User:Asongscout/economyintro

What is the name of the business located at 724 South State Street, Ukiah’s largest street with the most traffic? There is no answer. The giant white sign on top of the building is completely blank, having not housed a business in years. One of Ukiah’s economic problems is the numerous abandoned buildings and empty plots scattered around the town that are not being utilized to their fullest capacity.

The vacant Fjords building occupies a large plot of land right next to the Highway 101 exit in Ukiah. Not only is the building run-down and unsightly, giving a rather negative first impression of the state of our town, it uses up a prime spot for a business. The Palace Hotel, despite being an aesthetically pleasing historical building, is an earthquake hazard and wastes a large amount of space in downtown Ukiah producing nothing.

The former location of Foster’s Freeze is now an irregular cement surface in the middle of town. The former location of Rite Aid is surrounded by houses and buildings, but has nothing except prickly yellow weeds. The lot behind Raley’s is left unused, with a wooden fence surrounding a field of grass. Many more examples of land not put to use can be found within the Ukiah city limits. Clearly this is not the best purpose the land can serve to assist the economy.