The Insulting Fallacy of HSR Critics on the Central Valley

During much of the debate leading up to and even during last week’s vote to fund HSR, many legislators and critics of HSR either implicitly or outright insult the Central Valley as a poor place to begin construction of the nation’s most ambitious infrastructure project.  After the years of listening and responding to HSR critics’ arguments, I really am simply and unquestionably irritated and downright tired their statements on the Central Valley.  I have to force myself at times not to just go off on many of these individuals who fancy themselves experts on planning issues – many the most outspoken are those who have no background in the subject at all.  But specifically regarding the Central Valley, I think they just need to stop.  Just stop talking.  As native son of California’s (and arguably the country’s) most productive agricultural region, catchphrases like “train to nowhere”, the Norcal-Socal centric statements that “no one will ride it between Madera and Bakersfield”, and that it should go along Interstate 5 as opposed to State Route 99, are just downright offensive to all residents of the Central Valley.  There are many reasons why the Central Valley is an excellent place to begin construction.  Here are just a few.

Confessions of a Third Generation Latino: Community

This is the third post in my series.  This post focuses on my time in middle and high school.  Compared to my previous post, this post explores my self-realization of my place in the Mexican community in Visalia and how i addressed it at the time.

Community

The last post in this series was meant primarily to set the foundation of what happens next.  I was a young Mexican kid who, in all fairness, wasn’t that Mexican.  I became more acutely aware of this fact when i left Royal Oaks Elementary and entered middle school and high school.

The teasing continued througout this time and it did bother me to a good extent.  But where i once knew not why i was the target of such ridicule, now i had reasoned why.  I wasn’t Mexican enough for the rest of the community living in Visalia.

The Mexican community in Visalia and, arguably throughout the Central Valley, are rather fundamental about what it means to be Mexican.  As i mentioned before, the Latino population largely settled in the North Side ghetto and lived below or near the poverty line.  The parents of other Mexican kids i interacted with were mostly Catholic and conservative and held more blue-collar and labor-intensive occupations than my parents did.  They also held a much more skeptical view of their white neighbors, and not necessarily without good cause.

The Central Valley is not a bastion of liberal ideals as San Francisco would be or even as moderate as Los Angeles might be.  The Central Valley is politically and culturally very conservative.   They voted heavily in favor of Proposition 8 and if polled today, would probably support Arizona’s new immigration law with similar numbers.  That being said, the Mexican community responds by behaving similar towards other as well as their own.

Confessions of a Third-Generation Latino: Royal Oaks

This is the second post in a series.  This post focuses on the early development of my personal life in the town of Visalia, CA.  It describes my parents and the experiences in elementary school that will have an impact on my outlook and experiences in the coming years.

Royal Oaks

I grew up in the Southern portion of California’s San Joaquin Valley.  Californians in general usually call it the “Central Valley” but hose that live there just call it “the Valley”.  This gets a little confusing when i visit Southern California because “the Valley” to them refers to the San Fernando Valley.  Oh well.  Mine’s bigger.

The city i grew up in is called Visalia (pictured above), which is located about 40-minutes south of Fresno.  When i was born, Visalia had a population of around 60,000.  Today, the population has doubled to around  125,000.

Visalia is old.  Settled in 1852, It’s the oldest town between Los Angeles and Stockton and is the county seat of Tulare County, named one of the most productive agricultural regions in the country.  Over 36% of the population identifiy as Latino and the vast majority of them live below the poverty line.  Many of the Latino’s in Visalia settle in an area known as “North Side”.  It is named so for being north of the 198-Freeway that runs through the center of town.  North Side is a ghetto in both senses of the word.  It is a ghetto in that it is a place where people of similar background settle.  It is where you can find the small Mexican shops and grocers.  But it is also a ghetto because it is arguably the most run down area of the city.  Here is where most of the crime occurs, where the local gangs hangout, and where most of the police spend their time.  I didn’t grow up here.

As i implied, this is not a typical tale of rising from the streets by the pull of my bootstraps and making it in the world.  No, im sorry to say that I was born on the other side of the freeway.  The neighborhood i grew up in is known as “Royal Oaks”.  Already it sounds pretentious but i assure you the name is more pretentious than the neighborhood itself.