X-Message-Number: 701
From: 
Subject: Re: cryonics: #699
Date: Mon,  6 Apr 92 23:06:52 PDT

Sigh, as if I am not busy enough.  This is to answer the comments by 
Michael Paulle in reference to the possible move of Alcor to Pheonix. 

Patient care is the gold standard by which we have to measure our 
activities.  Our patients in suspension (and those needing it soon) 
come before considering the convenience of the other members.  Why?  
Living members can take care of themselves, switch organizations, or 
even start another cryonics organization.  The patients have no such 
choice.  Moving out of earthquake-ridden California to a more stable 
place has *always* been on the "do it as soon as we can afford it" 
list.  Now, patient care does *not* have to be in the same place as 
where people are perfused and first frozen, but for reasons of economy 
of staff, it is currently unavoidable. 

(Incidentally, good location (on/near rock) and good bracing such as 
we have on the building and some of the dewers will deal with the 
relatively wimpy earthquakes you can expect in California.  The bigger 
problem is the expected high level of disruption of utilities, and 
with that, the liquid nitrogen plants.  Could we cope with a "big 
one"?  Likely, depending on the roads' being intact, and trucking in 
liquid nitrogen from Pheonix or the Bay area.) 

Michael's strongest argument is about the distance between an Alcor 
facility and the biggest concentration of Alcor members at risk of 
dying.  Is this a real problem?  I don't think so.  Alcor knows a 
*lot* about the time which can elapse between the cooling/washout and 
cryoprotective perfusion/freezing stages of the suspension process.  
We have successfully revived dogs treated to many hours of cold, 
bloodless storage.  True, less time is better, but (for example) the 
last two suspensions had many hours of cold storage time, and little 
or no evidence that they were damaged by the process.  (See the 
writeups and my last column in Cryonics for how we measure damage.)  
We could *drive* stabilized patients from the LA area to Pheonix for 
perfusion within the low damage time period.  (Not that this may be 
necessary.) 

The driving factor for the current moving mania is the space problem 
in the current facility.  It is too small, and trying to work in 
cramped quarters leads to all sorts of inefficiencies with, for 
example, research and suspensions.  (I speak from direct knowledge 
here--I have spent close to an accumulated two weeks in Riverside 
since December.)  Alcor is going to *have* to move, or acquire other 
(perhaps adjacent) space.  This option, however, has been made complex 
or perhaps impossible by the suit against the state health 
department--they appealed, and the city zoning board is holding up our 
conditional use permit pending final disposition of the suit.  This 
has been going on since the Dora Kent events four years ago.  It is 
anyone's guess how long it will continue. 

Why not rent some space?  Well, landlords absolutely require tenants 
to have insurance.  If you have been following the Alcor's woes for a 
long time, the fact that we could not obtain insurance was what 
*forced* Alcor out of the last facility they had over in Fullerton.  
*None* of the cryonics organizations has or can get insurance (as far 
as I know; please correct me if anyone has other data). 

A factor which I cannot evaluate is Ralph Whelan's asertion that many 
member prospects who visit the facility are so underwhelmed by it that 
(for this reason) they do not become members.  I know that surface 
apperances are important, but capability is too.  Well, who knows?  
Perhaps a nice looking building will bring in the lot of these folks, 
but it is sure going to drive down the quality.  As Hugh Hixon put it, 
cryonics is not for the timid.  A new building is *not* going to 
change what the transport team is doing with your loved one in the 
middle of your livingroom. 

A significant driver to looking in Arizona is overpriced California 
real estate.  Taking Mike Darwin's estimates, a reasonable amount of 
space in the LA area would cost 2-3 times what it would cost in the 
(very depressed) Arizona real estate market.  When you are talking 
over a million, that is a big hit.  

If Alcor did move to Pheonix, would that leave the southern California 
area without stabilization/transport capability?  Not necessary.  Mike 
Darwin has been considering offering standby/transport services on a 
contract basis from a Riverside base.  The southern California people 
could form a solid local transport team, likely more qualified than 
the one we have in northern California. 

*If* this move goes through; that is, all the conditions are met, the 
money is raised, the projected cost has been covered, (including such 
miscellaneous cost as $10,000 to replace all the bracelets/neck tags 
with new ones with the new phone number), and the political climate is 
found to accept cryonics then I think it will be a good deal for 
Alcor.  There is no way that it will be anything close to the giant 
bite TT/ACS are taking with the huge building they are purchasing in the 
bay area. 

If it does not, Alcor is going to have to slug it out with the zoning 
folks, and look for more space nearby.  Incidentally, I have not 
looked at the new building, though I should.  Someone has to figure 
out what the power/air conditioning cost is going to be for the place, 
and it might be me.  By the way, I lived in Tucson (120 miles 
southeast of Pheonix) for the 25 years before 1985.  My folks live in 
Prescott some 90 miles north of Pheonix.  Between June and September 
driving through Pheonix in the daytime was a dip to hell. 

I wouldn't make as much of this proposed move as Michael has.  Alcor 
goes into this mode on a fairly regular basis, and 4 times out of 5, 
nothing comes of it.  My annoyance is that we really do have serious 
skills problems (even with Mike being willing to help), and move mania 
is distracting attention from solving them. 

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