The rent is $540. My grandfather, a survivor of the Armenian genocide, traveled 7,000 miles by ship and train in 1920 to find out if his uncles exhortationThe grapes here are the size of jade eggswas true. The eye numbed by the tedium of orchards isnt prepared for the 1.3 million square feet of industrial assault, though the palm trees and roses along the perimeter try for a transition. Sandridge Partners received most of its subsidy for upland cotton production but also received payments for growing six other commodities. She was aiming to surround herself with famous actors and artists and public intellectuals. He is also known for his water deals. He didnt know where to begin. Hes trying to play dumb, but I can see the sliest of grins peeking out from his mustache and goatee. Partly cloudy this evening followed by increasing clouds with showers developing after midnight. Chance of rain 40%. Lost Hills finally has something to be proud about. The baby is now a 20-year-old student at Bakersfield College. Between March and May of this year, 25 new sales were recorded in Kern alone, according to ParcelQuest, a web service that tracks real estate deals by county. Domestic sales are up 42 percent over the past eight years, but foreign sales have stalled. Low 44F. SGMA refers to the Sustainable Groundwater Management Act passed in 2014 that mandates water basins be in balance by 2040. Thats $83 a tree. He owns the land next to the aqueduct where the reservoir would be built and is the one who brought the floodwater project idea to Semitropic a few years ago. The farmer moved the rain. She is small with lively brown eyes and a sweet but confident voice. And Vidovich ended up pumping water an extraordinary amount of water out of the ground in an area where theyre pumping so much water on the ground the land is sinking. When the clamps let go of the trunk, 8,000 almonds, green outer shells wilted and partly opened, the meat inside a wooden womb, lie scattered on the flat dry earth. Before we go much further, you should probably know a little more about Vidovich. On the day the trees fall quietly upon the orchard floor, no one is here but the Mexican on his tractor. That water would then be moved south through the aqueduct and banked in Semitropic. Hes oblivious, or so it seems. Each square-mile section is divided into blocks, and each block counts a precise number of rows. He makes $10.50 an hour, and the company provides him with a 401(k) plan and medical insurance. Arax: That is the question that you know Im dealing with in this magazine piece. The food is more. Hes so involved, in fact, he even chairs the monthly meetings for Buena Vista Water Storage District where Sandridge owns thousands of acres. The 5th District Court of Appeal in Fresno has overturned a $73.4 million verdict against McCarthy Family Farms and Bay Area developer John Vidovich and Sandridge Partners involving a land and. If anyone doubted the health benefits of the juice, they spent more than $30 million in research to prove that it fought heart disease and prostate woes. But the one thing he cant control is what hes most dependent on water. Anzaldo grew up in Bakersfield and attended a Catholic high school where he played football and basketball. In the summer of 2009, he and Lynda attended a dinner lecture by Harvard political philosophy professor Michael Sandel about the moral obligations of wealth. Hes dressed Italian chin to footLoro Piana jeans and Hogan tennis shoes. Once his parents decided to go, he decided to go, too. While he was just starting out, he also enlisted in the Navy and served in the reserves for six or eight years, he cant recall the exact term. John Vidovich Retired Financial Services Executive Greater Roanoke Area 2K followers 500+ connections Join to view profile Tri-County Lakes Adminitrative Commission Alfred University About. He ran unsuccessfully for the Los Altos Hills City Council in 2006, served on the Santa Clara County Planning Commission and is former chairman of the Santa Clara County Republican Committee. Because the road ends here, there is no physical way to follow the canals flow. See Also: Stew Recipes, Spanish Recipes Show details. Boswell had done for the town of Corcoran. So how do we do even better next year?. The new plantings arent cotton, alfalfa, or carrotsthe crops a farmer can decide not to seed when water becomes scarce. It isnt going down because he wont let it go down. Hes surrounded by a half-dozen of his top men and women, the same ones whove been artfully dodging me for the past three years. Five years ago, they decided to get rid of the nacho chips, french fries, and soft drinks. Winds NE at 5 to 10 mph. The cost of loneliness: Social isolation holds back workers and costs employers billions, Businesses and consumers are borrowing more, despite rising interest rates, Why a Guarneri violin is expected to fetch $10 million at auction. "At a time of high food prices and record