| 加利福尼亚柑桔面临艰难时刻-2 Castaneda makes about $10,000 a year. She says her unemployment check didn't cover her expenses during the last big freeze… and she doesn't know where else she and her husband could find work. "Where else is anyone going to find work here?" she asks. "It's pure oranges, just packing. There are no other jobs here." Lindsay Mayor Ed Murray says he's hoping to change that. He's not planning any funerals this time around. "Crying wolf, and poor little Lindsay, and woe is me, and Lindsay is going to go under -- you don't want that kind of stuff," he insists. "That happened back in the 1990-1991. It's changed a lot, our perspectives have changed." Since the last big freeze, the city has managed to diversify a little bit, attracting a door company and some irrigation equipment factories. City leaders have also raised millions of dollars in grants to revitalize the downtown area. Murray walks through what used to be one of the largest lemon packinghouses in town, a business that went under during the 1990 freeze. The city has bought the building and is turning it into a fitness center with five indoor soccer courts and a game arcade. Murray plans to lobby Washington for more federal money so he can hire displaced citrus workers to fix up the town. "Instead of putting it in food and housing and unemployment and stuff like that," he proposes, "let's put the people to work working for the city for six, eight, 10 months, until they get back picking fruit again or working in the orchards. Help your town and fix up your town!" |
