For over 30 years, various political groups and private citizens have worked for the preservation of farm land for future generations. With the current proposal by the City of Modesto to appropriate Wood Colony for an industrial park, now is a good time to look at the big picture of Stanislaus County’s economic development. The Economic Goal of Urban Developers The primary goal is to entirely destroy agriculture and replace it with urban development. Former Stanislaus County Supervisor Jeff Grover […]
Great Valley or New Dustbowl?
News item: On January 17, 2014, California Governor Jerry Brown declared a drought emergency. In 1846, one could book passage on a river boat between San Francisco and Bakersfield. In that year, the San Joaquin Valley had numerous lakes and marshes. The water table was at the surface in many of the lower parts of the valley. In the fall and winter, great flights of waterfowl darkened the sky. For thousands of years, Native Americans had […]
Frohman to Council: Spare Wood Colony
Dear Modesto City Councilmembers: During the last Modesto General Plan update a little over a decade ago, while serving on the Modesto City Council, I proposed removing the Beckwith Triangle from the updated plan. My rationale was that the Triangle was isolated from the rest of the community and separated by a freeway that makes infrastructure expensive to provide. The other even better argument was that the area was on the world’s best farm land. I […]
What Science Says About Wood Colony Soil
One of Vance Kennedy’s first jobs for the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) was a study of “sediment transport” in streams throughout the state of Georgia. He probably got the job because of his degree in Chemical Engineering from the University of Pennsylvania and because he was the first student ever in the first course ever in the subject of Applied Geochemistry. When you study the streams and sediments of an […]
Tactics to Save Wood Colony—An Opposition Strategy
This article is dedicated to the citizens of Wood Colony who do not want to annex into the City of Modesto. The Modesto City Council is proposing to annex Wood Colony on a whim. They don’t have a plan. Nor does the Council care about what you think. They are doing this because some individuals in the urban development business are telling them to do this. Your best hope of defeating the proposal […]
19th Century Thinking Won’t Help Drought, by Bruce Frohman
In the 19th century, California’s leaders developed a solution to potential water shortages that served the state for over 100 years. A system of dams and canals was built all over the state. As time went by, bigger dams and more canals were built to move more and more water. The last big project was the Central Valley Water Project of the 1960s. The system did substantial environmental damage to rivers, streams, and fisheries, […]
MID Faces Conundrum about Need for Rate Increases, by Bruce Frohman
The Modesto Irrigation District (MID) is the primary electricity supplier to northern Stanislaus County and the town of Mountain House in San Joaquin County. The Board of Directors of MID has been discussing an electric service rate increase in 2014. The numbers suggested have ranged from zero percent to a double digit increase. Current MID electric rates rank among the highest in California. The debate about the rate increase centers on the overall financial condition of the utility. MID […]
Valley Air Quality Is Worse Than Reported, by Bruce Frohman
The San Joaquin Valley Air Pollution Control District (SJVAPCD) recently reported that air quality in the Central Valley improved this past year to the level of attainment of federal air quality standards. At the measuring stations, this is true. But what about parts of the Great Valley not adjacent to stations? If your residence or business isn’t located near a monitoring station, your daily air quality could be a lot worse than the reports […]
New Land Rush to Cover Farmland, by Bruce Frohman
Now that the California economy is improving, urban land developers are once again pushing to enhance the available supply of land to build on. The goal is to always keep a large amount of cheap land available so that property can be acquired and highly profitable projects can be built. In Stanislaus County, urban developers are looking for opportunities in and around every community in an endless effort to incrementally convert farm land into sprawl. Urban developers shun […]
Carson vs Fladager, by Bruce Frohman
Next year, an election will be held to either affirm the job District Attorney Birgit Fladager is doing for the citizens of Stanislaus County or to replace her with criminal defense attorney Frank Carson, who has already announced that he is running for the job. One way to evaluate the upcoming contest is to view it from the perspective of those who have been inside the office. DA Birgit Fladager is seen by some as projecting […]