Editorial Notes

Welcome to volume seventy-six of the Yearbook of the Association of Pacific Coast Geographers. Besides a full slate of articles and reviews, the Yearbook is of course the publication of record for all things related to our annual meetings. This issue of the Yearbook contains all the material related to the seventy-sixth annual meeting, held September 25–28, 2013, at the Village at Squaw Valley in Olympic Valley, Lake Tahoe, California. We most humbly present the Presidential Address, the Meeting Report, the Student Paper Award winners, the Resolutions, the Abstracts, and our Distinguished Service Award recipient. I believe everyone who attended deemed the meeting a tremendous success. There were enlightening (and exciting) field trips, including a cruise around Lake Tahoe aboard the John Le Conte, and an Emerald Bay lunch cruise aboard the aptly named Tahoe Gal. The Association extends its thanks to host Michael Schmandt and all of the Sacramento State University faculty and students for their time and effort. A special thanks also goes out to Bill and Marilyn Bowen for their continued support of student presenters.

The Yearbook presents a diverse collection of articles this year, including submissions highlighting the geography of our region. Jeffrey Schaffer gives us his unique interpretation of Sierra Nevada uplift and his contestation of the dominant geomorphological paradigm. Sean Crotty, a graduate of the San Diego State / UC Santa Barbara joint doctoral program and now at Texas Christian University, continues his research of the day-labor informal market sector in San Diego. The article is a critical analysis, using both qualitative and quantitative methodologies, of the social and economic struggles of this underappreciated sector that occupies the bottom rungs of the globalized economy in many major cities. Kelsey Brain gives us a very interesting study of Peruvian food networks in San Francisco. As someone who enjoys the occasional Inca Kola along with my Peruvian small plates, knowing the origins of my food is indeed a useful perspective. It’s also a pleasure to present Natchee Barnd’s piece on the production of Native-American race, space, and difference through street names and signs. Native-American research has been somewhat underrepresented in the Yearbook and we would certainly like to see more on this subject.

Crossing the Pacific, we include Elena Givental’s article on the urban canals in Ho Chi Minh City. Canal restoration projects in Vietnam are often stymied by poor interaction between multiple actors and Elena’s insight into the issue is quite useful in providing an understanding of water-related issues faced in other countries. And finally, we include Michael Schmandt’s Presidential Address, “The Geographer’s Eyes and Feet.” The address brings up the question of our possible over-reliance on the various technologies of geography, at the cost of our sense of observation. A good question indeed. Finally, congratulations are in order for Martha Henderson’s selection as the recipient of the APCG’s Distinguished Service Award.

This is my eighth volume of the Yearbook, and again I extend my gratitude to Dave Deis, the Yearbook graphics editor; and to Rick Cooper, the copy editor. Thanks also go to Crystal English, the student assistant; and to Aleksandra Ilicheva for her graphics assistance. I am also very grateful to all those who contributed, particularly Ron Davidson for his editorial help and for his contributions in the book review department (as a note, we ran into time issues so Ron’s review of Bill Koelsch’s book and his review of the geographical thriller The City Under the Skin will appear next volume). All concerned, from authors to staff, worked hard to continue our reputation for a high-quality production, and I can’t thank everyone enough for their time and their commitment to turning out another great Yearbook. Thanks also to all of our outstanding reviewers.

I will close as always with the same request from our membership: I encourage every member of the APCG, especially graduate students and junior faculty, to support the Yearbook through the submission of your work in whatever form that may take. We will continue to offer a forum for APCG members, and...