Salinas Community Reports This community report was written by a student from California State University, Monterey Bay (CSUMB), as part of a volunteer program at LandWatch. The purpose of this collaboration is to engage students in their local communities, and to stimulate their interest in and knowledge about local land use issues. Participants in this program research issues and attend meetings in various communities in Monterey County, reporting on important agenda items and other items of interest. Community reports are written from the student's point of view, and do not necessarily represent the official position of LandWatch Monterey County. LandWatch is committed to offer information to the public, and we are happy to make our website available for these student perspectives. Please enjoy the following community reports from the various communities of Monterey County. City of Salinas Economic and Agricultural Workshops Submitted by Robert Durkin This last week was very important for the City of Salinas and the city wide general plan. The General Plan is a plan that has been initiated in the city of Salinas that covers many areas. The city of Salinas hired the firm of Moore, Iacafano and Goltsman, Inc., (MIG), to facilitate a series of three visioning workshops for this month. Community members were invited to these meetings to discuss their visions for the future of the city of Salinas and to comment on issues facing the city. The topics of these meetings include elements that the general plan will address. Some of these issues are housing, land use, transportation, conservation, open space, noise, and public health and safety. These issues will be addressed through the next few months concluding the workshop period sometime in January 2002. For the time being, I have been focusing on the Economic Development and Agriculture/ Agricultural Preservation. This meeting was open to the public on the 25th of April, 2001 at the city hall. The meeting opened up reiterating the fact that the general plan has not been updated for some time and that it is not only necessary but a mandatory obligation. The plan reformation process will be divided into separate categories including community participation, telephone survey, goals and policy development, and individual meetings on land use, housing, and city circulation. We will see that one of the major factors contributing to this revision process includes the population growth of the city of Salinas. The growth rate has stayed at a fair pace at 2.7% per year with 64% of that population belonging to the Latino community. In the Latino population, 58% work in various service industries, 48% are under the age of 18, 27% work in the agriculture industry, 12% work in the tourism sector while 11% work for the government. With such a diversified job market, there still is a 10% unemployment rate. This is not a positive sign because with the estimated population growth in this area, we are bound to see problems in the future. Some of the key points that were discussed briefly at this session were the need to distribute wages more evenly throughout the work forces including, in particular, the agricultural industry. If progress is made to add more diversity to the job force this will help balance the city's economic future. The fiscal impact for the city needs to be closely studied to ensure the best current ratios in regards to further development. The issue of the agricultural industry's impact on the community was also brought into the discussion and examined. [Return to Community Reports]
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