A reporter looks at 26 years. A farewell to The Bee, but not to supporting local journalism
All I’ve ever wanted to be is a newspaper reporter.
Wait, sorry, that’s a lie. There was a brief period where I wanted to be a veterinarian, but then I found out you sometimes had to put the animals to sleep and it was all writer, all the way from then on.
Thanks to Modesto, I’ve been able to live my childhood dream for the past 26 years. I came to the Central Valley fresh out of college, the very definition of a cub reporter who also happened to be new to this Golden State. So over these last two decades, this transplanted Midwesterner has grown up along with my adopted home.
Now, as I get ready to leave The Modesto Bee for my next writing adventure, I feel nothing but gratitude for this region which has thoroughly embraced this long-ago newcomer as one of its own. I have never taken your trust as readers for granted, and I am humbled to be able to have told so many stories about the amazing people who live here.
As a reporter for The Modesto Bee, it has been my absolute privilege to interview this city and region’s most interesting and innovative people. Through my columns, Scene Stealers and Business Beat, I’ve tried to keep my finger on the pulse of what makes this area special while covering the intertwined world of entertainment, food and business. These are the folks who help make a community feel like a home, and whose dreams become a region’s reality.
The artists. The mom-and-pop shop owners. The activists. The change makers.
I’ve said it before, and I believe it to this day: It takes even more courage to pin your dreams on a place like the Central Valley than those big renowned metropolises. Say you’re going to San Francisco to become an artist, people nod knowingly. Say you want to start an art collective in Modesto, people might cock their head. Same goes for opening a restaurant. Or running a boutique.
Each new small business owner I profiled in Biz Beat represented a microcosm of the American dream. Work hard. Do good. Pursue happiness. Yes, there are vast differences in experience and background and privilege and every other thing that separates us. But they all believe they have something special to offer their friends, neighbors and strangers that will help them also feel a little of that happiness, too. And, goodness, have they ever.
Honestly, I’ve had the best job in newspapers for years. I’ve gotten to eat at restaurants, as my job. I’ve gotten to see live shows, as my job. I gotten to meet artists and academics, chefs and celebrities (and even celebrity chefs — hello, Guy Fieri) and the everyday marvels that make up this area, as my job every day for the last 26 years. Modesto, and the newspaper, made that all possible.
Because that’s the thing about a local newspaper: It, too, is a part of the community it covers. The writers and photographers and journalists for The Modesto Bee all live in this valley. They all care about this valley. They know this area and its history like the back of their notepads. And they are all trying their hardest to give an accurate first draft of history for this region.
Since Dec. 1, 1884, Modesto has had its own newspaper continuously published under a number of banners that ultimately became The Modesto Bee. We started as the Evening News, then there was the Modesto Herald, then those two merged to become the Modesto News-Herald. Then, 90 years ago in 1933, the first Modesto Bee rolled off the presses and has been serving the Northern San Joaquin Valley ever since.
Much like that much-repeated wisdom when it comes to the best reasons for shopping local (you could either help Jeff Bezos buy another megayacht, or you could help a small business owner buy her daughter’s soccer team uniform), the same thinking should be applied to local news. You can either trust and support the people who live and work and report right alongside you — and are therefore accountable when you bump into them at your grocery store or your children’s school or your favorite park. Or you can get your information from those people and/or algorithms and/or AI whose only intent is your attention because that means they’ll also be able to get a megayacht. Unsurprisingly, I am Team Anti-Megayacht.
Another non-yacht-related reason to support local news is learning about one another helps communities connect. We all know our city and region chronically has suffered from low-self esteem. I think that is what comes from being so near to some of those big renowned metropolises. We make ourselves the butt of our own jokes. Yeah, yeah — murder, meth and auto theft. Haha.
No, Modesto isn’t San Francisco or Los Angeles or even Sacramento. But Modesto is an area with endless resilience, which finds ways to rise above the all-too-often abysmal expectations we have for ourselves to make some glorious things happen. And I’ve had a front-row seat to that for 26 years as people continue to reinvent this region with their hopes and, through hard work, make it happen.
So here’s to the restaurant owners, putting their life savings into their dream of feeding Modesto. And here’s to small shop owners, working to make beautiful things for Modesto. And here’s to the musicians, performing the live soundtrack of Modesto. And here’s to the actors, creating magic on stage for Modesto. And here’s to everyone else, who works and plays and grows in Modesto.
Each of your stories make this city and this valley a more interesting, better place to live. And you deserve dedicated professionals like the journalists at The Modesto Bee to tell those stories. Together, we weave a quilt that binds us together as a community. Each story, each patch, showcases the mosaic that is our valley.
After Wednesday, just like you, I’ll just be a reader. But I’ll still be a Central Valley journalist, just under a different masthead (the nonprofit Central Valley Journalism Collaborative). And I’ll always be a fan of The Modesto Bee.
Thanks for reading all these years, and let’s keep local journalism alive and well in the Central Valley. We all deserve it.
This story was originally published December 3, 2023 at 5:00 AM.
