Baloni Cannaloni wrote on Jun 27, 2008 1:54 PM:
" Yummy! Sounds great but I was hoping for another check cashing store. "
Goodie wrote on Jun 27, 2008 2:42 PM:
" Hope this pasta /pizza house will be good or better than Olive Garden..maybe once open people will compare and yes, we won't need to go out of town for some good Italian pasta! Congrats the the owner's "
tipsy wrote on Jun 27, 2008 3:01 PM:
" Another check n go so people can MISDIAL & call my home umpteen times, including their own employees.......no thanks. "
Watchdog Fred wrote on Jun 27, 2008 5:40 PM:
" Wow does this mean that the cheese plant might have competition for blocking off sixth street now and giving them more free land? I certainly hope so, maybe Vida's will go national and they can compete for the parking space.
Di Cicco's problems were fuel prices, it was the quality or lack o quality in their food and their high prices that drove them out of Hanford and Visalia, you can't charge Fresno prices in these smaller communities. "
No Mr. DIciccio wrote on Jun 27, 2008 7:50 PM:
" It was not the gas prices for me, it was the poor service with the quality of the once good food declining weekly. Hopefully, the Vida's staff will hire new employees???? I will give one try. "
HUMMM wrote on Jun 27, 2008 11:39 PM:
" Vidas no.II, hope your new restaurant will be as good as the one on 7th street! I have been there several times and the service is terrific and I have no complaints either on their menu all is good...food..Hope your No. II does just as good. "
Yeah right wrote on Jul 3, 2008 2:50 PM:
" "gas prices". That's not a very creative excuse. With high gas prices I'd think people would be looking to stay in town. So if you wanted italian food and you wanted to stay in town Di Cicos was the only game in town. High gas prices should have increased his buisness. It was the service and food that doomed them. "
not bad service wrote on Jul 3, 2008 10:11 PM:
" I've been going to Di Cicco's for many years and have always had outstanding service. The food was always on par for Italian food in this area and all the waitresses were very kid and family friendly. Don't tell me Denny's has better Italian food or better service, where else would you even go for Italian food in Hanford? Some times the food was average and many times it was great. My family will truly miss Di Cicco's and the truth is that Vida's has much worse service and food quality varies a lot. If you run out of water good luck getting anyone to even notice you are out and when you are ready to go you nearly have to throw your credit card at them. I have been to Vida's for several business meetings and the service was poor and my guests were not very impressed. Before you sing the praises of Vida, I'm sure that Di Cicco's will have been open many years longer than Vida's when it is all said and done. My thanks to the Di Cicco's family for many great meals. "
Love Italian Food wrote on Jul 4, 2008 12:52 AM:
" I am so happy Vida's is moving in this direction. What a fantastic idea. I absolutely loved "The Italian" (where Senor Boogies is now). I was so sad to see that place close. I too enjoyed an italian plate at DiCiccos from time to time and agree that service, food quality, and general cleanliness was often an issue. Can't wait for the opening! "
Watchdog Fred wrote on Jul 4, 2008 1:28 AM:
" I just mentioned this in another blog, how much retail and restaurant business can a town of 51,000 people support? I used the analogy of slicing a pie, if you keep slicing the same pie and don't bake new pies (meaning new industrial type business) pretty soon all the stores suffer and they all begin to close their doors. You bring productive industrial business to the industrial park where it belongs you create new jobs, new payrolls, more taxes, more spendable income and everyone wins. We have a cheese plant in the city limits that shouldn't even be there and its focus is to expand expand expand and automate, automate until they have a skeleton crew manufacturing ten times the product. Which works out really good for them, but those lost jobs aren't being replaced. That spendable income is disappearing not increasing, we now have started the principal by where the wagon pulls the mule. I would be interested to know how many employees work in the however many 100's of thousand of square feet added to that facility, and what that comparison by square foot would be before the facility was constructed. "
Watchdog Fred wrote on Jul 4, 2008 1:38 AM:
" We have something that Visalia doesn't have a driect straight through rail system from north to south which is located adjacent to that industrial park. Train shipping is already beginning to bankrupt the trucking industry because they do it faster and cheaper than the trucks can. Have you notice how many of those piggy backs come thru Hanford, yet Hanford doesn't have a single freight company along that track, why not? Why wouldn't some of the biggy's like Burlington Northern's own Santa Fe trailers not want a hub in Hanford instead of Fresno. I would bet we could provide them with a better location, closer to the train at significantly less investment than Frresno is costing them. We have cheaper labor, we have location, location, location for continued truck delivery Hwy. 198 west to I-5 north to the Bay area. Hway 198 east to the 99 north or south what more could a freight company ask for from a town named after a reailroad pay master?
