Central Valley Farmland Trust President Denny Jackman was mugged, mauled, and kicked in the teeth at Wednesday night’s Economic Development Committee meeting in Modesto. The issue was Jackman’s Residential Urban Limit (RUL) proposal. Word was even the Chamber of Commerce was going to endorse it. Those who thought such a notion too good to be true were soon confirmed in their skepticism. When Committee Chair Dave Cogdill called for comment […]
Modesto Residential Urban Limits
Modesto City Council: Economic Development or Disaster?
Last Wednesday’s meeting of the Modesto Economic Development Committee highlighted a twenty-five year schism among Modesto leaders that is as much an effect of separate realities as it is of anything else. On the one hand we have those who think we are losing prime farmland at far too great a rate. They believe we must establish firm urban boundaries now or too soon suffer the fates of Los Angeles […]
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 […]