Whenever Harold Reeve has a few minutes away from family, work, and church, he generally squeezes in a little birding. He’s been compiling lists of Stanislaus County birds for over thirty years, including lists of nesting birds, wintering raptors, and, most especially, all species ever present in the county. Late last Saturday afternoon, Reeve had a few minutes before a concert in Denair. He decided to drive east and look […]
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Oakdale Irrigation District: “The public be damned”
“Petitioner has bestowed an important public benefit,” says Judge. Imagine tossing 2130 hundred dollar bills into the Stanislaus River to see how long they will float. Sounds crazy, but the Oakdale Irrigation District (OID) did something almost as foolish when it decided to contest a suit brought forward by the Oakdale Groundwater Alliance (OGA). The suit was in response to OID’s failure to provide an Environmental Impact Review (EIR) for […]
Homeless: Denial Still Dominates
One year ago, Modesto City Councilmember Kristi Ah You suggested we should allow homeless people to camp in designated areas, including places like Beard Brook Park. Today, Beard Brook Park is surrounded by a chain link fence and hundreds of Valley citizens are facing yet another winter with nowhere to go. Virtually paralyzed by the problem, the City of Modesto has been unable to offer solutions other than futile anti-camping […]
David Lambert on Homelessness in the Valley
David Lambert’s popular Facebook page, “Homelessness and Poverty in Stanislaus,” has over 1200 members and is growing every day. Lambert gets lots of on-the-ground experience in the Valley as a Guardian Angel, and he is one of the best listeners anywhere to people experiencing homeless. He realized we’re facing a national crisis long ago, and is increasingly frustrated by the failure to offer practical solutions to a national emergency. Look […]
Condemned Building Burns
In a case of timing that pretty much defines words like convenient, provocative and suspicious, 624 9th Street, downtown Modesto’s condemned and boarded-up monument to civic neglect, went up in flames tonight. The fire must have started around 8:30 last night, because by the time I got there around 9:30, firefighters had knocked down the worst of the blaze. None of the police or firefighters would say a word to me, […]
Reefer Madness: Remembering the Late, Great, John Michael Flint
Way back in 2005, the late, great, John Michael Flint derived considerable amusement from Modesto’s horror at medical marijuana sales on McHenry Avenue. “Omigod, hide the women and the children! Lock the doors, draw the shades and head for the storm cellar,” wrote Flint, in his Community Column for the Modesto Bee. He added, “Suddenly, here it is – the answer to a politician’s prayer, a white horse to mount and a […]
Only One Question for Democrats after Debate
After six superb candidates demonstrated competence, compassion and command of issues dear to the hearts of Valley Democrats during Wednesday night’s candidate forum in Turlock, there’s really only one question: Which of them can defeat Jeff Denham in the 2018 race for California’s District 10? Early front-runners Dottie Nygard and Virginia Madueno didn’t appear to lose any luster, Mateo Bedolla impressed everyone as an up-and-comer with a bright political future, […]
Homeless: Why We Need Casey’s Law
Though still little-publicized, more and more young people are falling victim to the demons of addiction, especially opioids. Law enforcement officials in Oakdale noticed a surge in heroin use among young people in 2013, and attributed it to the availability of cheap “black tar” heroin that has caught a rising number of teen-agers and young adults in the cruel trap of an addiction that drives a host of crimes ranging […]
Inside 624: The Horror
You follow her inside and the dark spaces become a shroud that makes it harder to see. You have to squint and it’s important now to see and see well, but it’s hard. The floor yields the way living things do, like fungus or moss. So does the hand rail, and your hand jerks away, as though it’s encountered danger; it’s instinctive. Upstairs, in the trashed hallway, food manifests as […]
Exodus at 624 Ninth Street Shows Government at Its Best
“We were ready for them to come in and start pushing people around, but it didn’t happen. People here would have gone to jail if they had come in and tried to force us out, but they didn’t. They just came in and tried to help.” There was genuine wonder in Jeremy Buchelew’s voice and eyes as he described the evacuation of Modesto’s now-notorious apartment building at 624 Ninth Street. […]