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'Most important'

(Published July 8, 2001)

There have been many letters written in support of relocating the Burlington Northern Santa Fe tracks to within the Union Pacific right of way. The various reasons given in support of this idea all have a great deal of merit. Emphasis should also be given the particularly negative affect its presence has on property values nearby.

There are approximately 72 city blocks between Divisadero and Shaw avenues. If we assume that within each square block there are an average of 30 dwellings, and count only those residents within four blocks on either side of the tracks, there are 17,280 properties adversely affected between Divisadero and Shaw avenues alone.

I have no idea the degree to which each of these properties is affected monetarily, but, collectively, it is an enormous sum of money. Newcomers to Fresno seeking my advice as a real estate broker are told not to even look at property within not four blocks, but one mile of the right-of-way.

Of all the great things currently proposed or under way in Fresno, rail consolidation is by far the single most important task yet to be accomplished. Of the proposals under consideration for funding by an extension of Measure C, the importance of all others pales when compared to the funding of rail consolidation.

Lou Steck

Clovis

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