There's more to come -- much more. The promise of bringing the university here was that it would forever alter the landscape of the region in a fundamental way: academically, economically, culturally and more. But those expectations are a blessing and a curse, especially in tough economic times.-- Merced Sun-Star, Oct. 27, 2012

The only landscape UC Merced changed,  judged by state Sen. Pro Tem John Burton a "boondoggle" and Capitol reporter Dan Walters "nothing but a land deal," was to change a great deal of nearby farmland into subdivisions -- finished and not so finished -- now full of houses upside down on their mortgages here in the great epicenter of the national foreclosure crisis ... that just keeps on going on.

For those who are impatient that change hasn't come fast enough, consider how much tougher times might have been had UC Merced not been here during the economic nightmare of the last five years.

UC Merced was the anchor tenant and prime cause of the building boom in Merced. Developers and speculators flocked to one of the state's poorest counties to sow the fields with subprime mortgages harvested by Wall Street. People went mad with speculation here and there were voices in power to slow down the frenzy because those in power were all profiting from it. UC Merced has been the cause of incalculable misery to its nearest neighbors because it destroyed any housing price stability.