What distinguishes Modesto from other cities, esp. valley cities?

Great Valley Center and didn't they hire a Patterson Councilperson without experience who happened to be against the West Park project to work for the Great Valley Center too?

And didn't that councilperson have to stop voting on West Park topics because of the connection?

Now is this particular to Modesto or the Central Valley you might ask, thats hard to say.

You tell me, or better yet ask the people from the Great Valley Center what they think.

First, the distinguishing features don't have to be positive. So if you want to offer negatives, that's fine. The point is what makes Modesto different.
Second, Great Valley Center is what is we journalists often refer to as a think-tank. It was started separately but now is associated with the University of California at Merced. They sponsor fellowship programs to give people a better understanding of valley issues; they work with others on surveys of valley demographics and issues. Go to their Web site for more info.

Well, I could certainly go into a huge tirade about what our "affordable housing" got us into. It is a fact that Modesto is situationed in a good place for getting to somewhere else. I know that's a tired line in there. We are on the way to Yosemite, the Bay Area, Sacramento, Lake Tahoe, or other destinations.

I can tell you the qualities I miss about Modesto in the 50s, 60s, and 70s, and that was the produce that we had, and the canneries (always a job available during the summer), and the great expanses of fruit and nut trees. Now, we have more and more great, boxy houses on that land, instead of the agriculture. There is just something about eating something grown locally, rather than something picked too green and traveled by truck or train to our grocery stores.

We have lost a lot of history downtown because our leaders decided it was much better to tear down the old, and replace it with something new. This was a grave mistake because our downtown lost the character that other Valley towns kept by restoring, rather than replacing. We should consider outselves fortunate to still have the McHenry Mansion, the old Library (now a museum), and a few others. I remember going to the old McHenry Library as a child, and marveling at how many books there were. Even back then, I had decided to have a library of my own, someday. I can still remember some of the stories I read from the books there. Now, I have books stacked everywhere, and several book shelves of my favorites. Yes, it is my own library.

The people of our town were always friendly, and neighborly in those days. Now, we feel lucky if someone decides to wave back while driving past. Some still do, that is, the people that have lived here for decades, usually. We were like a small mid-West town in California. I have heard people visiting here say that.

If I could move back to the old Modesto, I certainly would do that.

***
Truth is stranger than fiction, but it is because Fiction is obliged to stick to possibilities. Truth isn't.
~ Following the Equator, Pudd'nhead Wilson's New Calendar (Mark Twain)

I know there are problems here and there but it still has that hometown feeling while also having more class than several other Central Valley cities. There are nice places to dine and shop, great medical care, I love the orchards and farms and hope they don't keep disappearing, and folks seem to take pride in their town.

I love the people of Modesto no matter what part of the city I'm in. When you look folks in the eyes they are good people. Now, I have looked a couple of scary dudes in the eye and they scared me but I smiled anyway; they nodded and we all went on about our business.

Modesto has grown at a remarkable rate over the past 10-15 years but has, so far, been able to maintain that farmland hometown feel while adding classy establishments. There seems to be something for everyone and I am never bored while in town. When the weather is too bad to enjoy the parks and farms there are malls, theatres, and art gallaries. There are also safe hotels for overnights when necessary. Rates vary which is convenient as one cannot always (or rarely ever) afford the Double Tree Hotel.

There are the fun amusement parks for kids of all ages. My kids are grown now and still the amusement parks and the pumkin patches. We all enjoy the blossoms in the spring. That fresh fertilizer smell from the fall evolves into a floral perfume that makes ya just close your eyes and dream. Modesto is amazing in the spring!

That's my two-cents worth, and it's free 'cuz today is Saturday. :)

Modesto used to be an okay place to live but unfortunatly due to growth, it now has a lot of crime, gangs and the traffic is horrible and that's just to name a few.

By comparison to other Valley communities such as Turlock (which also has it's share of problems), Modesto has become more like the bay area. It has lost the "Simple Living" appeal that it used to offer.

The Valley itself used to be widely known as an Agricultural community but because of so called "Growth" that is slowly being diminished.

Hope that helps!

----------------------------------------------------
"It's Times Like These We Should Learn To Live Again"

Here is a little history of Modesto, if any are interested:

http://www.historicmodesto.com/hotelmodesto.html

I have to agree with shadehaize.

***
Truth is stranger than fiction, but it is because Fiction is obliged to stick to possibilities. Truth isn't.
~ Following the Equator, Pudd'nhead Wilson's New Calendar (Mark Twain)

I remember during the so called "Housing Boom" hearing a commercial from a home builder who directly marketed to people from the bay area using terms suchs as "Short Commute" and that homes are hudreds of thousands less than those in the bay area (although hundreds of thousands more than what the average income earner in the valley could afford).

We pushed for growth, we invited those who don't even work in our communities to bring their big city lifestyles and big city problems to our door steps.

Growth does not equal a "Better Community" and it is now showing. Growth is like a big ole pimple, it get's huge and then when it pops... Well.. Look at all the nasty stuff that comes out of it. Crime, traffic, gangs, high rental costs, lack of affordable house and so on.

