The Fresno Bee from Fresno, California • 10

A1 0 Sunday January 25 1987 THE FRESNO BEE the fig trees that once covered all of northwest Fresno now Fresno Bss being replaced by homes Rail Continued from Pago A1 Gianturco controversial head of the California Department of Transportation under Gov Jerry Brown She was a friend of public transportation foe of freeways All parties agreed that rail made more financial sense than buses because trains move more people per driver Electric trains are cleaner than buses and somehow classier Commuters are reassured by their permanence "Light rail shows a sense of permanent public commitment that a bus system will never said Arthur Bauer a transportation consultant and member of the light rail board They devised a plan to convert federal freeway money $96 million for a bypass of Interstate 80 into public transportation money Past and present critics feared light rail could be just another expensive trend a fad like the $21 million downtown pedestrian mall that was ripped out to make way for the trolleys They worry that nder-ship estimates of 20500 per day may not adequately account for infatuation with cars Experience shows their worries are reasonable Already the project is over budget It will cost at feast $176 million instead of the $131 million estimated when construction started four years ago Even if the first half opens in March followed by the second half in September the project still will be more than two years behind the original schedule People complain that the trains go nowhere or at least not far enough The trolleys go to the airport the Amtrak train station the tourist haven of Old Sacramento They reach some of the fastest-growing suburban areas With hindsight many Sacramen-tans think the money for light rail should have been poured into one leg of the possibly allowing trains to continue out to neighboring Roseville or to one of three suburban shopping centers' something to be said for agreed Bauer you have good linkages between two attractions a synergism that bowls people back and Choosing the route was part planning part necessity One side of the heads northeast from downtown onto the leftover 1-80 bypass land For the other vacant property was gathered along the Southern Pacific railroad tracks and Highway 50 The two highways and thus the light rail go through numerous suburban areas potential homeland for commuters and downtown shoppers Authorities at Regional Transit the public agency that runs buses and now light rail freely admit that most riders will have to drive or hop a bus to their nearest light rail station But they count that as a plus: It's a more flexible system than those with neighborhood offshoots because bus routes and roads can respond to changing development patterns where rail can not going to channel traffic to it It feeds people into said Michael Wiley RT spokesman Rising costs are harder to justify especially when transit officials have stated numerous times before reporters and city officials and in a letter published in The Sacramento Bee last spring that the budget would not rise much higher In July it increased by $3 million In December RT asked for $29 million more One effort at explanation is an RT-produced chart comparing Sacramento light rail with similar projects in other cities It shows that even at an estimated $96 million per mile Sacramento is the cheapest of those supported by federal dollars Only locally funded San Diego rail at $87 million a mile cost less Because little money was spent on frills Sacramento light rail is far from futuristic The white trolleys resemble rail-bound buses or the simple streetcars that clanked through downtown Sacramento downtown Fresno and many other cities before the automobile revolution Electricity flows through over- head wires which though unsight- jy are far cheaper than the electric third ruil that powers trains such as BART in the San Francisco Bay area A rider's closest contact with high technology may come on a narrow bridge that soars over railroad tracks and under a freeway Wiley calls it after the wildest rides at Disneyland open only to those holding tickets Instead unexpected costs were light rail's money vacuums RT officials blame the federal government for being too picky on details and some board members say Caltrans offered bod advice early on Gianturco claims the state helped more than it hurt Without assistance she said the project would not have happened Even after the cost overruns Gianturco said light rail is a bargain when compared with freeways where "it wouldn't be unusual for a project to come in at three times the initial It's just that public transit construction is less common she said so the public watches it more carefully Still Sacramento City Council members are angry In recent years the city repeatedly has been called on to' bail out a project that was supposed to be covered by state and federal governments they say So far they