Category: Central Valley

-August 25,2021-

2018-21

Dems add more voters in Kings/Tulare & Fresno

Democratic registration continues to outpace new GOP voters in Central California, based on state numbers comparing the voter rolls to 3 years back.

The numbers are in time for the September Governor Recall vote.

The latest statewide numbers as of July 2021, show Democrat voter registration is 46.5% of all voters compared to 43.8% in September 2018. GOP registration over the same time has declined to 24.1% of the electorate in 2021 compared to 24.5% in Sept 2018.

In California, Dems now outnumber Republicans 10.2 million to 5.3 million.No Party voters add up another 5.1 million this year.

In the Central Valley’s normally GOP-leaning Tulare County, the Republican lead has shrunk. In 2018 there was a 14,000 voter plurality for the GOP that has now declined to a 9000 voter advantage.The trend can bee seen comparing 2012 voter numbers when the GOP led Dems in the county 44.5% to 33%. This year it is 37.8% GOP to 33% Democrats. About 17,500 new voters registered from 2018 to 2021.

In even more conservative Kings County, Dems added 3300 new voters to the rolls while  Republicans added 2800 over the 3-year period. The GOP still has the  advantage here.

In Fresno County, Dems lead has soared, adding over 30,000 new Democrats to the rolls while the GOP added just 12,000. Dems now lead the GOP in Fresno County by 201,000 to 163,000-  a 40,000 voter plurality this year compared to a 20,000 Dem registration plurality in 2018.

Ed Hill named CAO

More Covid patients in the hospital

Jobless rate drops

 

High-Speed Line Between Bakersfield & Palmdale Ok’d

Disney still owns key property in remote alpine valley

County will build new bridge – plans to fix lower 4-miles of road

-August 12,2021-

The twisty-turning 1870’s wagon road to the high Sierra’s Mineral King Valley will get a major upgrade funded by the federal government almost 5 decades after the popular hiking destination became part of Sequoia National Park.

Work on 15.3 miles of the 25-mile partially paved road could start in 2023 and take up to five years to complete.The steep and narrow road has nearly 400 curves and climbs 6500 feet from Three Rivers to the Switzerland-like valley once coveted by the Walt Disney for a ski resort. Amazingly, Disney still owns 5 acres in the valley at the end of the road with no hope of ever building that ski village. The Park Service has been negotiating for years to acquire it.

Built by investors to carry an expected sliver bonanza down to Visalia, the road has had only a few major upgrades since, says the National Park Service who announced the project this spring adding that they are partnering with the federal Department of Transportation. Design work is expected later this year.

Mineral King Valley parking lot still owned by Disney

The project is expected to cost around $50 million by one unofficial estimate. The mountain road will be widened in a few places but reinforced and paved the entire length. In their presentation to the public the NPS said portions of the highway are in danger of “catastrophic failure.”

Add to that a parallel project is to be built- a new Mineral King bridge just upstream from the classic bridge built by the WPA some 4 miles up from Hwy198. The old bridge may be a beauty but was found to be too far worn to reinforce.Instead, will be retained as a pedestrian bridge offering views down into the East Fork.

County engineer Jason Vivian says besides the $9 million bridge project the county has applied for about $17 million to repave the bottom 4 miles of the Mineral King Rd from Three Rivers to the bridge. The bridge project could start construction in late 2022 and take some 18 months. Traffic would continue to use the existing bridge until construction is completed.

Between the two projects most of the road should be dramatically improved.

A little history

In August 1872 a large silver claim was struck on the East Fork of the Kaweah River in White Chief Valley by a prospecting company led by John Crabtree. By fall of 1872 merchants in Visalia raised $3,000 dollars to extend the County Road from Three Rivers to the Mineral King Valley.

The rush was on and by 1879 there was a reported population of 3,000 people living around the Mineral King mining claims and even daily buggy service to Visalia.

The rush was over as quick as it started and today the Mineral King Valley is pretty quiet even though it is in the world famous Sequoia National Park now.

Clearly, the one and a half hour drive from Three Rivers up the sometimes hair-raising road has and still does keep the crowds down. Don’t worry – after you enter the Mineral King Valley, the color will return to your white knuckles.

Did we mention that this old road is steep – really steep.

The posted speed limit on the road is 25 miles per hour.Author Craig Jones, who wrote the book The Mountains that Remade America writes that “this might be the most unnecessary speed limit sign in the state of California.” He adds “you could speed if you wish but you will either soon be airborne in descent to the East Fork of the Kaweah hundreds of feet below or peering through your shattered windshield at a irate traveler whose journey you just interrupted.”

