Last week, the Modesto Chamber of Commerce introduced a recycled economic development plan to the citizens of Modesto and its City Council. The plan is basically a rehash of ideas previously presented to the community in the 1990’s by residential developers. The Modesto Chamber of Commerce’s plan is called “a vision” for economic development. It will primarily benefit residential development, to the detriment of other stakeholders and members of the chamber. Half-Cent Sales […]
Featured
Green is the Color of Money: Stanislaus County’s New Gold Rush
In California, the dream of endless riches that started with the gold rush has never stopped resonating— nor has the inevitable disappointment when the dream turns to a nightmare. The latest rush is occurring right here in the San Joaquin Valley, where money really does grow on trees. A boom in almond and pistachio prices has resulted in what may yet be another harrowing bust in California’s long history of […]
Giant Sucking Sound Threatens Stanislaus County Aquifer
No one knows where the rumor started, and so far no one’s been able to confirm it—the story around Stanislaus County is that the aquifer has started flowing uphill. Implausible as it may seem, the tale is based on growing awareness of just how many giant pumps are operating twenty-four hours a day in the eastern portion of the County. Over the last decade or so, land that once featured […]
Bee Still Pushing Allen Short’s Water Agenda
Only a few short months ago, Allen Short and the Modesto Bee were pushing the sale of “surplus water” to San Francisco. Short was then General Manager of the Modesto Irrigation District (MID). He departed under a cloud, partly because the sale proposal proved immensely unpopular with local farmers and partly because of an internal investigation yet to be revealed to the public. Despite Short’s demise, the Bee is still […]
MID Finances Still Hidden Behind Media Smoke
Emerson Drake’s latest revelation about the incestuous relationship between Modesto Irrigation District (MID) board member Tom Van Groningen and the Stanislaus Economic Development and Workforce Alliance (the Alliance) raises yet another red flag in the ongoing story of MID finances. Van Groningen and now-departed MID General Manager Allen Short have tried mightily to make farm water subsidies the big issue in MID financial affairs. The latest broadside came from Lee Delano in a […]
Keiller Kyle and the Last Great Colonial Nesting Birds
No one alive today has seen two of north America’s three species of colonial nesting song birds. Both the Carolina Parakeet and the Passenger Pigeon went extinct in the wild over a hundred years ago. Today, the loss of these magnificent birds is lamented by nature lovers around the world. Unbeknown to most Valley residents, the last of our great colonial nesters is making a stand for survival right here […]
City Council: Joe Muratore’s Revealing Moment
Bruce Frohman’s insider’s view of the Modesto City Council (below) offers a sobering look at local politics. Last Tuesday’s Council meeting confirmed Frohman’s claims—developers rule—but there were at least two episodes that shed even more light on the City’s current and future political realities. The first revealing moment came just after Councilmember John Gunderson moved to put Denny Jackman’s Residential Urban Limit proposal on the November ballot. During the comment […]
Home Builders Control City Council, Harm Local Economy, by Bruce Frohman
Nobody at City Hall will ever admit it, but home builders control Modesto’s government. Campaign contributions help elect shills to the City Council. The shills take instruction from those who helped them get elected. Some have even gotten text messages during Council meetings. Former Modesto Mayor Carmen Sabatino has battled special interest groups for years, but the groups’ abundance of money and ambitious citizens willing to work for them is never ending. The reason is simple. There’s financial gain […]
Stanislaus County’s Sinking Aquifer: How Low Can We Go?
While everyone was watching salmon, someone robbed the water bank. That’s all we can conclude while watching another silly argument about fish while growers in eastern Stanislaus County drain one of the last great aquifers in the San Joaquin Valley. Not that depleting aquifers is anything new around here. Well over fifty years ago we set a dubious record for subsidence, and by all appearances we’re hell-bent on breaking it […]
Latest Update on Modesto’s Toxic Waste, by Bruce Frohman
In our last report, we outlined problems with the mounds of dirt in the 132 right-of-way near the 99 freeway believed to contain toxic waste. As of this writing, Caltrans is working with the California Department of Toxic Substances (DTSC) to determine how heavily contaminated the dirt mounds are and what to do about them. Until a decision is made about remediation of the dirt piles, construction on the eastern end of the […]