Economy May Delay Some Infrastructure

The Alameda Corridor rail line will improve the flow of goods between downtown Los Angeles and the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach.

With California's population predicted to rise by five million per decade to reach 45 million by 2020, keeping pace with infrastructure needs will be a large drain on the state. UCLA's Lieser says the atmosphere for new infrastructure development is somewhat troubled by the state's budgetary woes.
        "The state's not the player it normally would be," Lieser says. "It's going to be a multi-year period for the state to work out its financial problems."
        Nevertheless, Gov. Gray Davis' administration has proposed the state spend $56 billion over the next five years on transportation, school construction and public works projects. The amount is 61 percent more than the state spent over the last decade.
        One of California's largest recent infrastructure efforts, the Alameda Corridor, opened in April. The $2.4-billion project improves rail and highway access to the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach from downtown Los Angeles.
        "The Alameda Corridor will help the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach accommodate the increasing trade growth in the future while helping our national economy capitalize on Southern California's standing as a major trade hub of the Pacific Rim," said U.S. Transportation Secretary Norman Y. Mineta.
        Future infrastructure efforts may benefit from a new infrastructure research institute at the University of Southern California. The Keston California Infrastructure Institute will be housed at the university's Lusk Center.

Upstate Area Drawing Attention

Jim Zauher, president of Economic Development Corporation of Shasta County in Redding, says companies are eyeing "second- and third-tier cities" as they look to reduce costs. Companies are realizing they no longer need to be in centers of large cities, he says, and. the Redding region is beginning to attract software startups.
        "It's a good indicator that knowledge workers are being attracted to smaller areas like ours," Zauher says. Shasta is one of 22 counties in Northern California collectively known as the Upstate.
        "Upstate California has received more attention the last two years," Zauher says. "It's a new frontier for the rest of the state."
        The Upstate grabbed the attention of Blue Shield of California, which will open a regional administrative office center in Redding next summer. The facility will initially house 400 employees including 270 customer service and claims processing workers currently working out of Blue Shield's office in Red Bluff. The project's first phase will be a $13-million, 80,000 sq.-ft. (7,432-sq.-m.) facility. Plans call for two more buildings to be added later, creating a complex that can house as many as 1,000 employees.
        "We needed new space that could accommodate all our business needs and Redding offered us that opportunity," says Bob Stephenson, operations director for Blue Shield of California, citing adequate infrastructure, costs and availability of power as major considerations.