West Modesto: Page 2

County Unincorporated Pockets · Aug 6, 15:35

Contributed by Marge Leopold
Friday, 22 October 2004

In the midst of many growing cities there exist pockets of unincorporated streets and neighborhoods. Often as cities annex areas within their sphere of influence, low-income, economically disadvantaged neighborhoods become overlooked by the cities.

Often these neighborhoods were overlooked due to lack of infrastructure implementation by the county. As this lack of infrastructure and economic development leads residents to move to other (often safer) neighborhoods the neighborhood are still more likely to be overlooked for annexation and the services that being a part of the city brings.

Once the downward spiral of decay and deterioration have begun it becomes harder and harder to reverse the trend. Lack of lighting and lack of law enforcement often lead to criminal activities, crime it seems, breeds in the dark. Statistics compiled by the Modesto Police Department and the Stanislaus County Sheriff’s Department continue to show increased crime in the unincorporated pockets in contrast to the rest of the Modesto community.

Lack of infrastructure especially sidewalks and proper drainage make the streets in these areas hazardous for children going back and forth to school in the winter.

Children often walk in the middle of the streets because the edges are impassable due to mud and water that at times are two to three feet deep. Automobile drivers are forced to go around the children, thereby causing a chain reaction of problems. Even worse, on foggy mornings as the children are walking around the water it becomes next to impossible to see them at all.

Unincorporated islands are forced to depend on septic tanks to dispose of human waste. In Modesto there are many county pockets that are close or adjacent to the Tuolumne River. After the flood of 1997 many of the septic tanks and leach lines began to fail. Since that time the county has received 20+ septic tank repair permit requests in the Riverview neighborhood (approximately 200 homes) alone. The problem of contamination by septic tanks along the river is a health and safety problem that has been overlooked for decades.

In many neighborhoods one side of a street is in the city and the other in the county. It is said by residents in the neighborhood that you can tell if you are in the city or an unincorporated area by just looking. If there are sidewalks, you are in the city, if one side of the street is cleaned you are in the city, but if the other side of the street is unpaved and debris littered you are in the county.

County pockets lack sidewalks, drainage, street lights, trash pick-up, bulky item pick-up and street sweeping and to a large extent code enforcement. When driving through West Modesto it is fascinating to notice the changes from one side of the street to the other.

In 1948 a University of Denver study that focused on the fringe areas (now county pockets) pointed out the problems of crime, lack of fire and police protection, lack of infrastructure and code enforcement. 50+ years is a very long time to overlook conditions that have and continue to exist in our neighborhoods.

Comment [2097]

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The 1997 Flood · Aug 6, 15:31

Contributed by Marge Leopold
Friday, 22 October 2004

In 1997 I lived on the corner of Rue De Yoe and N. Morton Blvd behind the old Scenic hospital. I watched as the water rose in Moose Park, came across the road and headed for my front yard. We evacuated but the water never got to the front door, even though the neighbors across the street were flooded and parts of the neighborhood were submerged under 10 feet of water.

I bring this up only because Councilman Jackman wants to bulldoze the Robertson road neighborhood because it flooded, at the very least not let residents rebuild. I have never heard him say that the Dry Creek area should be bulldozed or that the residents should not be allowed to rebuild. All I can possibly see as an answer is that money talks. Many of the homes flooded in the Dry creek area are owned by doctors and lawyers, not like the low-income residents of the Robertson Road area.

When I bought my house in the Rob Rd. area I was told that I would have to purchase flood insurance even though my house had never flooded. I was told that the “Big” flood of 1997 was an eighty year flood and the new flood plain in which my house sits is for a one hundred year flood level.

I have been told by my neighbors that when the new Don Pedro dam was built, the neighborhood was assured that it would never flood again. It may never be proven, but in the neighborhood as in most of Modesto it is believed that it was human error that caused the flood.

Comment [2459]

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Modesto's Fringe · Aug 6, 15:30

Contributed by Marge Leopold
Friday, 22 October 2004

In 1948 the University of Denver published a study on the fringe areas of Modesto. At that time the City itself had a population of 19,000 and the surrounding fringe areas had a population of about 25,000. The total area of Modesto was 3.5 square miles an area which has grown to approximately 36 square miles in 2004.

The University of Denver studied all of the existing fringe areas, area 5a encompassed the Riverview tract (Robertson Road Area) and the county pockets surrounding Sutter Ave.

