Tuesday, June 10, 2008

Water, Homeless & the County Budget

Farmers in the valley are already cutting back on crop plantings as they will not have enough water to nourish the crops through harvest, as this article from the Fresno Bee notes, and that is not good for California, or the rest of the world who depend on California agriculture.

Along with the obvious solution for our area, the building of Auburn Dam, still supported by groups—including us—like the Auburn Dam Council, there is another that would solve the water problems for the larger region and that is the raising of Shasta Dam to its originally engineered height of 200 feet higher than it now is, tripling its water supply, which this 2004 article from the Sacramento Bee describes.

Another park, Pioneer Park in Salt Lake City is struggling with the crime related to the many homeless who congregate there, as this article from the Salt Lake Tribune vividly reveals, and they have developed programs to address it based on the principle that by encouraging legitimate usage of the Parkway, the illegitimate usage will be reduced, essentially the same concept we propose for the North Sacramento area of our Parkway struggling with many of the same issues.

Though not specified in this article in the Bee today, the shrinking of the county budget will probably also shrink the already too lean Parkway budget, and if so, that will be a very bad thing, but let us hope that proves not to be the case.

The budget hearings begin today.