I think Modesto is a good example of what the want (not need) for growth does to a community.
What distinguishes Modesto from other Valley communities is that the negative outcome of growth is more apparent than others..

----------------------------------------------------
"It's Times Like These We Should Learn To Live Again"

of a city. We had gangs and crime long before the "growth".

Were we to expect farmers to move into the city? What does "big city lifestyle" mean? Many people born and raised here in the valley have never been to San Francisco let alone out of state.

We've all read and heard people blaming "bay area transplants" for everything bad that ever happens here in Modesto. And I'm talking in general now not in response to anyone's posts here on the hive.

On the Modbee.com under the comments you see some vicious thoughts several times a week.

Now if someone wanted to argue that the crime in Turlock has come from Modesto transplants it might be an interesting discussion.

"You can't go home again..." If you leave the hometown in which you grew up early in life, in a sense, you cannot go home again because home will never be the same. No matter the decade- change is inevitable. Change even happened in Dorothy's own backyard and I'm sure today, her Kansas has suffered more a Tornado of growth than of nature.

As should be evident by my ID, I grew up in New Jersey... and what a fabulous place it was to grow up in! Any person here, with the exception of Dan Day, who lived/worked in a town about 10-min from my hometown, (singing 'It's a small world afterall!') most Californian's look at me with great disbelief when I say that, which is, not to be unkind- ignorant. How can one "critique" a place they've never been too? Unbeweeveabwel.

When I returned home to visit (pre 9-11) my hometown, and to me, "small" is under 5,000 people- not like the "small" town I live in today; population 55,000 and growing!- much had changed. The Eerie Lackawana, a rickety old train I used to ride into Manhattan on any given day, from a train station I could walk to from my house (a train station one could have found in Mayberry) had been replaced with a newer, faster, streamlined Amtrack. Gone was the train that used to creak as it swayed back and forth over the tracks and into the Emerald City. I never questioned it's safety; I just loved its rhythm of serenity.

But the Eerie was not the only thing that changed; so had the people and the size and the homes and the businesses and, and, and! I found some of the old neighbors, visited some of the old favorite stores, like Barts Delicatessen. I used to have to stop in there on my way home from school once a week, to pick up the carcass of the day Mom needed for dinner. Bart would always offer me a slice of bologna or salami from behind the counter that at one time came from one of the slaughter-house doors behind the Deli, but I always opted for a slice of Jarlsberg or Danish Havarta cheese. Just seeing all those intestines hanging down in front of the window didn't do it for me, but I didn't have the heart to say "no." (And why I'm probably a vegetarian today!) I'd just say "Oh I can't, Mr. Bart! It's lent and I can only have fish!" to which the slice of cheese would await my choosing. He was from the old country and not familiar with Catholicism, so either he was wiser than I ever gave him credit for and played along to appease his little customer, or thought I was more religious than my weekly attire of checkered-skirt and white shirt uniform told, and imagined me to grow up to be the most dedicated nun.

Bart senior has since passed on and to his great, big delicatessen in the sky, but one of his little Bart Jr.s was running the show, who was very corgile but didn't know me as a "regular." Alas, I was offered no cheese.

I'm sure Modesto was the sweet nectar of fruit to many who knew it years and years ago- full of its own Barts and Eeries. I know that in the 20-yrs I've been here, every time I drive down into the valley, and through "Mo-Town" it seems to change: one more sub-division, one less orchard and always, more traffic. But change is inevitable and we cannot stop progress. The Norman Rockwell memories only stay the same on a plate, but we don't have to give it all up; we can try to keep what we can with balance. And therein lies the problem with "progress": If it isn't balanced, to keep some of what distinguished it in the first place that brought the masses in flocks from the big cities from whence they came, progress it isn't- it just becomes growth and that can be more suffocating than good.

From my foothills viewpoint, Modesto offers many charms: it's more alive with food, music and amongst an eclectic array of culture. There are "things to do" that we have to leave our "small town" to enjoy- like a Civic Center and concerts both indoors and out. I live in good, 'ole Redneckville, USA and the "Lumberjack Jubilee" just doesn't do it for me. But when I go to Modesto, especially in summer, jazz is in the air, the lights are on and I can have a cup of espresso at 10 PM if I want to! It almost feels like "little Manhattan" (1972), because it doesn't close down at 8 pm, like it does here. The smells of ethnic foods are alluring to the imagination and I know that my chances of finding Italian cuisine is more than an epicurean feat. It's also close enough to a University and lucky enough to have a Junior College in town; the level of intelligence is appealing and refreshing- and has a fine public library! You can still find rows of trees and farms off in the distance, not as many as the "old-timers" remember but while those may not last, it still isn't L.A. and if one looks beyond the rows of speck houses and crime, which is even in Redneckville, charm can be found.

New Providence, New Jersey will always be my home, but aside from the fact that Mom and Dad have since retired to North Carolina, I can never go home again. But I will always carry home with me. Anyone who is proud to have known Modesto before MapQuest, can feel the same.

"What is objectionable, what is dangerous about extremists, is not that they are extreme, but that they are intolerant. The evil is not what they say about their cause, but what they say about their opponents."  -JFK