Shafter High Grad Rubio To Run for Florez's State Senate Seat in 2010

The longer stories are on the sidebar. Dean Florez will be termed out in 2010 and, he hopes, moving on up to Lt. Governor.

Michael Rubio graduated from SHS in 1995 and has had quite a rise. He lives in Bakersfield now, but is tied both personally and professionally (he got his political start working for Florez) to Shafter.

Interesting, however, that Florez and Rubio don't seem to be coordinating much now, judging by Dean's comments.

I'd say that Rubio received quite a gift in the words of Kern County Republican Chair Ken Duncan who says that Rubio really should be thinking about his own finances more. "You know, Ken, I just have this problem with putting the public good, first. It's probably my greatest weakness."

Mission Bank to Move into New Digs in November

With the announcement of their second quarter earnings, Mission Bank also said that they will be occupying a new building in Shafter in November. They had earlier said that the move would happen during the second quarter, but no matter. I am sure it will happen this time.

Local banks are important. The untold (or at least less told) story of current financial crisis is the story of how the excessive reliance on credit scores at the heart of so many problems was closely tied to the consolidation of the banking industry in recent decades. Historically, local bankers were the personal judges of reputation and credit-worthiness, but banks owned from afar took underwriting decisions out of the hands of local bankers and standardized them using credit scores and statistics. Standardizing the process has had some undoubtedly good effects - for example, such decisions are blind to race and other things that have made capital flow more easily to privileged groups - however it also contributed to the recent silliness.

Here is an article that says more about the moral goodness of local banks.

In short, local banks are a good thing in general and the fact that Mission Bank is in Shafter and will soon be occupying a real building is also good. It bespeaks commitment. If it turned out that Shafter branch manager A.J. Antongiovanni actually lived in Shafter, well then you would hear a full-throated endorsement.

World Water, Valley Water

Be sure to check out this Economist story on water as the next scarce and fantastically expensive resource.

As an agricultural area that receives little rain, water also bears mightily on Shafter and its surroundings. In the 2000 census, 828 Shafter residents worked in agriculture, almost a quarter of the employed workforce. As such a large part of the economy, the pain and joy of agriculture is felt across the area's economy and while rarely a source of joy, water has the potential to cause great pain in the area. The main sources of water for Shafter farmers are politically vulnerable, as the recent run in with defenders of the Delta Smelt has reminded anyone who needed it.

The first signs of scarcity and scramble are beginning to show up in the still green-lawned residential life of Shafter's citizens.  Shafter is moving toward metered water billing under state threat and the massive Seventh Standard developments were postponed over water issues before they were postponed by market conditions.    If the Economist is right these are signs of things to come.  

Indeed, the growth of the Central Valley alone is enough to give pause.  The development of new housing has slowed, but the population projections are still for breakneck growth, partly because the Valley population is so young.  We can be sure that many of those kids are going to want lawns and pools.

The Economist says we should financialize the stuff and trade it like other commodities.

Better functioning water markets would be one way to share out water more efficiently. Once governments have defined water rights clearly, farmers, and others who use water, could be encouraged to trade, first with each other and with industrial and urban users.

The devil is the details and I have no idea how this would play out.  Those who stand to gain the most locally from a trading system are probably those who currently have water rights that they could sell to cities.   Their number is probably pretty close to the number of self-employed farmers - less than 200 in Shafter (as of the last census).  A pretty small number and the really bad news is that a boom in water is different from a boom in oil in that the water infrastructure is already in place.  No new investment is needed, no drilling, no pipelines to build and maintain.  In fact, at the extremes, this would likely decrease local investment, giving water owners a way of making cash directly without putting the water on the ground to grow things and create local jobs.  

U.S. Not So Post-Industrial After All

VW announced that they will be building a $1 Billion plant in Chattanooga.  The factory is scheduled to enter production in 2011 and employ 2,000 'noogans.  That's great, but the signal that making things in the U.S. is becoming economical is even better.  It bodes well for the rural parts of the country, Shafter and the Central Valley included.  Don't expect Toyota to start building cars on Lerdo, but small niche manufacturers having been popping up quickly around Shafter in the last decade or so and the weak dollar represents opportunity for them.  How quickly and how many I will be digging into when I get the time.

Minter Field

The slideshow on the sidebar is provided by Google. It searches for images tagged "Shafter." Pictures from the air show at Minter Field are currently dominating, so I thought now would be a good time to post a link to this story about a basketball league in the early days of Minter Field.  I found this recently on a blog about the history of Shafter High basketball.  It adds some perspective on how World War II impacted the lives of ordinary people in Shafter.

Dean Florez: Local Hero

I chided him for his lottery talk, but Dean Florez is a political star in the making and a genuine success story -  Shafter High, BC, UCLA, Harvard and now moving up California's political ramp to the national scene. He has been selected to chair the California Democrats "58 County Strategy" for the fall elections.  The position will no doubt help him in his first state-wide election as a candidate for Lt. Governor in 2010.  

Florez is also the source of about half of all news stories that mention Shafter, so I want to be clear at the beginning that I am not out to get the guy.

(The picture above shows Florez giving an award to Vince Vaughn.  No connection to anything, really, but there is so much to like about the photo: Vaughn's dazed look, the guy in the background, Florez photo-op steady in the midst of the swirly chaos of the comedy club.  I like it.)

Anna Jelmini: Number Seven in the World Junior Discus Championships, Number One in Your Hearts

The Californian has the story.

Shafter Gets Street View

This may be old news, but I just noticed a few days ago that you can now cruise virtually around the streets of Shafter thanks to Google and their magical panoptic cars.  You can catch some interesting stuff.  Who is that dropping in on the Foxy Lady for a little midday nip? No one.  I checked.  Still, you get the idea.  

Shafter's Leading Newsmaker Has A Bad Idea

Dean Florez is worried that lottery sales are declining.  He shouldn't be.   The idea that state lotteries contribute to "public education," as Florez says, is an abuse of language Orwell could appreciate.  Lotteries spend millions teaching the public to make stupid decisions with their money.  It is an open secret that the poor and the less educated fall for this most often, but I would have thought that "tantalizing" these people with the lure of necessities like gas would be a bit too obvious.

Curious Sentences - If this car exists, it may have been involved

I hope Shafter's finest are thinking about this case more clearly than the author of this sentence:

"Shafter Police have posted 3 pictures of a possible car that may have been responsible for a hit and run accident..."

What exactly is a "possible car?"