[quote author="no_vaseline" date=1221735761][quote author="bkshopr" date=1221713421][quote author="no_vaseline" date=1221656234][quote author="bkshopr" date=1221652571]Architects and engineers design site plans and roads with a top view perspective. Everything is clear from the top view when one could see the entire context like the key map that AsianInvasion posted.
It looks absolutely normal until one experiences the layout from the driver seat. When speed is fast a bend or the swerve could become fatal. Architects often design with aesthetic in mind thinking the meandering roads are prettier. Architects were not trained as traffic and road engineers. Perkowitz Ruth Architects who designed Legacy also designed Riverwalk in Fresno another nightmare with curving streets and mis-alignments.</blockquote>
You should see Riverwalk at Christmas. It's enough to make you want to switch to Judaism.</blockquote>
NoVas,
Are you from Fresno? You posted about the Decayed Downtown that never really recovered ? I am surprised to hear you know about that area. The area by Fig Garden you posted something about it as well. I am impressed. The migrant farmworkers in the area for the last 80 years in my opinion stumbled Fresno from reaching its potential. There are many mixed-use projects on the board. It is never too late to see a struggling city wanting to grow. Cal State Merced started just a little while ago and hope that will strenthen the education institution of our agricultural central valley.</blockquote>
Thank you for your kind words. You are very close. I'm from a small farming town between Fresno and Bakersfield. I did live there for several years.
Fresno has the worst city planning in the whole San Joaquin/Sacramento valley. The developers have come up with one plan for redevelopment after another without success, placating the city council as they plan the next urban sprawl monstrosity on the North side of town. Since the 1980s after Fulton Mall disintegrated in the matter of 7 or 8 years, there has been one redevelopment plan after another.
First, downtown got a Comedy Club and Club One Casino. Then they got the Fresno Grizzleys minor league baseball team. Then they got some mixed use development in a downtown high rise that used to be Guarantee Savings. Whatever. It will fail miserably. With the exception of Fig Garden, the only good neighborhood to live in Fresno is the newest one, and it's on the North side of town. It will be interesting to see what happens now that they have developed out to the river and can't 'sprawl it up' anymore. Where will the 'nice' neighborhoods be now? Fresno has never been an infill town. Nobody wants to move into those ?bad? neighborhoods.
The migrant farm worker didn't stunt Fresno (by comparison to the local surrounding towns). Fresno's problem is industry. Agriculture is a necessary evil when it comes to society (everybody likes to eat) but the jobs it creates are the lowest paying and brutally difficult to do. You may be aware of this study by Columbia University. My hometown voting district came in dead last in education opportunities, per capita income, life expectancy, and health care.
<a href="http://cup.columbia.edu/book/978-0-231-15494-9/the-measure-of-america">http://cup.columbia.edu/book/978-0-231-15494-9/the-measure-of-america</a>
This is a link to my "hometown" newspaper that made me aware of the Columbia University study. I grew up ten miles from town on a small family farm.
<a href="http://www.hanfordsentinel.com/articles/2008/07/29/news/doc488f5919d62b1072221873.txt">http://www.hanfordsentinel.com/articles/2008/07/29/news/doc488f5919d62b1072221873.txt</a>
They have tried for 40 years to get/retain non agriculture jobs. We had an oil refinery that closed. They had a tire plant that closed. They had some light manufacturing, none of which made it. It is a farming area, with it's second biggest industry being "Government Sanctioned Hospitality." Okay, CDC prisons.
The valley is littered with small towns that had vibrant communities in the 1950's and 1960's. I can think of one that as recently as 1978 had a bakery, three grocery stores, two tractor dealerships, five gas stations, a couple of hardware stores, a butcher, three restaurants, a doctor, a couple of cotton gins...........in a town with about 4,500 people. Today it has what is left of one tractor dealership (that will likely be defunct in the next 18 months), a single convenience store, and a ton of empty decaying storefronts waiting to fall down as they decay away. Unfortunately, it's not the only one that fits that description.
I don?t buy the argument what is lacking there is educational opportunities. IMO, the problem is opportunities of all kinds. There really is no ?there? there. All of my friends from high school left shortly after graduation, never to return. I slugged it out for another ten years, drinking the kool aid that education was the solution, driving 3 hours twice a week to do a MBA in the evenings.
It proved totally useless in the area. Advancement is made in that area by going to work somewhere and waiting for somebody to retire so you can replace them. Note the number of college grads in the survey, the lowest of anywhere in the US. This isn't because of lack of educational oppourtinities. Most of those college grads are K-12 schoolteachers.
I attended the graduation of my brother a couple of years ago from Fresno State. The keynote speakers' speach was on retaining the graduates of Fresno State in the local area, rather than lose them to the 'brain drain' of Norcal and Socal. It was thunderous. Everyone in the audience ignored it.
The ?solution? for me was when my wife applied to all the Civil Engineering programs in California, and was accepted to every one. None exist in the Valley. She chose Pomona. We left. I still have business interests in the area, and have mixed feelings on the issue.
So when I say that the Villages of Columbus is a shithole, trust me. I know what one looks like.
<img src="http://wellaninc.com/images/scan0001.jpg" alt="" />
BTW, not to pick nits, but Merced got a UC.</blockquote>
Oops thank you for the correction. UC Merced. Did your wife go to Cal Poly or Pomona College? Excellent post and thoughtful analysis. Most graduates can make more at big cities. Few actually stayed because lifestyle is horrible out there. I think better retails, businesses, and commerce along with a good master plan Fresno will retain some of its educated population. Cruz Bustamonte lives there right?
