Cruising is in Modesto’s blood. It’s high time to reverse outdated ban | Opinion

Repealing a 33-year ban on cruising, as the Modesto City Council is expected to do Tuesday, is the right solution to a problem that went away long ago.

The ban, enacted in frustration in 1990, was an understandable reaction by city officials to increasing vandalism and even violence perpetrated mostly by out-of-area miscreants coming here on warm summer nights to take unearned advantage of Modesto’s cruising culture.

Owners of businesses and homes along and near traditional cruise routes — McHenry Avenue and downtown — were relieved when city officials lost patience and said “no more.”

But “no more” need not have meant never, ever again in the human history of our fair city. Cruising, we came to recognize over the ensuing three decades, is a Modesto birthright.

Thirteen months ago, The Modesto Bee Editorial Board thanked proud lowriders and hotrodders alike for refusing to let Modesto forget its cruising legacy:

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.

Modesto: home of the long-running American Graffiti Festival & Car Show.

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-size 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.

That June 3, 2022, editorial urged Modesto leaders to continue meeting with representatives of classic car and lowrider clubs, to “make a plan and make us proud” because cruising “lives on in our hearts and in our souls.”

They did.

The Modesto Police Department, understandably, was wary. It’s been understaffed for years and doesn’t need an extra headache.

But police were open-minded enough to try a one-night practice run, and then another, and found that people really can behave themselves.

Surely Modesto police also saw writing on the wall at the State Capitol, where Assembly Bill 436 is winding its way toward becoming California law. Defenders of Chicano culture had successfully persuaded officials in Sacramento, San Jose and National City that their cruising bans unfairly discriminated against them, and decided to take the fight to a statewide level, where the bill has met with little resistance so far.

In a recent discussion with The Bee, Modesto Police Chief Brandon Gillespie praised city voters for agreeing in November to higher sales tax for many city improvements, including money for more officers.

The time is right to reverse the ban.

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.

The Modesto City Council on July 11 must not stubbornly hold to an unenforced ban addressing a long-ago problem that no longer exists. Waiting to be forced to comply with state law, as may happen in a few weeks, would be embarrassing for a city priding itself on a proud cruising heritage.