have spent about $30 million drained mostly from redevelopment accounts intended for other downtown improvements such as building senior citizens' housing a forger public library and a convention center addition Light rail replace those projects but planners hope it will spark a downtown renaissance that eventually will finance other development Their words echo those of their predecessors who first tried to revive downtown in the 1960s after decision-makers toured Fresno's Fulton Mall and returned with visions of their own place to stroll shop and relax European-style Concrete and landscaping replaced cars on Street in 1969 then the same department-store -flight to the suburbs and general public aversion to walking witnessed on Fulton Mall caused Street businesses to falter-A few years later merchants werp begging for traffic Light rail plans called for benches bricks and trolleys to turn Street into a transit maltha step toward what many merchants saw as their last hope But the inconre-nience and confusion during a year of heavy construction caused six of them to file heftv claims against the city and RT for lost business City officials see closure of some businesses as inevitable They see the stronger merchants recovering as part of a grander dream in which hotels and offices entertainment restaurants and upscale shops create a bustling round-the-clock city Already a few structures have been built near light rail stations Developers of one office complex paid to hare trains stop in front of their building Planners see that enthusiasm spreading toward the downtown core Yuppie migration to inner-city neighborhoods already has started The governor's mansion is far from being the only restored Victorian downtown and clusters of comer cappuccino cafes trendy restaurants and gourmet grocery stores have appeared These days it seems that only people like Bruce Tyler will not '-benefit from the light rail fever Since suffering a heart attack 10 years ago Tyler 64 has spent most of his time in a downtown hotel living on disability checks worried about is said Tyler handing over statistics showing a rapid decline of residential hotels downtown during the past two decades the '60s and '70s the malls were the fad now light rail's the he said just as soon take Besides Tyler said the trolleys go anywhere he wants to go and fares up to $1 per trip are beyond his means His life revolves around a television he rents for $17 a month a dimly lighted cafe a 5-and-10 and a discount clothing store on the mall The clothing store ended its going-out-of-business sale Saturday Forkner also bought land at bargain prices The Forkner family no longer owns any of the land JC Forkner died in 1969 and shortly before his death the family agreed to sell the last of the land about 500 acres The final payment was made in 1985 His wife Lewelia 96 still lives in the family house on Van Ness built in 1912' From the porch young John used to be able to look south at supper time and see the lights of this father's car as it crossed the tracks near Shields No one else had a reason to drive that far north Many of the trees between the old home and the city were tom down and burned long ago The Markarian fig orchard near the Forkner land but never part of it is now Manchester Center Roberts Fig Co's packing sheds still stand at Bullard and West avenues but the land is sold and apparently will be home to a new shopping center Signs for new homes are ubiquitous: the Woodlands Hampton Court Forkner Place Those still farming the area are just biding their time running the ranch and my building said Don Roberts Jr grandson of WE Roberts whose family owns about 600 acres of the original fig gardens are our hobby and fond developing is our business We're just tending these figs so we don't get Where fond was sold in the 1920s for $5 down and $5 a month an acre of land with water and sewer lines for residences now sells for $50000 and up Prime comer lots destined to be shopping centers sell by the square foot at the top price of $12 a square foot $522720 will buyan acre The death knell for the trees was sounded in December 1981 when the city of Fresno annexed 4 Mi square miles in the area Over the years the orchards to the far west and north have become prey to vandals and a home for discarded tires and mattresses use your orchard for a dump said Darlene Roberts Don mother get in trouble with the city for not properly taking care of our The Roberts family is one of the largest landholders of the original Forkner property The family has had the fond for years much of the other fond in the area changes hands regularly between speculators the name of the said Dave Herb a manager in the city of Fresno's Development Department Some of the landowners contract with farmers to tend the figs Don Roberts Jr said the family's fig John father planted Figs Continued from Rags A1 many other farm products has drifted lazily down since then It now seems