Modesto is cruising ground zero. It’s time to restore our legacy, within reason

City leaders should repeal the ban on cruising in Modesto.

Spurred by persuasive appeals of lowriders, similar bans recently were lifted in National City and Sacramento, and another movement is underway in San Jose.

If those places can do it, surely Modesto — the epicenter of cruising culture — can do it, too, for lowriders and classic car lovers alike.

Modesto raised George Lucas, who in 1973 spawned the “American Graffiti” cult movie classic, which immortalized cruising to the rest of the world.

Modesto: home of the Graffiti Summer Parade, a regulated cruise with 1,000 classic cars (6 p.m. June 10, downtown and on McHenry Avenue to Briggsmore Avenue).

Modesto: home of the long-running American Graffiti Festival & Car Show (June 11 and 12, Modesto Junior College West Campus).

Modesto: home of the one and only Graffiti USA Museum, a beloved work in progress (610 N. Ninth St).

Modesto: home of the unique Legends of the Cruise Walk of Fame. Where else can pedestrians view markers on public sidewalks (Tenth Street Plaza, and 10th and 11th streets) paying lasting tribute to true cruising pioneers?

Modesto: home to a life-sized bronze sculpture of teens on a ‘57 Chevy (Five Points), and larger-than-life murals on various downtown walls.

Modesto is the mother lode and mother’s milk of cruising. No one did it better, back then, than the proud and faithful purring down 10th, or G, or around Burge’s Drive-In at Ninth and O, and later, up and down McHenry.

Modesto is cruising ground zero. Our bragging rights trump all others.

Yes, it went too far. Yes, city leaders did the hard, right thing when they outlawed cruising in 1990 as vandalism and violence mounted.

That was then. This is now.

Modesto landscape has changed

Those intent on mischief are gone. When graying people think of cruising, they remember warm summer nights, beautiful people and beautiful cars — not the chaos and mayhem of a few that ruined it for everyone. For most, the slate is blank, except for good memories that define Modesto’s cruising legacy.

How many couples owe their long-ago romances to cruising? How many families would not exist if parents or grandparents had not flirted on the streets of Modesto?

It’s time to revive that legacy, and to thank Latino lowriders for keeping up the pressure.

To see cruise bans erased elsewhere “was beautiful, man,” said Nasson Sanchez. “We found it inspiring and motivating.”

Sanchez, a lifelong Modesto resident, wants to make it crystal clear that lowriding is an important, family-friendly part of Chicano culture with community service components that has nothing to do with illegal and dangerous sideshows.

Officials in National City, San Jose and Sacramento acknowledged that their cruising ordinances had discriminated against communities of color.

On June 14, Sanchez and members of several local car clubs — including Luxurious, Impalas and Motown Classics — plan to pay a visit to the Modesto City Council chamber. They will urge leaders, they say, to resume our rightful place as the heart and hub of cruising culture, the cruising capital, by saying adios to the outdated ban.

“This will help bring down racial boundaries,” Sanchez said. “It’s all open arms. Everything here is driven by mutual respect. It’s for everybody.”

Restoring our heritage

This must be done properly, with carefully selected guidelines to maximize the safety of participants, property and observers. There is abundant reason to believe that Modesto police and council members, working with cruise representatives, are up to the task.

A small army of dedicated fans has done well to keep the spirit of cruising alive for three decades with car shows, parades and concerts even as the actual activity itself has been dormant. For the sake of safety, we reluctantly put aside our heritage because it was the right thing to do at the time.

But no one can deny that cruising, despite the awful price of gas, lives on in our hearts and souls.

Follow the dream, make a plan and make us proud, City Council. Cruising belongs in, and to, Modesto.