farm income, this bill lacks program reform and fiscal discipline," Bush said in a statement May 21. You cant be exporting groundwater from one basin to another., Whatever water hes taking, its too little, too late.. Lynda believes that if theyre enticed in the right direction, the 1,300 workers might choose to prepare the same healthy fare at home. Weve had our battles in the past, and I dont agree with everything hes doing. He lives down the road in Wasco, the Rose Capital of America, though the roses, too, have turned to nuts. The William Saroyan Theatre was packed that October 1996 night. . The designers at the Mint made a porcelain doll with a tiny replica outfit so precise that it had to be hand-beaded with 2,000 fake pearls. Whether those pipes end on Vidovich lands or Resnicks is hard to know. I returned for two more sessions, and then he and Lynda took off to their $15 million vacation house in Aspen, where they were warring with the locals over a housing project for community workers that was blocking their view. The land to him isnt real. Scott: So we should talk about the labor that makes this all possible. The south valleyits people and poverty, its obesity and diabetesis her newest mission. The idea of capturing Kings River floodwaters isnt new. The oil companies and insurance companies were looking to unload their farms in Kern County, Steir learned, chunks of earth that measured 20,000 and 40,000 acres. As far as the company can tell, no active salmonella has ever traced back to the plant. In fact it should be getting smaller, more sustainable and thats what youre seeing play out on the land right now. We want good groundwater, too., You mean no more pipelines carrying water in the dead of night?, The pipeline. He stammers a bit. I had not seen any. But that money enabled me to go into Angiola (a water district in Tulare County) and have other water sources.. At the buildings he was cleaning, he noticed that no one was watching the front and back doors. He studied the situation. The price for pistachios has climbed from $4.50 a pound to an unbelievable $5.25 a pound. I feel his gaze going past me, his voice turning oddly sentimental. His many land purchases and involvement on water boards are all about farming, not selling water to L.A. As featured on. Yes, locals have a bad taste in their mouths from Vidovichs water moves, I was told by several people, many of whom said they were too afraid of retaliation to use their names. Down the great aqueduct, by freight of politics and gravity, came the excess waters of the Sacramento River. Past McFarland and the high school runners who won five state championships in a row in the 1990s. Your donation today powers the independent journalism that you rely on. The aquifer, a sea of water beneath the clay that dates back centuries, isnt bottomless. He lingers in the crowd long enough to shake hands with a friend from Bel-Air whos planting thousands of acres of pistachios in the worst ground of Tulare Lake. His accountant suggested he buy apartments. "In talking to the planning department, I found out that the initial step is to notify essential agencies in the area for comments. The vibration is a stunning piece of violence to behold. His partner in the mandarins once told me that when Stewart is done with you, hes done with you. A day later, I get a call from Mr. Resnick. Vidovich shrugged it off, saying the flaw amounted to putting the descriptions on the wrong pages and quickly appealed. And he served two terms on the Santa Clara County Planning Commission, appointed once in 1990 and he again in 2010, igniting controversy among activists concerned about sprawl. The Resnicks brought him aboard in 1999, and now he works alongside Lynda and consults daily with the company chef. Dont let his boots, blue jeans, and ball cap fool you, the old-timers say. Tracts of houses, Californias last affordable dream, civilize three or four exits, and then its back to the open road splattered with the guts and feathers of chickens that jumped ship on the slaughterhouse drive. On the south end stands the Wonderful Community Center, where residents are urged to attend thrice-weekly Zumba and core-training sessions, healthy cooking classes, and weekend cultural outings featuring the likes of Americas Premier Latino Dance Company. His face is still blank. Theyre listening with their heads bent down. But that still doesnt mean that most people in town can afford to eat here. John Vidovich serves as the Vice President, Business Development of Discover. California is free to return to its amnesia. The bureau happened to be my house in northwest Fresno. Its happened before, he said, up in Green Valley, which is west of Interstate 5 and a few miles north of the Kern County line. And when youve been as lucky as weve been, you start to think you can ride out drought, too., He did learn one lesson. I catch Highway 99 in rare somnolence. Marketplace host Amy Scott spoke with