2008 Woodie Awards
Ominous future for Central Valley
Louie Araujo
Issue date: 4/30/03 Section: News
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According to The Great Valley Center, a private, non-profit organization, during the past ten years the Yuba-Sutter area has shown an increase in the workforce. Many new jobs have been created: in the service sector, 16 percent; government, 28 percent; retail trade, 18 percent; agriculture, 18 percent; travel, manufacture and construction, 20 percent.
However, despite the increase in the workforce, in the last decade household income in the Central Valley has averaged 20 percent lower than the state average. The disparity between the average income in the Central Valley and that of the state as a whole continues to increase.
Furthermore, the Valley houses 32 percent of the state's inmates in 19 state prisons.
Most of the jobs in the manufacturing sector are created by food and timber and wood-related manufactures. This makes the manufacturing sector heavily reliant on the agriculture industry, but the agriculture trade has shown the largest decline during the last ten years. Both of these industries are very susceptible to disasters such as major floods or fires.
Recently several newspaper articles appeared in the Modesto Bee, providing possible scenarios of future problems that may or may not develop in the Central Valley depending on what steps residents take to insure a positive future.
In one scenario, the place is Corcoran, a town south of Fresno; the year is 2025, and an old timer named Arthur is explaining to his grandson Ned how things were in 2003 and the developments that occurred. Arthur explains that taking in the waste from the Bay area and Los Angeles seemed like a good idea at the time. The pay was good, and it provided employment. The so-called experts said the Valley needed to diversify the economy and that relying on agriculture alone would make the Central Valley vulnerable.
The old man complains that dumps and prisons were not all that diverse. He points out that waste is waste and had no value but that the prison and toxic wastes industries began to boom at the end of the 20th century, and the Valley had plenty of space to build on that would serve to increase tax revenues, jobs and business for factories in the process.
However, despite the increase in the workforce, in the last decade household income in the Central Valley has averaged 20 percent lower than the state average. The disparity between the average income in the Central Valley and that of the state as a whole continues to increase.
Furthermore, the Valley houses 32 percent of the state's inmates in 19 state prisons.
Most of the jobs in the manufacturing sector are created by food and timber and wood-related manufactures. This makes the manufacturing sector heavily reliant on the agriculture industry, but the agriculture trade has shown the largest decline during the last ten years. Both of these industries are very susceptible to disasters such as major floods or fires.
Recently several newspaper articles appeared in the Modesto Bee, providing possible scenarios of future problems that may or may not develop in the Central Valley depending on what steps residents take to insure a positive future.
In one scenario, the place is Corcoran, a town south of Fresno; the year is 2025, and an old timer named Arthur is explaining to his grandson Ned how things were in 2003 and the developments that occurred. Arthur explains that taking in the waste from the Bay area and Los Angeles seemed like a good idea at the time. The pay was good, and it provided employment. The so-called experts said the Valley needed to diversify the economy and that relying on agriculture alone would make the Central Valley vulnerable.
The old man complains that dumps and prisons were not all that diverse. He points out that waste is waste and had no value but that the prison and toxic wastes industries began to boom at the end of the 20th century, and the Valley had plenty of space to build on that would serve to increase tax revenues, jobs and business for factories in the process.