Place Value

     "What's the APN number on that property?" my attorney friend asked during a discussion of the Dollar General proposal.

     I hesitated as a small explosion occurred inside my brain, left side, a little toward the front.  I recognized the signs, like an epileptic who knows a seizure is about to occur, and kept my mouth shut a few moments longer before answering "I'm not sure."

     Though I've had these episodes regularly during my life, it wasn't till that moment I realized how much difficulty I have talking about places as property.  My friend deals with properties, planners and developers throughout the Central Valley.  It's part of his family history as well as central to his career.  He meant no offense.

     And I don't mean to be quixotic, always tilting at windmills.  I recognize the value of property, how having some (or not) totally shapes our lives in this country, both economically and socially, and that it's one of the ways we make home.  My little explosions, however, are triggered by the way we fail to recognize the place value of property, which transcends parcel lines and ownership, and derives from community uses over time.

     For instance, some of the opposition I heard to the proposed demolition of the Citrus Exchange building was about the loss of that building as a place that represents a moment of community well-being.  My friend Sal Natoli, who graduated from LHS in 1966 and hasn't lived here since, said "Not that building - both of my sisters worked there!"  Quality work environments matter to us:  they confer status, help us integrate with the rest of the community, contribute to our self-worth.  Located on the northeast entry to the business district, it stands as a cornerpost for the community's well-being, even though empty, because its contributions live in our memories.

     And take Ed's Auto, now M & J's, on the northwest corner.  To my mind, the place value there is just as high as the Exchange building, but in an opposite way.  Ed Schapansky's career as an auto mechanic contributed to my well-being so often I went into mourning when he retired, turning over his business to Miguel (whom he calls "Magill" in his Okie interpretation of Spanish.)  Once a Shell gas station, the traces of that national petroleum chain's designs still showing, Ed's Auto is a monument to one individual's entrepreneurial skills and decades of elbow grease meeting a need for care of auto owners as well as their vehicles.  I once saw him change the windshield wipers so tenderly for Wayne Wolf, then very elderly, I almost cried.

     Although it's difficult to use CEQA to defend the kind of place values I'm describing, that doesn't mean we have to discount them.  It's what distinguishes the small town environment from the urban one, and it's time those contributions are recognized.
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Trudy Wischemann is a writer who has always loved places over properties.  You can send her your list of place values % P.O. Box 1374, Lindsay CA 93247 or leave a comment below!