Forbes Magazine recently released its annual rankings for the most miserable cities in America. California cities didn’t fare very well, as eight of them placed in the top twenty. Forbes used 10 major factors to rank cities, including weather, unemployment over three years, tax rates (both sales and income), commute times, violent crime, and how their pro sports teams have done.
In my opinion, these types of rankings are often somewhat arbitrary and subjective. When I came across this article on the internet, I hurriedly scrolled through the list of top twenty miserable cities in America to see if Visalia had achieved this distinction. I’m happy to report that Visalia was not on the list. However, you might recognize a few of the ones from our valley: Sacramento, Stockton, Modesto, Merced, Fresno and Bakersfield. I believe that Visalia was skipped over for this "honor" because it is a well-run city, has lower tax rates than many others in the area, has no commute times, violent crimes are down, and the Visalia Rawhide continue to be winners.
Stockton had the dubious honor of being number one on the most miserable list. In response to Stockton’s poor rating, City Manager Bob Deis stated that "Stockton has issues that it needs to address, but an article like this is the equivalent of bayoneting the wounded." While Visalia certainly isn’t without its problems, I believe most of our citizens acknowledge Visalia’s livability and agree that it is the "jewel of the valley."
Changing topics, I note elsewhere in the state that the city of San Bernardino just imposed a 10% pay cut on their fire fighters union. Additionally, the city of San Jose indicated that it’s possible that 349 police officers and 145 firefighters could lose their jobs this coming year, which is on top of the 49 firefighters who lost their jobs last year. Overall, it is conceivable that one-fourth of their public safety employees will face layoffs. San Jose officials are projecting a looming $110,000,000.00 deficit. That city is looking to get all unions to implement 10% concessions in total compensation. If those concessions are somehow accomplished for all unions, then it is possible that only 237 officers could lose their jobs. Other cost-saving measures suggested including turning off street lights, reducing library hours, and closing community centers.
I mention the foregoing merely to emphasize that while Visalia has its own budgetary concerns, due to past conservative spending and laying in store for a rainy day by building up its reserves, Visalia has so far been able to keep its budget in balance. More tough decisions for the City Council are ahead regarding how to stretch our limited resources and about potential cuts in services and/or benefits.
In 2010, two firefighters from Miki, Japan, one of our sister cities, visited Visalia. Mayor Link, Fire Chief Nelson, and I hosted them at Fire Station 55 and gave them a tour of this new facility. One of our visitors, Shigeyoshi Daito, stated that his specialty was rappelling out of a helicopter onto the top of skyscrapers in emergency fire situations. Not long ago I received an email from him indicating that Miki was not affected by Japan’s recent earthquake and tsunami, since Miki is located to the south of the affected area. However, Mr. Daito indicated that his fire team was heading to Fukushima for search and rescue. We are pleased that our sister city survived these natural disasters, and wish Mr. Daito and his highly-trained team the best in their relief efforts. I might add that his specialty is not one that our local fire department trains for, since Visalia is not yet in the skyscraper business.
On a final note, I received a nice email from Visalia resident, Annabell Jennings, in response to my recent Direct Magazine article, "Recovering From December Rains." She wrote this about our city staff: "I’m so grateful that those men and women were willing to go the extra mile to keep our city and residents safe. It is so refreshing to hear that people still do those things."
If you have questions or topics regarding the city which you would like to have addressed in future articles, please email Warren at wgubler@ci.visalia.ca.us, or call (559) 713-4400 x 3313.
