Route 66 geek, but he's also an interpretive vessel for the thousands

41:36of pilgrims who finished their journey exhausted, yet exuberant at his little shop. Every year he sells more than a thousand commemeterative certificates for ten dollars each. The certificates are hokey, but they help keep the memory of the journey alive. I know that when people are on the trip, they're sharing pictures of their friends and family and posting some stuff on social media, but I want them getting asked about it ten years later, Mr. Boawn said. In June, Mr. Worses tour arrived at Mr. Boawn's shack, and almost everyone bought a certificate. Mr. Wors also provides one in German. The trip had been exhilarating, and for many of the participants, the everyday Americans they met stood out. As Jim Hinckley is storied on the road, and friend of Wolfgang and Anja said during a stop in Kingman, Arizona, Route 66, it's the people.

42:36It's a highway that doesn't even exist. Having made the journey dozens of times, Wolfgang and Anja told their group knowingly that they would not fully grasp the trip until they got back to Europe. Route 66 is like my mount-ever, as he said, you have to do it once in a lifetime. Benefits of home care at your own home. Continuing care retirement communities widen their scope with measured options. Not a single step interrupts the path. Mine with time to the front door of Joan Brasier's Ranch House in Asheville, North Carolina. With its remodeled primary bath and easy to clean services, Miss Brasier intends to stay in her home with her husband. Paul was in ski for the foreseeable future. It's the unforeseeable though that has worried them.

43:37She and Mr. Walson ski both retired, they want to travel, but they were concerned about spending money for fun today that they may need for care tomorrow, even though their care-po-calculation showed that they could most likely afford it. The couple found a solution in a little-known retirement model of care that is gaining momentum. Continuing care at home provided through a continuing care retirement community blends the expertise of those communities with support for members staying in their own homes. Members of these programs can move into the facility they contract with, if they need to, with the assurance of containing future costs. You're listening to a reading of articles and features from the New York Times Business section on that AgriPuntary Radio Reading Service. Several 75% of American adults in a 2024 AARP survey said that they hoped to stay in

44:41their long-time homes or age in place as long as possible, with only 29% of older adults in the survey saying that their traditional continuing care model was a likely choice. That model not only involves moving but also requires a hefty entry fee and monthly fees to live on site, where residents can transition to higher levels of care as their needs dictate. The at-home model has been operated by a few communities for decades, creating enough of a track record for the long-term care industry to adapt it more widely. This option is offered by only 37 of the country's 1,911 continuing care retirement communities. Or CCRCs, according to an industry group, Leading Age, up from 26 a decade ago. More are exploring the concept as evidence by the escalating participation in the group's

45:45conference on the topic. Miss Brezhyev's, who 70-poiers-old and Mr. Walsinski, who 78, enrolled in Gibbons' Choice, a three-year-old operation of Gibbons' community in Western North Carolina. The program provides regular health check-ins and coaching with a geriatric care specialist known as the care manager, with the assurance of long-term care and facility at a fixed price. If we need a little bit of help, we get a little bit of help, as Brezhyev said. If we need to go into care, we go into care. Depending on a person's health and projected needs, Gibbons' Choice plan starts with a one-time fee that typically ranges from $33,000 to $77,000 from members entering at age 65 in good health, along with monthly care management fees starting around $570.

46:48The program fees are for individuals. Though couples receive a slight discount, said Aaron Strayen, who's the executive director of the program. Like all such programs, Gibbons' Choice holds the entry fee to apply to future care expenses. While the monthly fee covers the check-ins and professional guidance, say, arranging in-home help like an aid or housekeeping, that enable members to stay in their homes as long as possible. To downside, the fee does not cover the cost of in-home help. If at-home members need to move into the CCRC facility, they pay only the monthly fee, adjusted for inflation, that they had been paying all along. For Miss Brezhyev, the program swung into action a few months ago, when she injured a shoulder and a fall while walking her dog. The couples, Gibbons' Choice Care Manager, already familiar with the household, stepped into a range at-home services that void Miss Brezhyev through the worst of her recovery.

