I recently moved from Ione to Sacramento. I’ve lived in Drytown, Jackson and Pioneer within the past 12 years. I rather enjoyed living in Ione. Some of its residents don’t like when people call it “Mayberry”, but in all truthfulness, that’s what it is. A quaint, historic California home town—a town under attack by corporate interests.
Wow, something
new and different for Amador
County. Jackson had to fight off a Home Depot,
planned to be square in front of the historic Kennedy Mine (I actually covered that
main page story for the Ledger Dispatch back
in 2006, http://www.ledger-dispatch.com/2006/05/10/home-depot-responds-to-concerns/). Plymouth citizens are still fighting with a
campaign of “No Casino in Plymouth”
(http://www.nocasinoinplymouth.com).
The Lake Camanche area of Ione held town meetings
about the Buena Vista Indian Casino going in. Now, there’s the Newman Ridge Project,
an asphalt plant near Ione. Near my “Mayberry”.
See a
pattern here? The pattern is: no one is listening. No one is giving ear to
those who wish to preserve California’s rich
gold country history and Americana
home towns. So when will we ever
learn from our history lessons? Maybe when the rivers and water beds run dry,
when there is no more open space, no more trees for the forest (or forest for
the trees), when there is no more wildlife, no more upcountry recreation, when
the promises of jobs are broken, when asphalt and cement takes the place of
oak-studded rolling hills… is that when we finally learn, when it’s all nearly
gone?
The BP oil disaster was one
horrific tragedy. Taking away the focus from potential tragedies in the future
by not learning from our past is foolish. It takes us one step closer to an idiocracy
that corporations are banking on—and when the money’s all gone, who are the
ones that suffer?
Amador County has a history of battles won. Never underestimate the
strength of citizens who know the battle of David and Goliath very well.
Carol Harper, Editor
Amador Community News
Well said, Carol. Big-money, outside interests have never served locals well. We may get jobs and economic activity for a while, but when it suits them, they fold up shop and leave us in the lurch. Mining, timber, housing -- you name it. Many locals are tired of the boom and bust, looking for something more sustainable. We need to grow a local economy from the bottom up, not allow someone else's idea of "prosperity" to be imposed on us from the top down.
ReplyDeleteUnfortunately, many of our elected and community leaders haven't yet learned that important lesson. They are easily taken in by promises of jobs and revenue, regardless of the cost to our communities and environment. Just ask the families in the Ione Valley who are being forced to fight project after project that will hurt their farms, ranches and rural way of life.
Thank you, Carol. You have always risen to the community needs for as long as I have known you--actually, a long, long time.
ReplyDeleteThank you. I'm tired.
DeleteHa! ;)
Preserve the gold country history, yet don't promote that culture into the present. Do you think that romanticizing the past and forgetting the hard luck deals and poverty the miners were in is positive? Do you know the current poverty levels of the families with children in the Plymouth/Ione/Drytown areas? Have you seen a decline in enrollment in our school system because families cannot survive here? It may be Mayberry, but they must endure, and some cannot here because they do not own land. They do not have a job. Is it really that bad back when tens of thousands of more people lived here, polluting our streams in order to build a country and what you have here today with your ability to love ghost towns. Tens of thousands more people here is the heritage of this area. They all moved away because there was nothing left.
ReplyDeleteSo the dilemma is why preserve that history if it wasn't good for the environment? Don't overthrown countries knock down old statues? Why not knock down old mines because we think it's bad for us?
Are you okay with schools being built on asbestos/arsenic laced soils that incur millions of dollars in studies to the taxpayer and go through anyway? Does it mean the toxicity actually doesn't hurt us? I think it doesn't hurt us as bad as we think. Think Jackson High, Plymouth Elementary, Jackson Elementary, and the other school in Plymouth surrounding by pesticide spraying vineyards up to the property line? Go look it up.
No Home Depot in Jackson. Okay, so you have a Tractor Supply instead. So your point is? A lesser evil (read not a local company) was okay for Jackson citizens?
The West people are saying that asphalt roads will be obsolete in 15 years. They say that the air will be 45% more toxic soon. Prove it. Where are your studies?
Tractor Supply Co. is hardly a comparison to a big box Home Depot taking a huge footprint of historic significance away from the residents of Jackson as well as the entire state of CA. We already had a Meeks, now a Lowe's...what would have been the point of a Home Depot? There is no logic in that.
DeleteThere are more important things that our CA home towns need to focus on. Yes, save/preserve our history for future generations. Yes, water is important. Yes, our open spaces are important. Recreation is important; beauty of this planet is important. Yes, jobs are important, too. Local economy is so important!
