For over 30 years, various political groups and private citizens have worked for the preservation of farm land for future generations. With the current proposal by the City of Modesto to appropriate Wood Colony for an industrial park, now is a good time to look at the big picture of Stanislaus County’s economic development. The Economic Goal of Urban Developers The primary goal is to entirely destroy agriculture and replace it with urban development. Former Stanislaus County Supervisor Jeff Grover […]
Politics
Frohman to Council: Spare Wood Colony
Dear Modesto City Councilmembers: During the last Modesto General Plan update a little over a decade ago, while serving on the Modesto City Council, I proposed removing the Beckwith Triangle from the updated plan. My rationale was that the Triangle was isolated from the rest of the community and separated by a freeway that makes infrastructure expensive to provide. The other even better argument was that the area was on the world’s best farm land. I […]
Tactics to Save Wood Colony—An Opposition Strategy
This article is dedicated to the citizens of Wood Colony who do not want to annex into the City of Modesto. The Modesto City Council is proposing to annex Wood Colony on a whim. They don’t have a plan. Nor does the Council care about what you think. They are doing this because some individuals in the urban development business are telling them to do this. Your best hope of defeating the proposal […]
Stockton to Get 118 New Police Officers—Modesto Zero, by Bruce Frohman
On the day that the citizens of Modesto voted down Measure X, voters in Stockton passed the sales tax increase on their ballot. In fact, of ten cities that had sales tax increases on their ballots, Modesto was the only one whose measure failed to pass. KCRA-TV Channel 3 News reported this week that because of passage of the sales tax increase, Stockton will be able to hire 118 new police […]
Kenoyer’s Win a Big Loss for Growth Boomers
While opponents of Measure X continue to gloat about their narrow victory as though it were a landslide, another narrow victory may in the end prove as significant as the defeat of Measure X. Jenny Kenoyer’s upset of Stephanie Burnside helped bring about a gravitational change in the Modesto City Council, and may well stymie the Chamber of Commerce’s plans for another growth boom in Stanislaus County. Given her trouncing […]
Jeff Denham’s Damage Control, by Bruce Frohman
When California politicians get in trouble, immigration becomes the issue that covers all their sins with a cloud of good intentions that somehow never materialize at election time. Here, Bruce Frohman catches Jeff Denham trying to make voters forget the government shutdown by switching his focus to immigration. A recent editorial in the Modesto Bee roundly criticized Republican Jeff Denham’s October votes on shutting down the federal government and then […]
Measure X Will Test Modesto
The two most consistent criticisms of Modesto’s Measure X involve distrust of government and concern for the poor and middle class. Both display a willingness to ignore facts. Distrust of government is as old as the Constitution. But when the founding fathers settled on a democratic republic, they emphasized the need for an informed citizenry. In fact, James Madison wrote that, “a popular government without popular information or the means of […]
Three for Modesto City Council
The two highest profile candidates in races for seats on the Modesto City Council are Stephanie Burnside and Bill Zoslocki. While both have extensive political histories, Zoslocki’s hasn’t been explored publicly, mostly because the Modesto Bee would prefer voters forget his role in Village I. District 4 Bill Zoslocki’s role in Village I is well-documented here. We’ve also written about it here. During his 2012 campaign for mayor, he opposed […]
Three For the MID
Prior to the arrival of Modesto Irrigation District (MID) Director Larry Byrd, the MID Board of Directors and General Manager Allen Short represented one of the last bastions of Old Modesto. Immune from public criticism and well connected through social satraps like Tom Van Groningen, the MID operated one of the largest budgets in the region with virtually no citizen oversight. Because of this recent history, there’s one over-arching issue […]
Bee Says No to Modesto, Yes to Developers
The tipoff that the Modesto Bee was going to oppose Measure X came when the Bee suddenly decided to cover the Ridenour administration. Modesto Mayor Jim Ridenour’s term ended in 2012. He enjoyed eight years in office that were remarkably free from scrutiny. It was only at the tail-end of his tenure that Ridenour’s administration received any criticism, and that involved the SCAP scandal. And just weeks ago, the Bee […]