It didn’t take a recession to bring hard times to California’s San Joaquin Valley. Consider these sobering statistics courtesy of the California Partnership for the San Joaquin Valley, a group convened by the governor in 2005 to bring the Valley’s limping economy up to speed:
*Average per capita incomes are 32.2 percent lower than the rest of the state
*College attendance is 50 percent below the state average
*Access to health care is 31 percent lower than the rest of the state
Unemployment rates in some Valley counties are pushing 20 percent, significantly outpacing the statewide rate of 12.5 percent. But at least they’re getting boatloads of stimulus cash, right? Not exactly. The Fresno Bee reports:
On a per capita basis, the Valley is seventh among nine regions in stimulus investments—behind such places as San Diego and the Bay Area, according to a review of state data by the California Partnership for the San Joaquin Valley, an economic task force.
A separate analysis by The Bee measuring stimulus spending per jobless person shows that Fresno County ranks 13th among the state’s largest 20 counties at $5,708. Tulare County ranked 11th, at $5,814 per unemployed person in 2009. Alameda County, by contrast, is taking in $23,739 for each jobless person.
Frustrations reached a boiling point recently, when the Valley was mostly shut out of stimulus grants for housing and energy programs.
Most recently, Fresno and Tulare counties’ applications for stimulus money to improve health and reduce obesity were denied. The money would have gone to things like community gardens, farmers markets, and distribution of local produce in disadvantaged neighborhoods. Grants to L.A., San Diego and Santa Clara counties were approved, though obesity rates in the San Joaquin Valley tend to be higher. In Fresno and Tulare counties, for instance, childhood obesity rates are 35 and 34 percent respectively, compared to 23 percent in L.A. County and 31 percent in San Diego County.
Local officials are starting to cry foul, calling the distribution of funds unfair. “[T]he Valley is one of the most unhealthy regions in the nation,” according to a recent Bee editorial. “We can’t look to Washington to solve that problem, but federal grants can help.”
But maybe not enough. “These are long-run social issues,” economic Christopher Thornberg told the Bee. “I don’t think stimulus money is going to provide them with the long-run solution they need.”
For a more in-depth look at poverty in Fresno, see HCN’s 2009 story, “Tarp Nation.”
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