Being short-sighted, in "panic mode" will not help the large OR small demographics. Pushing the red panic button with archaic, industrial-age solutions is like pushing the traffic signal "walk" button over and over to simply walk across the [asphalt] street.
As always...when solutions are offered instead of panic arguments, maybe then we can come together and realize the real issues you've respectfully and eloquently mentioned, plus those that others might mention as well. Division has been the cause of a lot of the prevention of solution(s). We can argue until the cows in the hills of Ione come home, but until we realize the "hello kettle, I'm pot" scenarios, gridlock is only going to waste time.
I will weigh in on the Tractor Supply thing. Carol, it DOES matter, and they do compare to Depot in their own way. This 1,100+ chain of stores with an "aw shucks", country-phony front is wreaking havoc across rural towns in the US.
DeleteWhen they were gloriously announced to open in Jackson, I distinctly recall all the accolades for all these new jobs and sales tax revenue by the "powers that be". At this point, because their sales stink (this from a "reliable source") their staff is about 10+/- people, less half what what it as supposed to be. Other businesses (like ours) are cutting staff due to slower sales which are due to this store.
Let's face it, this region has a retail spending pie that is only so big and NOT growing. So, to support Tractor's anemic sales, they are simply taking sales from other local businesses while their sales are shipped off to Tennesse to the detriment of the establsihed businesses.
So City of Jackson...how's this working out for you? It sure stinks for the other businesses.
John Moore Collapse
ReplyDeleteThe stone age didn't end because we ran out of stones, rather we came up with newer & better technologies. Rock mining & Ashphalt for roads is just that stone age thinking & enviromental polution. Ashalt roads will be obsolete in less than 15 years & Tom Steyer calls himself an enviromentalist.. Huh!
See what real enviromentalist are doing will Solar roadways below:
http://www.solarroadways.com/m...
Read more here: http://www.sacbee.com/2013/02/17/5196364/digging-in-for-quarry-fight-rancher.html#storylink=cpy
Thank you for this! Very interesting...
DeleteThis is trying to stop a short sighted, permanently destructive set of projects that will increase serious heart and respiratory disease in the area by more than 45%. The West family and others are right to question all aspects of this, and have chosen to spend their own funds...they are not wealthy, and deserve to be heard, especially since they are up against Tom Steyer and limitless hedge funds.
ReplyDeleteRead more here: http://www.sacbee.com/2013/02/17/5196364/digging-in-for-quarry-fight-rancher.html#storylink=cpy
Makes me thank God Obama, a democrat, hired a Sarah Jewell who was the CEO of REI and an expert in the oil field to be Sec. of the Interior. She knows how to sell things to people and manage our country's RESOURCES. If you folks realized that even the Democrat view is to USE RESOURCES, and BUILD INFRASTRUCTURE, you would concede. Oh, hope you are enjoying our water down there in Hollywood, Wests. Maybe you missed the campaign we had up here about taking our water back from you. What would Matt Damon say to you, since you got him to endorse your LLC?
ReplyDeleteThanks for this. I think that, if we could for one moment, take the focus off of this being a political battle and focus more on the need for water for um...well, human beings in general...we would see that party lines may eventually dissolve, and America might be smart enough to actually do something about a global issue and a very real problem that cannot waste time in debate.
DeleteLA added one million people to its population in 10 years without using any more water. Much of SoCal is far ahead of NorCal in water conservation, efficiency and reuse. So those who throw stones at SoCal water users should first get their facts straight.
DeleteIt comes as a surprise to Ione Valley LAWDA that Matt Damon has endorsed us, wouldn't that be nice if it were true. However he made a film PROMISED LAND that is eerily similar to what may be going on in Amador County politics. We agree that groundwater issues here are very serious and the Newman Ridge plants would jeopardize many citizen's source of it.
DeleteThank you all for your input. This is what Community Media is all about. Thank you so much. You all inspire me.
ReplyDeleteIn response...
Solar Energy. Who controls it? No one. Done. Control the sun? Good luck with that, f***ing assholes. They know it. May they sleep at night.
The wealthy? As you can see, it is all about control. A FRACTION percentage of the world's ignorant populace, controlled by money and religion. Do not discount religious interests. As a former Mormon, doesn't anyone think I don't understand the power controlled by spirit, hearts and minds.
Logic? There is no {evolved] human logic here. The battle is purely marketing/corporate. All of you are exactly right [in your own rite].
My hope is that local communities will finally realize the power they have. It is ALL they have. Grab on to this, and you have something. What? I don't know. Still very much [legally] ill-defined. But turn your eyes, not towards the Presidency, not towards the Congress (Senate/House)...but towards the Supreme Court. Who elected them? Who put them in power to rule over us?
Okay, I'm gonna shut up now...