Here, we offer Patterson as an exhibit. It is strategically located off Interstate 5 southwest of Modesto and just more than an hour from major Bay Area cities. Patterson residents might tell you it is much more than a distant bedroom commuter community or a hub for distribution centers. Like so many Central Valley cities, it has a rich farming history; in Patterson’s case, that includes a label as the apricot capital and an annual festival to celebrate this juicy fruit. But like many of those Central Valley cities, Patterson’s farmland is being gobbled up by new developments and a population that has exploded well over 20,000 in recent years, roughly doubling since our first edition at the turn of the century. Here, you will see signs of these changes in a conflicted landscape of traditional farmland and harvests juxtaposed against generic suburban landscapes that could be almost anywhere in California.

Patterson e-Commerce

Large, open tracts of relatively inexpensive land near large population centers have made the Central Valley and attractive location for e-commerce distribution centers to be planted.

Off and On

Strategically Located

Commutable

Vacancy

Loading Docks

Not Just Amazon

Construction

Seasonal Crops

Changing Crops

E-commerce

Conveniences

Welcome to Patterson

Mixed Development

Cost of Living

Suburban Sprawl

Losing Farmland

Losing Farmland

Farm Stands

Big Box Bingo

The post Patterson Welcomes E-commerce to the Exurbs first appeared on Rediscovering the Golden State.

In previous editions of our publication, we considered the impact that big box superstores and California Indian casinos were having on the state’s economies and landscapes. They particularly stand out on the urban fringe of towns and cities, the exurbs that offer cheap land for development, but are still within convenient distances to customers and labor pools being drawn away from more traditional businesses near the center of town.

There are many examples where these megastores and combination gambling and entertainment attractions on the fringe have left already struggling main streets empty. More recently, e-commerce shoppers have fueled the development of even larger warehouse and distribution centers (led by Amazon) in those same exurbs, with similar results. Note how many brick-and-mortar stores have been abandoned by on-line shoppers demanding quick delivery of their purchased products that come from these warehouses staffed mostly with blue-collar workers.

These developments have transformed economies within struggling communities that may be located far beyond the wealth and excitement of our major coastal cities, yet another example of how the two Californias remain powerfully evident AND connected. In our 4^th edition, we examine some of these recent changes that are remaking the state’s people and landscapes.

This February 2018 article in the Atlantic, What Amazon Does to Poor Cities, takes you to specific communities in California (from the Inland Empire’s San Bernardino, Moreno Valley and high desert, to Fresno and Stockton) for a critique of how this new economy is impacting that other California.  

The following images illustrate how Patterson is strategically located far out in the exurbs, where there is relatively inexpensive real estate. But it is also adjacent to vital transportation corridors that provide convenient links to the surrounding region and even into the Bay Area.

The post Amazon and e-commerce: New Jobs and Economies Transform Landscapes first appeared on Rediscovering the Golden State.