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| His Voice |
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| Written by Claude Delphia / Community Columnist | |
| Friday, 13 June 2008 | |
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Doing the West Park dance Dance, Patterson, dance, to the tune of the latest of Gerry Kamilos’ proposals about how to solve the train problem at Las Palmas Avenue and Highway 33. Dance and stumble again as he proposes yet another solution when he realizes that the community opposed his most recent solution — a massive overpass over the intersection that I described in my April 12 column in the Irrigator.  Claude Delphia / Community Columnist This is Kamilos’ third proposal for the problems at the intersection. First, there was a trench for the train through town, which was apparently too costly. Second, there was an overpass. And now we have another tune — sinking Las Palmas AND Highway 33 under the train tracks. Each of these proposed dances has major negatives for Patterson’s historical and cultural downtown. According to the sketched proposal I saw, Kamilos’ latest proposal to sink Las Palmas and Highway 33 again involves ramps, this time down into the ground starting at Plaza Circle and East Las Palmas Avenue. The eastern side of the underpass would probably have to start at Las Palmas and First Street. The two legs of Highway 33 could probably start at the McAuley Ford intersection on the north and at South El Circulo. The sides would appear to require sloped banks on all sides of these depressed roadways, and they might need to be as much as 30 feet wide. Adjacent land would be eaten up while the intersection is lowered more than 20 feet into the ground. There probably would be a severe impact to the Patterson Vegetable Co. (formerly Patterson Frozen Foods) office building and elimination of access to its processing plant on the south side of Las Palmas between the tracks and First Street. The biggest potential impact would be to the historical and important cultural features of the North and South parks. Not only would trees and other features be displaced and land lost, but this design, along with others, would forever eliminate the connections between the two parks during the Apricot Fiesta and other civic events when that portion of Las Palms is closed for pedestrian and events use. This would forever change the way our civic events are conducted, as they depend on our two parks being joined as one with the closure of that section of Las Palmas. I’ve hit only a few of the negatives of Kamilos’ latest proposal. Downtown flooding could close this sunken intersection during city emergencies. Of course, what Kamilos doesn’t get is that we, the majority of the residents of the West Side, don’t want to be his dance partner. We don’t like any of his tunes, as they all have negative effects on Patterson. The problems at Las Palmas and 33 with the trains are just the most obvious. If Kamilos eliminates the intermodal facilities at Crows Landing and the extra 3,300 of prime farmland, his problems with the West Side communities will mostly go away. West Side native Claude Delphia is vice president of WS-PACE.org, a group that opposes PCCP West Park LLC’s plans for the Crows Landing Air Facility. He can be reached at This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it .
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