47:53The monthly fee covered the manager's work and even some meal delivery. Medicare covered her health care. Affordable waiting-life care is the holy grail for millions of American families. The way to state it from Pew Research found that while most people hoped to age at home, they weren't sure if they could. Of course, of those who hoped to age in place with caregiver help, according to Pew Research released in February, 37 percent said they thought they could pull it off. Traditional continuing care retirement communities address many of these issues, but at high price. The typical entry fee for onsite living ranges from 400 to 700 thousand dollars, according to leading age, although it can be lower or higher. It's not uncommon for people to use proceeds from selling their home to pay that fee, yet the median home equity for homeowner 65 and older is only $250,000, which leaves

48:58a big gap. To cost this daunting for many families, especially if they hope to reserve their home equity for their ares. The at home care model costs much less than the traditional option because members continue to pay any mortgage, insurance, taxes, and maintenance on their properties. While members can gain access to some onsite community amenities, such as cultural programs of fitness facilities, they remain responsible for their own meals and daily costs of living. For onsite residents monthly fees typically include meals, property maintenance, most utilities, and other basic living expenses. For admission, at home members must pass a battery of physical and cognitive tests that are more stringent for onsite residents. Cognitive decline is the most common reason for being disqualified. Bygivance, Miss Strain, said, thus at home members usually join in their mid-70s, about

50:00eight years younger than the average onsite CCRC resident. An organization expects to collect monthly care fees for years before people become in firm and also invest entry fees according to executives at several CCRC's. Turning your application for care at home is everything. Timing is everything. Said Paul Stavros, vice president of the vibrant life at home division of Sun Health in Arizona, which begun in 2016 and is over 220 members in the Western Phoenix area. He and other industry executives said that in rowing early and in good health increased the chances of being accepted and reduced the initial cost. Each continuing care organization sets its own pricing structure for ad home programs, but across the country the entry fee typically ranges from about 50,000 to hundreds of thousands per person with members signing contracts outlining their free structure and projected future costs.

51:01All fees are tied to the perspective members' aids and health status and the type of contract that he or she buys. Some contracts are all inclusive while others have copays for the cost of care some up to 50%. If a member later wants to cancel any refund is dictated by the contract. Fundamentally the ad home program act as a form of long-term care insurance integrated with monthly care and wellness management. The numbers work for both the organizations and the individuals because it's basic insurance style math. Said Brad Paulus, a partner with continuing care actuaries. Typically CCRCs are regulated by state insurance departments though they technically are not insurers. The ad home program, Mr. Paulus said, pulled money from a pool of healthy people and helped keep members healthier longer, achieving individual longevity goals while minimizing the risk

52:06for the organization. 30% of older Americans die before they need any late in life institutional care. Mr. Paulus said, another 40% use minimal care under 90 days before the end of life. And that's why long-term care policies have deductible periods, he said, referring to the period that consumers must wait for payouts. The final 30% of Americans will have substantial long-term care bills, he said. Despite the complexity of the CCRC operations, the ad home model appears to fill a caregiver gap. If families can learn about it in time for elder relatives to qualify, here is what potential members need to consider before applying. Scout and compare ad home programs. As organizations, I figure out how to market them and information about pilots may be difficult

53:06to find. Cut. Through confusing language, many CCRCs call people on the regular waiting list ad home residents, said Margaret Johnson, a senior director with Fitch ratings, which assesses the financial status of CCRCs, need to ask for clarity. Calculate the cost of staying at home, like making modifications to your home, and choosing and managing at home services. Only 14% of middle income older adults get a 4 or 4 hours a day of in-home health care. Said Lisa McCracken had a research in analytics for the National Investment Center for Seniors Housing and Care. That tells us that for them, aging in place is not always a great plan either. Animals must assess how to manage and pay for care if their needs and health diverge. One spouse may have a progressive disease while the other's health is more stable.

54:11Often programs offer support and care coordination to both spouses, even if the contract covers only the healthier spouse. Said Deeper Corn, senior director of white planning communities, and continuing care at home with leading eggs. And finally, just a few tidbits, what you get for $1.3 million. Well, in Denver, you get a 1930 craftsman house on point 1 acre. It's $1.3 million in the size of the house's $2,508 square feet. Price per square foot, $518. And your taxes are over $6,500. In Detroit, you get a colonial revival house built in 1966 on 1.3 acres and it's $7,291

55:12square foot house. Taxes are almost $6,000. In Charleston, South Carolina, you get a 1931 brick college on a point 2 amount of an acre. And the house is only $17.75 square feet. There's taxes are about $6,500. So if you're thinking of moving and paying $1.00 over a million dollars, check out the different areas and see where you get the best for your money. You've been listening to a reading of articles and features from the September 6th issue of the New York Times Business section. We read from the New York Times Business section every Thursday at 11 a.m. Your reader has been Jeff Shapiro.

56:14Thank you for listening. Coming up next in the Niagara Frontier Radio Reading Service, we have the USA today. Following that 2 o'clock is episode number 4 of the Futurist Peace by Moaz and Nun and a Ziz Babu Sarah. Stay with us.

59:48The following program is intended for listeners who are