Abstract
The town of Richgrove, California is a small, unincorporated community at the southern end of the San Joaquin Valley. Its unincorporated status means the town’s only form of local government is a public utility company named the Richgrove Community Services District. Between the years of 2011 to 2016 the Richgrove Community Services District (RCSD) undertook a project to build a public park that ended with a different, and from residents’ perspectives, disappointing version of the park and allegations of corruption against the RCSD. Through the examination of the failure of the Richgrove Park Project, this research aims to understand what public infrastructure projects in Richgrove reveal about its systems of governance. Specifically, what mechanisms are available to the residents of Richgrove to adequately advocate for their needs? How does the execution of other infrastructure projects in town reveal inequities in governance? Resident’s daily use of the park creates meaning, conversations, and criticisms about the town’s local governing body, the Richgrove Community Services District. Therefore, the park serves as an ideal site of observation for understanding the relationship between residents and the everyday practices of governance. To understand the relationship between residents and local government, this project uses a variety of ethnographic methods such as, participant observation, semi-structured interviews, the researcher’s personal experience growing up in the community, and archival research.