Indeed, anyone who has taken the trek can recall way too many close calls as opposing vehicles suddenly appear around a blind bend swerving to avoid you.

The only way to pass another is to just creep by each other. The NPS plans to improve the road, building up the eroding portions, replacing some 200 culverts as well as adding retaining walls to make the road safer.

When the road reaches the valley, the funding includes paving 6 popular hiking and backpacking parking lots, laying out new picnic areas, building a much needed horse trailer parking space and make various ADA improvements at key visitor areas. The Mineral King Road provides access to hundreds of miles of wilderness trails within Sequoia National Park used by 4500 backpackers each year.

To pave the lot at the end of the road – where the Eagle Lake and White Chief trailheads are, the Park Service has to deal with Disney who still owns this property -the site he planned use as part forages Swiss Village that never happened.

Just last month, Disney agreed to remove an old underground gas tank that was used to fuel cars from the old Mineral King store that served summer visitors for decades .Disney will reportedly offer an easement to the Park Service to pave this popular lot with 45 parking places.

Jurisdiction issue

But the NPS would rather own the lot at the end of the road in-part because it would settle questions of jurisdiction in disputes that arise and law enforcement issues. One park ranger says if there is a fight in the parking lot – they have to call the county sheriff to settle it.

Even though as of 1978 the Valley is part of Sequoia National Park, there are a handful historic cabins still in the area.But they are not the original cabins built in the 1800s.The 1906 San Francisco earthquake destroyed virtually all the cabins when it triggered an avalanche of snow that destroyed the structures.

Another huge avalanche in the 1960s gave proponents of the Disney ski resort pause. At least one Disney engineer visiting the Valley then died in the avalanche.

The Sierra Club and Disney battled for decades over the proposed resort project with a local opinion divided in Tulare County. Some backed Disney’s plan anticipating the tourism and jobs it would bring with Sierra Club Go Hike to Hell bumper stickers popular.

Sierra Club won the war when locals convinced Congressman John Krebs to include Mineral King in Sequoia Park in 1978 ending Disney’s dream. It was a mighty big dream considering he envisioned the resort might get a million visitors a year.Talk about ‘pave paradise’.

Walt Disney himself did not see this last chapter having died after sitting with Gov Pat Brown and other leaders at a news conference in Mineral King in 1966, his last public meeting. Brown would later oppose the project once the writing was on the wall.

Walt Disney and Pat Brown in Mineral King

Mineral King was not included earlier in Sequoia National Park because the valley itself has no Sequoia trees.There are only a few down in Attwell Mill on the Mineral King Rd. Just those few groves proved to be a big issue since the road travels through the park boundary to reach Mineral King – an obstacle to Disney’s access plans, so much so that he sought out alternate routes- even a tunnel or a new road access from Farewell Gap outside the park boundary.

Now the 2023 road project will try to move asphalt away from the big trees along the route.

The project will be phased over a few years based on the season given the fact the upper portion is snow bound part of the year.

 

 

We’re not Fresno

-July 29,2021-

We’re not Fresno when it comes to the sheer volume of murders, assaults and burglaries. The Fresno Bee reported a few days ago that homicides in Fresno through July 10 – number 38 so far this year, double what it was at this time in 2020.

Further south, Visalia’s crime picture is still not a pretty one but not as awful as our neighbor to the north. The number of homicides in Visalia are about what they were last year. Overall ,the trends are mixed with improvement in some categories and an uptick in others.

Visalia Police Dept figures including May 2021 are now posted.Through the first 4 months of 2021, the number of homicides is 4, the same as the first four months of 2020.

Meanwhile, rapes are down to 37 from 49 last year through May. Using another data base, State Dept of Justice figures show rape cases in Visalia over the past  ten years have climbed to over 100 cases each year from the mid-30s earlier in the past decade.

As for assaults, they are up slightly from last year. Assaults through May 2021 number 617 compared to 586 through May of 2020.

Burglaries /property crimes down

Department of Justice figures show for the past 10 years there is a decline in the number of burglaries in Visalia by nearly one half,  down to 600 annually in 2020. Through May of this year burglaries appear down again – 194 year to date compared to 305 through May 2020.

Motor Vehicle thefts are about what they were last year at this time -about 200 plus. Dept of Justice numbers show that annual motor vehicle thefts have declined from around 600 in 2013 to 417 in 2020.

