Letters to the editor | Sunday, Nov. 21, 2021: It’s time for Modesto public safety tax

Let’s adopt Modesto public safety tax

If you are concerned about increasing chaos on our streets, it may be time to ask the city of Modesto to establish a public safety tax.

In 2006 we had 20 traffic enforcement officers; today we have just four. Our streets and roads are plagued by speeding, unsafe lane changes, distracted driving, school zone speed violations, and a general disregard for basic rules of the road. There is also the proliferation of jaywalking, often resulting in serious injury and even death. Without adequate enforcement, our traffic safety situation will never improve and unsafe drivers will not be deterred.

2008 saw 20% staffing reduction in the MPD. At that time our population was 201,766. In 2019, population increased by 6.7% to 215,766.

At one point, our police department was allocated 300 sworn officers. Today, it is allocated just 210. As population grows so does need, yet the force is not sufficiently funded to keep pace with ever-growing demands and needs.

The cities of Oakdale (0.5%), Ceres (0.5%), and Turlock (0.75%) all have instituted a public safety tax. Why is Modesto so far behind the times?

We are not in a situation of defunding our police department, we are simply underfunding it. That’s a relatively simple thing to fix. By adding an additional 0.5% to local sales tax we could go a very long way toward bringing more safety to our streets.

Tim Hodgson, Modesto

Modesto leaders tackle issues

We are a group of Master of Social Work students at CSU Stanislaus. Recently, we contacted Mayor Zwahlen’s office to inquire what the city of Modesto is doing to ensure equity and ease disparities of services, infrastructure, and support for lower-income individuals for our presentation on classism. In Modesto, 18.5% of residents live below the poverty line, or one out of every 5.9 residents. We specifically asked about strategies regarding homelessness, poverty, affordable housing initiatives, and infrastructure improvements in lower-class neighborhoods.

The mayor’s office was responsive, composing an impressive amount of information about how these problems are being addressed. While there are always areas for improvement and much progress yet to be made, it is clear that the city has given a lot of thought to these complicated issues. Coordinated efforts to involve the community, non-profits, state, and federal resources show a comprehensive approach is not only possible, but yields results.

We encourage Modesto residents, especially those struggling financially, to stay involved with local leaders and communicate the needs of your families and neighborhoods. And city officials, we encourage you to keep listening and seeking equitable interventions.

April McNichols, Kayla Strand, Maya Ramirez, California State University, Stanislaus

Modesto isn’t the mountains

I’m glad there is an independent commission doing the hard work of redistricting political boundaries.

I am concerned with the initial map that I see for Modesto. California District 10 currently has a very rational congressional boundary that includes the communities of Modesto, Tracy, Riverbank, Patterson, and Turlock. These communities are geographically connected. These communities have shared issues that result from their location in the Central Valley and being near to the Bay Area.

The current proposed map has a district that sweeps from the eastern side of the Sierras up to Lake Tahoe, and juts out to grab Modesto. This change would dramatically alter the political involvement of the citizens in our area. Central Valley communities have very different needs and concerns than most areas in the proposed district. I hope the commission will reconsider this configuration and work to draw boundaries that reflect communities of shared interests to the greatest extent possible.

Political engagement is a challenge in the best of situations. I think this proposed map would significantly discourage effective engagement with political representation.

Blake Mittan, Modesto

Trying to see with different eyes

Re “‘Colin in Black & White’ aims to make us squirm” (Page 1C, Nov. 14): I appreciate Garth Stapley’s piece on the Netflix series.

I was raised in a narrow Christian tradition and only in my 40s and 50s did I come to realize that some of my conservative voting tendencies would have a negative effect on my African American brothers and sisters. I believe Rick and Teresa Kaepernick were extremely brave in adopting a young mixed-race boy, and did an admirable job in raising a young man who had the courage to join a fight he could very easily have ignored, since he was raised in a white environment.

Some Christians take offense at Colin’s hard-eyed narration during this series. I wonder if they think that Jesus was smiling when, quoting Isaiah, he called the Pharisees “whitewashed sepulchers.” Jesus was calling to account a religious system that had lost its heart, and 34-year-old Kaepernick is doing a similar thing now to a nation that (downplays) the mistreatment of African Americans throughout our history.

Thomas A. Kinnier, Turlock

Can’t we just get along?

September’s political fashions highlighted “cancel culture,” October switched to “critical race theory,” and November brings “wokeness.” I have no reason to think the string of buzz words will end soon, each one a caption for a complex philosophical concept that only a tiny fraction of speakers have studied in depth. Instead, like fussy eaters, most political junkies accept-reject ideas based on a TV personality’s recommendation.

Cancel culture is how history works. The Dark Ages got canceled and few miss them. Critical race theory is a package of legal arguments on race to be used in court, not the criticism of whites for enslaving blacks that many think it is. (If you think slavery wasn’t worthy of criticism, please refer to the Dark Ages above.) And wokeness refers to leaving the dreamworld of ideas that don’t comport with reality, usually some fig-leaf excuse for thinking “my life has more value than yours because…(fill in the blank).”

I’d like to propose as December’s buzz word “humanitarianism,” that we’re all sailing through space on the same planet, that all our lives have value, and that we all have a duty to promote peace on Earth, good will toward mankind.

Jason Gale, Riverbank

Biden isn’t much of a leader

A motto for the government is “If it isn’t broken we will fix it until it is.” This certainly applies to the Biden administration. One year ago the U.S. was energy independent. The first day on the job Biden broke that to pieces.

This leader tells you he won’t raise taxes on people making less than $400,000 a year. But now gas is $1.50 a gallon more than a year ago. And we pay more for most everything we buy now. And he wants to cancel the Trump tax cuts. So what is all of that but tax increases for everyone? The fuel cost is punishment especially for the folks who commute to the Bay Area each day. And this leader wants to stick them with a mileage tax on top of that.

When they tell you the rich will pay for all of that, it’s a socialist’s lie. The working man (woman) always pays for it.

Richard Oliver, Modesto

Who’s really in charge?

Joe Manchin and Kyrsten Sinema to the Democratic Party and Donald Trump to the Republican Party are the tail wagging the dog.

Glenore Flanders, Turlock

This story was originally published November 21, 2021 at 5:00 AM.