Mark Arax, who wrote an articlein The California Sunday Magazine about the Wonderful Companys farming business and issues of sustainability in the Central Valley. As he drives off, he throws a clue out the window. In contrast, John Vidovich, who helms Sandridge, comes from a Silicon Valley farming-turned-developer family. Resnick wanted no part in my story. During the drought, the Boswell Company has drilled 52 holes into the old lake bottomseven of these wells reaching a depth of 2,500 feet. The tumbleweeds on open ground give you a peek into what Lost Hills looked like before the aqueduct made a river here. This is a magnitude of intervention that no other agricultural company in California has ever attempted. There is also an existing subdivision just southeast of the college near Highway 198 (Cimmaron Park). Inside, a trainer watches over a line of treadmills, elliptical machines, and stationary bikes. Me, Im a carpetbagger from Beverly Hills. A year into his studies, an uncle called from California. Vidovich is, after all, a powerful landowner in the Central Valley. The relatives try not to press them, but the arrangement still feels like a form of indentured servitude. State or federal water isnt enough. About five years ago, Lynda started our community development organization in Lost Hills, and the journey has been an amazing one. I ask him how the drought has affected Wonderful. We send money home each month to our families left behind, Lupe says. These are loaded, Resnick says. She remembers handing the boy to her sister-in-law, who carried phony papers, and watching them cross by bridge into California. They spend $50 a month on bottled water. "There's the argument that to get rid of (farm subsidies) entirely might eliminate the small, inefficient farmers.". It becomes something else as soon as they encounter their workers in another guiseas a fellow shopper at Costco or as the parents of the kid who goes to school with their kid. He is irrigating 121,000 of those acres. These books indicate who obtained the land, and include a physical description of the tract and where the land is located. Thats a billion-dollar crop. No whistle shouts mealtime in the modern-day company town. Page said Vidovich is a tough businessman but thats all. One more bin, a post reads. Theres a mountain range to my left and a mountain range to my right and in between a plain flatter than Kansas where crop and sky meet. The aqueduct was built with tax money, yes? I call the manager of the Lost Hills Water District. Its known as a census-designated place, which is another way of saying that Kern County has every reason to neglect it. True, Angiolas canal stops about 23 miles southeast of the project. But why is insulin so expensive in the first place? All I know is I dont want to split it up or sell it in some leveraged buyout. He became more involved with De Anza, working with his dad, whom he describes as bigger than life.. It goes to doctors and nurses, trainers and dietitians, who track the weight of workers, prod them to exercise, and wean them off soda and tortillas. All Rights Reserved. Still, he was starting to think about his legacy, and thats why he finally agreed to meet with me. Pace gave a nod to Vidovich on that count. And in fact these guys were able to squeeze and buy water in the open market, and do a few other things to keep their crops going and they were in the midst of drought. PRIVACY POLICY. Everyone knew where it was going. He said he bought his first parcel here in 1994 when he invested in a foreclosed property in Kings County. He found it. They donated $15 million to found UCLAs Stewart and Lynda Resnick Neuropsychiatric Hospital and more than $25 million to the Los Angeles County Museum of Art to build a pavilion in their name. Resnick picks up the water in Dudley Ridge, Vidovich says. Ive gone too far. Read our full comments policy: losaltosonline.com/comments, $5.00 It cracks open and out pops the head shot of Stewart Resnick in a pistachio green tie. It isnt a lot of water., Im not going to give you the numbers. However, Vidovich has been somewhat of a welcome presence to some in Kings County. His company has donated items to Stratford Elementary School and recently helped Kings County Sheriff Dave Robinson create a pheasant-raising and release program for jail inmates to earn credit. Unlike many other billionaires, they could poke fun at themselves. One out of eight has diabetes. He guides me back into the main store with its displays of fresh fruit and vegetables, meats, cold cuts, and baked goods. The Sureos gang has tagged the front entrance but otherwise has left the inside unmarked. Thats 281 square miles. Even if he has access to the California Aqueduct, Vidovich would have to jump through a lot of state hoops to move water independently of Semitropic. Well, maybe just a little guilt, but thats Jewish. He said the prod for all their giving in Lost Hills happened in Aspen, of