Month: February 2012

The Friends of Jesse Morrow Mountain had a victory of sorts last week at the Planning Commission meeting.

Two hundred opponents of Cemex’s proposed horrible blight crowded into the hearing, spilling out into multiple hallways. Seventy-five people signed up to speak against the Cementos de Mexico eyesore.

And speak we did.

Dr. Richard Young, a NASA physicist, proved in his presentation that Fresno has more than enough aggregate to meet its needs for the next thirty years. Dr. Pat Cassen, another NASA physicist, pretty much destroyed Cemex’s claims about mitigating air pollution. The League of . . .

Jesse Morrow Mountain, smallSee the little mountain in this picture? Now imagine it leveled by Cemex, the Mexican multinational concrete company. Imagine blasting noise, imagine dust, imagine the air pollution you can’t see, the ground water pollution from the facility seeping into farmers’ wells. Imagine the trolleys running up and down the side of the hill carrying the mountain down rock by rock.

Imagine the cherry orchards covered in dust, the fields of poppies buried under it. And all for road-building materials that . . .

Los Girasoles Restaurant in MexicoAnd just to nudge your imagination a bit more, here’s the restaurant Los Girasoles on the left where she’s dining.

BTW — Fabulous food. Great margaritas.

Also, I’ve got a little announcement. Any of you within range of KVRP Public Radio (FM 89) can listen to me read El Tropical, an excerpt from my novel Bird of Paradise. It airs February 8 at 7 pm. Hope you’ll tune in . . .