stable at about 9000 tons Those in the industiy while admitting they are trying to expand the market by experimenting with things like fig pasta and spaghetti sauce say it is still possible to make a buck growing figs for drying or for stuffing the middles of Fig Newtons fig industiy is a viable industry It's not dying said Ron Klamm manager of the California Fig Advisory Board whose office is in Fresno just moving northward" A small article in The Bee on Oct 9 1983 noted the move Under the headline title passing to the eight-paragraph story told how Madera County would become the state's new center for fig production Thousands of acres also have been planted in Merced and Kem counties grow figs on land valued at $60000 to $70000 per acre" Norman Liddell chairman of the Fi-garden Farm Bureau Center said then about northwest Fresno fig orchards Actually 1981 was the last year Fresno County had more acres in figs than Madera County 6645 acres to 6592 By 1985 Madera County had added 125 acres of figs meanwhile Fresno County had lost 559 acres And significantly about half of Madera County's trees have been planted within the last decade About 200 acres of figs have been planted in Fresno County in the last 10 years "I think 10 or 15 years from now we are going to be better off moving up the road 15 or 20 miles to Madera said Roy Jura co-owner of Producers Packing Corp in Fresno His company packs about 4000 tons of figs a year Some of that fruit springs from the original trees planted just northwest of the city three-quarters of a century ago Their history begins with a man named JC Forkner Forkner a one-time lawyer who decided there was more money in real estate was 32 years old when he left his home state of Kansas for California in 1906 In Fresno he saw the makings of an agricultural boom town by 1910 he had obtained the rights to 12000 acres northwest of the city most of it bought from the wealthy Bullard family Only a visionary or a fool would have invested in the rolling land called hog wallows And contemporaries concluded that only a crook would try to resell the land believed worthless because beneath the soil lurked a layer of hardpan Water and roots could not break through it The only things the land was considered usable for was grazing and possibly dry forming There were more problems first son John bom in 1910 remembers some and said his father later recounted others that the boy would have been too young to remember Jack rabbits were plentiful John Forkner recalls at the age of 5 or 6 his father standing by as the boy doled out a nickel and a shotgun shell for every pair of rabbit ears brought to the Forkners That took care of the rabbits soon enough But sheepherders had mazed their flocks from the valley floor to the foothills for years and held the threat of ruining any crop Forkner hoped to sow John said his alternative to building a costly fence was to build a wide street curving stopping and restarting at Shaw Av-'ehue to follow the land Forkner owned The street now known as Van Ness Avenue and Boulevard was crops cover irrigation taxes harvesting and other costs He said the tigs are only harvested to pay some taxes and to prevent the fruit from rotting which inevitably would lead to lawsuits from nearby residents and other orchard owners Roberts and others mentioned several reasons not to foment the replacement of the orchards with buildings At 65 and 70 years old the fig trees have passed prime production years and the land beneath them probably is never going to grow anything else you are going to growing the city has a choice to make as to where it's going to Herb said northwest area is the lowest-quality agricultural fond available for us to grow Many look to the northwest and are glad to see its face changing you're wondering whether it's a tragedy that the figs are being tom out my opinion is said developer Rod DeLuca messy and create a pollution problem for residences in the area with dust flies and look at it as said Foster the fond leveler people want dams in the moun-tains which I can understand but 1 also understand that people need John Forkner said his father would be happy to see new development new families was a boomer a first-class salesman the best Fresno ever he said "The new development would be well within the concept he had But JC wife Lewelia thinks differently Forkner put his whole life into she said didn't see the trees being ripped out He thought they would become an integral part of the whole living condition of the people" On a sunny and cold day last week Rochelle Austin of Fresno walked down Bullard Avenue playing a friendly game of tug-of-war with her dog Lucky over a leash She grew up near a fig orchard in Clovis now gone ana has spent enough time in Fresno to realize the future of the trees "It's kind of sad When I was a kid we used to make forts in the trees kind of a history of As she and the dog walked west they passed the comer of Bullard and