Paving Paradise

Published in edited form in The Foothills Sun-Gazette, May 8, 2013

     The Lindsay City Council voted to approve two staff proposals at the last meeting which will "protect our investment" in streets.  Those of you who think our streets need fixing will want to know about this.

     First, $300,000 was moved from the 5-year Capital Improvement Plan to the last month of this fiscal year for specific street improvements.  "That money's been collected for streets, so it's appropriate to use them this way," argued finance director Tamara Lakin.

     Then the Council was asked to approve going out to bid for those specific streets.  "There's some cracking beginning in these areas, and the rubberized resurfacing will simply protect our investment," city services director Mike Camarena offered, answering the few questions.  Besides, the contractor who does this work is going to be in Porterville this month, so it's an incredible opportunity to get this work done in a timely manner....

     Nobody asked Camarena how he knew the contractor was near or why we should put out to bid a project if we already know who we're going to use.  Nobody asked Camarena for a copy of the plan to fix the residential streets or what projects were being set aside to spend this $300,000 on streets that have been repaved in recent years.  Unfortunately Councilwoman Sanchez was absent, or she might have, since she asked to have the street repair plan discussed three months ago to no avail.

     Look at the streets:  Hermosa, Mirage, Elmwood, Sweet Brier.  The segments of Hermosa proposed to be resurfaced, from Highway 65 to Sweet Brier, then Sweet Brier from Hermosa to Honolulu, are the roads to the Friday Night Market.  They've been repaved in recent memory.  If they're wearing out (and I say "if,") is that perhaps a cost of the Market the City touts only as an economic benefit?

     Look at Elmwood from Hermosa to Tulare Road, i.e., from the notorious Roundabout to the new Willie's Market perched kittycorner from the City Golf Course, Memorial Building (with its newly repaved parking lot,) and the renovated City Park.  As our streets go, it's not a bad street, but it sure would look prettier to all these visiting dignitaries (and government loan officials) we need to show off the Wellness Center/Park complex for.  And Mirage from Lindmore north to Valencia?  There's a few cracks along the center line, but no bumps and certainly no car-eating potholes like I must swerve around to get home in my half-way decent part of town.

     True, resurfacing these four street segments was on the list of projects in the 2011-2012 city budget.  But so were the repaving of two residential streets - Valencia and Frazier - as well as the upgrading of Wells 11 and 15, none of which have begun.  The Council was asked to approve this resurfacing project without any discussion of the impacts of that decision on the other uncompleted projects.

     In fact, all four street segments that were approved for resurfacing at the last meeting  are designated as "completed" on the City's map of streets (available on the website.) This map was created by city planner/ map maker/ GIS specialist Bill Zigler in October 2012 (right before the first election in 8 years) as proof that the city council members then in power had been doing their jobs.  The challengers to those seats, two of whom won, had no trouble finding issues that resonated with the residents:  water and streets.   Bill's map was not convincing to the voters because most of us live on streets that haven't seen more than a few shovelfuls of asphalt dumped into those car-eating potholes in decades.  But he tried.

     The investments the city staff are protecting are these oversized, inappropriate Redevelopment projects - the Downtown Project, McDermont Field House and Wellness Center started by Scot Townsend's delusions of grandeur - while they let the rest of the town rot.  "Look at the Paradise we've made for you!" they keep saying, ignoring our cries for decent water and streets.  Maybe we're not crying hard enough.  Or maybe we need another approach.
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Trudy Wischemann is a writer, researcher and singer with enough planning background to be outraged.  You can send your ideas about city planning to P.O. Box 1374, Lindsay CA 93247 or leave a comment below.