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Re: Fresno, farmers, etc.
Author: Severe Duty
Date: 01-17-2012 - 10:55
Fresno isn't exactly a small town anymore. The Fresno/Clovis area has more than 560,000 adults and add in surrounding communities like Madera, Oakhurst, Reedley, Sanger and Selma/Kingsburg and the numbers rise substantially to over 685,000 adults, not including their children [citydata.com]
As far as the farmers are concerned, the HSR Commission's track record of arrogance coupled with incompetance and pork-flavored decisions certainly doesn't help relations. It's not as simple as running some tracks through an orchard. Numerous expensive wells and canals would be permanently condemned, and access to farmland will be deeply rerouted due to the elimination of grade crossings, which may add huge amounts of agriculture traffic and machinery onto arterial highways so they can drive ten miles around the bullet train to get to the other side of the farm.
Also, thousands of food-producing acres will be permanently lost, while others become unprofitable due to the disruption. This last part bothers me the most. Where will we farm if we keep filling in the Central Valley with development? I'm not interested in getting my 'fresh fruits and vegetables' from some unregulaterd pesticide country 1000 miles or more away. Talk about carbon footprints!
No realistic compensation seems to be on the table, and grumblings of imminent domain don't help. Unlike a depreciable building, how is value assigned to a farm? If you grow raisin grapes for twenty years, but could also rip them out and plant almonds for the next 20 years, how is a future value assigned with such a difference in cost/profit between the two crops? And, you're about to take away someone's future, what then? The land never really depreciates like a building because it is reusable forever, properly cared for. And what of all the support businesses that will be challenged by this?
And finally, what the hell does California need HSR for anyway? I can't seem to find a rational argument for this; maybe someone here can enlighten me. Is it really that critical that the state spends this much money just to move people around...faster? How about rebuilding the rest of our aging power transmission lines, dams, highways, etc. instead. How about reducing the cost of a U.C. education?
As far as the farmers are concerned, the HSR Commission's track record of arrogance coupled with incompetance and pork-flavored decisions certainly doesn't help relations. It's not as simple as running some tracks through an orchard. Numerous expensive wells and canals would be permanently condemned, and access to farmland will be deeply rerouted due to the elimination of grade crossings, which may add huge amounts of agriculture traffic and machinery onto arterial highways so they can drive ten miles around the bullet train to get to the other side of the farm.
Also, thousands of food-producing acres will be permanently lost, while others become unprofitable due to the disruption. This last part bothers me the most. Where will we farm if we keep filling in the Central Valley with development? I'm not interested in getting my 'fresh fruits and vegetables' from some unregulaterd pesticide country 1000 miles or more away. Talk about carbon footprints!
No realistic compensation seems to be on the table, and grumblings of imminent domain don't help. Unlike a depreciable building, how is value assigned to a farm? If you grow raisin grapes for twenty years, but could also rip them out and plant almonds for the next 20 years, how is a future value assigned with such a difference in cost/profit between the two crops? And, you're about to take away someone's future, what then? The land never really depreciates like a building because it is reusable forever, properly cared for. And what of all the support businesses that will be challenged by this?
And finally, what the hell does California need HSR for anyway? I can't seem to find a rational argument for this; maybe someone here can enlighten me. Is it really that critical that the state spends this much money just to move people around...faster? How about rebuilding the rest of our aging power transmission lines, dams, highways, etc. instead. How about reducing the cost of a U.C. education?