Marks avenues where a fig orchard has been cleared The trees are clumped in piles like dinosaur bones at a museum "I told my dog no Lucky another one Rail Committee asked the Board of Supervisors to consider recommending rights of way for light rail along future freeways Money to buy the land would have come from safes tax increases allowed by Measure Auto dealer Joe Francis a Rail Committee member said you look around the state those people in very populous communities wish at this point that they still had provision for light rail" Yet Francis also suggested that Fresno would not be crowded enough to warrant a system for 75 or 80 years Supervisors turned the proposal down 3-1 They said voters dearly wanted the half-cent sales tax to go only for roads when they passed Measure in November They agreed that See Wrong back page planted on either side with eucalyptus trees from Shields Avenue north to the then-mighty San Joaquin River Between the trees For-kner's men planted oleanders an evergreen shrub that would poison sheep or anything else nibbling on it According to John Forkner his father made Van Ness nice and wide so that if a sheep were to miss an oleander bush on one side it would have plenty of time to see it on the other "There's no reason for Van Ness to be there at all except to kill those sheep" John Forkner said A year after the oleanders were planted he said the sheepherders moved their flocks north of the river to Madera County Still the hardpan the biggest obstacle of all had to be dealt with said it was a wasteland that he should be put in jail for selling John Forkner said Eventually JC Forkner silenced those critics by offering rewards to anyone who could find an acre of his land without hardpan in it He made a show of the hardpan building streetcar platforms and the fence around his own home of great slabs of it He also stayed busy looking for a crop that the land could support It was no accident that Forkner seeing in the valley floor the same nakedness that Adam saw in himself in Eden chose a fig tree for his deliverance A small strawberry crop was dismal In casting about for an alternative Forkner discovered that figs flourished on poor soil on good soil the trees grow prolifically but at the expense of fruit Additionally the valley's climate was very near that in the Mediterranean area the fig's native region The land and the trees seemed to be made for each other Henry Markarian had had great success with a 160-acre fig orchard at Blackstone and Shields avenues planted shortly after the turn of the century Forkner visited with him and another pioneer in developing the fig in California nurseryman George Roeding Every tree demanded a quantity of dynamite however to blast through the hardpan so the roots could reach through Forkner boasted that 660000 pounds of dynamite were used to blast holes for 600000 fig trees and 60000 ornamental trees When the trees were in his "fig gardens" as he called them covered an area only about eight blocks smaller than the entire city at that time The huge L-shaped area in its infancy stretched in parts from Black-stone Avenue west to Chateau Fresno Avenue and Shields Avenue north to the San Joaquin River Forkner and his salesman traveled throughout California and the East trying to lure buyers to his new residential community in the center of the state He also put together several pamphlets a fig cookbook and an original poem on the fig tree One flyer sent out in 1923 read in part: can rear vour family in the outdoors You can produce your own vegetables and chickens and eggs and fruit will furnish you a 5-acre Fig Garden You build the house ana farm die land The figs will pay for it Remember I give you 10 years to vision was that someday hundreds of families would live on and farm the fig trees his men had planted using the crop to slowly erase the mortgage Naturally he would become a rich man in the process He succeeded in selling all 12000 acres of the fig gardens but the Depression ruined him Land prices tumbled and his buyers defaulted on payments He succeeded in borrowing enough to buy back about one-tenth of the land as banks sold it to pay foe taxes Others like WE Roberts who had been a ditch tender for Will rail rejection place Fresno on wrong track? By AMY PYLE Bee staff writer Consideration of a Fresno light rail system was cut short earlier this month when local politicians determined there was no immediate need for more public transit But those knowledgeable about Sacramento's trolleys say that decision may have been short-sighted The city of Sacramento is not much bigger than Fresno 322541 as opposed to 284531 although the surrounding county area is nearly twice the size Both cities have spread horizontally into farmland not vertically into the sky Within 25 years the state Department of Finance predicts Fresno will have grown to the size Sacramento is now Fresno's brief brush with light rail came Jan 13 when the county.