We first saw Cheryl Littlefield on south 9th Street in Modesto in late January. She was badly soiled and had obviously been sleeping outside for several weeks. Her fingernails and toenails were grotesquely long and dirty. Prior to living on the street, Cheryl had had a room at a nearby motel. She said she lost the room when it, “caved in.” Her income is managed by a local payee. Payees […]
History
The Back End of Amazon’s Gift Horse for Turlock
Steve Ringoff is a freelance journalist. See more of his work here. City of Turlock officials were about ready to polish the ceremonial groundbreaking shovels before it was publicly revealed that Amazon planned a 1,000,000 plus square foot warehouse facility in their southern Stanislaus County municipality. In an article April 21, bearing the bylines of Modesto Bee reporters Kevin Valine, Marijke Rowland, and Kristen Lam, that team put together enough […]
Rehabilitation in California’s Prisons: Inmates Fill a Void
Michael Baldwin Senior is a Modesto Community Advocate and paralegal. This article is the first in a series on the challenges faced by current and former convicts in their quest to successfully reenter society. It’s written in collaboration with Tom Portwood. I’m a former convict. I don’t consider the term a label but a source of strength. I am also blessed to be living in the Valley, working as a […]
Homeless: The Journey Home
Look at Charles and Deanna Farish today and it’s hard to imagine them homeless. Both are 51 years old. Their eyes sparkle and their faces radiate happiness — but it was only three years ago that they both saw no way out of the park they were living in. Charles and Deanna met in Mellis Park, in Modesto. Both were homeless and single. Except when rousted by the police, they […]
Homeless: The Enduring Madness of Sweeps
Consider the case of a 74 year old woman who stood, sat, and slept in plain sight on the concrete along a busy street just outside Modesto’s city limits for over six weeks, her pants soiled with her own waste, her fingernails and toenails grotesquely untended, and the space around her littered with trash and garbage. Consider also that she is almost certainly developmentally disabled, has an authorized payee, and […]
RIP Edward “White Horse” Mendez
With a profile that could easily have served as the “heads” side of an American coin honoring its native residents, Edward “White Horse” Mendez was a legendary presence among the small circle of homeless people who lived in and frequented Modesto’s Beard Brook Park. He died Wednesday, March 10. He was sixty-eight years old. “White Horse taught me how to survive out here,” said one man several decades his junior. […]
Homeless: The Band-Aid Fallacy
Not long after the public launch of Stanislaus County’s “Focus on Prevention” program in October of 2015, Joseph Dean Dodd knew he had to do something positive for homeless people and do it soon. Dodd’s own experience as a homeless person and his position as President and Pastor of Church in the Park give him an on-the-ground perspective about poverty and homelessness that most people lack, even the best intentioned. […]
Can New Mayor and Council Reverse Modesto’s Decline?
The new Modesto City Council, headed by Mayor Sue Zwahlen, has a lot of work to do. Since the Covid-19 pandemic began, the public has been growing less respectful of the law and of other citizens. Ever since I departed from the Modesto City Council in 2003, I’ve noticed a continuous decline in the quality of life within the community. From my narrow viewpoint, determining how fast problems are growing […]
Homeless: RIP Alan Davis
Alan Davis, the wheelchair-bound amputee who became a familiar presence in downtown Modesto over the last two years, died February 1. We may never know the cause. It took some accomplished sleuthing by homeless volunteer Frank Ploof just to discover Davis’s whereabouts after he disappeared earlier this year from an assisted living home in Empire. Shortly thereafter, Ploof learned that Davis had passed away at Memorial Hospital. Ploof had first […]
Our New Letters Page: “Let There be Light”
Coincident with launching our new “Letters” page, we’re announcing here key parts of our policy for publication. As with our “Comments” sections, we’re committed to publishing a wide range of viewpoints as long as the focus is on people and issues in the San Joaquin Valley. Like other media platforms, we’ve made a conscious decision to reject the kinds of lies, disinformation, misinformation, falsehoods and conspiracy theories that have characterized […]