all places. In Kern County, one in two adults and almost one in five children are obese. It sure looks heavier than last year., Bernard smiles and nods to the others. A minute later, I reconnect with the pipeline and pursue its length for a football field. A public resource had been privatized for the purpose of growing tens of thousands of acres of nuts, he charged. The farmers there are raising almost 1 million acres of crops, and fewer than half these acres are irrigated with flows from the Kern. The four grandchildren have visited the orchards once or twice. All but a handful come from Mexico. Resnick, he says. Tender sprouts poke out of the dry soil, and I bend down to feel their prickle. We rely on your financial support to keep making that possible. But the appellate court still found Vidovich liable and he could still have to pay out a major amount. It moves in a wave from trunk to limb to nut and back down to earth. As it happened, just down the road, on the other side of the lake bottom, Resnick had captured his own body of water, the Kern Water Bank, and planted millions of nut trees on desert scrub. U.S. immigration has little say-so here. The farmer corralled the snowmelt and erased the valley, its desert and marsh. When the rain returns, some of the ground will be replanted in pistachios, a tree that can better withstand drought. He yanks and pulls, and it finally comes off, throwing him a foot backward. These are trees and vines raised in nurseries and put into the ground at a cost of $10,000 an acre to satisfy the worlds growing appetite for nuts and fruits. More recently, he filed a voter initiative in 2016 to allow a 48-foot-tall hotel after the Cupertino City Council shot down a De Anza proposal for building a 105-foot-tall hotel in the western Santa Clara Valley town. By car and foot, I trace the silver pipeline as it creeps north through Wonderful pomegranate orchards. I dont know how Hershey did Hershey, Pennsylvania, but Lynda is present in every painted sunburst, every planted flower, every blade of grass. The punitive damage portion, about $73 million, was overturned on appeal and the case has been sent back to Kings County. And one Kern County water district could be the linchpin to it all. The brick-hard ground cant be bought. The Mojave Water Agency in the high desert needed a backup supply to serve its growing communities of Barstow and Apple Valley, Hesperia and Victorville. Since it is also true that Lost Hills has belonged to the Resnicks for 30 years, one of us might have blurted out, What took you so long to find it? As the film runs to credits, I can see that one credit is missing. The curriculum is being created by Noemi Donoso, the chief of education for the Chicago public schools before Lynda recruited her to Wonderful. Every mogul, every movie star. She had her own bookabout her genius as a marketergoing. Each section of pipe is 40 feet long. Ninety-nine is the deadliest highway in America. john vidovich documentary. John Vidovich just wants to farm, he says. Hes not only able to irrigate his nut trees with an imported flow of groundwater40,000 acre-feet in some years. I was prepared to knock on the door, but a housekeeper, flanked by two blow-dried dogs, greeted me on the front steps and led me inside. I gaze out the passenger window, looking for the glint of the pipeline. Thank you for reading! He had no papers, like so many others, just an image of what this side of the border looked like. "The plan is to hold a special meeting on Tuesday, then submit," he explained to The Leader via a text. Of all the wonders of Wonderful, this is the one I find most mystifying. So the way Pablo uses own isnt necessarily a pejorative. When pressed, though, they acknowledged it could be done. Vidovich wrote out a check for the full amount, then went looking for the water to prop up Resnicks monopoly. Welcome to San Antonio del Norte, he says. One of Angiolas main well fields is actually inside the Pixley Irrigation District boundaries where water managers were concerned by the amount of water leaving their district. We pile back into the van and head up the road. When he materializes onstage, he is wearing narrow black jeans, a black mock turtleneck, and a dark jacket. They rely only on rain, which concentrates the flavorful oils. We tell the children about the fields when they are young so they dont know the fields when they are old, she says. More than a dozen family members have followed Lupe and Manuel to Lost Hills. Drought turning to floodit is the story of California. The FDA sent a warning letter, and Wonderful pledged to study the chlorine levels in the bathing tanks. The load will translate into 18,000 pounds of finished nuts in a matter of days. Many are here without documents, after all. Lynda sent the first batches of POM, week after week, as gifts to David Bowie, Rupert Murdoch, and Disney head Michael Eisner.
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