Posted on 07/18/2010 5:18:13 AM PDT by Willie Green
Kern County is shooting for a come-from-behind win over Fresno in a competition over a state transportation project offering the winner 1,500 or more good, permanent jobs.
Government and business leaders on this side of the county line are throwing their support behind Shafter's and Wasco's bids to host a train maintenance facility considered the most lucrative piece of the California High-Speed Rail project.
While at least 13 communities are in the running to host the Heavy Maintenance Facility, Kern and Fresno may have an edge because of their central location in the state, ample work force and uninterrupted stretch of flat terrain needed for a test track.
The strategies adopted by Fresno and Kern could hardly be more different. Fresno has succeeded in building community and political support, as well as putting up $25 million in public money to make its bid more attractive. Kern, on the other hand, has not yet launched a campaign to build public support for its bids.
The two counties' specific site proposals contrast just as sharply. Fresno's nearly 700-acre site is larger than either of Kern's, though leaders here say the properties under consideration in Shafter and Wasco are technically superior for several reasons: Unlike Fresno's proposed site, the two in Kern are fully zoned for industrial use, require no environmental remediation or demolition, and have fewer property owners and so fewer potential complications for real estate negotiations.
(Excerpt) Read more at bakersfield.com ...
I have been to Shafter and to Fresno. Put it in Shafter.
It ain't go'n to happen. This rail project is just a money pit for the political pigs.
And a goldmine for their financial backers.
Same thing happened in the 1800s. They called them the Big Three Railraod Barons, as I remember: Stanford, Hamilton ?, and ???.
Southern Pacific Company Big Four – Stanford, Huntington, Hopkins and Crocker
Are those the ones you remember?
Those are just the SP robber barons.
Those are the ones. And I said Hamilton when I meant Huntington. I forgot Hopkins and Crocker. Let’s face it — my brain is getting old! One of my sorority sisters dated a Huntington descendant at UC Berkeley, but I think he was adopted so maybe that doesn’t count. LOL.
Hey, Hamilton was close! I understood it, lol.
Around here, there are cities and cities that named the streets after all of these types.
Some developer must have been funded by that bunch, or a big fan.
Carnegie, Vanderbilt, Harriman... etc.
It would be a good history lesson for children (and adults) just to go around and research the names of nearby streets.
(Do they teach history, anymore? lol)
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