Middle-class families, many of who were former Oklahomans, populated this area. Most of the residents were employed in clerical and skilled trades.

Area 5a was close to downtown Modesto and had markets and other businesses. Downtown Modesto was the center of activity in Modesto.

Since that time most of Modesto’s grocery stores, hardware, furniture and clothing stores have moved to the north end of the city leaving residents of the west side without access to shopping.

Without stores and other businesses, the economic deficits in the neighborhood tend to let the city and county to dismiss the area for development.

The 1948 University of Denver study reads as if it were written today. It speaks of the lack of law enforcement, fire protection, sewer service and infrastructure.

It points out that crime in the fringe areas was higher than in the city due to lack of police protection, the study cautions that if the lack of law enforcement persisted the crime in the area would grow to epidemic proportions.

I’m not aware if the area received county welfare housing recipients in 1948 or not but this and the lack of supervision by the probation department and parole office of probationers and parolees has added to the problems of crime in the neighborhood.

Lack of lighting, it was noted was also part of the crime problem, between the lack of law enforcement and the lack of lighting the fringe areas were a haven for criminal activity.

What has changed?

Many of the streets in this area are still unlit, and crime has grown to alarming proportions. Lack of sewer service and lack of infrastructure persists in 2004.

Children still walk in mud or in the street in the winter rains due to lack of sidewalks and proper drainage. The Burbank/Paradise volunteer fire department still answers fire calls, just as written in 1948. Since the 1948 study the fringe areas to the north and east have been annexed (with a few exceptions) but the areas to the west and southwest have mostly been ignored.

Neighborhoods have deteriorated, housing values have not kept up with the rest of the Modesto “community” and most of what was cautioned by the study has come to pass.

Comment [1813]

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Robertson Road History · Aug 6, 15:28

In October 2002 the residents of the Robertson Road area were informed by the county that we were to receive sidewalks, sewers, curbs and gutters. We were elated when we got official letters from an engineering firm that they were going to come out and measure our lots, they showed us the drawn up plans for the whole package.

But something happened and we never heard from the engineering firm or the county about the project until in Spring of 2003 when we (as a neighborhood) decided to find out what had happened to the project. At the request of the neighborhood the county decided to come out to give us an update.

I showed the county personnel the letter that I was sending to the Modesto Bee asking about the lack of information that the neighborhood had received. Finally, we were told that money that was to be used for infrastructure was to be moved to another project.

Then we were told that the state money had dried up for infrastructure and that another (Shackleford) neighborhood was to receive infrastructure because its improvements had already been started.

In 2003, after much lobbying by the neighborhood, the city agreed that if the county would make the investment to bring the area up to city standards, the city would put the sewer hook up on the November measure M vote.

Stanislaus County did not live up to their part of the agreement and the Robertson Road area sewer project was dropped from the measure M vote: neither the city or the county ever let the neighborhood know until they were pressed for information.

In June 2004 Claudia Epperson, members of the West Modesto King/Kennedy Neighborhood Collaborative and I met with Supervisor Jeff Grover to once again bring Robertson Road concerns before he and the other County supervisors and the Modesto City Council.

Throughout June and July Supervisor Grover and members of the Modesto city council worked on wording of agreements to allow the Robertson Road sewer project to be put on November 2004 special election Measure D advisory vote. At this point the county commits to bringing infrastructure up to city standards with due speed and also to finance the special election. I am writing this history in October 2004 and the neighborhood is awaiting the November vote.

Comment [4]

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Robertson Road Advocates · Aug 6, 15:26

Contributed by Marge Leopold
Friday, 22 October 2004

Claudia Epperson, former Robertson Road Healthy Start director, has been a Robertson Road advocate for many years. It was Claudia who marched on city hall with children in tow to ask for a park for the area, and it was Claudia who spearheaded the fight to get a lighting district for the Robertson Road neighborhood. Claudia, her mother, Juanita Jackson and her sister, Carole Collins, who is director of West Modesto King/Kennedy Neighborhood Collaborative, and the collaborative in general have stood beside and advocated for the neighborhood in numerous ways. Through negotiations with the city and county the Collaborative has encouraged the residents of the area to stand their ground. The Collaborative has attended meetings of the city council and the board of supervisors with the residents often speaking in favor of the neighborhood at the meetings.

Comment [16]

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