Trucks loaded with tomatoes, milk and almonds clog the two main highways
that bisect California's farm heartland, carrying goods to millions
along the Pacific Coast and beyond. This dusty stretch of land is the
starting point for one of the nation's most expensive public
infrastructure projects: a $68 billion high-speed rail system that would
span the state, linking the people of America's salad bowl to more
jobs,Fashion Dresses
opportunity and buyers.Five years ago, California voters overwhelmingly
approved the idea of bringing a bullet train to the nation's most
populous state. It would be America's first high-speed rail system, sold
to the public as a way to improve access to good-paying jobs, cut
pollution from smog-filled roadways and reduce time wasted sitting in
traffic while providing an alternative to high fuel prices.
Now, engineering work has finally begun on the first 30-mile segment of
track here in Fresno, a city of a half-million people with soaring
unemployment and a withering downtown core littered with abandoned
factories and shuttered stores.Rail is meant to help this place,Fashion Dresses
with construction jobs now and improved access to economic opportunity
once the job is complete. But the region that could benefit most from
the project is also where opposition to it has grown most fierce."I just
wish it would go away, this high-speed rail. I just wish it would go
away," says Gary Lanfranco, whose restaurant in downtown Fresno is
slated to be demolished to make way for rerouted traffic.
Such sentiments can be heard throughout the Central Valley, where roads
are dotted with signs such as: "HERE COMES HIGH SPEED RAIL There goes
the farm." Growers complain of misplaced priorities, and residents
wonder if their tax money is being squandered.Aaron Fukuda,Fashion Dresses
a civil engineer whose house in the dairy town of Hanford lies directly
in one of the possible train routes, says: "People are worn out, tired,
frustrated."Voters in 2008 approved $10 billion in bonds to start
construction on an 800-mile rail line to ferry passengers between San
Francisco and Los Angeles in 2 hours and 40 minutes, compared with 6
hours by car now during good traffic. Since then, the housing market
collapsed, multibillion-dollar budget deficits followed, and the price
tag has fluctuated wildly ―Fashion Dresses from $45 billion in 2008 to more than $100 billion in 2011 and, now, $68 billion.
This is my favorite article:The brand has 16 stores spread across various cities in the country
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