Modesto schools, city want to help neighbors take back their neighborhoods

Five Modesto campuses will pilot a joint city and schools initiative to create safer walks to school and more vibrant communities. The plan views schools as neighborhood hubs, hoping to harness parent concerns to bring neighbors together to fight blight and crime.

“We can’t solve problems. We can fix a few things. We can prevent a few things. But we need to partner with the neighborhood to get it done,” said Interim Deputy City Manager Brett Sinclair at a meeting of city and school leaders June 17.

The city is asking the five schools to put on forums, bringing residents together to discuss the problems and prioritize them. To sweeten the deal, Sinclair committed to tackle priority one for each of the five neighborhoods.

“We’ll take care of the top priorities. We’ll find a way to take care of it,” he said. “We’ll do it.”

The city is promoting efforts such as National Night Out on Aug. 4. Modesto’s night is among the largest in the state, Sinclair said. “That may be nothing more than a party, but that’s the start,” he said.

For its part, the city canvassed the blocks around the five schools, noting where there were code violations, traffic hazards and areas where even grown-ups felt unsafe.

“In some areas, it felt like we should get back in the car and not walk so much,” said Sandeep Sandhu, an associate engineer with the city. Dogs running loose in front yards or in packs were a particular concern.

“There were a few houses where you got a feeling things were not right,” added Senior Planner Cindy van Empel. Both women took part in the walks by these schools, all of which border a city park:

▪ Mark Twain Junior High, by Mark Twain Park in west Modesto

▪ Wright Elementary in the airport neighborhood, by Legion Park

▪ Garrison Elementary, near the Highway 99 Briggsmore Avenue exit, beside Garrison Park

▪ Robertson Road Elementary in south Modesto, by Robertson Road Park

▪ Marshall Elementary by Modesto High, adjacent to James Marshall Park

Modesto has been working on forging closer ties with its neighborhoods, nonprofit organizations and government partners – including Modesto City Schools –since City Manager Jim Holgersson came on the scene about a year ago.

Holgersson started as interim city manager and the City Council made the job permanent in October. Holgersson said at the time it’s everyone’s business that schoolchildren succeed. “They are all of our kids,” he said then.

If students fail, he explained, the consequences can be felt throughout the community, from dropouts who join gangs to those who don’t reach their full potential because they do not have the education and skills they need.

Getting kids to school safely is a citywide concern, speakers said, and bringing neighbors together might be the best way to make that happen.

But the problems of unsafe or blighted neighborhoods go beyond fixing a street light or erasing graffiti, Sinclair said at the meeting. “We can fix a sidewalk, but a lot of things, it’s behavioral. We can pick up a couch, but there will just be another one,” he said.

“In many ways, we’ve forgotten how to be a good neighbor,” he said.

This story was originally published June 23, 2015 at 3:17 PM with the headline "Modesto schools, city want to help neighbors take back their neighborhoods."