About Felix
Hi, I'm Felix Bachofner.
They say "pride goes before the fall," but I'm unapologetically proud about being:
- Father of three, loving partner and an all around family man
- Swiss-American (also multi-lingual like many native Swiss, in my case quadrilingual)
- In addition to the above, I have reasonable proficiency in a number of computer-related languages (although I am not a gifted programmer by any stretch!)
- A former Mayor (of Seaside, CA) who, due to good budgeting "chops" (pun intended!) saved the community many million dollars in just a few years in office. The amazing thing, though, is that services increased as measured by various metrics such as:
- adding an additional day to City Hall opening days,
- increased number of (lower cost!) permits being issued,
- more community assets being maintained,
- more volunteers being engaged,
- more visitors being attracted and served.
- Inquisitive, Informed, Intelligent and Insightful
- A motivator / agitator / gadfly — pick your point of view!
In other places (on the web and in newspapers) I write / have written about information technology, marketing and advertising, budgeting and frugality, politics, community / property development and construction and (a long time ago) the arts — particularly film and theater production criticism.
Here, however, I will publish mostly about interests which really are purely of personal focus here at Hacienda Helvetica: family, travel and special events. It is my answer to staying far away from Facebook and other "walled gardens" of the web.
It is past time for people to take a similar approach to dealing with the corporate "shaping" of public discourse. I hope this site will encourage you to do the same. It is not particularly difficult!