What about manufacturers, brewers, bottlers we are armed and ready for it, the tracks already have the ability to drop and hook cars all throughout the industrial park. "
Watchdog Fred wrote on Jul 4, 2008 1:47 AM:
" I have a question for you in regard to that Industrial Park, why don't we have a Wal~mart Shipping/Receiving Wareshouse in Hanford? We are better situated with more room for expansion than the Porterville site. We have the luxury of rail so they could buy product by the car load and have it dropped shipped by rail to Hanford. We aren't any further off of Hwy. 99 and much closer to I-5. We have a soon to be widened Hwy. 198 or you have Houston Avenue to 99, has anyone even approached them about it? They have a new one in Modesto or coming soon. They could probably even ship from Modesto to Hanford and vice versa over the rail, then break it down in their warehousing system and turn product much faster. I am telling you as the cheapest retailer in the industry they are going to be looking for ways to beat the other guys because they all hate the $5.50 per gallon diesel price right now. If the product is closer to highways able to ship by rail doesn't it add up that this is a plus . "
Watchdog Fred wrote on Jul 4, 2008 1:55 AM:
" Guess what else with an operation the size Wal~mart puts together you could afford to throw some tax incentives and other enticements their way and come out on the deal, unlike these fly by night developers who keep creeping into our city. If Mr. Paynter is such a swell developer why does he have to come all this way to pitch his ideas to us? Why can't he stay closer to home and pitch them there, could it be they are all pitched out by Mr. Paynter at home? The fact that he had anything to do with the Wal~mart cave is not impressive to me at all. As I moved back here to my hometown and visited surrounding towns, I realized something, the growth in income providing jobs in this area isn't in planted crops anymore, it is in barbed wire fences, razor ribbon strung all around with guard towers perched in every corner. The bread basket that fed the world has turned in to Alcatraz 101. How depressing that is, but drive around and look at the country side no matter which way you drive you run into a detention center. "
Watchdog Fred wrote on Jul 4, 2008 2:03 AM:
" Is the California Prison System the legacy we want to be remembered by, is it the jobs we want our children performing for all their adult life? We have to be open and available but we don't have to bite on every offer thrown on the table like the current City Council is doing? I really don't want to see Hanford put into a position where the next building project is another prison at our door steps. But if we are to avoid that then other creative constructive ideas must be considered. Is there an entrepreneur wanting a new old idea in food for Hanford? Bring back Foster Freeze at a good location and I guarantee you honor the cruising nights and it will be a success. But you better move fast and get established before In-n-Out moves into town, they can say they have no plans of coming, but we have heard that before from chains. There you go that is a freebie.
This is one concerned citizens observations over the past five years or so, take it for what it is worth, but Hanford deserves better! "
BJMallory wrote on Jul 4, 2008 11:37 AM:
" I never thought I'd see myself type this but RIGHT ON WATCHDOG FRED! I totally agree with your slicing more pie without making more pies analogy. Also, I think the reason we need more prisons ties into that unfortunate concept; when the jobs dry up, crime goes up. Sure, there will always be the criminal element, no matter how plentiful the jobs are. But you can't ignore the correlation between a scare job market and rising crime rates. When the going gets tough and people can't find work to support themselves and their families, some, especially the poor are going to do what they have to do. I'm paraphrasing something said by Hillary Clinton a few months ago - she said we have devaluated factory type and manual labor jobs and the people that do/did them and that's a big problem across the country. People with high school diplomas used to be able to get these kinds of jobs, learn skills and be able to support their families and be productive citizens. I agree. With the loss of these jobs, the economy suffers and we all suffer. "
Tangent wrote on Jul 5, 2008 2:23 PM:
" I don't remember seeing anything in this article regarding most of the watchdog's rant, but that's typical, bring every article back to how bad our city is run. I'm surprised he didn't mention the city manager and attorney. I do partially agree with the pie analogy but I'll say that the more pieces of the pie the better those pieces become. Much like the MAIN article about Di Cicos. Their "peice" of the pie ran out because of the product they provided. People chose to take their eating out dollars somewhere else. "
BJMallory wrote on Jul 9, 2008 4:31 PM:
" I agree w/ you too, Tangent. DiCicco's food was pretty bad for a long time and the place was kind of dingy. I stopped eating there a couple of years ago and I LOVE Italian food. "
Watchdog Fred wrote on Jul 9, 2008 6:48 PM:
" BJ Mallory: did I not tell you what was coming before it got here. The Hanford City Council has before it a vote to locate a re-entry location in Hanford, Lemoore's City Council has before it another re-entry location, how many of these things are gonna be built. Do you all realize the difference between a re-entry location and a prison. They both contain California State Prisoners but the re-entry centers are not allowed guard towers or barbed wire around them. These two city councils are looking to put these re-entry locations within the city and county limits.
I don't understand this When Jordan said he requested the funding to expand the jail it was said that the reentry facilities would be one of those in Coalinga already in operaton. What happened to that plan?
Welcome to the Prison Capitol of the World King's County residents. Hanford has the Country Jail and soon a re-entry center, the juvenile center, Lemoore will soon have a reentry center, Avenal Prison, Corcoran Prison and Coalinga Prisons. What next Armona Accademy of Safe Crackers? "
Transplanted wrote on Jul 11, 2008 12:51 PM:
" Dear Blog-Hog (and you know who you are): I know I'm going to get told to just move somewhere else because I disagree with you (after all, that's what you do), but I am SO TIRED of all your WRONG information. It's hard for me to believe anything you write anymore because even when corrected, you continue to state the same stuff. It's ok to be mistaken about something, but when you are corrected and you continue to spout the wrong info, people start believing you are just lying. Case in point: Paynter NEVER has had anything to do with WalMart. He's the developer that brought the Target Center to Hanford, as well as the center where Staples is located. He's done a lot of good for Hanford. Tangent is absolutely correct when he says everything you write has to come back to how bad the City is, the city manager is bad, blah, blah. This article was about Vida's opening a pasta house and you turned it into a rant about industrial. If you're going to hog the blogs, at least make it on point. Now go ahead and blast me, it's what I've come to expect. "
Subscribe Now
Mobile Site
Place an Ad
E-Edition
Email Updates
Obituaries
Classifieds
Find a Job
Find a Car
Real Estate
Contact Us
RSS HanfordSentinel.com