Property crimes in Visalia are down from 10 years ago, says the Dept of Justice, when we suffered over 5000 cases, now averaging just over 3000 a year. Larceny-theft is down about one third from 10 years ago and down from 2021 numbers year to date.

What’s up in Visalia ? Arson.

-July 29,2021-

With over 400 locations in the US, LL Flooring, formerly Lumber Liquidators, will be coming to Visalia.The new 10,000sf store is in the former DSW shoe store space in the Gateway Shopping Center at 3725 S Mooney.

This week, the company was starting the hiring process to open the store late this summer listing their new Visalia address in posts.

The publicly-traded company is one of the largest hardwood retailers in the US. They have local stores in Bakersfield and Fresno.

Lumber Liquidators was started in 1994 by Tom Sullivan, a building contractor who began purchasing excess wood from other companies.

The retailer ran into problems in a 2013 report by the Environmental Investigation Agency that revealed that Lumber Liquidators’ sourcing practices resulted in the destruction of critically endangered tiger habitats and forests.

A second controversy erupted in 2015 over the level of formaldehyde in the Chinese-made laminate flooring that it was selling. A 60 Minutes expose hurt the firm’s reputation and sent their stock into a tailspin.

Lumber Liquidators’ bad press no doubt resulted in the new name announced last year to LL Flooring. Sales, even in the pandemic year, actually took off last summer and the company reported $1 billion in revenue. Sales were given a boost as more stay-at-home residents did a flurry of home improvement projects including new wood flooring.

In the past year, many of Visalia’s vacant storefronts along Mooney have found new tenants as word seems to have spread that the city is on the grow. Last month the city set a record for new home permits.
Attachments area

-July 29,2021-
Parlier-based United Health Centers has filed plans withe city to build a new 22,000sf clinic at 4118 W Mineral King at Chinowith in Visalia. The fast growing primary care network would redevelop the corner near Hwy 198 with demolition of several service commercial buildings and construction of a 2-story complex there.

The project is the second redevelopment of an existing building site in Visalia to launch a clinic with the first being at the former site of Cost Plus World Market on Mooney.

The new Mineral King clinic will provide medical and dental services to the community, says their operation statement. The proposed project will also include 153 onsite standard and ADA parking stalls. No patients will be rendered unconscious or sedated at any time. The facility will offer outpatient services only.

The facility will employ approximately 55 employees daily and patient visits will average 150 per day M‐F 8:30 am – 5:30 pm.

United Health Centers already has 29 clinic sites in Fresno,Kings and Tulare counties and will likely have 3 locations in Visalia.

-July 29,2021-

Monsoon surprise

This year’s monsoon weather pattern is bringing wet weather to the eastern Sierra in July. Estimates that this years monsoon may be the wettest in memory – not just in the Southwest-  but in all portions of California creating this poka-dot pattern on our map. Daily thunderstorms are expected in the eastern Sierra every day into next week.Death Valley got a dosing.The totals were not great, but LA has seen the wettest July on record. The spiraling moisture is even bringing thunderstorms to the Bay Area – over an inch in July) and this week up into Canada.Wet weather in the high Sierra is helping to green-up Mineral King Valley this summer.( Mineral King Valley in mid-July ,2021)

 

AR in January brought half this year’s Sierra snowpack

A single atmospheric river (AR) event in January 2021 provided about half of the snowpack for the year in the Friant service area above Fresno, says the water agency. The upper San Joaquin River is the source of the all important Friant Kern Canal. While we are concerned over the overall precip trends over the winter months, just a few storms, largely unpredictable, seem to make the difference in our water supply. Might as well roll the dice to predict Sierra runoff.

Sequoias lost in 2020 fire

The National Park Services estimates of sequoia mortality in the 2020 Castle Fire are in. Although some giant sequoia trees have stood for thousands of years and are adapted to withstand frequent low and mixed severity fires, preliminary estimates suggest that the 2020 Castle Fire killed between 31 to 42% of large sequoias within the Castle Fire footprint, or 10 to 14% of all large sequoias across the tree’s natural range in the Sierra Nevada. This translates to an estimated loss of 7,500 to 10,600 large sequoias.

The 2020 Castle Fire (also known as the SQF Complex) started from a lightning strike on August 19 in Sequoia National Forest and later burned into the southern portion of Sequoia National Park. 

The hotter drought of 2012-2016 was a tipping point for giant sequoias and other Sierra Nevada mixed-conifer forests.  The result is higher severity wildfires resulting in the death of thousands of large giant sequoias, bark beetles as a newly observed cause of death, and acute foliage dieback as a short-term response to drought.