Photos: Salinas: Agricultural technology center of California

A pedestrian is reflected in a storefront window as he walks down Main Street in the Old Town section of Salinas, Calif. City officials are hoping that the recent opening of Taylor Farms’ $40-million headquarters will help revive downtown.

Children make their way home after school along Acosta Plaza in east Salinas, Calif. The area, a cluster of condominium and townhouse units built in the 1970s, has been known for gang violence.

One in five of the 157,000 residents in Salinas, Calif., lives below poverty level, and the average per capita income was $17,810 in 2014 — 40% lower than the state’s median, according to U.S. Census data.

The new 2,800-square-foot Western Growers Center for Innovation and Technology in Old Town Salinas houses startup technology companies.

Dario Molina, 22, is enrolled in a program at Hartnell College Alisal Campus in Salinas, Calif., that pushes college students through computer science and information technology degrees in three years.

Now a college student, Dario Molina, 22, stands among the fields of Salinas, Calif., where he used to work as a day laborer.