Before a routine outing, Misty Eckerdt, assisted by family and volunteer friends, packs 1000 pounds of dry dog food into gallon baggies. That doesn’t include the canned food, leashes, doggy jackets, toys, blankets, medicine, and a few items for cats that she and her crew load into the Ford cargo van she uses when she visits sites frequented by poor people and their pets. The van features a large photo […]
History
How a Wheelchair-bound Amputee came to the Streets of Modesto
The story of how a wheel-chair bound amputee ended up on the streets of Modesto for over a year is slowly emerging. Alan Davis, whose right leg was amputated at Sutter Hospital in Sacramento sometime in April of 2018, was sent to the Modesto Specialty Hospital in May of that same year, when there was no space for him in Sacramento rehab facilities. Davis arrived at the Modesto hospital on […]
Does Measure L stand for Ludicrous?
We live in the relatively new Village One area, which features underground utilities and lovely smooth, paved streets—or it did until now. So what’s going on now? Those of us who live here are stranded either at home or elsewhere between 7:00 AM and 5:00 PM on various days this week as these still quite serviceable streets are being given a new “slurry coat” for some reason or another which […]
Homeless: Why People Don’t Help
In his introductory remarks for the October 4 Stanislaus Alliance Homeless Workshop at the Salida Public Library, Stanislaus County CEO Jody Hayes lamented that we live in a time when people can see a body lying in the street and pass by without even considering helping out. Like Hayes, many people today wonder how society has become crueler, cruder, and less caring for others, especially with regard to homeless people […]
CHP Still Withholding Details of Deputy’s Deadly Crash
Steve Ringhoff combines an attorney’s regard for law with a journalist’s need to know as he investigates local news, most especially stories involving suspicious circumstances surrounding deadly events. Here, we reprint with permission his latest work from Modesto Explained. It’s been almost 11 months since Stanislaus Sheriff’s Deputy Tony Hinostroza was killed when his patrol car wrapped itself around a pole at Terminal and Claribel southwest of Riverbank and the […]
Homeless: “You’re not going to like this.”
Julia Orlando came to town Friday. Orlando is the Director of Bergen County’s Housing, Health, and Human Services Center. She achieved nationwide fame in 2017, when the New Jersey County became the first officially recognized county in the United States to end chronic homelessness, defined as including people “who have experienced homelessness for at least one year or repeatedly while struggling with a disabling condition.” With decades of experience developing […]
WALL STREETIN’ McCLATCHY: Will debt bury the Bee?
Steve Ringhoff’s Modesto Explained presents local investigative journalism on a range of subjects. Here, Steve offers an insider’s look at the McClatchy corporation’s precarious debt load and what it might mean to the future of its newspapers. Reprinted with permission. Do the 19 or so descendants of the founders of The McClatchy Company—whose media empire includes The Modesto Bee—feel the hot breath of a hedge fund wolf on the backs […]
Homeless: Alan Davis Gets a Shower
Frank Ploof, who coordinates services at the Modesto Outdoor Emergency Shelter (MOES), probably wasn’t thinking about fate or destiny as he was pushing Alan Davis uphill last Wednesday, but he could have been. Ploof was pushing Davis toward a rendezvous with his own brainchild. At least that’s the story according to Dean Dodd, the high-energy force behind the Cleansing Hope Shower Shuttle, a rolling marvel of a brilliantly-executed but simple […]
Homeless: Alan Davis Checks In
Alan Davis, the homeless man who haunted downtown Modesto and over the years was befriended by passing strangers who handed him food and money, has found a temporary home at the Modesto Outdoor Emergency Shelter (MOES). Davis checked into the shelter Tuesday morning, after a volunteer found him sleeping on the corner of 18th and G streets in Modesto. Frank Ploof, a coordinator of activities and outreach for MOES, was […]
Homeless: The Kindness of Strangers
Homeless outreach worker Randy Limburg came across Alan Davis a couple of weeks ago. Davis was frequenting downtown Modesto in an area roughly from the old Modesto Bee building, at 1325 H Street, to five points at J Street and Downey Avenue, near Ralston Towers. Davis said he was fifty-four years old and had been on the streets for a few months after waking up from surgery at Memorial Hospital. […]